001the special meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all if okay at this time it is recommended that the Board of Education appoint Steven Ryback as temporary board secretary for this meeting in accordance with njsa 18a col 16-11 so Mr tiella and then Patty Lang all in favor I I opposed okay then at this time oh Michelle you have such a difficult time writing why are you doing that [Applause] okay okay and at this time Mr rback we'll have a roll call M alino here Mr braveman here Mr giella here Mr Mayo here M
002K Pono Miss Lang here miss quarino I'm here Mr Russo here Mr ruty Madam president you have a quarum thank you I'll read state in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the mon Township Board of Education has cause notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted May 26 2018 at all schools home News Tribune Asbury Park Press and filed with the clerk of the municipality thank you and at this time we will go to the public forum any Madam before we go through that please may I Mrs Miss Armenia yes um once again I don't see um and I mentioned this last special meeting I don't see the appropriate number of public forms on this agenda I believe from um by
003uh bylaw 0164 uh that is the only place where it talks about us having uh you know uh three uh public forums and especially the public for after the uh resolution because that public form is exclusively after after we come out of um closed session and we act on a resolution uh usually there is a form specifically for that it was eliminated last month I believe it's eliminated once again so again I and again I um just want to express uh my OB objection to uh not not going according to our own our our own uh bylaws thank you Miss armeno and I will state that we also don't have a board president's report committee reports other board business because this is a special meeting we have one item on the agenda which is a
004closed session so if I had a public forum a closed one for agenda items only then I open it up we might as well just have one agenda it item for for a public form so that everybody could speak to whatever they wish yes but that is still against our bylaws our bylaws don't have anything that suggests that you can arbitrarily and capriciously change the rules uh to accommodate whatever position you have here I can understand if we voted on it on a special election to only have two public forms one before we proceed and one after the resolution because most of the time people don't remain here for the action after our Clos session so very it's not anything that puts an imposition or um a Time situation on the board itself so again
005you are in my opinion going against our own rules and regulation arbitrarily we will note that in the minutes and I hope so thank you okay public for anyone wishing to speak please come to the microphone and give your name and address for the record and we will adhere to our four 4 minute time limit hi Krishna deal love and Jak place um I have a comment about the search for superintendent I believe today's special meeting is about um your plans for searching for superintendent right no we have plans to search for an acting superintendent so you don't even have plans for a actual one you're planning to find an Acting Superintendent yes that is what is on the agenda this evening okay and how long do you think the super Acting Superintendent will be
006in place will be in place we haven't even discussed contract issue we don't have a candidate yet once we have a candidate and that candidate's been identified and approved by the board then we will go into contract negotiations right um and here's um the question that I have or a statement I would like to make is when you are deciding on the Acting Superintendent we want a few of public forms to come in where the superintendent makes his pitch and the Acting Superintendent makes his or her pitch to the public forum and this has to be um published well in advance so that people can understand where the Acting Superintendent would be on many of the issues that are facing our school district I want that placed on the record please I don't know that
007would be appropriate to do at this time but we will take that under consideration why wouldn't it be appropriate because the position of an acting or an interim or a superintendent is up to the Board of Education yes but you cannot force the superintendent on us I think the Board of Education can make that decision okay um but we still want to have that on the record at least on the record that I want and as many of my friends would want we want the Acting Superintendent to make his or her page to the public for and we want the public this Acting Superintendent to take questions from the public it cannot be that you know you're setting that meeting up on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. it has to be at a time that
008has maximum public participation thank you for your comments yes and I still haven't turn out of my 4 minute time so the second thing I wanted to bring out was the U lack of progress on the referendum what's the uh plan on the referendum there's nothing being planned for this year as I said at I believe it was last week's meeting the steering committee has met we have added a member of the mtea onto the steering committee we are looking for information we are digesting the results of the um survey that we passed out to the public um at this time it is too late to get any referendum on an October or a November um ballot so we are looking to make sure that that we get everything we need in order to place
009a a we we could still have a little time for the December meeting but it's looking more towards March because if we change the referendum in any way we need to go to the state and the state will take approximately 6 months to review everything okay um so the question then becomes um you know what happens to these growth rates that you have projected when you were presenting the referendum for Middle School what happens to the high school expansion what happens to the elementary schools that is a discussion that the um do we have a date for the discussion it's discussion will be between the steering committee it will be a recommendation from the administration to the board of education and then there will be a discussion uh in public from the Board of Education
010when can we have the results of that do we have date for it we do not have a a a recommended referendum to bring to the public yet when we do we will put it on the agenda can you at least have going forward for each of the public meetings public forums we want uh what the steering committee has discussed we want that Pres a to come out so that people are aware of what has what is being discussed and everything so that we don't come in and say that you know only one school is coming in or halfway school is coming in we want that on uh placed on record public forums please we usually have updates from the steering committee during meetings um we we I believe I gave you one recently and
011I don't think there's going to be another committee meeting until the summer okay summer would make it uh difficult for us to have anything through December that would be March of next year right now unless we got something on the referendum U on the ballot in June we will not have something before 2019 okay 2019 and then we still have to pay for the operational expenses of having the trailers in yes and it because it is tonight 2019 that you're going to have the referendum your schools even if it was a best case scenario would be four years away right is the time over yeah I Mr Rybeck said time is over sure thank you thank you Anthony peso a a question way uh we're looking for an Acting Superintendent uh we have a superintendant
012now that 700 people signed a document saying that they supported him teachers like him the public stands up here every board me every board meeting and says how much they like them and you want to get rid of him you want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars it's going to cost you close to $80,000 just to put out the word for a new superintendent not only that you're going to put us through a court case and my personal opinion is I think you just want Dory alvid to be either inm superintendent or superintendent that's the plan I'm sorry for for for losing such a good good man anyone else from the public wishing to speak good evening uh Chrissy scurby 21 pness Drive uh I asked last week about the policy for the agenda
013um policy number 0164 has the um the way the agenda is supposed to be written um when I brought it up last week you told me you would send me the policy that you were referring to uh Madam president and I have not received it so I did go through every single board policy and bylaw that's listed online and the only one that talks about the way the agenda is written is that policy 0164 that Mrs arino uh spoke of also in that policy it does not say that the first public forum is noted for agenda items only it does say um the the public forum number three is for Clos session after closed session which I agree with Miss armenio that is blatant disregard for the public and for the bylaw was not having
014one tonight after the Clos session um that is what you were supposed to be following that is a bylaw um and I'd like to know why we're not following the bylaws of the board because this is a special meeting this is how we've conducted special meetings in the past in November 2017 there was a special board meeting of this board and it had a closed session resolution and that had a closed uh a public forum after closed session I went back and looked at all of the agendas every time time there was a special meeting there with a closed session there was a public forum following that that is incorrect no it is not it is incorrect because myself and the board attorney went back and looked at many many agendas going back many years
015and there have been times that there has been and there have been many times that there has not been a a public forum after Clos session no not recently not not recently going back to this past all there has been no there was always there was always a public for um and I on I'm also wondering why on the agenda um we are talking about in close session the superintendent's um evaluation because this is the time of year when we as a board are required to do a superintendent evaluation so you've terminated him yet you're going to evaluate him is here until June 30th we have an obligation to to to evaluate the superintendent so has evaluation not been done prior to you giving him a letter saying that you evaluations are usually done between
016April and the end of the school year which is June 30th you can see where that doesn't make much sense um and I I'd like to point out um a a Facebook post where you um answered a question that I posed at as board president you said everything I do is with attorney advice um and then I asked you a subsequent question and then the post disappeared so what I had asked was Kathy kpano the board advi did the board attorney advise you in the absence of a quarum when the board members walked out that it would suffice for you to speak on behalf of the whole board without a vote to terminate the superintendent's contract it appears to me the attorney is leading you into an ethic violation pursuant to New Jersey ethics regulations
017as follows quote I will recognize the authority rests with the Board of Education and I will make no personal promises nor take any private action that may compromise the board I would like to know did the attorney advise you on March 27th when the board members walked out to pen a letter yourself to Dr kak to terminate his contract Mrs scurby that is attorney client privilege and it has to do with the contract of the superintendent I cannot answer that comment you answered me on Facebook and said everything you do is with attorney advice was that the advice of the attorney that even I cannot tell you I I will not give you anything about attorney you will not because it was not and you know that and you acted alone and you are causing
018this District than your concerns it's very unfortunate and I'm very sorry for what's happening to you Dr kak it's not right good evening prakash parab 33 daa Drive uh I thank Michelle arino for you know requesting that we follow the policies and give a public a more chance to talk so thank you very much want to make it very clear please to all and request to the Boe members as we move forwards search or decision on Acting Superintendent and deliberation process for superintendent evaluation need to be open to public and transparent that is our request public needs to be given opportunity to ask questions no more closed meetings we are very disappointed president and the Boe members we are disappointed okay many of the B members are my friends also I'm not pointing out anyone
019I talk about as a group when Dr kak provided resignation in 2017 we and public were surprised and requested transparency from Poe and Leadership a petition to renew Dr Contra Dr kak's contract was signed by more than 570 people again additional 100 people signed it several community members young and seniors have come to public for forum for last 6 months have provided full support to Dr kak during public forum of BU meeting the videotapes of the Bui meetings are the evidence Bui president has ignored all requests from the public I'm very disappointed and we are very disappointed I was surprised in December how the meeting was conducted Before Christmas it was the first time the members walked away bu members walked away and and they were blamed uh we thought over it outside the door
020what happened usually closed meetings are held at the end of the meeting end of the agenda agenda is over closed door meetings are held in December the closed door meeting was held before the agenda was discussed and when my the Dr kak's contract was discussed many of The Bu members walked away and in then we came back and they came back and it was all blame oh the members walked away they don't have concerns about the agenda so it is all the blame blame and all politics please stop it I want to see the Boe to be United a leadership which brings the bu United not leadership which breaks the leadership in April Mee in March meeting we were told request was done by our gentleman here that Dr kak's contract be later let us
021look at it again for 2 years so it was discussed so when we came in April we asked what happened they said Dr Dr kak's contract ends in June that was the answer so again we come back in May and ask so is the first time we were told that on March 22nd a non-negotiable letter was given so why not why you all are keeping the public in dark why it was not stated in April meeting so we are very very much disappointed so with all this we request Dr kak is a good gentleman so he should be given a chance again okay and want to make sure that the transparency moving forward we want request you all you are going to discuss today or in future how we are going to do search what
022we are going to look at the Acting Superintendent let us be transfer there are Claws and I told you all in December that if you all play politics I'll be the worst guy here I'm I'm going to be the worst guy chasing you all okay thank you very much anyone else wishing to speak good evening everyone this is shakar kakara thank you for giving the opportunity it is very unfortunate that we haven't got the uh the meeting uh invitation for for the public we came to know in the last minute still we could make so many people here and I'm representing on behalf of a lot of my friends who could not come today because of their work hours and the last minute and coming to the uh I think that board is yes there
023are bylaws there are lot of uh things which can have a justification but board is ultimately working for us so people voice right so if you don't listen to our people's voice and you just go by attorney you go by some bylaws or you get whatever reasoning so I'm not saying that your reasoning is not right but you should also give us an opportunity as a public listen to us I'll tell you past 3 years back we all around 600 to 700 families moved to this town with the hope that we are going to have a best education for our kids but after coming here my brief interaction with Mr Co Z he is a wonderful gentleman and he's willing to work with Community he want to collaborate with us he want to listen I'm
024not saying there is no best thing any anywhere it is possible but he's willing to work that's number one number two if you look at the school ratings right in the in the county we have jumped to second place after the North Edison school district beating the South Brunswick and the East Brun which are the Great Schools so we have to seriously consider this I'm not saying that he's the 100% good 100% he's doing but he's doing his best so let us give us the opportunity so that he can present himself and there are six or 700 peoples my friends already mentioned that they have signed and there are many more people who can give this uh written saying that he's working to his best and the other point is if you keep on changing
025the superintendents it is very difficult correct to again come back and adjust themselves and moving forward and at the same time we are so many people coming into the district and if they see that this is happening in the board that is a negative to negative point to the public to come into this town so I really appreciate that even though you have all the bylaws whatever bylaws are made by us right it can all be always be changed but you have to listen to the public voice which is most important that doesn't mean that I'm not saying that you listen to me but at least 51% majority whichever come comes you have to listen to that hope I made my points I really appreciate and we also work with him for various Community programs
026like teachers appreciation event there are 200 people 200 families came out and he worked with us for that and he's keeping us everything transparent to communicate so I really appreciate all his work and I definitely want him to continue in this position for next two years so that we don't have confusion in the people thank you so much thanks for the opportunity could you please give your name and address yeah Shar kakara number two monilla Avenue Monro New Jersey okay thank you thank you we we'll get it after the we'll talk to him after he can spell iter 29th Bruce Meadows Drive um can you explain the difference between acting and interim because it's confusing a little bit confusing because we've always had an interim and I notice now you're posting acting and we're not
027sure of that just means the same thing or there's some nuances between the two references it means the same thing an Acting Superintendent usually comes from inside the district an interim superintendent is usually a retired superintendent who comes in and is here for the interim until a new one is is um appointed so it's basically a a a person who comes in here between superintendents acting is in District interim is out of District wasn't Dennis interim Dennis was interim apparently this is um a different terminology that has been used which we receiv received recently from the county superintendent anyone else from the public okay seeing none we'll close public forum be it resolved go to we'll go to close session be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves
028to go into Clos session in accordance with Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws 1975 NJ sa 10 col 4-6 through 10 col 4-21 to discuss the following subjects Acting Superintendent search deliberation process the superintendent evaluation following Clos session action may be taken the discussion conducted in closed session may be discussed the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the need for confidentiality no longer exists need a motion in a second second Mr mayo and Mr Chella all in favor I opposed I me you're opposing I oppose yes and Mr Braverman is opposing he the motion has passed and at this time we will move into Clos session you didn't ask Mr Russ who needs to rec you didn't ask me I recuse I can't you
029knew that okay I I just figured you were since I didn't hear yes or the No so at this time we will move into closed session how long is Clos session probably a couple hours at this time the board will move back into public session and since there is no um resolutions I need a motion to adjourn Mrs Lang second second by Miss de Mayo all in favor I I opposed okay at this time the meeting is adjourned