001break the gav really good evening members of the Board of Education good evening members of the public the Monroe Township Board of Education reorganization meeting is now called to order would you please join me with a pledge of allegiance to the United States of America aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy Justice for [Music] All I will now proceed with a roll call Mrs antelis here Mr Braverman here Mr Chella here Mr calman here Mr Klein yes Mrs kapano here Mr Larry here Mr Masters here Mr tesler here Mrs Fon members of the Board of Education we have a quorum present this evening in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe
002Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof hosted May 6th 2011 at all schools in the home News Tribune cranberry press and filed with the clerk of the municipality the election results and the agenda have been provided are on the table um out in the hallway it is now my duty to administer the oath of office to the following individuals who should join me at at the table in front Mrs antelis Mr Chella Mrs Ferron and Mrs kapano down sty raise your right hand swear orm swear orm that I will support the Constitution of the United States I will support the constition of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey theti of the state of New Jersey
003then I will bear true faith and allegiance to the sa and I will bear faith and aliance to the sa and to the governments established in the United States the government establish in the United States and this state and this state authority of the people the authority of the people so go God I I do solemly swear or affirm swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescri prescribed by law I possess Theif prescrib by law for the office of member of a board of education the office of a member of the Board of Education that I will Faithfully faithfully and partially partially and justly justly perform all the duties of that office office according to the best of my ability to the best of my ability so help me God me [Applause] not check
004she be here you no she never comes on we just got number seven on the agenda is the election of board president at this particular time we will take nominations for the office of board president is there anyone that wishes to make a nomination at this point I would Mr Klein I would like to nominate Kathy K as our next president do we have a second second Mr K I get a v do we have a second motion for President John L seconds he nominate do we have a second nominating Mr Larry per President no I'm I'm supporting oh we have a second already for uh okay okay I withdraw my fire stat so noted nominate yourself presid do we have any other nominations for president if none say at this point I would like
005to entertain a motion to close the nominating procedure so move Mr calman second Tes Mr tesler the nominating process has now been closed I'll now proceed with an medical roll call in terms of Kathy kapano serving as president of the Board of Education a yes would indicate a vote for Kathy kapano Mrs antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Ferron yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes motion passes congratulations congratulations congratulations thank you [Applause] on Swit sure want me to switch SE yeah okay water you want your computer okay the nomination before we go into the election for vice president I'd just like to um say a few words first I'd like to thank the board for giving me the opportunity
006to lead it is always an honor and a privilege to represent the Board of Education and I'm not going to make any promises to anybody except that I will promise to do this job to the best of my ability I know that it's been a difficult time the last few weeks with the defeated budget and some differing personal issues but I know that when everybody walks through this door on Wednesday night at 7:00 that those issues are left behind and that we work all to we all work together for the benefit of children because we're all here to educate children doesn't mean we need to agree on everything but we need to expect respect the opinions of others just not just the board members but the members of the public I'd like to congratulate Mr
007Chella on his his uh election and his winning a second term and I'd like to do the same to Amy and welcome her back to the board I'd also like to acknowledge Kathy Leonard and her 15 years of service to the board she has been an advocate as most of you might know for special education and as we saw in last month's meeting we're doing a really good job in that area and lastly I would like to thank Lou for his term on the board as president this past year and for the lead leadership you have shown all of us so thank you very much at this time we'll go to number eight on the agenda the election of the board vice president I will open the floor for nominations for the position of Vice
008President I do Mr Masters I'd like to nominate Ken Chella is there a second I second it Mr Klein are there any other nominations for the position of Vice President seeing none I will close the the election for vice president and at this time we will have a roll call for the position of vice president for Mr Ken chirella a yes would indicate a vote for Ken Chella for vice president Mrs antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes madame board president Ken cherella has been elected vice president well congratulations Ken I don't know if you would like to say a few words or we just I would just like to I would just
009like to thank the the board but I also would just like to take it take one second and just thank the uh the voters obviously for the uh for the election results and uh to congratulate Amy on her uh on her return to the board and uh obviously Kathy you're your win um and I just you know thank you guys I do appreciate that it's uh very humbling thank you we'll go to number nine close session resolution be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into close session in accordance with Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 to discuss the following subjects Personnel non-renewals Personnel superintendent evaluation legal councel advice opma the discussion conducted in closed section can be disclosed to the public
010at such time as the matters have been resolved is there a motion and a second second that's Mr CL Mr Koffman and Mr tesler all in favor opposed extensions okay at this time we will go into close session at this time the board will reconvene into public session and we'll go to number 10 on the agenda organizational items a meeting dates be it resolved that the regular meetings of the Board of Education of the township of Monroe shall be held as per the attached schedule at 7:00 p.m. at which time formal action may be taken need a motion and a second so move second Mr Chella Mr tesler all in favor opposed question um is it included anywhere in this package because I didn't see the list meeting dates in here was handed out it
011had been handed out was it was it email to us yesterday to everybody do you want to hold off the vote before um no I just like a copy okay we'll get you a copy thank you than you we will go to B policy be it resolved by the Board of Education of the township of Monroe that all policies of the previous board are hereby adopted until such time as the board decides to revise or otherwise alter policies Motion in a second please I make the motion Mr Klein I second Mr ly all in favor opposed extenstions motion passes Mrs K can you just go back to the meeting dates I don't know if that vote was fully executed oh I'm sorry all in favor of the a meeting dates I I I opposed and
012extensions okay seeing none we've passed a we've passed B the design C designation of banks or depositories be it resolved that the Board of Education designates the following Banks or depositories for school district funds TD Bank Commerce Bank PNC Bank the depository Trust Company state of New Jersey Cash management fund Wells forgo previously wacovia New Jersey asset and rebate management Provident Bank JP Morgan Chase with with um B Fargo providing most of the banking services be it refer the resoled that the business administrator is authorized to establish accounts and wire transfer funds among the accounts as needed and approve the payments of bills between board meetings a motion so I'll move second Mr cherella Mr Klein any comments or questions all all in favor opposed abstentions then the motion has carried we will go to
013D newspapers for legal advertisements be it resolved that the Board of Education designates the cranberry press home new Tribune or the Asbury Park Press all of which circulate in the school district as official newspapers for legal advertisement motion motion second Mr ly second by Mr tesler comments or questions all in favor opposed extensions then number D has passed and we will go to number 11 on the agenda data review presentation of the Saturday Academy and a it I will turn this over to Dr Hamilton okay thank you madam Bo president um I have the opportunity to study yearound schooling and extended schools across the country and even internationally and there has been some significant benefits for extending the school year or the the school experience um and when I came into the district we talked
014about the Saturday implementing a Saturday Academy as part of the superintendent's action plan which we developed in order to help ramp up instruction for students we either needed an academic boost or students in the high school who needed an opportunity for credit Restoration in order to satisfy High School graduation requirements so this evening I've asked um some of our our staff members to facilitate a preliminary review of the program's data to see if in fact it has been a a wise investment in use of our time and resources so at this time I'm going to um ask Mr Scott matrella and uh Mr Jim Higgin if they will provide us with a presentation reviewing the data relative to the Saturday Academy good evening the oak tree Academy the oak tree Saturday Academy serviced all middle
015and elementary schools it was broken down into three Cycles Cycle One ran from October through December cycle two ran from January through February and cycle 3 ran from has March through May we were we had the benefit of being able to Serv as 352 elementary and middle school students throughout the course of the year in the oak tree Saturday [Music] Academy early on in the Saturday Academy during the selection process we collaborated with all the building principles and their administrative teams and asking them to select students they felt would benefit from the Saturday Academy adultery students were identified at the school level by child study team members by guidance counselors by case managers and by teachers when I received as program coordinator the list from each school I reviewed the data and began sending out
016invitations those invitations came back either accepted the parents would like to participate or declined based on the enrollment further invitations were sent out to ensure that as many students as we can took part in this this program once rosters was set as program coordinator I reviewed the data for each student to determine whether the student should be enrolled in math and language arts or a double dose of one a double dose means they came into two math sessions or two language off sessions due to what was seen in their testing data or recommendations from the [Music] school we had very specific expectations of our staff on Saturdays the first priority for our staff once they received their rosters was to reach out to the students regular teachers those are the teachers that they have during
017the week the reason for this is those teachers could give my summmer uh my Saturday staff a more holistic picture of the students give them some idea of weaknesses and strength they could work on on Saturdays the second expectation was to establish and build a bridge to our parents of the Saturday Academy students this we felt was important because it's only through partnership with the parents that we can truly maximize and create an efficient form of instruction for our students and we wanted the parents to be our partners contact was made either by emails uh weekly letters home or phone calls we made sure that Saturday Academy was a rigorous program instructional strategies such as small group instruction differentiation learning stations and integration of Technology was expected to be the norm in each class each
018staff member both formally and informally over the course of the Year met with myself as program coordinator to review student data their instructional strategies being used and to review the prog chart that was inclusive of pre and post assessment data and that every teacher had to keep on every student weekly lesson plans were submitted and reviewed and teachers with their grade level counterparts worked on study habit sessions this was a 30 minute break and when I say break at 30 minutes they would go to L in the morning take 30 minutes to work on study habits and then go to their math or vice versa during these study habit sessions the students would work on age appropriate techniques and strategies such as organizational skills time management test prep and so on when we looked at
019the data we first had to establish how we going to find this authentic data authentic data comes from having a pre-assessment that each student was given on the first day of each cycle and a post assessment that was given on the last day of each cycle through the pre and post assessment we were able to chart how well the students did on an individual basis and the preliminary data that we compiled shows us that our students in math 78% of the students showed an increase in their math achievement in language house literacy 80% showed an increase in their language house literacy both reading and writing when we moved to the Soft Data which was basically testimonials we get input from students and parents over the course of the year and some of it you know
020we like to keep on record I won't read all of them to you but I'll just read a few this is from an eighth grade student on the NJ ASK I found I wrote more and underlined more than I expected because what I learned too bad this is the last cycle because I really enjoyed it from a parent I wanted to thank you for your time with Joe over these two cycles what began as The Dread Saturday Academy actually began something he looks forward to and then lastly from a fifth grade student we did a lot of fun and exciting things in Saturday Academy we wrote business letters persuasive writing readers theater Sy synonyms and antonyms main ideas and story promps I love the Saturday Academy so this gives us a feel aside from the
021hard data of what the students and the parents feel about our efforts and now I'm going to throw to Mr M pear from the high school thank you Mr Higgins my name is Scott M Pearl I'm assistant principal at mon Township High School and also the program coordinator for the U mon Township High School Saturday Academy I've been asked to give a brief overview of the program and some preliminary data uh results from our program and I'm going to do that uh so we can get to the good stuff and recognize our fabulous teachers here in the district uh but having said that I just want you to know that up here on this table I brought three binders that represent a compilation of U information from three of our Cycles this year we'll see
022in a moment that we had two cycles last year and we have a pending cycle that's starting actually this Saturday uh these binders are available for viewing actually online uh we have the cycle one if you go to the um the District page and go to Saturday Academy you can view uh these binders online Cy one is up already and we're we're in the process of getting the others up there if you want to take a detailed look and see the kinds of things that we were doing a program overview detailed attendance information uh we have uh lesson plans in there um we have examples of student work each Saturday the students produced a piece or a portfolio in each of the Cycles they um they compiled um a body of work in in the
023whole program and that they had the opportunity to take with them as a as a representation of of what they did and what they learned in the program and for future use so as you see on the first slide well you saw the dates of the of the various Cycles that's not there we are so we had we had two cycles last school year and we're uh we ran three so far this year and the dates are shown and we're we're going to on a Ford cycle next slide please uh selection process for our cat Academy all special education students were invited uh to attend the enrichment piece of all of the Cycles special educa education teachers and uh child study team members also made uh phone calls for personal contact to uh invite uh
024talk to parents and invite students into the program and in terms of our credit recovery piece uh data was compiled from the attendance office uh indicating those students that needed credit recovery and they were invited to the program by letter and also I met with them we had several different Focus uh for the various Cycles in the program in in the spring 2010 Cycles 1 and two attendance Credit Recovery Andor academic enrichment understand that all of the students in the program received rigorous academic enrichment whether they were there for credit recovery or just to learn and experience new things fall 2010 cycle one academic enrichment only in cycle two we started taking a look at helping students who were identified to maybe uh be having some difficulties with standardized testing and to uh give them
025a little push in doing better in the hespa and also the end of course algebra and biology tests so we specifically targeted students to invite them into the program and put together uh work for them to do along with with the projects that they were working on to give them a boost in terms of standardized test taking and we're hoping that that's fruitful with the results coming up after those tests the students take the uh end of course test they already took the hespa and uh after they take the end of course test that we see that the kids who were in the Saturday academy uh performed well that's what we're hoping uh so attendance Credit Recovery in Spring uh cycle 3 or and of course algebra or biology test prep or academic enrichment and
026cycle four which will start in Saturday is attendance Credit Recovery Andor academic enrichment next slide please uh just to sum up really uh the goal the major goal of all of the cycles of the high school academy to engender student growth in the areas of higher level thinking skills organizational skills public speaking skills test taking confidence and student self-discovery through participation in Socratic seminars and authentic learning based projects and also to help our district meet ayp and our teachers I'm going to speed this up I want to get to the good stuff but our teachers went through uh rigorous training in order to be able to participate in this program in the way we wanted them to teach the kids and then of course certain students were able to get credit back um for their
027General cour work next some general attendance data uh kids enrolled in Credit Recovery 110 total uh 66 actually made it through the program 60% of them got their credits back attended all of the sessions of a complete cycle for enrichment we had 137 of those 50% had I'm sorry 83 had 50% uh plus attendance for 61% next slide how do we assess the kids uh we have we developed a rubric for our ptic seminar and authentic projects and they you can see those online in in in the binders that'll be up there and I also have samples here for anybody who would like a copy of the the uh scoring rubric that we used for those pieces of the of the assessment we also looked at whole cycle uh results for courses and we we
028look graphically kind of looks like the stock exchange a little bit um over the years but we we we graphed the various courses in terms of uh you know how the whole course progressed along the rubric uh through the six sessions of the cycle I have a copy of that if uh anybody would like to take a look in the uh cycle where we looked at hespa and uh EOC tests Improvement we used a couple different uh tools one of them being Study Island we did preformative in some Summit of assessment throughout those courses and we gathered data which we used especially in the formative piece to focusing on student weaknesses and address those weaknesses uh so that they would be more confident when those tests came around and from from one course uh the
029math course where they did review for the end of the course Algebra test I compiled a graph showing individual student Improvement it's pretty impressive actually I have I have a copy here if anybody want to take a look and we also did a pre-imposed student um program and self survey you know more uh subjective how the students felt about the program and what they felt they got out of it uh that was online they took it the first session and they took a very similar survey at the end you know the last session of the cycle and we have that data available as well that we we took a look at uh so that's pretty much much it for me question yeah I I have a question this was a This was um done through
030a grant yes okay when does that end do or is that ongoing I believe it ends August in August all funds all funds have to be spent by August 31st for them so this was like a grant to test the program or I'm sorry was this a grant to test that particular program no okay no okay that's and uh I would just like to say that if you want to ever fun year round school I have my kids are here they I'll volunteer them right now when you said you're around school my wife the the smile on her face never saw parents loveing kids not so much okay thank you are there any other questions or comments from members of the board okay seeing none we are now going to the te recognition Awards and
031this is probably one of our most favorite times of the year because we get to honor the best of the best of Monroe um this year we are very proud that we are honoring two nurses two School nurses a special ed teacher a grade 2 teacher a Fizz ed teacher an industrial arts teacher and a Spanish teacher and we had an opportunity to invite them to an excellent reception before this meeting with our col AR arts department put together for us and um it it's just so wonderful to see exactly what is going on and how wonderful our teachers are so at this time I believe we have a black presentation for them join me at the mic [Music] we will be presenting we're good we're good okay we will be presenting a certificate from
032the Department of Education which reads the 2011 Governor's teacher recognition Educational Services professionals program Awards this certificate of recognition for demonstration of Excellence as a teacher Educational Services professional in the New Jersey public schools by creating an environment that improves student academic opportunities Workforce preparedness and overall quality of life and this is signed by our acting Commissioner of education and our governor and then from the Board of Education yes Monro [Music] Township still taller than me Monro Township School District honors T Susan tilaka as teacher of the year in deep gratitude for your commitment and dedication to the students and staff of Brookside element Elementary School May 2011 congratulations [Applause] the certificate is the same so we will read the plaque Monro Township School District honors John Allen as teacher of the year in deep
033gratitude for your commitment and dedication to the students and staff of Monro Township High School discussion we want to try thank you [Applause] car monra Township School District honors bernardet chin as teacher of the year in deep gratitude for your commitment and dedication to the students and staff of Oak Tree Elementary School [Applause] and [Applause] mono Township school districts honors Misty corbesero as teacher of the year in deep gratitude for your commitment and dedication to the students and staff of Woodland Elementary [Applause] School I get upside down got it thank you [Music] so mon tanip School District honors Christy DeLuca as teacher of the year in deep gratitude for your commitment and DED ation to the students and staff of mil Lake Elementary [Applause] School congratulations [Applause] mon Township School District honors Douglas CLM as
034teacher of the year in deep gratitude for your commitment and dedication to the students in St [Applause] school's two on your thank you mono Township School District honors Maryann manona as teacher of the year and deep gratitude for your commitment and dedication to the students St congratulations there you go it's for you as well oh me [Music] [Applause] too I'm scared I got to go back to here I don't [Music] know okay um at this time we will go to Dr Hamilton with the champions of educ presentation I'd like to take a moment to recognize one of our students who could not be here this evening but it is still something that I think warrants recognition and I will ask U Mr Matra pear as he will accept it on behalf of this student but
035Southmore Shan Doyle a 2-year Varsity golfer for his heroic acts on April 25th at a Varsity golf match sha along with two other golfers were finishing their rounds when a woman from one of the neighboring homes started calling out from her patio for the boys to help the couple was having dinner when the husband fell from his chair and began choking the young men led by Shawn ran over and when they deemed the man was indeed choking Shawn began the heck maneuver while the other golfers called 911 Shawn was eventually able to dislodge the piece of food that was causing the man to choke he assisted the couple until the paramedics arrived several minutes later Sean's quick thinking and brave actions should be recognized as we strive as Educators to build well-rounded student athletes so
036as a superintendent I'm proud to present this award to Shawn Doyle as a Monroe Township Public Schools champion of education for going above and beyond the Call of Duty for the citizens of Monroe Township for the 2010 2011 school year here your efforts are appreciated Dr Kenneth Hamilton superintendent of schools and Mr Luke Hoffman Board of Education president so M it's unfortunate that Sean was not able to be with us this evening but I hope he might have an an opportunity to um attend a future meeting at this time we will go to our student board members reports uh to brief on the upcoming events appar spring hor concert will be held here at the morasco center on Monday May 23rd uh this Friday May 13th Barkley Brook will be holding its PTA blood drive
037Monday May 16th there will be a PTA meeting at Brookside Elementary School at 700 p.m. the district art show will be held at Oak Tree Elementary School at 6:30 on May 17th and Brookside science talented and gift T night will will be on May 18th at 6 p.m. also this Friday mil Lake Elementary School will hold two uh will hold the second and third grade career day Thursday May 19th Woodland's Advanced band will attend the C cjmea Music Festival there will be a PTA meeting in the Oak Tree Cafe at 7:30 p.m. on Monday May 23rd a cultural Fair will be held at Oak Tree on Thursday May 26 next Tuesday and Wednesday grade n will be taking a biology end of the course exam so there will be a delayed opening for grades 10
03811 and 12 also Friday May 20th mths is holding its Multicultural fair in the cafe at 6:30 lastly all schools will have a half day this Friday May 13th okay thank you very much at this time we will go to number 15 on the agenda the discussion of the defeated 201122 budget and the adoption of the revised 2011 20102 budget and the resolution of the Monroe Township Council adopting the school budget of Monroe Board of Education I'm going to turn this over to Mr Gorski thank you madam president it is recommended that the members of the Monroe Township Board of Education formally accept resolution number ryen 5-ph 2011 11 hyphen 129 of the Monroe Township Council adopting the school budget of the Board of Education referred to as attachment a furthermore it is recommended that
039members of the Monroe Township Board of Education adopt the revised 201122 budget in accordance with the provisions of attachment a now be it resolved by the Monroe Township Board of Education that the 201122 general fund budget be adopted in the amount of 9,535 829 and a general fund local tax levy in the amount of 8, 61,7 47 and a special Revenue Fund in the amount of $878,000 m471 757 and a Debt Service local tax levy in the amount of 9,643 4 $75 whereby the 201122 budget totals $1,885 72 and now let it further be resolved that the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary file the required documents with the executive County Superintendent of Schools okay I need a motion in a second to accept the resolution motion to accept Mr ly M
040Mr tiarella okay at this time I'll open it up to the board for comments or questions in regard to the resolution Mr Klein as we heard at the Town council meeting the other day when they laid out what had to be cut if you remember the president of the Town Council Jerry tamboro mentioned that the though the cut was minor there are many other areas that we should address in controlling our expenses and I'm not going to go into it now but even though we are going to vote on this we must understand that there are other cuts and other um safety issues uh that should be addressed during this coming year thank you okay anyone else from the board wishing to speak seeing no one we will have a roll call on the resolution
041Mrs antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Ferron yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes madame board president the board of education has adopted unanimously the 201122 budget thank you very much at this time we will go to the public forum and anyone wishing to speak please come to the microphone okay the agenda um I uh off we we're holding off public session for when we need to add something to the agenda it is recommended that members of the Board of Education approve the tax payment schedule which you were given for the 201122 school year I need a motion and a second to accept the tax schedule some of Mr caufman second Miss anelis comments or questions we'll have a roll
042call Mrs anelis yes Mr bra yes Mr Chala yes Mrs Ferron yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Madam board president the board of education has unanimously approved the tax payment schedule for the 201122 school year okay thank you and now we can go to the public forum anyone wishing to speak please state your name and address for the record hi uh Alan offenberg 21 skeba Drive um with the rejection of the budget including full-time kindergarten has there been any thought to opening up the Kat program at the Oak Tree Elementary School uh as that actually has the largest amount of elementary school children and kindergarteners in the district Dr Hamilton yes excuse me no we have not uh visited that yet um
043now that the budget has been settled um we can begin to have those conversations great um second second question to follow up uh with the defeat of the uh kindergarten program has there been any thought given to a pay full-time program uh for kindergarten no that has not been discussed at this juncture okay thank you you're welcome anyone else from the [Applause] public uh this on Doug poy for tamarak Road uh I noticed that there are lights on the sof football field at the Oak Tree school and so a little questioning uh helped me to discover that those lights were constructed by the Township Recreation Department therefore I would assume that there was no cost to the board of education for that but my question is whenever those lights are on who will be paying
044that electrical bill for for the use of those lights because I understand it'll primarily be used by the rec department Mr borski it is my understanding that the Board of Education is responsible as part of that agreement for the electricity charges for the lights okay what was that adopted by the board at some board meeting because I was not aware that those lights were going up or that we were buying into that sharing of cost I would have to research that question for you okay and uh some time ago uh it may have been myself I'm not certain but there was concern about uh the need for uh better lighting along schoolhouse Road where the new high school will be for for safety reasons uh I haven't noticed anything any progress being made on that
045and here we are uh almost miday uh with that school year you know the new school year coming up within a few months I just wonder what is the progress of better lighting along Schoolhouse Road or marked Crossing areas that type of thing Dr Hamilton U Mr Gorski will probably be better able to answer that the building grounds uh Transportation committee uh reviewed several different proposals uh for safety relative to that Crossing on Schoolhouse Road and um um part of the business administrative report tonight addresses fencing along that road to um provide for safe crossed along with the lighted elimination for the The Crossing but uh to my knowledge there has not been any discussion about additional lighting as far as like the pole lighting to provide better illumination all right thank you and um
046I also believe at some past board meeting one of the residents raised the question of how early the sod and and some trees and shrubs have been placed on the new property uh particularly in the midst of the Heat and drought that we were having and I have personally noticed that some of those trees and some of that SED some of the SED area is particularly right in front of the main building there the main entrance uh they are in need of replacement and I assume that that's going to be taken care of at no expense to the board Mr Gorski uh yes Mr Po uh I have in my possession a letter that you're welcome to review after the meeting uh from Feist engineering um inspecting the Landscaping planting at the above uh reference
047project at the new High School site uh preparing a punch list for um plantings and a landscaping plan to uh replace dead trees and shrubs and missing trees and shrubs which are highlighted in blue on the chart um most importantly there will it will come at no cost to the board of education to replace these as they are warranteed by the contractor fine thank you very much thank you anyone else from the public okay seeing no one we will go to the somebody coming up okay Kathy sorry Kathy slow me in 71 May VAR Avenue I had a quick question about um the modification to the budget at the council meeting the other night we eliminated zero period busing is that correct Mike mski yes ma'am that's correct zero period Transportation was the last service
048offered by our uh Transportation committee as far as was adding additional services to transportation and um that's why that one was one of the items chosen it also has the least amount of affected um uh stakeholders and residents and it has consequently a very high dollar price tag with it so it was it was a fair and easy target for a cut um is has there been any discussion about how that could impact the music programs um or will there be scheduling of the music programs to just eliminate them out of the zero period process so that there wouldn't be any uh impact on children who can't participate for loss of the busing we are we are actually looking at that and we'll be talking with the principles about that in Greater detail however at
049this juncture our plan is that parents would resume that responsibility as they did prior to the adding of that service uh we do however uh want to make sure that the programs do not suffer as a result of that um but it may be one of those things that we won't know until we actually send letters out to our parents notifying them that that service has been eliminated uh as a district service um in that notification though you will uh present suggestions or or some studies that you would do in terms of rescheduling the programs when we speak with the principles and find out what impact that would have on have on Staffing um that may be something that we would introduce at that time okay thank you very much okay is there anyone else
050from the public seeing no one we will go to the approval of the minutes for the public Board of Education meeting March 3rd 2011 to close the motion Mr cha I need second by Mr Masters all in favor I I opposed extensions abstain Miss anelis is abstaining approval of the Amendments for the closed session meeting of March 3rd 2011 so move second Mr cherella Mr tesler all in favor opposed abstentions abstain Miss sellis is abstaining the approval of the minutes for the special public Board of Education meeting of March 15 2011 so move Mr Mr cherella second is there second by Mr tesler all in favor I opposed abstentions Mr Miss anelis Miss Fon and I'm abstaining the approval of the minutes for the public board meeting of March 23rd 2011 so move Mr gella
051Mr tesler all in favor I opposed abstentions miss anelis and miss Ferron and and Mr Braverman so noted okay approval of the minutes of the closed session meeting of March 23rd 2011 so moved second Mr cherella who was who was the first Ira Mr tesler and Mr cherella you were the second Mr Klein Mr Klein okay thought I left thank you all in favor I opposed extensions stain stain Miss antelis Miss Ferron Mr Braverman thank you at this time we will go to the superintendent Report with Dr Hamilton thank you um before I get into my actual report I'd like to take an opportunity to thank Mr cofman uh for his support during the presidency and Mr bravman who served as vice president and I'd like to officially welcome back Mrs an Tellis and congratulate
052both Mrs K and Mr Chella for their appointment to the board uh I'd also like to remind the board I sent you some information earlier that um we are offering um Mr Goodall will be available this Friday at 5:30 for tours of the new high school just for board members if you are available um this Friday at 5:30 um Mr Goodall will meet you in the front of the the new building um it is in the process I went through yesterday the floors are sparkling some of the furniture is in place and we are very pleased to report that we got our temporary to uh certificate of occupancy today as a matter of fact so uh we are well on our way to a successful opening I'd also like to publicly thank mayor pooi and
053Township Council for the manner in which they handled the defeated budget process and their continued support um and and I think this is no worthy because not every Community has the kind of partnership that we have with our Township Council uh who have worked so well with us to make sure that we are in fact working in unison to provide the best services that we can for our students and the residents of this of this community so having said all of that moving on to the superintendent report the enrollment report is included in your packet and again you can see that despite the current economic conditions in the state we are still experiencing an increase in our student enrollment um our outer District placement and our home instruction list is also made available to you
054for review in addition to our fire drill and lockdown schedule noted as item number three on your agenda moving on to the Personnel items Madame board president it is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel items a through U be approved by roll call vote motion to accept the superintendent report Mr Chella second second by Mr tesler are there any comments or questions for Dr Hamilton a question Miss anelis I can um it doesn't say um how long she'll be out uh who would be taking Mrs R Us please um right now Mark Goble is filling in for her temporarily we expect her absence to be very shortterm um we do not have an exact date of her return but we don't expect it to be long thank you anyone else okay at this time we'll
055have a roll call Mr Gorski Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Ferron Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes on everything no on Q no on Q so noted Mrs kapano yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes madame board president motion passes thank you moving on to board action items Madam board president it is recommended ended by the superintendent that board action items a through L be approved by roll call vote so move second Mr Mr Chella Mr Tesla any comments or questions for the superintendent then we will have a roll call what was that again please comments or questions for the superintendent uh yes Mr Klein was here from a is that where it's listing the board action items here it is okay on D and we I've
056brought this up many times and I thought we had um an understanding and a policy and this is on in school suspensions um I had asked for penalties to be shown on this printout to be honest with you I'm sick and tired of seeing multiple violations by the same stud students for the same thing not twice not three times but six seven and eight times I'm sick and tired of seeing students cutting after school suspension I'm sick and tired of of hearing or or reading uh insubordination towards a teacher or a principal I'm sick and tired of hearing of the fighting the use of profanity in classes definitely the use of electrical devices nothing in here tells us what the penalty these are my feeling is you have a student that has multiple violations using
057an electronic device I would put it on the floor and step on it I know we can't do it but it should be taken away and have his parents or her parents come to school and pick it up but I want my opinion is and it's up to the rest of the board I want to know what the penalties are to the given evidently they're not strong enough if they keep doing repeated things and not all Le are classified students the other thing is with these multiple violations and these are some students that are in the 12th grade that are supposed to graduate if they are graduating and they have so many offenses against them they should not walk graduation and they should not go to the prom period cut and dried it's the only
058way they're going to learn so again I ask next month when we receive this report I want to see penalties I want to know what's being done to try to control these actions by these students thank you so I can comment um Dr Hamilton yes Mr Klein um if that is the desire of the full board um perhaps we can revisit that at the policy committee level and um make adjustments to our our policy to to that effect but due to uh confidentiality of the nature of some of these offenses and the penalties that are imposed some of that in information in certain instances would be inappropriate to share in that fashion even if we had just to know what the penalty is you don't know who the student is we have a student numb
059in school sup well generally the report will show in school suspension out of school suspension those are the penalties that are assigned to those particular offenses but evidently in school suspension is not working after we do the you uh you sat at the meeting that I showed what my recommendations were and I noted there is a book that uh the principles use it's not working and I'm going to look at the print out that I made last year of all the violations and student numbers and I'll guarantee you the bulk of what we have this year are the same students from last year it's not working either we start getting the parents more involved but we cannot allow this to go on it's not right to the teachers it's not right to the other students
060okay okay okay thank you Miss Ron what did I do um Mr Klein we did we did look at those most of the recommendations I think legally we can't act on them in regards to punishment because you did bring it up right yes I mean I agree with you to an extent in school suspension out of school doesn't necessarily work but our hands are tied as to what we're able to do legally are we able to get the parents involved instead of waiting for a fourth violation you know most of your parents are working and when you start to have a need to have them come to school and sit down with the principal and they have to lose a day's work I'm sure they'll get their their children to uh to get in line
061hits them in the pocket book we should address it that's all I'm asking every Reit uh conference by the way uh parents are required to accompany children back to school uh for some of the more egregious offenses either Mr Dr Gorman or I will attend uh those Reit conferences so parents are a part of the process okay thank you again this might be something that we have to go through the the policy committee and look at look at the disciplin policies that we have okay any other questions for Dr Hamilton then we will have a roll call on the board action items Miss antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mrs Kono yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Madam board president
062board action items a through L passes thank you very much that concludes the superintendent's report um do you want yes um there is one one other M matter um there uh Mr Larry unfortunately um has tendered his resignation as a representative for the middle sex County Regional Educational Service Commission and there would need to be a an appointment for a representative from this board to serve on that that committee so if someone from the board would entertain a nomination for someone so that we can get a motion on the table Senator any Mr Braverman I uh like to nominate Amy Anis I'll second it okay a nominated for Amy anelis by Mr Braverman second by Mr Klein are there any other nominations okay seeing none then we will have a roll call on the nomination
063of Amy anelis as the board rep to the middle sex Regional Ed Services Commission Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr cherel yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mrs Pono yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes madame board president Amy anelis has been approved as the middle sex Regional ed Service Commission representative congrat that concludes the superintendent report yeah I just want Amy congratulations but you know you have big shoes to fill with Mr ly following Mr ly uh I did speak to um Mark finklestein the superintendent who is heartbroken that he is losing one one of his best board members Mr ly has done an outstanding excellent job there and and it's a shame to lose him and I really do hope I can fill your shoes
064John John you have I'll be more than happy to work with you you know within the physical limitations that I have I appreciate that okay we will now go to the business administrator's report Mr Gorski thank you Madame board president and members of the Monroe Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through H be approved by consent roll call Motion in a second Some Mo Mr Mr cman miss anelis any comments or questions for Mr Gorski Mr Braverman I have a qu a question on item D um the award of the bid for the moving services I don't quite understand how that's going to work Mr horsky yes um teachers will begin packing uh from June 23rd to June 30th July 1st through July 31st the movers will come and
065do all the moves from uh the opening of the new high school and all the reconfigurations throughout the district and in the month of August the teachers will return to unpack the boxes and um arrange their classrooms so you're telling me the uh you're telling us the contract that we have with the teachers indicates that they're they're getting paid to pack their stuff they don't have to move it and then they're getting paid to unpack their stuff there is a a sidebar agreement that was approved um by the board a few meetings ago I know it was it was a kind of thing that I think most of us wasn't weren of it aware of and and it did go through committee as well prior to coming to the board um where we developed a
066cbar agreement which provided X number of hours for teachers depending on their assignment um to pack and unpack their boxes at the beginning and end of of the move okay on on on the same subject who is responsible for moving the new furniture that's coming into the new school the movers will be responsible and or the delivery folks will be responsible for uh in addition to our team depending on what the items are because we have some large equipment for example for the industrial arts program so there your your question requires a two-fold answer uh some of those items will be handled by the movers other items larger items will be handled by the manufacturer when they are delivered that's correct and roll in a certain time period all within a certain time period yes
067any other questions Mr Masters item e the vertical climbing wall can you just elaborate on that Dr Gman oh Dr Gorman the climbing wall is part of our um already our curriculum in the current High School physical education program so this is a bid for the new building to continue that program uh it's a connection between physical fitness motor coordination challenge-based self-esteem types of activities for kids there's also a curricular connection of inter interdisciplinary towards mathematics science and literature uh the physical education department will spend the entire year actually being trained in the ropes challenge type of uh social um curriculum aspects of the program okay anyone else Mr Clin just to continue on that um the vertical climbing wall how much is that what is it costing us to have install and all Mr
068gski do you have a number on on the cost of the vertical climbing wall yes $4,634.00 $35 and on Mr Klein on G which is the fencing isn't that part of the original bid um Mr Gorski thank you um G the site fencing for the new Monroe Township High School uh was discussed amongst Administration and um we requested a quote from the general contractor for the fencing for the new Monroe Township High School and the initial request came in at $95,000 it was then further negotiated down to $88,000 at which time um the committee decided to put this out to bid the award as you could see comes in at $47,000 which is approximately half the cost of what the general contractor had initially requested um hence we are saving public money by bidding it
069and and procuring it ourselves very good thank you very much any other questions for Mr Gorski seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes madame board president business administrator Port uh passes thank you very much um now we'll go on to the board president's report and I spoke before I I just have two things to add um to the board uh the I'm hoping that the committee preference sheets will go out this week and if we can get them back within a week or so then we can form the Committees and then we don't have to miss much time in getting our committee meetings going so
070again I hope to get them out by Friday and the second thing is that I know a few meetings ago the board talked about and I we made a motion in a second in a past about continuing the fight for equity and school funding with um the media and the governor and if the board does not object I'd like to continue that um conversation and letter writing campaign that Mr CL uh Coffman had work on so if there's no object then I would like to continue to do that absolutely yes okay thank you um committee reports is there any committee that needs to report this evening no okay seeing none we will go to Other Board of Education business anyone from the board have anything they Mr Klein I will keep this short sweet an
071update on the uh conversion of havan um they finalized the uh the hearing believe it was a couple of weeks ago and it was voted down by the planning board which really means nothing it turns out that the lore and I think it's the salon Act is that's what it's called they're more interested in the amenity of the conversion the new development and the number of bedrooms in the new development then they are the impact to the student population of your schools that's the way the ACT is written so it was turned down for reasons other than the increase in population thank you remember what I said 328 units minimum two children per where you going to put them um there's a very large development that is supposedly going to be built in seille and
072I'm talking very large I'm talking perhaps 3,000 4,000 units the Builder there is contributing $19 million to saille school system so I asked at that meeting is haban willing to give us money towards our schools to enlarge them add extra classrooms and of course there was no answer and just a fast fact Edison last year received a grant of $800 and some odd th000 to add two labs and four classrooms say um South River received somewhere around $300,000 a grant from the state to repair the roofs on their schools so it's just to show you how we are being taken advantage of by the state thank you thank you Mr Cline anyone [Applause] else okay at this time we will go back to you want to do public session do the public first okay the
073back to the public forum again anyone from the public wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the recordes have a George Gan five Kelly courts on row uh just brief question and the reorganization stuff about um uh the legal ads it's written cranberry press home home News Tribune or the Asbury part press what does the or mean in this is it is this a shell game or is it going to be in all three why is it or as opposed to an Mr Gorski um sometimes due to the timeliness of the uh legal ads that have to be posted and the um advertisement dates to get an add in uh we may choose the most eligible one generally we try to do it in all of them
074and it's posted on the uh District website also so if we want to track by the newspapers we would have to subscribe to all three if we wanted to catch everything by that by that means in most cases they're in all three but and that's most cases and that's in requirement with the law these are the so the order is just to leave you a way out in the in the ruling in case there isn't time permitting the law requires that it be published in two right and it would be minimally posted in two so we only have to subscribe to two it should be in one of them I get the picture anyone else from the public Robie Ro J your field Boulevard uh relative to the uh enrollment schedule I have a question
075I don't understand the um you have U on page five of the agenda that was handed out it has a whole list of schools with students from both Monroe and Jamesburg can you explain to me uh what that schedule represents Dr Hamilton tell me specifically um is which item you're referring to Mr roach please uh it's the enrollment where you have uh en roll you first show the uh I guess it is the students from each one of the Jamesburg schools and then uh there's another list that following that shows school then has uh um you know maybe 2025 I don't know how many it says April May Monroe Jamesburg April May difference type of thing yes uh the first list refers to those youngsters who are in out of District placements and they are
076the the report is separated based on whether or not those are Monroe students or Jamesburg students the next item refers to those youngsters who may be on uh home instructions and those various reasons right I I see I understand home instructions I guess maybe children are sick or what have you but uh why are these why are students going to these schools from Monroe I guess um in almost all instances and I'll tell you what the the one exception may be these are youngsters who have uh learning disabilities to the extent that we are not able to provide for those services in District the one exception will be youngsters who have who may be placed alternatively because they have demonstrated a level of disruptive behavior behavior that warrants an alternative placement okay uh the Jamesburg
077students now I know that uh Jamesburg we pay they pay a certain rate which is a regular rate now are these is it the cost to Monroe is it higher to send the students to these schools versus um over the regular rate that we're charging Jamesburg yes Mr Gorski yes when Jamesburg stood students are um enrolled in any outed District placements the tuition for those placements are the responsibility and have always been previously paid by the Jamesburg Board of Education okay so all these students though Jamesburg is paying for that we're not paying for that that's correct thank you very much Mr ly um take a look at the first uh of the and it's actually one of the the largest and that's the academy Learning Center which is right here in Monroe and uh
078that building and facility is dedicated to autistic children they have 150 autistic children for the southern part of middlex County and they have exceptional capabilities uh Dr soberg who is the principal is well recognized throughout the United States as a an experts on the uh training of children with the range of autism and you know autism is not just one little thing it's a whole spectrum of phenomena and uh we're probably we're 13 or 14 out of the 150 so all the school districts are pouring children and if you drive on perlar in the morning you see all the small buses coming and going right underneath the uh the high volage of power lines and then swing into the uh Academy Learning Center thank you Mr ly and miss miss Fon um just in regards
079to what the gentleman just asked Jamesburg does pay that tuition so I'm not sure why there is a distinction between where the student is from I mean they're all Monro high school students and we we do pay the tuition so I'm not sure when and why the distinction became um evident in the report neither am I see what we can do about that gets back to the anyone else from the public wishing to speak state supreme court okay seeing no one from the public our next SK our next schedule board meeting settl yeah I need to read s I'm sorry not Jing yet um we we've been talking about um recouping tuition for folks who have fraudulently or have not been able to prove their residency in monre and we have a settlement agreement that
080I need board approval on this evening it's a settlement agreement regarding a matter and you have a copy of that in your place um where we have settled a reached a settlement between both parties um executed by our board attorney for $5,000 and that payment will be made in two installment payments beginning with the date of the final execution of this agreement and ending on June 30th 2011 so if you have a copy of that if a board member could make a motion that we accept this settlement agreement known as Monroe Township Board of Education and Stephen and Michelle Pepe uh we could get this matter resolved is there a motion in a second I'll make the motion Mr Klein and second one Mr ly any comments or questions for Dr Hamilton if not we'll
081have a roll call Miss anelis Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes sorry Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes madame board president um settlement matter uh regarding Pepe has been passed thank you very much is there anything else no ma'am okay um public for is closed and their next scheduled board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday June 15th 7:00 p.m. at the Monro Township High School motion to adjourn motion toj Mr ly Mr Klein all in favor opposed exstension meeting is adjourned