Monroe Township Board of Education 08.17.11 Regular Meeting

001good evening the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education of August 17th 2011 will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice may we have a roll call Mr Gorski Mrs kapano here Mr Chella here Mrs anellus here Mr Braverman here Mr calman here Mr Klein here Mr lirry here Mr Masters here Mr tesler here Mrs Ferron here Madame board president you have a quorum thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the mono Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted August 12th 2011

002one at all schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press and four filed with the clerk of the municipality at this time time number five on the agenda we will have a presentation on the solar power for the new mono tantum High School by IDE design ERS group Jerry T good evening Jerry T from the Board of Education uh I'd ask the members of the board step out into the audience if you would please there's going to be a PowerPoint presentation [Music] yeah I'm going to good evening again everyone at the July buildings grounds transportation meeting we presented to the committee members at their request options for installing solar panels at the new Monro Township High School with some of the remaining construction funds since that time we've worked with design ideas group who is

003the architect for the new high school and they brought in a Consulting mechanical engineer Barnacle engineering and there's going to be a presentation tonight just to give you a little background Barnacle engineering is the mechanical design engineer for oak tree school and they design the solar system that is in place uh at that location so this evening the presentation will be by Rich alderiso principal with the firm of design ideas group and Steve Langan principal with the firm of Barnacle engineering gentlemen thank you Jerry good evening um um I'm Rell thear from design ideas group as Jer said this is Steve Langan from Barnacle engineering um we're here to just give you a little background on uh solar systems on uh the options that uh exist regarding uh funding of the systems um how the

004system a system could be integrated into and onto the new high school and um basically uh we'll go through I think a pretty uh comprehensive presentation if you have questions if you could hold them to the end uh because there's a good chance Steve might uh get to a question through his presentation um I'm going to turn it over to Steve now he will uh he'll give you some of the background information on solar along with again the many uh potential benefits that uh come along with it um Steve Thank you Rich my name is Steve Langan I am a principal at Barnacle engineering we mechanical and electrical engineers uh tonight we're going to discuss uh solar photovoltaic solar systems in general and in specific um a possible system over at the uh the new

005high school as everyone is aware of the high school has been recently completed and it's set for occupancy uh this fall um fortunately the project through a lot of of hard work by a lot of good people came in under under budget so there are monies that were in the original budget that are available to be uh spent uh there there are a number of options as to how to spend this money uh we were asked in in particular to look at the photo voltaic which I'm going to be calling PV system in particular uh other projects that could have been considered are are wind projects or biomass boiler projects U we were asked to take a look at the the PV system in particular because it's possibility is that it's a the best fit

006for the the school the way it sits now uh one of the uh considerations how to spend the excess money is is there a possibility that a project could be put together where uh potential Revenue stream would be generated instead of spending money on a on a capital project where the value of the project is highest when it's first put in and the the value of it goes down over the years as as the equipment is is being used the photovoltaic project in particular is a a money maker and it will generate money rather than just uh lose value over time as I as I stated the uh out of the possible possible projects that could be considered we believe at this time that the the PV system is the the best choice for the

007the school uh at this time uh what is a PV system most people have at least a general idea of what a photovoltaic system is essentially it's it's a gathering of components whose purpose is to gather energy that's generated by the Sun and convert it into usable electricity in order to do that there are a number of pieces that need to be put together the uh probably the most basic piece the piece that most people are familiar with is the the panel it's also called a uh a module it's it's uh consisting of a mono or or multi crystallin silicon uh structure these are made into uh solar cells the cells are put together into these panels which are what you're looking at on the slide here a lot of people even if they haven't

008seen them at uh in buildings uh you'll you'll see a lot of these now on utility poles as you drive up and down the highways the utility companies are are paying contractors to put these on individual utility poles to to gather energy and and inject it directly into the transmission lines that you're passing on the roads um a solar panel is an individual module which you're looking at in the picture an array is simply a collection of these modules they are put together in groups usually ranging from 10 to 15 so 10 or 15 of these panels that are put together are called an array right now the industry standard for a monocrystalline silicon module is 240 watts each one of these panels uh that are typically specified now for for large buildings and large

009projects such as the the high school the size of the of the modules are 240 Watts this has been a significant increase when we first started doing these projects about five years ago the modules were only Gathering about 190 Watts for each one of these uh modules that you're looking at so through the increase in efficiency we've been able to keep the same general size of modules and increase the amount of electricity that can be produced by each module uh these modules need to be mounted together uh for the high school we're we're looking at uh just an installation on the on the roof there are other options they can put we can put these modules directly on the ground we can build parking canopies and put these modules on the canopy but typically the

010most coste efficient manner of of putting in in a PV system is to mount them on a roof um what you're looking at there in the picture is is a ballast type rack what this means is that the the rack that supports the module is um placed directly on the roof and rather than physically attaching the module to the roof what is done is that a large weight is placed on the rack and this acts as a ballast or an anchor uh the the racks are engineered such that they can withstand a very high wind without being blown off the roof uh and in fact the the the modules that are installed in in the majority of systems in New Jersey are are about a 10° uh mounting angle uh typically the uh the optimum

011mounting angle for these modules matches the uh the latitude of the location that you are on on the planet Earth here in New Jersey we're around 40° 41 degrees that's that's the latitude that our location is um unfortunately as as the angle increases as we go from a 10° mounting angle which is common here if we try to adjust that angle so that it better matches the uh the latitude of our position so that we are more directly facing the sun it becomes an issue with the wind because as these modules stick up higher and higher they present more area for the wind to get a hold of and possibly blow it off the roof so that's why most of the roof mounted PV racks that you see in in New Jersey are at 10°

012or are relatively close to that uh one of the disadvantages of a of a solar system is that the sun is not extremely intense it is putting out energy it's constantly putting out energy in in units called photons unfortunately it's not a it's not a dense source of energy so in order to gather a usable amount of these photons and convert it into electricity we need to present a fairly large amount of uh photo of PV modules to the sun uh these PV modules make electricity in direct current which is very inefficient when Thomas Edison was inventing the light bulb he was working with DC power but it it proved to be so efficient that when Westinghouse invented AC power all the electrical equipment was designed towards that because it's much more efficient to move

013electricity in AC in the AC form of power rather than the DC form of power um in order to most efficiently move electricity and DC power what we do is we take all these modules and we combine their generating capacity through these combiner boxes so these combiner boxes are are wire to these different arrays and we're taking all the energy that these arrays are producing and we're combining them so that the DC power is as high as it possibly can be so we can move the electricity more efficiently through our system and that's recap of what I said we're Gathering DC power from all these different locations we're combining together we're trying to get the DC level as high as possible because it's the most efficient way to transport the power once we have combined

014all these DC arrays we need to get the power from DC into the AC form because that's what our our um electrical equipment wants to see in our in our residences and in our our schools so the combiner boxes take all this power they move it to the inverters the inverters are just a essentially Transformers that that take the DC form of electrical power and they transform it into AC uh the AC power once it's transformed at the inverter we inject that into our building electrical distribution system typically this is at the uh the service so we've we've taken the AC power that the inverter is Created from the DC power that the modules have uh gathered and we're injecting it into our building system now U essentially what's happening is the the building system

015is is taking that electricity that we're generating it's pulling it into this into this in this case the school and it's making use out of it uh these systems will not generate enough U power to take care of all the building's needs but depending on the the overall size of the system it can be very significant there will be occasions when the system will produce more electricity than the building is actually using such as for instance in the school in the high school during the weekend say on or during the week uh over the summer period if the system is large enough it will generate more power than what the building is uses what the building is using that Excess power is uh sold back to the utility company the um state of New Jersey

016has put laws in place that require the utility companies to purchase Excess power from systems like this and they they purchase it at the same price as you would pay for it um if when when you purchase the electricity from the utility uh that's that's pretty much the overall view those are the major components of if of a PV system uh we're next going to discuss some of the financial considerations on on how uh PV projects are are financed the most simple way is is direct ownership if the owner has the building owner has enough cash he can pay cash for it he can provide money through bank loans the the key being here is that the owner is is just that all the equipment that's that makes up the photo voltaic system all that

017equipment is is owned by the building owner another possibility is a lease this very similar to a car lease uh the owner Works through a a contractor or or a vendor and leases the the photovoltaic equipment um the trick is to be able to generate more Revenue than what you're paying for the the lease of the equipment and the further extension of that is a lease buyback again it's similar to what you do with a car at the at the end of the lease for a predetermined fee that's negotiated at the beginning of the lease the owner can buy the system off of the contractor or the vendor take it over and he owns it and another uh possible means of financing is a PPA a power purchase agreement uh what that typically consists of

018is that the vendor or the or the contractor um owns the equipment that's installed at the at the site or in this case at the high school and the uh the owner negotiates a fixed or or a uh or a ramped cost for electricity so what this allows the the owner to do is to come to a an agreement to pay a a known amount for the uh the cost of electricity which is lower than the the going rate and he he locks in that differential for the life of the agreement so if the utility say at the beginning of the of the PPA the utility is charging 15 cents for a kilowatt hour then the PPA would allow the building owner to purchase electricity from him for say 10 cents a kilowatt hour and

019that that type of differential is held throughout the um the life of the agreement um once the system in place is in place the way the um the laws are structured in New Jersey right now there there there are two ways that a photovoltaic system generates money uh one way is through a net metering and the other one is through uh s Rex uh the the net metering I I touched on briefly what that is is any excess electricity that is generated by the system has to be bought back by the utility for the same price that the utility is selling electricity and the same token the energy that's being generated by the system and is being made of is being made use of by the building that money is um let's uh let's the

020money is offset from what would have been purchased from the utility so if I'm making 10 kilowatt hours worth of electricity with my system that's 10 kilowatt hours less of electricity than I need to buy from the utility company so that's what the the net metering is simply the accounting of the amount of electricity it's being generated by the photovoltaic system versus the amount of electricity that's being utilized by the building uh the srex are energy credits this is a system that was put in place with the utility companies uh the the utility companies are required to produce a certain amount of of green energy over a given year they can either produce that energy by building their own systems they can build their own wind generating systems their own photovoltaic systems or they can

021purchase that same green energy from uh private uh users like the the uh the high school in this instance would be a private user so the these srex are are um floating amounts there there's a market where the srex are are bought and sold and they can be they can generate a substan amount of money the larger the system the more srex are available for um selling on the SRE Market uh another thing I just wanted to touch on is right now in the state of New Jersey the cost of electricity is is um static it Remains the Same whether it's day or night um that's probably not going to last a whole lot longer in California right now for instance there's a differential in price you can buy electricity cheaper at night uh than

022you can during the day the issue is that the distribution system those power poles that you see a lot of a lot of those are are reaching or have reached their maximum capacity so in order to discourage use during the day and encourage use during the night the utility in California is charging a premium and it's most likely that that that type of thinking is going to spread and the uh the people that are aware of that and and plan for that now will be at an advantage um we were asked to put together some numbers based on a a sample project uh we're hoping that we're going to be given the okay to do a complete study what we're going to do now is produce numbers on a on a hypothetical for instance type

023of of a deal uh the what really needs to be done is we need to do a you know a complete and thorough study make sure these numbers are working correctly for the the uh possible high school project when we took a look at the high school there are a number of areas that are open and are very conducive for the installation of large amounts of these modules the areas we looked at for instance were the auditorium and the the gymnasium so we took a look quick look at the school we based our numbers on the these large open areas and we calculated that they would be able to generate KW uh worth of energy uh based on the the latest data that we had as far as the cost for for photo volic systems

024that size system would cost approximately $2.85 million that's an inclusive number of all costs not only of the equipment and the installation of the equipment that also took into consideration design fees legal fees advertising that type of thing based on that size system calculating uh the energy generated and the srex being sold on the SRE Market that system would today produce revenues of $381,000 per year so using simple payback techniques if our system costs $2.85 million and it generates $381,000 worth of revenues during a year it would pay itself back completely in about s and a half years now the the typical lifespan of a of a PV system is 20 to 25 years that number comes from the warranty that most manufacturers will provide for the photo voltaic modules they will actually last longer

025than that what happens is once you get beyond that point there becomes deterioration of the efficiency of the system so that's when uh Engineers do analyses they're looking at 20 to 25 years that's where the peak production of the of the system uh we were asked to put together a uh a project schedule um if we were to move forward with the design tomorrow we estimate approximately three months for the complete engineering design we would uh begin the bidding process uh around the middle of November allow a couple of months for the bidding and contract award so we were projecting in a contract Award of uh at January 8th we're allowing 6 months for the con construction period that's um that's a fairly conservative number it depends on a number of things uh one of

026the things that we found out is is driving uh construction schedules are the availability of these PV modules uh PV is is it's a worldwide phenomenon a lot of countries like Germany for instance they are producing tremendous numbers of of PV systems so there are from time to time shortages of these of shortages of the PV modules so we've allowed some time in case there is a shortage for Recovery once we get closer to these dates we'd be able to adjust the schedule accordingly and using those projections we're thinking that worst case scenario would be operational and uh generating electricity by September of 20 2 and just wanted to conclude with a couple of other benefits you know money is important but it's not the only thing that can be taken into consideration this particular

027slide is is taken uh from the program that's being run over at the at the Oak Tree Elementary School this particular slide is showing a snapshot in time of of uh the different parameters of the of that system how much energy is being produced it converts the production of energy into uh some some uh some green Milestones it tells you how much for instance how much CO2 is avoided when you produce electricity through photovoltaic systems rather than through typical uh oilbased um electrical production uh another thing that that can be done and it's done in in numerous instances for school projects the data that is generated by this software that we're looking at here can be used for different uh programs some of the information is used for science programs um it can be used

028for for math there's there's a number of things that can be done with it uh one of the side benefits is the areas that are covered on the roof by these modules they're protected by by these modules from the ultraviolet rays that the the sun produces which are very damaging for to to all kinds of materials so they the they do provide a small degree of protection another benefit is these modules when they're put on the roof they're shielding the roof from the direct rays of the Sun the direct rays of the sun generate heat on the roof which is transmitted into the building so any areas that are shielded by these PV modules help keep that area of the building just a little bit cooler and lastly um again the the uh beneficial tradeoffs

029for the FED volt systems versus oilbased systems you know we're keeping the we're preventing some production of of CO2 and other pollutants and that's all I have is any questions yes sir you mentioned the figure I know that a private homeowner goes with a solar system there are large rebates of Grants to come from the federal government are we entitled to any federal money or grant money oh there are a number of different programs one of the one of the disadvantages that a a school district has is it's a public entity so a lot of of the the the tax benefits that are available to private residences or to Private Industry the uh public sector doesn't qualify for May the board can go back to the um their seats and we can have open up

030for questions while they're in transit let me ask one question you didn't present anything on the other financing models you only presented information on the direct B yes tell us about any of the other well we were planning to cover the other models when we did our report we were asked to put together a a for instance example which is what we did but once we're released to do a full study then we'll look at those other financing models yes uh that's the structural engineer signed off public no that would be covered when we did the report well I I think you can get that information ahead of the report because if it's not structurally feasible there's no reason to do the report right for a brand new structure like this we've never across an

031instance where that has become a problem always must ask yes we must there's there's no recommendation at this point we're just uh presenting information there's still a committee structure that this project would need to go through it's gone through buildings and grounds but it would still need to go through the finance committee before we made a formal recommendation to the board so this was just information that we wanted to provide to the board at the b& bg& committee request okay anyone from the public too wishing to speak please give your name and address for the record so we I apolog I was I was remiss in mentioning that uh before Steve uh put together his presentation I did I did touch bcee with the structural engineer who designed the structure for the spaces um that

032we're concerned with here and he did confirm that uh a system of this type um could be supported by the the roof and the roof structure that exists today without further modification okay um okay no I'm going to open it up to the board for questions and comments first before and then we'll go to the public form and you'll have an opportunity is there anybody on the board who would like to make a comment or have a question Mr Klein above and beyond your presentation m sex county is working with a development company who will install solar systems and uh at no cost to the board or the district and we would purchase the electricity that's generated by the solar panels for quite a bit less than what we're paying now uh if there's a

033shortfall in what uh the system produces then we would do uh just purchase the rest from either uh uh Jersey City Power and Light or whoever we're using now um what middle sex county is allowing uh is they're allowing the company to do a survey of each facility at the cost of $1,000 of which $500 is picked up by the county so this is another Avenue that we can look at as compared to putting in our own system thank you anyone else from the board Mr Tesla Mr tesner thank you um yeah I started actually researching this personally myself because a couple of my friends of mine did this on their homes um 7 and a half year return on investment it seems like uh about the average for that um and I'm just an

034advocate just from my point of view for the buildings of grounds Committee of paying everything in cash so if we do have a cash I would like to see us to go that route if that's the decision of the buildings and grounds committee to present to the full board also eventually I would like to see things like this proposals like this uh on the remaining schools uh e even if the uh however the money comes uh little by little in uh if we have to save it over the years in a capital fund or even a bond referendum because putting uh solar panels on schools and generating our own electricity you know even if it's a 5 to seven year return on investment after that it's it's all profit and we'll save us money in

035the long run Mr L first and foremost was this in the Bill of material use your microphone please first and foremost was this the bill of material for the original referendum Mr T why are we even talking about it we were requested by the building ground transportation committe to explore the option but you're going beyond your scope of work Mr and I spoke with the board Council and asked if it was permissible to use the board fund the bond M for this and they did authorize that Mr Gorski um Mr Larry it's my understanding that the original Bond referendum the the first 2002 that was defeated did have solar energy components in that project which It Was Defeated which were subsequent yes that's correct so I think that we have an obligation to the taxpayers

036to respect the bill of material and if the bond Council wants to come before this board and talk to the citizens fine but just a couple of casual telephone calls that doesn't cut the mustard anyone else Mr Kaufman yeah I just have a I guess a question about the materials you said that there's about a 20 to 25e warranty on on the panels themselves so um what type of things would need maintenance uh Beyond you know the 25 years um because I would think that you know if they need to be replaced every you know couple of years then you know the warranty covers it so it's going to be free of charge what kind of other operational costs might might we see from the system well there actually very few there there are essentially

037no moving Parts on the system other than the electrons moving up and down the wire um some districts will actually go up on the roof and and clean the modules they they are um Market is being self cleaning I mean they're made of a of a material that that is um it's restrictive of the amount of dirt that that it holds but as far as the equipment itself wherever there are electrical connections periodically you'll need to to review them and make sure that they have remained tight but that's you know it's part of a of a routine maintenance program doesn't take very long so uh the answer your question there are um components in the system that would have to be uh reviewed and verified as as to their you know remaining uh tight but

038there aren't you know moving Parts such as in most mechanical systems which need filters or or fluids or that type of thing there's none of that in these systems it's a static system so if I'm understanding you correctly there's very little I'm sorry um if I'm understanding you correctly then there's very little risk uh with the investment over the time of the warrant just even just the warranty period uh as as an owner of the materials where if we look at some of the other options for Leasing and stuff like that you do that because you may be deferring some of the the maintenance cost over to the one who owns the stuff right um I'm I'm I'm guessing I'm hearing from you because there's very little moving Parts there's very little in effect overhead

039uh if you can afford it and the money is there it's kind of a no-brainer why you wouldn't want to own it and then have complete control of being able to reap three times your investment over that 20 something years which would be great money to be able to return back to the community over lifespan of the investment as far as I'm concerned AB absolutely the preferred model is ownership these other programs are are you know come into play when the owner does not have money they represent ways of gaining benefit of the system without having to front money right okay anyone else on the board Mr cherella yeah thank you one of the things uh coming from the buildings grounds and transportation committee one of the reasons that we wanted to see this presentation

040today was because we wanted to look at some options that would um strengthen the district and maybe also offer us an opportunity to for some gains some you know Financial gains from the system because you know these systems once like you were saying earlier once uh during the summer weekends uh when school's out now they can generate enough electricity to spin the meter backward which would save the district money eventually so with oil prices going up and all the things and uh that that that we're that we're seeing from an economic standpoint we we just were looking at this uh system and looking at this Avenue as a way to maybe help the district eventually uh free itself from some of the burdens of of uh having to use uh you know go beyond the

041grade uh oil gas those kind of things so I just want to explain why we asked for this presentation today and for um everyone's information the the new high school consumes about $1 million worth of energy annually so this could be a could generate a cost savings to The District in the future and probably anything that we could save money on and generate money in the future is something we should be looking at Mr Mr ly this is another example of organizational disarray building and grounds is talking about Finance but never comes to finance let's get our act together before we go present things to the public that may be ultra vir is acts and I'll leave it at that thank you Mr ly anyone else okay thank you for your [Music] presentation okay this

042time we will continue with our agenda um number six will be discussed because it is listed twice on the agenda so it will be discussed as indicated under number 13 the closed session so at this time we will go to the public forum anyone from the public wishing to come up and speak to the agenda please state your name and address for the record George I'd like to know if there's uh if it be possible to have some feedback as to what the experience to date is with the uh Oak Tre solar panels I I appreciate that it's much smaller in scale but it should be giving us some feedback from our own own experience without looking to Jer do we have that information now yes Jerry T we have a 50.4 KW system at

043Oak Tree School installed in 2008 we have been generating Shreks on that project and realizing on average about $36 to $3,800 per month in income from the sale of the Shreks uh up until June of this year the shks came through at $640 per Shrek is what we are getting we fall saw a fall off in July down to $550 per Shrek um and the calculation that Mr Langan did I believe he used $500 a conservative number of $500 per you used 550 okay um the system at Oak tree has required no maintenance uh has been operating since day one and um has been making the district money in addition to the shks obviously the energy that is produced every day is helping to lower the cost of the electric buil to the school thank

044you anyone else on the public sh min9 Nathaniel Street um in terms of the system on Oak Tree is that owned by the board of education so it was installed during construction and is owned by the Board of Education Mr gski yes that's correct so we expect it to pay do you have an idea when it will be paying for itself um about that seven time so it's around the same yes so we actually have a study in play in the board that is going to inform the rest of the board on that on another system I would imagine so do we have to pay for another a study well that that's something that's going to go to the finance committee to discuss okay well maybe the finance committee could sort of just take a

045look at the actual uh project that's already available to us and we won't have to pay for a bring all that information to the finance committee um I I respect um Mr tessler's perspective I think it's important that we own our system especially since it's it may be lucrative enough for other people to want to get involved and for us to you know have pay for it I mean it would be it seems really reasonable for us to have our own system and pay for it just like you B you know we're not renting schools we're not renting the land we're not renting the building we're renting the school you know we we own it so I would imagine that the solar panels would do the same for us um also does the metal roof

046affect the efficacy the metal roof on the high school does it affect the efficacy of the panels I'd imagine that generates a lot more heat than a regular roof would Mr T do do you okay well the uh the roof sections that we were looking at to implement the system are a different material they wouldn't go on the uh metal roof system they'd go on the flat system which is a modified uh bitchman roof it's an asphalt type material uh you wouldn't see the panels um they'd be concealed behind the exterior walls of the building and they they wouldn't be affected by the uh the material so the panels are right the panels can handle it yes okay um also uh I think we're we should speak to the project if it is cost effective

047it sounds like a cost eff effective project doesn't sound like something that you're going to buy and then it's going to deteriorate in value as as it goes on it sounds like it's going to be a good money maker so um I I I don't want to point out but one of the board members mentioned that um they were concerned about financing and it should have been discussed sooner but if we were so concerned about financing I think we might have uh wanted to take it up last month when you found almost $3 million in the budget um what what 900 million from uh 900,000 from the state and another 2 million so I mean you know this is that's the kind of money that maybe we could have used toward a project like this

048instead of some other things that I know members of the public objected to and when Mr lirry talks about bringing the public in to have a discussion there's been very rarely has um him he in particular listen to what the Public's concerns are so um I think it's something that might be cost effective my last statement is I believe you mentioned that when you go into close session you're going to be discussing the naming of the new Monroe Township High School Performing Art Center is that correct it's up for discussion yes in in in in the closed session yes it's why would it be in closed session it's not it's not anything that has to do with salaries or anything private why can't it be discussed in public shouldn't be a closed session item I

049don't think the resolution would hold muster in um the um open public meetings act it doesn't have to be a session no I I believe we had discussed putting it under closed session so that the board could have the opportunity of debating the issue before we vot it to the public I don't think that's that will go through open public meetings act says that Clos session items are are specific I don't think your resolution will hold up so I would recommend that rather than get a you know get a letter from an open government situation or a lawyer that you might want to have that discussion in public there's no reason for it to be private thank you we'll take that well can I get an answer whether you're going to we could we could

050discuss it under other board business so it will be discussed in public today we will discuss it in public today thank you anyone else I think it should be noted Mr ly we're in a public forum I make matter of privilege that several years ago we had attorneys here for a long long time and then they were removed I think we should have Attorneys at all of our board board meetings and so when situations like this crop up we can have an effective legal opinion rather than conjection thank you anyone else from the public good evening Andrea Ryan five Regent Drive here in Monroe it's great to see everybody I hope you're all having a wonderful summer um I'll try and be brief it's um well John I have to agree with you about having

051an attorney here I do agree with that um well I'm here tonight uh as a member of kidss first and representing kids first saying such a long and winding road as it has been even before this uh current high school that we have that is so beautiful right now but dating back to the first referendum and I'm so happy for next month to the opening of the new school of my son being the first freshman class in there so thank you to all of you and the collective efforts of the community which brings me to the point of uh why I'm here representing kids first sadly Jackie couldn't be here tonight Jackie Winters there was a passing and she had to go to the services this evening but I do speak on behalf of her

052and the rest of the group that we would like to recommend at this time uh the naming of the Performing Arts Center be named after Dr Ferry uh we strongly recommend this under his great guidance he's brought us all together we all work together with him uh for the same effort for the children uh he worked very unselfishly selfishlessly thank you he stayed on path he was unwavered and he stayed true to the course and true to the code of the children uh under his direction we all like I said pulled together whether you were EP Nester whether you have children like myself or whether you were at the prc's everybody gathered together for this school and for this community and today when I drive past out school I can't tell you what Pride I

053have how happy I am am and how happy I am to move forward and uh work with the board uh work with you Dr Hamilton and everybody but I really think the Kudos uh goes to the community and to Dr Ralph Ferry and again I would like to recommend on behalf of kids first and I know some other community members that the Performing Arts Center be named for him uh we have been sending letters I don't know if you guys have gotten them though I know you've been having a problem with your computers but uh we do recommend that I don't know what else to say but a lot of pride pride and a lot of thanks to all of you and everybody in this room and a lot of people that couldn't attend tonight

054thank you very much it's been a a joy working on it for over 10 years thank you thank you thank you anyone else from the public Doug PO for tamarak Road excuse me uh I would like after I'm finished with my questions I would like some further clarification on the point of using uh any surplus funds from the building referendum uh because I know by state law if a project comes in under the amount that was originally approved uh by the public then those funds are supposed to be returned to the taxpayers and I can just tell you that the way it looks from a public perspective at least from my perspective it looks as if the board is attempting to spend every dollar they can get their hands on uh without consideration for Relief

055to the uh local property taxpayers uh so I would like some further elaboration on whether why this is legal uh to consider this particular project as part of the uh referendum that was passed uh the other uh question that I have is uh cons it's a general question uh I'm a little confused on it uh is the public uh during the first public session is the public allowed to ask questions on items that are in the agenda uh after that particular session yes yes they are they're allowed to speak to anything on the agenda okay because uh at last month's meeting I was troubled by the fact that the board voted to restore the zero period busing and yet uh continue to charge for the pay to play uh I found uh that your logic

056on that was faulty since the zero period busing was added after Athletics was always uh free to well not free to the children but supported completely by the Board of Education uh I would have thought that you would have voted to maintain something that was longer in existence as opposed to something that was added later the zero period for busing and yet the public did not uh well I guess we had the opportunity but we certainly didn't get a chance to have the input on that until the end of the of the meeting which was at the second session and that was after the uh resolution had already been voted on so I was a little troubled by that but you've clarified that point uh the other question I have concerns the uh the use

057of the funds for the laptops uh not the laptops but the uh the iPads yeah the iPads uh I do understand that if they are dropped they break uh and they're quite costly to repair uh so my question is uh how will that cost uh be taken care of because if you've got 16 00 of these things out there uh and if kids are allowed to take these home uh even if they have them in the building there's a possibility that they're going to drop them they're going to break uh will the children be required to pay for that themselves because that's a couple hundred dollars I think just to replace that face uh will there be insurance to cover that uh thank you okay I will have Mr Gorski talk to you about the

058surplus funds and then I will have Dr Gorman talk about the iPads uh Mr Po there is adequate available Surplus in the two Bond referendum uh accounts to um Finance the iPad matter and also tonight's proposal for um solar panels I have an opinion from our bond counselor from marter in English that both are legal and and clearly allowable under the question and um taking into consideration the legalities of the qu specific question and tax consequences of such this would be uh the the solar panels would be considered equipment under the referendum and would be certainly allowable and I could I could furnish you with a copy of uh that opinion if you wish Dr Gorman um regarding the iPads um first and formost most we are putting um we're encasing them in a protective

059case uh a very uh strong protective case not that that's got foolproof but we are doing everything we can to maintain um the iPads to the best shape that they could be in the other thing that we're proposing that'll be running through policy as well is a um is a technology fee to the families um of considering a $50 uh fee um as a self insurance policy when we looked at insurance policies in general they came in at about a million dollars um and so we're considering several options either a no insurance piece a homeowner's piece or a self- insurance protocol for the district to adopt as a one-time replacement um through all my conversations with schools and states that have been implementing the iPads the beauty of them is that there are no movable

060Parts in them so unlike a computer um there there there's nothing to real really they either work or they don't work uh so um we have an Apple Care policy embedded in the price as well but if there's something above and beyond then we have options that um parents can choose to um use to as a one-time replacement fee but eventually the onus would be just like a a textbook um being mishandled or misused um even though it's a little bit it's more money um it would it would the bonus would go back you know to the family but we do want to put in a place where we could um support um that piece from my feedback um doing all the research over the last several months they've had very little incidents of breakage

061um but we do have a big population so I think that will be part of it and I think we're putting in protocol and procedures to hopefully handle that um and today at at curriculum we talked about the wh ifs and I think there's going to be a lot of wh ifs I think with anything of this magnitude we're going to have situations well what if this happens what if that happens and the best thing we could do is really have a very strong acceptable use policy um do a very thorough job in communicating uh what they found and what I believe is is the best insurance is the kids valuing those devices because it's important to them it's meaningful to them they're engaged using them so they take good care of them um and

062that that won't happen overnight but hopefully with the level of professional development and instruction and support that we're providing it will become a very valuable tool for kids um that they will be very dear and near to and um I know when things are important to people they do a better job of taking care of it um so I don't have a an answer that's going to you know solve every piece but we do have um contact with neighboring schools and other states and um we've looked at all the best practices that are out there and we're trying to find out what's going to work best for in Ro Town CH thank you anyone else from the public M kovich can I just m chro yeah I just want to address Mr boy uh question

063but I I just want to I just wanted to clarify something because I'm hearing a lot of feedback from the public uh even from the from the newspapers the way they you know the way they uh wrote some of the Articles and they had some of the headlines that stated you know that we bought iPads for the for the students iPads were a part of the whole technology package they weren't the only thing that we bought we you know that that was part of the technology package along with computers and laptops and the and and uh without that package we weren we didn't have technology for the new high school we waited until uh right before the high school open so that we would have the most current technology and then the curriculum committee and

064then the board the full board after decided that this was the best way to go and we have a mix of Technology between iPads and laptops and regular computers the other part though that I just want to bring up is that I agree with you on pay to participate I think that the way that the recommendation was made to us was we were we were you know we were asked to vote on um the uh to to to just to to vote on the on the science program and then on zero period busing um and then that that's our fault that no one decided to amend or bring something else up U but I do agree with you that that is something that probably should be looked at and looked that fairly soon thank you

065anyone else from the public Robert roach 18 Newfield Boulevard I'd like to know how much we are under budget on the uh Construction in the high school do you have that information Mr Gorski that's a it's a dynamic figure um it's constantly changing with additions to the project and uh with some contingencies of significant nature that are still out there such as reserves with contractors uh affirmative action Reserve uh we still have a state Grant receivable um it'd be difficult to give you a figure as of the moment um our Auditors are going through the accounts right now and I can give you an exact audited figure as of June 30 that'll be a tangible figure as that a particular point in time but I can strongly make the assertion that there is enough money

066in the in the um reserves and in the fund balance to fund both of the projects that have been presented to the public what I'm interested in is there more than enough money in other words is there some money that's going to be exess that you're going to come up with more ideas to spend the answer to that is yes approximately how much I don't feel comfortable giving that number out tonight I have a range but again it's dependent upon some contingencies and variables and um well why wouldn't this excess money be returned to the taxpayers it will and uh that is as the law required which uh was mentioned before but uh the projects that have been presented are allowable under the question and um you know it's the board's direction if they so

067choose to go ahead with either of those two projects there still is ample monies remaining to return for tax relief however to to satisfy the initial question to outfit the school's technology needs in accordance with uh our vision and um to to enhance the school and help subsidize as Mrs kapano mentioned a million doll a year energy budget and to try to become a little more energy independent some of these ideas make sense and that's why we're bringing them up for discussion I agree that the PB system seems to make sense financially uh for the investment and the return but I also know how this board deals and any savings of 300 some thousand taxpayers would never see I think if you go if you're going to go ahead and do this there should be

068some mechanism put in place that the taxpayers see some benefit from it in reduction in their in the taxes by the by the savings that are generated okay thank you there are things that we are looking at but it doesn't mean that we're going to end the taxpayers so we're looking at everything before we make any major decisions I think I just hope that you do consider to the taxpayers at some point in your deliberations Mr Gorski Mr Ro um with Jerry T's uh aggressive um initiative to go to market and sell the solar renewable energy credits with the oak tree School the district has recognized about $40,000 a year in Energy savings um from the sale of the srex in addition to Energy savings from rolling back the meter now the rolling back the

069meter obviously saves on the electric budget in the school and the solar renewable energy credits comes in as miscellaneous income which also becomes excess Surplus and generates future tax relief so all of the savings that are would be or are being recognized by the solar energy projects would offset taxes okay that all comes into the miscellaneous income section miscellaneous income or um um uh savings on energy costs which are budgeted annually thank you okay anyone else from the public sh arm min9 in thanel Street a point of order I have a booklet here that discusses the open public meetings act and it has the exception it has the information regarding uh what is acceptable to go into Clos session so I'm going to pass one out to each of the board members you don't need

070an attorney here you need to have people know what the rules are and the Board needs to play by those rules thank you I'll give you one out and I think it would suggest in here that the discussion should be held in public thank you anyone else okay at this time we will close the public session and we will go to the superintendent Report with Dr Hamilton um before we move into the superintendent report um just want to share with you that we did have a meeting this maybe it was last last week with uh State officials and um state level um legislators regarding funding uh State funding for Monro Township and I'm sure Mr L will speak more to that during uh the committee report I also want to uh give the board an

071update and I ask Mr take to be prepared this evening uh to just share with the board our status report on the enormous transition plan that has been in place this summer um this has been a huge hugee project to make the transition happen um in in essentially an 8we period of time and I I really have to personally thank Jerry T for his leadership and indulging my uh neurotic Behavior about making sure all of this happened um and time for opening Jerry good evening Jerry T um many things going on in the district this summer as Dr hilon mentioned first off the TCU or the temporary classroom unit as everyone may recall we have 89 temporary classroom units in the district and this year the board is releasing 18 of them we will have

072TCU remaining at Barkley Brook School the end of the 1960 Wing there'll be six classrooms there and there will be one unit left at Applegarth school so that leaves 71 TCU units that are being removed this summer what makes it a little challenging is that we have three different contractors for all of those so all of the uh trailers and systems are intertwined uh got off to a slow start with some of the contractors uh we've had several of them removed we are at a stalemate with one contractor uh reported to the building grounds committee last night that um we may need to take some legal action with this contractor regarding removing the trailers but if that contractor does not come and take the trailers which would be a few here at the high school

073and um a unit at Barkley Brook it would not impede the opening school or affect the safe operation of the school so again we're proceeding with the uh temporary classrooms over at the new high school construction is substantially complete and contractors are working on punch list uh we are waiting uh two final inspections over there operating on a temporary certificate of accuracy one is a final sidewalk inspection from middle County there's a 4ot section of sidewalk that goes to Thompson Park uh Jim lentino the County Planning inspector is due out to inspect that and sign off on it and then the plumbing inspector ask for some modifications to some floor drains in the Food Service kitchen which we have a plumber on site right now who's making those modifications that'll be signed off on on

074Monday uh the board may recall that in June we awarded a contract for the TV studio so this summer we have been working with the bidder open systems integrators with shop drawing and submittal review and most of the stuff is in fabrication there's not a lot of construction on site with that really it's a lot of equipment that is being brought in uh Miss Miller is here and Mr FC they've been involved in some of the design as well and um although that won't be in place for the opening day of school uh we do not feel that it will impact curriculum because it will follow shortly thereafter also over at the high school the industrial arts equipment there's a back order on several pieces of equipment they ordered what we did with industrial Arts

075is we took the shop equipment from the Middle School shop equipment from the existing high school and actually some of the pieces we had in the maintenance shop down at the board office selected which pieces would go to the new high school which pieces would come here had a rigging contractor set those up uh the program purchased sever New pieces uh table saw for example several other large pieces the board awarded contracts for those uh We've run into some problems uh Mr Millie has reported that the distributor for the equipment has gone into bankruptcy so apparently the order that Mr Milly placed is stuck kind of locked in a bankruptcy proceeding so what we did with the local code inspection officials is we reviewed those shops and he agreed to close out the permits for

076the project and then when that equipment arrives we will reopen a new permit to connect the electric and um duct connections for the HC and the dust collectors to those units also over the high school the furniture and moving we're about 90% complete with that the move which was districtwide which encompassed every school in the district uh big piece obviously moving from Old School to new school and out of the trailers so everything with the moving contractor has been completed to the new school also the Furnishings are all in place at the new school we're back ordered on just two areas which would be the PE offices and the trainers area uh we anticipate having having those items in by the second week of September we're going to put some tables and some extra desks

077that we have in place to take care of those items and then we'll be complete with all the furniture the other piece which is a specialty move item is the libraries there are two components to the library move there is moving Applegarth school to here the new middle school as well as moving the high school over part of that move involves integration of the collection from the middle school with some of what is being left behind by the high school uh and then set up over there that one we're down to the wire on um that is scheduled to be August 30th through September 2nd so the libraries will be up running for the first day of school here at the Middle School uh we've had substantial Renovations going on and we've been real fortunate

078that over at the Township Code office Bob Downey has worked very closely with us as we waited for several weeks and most of the summer for a letter from the New Jersey Department of Ed education for educational adequacy review of the renovations that are taking place place here uh he could not issue building permits however he did allow us to get started with demolition which was a major part of the project we had several masing walls to take down between classrooms um we have since received the educational adequacy review and just today received our permits so we will um actually have a crew working right now in the building uh framing some walls up uh we will be close but we will be ready with all those areas uh you'll see kind of a facelift

079throughout the middle school as well the new main entrance to the middle school will be uh Jason to the Performing Art Center because the main office for the middle school is now housed in what was the former guidance Suite you'll see a new sign go up over that area kind of drawing people in all the lockers throughout the building have been paint in purple acoustic panels done throughout the building new signage really gave the building a new identity as well we've done an enormous amount of painting both with a Commercial contractor and some of the large areas as well as District staff um so when you walk through the middle school I think you'll be real pleased and impressed with what we have going on there elsewhere throughout the districts with our standard sum cleaning

080program we're in good shape uh we have wreck department at Woodland in the lake they finished up in the beginning of August so we're pushing through those schools now Barkley Brook and Brookside we're fortunate that we didn't have any activities there this summer so we were able to kind of get ahead of the curve obviously the new high school is being turned over to us in in a clean condition and this is kind of uh the last building that we'll be in uh but we're able to kind of move staff around between the buildings uh to get a final kind of push through this facility so I feel confident that we'll be real good shape for the opening and um looking forward to it thank you Mr T we'll go to Dr Hamilton Mr one

081question jar um it's great to hear that we have 71 temporary classrooms being removed yes that's a great job uh but I would like to let uh the public know that there is a cost for tearing it down that is correct and how much is that we were paying for all 89 units um I believe it was 1, 520,000 and then the removal cost 96,000 980,000 somewhere in that range does that sound right it sounds a little high I think or no it was it five and the nine was left reason why I'm bringing it up we don't need to figure is let the people know that even though we are tearing it down and there would be a savings in the future we have an outlay right now exactly in tearing it down and

082that was all contracted when we first originally um leased them that is correct so we will not realize that full a million 520 this first year that won't the majority of that won't kick in until next year good thanks okay Dr Hamilton um moving on to the superintendent's report Madame board president members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel items a through QQ be approved by roll call vote s motion Mr Coffman a second Miss anelis is there any comments or questions Miss foni I just had a question about um in K on KK regarding Replacements due to resignation of supervisor of language arts and supervisor of PE health and Athletics what was the process um in regards to coming to those appointments the general uh process for supervisors

083is there's a screening um and the supervisor of language arts position there was a screening done by Dr Gorman since he supervises that area then a committee and then recommendations made from that committee to the superintendent and then the superintendent assistant superintendent interview finalists uh um and the same process was in place with the supervisor of health and PE but the screening was done at the high school level okay for some reason I'm recalling the board interviewed final candidates at some level um I know in the past so I I wasn't uh questioning the individual but I was questioning whether the board or anyone on the committee of personel of the board did any of the final interviews that has not been the the procceed for supervisory level that is the procedure that you just

084described for principal level and up for I didn't hear that principal level and and above okay anyone else Mr Klein I have quite a few here um on M we show Department coordinators at each school is this a position that we've always had yes this is um they're they're posted but this is a procedural item that occurs each year this time of year and they work along with the supervisor correct um then we go to Double D um take that this is on Avid and we're increasing the um their salaries from 100 to17 % am I reading that right yes Jeff you want to take that um specifically the the aage 17% is the three to the right on mtms um so what's happened with a new schedule in place is that um teachers teach

085four four blocks and the Avid class takes place during an elective period where the person that's teaching it has um a prep or a related art so that person is just getting above teaching an extra class for 17% I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to get into the board office to get this clarified before which is what we usually do so just bear with me if you don't mind um I I and JJ student orientation why why so many people uh um simply stated for the transition purposes it's a brand new building um that sixth graders are coming here and then new our high school kids are going both facilities and there's maps and that we felt was a very proactive approach towards getting um Everybody acclimated to that building I mean I I

086came out the other end today when I went myself okay and then lastly which um actually actually there were two items here um on KK when it comes to voting on this I just want to let it be known that uh my stance on new positions at this point um whether they're needed or not and I know that they are needed but I cannot I cannot vote for it so I will probably vote no on that or at least abstain um and I'll give you my reasons later on uh and then I think I have mm oh also on LL um if it's in this report we can mention the name no no CU they have not been raised okay of course there's um well going to let that go we'll handle that later and

087then just one other thing on on page 17 I would gather this is extra hours for lunch duty toilet Duty and so on and so forth there they're not actually extra hours these are uh poers that each year the power assignment has to be um restated for organizational purposes so for the Paris that is correct and I think and again I apologize for that uh that's it for me at this point Mr Masters just back to DD Mr Gman you you said something I want clarification you said the 117 or 17 thank you the 17% specifically applies to the column on the right as it relates to the AVID program okay the other ones are similar okay sections being um picked up by High School teachers teaching a sixth class okay P their contract but

088not Avid not Avid though the from what I see the only Avid sections and they're not extra sections they're just the Avid sections are being picked up by General by content teachers above their contract okay okay thank you anyone else on the board Mr Coffman yeah just a real quick question um not that I'm looking or or or doing any kind of analysis here but I know we're appointing a lot of different people for a lot lot of different things and stuff is all over the map but I see a lot of names that are repeated here um several times for different you know for different things but a lot of the same names are are the teachers that are being put in these for lack of a better term buckets are they volunteering for

089this are they selected for this are is there a process there is a process there is a process the process is that the positions are posted um and then the principles or supervisors depending on where those positions or the the reporting line for those positions then they make the they conduct the interviews and make the selection and then those selections are then placed on the agenda for board approval but there is a posting and an interview application and interview process okay okay anyone else then we will have a roll call Mr Gorski Miss anelis uh yes but it recus my myself on item mm mm so noted Mr Braverman yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Ferron yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein I will abstain on KK uh the reason being is uh based on what

090our tax bills were uh I'm looking to cut and therefore I can't uh I can't approve new position so noted Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs Kap Pano yes Madam board president motion passes thank you we will go to board action moving on to board action items board Madam board president members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent that board action items a through L be approved by roll call vote vote so moved second miss analis Mr Mr Braverman are there any comments or questions by the board Mr Klein on D alert now the student messaging system for $111,000 what is that that's the automated telephone system that we use the contract expired and it is now up for Renewal okay and then uh position on g&

091H um is that the position that is to yes for Engish or is that the secretary no that is the coordinator position um that we discussed um the successful candidate for that position is or was the secretary yes okay and let me see if there's anything else o oh and then we go to O this is O I don't think so I believe that's well I'm lost here and I don't want to waste a lot of time but oh oh is that where we're announcing um Jerry Sullivan for 12 month that was our that was motion was just uh voted on and passed that was before yes I was just very happy to see that that was a good move on board Bo yes thank you anyone Mr cherella I just have a quick question

092on a I I I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier I was if you could just quickly explain what that is um Mike you want to take that residency issues uh yes the district affords um transient students and their uh families 60 days to um occupy uh residency status in Monroe we give them 60 days free after that they need to establish a residency contract and pay tuition oh there's about 11 of those youngsters in this particular yeah motion they're probably in the process of closing and uh you know we'll make sure we collect our tuition du thank you and then just one other question please Mr Klein um the extra sheet that we got yesterday where it says board action that is under yours or that's under the business administration that is that was

093actually infused in the regular report the addendum you're referring to Yes um those items were infused in the general report was I saw the Personnel part uh my question on Jay was uh for this Dr Russell Corman um I also see him later on I think it would be in the uh the business administrator's report um that we were going to pay him uh $3,500 a student to evaluate Jamesburg students was that correct yes this is a um consultant a an appointed certified clinical Psy colleges that serves as a consultant to the child study team and special circumstances for youngsters with special needs would not be exclusively for Jamesburg youngsters it would be available now Jamesburg we pay for that or is Jamesburg paying for that Dr mik is that under the business administrator's report

094it is it appears it appears in both places yes because we're M this is all confusing right we're we're under the board action for the superintendent report are there any questions for the board action it for the superintendent's report okay if not um no M an did you get a second yes I think Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Ferron yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes madame board president board action items a l passes um before I conclude my report um I'd like to welcome Pamela AC Garcia who's here this evening our new supervisor of language R if you would just stand up so our board could see who you are welcome AB board and Mr Greg Byer who is here

095also this evening congratulations sir and that concludes the superintendent's report then we will move on to the business administrator's report Mr Gorski Madame board president and members of the Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through Double B be approved by consent roll call so move second Mr Mr bra and who Mr Mr cman comments or questions for Mr Gorski Mr Mr Klein now we'll bring that up uh under Q it is recommended Board of Education approv the appointment of certified school psychologist um $3,500 per case um and I guess you explain what that was that was for special ed and is this something that we've had before it's just a new contract it's a contract uh renewal and uh to your earlier question any uh outside tuition or outside services

096that are rendered uh to Jamesburg students are paid for by Jamesburg okay thank you anyone else okay then we will have a roll call Miss antelis yes Mr braver yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein I yes except for um the bottom of Q this is what I missed it says recommended Board of Education Bal study team in parpy for Arabic education evaluation are we voting or or are we discussing well we we passed no I understand that well in this case that I'm against I'm voting no to that okay yes on everything else not on Q what what Mr Klein what letter are you voting no to unfortunately it's it's under Q it's not giving us another designation it's Q okay otherwise I would have questioned that when questioning

097was allowed so he's voting for the record that was no on Q in this case yes so noted Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes madame board president board action items a through Double B has passed okay thank you and we will go to number 10 on the agenda the board president's report and since this is the end of the summer um we have getting ready for this coming up the school year and it's um I think going to be a very exciting year with the new schools um just want to remind the public that the ribbon cutting ceremony is on Tuesday September 6th at 6:30 for Public tours of the new high school so we hope to see you all there we will go on to committee reports anyone

098who has a committee they would like to report on Mr cman uh yes the curriculum committee uh met this evening to talk about moving forward with the technology platform for the new high school um we're happy to say that the iPads are in uh we're getting the technology team is getting ready to uh configure them and get ready to get moved out we're also getting ready to take a look at the uh usage statements to make sure they're as bulletproof as we could possibly make them to cover things like damage and Self insurance and uh rest assur it was brought up earlier um we are taking every possible contingency into account uh we realized is that uh you know while these things are very nice to have we want to make sure that not only

099are the items protected but the district is protected from any unforeseen uh expenses so we will definitely be moving forward uh in a due diligent manner to make sure that uh we are dotting every eye and Crossing every te this is a new technology uh and we want to embrace it we don't want to litigate it or put U protections around it so that it it becomes unusable uh we're also moving for uh forward on a core K12 which is going to be replacing larnia um uh it was a free service that was available to the state state did not decide to move forward in that particular platform so we need to find a substitute and we are going to move forward with uh K12 as we move forward with the new technology at the

100high school I've asked Mr Gorman to um in the upcoming U Board of Ed meetings to uh give a small little presentation on where we are and how we're using the Technologies both for the the end user the students but also how we're creating content and uh uh trying to Corner the market in this technology for our district uh pretty much that's it thank you anyone [Music] else Mr ly uh we have had a eventful week we went uh Dr Hamilton uh M and I went down to Trenton to the Department of Education division of finance talked with the assistant commissioner there and the meeting was arranged through the good offices of Dr Linda Greenstein we had an hour and a half of discussion and uh we brought out some facts uh Dr Hamilton did

101a very fine presentation of why we're so different and uh here are some facts there are eight school districts in the 14th legislative district there's a cluster that are greater than $33,000 per student the highest is Hamilton $5,600 the second highest is Jamesburg with 5400 then there's a lower lower cluster with four school districts the bottom of that lower cluster cluster is Monroe with $354 after that super generous contribution from Governor Christie this school district should be getting 36 million do and he gives us am measly 2 million I tell you when you look at the display and it lays out the gross in equity enough to make you puke and then we had some follow-up meetings to talk about what's the situation with regard to Jamesburg and they're still fiddle farting around making out

102as if they're poor when the reality is particularly when you go and look at what the number reveal they're a bunch of phonies and I'll say that in public right to their face and thank thank you Mr L what I I assumed you were finished I apologize what that's well is is that the end of your committee report no I we're also doing some other good things we're doing a paperless electronic stub employees we're doing uh a renewal which we did the Food Service management we also have a contract with the middlex regional Educational Service Commission that provides the food service for the Academy Learning Center and we've had a long and good relationship there and the planning for the ribbon cutting on September the 6th and we're looking forward to that and finally the

103close out of the a stimulus funds at which will be what August 30th right August 31st correct and uh right now the Auditors from Samuel kleinon company are present they're doing their job and I expect like times past we'll get an absolute clean bill of health by saying that everything is in order Mike borski does a great job does that conclude your report that's my completed report Mr Chella yes thank you we had a buildings grounds and transportation committee meeting yesterday it wasn't as exciting as that one but um I want to I want to just thank uh Jerry tag I think you did he did an excellent job of summing up everything that we went through yesterday uh basically about the construction updates and everything that's going on and uh Jerry is not only

104a wonderful man but he's also a a a fantastic asset for this District I don't know you know I don't know how he would be getting through this without his uh his efforts and Leadership he's got all these projects going on at once and somehow he's juggling them and also informing us at the same time and I think uh it's commendable just a couple uh just a couple other notes from our meeting is that we had uh we're we're going back out going out to bid this year for our snow uh our snow removal contracts so that's uh something that we we discussed we also discussed uh the telephone system upgrades that was that we also discussed earlier and then the uh the we pick the color for the for the board office and it

105will not be purple and gold it's going to be pink and fuchsia just kidding that's it thank you thank you any other committee reports okay then we will go on um to Other Board of Education business Mr tesler just a quick comment I'm just going to get off my chest that uh just a reminder to everybody we are a public organization elected officials and and we got we're on TV and just let's be careful of comments we make and make sure they're respectful and professional IA I'll stand by my I've done calculations very care Mr L can I speak M Mr lry Miss Miss Fon um I would be remiss if I did not address Mr Larry's comments it's appalling to me that you would insinuate that Jamesburg isn't poor it's a extremely poor District

106compared to Monroe where we send our children but we do an extremely good job of educating our grammar school kids so they are on the same page when they get up here uh comparisons Monroe's budget of 110 million compared to our budget of 11 million where your pennies a penny Monroe John is worth almost 800,000 a penny in Jamesburg is 23,000 so again I find it appalling that you would state that when the state has stripped us of all our funding they unilaterally across the board cut it and had no idea the devastation that they cause to such a small District that continually tries to do the right thing and continually gets its funding cut we'll Mr L John there's nothing to about um Mr just an update um first thing is I want to

107thank Jerry Teague for the high school tour that I was able to arrange last week with residents from Stonebridge Regency and some from Green Brier we had between 60 and 70 people Jerry ran one hell of a tour and the best part of it were the bathrooms uh no um these people these these people walked around with their mouths open um there were so many rumors going around about swimming pools and and Specialty uh sauner rooms for the teachers I mean was there was so much garbage going around that these people saw for themselves that in the school it's a plain Jane school that is is just utterly fantastic so again Jerry thank you very much for that an update on the conversions I know you the board members here are probably Sicky hearing it

108but uh I'd like everybody else to hear this um there was a law passed at the end of 2009 that if a builder that was approved for a PRC an age restricted community and he did not or they did not take a deposit they have a right to convert it to a family community um I've been fighting against this um at hearings at the the planning board council meeting and I'm also on the zoning board and uh I just want to update you on this we had basically two applicants one was hannanian and this goes back this is over a little over a month ago um their original plan was 328 age restricted homes no children they then came back and wanted to convert it to 300 it was going to break down to 10

109and some odd AG directed homes which means they would aim it over 55 but would sell it to anybody uh a small section of affordable housing 70 homes and the rest were going to be market rate three-bedroom homes um I testified in front of the planning board as a resident and it was turned down the board turned the application down uh havan came back with a counterproposal a few weeks later and they wind up settling with 135 age restricted homes in other words only over 55 a handful of 48 but again there's no children added to our school district the uh the 70 affordable homes they're making a payment of $600,000 to go into the Township's affordable housing fund to be used elsewhere whether the the town wants to build it there or elsewhere in

110the community that money will go for that and there'll be roughly 126 family homes so now instead of having almost 700 possible students uh if you use the figure of two per home uh we're down to roughly 250 uh last night uh another application was heard now that was in front of the planning board the application last night was Renaissance properties I forgot what the name of their development is um and that was in front of the zoning board and I was forced to recuse myself myself I was not able to testify there and that was roughly U somewhere around 130 homes it was supposed to be age restricted um it wound up being approved to convert it over to uh 104 family homes and 26 affordable town houses I guess uh I was totally

111against that I was not able to speak up against it uh because course I had to recuse myself so you're talking about roughly 130 another 260 students coming into our schools at a bare minimum I want you all to understand that with this conversion act it is similar to what the Mount Laurel decision was these are decisions that were made by either the state supreme court or the legislature to protect the developers trust me when I tell you it's too long of a story to go through and I'm I'm longwinded anyway but all they're doing all this act was for was to protect the Developers these two developers did absolutely nothing in two to three years after they received in one case of variance and the other case approval to build what they had planned

112and for two to three years they did absolutely nothing to promote it absolutely nothing to sell it and they come in in front of the planning board and the zoning board stating well we can no longer sell prc's because there's too many of them in Monroe Township and there not enough call for it well for your own edification I live in Regency they're selling 70 to 80 units a year stor brid is selling anywhere from 70 to 90 a year and those are your two majors and then you have Renaissance which is so there is a market for it they go they base it on they can't sell it and we are not allowed to use the um the additional student population to vote down an application that the idiocy of this law thank God

113it it runs out August 31st of this year and it's over the last thing is um about the taxes first I want you to understand that for every 700 roughly $750,000 that we're able to save it equates to about 1 cent on our taxes so of course we're all looking for great savings I got my bill and my bill was almost $800 more than last year I know the way everybody feels especially in these times and for the remainder of my time on the board which will be up in uh this coming September I guess I have one more year I will not run again and I will do everything in my power to make sure that where we can cut which the board has done I'm not shooting the board down the board last

114year cut almost $2 million before the budget even when up for vote and then we had to cut another million dollars unless we get off fair share and that's another thing another issue I've been fighting for and finally they are making Headway I will I will attempt to try to save where we can but I will not try to hurt children thank you thank you any Miss anelis yeah I have a couple of things first of all um I'd like to congratulate Dr Hamilton Dr Hamilton has been named the NAACP educator of the Year here in New Jersey so congratulations very proud very deserving he'll be honored on September 10th thank you um second I'd like to talk a little bit about the Monroe Ed Foundation um we're having a softball game on September 9th

115it'll be the teachers versus the police again it's a little bit of a Revenge game from our basketball 6:30 p.m at the girl softball field uh which is over by the road department on believe that's Gravel Hill Spotswood Road third thing I want to talk about is uh the item that Mrs armeno brought up I really don't understand how um discussing the new name of a Performing Arts Center is a Clos session item there's nothing confidential about it um at our last meeting um Mr bravman actually made a motion I seconded we actually had some really good discussion about this Mr Gelman brought up some good points and um I do agree that this is not something that be discussed in Clos session Mr Gorski uh yes a point of clarification regarding the agenda uh

116there was a late addition to continue the discussion that was in the public session um at the last meeting regarding the naming of the new Monro Township High School Performing Arts Center and um due to this late addition there was an error adding it to two different places on the agenda both in the public section and in the close session section um it should have only been discussed in the public section apologize for the confusion uh that that caused and um if the chair's if it's a chairperson's pleasure we could have that discussion before going into Clos session yes we can have I just have one more question I don't understand why it wasn't brought up in the buildings and grounds meeting yesterday that this is part of buildings and grounds why wasn't it discussed

117there or put on the agenda I have no idea why um the buildings and grounds committee did not discuss it I was not here at the July meeting I don't know the conversation you had at July so I didn't know that it was supposed to be put on the agenda Mr frood well just to move things along I move that we name the Performing Arts Center in the new high school the Monroe Township Performing Arts Center a second and I second a second by Miss anelis and so we'll open it up to the board for discussion any comments or questions well I Mr Coffman my only question is does any other board member have any other potential suggestion other than that uh because you I guess before we you know vote on something or decide

118is there anybody any other name or any other option that some of the board members would like to hear about or or entertain um I I in the last meeting um thought that that would be a very very good idea uh but as was articulated earlier this evening there were a lot of people that fought for the uh high school over the years that uh it took to put up and uh there were a lot of people that put an enormous amount of time of their own time uh that were not paid that uh spent unbelievable amounts of time put their families in Jeopardy in one particular case that I know of and uh actually we're represented here tonight um I also don't agree that we should be naming the Performing Arts Center after a

119person I think if I was on the board if I let me if I was on the board I don't think I would have recommended the morasco center either because I just think it's fundamentally not a good idea um but that being said uh I think we should also pay a service for uh kids first who put out an incredible amount of effort and let's face it without their support and their due diligence and their work that school physically would not be there period end of story uh so I would also entertain kids first performing arts center okay anyone else nobody well no there's one you uh well I'll um Mr Tesla sorry about that I don't know the proper procedure but if I I would like to also put it out there to uh

120name the Performing Art Center the uh Ralph very Performing Art Center okay so right now we have can you repeat that I could even hear it down here Mr tesler could you please repeat your yes I would like to I don't know if the proper procedure to amend the resolution but I would like to also uh uh put it out there to name the Performing Arts Center in the new high school the Ralph Ferry Performing Arts Center well right now we have a motion to name well just a minute we have a motion and it's under discussion correct that's what I am I I I agree with uh what Luke hman said there were a lot of people involved but an awful lot of people equally and perhaps they ought to have some kind of

121honorarium in the order in the performing artart center some wall plaque indicating that they were all involved however Monroe Township Performing Art Center is where it is it tells you where it is anybody coming into knows it's here when they as Mr gunkelman said last month when they come in and they're looking for the morasco Performing Art Center their GPS just doesn't tell them anything anyone else right now on the floor there is a motion to name the auditorium the Monro Township Mr Masters I'm sorry yeah I've always felt I'm going to agree with Mr Kaufman um I'm very against naming a facility after a person I think it's problematic um because it becomes exclusionary and also in the long term it could be problematic for a whole host of reasons um which is why

122I don't I support the uh the motion to just name it the Monroe Township Performing Art Center it's it's definitive and it's very clear thank you anyone else so we will have a roll call on naming the new Auditorium the Monro tangent Performing Arts Center Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella no Mrs Fon no Mr calman no Mr Klein this is naming it Monroe Township Performing Arts Center yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler no Mrs kapano no Madame board president a motion does not pass okay is there any further discussion or motions made in regard to this or would we want to table this for Mr tesler I'd like to make a motion to name the uh Performing Art Center and the new high school the Ralph Harry Performing Art

123Center it's um motion made by Mr tesler second by Mr Chella is there any discussion there is no discussion therefore we will have a roll call on naming the new high school Performing Art Center the Ralph Ferry Performing Art Center is that it Mr tesler Dr Ralph Ferry Dr Ralph P Ferry or correct okay that's fine the motion is to name the new mon Township Performing Arts Center the Dr Ralph P Ferry perform Performing Arts Center motion made by Ira tesler second by Ken cherella we'll have a roll call Miss antelis no Mr Braverman no Mr cherella yes Mrs Ferron no Mr calman no Mr Klein I abstain Mr liry no Mr Masters no Mr tesler yes Mrs kapo yes madame Ward president motion does not pass Mr cner uh I'd like to make a

124motion that the Performing Art Center be named the kids first per minor or the kids first Performing Art Center is there a second okay if there is no second Mr cherella is there going to be a discussion on this one okay we'll have a roll call the motion on the floor is to name the Monro the new Monro Township Performing Art Center the kids first performing arts center motion made by Luke cman seconded by Ken cherella Miss antelis no Mr Braverman no Mr cherella yes Mrs Fon no Mr calman yes Mr Klein no Mr lirry no Mr Masters no Mr tesler no Mrs kpano Madam work president motion does not pass well at this point we don't have to have a name right now if we need some more time to to think about it

125and discuss it Mr kle bring a suggestion yes um I don't have his name in front of me but we had a marine that was a student at our schools who lost both of his legs he's a war hero and um I'm sorry I did not come prepared with his name but whoever lives in Monroe definitely knows who I'm speaking about call that's it and um if I'm able to make a motion I would make a motion to name the Performing Art Center after a war hero thank you I don't know is there a second I'll second Mr ly is there any discussion I would Mr Masters i i would support something a little more General uh say the veterans Performing Art Center or something to do with that uh and not um again name

126it after a person which I have a fundamental issue with that's okay can I just change my motion you can amend your motion amend my motion motion or we can vote on your motion and then um I would like to name the performing center or nominate uh the name Monroe Township veterans Performing Arts Center okay so you're going to amend your motion from the Monro Township the person's name to the Monro Township veterans Performing Arts Center yes ma'am Mr Larry would you agree to that amendment I would second okay is there going to be a discussion on that s again can you repeat the Monroe Township veterans Performing Arts Center so we will have a roll call on that Miss antelis no Mr Braverman no Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon no Mr calman no Mr

127Klein yes Mr lirry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler I'm going to say no because I think we're throwing out too many names and I think we need to table this one more discussion Mrs colano no Madam board president motion does not pass okay Madam President we are in Madam president I this is not public for point of order Mr Mr BR move the meeting be adjourned second meeting it's a meeting session we have a close session on the agenda it's a privileged motion okay no discussion just vote we'll have a roll call on on um adjourning the meeting Mr Mr Braverman made a motion to adjourn the meeting Miss Tellis second that that motion we have to act on that motion so we will have a roll call Miss anelis no Mr Braverman yes

128Mr Chella ridiculous Mrs Ferron no Mr calman you can't go with the Clos session I really want to say abstain I say no Mr Klein no and this is unprofessional Mr Larry no Mr Masters wait this is unprofessional no Mr tesler no Mr Colo no madame board president motion to go adjourn does not pass okay at this time are we still in board business we are under other board business okay I ma' yes please do um the superintendent's action plan is comprised of six goals number six was added in August of 2010 relative to the transition in the district uh with the moving of the sixth graders the opening of the middle school and opening of the high school as that goal will be accomplished in the next couple of weeks and we have a

129rather big initiative underway regarding the implementation of the uh technology initiative um we will be having a summer retreat with the administrators next week and I'd like to know if the board would consider us working to develop a goal specific to the technology initiative since it is such a large initiative to replace goal number six any discussion on that yes to have a would you like to make a motion and we can vote on it a second okay any discussion we are having a roll call on adding a technology initiative as a goal for the superintendent roll call who made the motion U Mr coff and Mr an okay Miss antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Mr cherella yes Mrs Ferron yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr

130tesler yes Mrs kapano yes madame board president motion unanimously passes okay thank you is there any other Mr Masters I'm sorry yes uh I wanted to entertain putting forth a motion to amend the previously authorized and adopted board uh motion on July 20th appropriating the additional state aid um for the um science curriculum the new science curriculum and the zero period I want I don't have the exact numbers I wanted to add uh the recension I guess of the pay to participate program is there a second to that motion yes Mr cherella okay we can open it up to the board for discussion Mr Masters if you would like to explain what you what that what you were intending to okay um I I'll be brief cuz we've been going on for a while uh

131I was getting a lot of feedback uh and speculation about why I voted no uh I was the only uh no vote last uh at the last board meeting um particularly that I wasn't in support of Science in the schools which isn't the fact um I'm actually an IT guy so I'm big into science um that wasn't the issue the issue was and I think something from the public brought it up as how fast we we um um briefly discuss the pay to participate program whether it should be included in or the removal of it should be included in the uh additional state aid that we got back the 887 I believe didn't change um I believe in with the current with the budgets not pass passing and um the recession and possible depression uh

132times are tough for a lot of people and I think what we're doing by implementing this pay to participate program is we're adding an additional burden um to a very specific subset of our students um making parents are coming up and saying they have to make tough choices about um what sports their kids play can play what uh what clubs they can participate in whether they participate in a club and a sport either or uh if they have multiple siblings overlapping now they have siblings are battling it out about what what sports they can participate in um and I believe it's detrimental not only the programs uh that we putting forth but also to the educational um the educational aspect of the students uh because I believe that uh the entire curriculum including all the

133extracurricular activities should be included uh in an adequate education uh it it breathes it you get uh Team Building there's team building there's leadership involved uh self-esteem um Independence School Spirit uh cultural things I think all of it should be included in our curriculum uh so again that's why I'm asking putting forth this motion um I'm also explaining myself as why we should remove the pay participate program so Mr Masters I I believe the motion in July was to have zero period science program and tax relief yes and and what are you proposing zero period uh science program and pay removal the pay to participate okay Mr tiella yeah I just wanted to I just thanks I just wanted to just um piggy back on what uh Mr master it said you know more and

134more our our uh the you know colleges are looking at how well-rounded our students are um they're looking at not just their academic performance but some of the extracurricular activities that they're that they're uh involved in and I think that if we if we're really serious about giving our students a leg up uh that we we should make it easier for them to be able to participate in those activities so that they could have that well-rounded um that experience that's gonna that'll lead to better you know better standing in uh college ranking and stuff like that so I that's that's why I agree with this I think we should do it anyone else Mr Kaufman yeah Kath I just wanted to say I agree with my board members down there that's why exactly why I

135brought it up at the last meeting um I felt it was the right way to go um we need to make sure that we can help our community wherever we can and I thought it was a great idea last meeting I think it's a great idea this anyone else yes Mr tesler sorry thank you um I wasn't able to attend the last meeting but uh my personal feeling when I initially found out we were receiving the $ 800 some, back at state aid I would have liked to seen the entire amount go back uh for tax relief and uh since we it was a bonus we never expected it at all just leave it as is um I don't have a problem with uh the pay to play um I have two children and uh

136it would cost me $225 the year for have my two children participate in their athletic and and clubs in the high school um and uh I know personally I can I will adjust my own budget to find the $225 for the year and I think it's worth the investment in my kids uh future and uh to participate in athletics and to beef up their resumés for for a college um and I think I know times are tough but I think uh I think uh others can find that as well so I don't have a problem with that um uh keeping in the pay to play but um since I wasn't wasn't here and and and uh could not vote on uh just taking the entire amount and giving it back to the taxpayers um if

137the majority of the of the board after this discussion supports removing pay to play I will I will support that as well anyone else miss selis Mr Gorski how much will it cost to reinstate the pay to PL pay to eliminate it I'm sorry yes pay to participate was a revenue Source Incorporated in the 201122 budget for a net amount of approximately 165,000 so it would be a utilization of the state aid money of 165,000 so just for further clarification under the current motion that's on the floor 397 , 133 would be used to restore the science program $250,000 to restore zero period Transportation 165,000 of the elimination of a revenue Source from pay to participate leaving $74,999 as tax relief so what you're saying is if we didn't reinstitute the pay to play we

138would have over $200,000 for tax 200 just about 240,000 okay thank you anyone else Mr Braverman yeah yeah I find it interesting that every time this came up in committee philosophically I was opposed to pay for pay for play and in every committee meeting where I opposed it every one of you that was at those meetings defended it I would suggest each of you that have that keep changing your minds meet with your advisory groups prior to the meetings so we can have a vote an intelligence discussion and get over it anyone else then we will have a roll call to amend the motion of uh July 7 20th from zero period the science program and tax relief to zero period science program and the pay to participate eliminate corre okay we'll have a roll

139call before before you move to that um just for clarity the board should be advised that there are parents who have already paid um and we would need to issue refunds um we've also devoted considerable time and effort into developing policies to go along with the pay to participate initiative which the board authorized us to do um so just as you vote you be mindful of those those parameters m c just like to add to that um uh when the discussion came up and I haven't changed my mind um I had asked Dr Hamilton if he could take all the numbers this year of all the participants from this past year and then give us the number of participants next year and let's see what the difference is and then perhaps bring up uh this

140issue again next year Mr Klein can we just have somebody clarify what we're voting on yes I will not clear Mr Gorski yes hand um at the last July 20th meeting action was taken to utilize $887,500 the um the Reformation of zero period transportation for $250,000 which was previously cut and the utilization of the remainder being $239,999 for tax relief in the 2012 2013 budget that was the motion that was passed and what is our motion now the motion now is to amend that previously made motion to still have this science Initiative for 397 , 133 to still have zero period transportation for 250,000 to eliminate a revenue Source being the pay to participate program in the 1112 budget for $165,000 which would leave $74,999 for tax relief for year 1213 thank you I just

141have a comment to what M anela said I did uh do some research because I was on that meeting talking about the studies there's actually two um recent um I guess sensus about what pay to participate does to a it's actually a sports program one of them was in ' 0809 in Maryland where a $30 a drastic $30 increase to the athletic participation fee I'm sorry $230 resulted in a 20% decrease in participation and another one was in Michigan the entire state of Michigan 558 schools high schools um they they found out that a 100% $100 caus a 10% decrease in participation and actually as you increase it um it exponentially decrease the participation in these are only Sports programs not clubs so there is uh research out there about what pay participate does anyone

142else yes Mr caufman um this is quick um I would ask you know there there have been changes and laws over the past few years about board members and um uh conflict of interest in the district um ethics there's courses that board members take and you know we do all this stuff as we move forward so I would ask the uh the chairperson of the policy committee to take a look at developing a policy which would prohibit any board member does that have to do with this motion no I thought we're we're not done okay on I thought we were on sorry well we are we are still on this motion we have not is any other conversation or discussion on this motion then we will have a roll call on changing or amending the

143motion okay um the motion is to amend the July 20th action to utilize the additional state aid money of $887,000 33 zero period Transportation reinstatement of 250,000 and tax relief of 23 9,989 to reflect and and amend as follows um utilization of $887,000 zero period Transportation 250,000 elimination of a revenue source of pay to participate netting $165,000 and having $74,999 be applied to the 2012 2013 budget as tax relief that motion needs to be amended reason being the the the action already taken on the first two items is irreversible um the orders have already been placed for the science so the board can't revisit that item um employees have already been recalled for zero period so the amendment has to reflect the item relative to pay to participate and tax reserve the uh the science

144and the zero period would still be an appropriation of that additional money not if the motion is defeated correct okay Mr Masters would you be willing to amend your motion to just include the tax relief in the in return for the pay participate yes and Mr cherella so now we have to since we amended it we have to approve the amendment before we can approve the first amendment is that correct but if we approve the Amendment it would implicitly approve the Second Amendment then right well you have two amendments you have your original Amendment and then an amendment to an amendment is that correct is that correct I I believe Mr Masters can uh restate his motion uh as Dr Hamilton instructed eliminating pay to participate and having the difference go to tax relief yes

145okay and Mr Chella you are okay with that so now we will have a roll call okay roll call is to amend the previously made motion eliminating pay to participate income from the 112 budget and having the proceeds go towards um the net out of tax relief Miss anelis could you repeat that one more time yes thank you fight yes the motion is to utilize monies that otherwise would have been returned towards tax relief in the amount of $239,999 to eliminate a revenue source of pay a participate of $165,000 leaving a remainder of $74,999 for tax relief no Mr Braverman no Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein no Mr Larry no Mr Masters yes Mr tesler no Mrs kapano yes madame board president the motion to amend does not pass

146okay so we will stay with the amended motion or the original motion from July of 20 yes okay is there any other board of education business Mr Kaufman yes before my chairman of the policy committee goes to the laboratory I would just ask that um at their next meeting oh sorry it's right here I know you can hear me um look at a policy which would um as I mentioned before you know there's ethics there's conflicts of interest you want to make sure that everything is uh covered and all our bases are looked at uh which would prohibit any seating seated board member who has a conflict of interest in the district from sitting as either board president or board vice president uh there's a lot of issues that are governed around the participation between

147board members the president and the superintendent of schools and in the chain of command uh that could present a potential huge issue uh so I would ask that they would look at a a policy which would prohibit that okay thank you Mr Mr this is just quick quick this really fast um Miss anelis could you please tell us who won the uh basketball game and I know we're having the softball game but I just want to I I can't I'm a little foggy on TR Mr trell the basketball game score was 62 for the teachers and 31 for the cops for the record yeah for the so not is there any other board of education business oh I'm sorry oh the Monroe Township Education Foundation okay if there is no other board of education business

148we will go to the number 13 closed session resolution be resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into closed session in accordance with 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 superintendent evaluation the discussion conducted in close session can be discussed to the public at such time that the matters have been resolved all in favor opposed exensions and second first and second okay we need a motion in a second I'll second who's first Mr Chella I'll be a second second Iris first who Iris first Mr tesler is first Mr Jella is second all in favor I I opposed extensions at this time we will go to a close session at this time

149the board will move back into public session we will go to number 14 on the agenda to the public forum again anyone wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record I told you to come up here Mr hoki good evening my name is Joe hoki 61 Hoffman Road I just want to give you a 15-second history uh on this Auditorium this was not part of the original High School this was an addition High School didn't have anything and that's consequently the reason we named It morasco Center and uh it was one of those emotional things that somebody brought it up that we should name it after Richie and then the next thing you know is it was named but this was not part of it consequently

150the high school the new high school the auditorium is part of the total structure it's not a separate entity and I just have to say I'm glad Marvin is back back and Marvin and I over the years we always had some disagreements but I think Marvin's recommendation in terms of naming the auditorium is probably the closest thing that I would be most acceptable to most people it shouldn't be named after anybody it should have its own identity so Marvin I think your recommendation whatever that was something like that was very good uh I do too I have a couple questions uh based on what I saw over here this was very interesting I never saw anything like this all these recommendations and voting it down and so on how are you doing on the plaques

151for the high school is that all settled done can somebody answer that at this point we have um we have not settled on a plaque for the high school and since we will not have one if we just talked about it today and time for the ribbon cutting ceremony on September 6th we decided to hold off on the um discussion until um the future I just want to say Kathy that you had all this time the high school's been built for the last couple years and you wait until the last second couple weeks you'll be opening and I don't know why this decision has been made but based on what I saw over here before it will be a very interesting discussion in terms of how the plaques should look I do have some recommendations

152is what I would like to see and uh it's just my opinion uh number one I believe that the uh we should follow the uh precedent that we have throughout the district the same setup number one it should be the board that initially approved the high school including the superintendent Dr Ferry and Wayne holiday and the architect that's the way it normally goes that's number one number two I think there should be a a plaque for those board members exactly the same setup who approved the additional $445 million that we needed to to complete the uh the high school thirdly I don't care what the present board does whether you want to put your names on an separate plaque or not but I think those two boards should be a two plaque should be separate

153and the most important thing is you cannot forget some form of recognition of the freeholders now I'm not saying list every one of them but they're the ones who gave us the land they're the ones who supported us all along and either a statement or something has to be said about the freeholders if you recall when we initially had those uh signs go up at their High School the uh didn't have the names of the Freeholder and I mentioned to Dr Ferry hey we've got the freeholders because I think the freeholders were just as much part of this high school as everybody else so please remember I don't care how you do it but I think there should be some form of recognition of the freeholders and the other thing that I have is uh

154I really believe that name of the auditorium should go to a committee it should be the uh buildings and grants committee and maybe they can come up with two or three different names I don't know whatever you want to do and bring those names to the full board instead of everybody trying to come up with some kind of a name so that that's a recommendation that I have that's the way it should be and that's probably the proper way of going uh okay thank you I don't know if you has a question of me or not do you have a question for Mr hoki I think uh that the late Freehold director David crel special recognition he stood Four Square all the way through and uh I I have a blond spot to my heart

155Dave brael I think the decision not to name anything after any anybody is good and uh I have no res if you want to just mention his name among the other the way you set up the plaque or whatever you do just a couple sentences indicating the freeh holders of 19 whatever did this led by David cral that would be but I think you ought to consider uh recognizing the the work of the freeholders okay thank you Mr hoki okay sh arm Mino 9 ethaniel Street um a couple things one were invitations sent out to people to go to the ribbon cutting ceremony um yes how were those people selected uh the committee there's a committee in place who uh came up with a list of names I don't know what criteria they use but

156the committee what committee would that be that we can ask what the criter there's a ribbon cutting committee it's made up of District employees uh board members are represented uh what who else is on the composition of that committee are there parents on there Cathy Cas I I I don't know I um Mr Masters and Miss anelis was at the last meeting but there's a there's a committee in place and the committee's been meeting for a couple of months now okay so is there any more room in the ribbon cutting ceremony like if people there's a general there there is a school story that's going out there's a general uh invitation in there for the public that actually that school story actually was mailed today so there's an announcement in there um I absolutely object

157also to what Mr Mr hoki said with all due respect it's very political to put a politician's name on a school how about we put all the taxpayers names that are footing the bill those are the people who are giving and the land was not given it was gotten at Great cost to the taxpayer almost $40 million more and I may be incorrect on that but at Great cost to the taxpayer that land was not really provided it we had we had to pay money to the Green Acres it absolutely ruined Green Acres law regulations the law was changed to uh accept that land diversion so let's not get into that anymore delighted the kids have a new school I was always in favor of a new school a politician's name and that includes the

158superintendent with all due respect does not belong taxpayers paid it how about Monro Township Community Arts Center I mean that seems like a decent thing um I I I think that's all I mean I just I just think we have to be really sensitive under especially these economic conditions about putting appropriate consideration to the people who are really supporting it financially not just politics because thank you thank you anyone [Music] else Joe hoki again I did not say put Cal's name on it I just said the freeh holders should be recognized because without them we would never have the land nor the high school the taxers anyone else from the public Barbara doll 15 Edward avue um I would just like to suggest from one who takes a lot of The public's phone calls that

159you add the high school name like Monroe Township High School because with two pack centers now it's going to get very confusing for people so I think if you designate it specifically for the high school they're going to get confused anyway people but at least it's more definitive if you just say Monroe Township Performing Arts Center they're going to say which one at least that's my guess is what they're going to say so thank you anyone else hi uh Chrissy scurby 8 seminal Court I just wanted to reiterate what I said at the last board meeting um it's very disappointing that you implementing the pay to participate program and I'm very disappointed that the um Amendment got voted down tonight by Mr Matt one Mr Masters presented um you know the zero period busing is

160a privilege to parents you said that that cost $250,000 out of the budget that's a luxury for parents you weren't taking away the program the children were still allowed to participate in the program parents had to drive their child to school what you're doing with pay to participate is you're taking away the opportunity for students to participate based on cost somebody that has four children going to the high school that all want to play two sports it's a huge cost that you know I understand Mr tesler said you could you know manage your budget better in a family some people can and they might not be at the poverty level where they're going to get you know free their child to go for free so you're going to have children not being able to participate

161in programs it's very disappointing you could have eliminated pay to participate and held parents accountable to drive their children to a program thank you anyone else from the public okay seeing no one our next scheduled public Board of Education meeting will be held on Wednesday September 7th 2007 7 2011 um at 7:00 p.m. at the new high school which by then will be the high school so is there a motion to adjourn Mr Mr Chella Mr Klein all in favor opposed extensions motion is carried meeting is adjourned