001alic members of the Monroe Township Board of Education the Monroe Township Board of Education organization meeting is now called to order in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted December 29th 2017 at all schools the home News Tribune cranberry press and filed with the clerk of the municipality this is a unique board of Education meeting where it begins without a board president as chair and as board secretary it is my role to chair the meeting until such time as a su successful successful nomination process for president is completed would you please join me first in a pledge of allegiance of allegiance to the flag of the
002United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all moving right along on the agenda item number four the election results are posted and there's copies up front at the table the results have been sent to all of the Board of Education members and copies are available up front the election results have been confirmed and certified by the county clerk of Elections it is now my duty and privilege to administer the oath of office to the following individuals who are hereby requested to join me at the front table Mrs Jill Deo Mrs Kathy kapano Mr Steve Ryback Mr Paul rutsky [Music] precaution every right yeah I'm I'm getting over it again I was SI over a break in everybody out theirs sir okay please
003repeat after me I I do solemnly swear or affirm do solemly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and this state in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I I do solemnly swear or affirm do solemly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that
004I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of the Board of Education and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully and partially partially and justly perform all duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God help me God I do solemnly swear or affirm doly swear or affirm and declare and declare that I am not disqualified as a voter that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs19 col 44-1 purs to rs9 one and that I am not disqualified to hold office and that I am not disqualified to hold office due to a conviction of crime or offense listed in njsa 18a 12-1 due to a conviction of a crime or
005offense listed in njsa 18 121 so help me God so help me God okay congratulations thank you may I thanks thanks we can return to your seats thank you [Music] I did that okay we will move to number seven on the agenda election of a board president I will open the nominating process at this time is there a nomination for anyone to make for board president Mr gy can I just ask we didn't do roll call attendance we didn't do number six thank you very much for pointing that out I in my haste I skip number six so hold the nomination process and we will take a roll call Mrs armeno here Mr Braverman Mr cherella here Mrs Deo here Mrs kapano here Mrs Lang here Mrs Keno here Mr Rybeck here Mr Russo Mr
006rutsky here we have a quarum present this evening thank you Mrs L okay we will once again open the nominating process for board president okay nomination thank are there any other nominations for president I nominate Michelle Amino is there a second without a second then we will have a roll call for president seeing that there are no more nominations for president beg your pardon I'll second you'll second uh Mrs arm okay so we have two nominations for president Kathy kapano and Michelle armeno are there any other nominations for president okay seeing none nominee number one was Kathy kapano we'll take a roll call and an affirmative vote is a vote for that person for president nominee number one again is Kathy kapano Mrs armeno no Mr cherella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs col Pano yes
007Mrs Lang yes Mrs karino no Mr Rybeck yes and Mr rutsky no nominee number one Kathy kapano has five yeses nominee number two is Michelle armeno Mrs armeno yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Deo no Mrs k panowich no Mrs Lang no Mrs Kino yes Mr Rybeck Iain and Mr rodsky yes that's four yes and one exstension and three NOS for Mrs armeno Mrs kapano has been elected board president congratulations Mrs K Pano I will surrender the chair to Mrs K Pano after closing the nominating process for board president thank you excuse me [Music] Hey Joe you got two okay thank you for the support of the board um this is going to be a very interesting year we have an awful lot to accomplish we need a um a successful conclusion to the mtea negotiations
008as soon as possible we need to promote and pass the referendum for a middle school and we need to do a superintendent search so at this time we'll have the election for the board vice president so I will open the floor for nominations to the position of Vice President of the Board of Education Mr Chella I'm going to nominate Michelle armeno okay I second second by Miss Kina I nominate Steve Rybeck is there a second by Jill Deo so noted okay are there any other nominations seeing none we need a motion to close nominations move is there a second all in favor HST then we will have a roll call for the position of uh vice president of the Board of Education okay nominee number one is Mrs armeno once again an affirmative vote is
009yes for Michelle armeno for board vice president Mrs armeno yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Deo no Mrs Co Pano no Mrs Lang no Mrs Kino yes Mr Rybeck and Mr rutzky no three affirmative votes second nominee is Steve Rybeck Mrs armeno no Mr Chella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs Co Pano yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs Keno no Mr Rybeck yes and Mr rodsky yes mam board president nominee 2 Steve Ryback has been elected board Vice President congratulations Mr Rybeck congratulations Steve is there would you like to make any comments sir well I certainly would I'd like to congratulate all of you here because it's really a pleasure working with all of you and I appreciate uh the public support as I said last month in in my reelection and um I know we have as
010you said Madame President we have a lot of work ahead of us and I know that uh this board will successfully um achieve all its goals thank you thank you so at this time we will go to number nine the code of ethics and for the public all the board members have received a copy of the code of ethics for Board of Education members and we are required to sign an acknowledgement that we have received a copy of the code of ethics and that we have read a copy of the code of ethics and I don't think we have to vote on that but um when you get a chance please make sure that your returned and signed copy gets to Mr Gorski as soon as possible okay so number 10 is suspension of policy
011by law it is recommended that the Board of Education suspend the operation of policy bylaw 0164 to permit the board to conduct only one public forum at this evening's public meeting I need to have a motion in a second second Lang second by Miss armeno comments questions I seeing none roll [Music] call you want to just do a that's what I was planning but that's okay we could do a roll call check last year roll call for suspension of bylaw to have one public forum where any comment is welcome Mrs armeno yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs K Pano yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs Corino yes Mr Rybeck yes and Mr rutsky yes Madam board president motion to suspend bylaw has passed okay then we will go to public Forum anyone from the
012public wishing to speak please come to the microphone state your name and address for the record and we are adhering to our 4minute time limit Anthony proso at a equestrian way um you just passed the code of ethics and I would like to mention from the last time I was here at the board meeting that I'm afraid that the code of ethics sometimes on the board doesn't work out so well I had mentioned to you that uh cronyism now that we're going to have a new superintendent will be back into the board like it used to be and I had mentioned to you that I believe that D alage will be superintendent because the way the board is set up uh I hope the public takes notice of this and um it's it's not a
013good thing to have cronyism and nepotism back on the board and that's what's been happening we got rid of it and I have I have a feeling it's coming back so like I said to the public dor alage will be superintendent and if I'm wrong I'll apologize but I honestly believe cronyism is back on the board thank you thank you good evening Chrissy scurby 21 prnis Drive um I just wanted to find out if the land deal with the township has been settled yet for the new Middle School uh we received a letter on I believe it was the 21st and I do not have it with me I meant to bring it I don't know if you have a copy of the letter um where they have um received the land and it will
014be turned over to the Board of Education uh the township has not had a meeting to formally do that as of they're having a reorg meeting tonight but as of the 21st I don't believe they've had a meeting but uh through the letter that I received it we have gotten the land so the purchase is complete with the township they are still negotiating the purchase price mam yes may I CL add some clarification to that sure because I was the the recipient of the letter uh the letter that we have received uh indicated that the township has condemned the property meaning that um uh it it is now owned by the township Monroe and that the price of the land between the former owner and the township is still being negotiated and it's heading toward
015an amicable settlement from uh Communications coming from the township um and that both parties have asked for a uh extension of time before the court comes in and determines the price the township has also put an amount of money in escrow and the township has also passed a resolution expressing their their intent to transfer the land to the Board of Education when appropriate why would they condemn the land because uh negotiations again this would have to be asked to the township because it was an action of theirs you should probably go to a council meeting and asked for for that answer you don't know why they condemn the land I I'm just I'm just confused why so was it not a amicable negotiation for the purchase PRS it doesn't sound like it sounds almost like
016we went in and took it by imminent domain imminent domain was enforced and the land was condemned and um negotiations are continuing to determine the price and they are proceeding amicably according to information from the township and this board is okay with that coming in and taking property by imminent domain that's terrible you selected that piece of property and you asked the township to to do that that that is absolutely disgraceful we did not ask the you did we sat here in a meeting and we were told by Mr Gorski that him and Mr tag went on Google Maps and selected that piece of property that is true and that we've been hearing every month that we were getting that land whatever cost we never in fact I think every one of us here at
017past meetings had said we did not believe in taking that Land by emminent domain the Board of Education was not involved you asked for that piece of property and you went to the town and you asked them to take it at whatever cost and that is exactly what they did yes it is this board's fault that that happened absolutely and I would like to just reiterate what Mr proso said I 110% agree with him what what is going on here and yes nepotism was gone and it is back and we do see that the public does see what's going on and I think it's very unfortunate the what happened this past year with Dr coak and I wish you well and I think it's absolutely horrendous what happened in this district and it's just going
018down and it's very sad to see as a parent anyone else from the public wishing to speak seeing no one we will close the public forum and we need a motion to approve the organizational items a b c and d I have to WR back oh Mrs SL I have a question about meeting dates well we can you can ask the question after we we motion and second thank you so Mr Ryback made a motion I named a second I second it Mrs Lang Mrs Lang so now you have a question I happen to notice when I was going through um the meeting dates for the upcoming ye year that the thanks the November meeting is Wednesday November 21st and Thanksgiving is November 22nd we can have turkey that night yeah so I just wanted
019I wasn't sure if that was something that should be reconsidered being the night before Thanksgiving probably I I think we'll probably have to look at that again so we can we can approve these tentatively because some some of them changed during the year anyway yes we can we can certainly approve the list as submitted and then revise that date if the board wishes at the next meeting and if if anything like that is identified in the future by all means uh you know give me a call ahead of time and then I could have the uh the correction run by the board president and presented for the kind the last minute that I saw it sorry any other comments or questions Miss armino on um this is is this still under 12 ABC and D
020okay nope I'll wait until 14 thank you so we need a roll call on this Mrs armeno yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs Co Pano yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs Kino yes Mr Ryback yes and Mr rutsky Madame board president item 12 a b and c d has passed thank you uh number 13 is student board members reports but they're home doing their homework before um it gets to be such a bad weather day tomorrow so we will go with Dr kosak superintendence report which is really long yeah thank you Madame President um yeah it's not too long tonight there's just uh two items um on my report tonight and that is to ask the board to approve items a and uh B and I would just like to provide a little explanation
021to those two items uh since somewhat unusual I guess the first item is uh Mr Gorski as the school safety specialist for the district and that is a recent uh State mandate that is requiring a certificated staff member to be designated as the school safety specialist um being that Mr Pio uh although a retired police officer uh doesn't count I guess as a certificated staff officer and being that security f under uh Mr G gorski's jurisdiction I guess for lack of a better term um he has nominated he put his name up to be the school security specialist uh with that there'll be a lot of trainings involved and other things and I would imagine uh that the state will allow uh design to attend and I I would think that Mr per it would
022be imperative for him to attend those uh safety trainings as the Director of our security items uh Item B is in reference to a Hib appeal that was brought up at the December I believe it was the 13th meeting and uh that is just um affir that is giving the board the opportunity to either affirm the original decision uh of course you could reject it or modify it as well so there are the two items that are on uh my report rep and with that um um yeah a motion to accept the superintendent report Mr Chella second by Mr rybach any comments or questions I think uh Dr kak answered most of them Michelle I do have that um on a it just seems to me that um Mr Gorski has so many things on
023his plate that yet another responsibility he'll never get home at night or NE never be able to waake W up in the morning to get here um does it require that it be this the board secretary he said certificate certificated C who else could it be yeah so it could be a principal it could be Dr Ali it could be Mr Gorski it could be uh it could be me it could be anybody that certificated um and what what does it entail and Mr Gorski I thank you for volunteering apparently no one else did but um I I do think it might be just I mean there's a there's a lot going on and you have a very important um job for our new referendum and all that's going on with the finances so I'm
024just wondering if we could relieve Mr Gorski of some of that responsibility and is there somebody else that could get qualified well being that this is fairly new uh coming from the state uh there really hasn't been any discussion among any of the other administrators the one thing that I would caution is that uh were to be a principal um you know that person is responsible for a particular building and I think at this level it might be good to have somebody who has districtwide approval and again without having seen all the trainings coming up I would imagine that Mr Gorski would uh designate Mr uh you know Pete to Mr pero to attend the trainings and to really oversee that but certainly Madam sure um yeah it was last minute notification from the state
025uh it had to be in place by January 17th 2018 and the requirements for the position are you have to hold an administrative certificate okay most of the security directors in the state do not hold an administrative certificate so there's some confusion that I learned tonight at the state level about uh about uh proposed changes to this to remove that certificate requirement but as of now we don't have that confirmation um if that should happen in the future certainly I would I would uh recommend to the superintendant that Pete pero the the current U security director be appointed for that position yeah there is going to be a lot of training required uh as it stands now the the uh person with the title would be required to be attend these trainings I would certainly
026bring Mr Pio as it currently stands with me and as Dr kak said on the organiz ation chart I I am at the hierarchy of school security staff so that's why I volunteered for the position but I appreciate your comments I mean but it just you know it's a it's a lot for one person to to do I mean everything all of your other um qualifications and certificates and a a lot of the oversight that you have I just think that if the state changes it we should be open in the future to re you know relieving you of some of that responsibility but okay so it's mandated now and we have to make that decision by January 17th okay thank you for the explanation anyone else comments questions okay roll call Mrs armeno yes
027Mr Chella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs K Pano yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs Kino yes Mr Rybeck yes and Mr rutsky yes Madam board president superintendent report pass for those two items okay thank you so we will go to the board president's report I'm going to keep mine short because I'm sure we want to go home where it's nice and warm um committee preference lists have been handed out this evening if we can have them back to Mr Gorski by no later than Monday uh January 8th then I'll be able to work on them next week and then we'll be able to continue our regular meeting committee meeting schedule the week before the board meetings and that's my report uh any other business from any member of the Board of Education Mr R yeah I
028have something I'd like to share um today I received an email from Ray Penny asking me to um serve on the Jersey school board's legislative committee where I would be one of two board members um representing the legislative district district 14 uh very excited about that because that gives us just another means of getting our message out uh as far as the state and legislation that's a a great honor for you and for Monroe because we will have a voice where we need it and two in that legislative district two members I this phenomenal so congratulations thank you excellent congratulations thank you and thank you for accepting thank you anyone else so I believe we have a closed session resolution on the agenda this evening be it resolved that the Board of Education of the
029township of Monroe hereby moves to go into closed session in accordance with the Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 col 4-6 through 10 col 4-21 to discuss the following subject harassment intimidation bullying following close session action may be taken the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the need for confidentiality no longer exists is there a motion I motion second Mrs Lang second by Mr Ryback all in favor I opposed abstain that's what I have right it should take us no longer than five minutes to get through this okay so tomorrow we'll get a warm tropical air and there won't be any snow wish you know what I'll take it is the whole thing is it supposed to start tonight overnight
030like around 3:00 and go through tomorrow ran the wind is the other part the wind gusts are supposed to be up to U you know 20 30 miles whatever but going to create icy conditions of driving would they say a snow bomb I've never heard of a snow bomb I can only imagine means it just like sits in place and just keeps dropping but they're only talking a couple I know the Weather Channel on the southern the southern states like some of the places down well like like you my mom lives in Tallahassee they got snow to I saw that my friend my South Carolina yeah there okay 8 to 12 Ken just updated us no 8 to 12499 app so Weather Bug okay at this time we will move back into a public session
031uh is there any other comments from the or questions from the Board of Education Michelle oh yes I'm sorry before I'm thinking snow uh okay yes the uh referendum is coming up on March 13th yes uh lot of people um you know may be unaware of that because it's a special election how are is it going through um the middlex County Board of Elections or are we running it ourselves and how do people get um absentee ballots if they so choose president can I answer okay so uh thank you for the question excellent question couple things it is going this election on March 13 2018 uh did I say March 13th right 2018 uh is going through through the uh county middle sex County Board of Elections which means that our polling will only be
032open until 8:00 pm. that night 700 a.m. through 8:00 p.m. not 900 p.m. and that's significant for us because we have a lot of parents that work and um I think many that work in the city and by the time they get back you know they might be getting home so it might be um Inc it might be very important for them to to vote maybe on the home from work rather than going home having dinner and say l goat later uh so they don't miss it um absentee balance can be requested we have all that information on our website on the district website we have a whole separate section uh they can also be requested through the county um we the League of Women Voters is working uh very hard at uh with a
033voter registration Drive they've been doing that since the summertime really for um all kinds of elections and they'll uh hopefully be at most of our public meetings which again are on our website start the the public meetings start next week we have a meeting every single week at either one of our schools or the Township Library uh the the um Rec Center one night right the rec center one night uh but leading right up to March 13th and we are also when I say we I'm talking about some of the board uh board members Dr Ali Mr Gorski and myself will be going to some of our uh adult communities we've gone to some already and we're trying to get out to every Adult Community between now and March and I can't emphasize enough how
034important it is that people vote uh these type of Elections can be decided you know sometimes with one or two votes so it's so so important we we certainly can tell people how to vote but we certainly what we can encourage them to vote thank you anyone else okay then our next scheduled Board of Education meeting is Wednesday January 24th 2018 7:00 p.m. at the Monroe Township High School motion to adjourn Mr Ryback miss miss sermino all in favor I opposed then the meeting is adjourned