Monroe Township Board of Education 11.16.11 Regular Meeting

001the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education 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 under God indivisible with liberty and justice of all I got I know Mr Gorski can we please have a roll call Mrs kapano here Mr Chella here Mrs antelis here Mr Braverman here Mr calman here Mr Klein here Mr ly here Mr Masters here Mr tesler here Mrs Fon Madame board president you have a quum thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monro Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted November

00211th 2011 one at all schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press and four filed with the clerk of the municipality um we have a packed agenda for this evening so we're going to try to move along as swiftly as we can so right now we will go to number five our student board members report good evening um first off monor Township's first homecoming was held October 14th where students enjoyed pre homecoming games hosted by student council and then proceeded to go on the football game afterward the iPad presentation uh was held by Mr Goodall October 17th through October 25th and is now in full usage in school as you can see that I'm doing now uh monor Township High School's First showcase was a success and ran from the 27th through the 29th and

003monra Township first hosted its Bank competition October uh October 22nd good evening um the first coffee house was held yesterday in the Commons area teachers and students performed 45 people attended the first marking period ended November 15th also a reminder the Powderpuff game is tomorrow where Junior and senior girls compete against each other in playing football also report cards are mailed 23rd of November and school is closed on on 24th and 25th of November for Thanksgiving thank you at this time we will go to number six recognition of special award received by Nancy mitac and the Monro Township Public Schools I'm going to turn this over to Mr Gorski uh good evening I'd like to welcome Miss Nancy mitac a very special guest our food service director [Applause] [Music] Y how are things going with

004the education Nancy and the Board of Education are the recipient of the middle sex Regional Educational Services Commission certificate of employer appreciation for community-based instruction and job sampling work for the hiring and instructional training of handicap students in the Monroe Township High School cafeteria [Music] speech Yes Nancy speech or lunch whichever you prefer um we we had a great opportunity uh I for many of you who do not know Monroe Township uh School District also satellites meals to the academy Learning Center uh two years ago they hired a an employee who had worked in the Monroe Schools uh to manage their kitchen and every day I go over there she has a kitchen full of students working side by side so when we opened the new high school um we saw an opportunity to place

005one of the students and uh the academy Learning Center is very pleased it's a first um and we are delighted to have um Carlos working in the kitchen so it's great this is [Music] it Nancy you know how much you are appreciated not only in this District but all around this community thank you um at this time we're going to Interchange number seven and number eight so we're going to do the iPad presentation by our students and I'm going to turn turn this over to Dr Gorman we uh we're going to actually have our high school principal Mr Rob Goodall and our director of guidance Michelle Celli to do this presentation good evening everyone uh one of the great things about my job is to get to showcase our students in all of their many

006many talents we're a month into the implementation and right away teachers started to identify and recommend kids who uh not only help other students but help the teachers it's been a learning curve for all of us and um so we've brought them here tonight to kind of showcase what they can do Mrs Kelli worked very hard to put this presentation together with them uh at this time uh I just ask that they come up and identify themselves what their name is and what grade they're in so everyone knows who you are good good evening my name is Amanda chin and I am in 12th grade hello my name is Jonathan bardi and I'm in 10th Grade my name is Michael harrian and I am in grade 11 hi my name is Mike Foy and I'm

007a sophomore hey my name is Adam ginel I'm in 10th Grade uh hello my name is William Hoffman and I am in 12th grade hi I'm Mike thomaso and I'm a junior hi my name is s k gande and I'm in 11th my name is Jacob holler and I'm in 10th uh I'm Steve and I'm in 12th uh I am tobu I'm a senior I'm Paul Martin Gentile and I'm 11th I'm Nick Wan and I'm a senior hi everyone I'm arthy SES and I'm in uh 12th grade I'm Brian lwis I'm in 11th grade hi um I'm Joe o and I'm in 11th grade we have some very very bright and talented students here at the high school I'll ask right now if you guys can go out into your stations and set up right

008from the get-go we had a student come up to us when when he heard about the initiative um to assist us he was here for the implementation and orientation uh dis dispersement nights and his name is Michael harrian he's a junior here he worked with all of the parents and kids to do the parent survey on the night that we gave out all the iPads and he's been very very helpful and uh we see him as a real leader in the building and Mike's going to a little presentation for you on a um on a presentation on an over on the PowerPoint and then we're going to ask the board and anyone else who wants to go around and see what the students have prepared tonight so Mike it's it's all yours set up and

009we get started can everyone see that good problem no okay well I'm just going to give you a brief overview of how we use the iPads um you guys after I'm done you can go around and there's a more in-depth look on how we use them and uh if you have any questions when I'm done you can feel free to ask me but I'm just going to give you what I think are the best things that the iPad has given us so um the first one is definitely organization uh as my third year in high school I realized organization is huge you need to be well organized and order to succeed and um the iPad does that we have the app called Pages this is where we all take notes now we also have another

010application called notes that's just the standard application on the iPhone but this one let you organize f ERS based on your classes so up there I have three folders I have Algebra I have history and I have my video production class I can easily find every document I've ever taken notes on or my homework I do all my homework on there now and it's much easier than looking through a binder and losing papers and saying where' my homework go you have no excuse anymore like my dog ate my homework stuff like that but um like I said keeps you very organized than more previous years the second thing is is obviously going green it's a paper lless world now everything from grades to scoring rubrics to instructions on how to do a project are all

011delivered through something called goodreader good reader can be connected to your Z Drive in the school and every student has a drive where it puts all your documents you've saved um all the documents you've made on there and it delivers it right to your iPad so if you're on a laptop we use in school and you're in one class and you make a document it'll be on your iPad coinist with each other so this is another good thing like I said grading too teachers will now grade on a rubric using the iPad they use their stylist to grade and they will send you the immediate rubric within minutes of when they get your paper as long as they grade it fast you have it so like I said everything's eco-friendly now and no more paper

012and the last thing I'm going to leave it here so you guys can go around and take a look it's endless opportunities as the iPad system grows iOS we're soon getting iOS 5 as that grows so will the opportunities so as Apple updates their system gets more advanced stuff like that so will we it'll all come along with this device many things I can't even tell you what the future we'll have in store for the iPad because I have no clue but um that's about it I'm done with my presentation so if anyone has any questions you can let me know and you go around [Applause] okay at this time if the board would like to uh go visit our students for a little while good job you're an excellent speaker going into [Music] Poli

013awesome I got guys that work for Mumble meeting than me good job teachers actually put online in the cafet Che [Music] you cannot I [Music] I wish I had the time these are [Music] it was how long [Music] I'm not might be [Music] like well me me personally I haven't but I know a lot of [Music] lot of them I think our beach [Music] connect me you connect me [Music] I love [Music] I'm a DJJ very good and I downloaded the clicker did you really yes I did I just ask how to keep this clicker and you tell me that I don't need this it's really [Music] so denying really [Music] close but there is where they show new courses they have else I I would bring it up ason absolutely what we'll do when

014[Music] we that's where your house is inous right oh yeah kids go crazy yeah yeah yeah yeah you [Music] guys my friend yeah Marland everybody yes ma'am and I need your need your there were two copies we only signed one then after a while I the kids love them it's on the other side of PES right like if you go into PES and you move around uh you want today's date good evening if the board would like to convene we'll move on with our meeting you work out very nice for her can I please have the rest of the board members come back to the [Music] table it takes a while to reorganize nobody can hear football's completely sorry take Mr Tesla there was a game on ESPN has a college game set up can

015I please have the board members back to the table so we can reconvene our meeting thank you how you doing joh I'd like to sure yeah well that was an excellent presentation by our students and they seem very excited to be using the iPads and I this the little time that I spent with them I learned a lot because I'm iPad illiterate I guess would be the right word okay at this time we will go back to number seven the student achievement data presentation with Dr Gorman another one okay good evening everybody all right so one of the cool things I just realized after watching Michael speak is I don't need this clicker anymore because it's a simple app that I can download on my iPhone to click which I think Dr Hamilton already did

016um so thank you again guys you were awesome awesome awesome and we really appreciate um having you showcase to uh to the audience what you guys are doing in the classrooms we really appreciate that and keep on going and be great things for us so this um hopefully what we're trying to do is make a connection between what the kids and the teachers are doing and our district data and our student achievement um so I'm here today to provide you with a very brief overview a data analysis we'll post it tonight on um on our website and we'll follow up with any questions comments or thoughts about it this data is being used to help us um gauge how we are how we match up against other districts that we're that we are commonly compared

017to um by DFG and um and to take a look at how we're doing to make sure that we're on task with how um we're instructing with our curriculum and with our practices and how kids are learning and achieving at our level um Kathy I did not get a chance to do that but I will tell you Monroe Township is an f g District Factor group I will change that and include us in this presentation tonight here are the very often the districts that we're compared through our district Factor group and here's the rest of middle sex County this is only a middle sex County comparison at this point and last year I came to you and I did a similar presentation but a little more deeper in January um based off of a Star

018Ledger um article that was put out and um in out on different levels of the data at this time um it's not the data is not as deep so we're giving you the overview of what we've received from the Department of Education Jeff uh do you segment to say that we're a k12 and we have more than 3,500 students and that the comparable ones are North Brunswick Oldbridge and South planfield absolutely okay thank you and I can adjust this um and and readjust so we can use this as as a as um a way to look at our data to inform our decision making so I'll give you first our language arts literacy in grades 3 to 8 that's the njf um component and the grade 11 is the high school proficiency assessment and if

019you take a look at the monre township scores and the DFG consistently we percentages above them and this is a percentage of increase over here this whole row so again Monro Township versus comparable districts or as you said John um in our County and here's a visual representation and again you can see that our line consistently above the DFG okay when you look at this analysis this is a threeyear breakdown of how we are doing um in the area of literacy but what I'd like to point your attention to when you look at this data a couple of things if you if you follow the class grade three you see that when you follow them on the diagonal to grade four and to grade five you'll start seeing different patterns of achievement and I think

020that's really where the analysis is very valuable to see how we're really doing over threeyear Trend and again we're we're looking at Trends positive and negative Trends and again a different way to look at it different visual representation this the high school again over a threeyear period And I didn't include the high school in the last graph because there's a gap of n9th and 10th grade which don't provide standardized test squares um of this magnitude and then our Advanced proficiency this is probably um our favorite slide um because again you could see a consistent ramping up of advanced proficient students so and then if you look at the classes again on the diagonal you'll see this spiking up and again you could see it right here as we continue to Trend upward over a threeyear

021time period and again in advanced proficiency at the high school at the at the um HSPA level okay so this math slide is a very telling slide in a lot of ways when we were started to analyze the data we again started looking um we looked at the DFG again monell and DFG and what I want to point out to you um for good or for bad or what it means is yet to be determined we have some ideas about what it means but if you look at the the drop off from grade six to grade seven you say holy cow but then if you look at the DFG you see a significant similarity so it's not necessarily A Monroe issue it might be a testing issue it might be a curriculum issue it might

022be a standard issue might be a combination of all the Val the variables that I just described to you but it was reassuring as we were saying what the heck happened here that this it it led us to different types of conclusions and different type of um a thought process in in when we're looking at our curriculum and our instruction and again you could see Trends and that's what you're looking for you're looking for General Trends um and so I'm not going to draw all the conclusions for you necessarily but we'll definitely be able what when we sit together at different levels so we've done this at math and language arts department meetings with our supervisors we've done this with our principal and assistant principles we've done this at our advisory cabinet so we continually

023use this type of data to drive our instruction the next pieces the principls will use this type of tool with their staff members and then um equally to you um the public and the board uh to you know look at where we are in our educational process and again the high school and mathem I should be noted that even though it's going down this these are staggering numbers to me an advanced proficiency these means more than half of our kids close to half of our kids are not only proficient but Advanced proficient I think that's a real strong Testament to our district and and our children and and our community and again you could take a look at our Trends in advanced proficiency and then lastly our science data is only measured in grades four

024and grade eight and I'm not really sure what this is yet but we've been talking a lot about it and looking at um even if is this statistically significant you know it might just be um I don't know if it's a real trending pattern so we have to go deeper into our data analysis and in conclusion here's our source this comes from measurement Inc which does all the data reporting for the New Jersey Department of Education and uh we'll post this up there and of course if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us and uh and comment and continue this dialogue on how we use data to sort of Drive our practices in the district okay [Music] ask the same question are there any questions for Dr Gorman by any

025member of the Board of Education well then it it does look like we're heading in the right direction and that's a compliment to the board to the administration and especially to our staff who's teaching our students uh at this time we will go to number nine the presentation of the 2010 2011 comprehensive annual financial report Mr Gorski thank you I'd like to introduce at this time Mr Jerry stankowitz from Samuel Klein and Company uh independent certified public accountants good evening I uh very happy to be here tonight to present the audit and uh I had two tough acts to follow uh but I also have good news as well um my staff performed the audit uh starting in mid July and uh ending around October 31st uh and we did it in pieces the audit

026and we weren't there that whole time but uh we were in and out and we had to uh get a good feeling for the transactions and the performance of the business office for the year into June 30th of 2011 uh and we did we have two documents that we have produced one of which is a thick document which is the comprehensive annual financial report which inside of it contains an independent Auditor's opinion that expresses a clean otherwise known as an unqualified opinion okay and part of that has to do with the um latitude that was given in Prior years from the board to the business office to develop and maintain proper Staffing proper controls and proper competence amongst all the people a lot of it also had to do too with the fact that the

027the the ability was given to transition from a uh longtime uh noted business administrator to uh a younger one upon Wayne Hamilton holidays's retirement so I want to say this in in the 33 years I've been doing this this was probably the smoothest transition in any entity that I've ever had where a district de size and I think that's attribute to the board and also to Mike Gorski um so and and in spite of the fact that there was significant volume of vouchers and invoices being processed because of the opening of new High School um what we had done during the process was we we actually looked to make sure that um all documentation for all invoice all all dispersements are proper that the bid law has been complied with and the quote law um

028also we made sure that the bills were cut off properly at the end of the fiscal year th those three criteria are key in my mind and the reconciliation of the bank accounts to the penny on a monthly basis also contributed to our opinion so in the end we have an unqualified opinion and we also have another document that we produced which is called the it's actually my representation to the board members uh in in a verbal way as to the operation of the finance office if this this document showed no um matters of non-compliance of any of the state laws or any of the financial or auditing requirements uh of a of a school district in the United States and and and also operating in New Jersey uh had we had had had we

029had any major problems in this thinner book we might not have had as a good opinion in the thicker book so we end the year with a clean opinion and we end with uh no uh comments or recommendations we don't have even have comments that have a hint of negativism in that so I I want to congratulate Mike and his staff because I will tell you the staff was very cooperative and they're very helpful and they also uh you should want to do a good job and I want to thank them as well thank you um I'm gonna have Mr Gorski has a few words see I would like to reiterate that as a result of Mr stankowitz is very thorough audit and as he presented in his independent auditor opinion letter the financial statements

030which are the representations of management present fairly in the the financial position of all the funds of the Mund Township Board of Education as of June 30 2011 11 we earned a clean opinion with no audit recommendations and no audit comments this would not have been possible without the very professional central office staff especially Mrs Laura Allen CPA and Mr Jerry tag director of facilities it also would not have been possible without the hard work and commitment of Dr Hamilton and the Board of Education members including especially Mr John ly who as chairperson of the finance committee contributes greatly to the internal control processes with his monthly internal audit of the bill lists examining every dispersement over $10,000 for proper authorization accounting bidding quoting and voucher evidence Mr Larry if you choose to retire and

031this is your last audit you will be greatly missed this result was particularly difficult considering the dramatic loss of 95% of our state Aid or $4.4 million um which had a great effect on our staffing and our budget which was also defeated as a result of the direct consequence that that loss had on the tax late tax rate dozens of staff were let go and another 60 retired yet student programs remain intact serving 200 additional students looking forward we recognize that we are still deep in a very impressed economic environment with 11.1% unemployment in the township we will hold that fact very closely when we design the 2012 2013 budget shortly and I thank the public for your trust and support Mr L yeah is recom thank thank you it is recommended that members of

032the Board of Education accept and approve the comprehensive annual financial report and the auditor's management report on administrative findings Financial compliance and performance for the financial year ending June 30th 2011 as presented I'll second it second by Mr Klein motion by Mr L is there any comments or questions by members of the Board of Education Mr tiella yeah I Mike Mr Gori I just want to thank you and your team and Dr Hamilton for everything that you do and your the oversight then I know that you you you guys watch every penny and I know that you report uh everything to to the board you through almost to a fault but I just want to know how you do that and how you were able to do all this without any gray hair something's up

033I just have it's turning don't wor when mine's turn when mine turn no one will know no comment yeah any anyone else from the board no I I just I just like to make a couple comments um I'd like to thank Mr Gorski um Miss Laura Allen and the business department for another excellent job this year uh again a clean Report with no comments or recommendations and that's phenomenal um I think it has to be noted too that this was a transition Year from for Mr Gorski from Wayne holiday to um Mike and um it has been a difficult year because not only did he have the responsibilities of the business business administrator this was the first budget that he had handled by himself we also was involved with negotiations and the opening of a

034new high school and the transition of our other schools this summer he also took on the responsibility of the board secretary so I I just like to say mike um Mr Gorski that you've done a phenomenal job and your your department I i' like to commend you thank you so at this time [Applause] at this time we'll have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr cherella yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr lirry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs colano yes Madam board president motion passes thank you very much okay at this time we will go to our public forum anyone from the public wishing to SP speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record and since we have a full house

035tonight we will adhere to our three minute speaking time limit uh good evening everyone my name is Bob miglani I'm a resident in Monro Township do you want my address is that what you want yes your name and address yeah Bob miglani 42 equestrian way thank you I'm delighted to see the new high school it looks great yeah I graduated from the old one so I'm delighted to see a great new building that has our students I'm here for two reasons uh number one uh I wrote a letter to the Board of Education expressing my dissatisfaction and concern about the fact that U my kids one of my kids goes to Barkley Brook in first grade and there's no busing service that allows her to go to Eagle River uh for after care while you

036allow that same busing service is this on the agenda I know it's a public forum right I thought yes but this public forum is just for things that are on the agenda okay who when's the public forum um the second public form so you want me to wait you want me to back down okay does anybody have anything to speak to the agenda see yes uh I have a couple of questions um on page seven item o uh you there's a u opportunity for the board to approve uh various uh curriculum uh for the high school some of those that I particularly that particularly caught my eye were research development and applications Aerospace African-American experience astronomy biotechnology uh thermodynamics and equilibrium uh I think it's chemistry and I'm sorry my name is Doug po I

037live at 4 tamarak road that out but my question is I I'm assuming that these are courses already in existence is that correct yes okay um then my question really is a general question in terms of what press process is used to determine when uh if a new course should be added and does that process include whether or not you have staff that are qualified to teach that course uh for example uh if someone's going to be teaching the African-American experience I would hope that they've had some courses either at the bachelor's level undergraduate level or The Graduate level in uh the history of the African-American experience uh likewise for Aerospace uh does someone have formal course preparations teach that course or is this simply a Fly by Night type of course so I would

038appreciate uh if we could hear a little bit about that uh that's one question another question that I have is on page 19 item p uh that you'll be addressing later uh which deals with alterations to room c49 which is here in the High School uh it doesn't specify the amount uh nor does it specify why those alterations are necessary when we just open the building so I I think as on the part of the public I would request that we get some explanation of that thank you I will have um Mr Gorman answer number your first question and Mr Gorski will take care of the second [Music] question okay uh regarding High School specifically um those courses are linked to certification so certification teacher certifications do directly correlate to the courses that High School

039teachers teach so a math certified teacher would not be teaching a language arts um class in in its purest sense um the curriculum is goes through an extensive process on adding and and um taking away from our program of studies it starts actually now for next year it goes through a process of um District content supervisors Department coordinators High School principal assistant superintendent curriculum instruction curriculum committee board approval before we add courses um so everything runs through that type of process postings go out at the end of the after the budget is approved or not approved um with and obviously reflective of um moving forward being taken into the budget into consideration curriculum is is written generally throughout the year but specifically in the summertime as well um and teachers not all but generally um

040speaking a lot of times like that research course that you had mentioned um Mr Po that is actually um that comes from a college readiness approach and actually ties into our Avid um program to some degree it's a very I actually um spoke to the kids um I was brought in as a presenter in that course a couple weeks ago we're looking at primary and secondary soures but the reason I bring that up is that the teacher that wrote that curriculum is teaching the class so it doesn't happen all the time that way but then so you you make the connection between that content knowledge and the creators of content so we're not just putting unqualified people in those courses so that's the general flow of how we um add and and take away from

041our program of studies to meet the needs it's primarily curriculum driven um and back ends with high school graduation college readiness in mind and then working backwards to how do we get there through different electives and different mandates by the states thank you Mr Gorski yes with regard to the room which is right opposite the media center it's it's designed now as I believe a theater room antic a museum room and to convert it to a classroom requires an upgrade in the illumination and Al the air flow both have to be increased and it will be a rare change order to this high school project this would be number five and most of the previous change orders had to do with projects for technology um that we chose intentionally to pull out and do it

042a latter time as a change order as opposed to have the contractor doing it to save money um the cost should not exceed $20,000 I understand for this conversion okay anyone else on the public sh AR min9 ethaniel Street Could you um tell me on m page 12 the how many bids were received for the snow removal uh that was advertised and we only re received one bid and the bid was acceptable to our facilities director and the building grounds Transportation committee so and it fits within what we had budgeted okay so what is the contract's price for you're you're accepting it right so you're awarding the bid so what is that bid for please the bids for snow plowing yes I know but the the value of that there's Val different rates defined in

043there depending on how many inches of snow you know we talked about this what's the difference from last year to this year is there an increase yes about how much per snow incident based on it's difficult to say uh we had a long-standing relationship with a vendor previously who uh the main benefit that we received was where the snow was not that significant and uh our facilities director determined that our staff could do it and save money we could call up the day of the event and cancel the contractor from coming um without that vendor in place we no long longer have that luxury so it will be more expensive how much exactly it's hard to determine at this time so in other words any snow event is going to be to trigger snow removal

044from the vendor yeah a plowable nature it's in the bid spec and what's what's the minimum plowable nature 4 Ines I believe 4 Ines so anything under that that won't trigger the Mr yeah I just wanted to also mention that we received several applications to bid so there were several firms that were interested in bidding and then once they saw the the specs and the nature of what we were asking for only one placed a bid so I just wanted to clarify that okay but it's it's a fair and open process and you're welcome to come in and inspect the bid okay and um can you just explain H the grant acceptance for what purpose and also is that a where are you Mrs Armenia P 18 no well 18 H uh Grant acceptance recommend

045that the board the impact active collaborations for teachers impact grants in the amount of 52,000 yes that's for that is a grant we actually got that Grant last year and was renewed again this year it involved several of our special Aid teachers and a Consortium with Ruckers University and what will that accomplish for the children um that will provide some training um some uh access to technology technological enhancements for teacher teaching practices and professional development so this is primarily outside of of Monroe Schools they're going to go to ruter is that to ruter actually comes to us and provide the training and we have a collaboration with a few other districts including some non-public districts who are this this the impact Grant represents several School Districts The 53 is is our portion of it and

046this is the on-site place for that training so the students are not directly affected the teachers will be trained with through this grant precisely okay and um how about for uh the other Grant acceptance for $2,801 which which letter M it's well okay I have L I don't know I downloaded this from the website it's if you're referring to item L yes that's an a grant through which we applied for previous years it goes through New Jersey school boards Association group it's called the safety Grant it's designed to help increase the Safety and Security of the district's facilities and uh we were awarded $2,801 which I believe is intended for the purpose of a card identification swipe device at one of the schools is there any requirement for matching grant money no and how about

047the other one no any requirement for that no okay and if it's not used does it get returned at the end of the year any of the funds when you get a grant you either can keep it or you have to send we're going to spend it but generally generally how I knew the answer to that question okay thank you you're welcome anyone [Music] else good evening Tom not Stein 15 Nathaniel Street um with regard to page under Vias and Victor board action number H uh could you just elaborate a little on what that sidebar agreement is between the uh Monro Township Board of Ed and the mtea which one is that P 13 maybe yeah it's 13 two sidebar agreements were uh part of a negotiation those the sidebars generally represent agreements that were

048made after the contract the previous contract was settled so the one represents an agreement for the extended school year staff that works in that program and involves adjusting the work calendar for some of those folks who will be working beyond their normal contractual day and the other part of it speaks specifically to uh secretaries who would be a part of that that work day people who may be employed as secretaries during the summer but are not necessarily secretaries and and they're rate of compensation is determined by that sidebar so this will be infused into the formal agreement thank you um also I noticed that on your closed session resolution uh there's a ton of students it looks like Uh something's going on yes and uh could I I I well aware you cannot elaborate on

049a per student basis but could somebody please give me a little overview of what's going on is this something to do with this bullying and intimidation we have as a result of the new anti-bullying legislation our district all districts for that matter are required to conduct investigations on any allegation that is deemed to be a a harassment or intimidation or bullying matter um often these referrals generate from normal behavior that is associated with kids but um if a parent or a student suggests that they have been bullied it warrants an investigation and we are required to report that out publicly and advise the board of those investigations so every one of these individuals will be an investigation they already invested those as they are reported on the agenda the investigations have been complete okay so

050it's it's incumbent upon the board at that point to what the the board will either accept or reject my my report which will be reviewed in Clos session today and then the matter is concluded if they do not then we have to revisit that and that means reinvest reopening the investigation and notifying the parents that the investigation is resuming I see okay thank you Mr liry do you have a if you recall a approximately 3 months ago when this Abomination came on the scene I publicly denounced Senator Barbara Bono the author of it it is absolutely incredibly bad thank you anyone else from the public good evening Chrissy scurby 8 seminal Court um underboard action uh item number G I guess going with the anti-bullying um it's recommended to um have an on-site workshop for

051I guess is that for parents yes ma'am is that for the entire District yes ma'am where will that be held is that going to be um I believe it's oak tree actually oh it's it's on our website but almost positive it was oak tree there was a problem with with the date initially but I think it was ultimately settled at uh to be held at Oak Tree but check the website it's on there's a banner on the website and it's posted there okay will Flyers go home to the CH for the children is there a sign up or we're doing um anybody can come we're prepared to accommodate up to 600 people um and we will be using alert now oh okay thanks all right you're welcome okay anyone else seeing no one we will

052go to the approval of the minutes for the public Board of Education meeting of August 17th 2011 moved by Mr Koffman second second by Mr cherell all in favor I opposed abstentions none Clos session meeting of August 17 2011 a motion so moved by Mr tesler and second by miss analis all in favor I I opposed abstentions abstain by Miss anelis you're abstaining Mr Kaufman also the approval of the minutes for the public Board of Education meeting of September 7 2011 I'll move that Mr Klein and second by Mr Masters all in favor I opposed abstentions Mr Chella [Music] abstains the approval of the closed session meeting of September 7th 2011 so move move by Mr clown and second by Mr Tesla all in favor I opposed abstentions Mr Kaufman um the public Board of

053Education meeting of September 21st 2011 with the following Corrections the meeting was called to order by the board vice president Ken chiarella and after the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call the board vice president Ken Chella read the following statement that is in the minutes so so with those um Corrections is there a motion in a second I'll make the motion okay Mr Chella and miss analis all in favor I I opposed abstentions Miss analis I abstain Mr kleene and myself yes the closed session on September okay and the Clos session meeting of September 21st 2011 motion and a second motion by Mr Masters second by miss analis all in favor I opposed extensions I have to abstain to that one I abstained to the wrong one before but Mr Chella miss antelis Mr Klein

054myself Mr Kaufman Mr CH did you want to put your name on one and TR or take one off something else yeah the September 7th I was there for that one so that's a yes for me thank you an i or whatever you weren't there okay um the public Board of Education meeting for October 12th and the closed session meeting they will be approved at the December meeting because we do not have a copy of the minutes so at this time we will go to the superintendent's Report with Dr Hamilton okay just to give the board and public an update um you know we've been uh lobbying with the state to uh solicit some response to our inquiry regarding uh revisiting the state uh school funding formula we did hear back from the state and

055essentially what their response said to us was that there's a mathematical calculation that's used to determine the wealth of the community and the state aid is based on that the income of that wealth there's a an assumption that the income is uh consistent with the value of a a home and establishing how the state determines the amount of state aid um I have written a response to the governor and and explained to him that with a community where 60% of our residents live in age restricted communities the formula that is used represents a skewed representation of our community and I have asked the governor to consider revisiting the school funding formula and to certainly keep Monroe on the radar it is my understanding that there is going to be some reconsideration made to the school

056funding formula and hopefully those changes will be in effect even by this next funding cycle um I've also asked the governor to write an executive order that would allow us to provide for a mechanism that would hopefully resolve the Jamesburg tuition matter at the local level um so that's just an update on my correspondence with the governor and our follow-up regarding our quest to get additional or Equitable state aid moving on to the superintendent report I do call your attention specifically to the enrollment data um and it's important that we pay attention to these enrollment Trends because as you can see we have two 21 more students in our district this month in comparison to where we were the same time last year and those numbers are continuing to represent that folks are still finding

057Monroe an attractive place to to buy their homes and live and we anticipate a steady increase particularly in the Monroe Manor section of town um as new homes are still being built there um if you will go on to the out of District enrollment report that's listed there for your information along with the home instruction um you will not that the home instruction list is also substantially shorter than it usually is this this time of year I'm not really sure what that anomaly represents but that's a good thing um the fire drills and lockdown drills as you know lockdown drills are required now and that's listed for your information moving on to the Personnel report Madam board president and members of the board of education on it is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel items

058a through W noting a correction on item h it should be changed from November 28th to November 16th is recommended that these items be approved by roll call vote move second that was moved by Mr Chella and Mr Kaufman are there any comments or questions for Dr Hamilton Mr Chella when you look at the enrollment data for uh for mil Lake and Barkley Brook and Brookside which we're you know we can see that we're having decreases will there be do you think that we're going to need at some point to redistrict in that area I don't think so because that's not where we're seeing the influx the drop in those schools as you know as a result of the sixth graders moving out um those those uh numbers are not increasing in the same way

059nowhere near the same rate as the oak tree Community okay any other questions um we have a roll call Mr Gorski M antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mr calman Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mr colano yes Madam board president item Personnel a through W passes thank you moving on to board action items Madame board president members of the board of education is recommended by the superintendent that board action items a through P which also encompasses an addendum for the two job descriptions discussed at the Personnel committee meeting be approved by roll call vote so move so move by Mr Chella second second by Mr Tesla any comments or questions on board action board action items okay when we get to n and I was in

060the office today and had many questions that were answered by Mike and by Dr Hamilton I want the people in the audience the families to one understand in um where we have to purchase a new textbook and the note that we got through the uh assistant principal is that we are mandated to change textbooks every five years by the state which I think is pathetic and uh there'll be more discussion later on in the meeting but they don't give us our fair share of money anywhere near it yet they mandate expenses and that's unfortunately we're forced to Mr Braverman I I think that's untrue um I think the law is actually to review the textbooks every five years and if you need them then replace them and it's been my position for the past year

061or so that instead of replacing the textbooks we ought to be supplementing them and it would be a lot less expensive okay thank you now is that the case Mr is 5 years just a review or is five years that we have to replace it we are the what the code says actually is that we have to review and update and generally with the review comes a change in the curriculum because things change from over a 5year period and standards change so they generally work simultaneously they work hand inand okay anyone else roll call Mr Gorski Miss anelis yes Mr rman yes Mr Chella yes Mr cman yes Mr Klein yes on everything no on N no on n as an so noted Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs colano Madam

062board president board action items a through P passes thank you that concludes the superintendent's report okay then we will go on to the business administrators Report with Mr Gorski Madame board president and member of the Monroe Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through R be approved by consent roll call so move second by Mr cherella second by Mr Coffman any comments or questions for Mr Gorski seeing none we will have a roll call M anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters uh yes but I'm going to recuse on Q so noted Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes Madam board president board action items a through R passes okay thank you very much and that concludes your report

063yes ma'am okay we will go on to the board president's report and I I do have a couple of things um the first is that I I know that there um I've had some comments made to me uh recently and I'm sure other board members have too in regard to some misinformation that's been in the newspapers recently in regard to the cost of building the new high school um and when people see things in the newspaper they usually believe what they read and um so I would like to clarify some of the facts um in September of 2002 the district had a referendum to build a new high school on Apple gorth Road that referendum was for m973 150 that was defeated we had a second referendum in December of 2003 which was passed that

064referendum was for 67,69 mil 699,000 this from the state of New Jersey a section 15 Grant in the amount of 15 million 244,000 million on December 11th 2007 after a 4-year um battle to get the land they had a we had a an additional referendum for costs for 41 million $900,000 and that was also successful so the total cost for the high school was 109 m599 292 thou Mill dollars plus the section 15 grand for a total a grand total of 124 million $843,000 and that was the cost to build this new high school $124 m843 n950 so I just wanted to clarify the facts I also want to let you know that there is no swimming pool in this building there is no Spa in this building there is no sauna in this building

065so that that's for that and and then on a fun note oh did you have a I was going to say I move that we start planning for them maybe in the next example per car Behavior then on a sort of a fun note some of you may know I'm sure most of you don't I am a very Avid New Jersey Devils hockey fan and last week I attended a game where the New Jersey Devils recognized 180 of the New Jersey high school both public school and private school ice hockey captains they were acknowledged by having their names in the schools listed on the Jumbotron and and they were all invited to stand on the ice during intermission and it was really exciting to see Monro represented because I am a very very big hockey

066fan I know these kids and I just wanted to acknowledge Captain um or our ice hockey team captain Edwards stulac and the assistant Captain Brandon kakav Valley and one of the nice things is when I leave the stadium every time I go to a game and I attend most of the 41 games that they have at home during the year the last thing I see when I leave is a devil's is is a monot Township hockey jersey because the Devils have hockey jerseys from all the different high schools in New Jersey and as you're going down the escalator to leave there's the Monroe one so I I just happen to think that's pretty cool so now we will go on to committee reports is there any member of the board who has a report that

067they would like to share Mr T Mr Co um I'm over here okay Mr Chella thank you for remembering who I am C takes a while we had a buildings grounds and transportation committee meeting yesterday and uh we had a pretty large agenda um but the first thing I wanted to mention and I I wanted to to uh thank the environmental action Club because um they ran um a a fundraiser at the at the green Fair last month and they raised $500 for uh for new benches and I think that that you know I think that was pretty great and they donated that toh to the board so that we could get those benches for the school so I I I just wanted to thank them for the for for that for their efforts um

068we also looked at um solar power we're still looking at some or some of the Solar projects to get solar power at the schools uh we're still we what we're looking at now is an option that would be uh relatively free of cost meaning that we don't we won't have to buy solar panels or install them and pay for the upkeep that a a a company called CME Associates would would handle that and then we would purchase power at a reduced rate from them uh but we're still we're still in the very early stages of uh looking at that so there's nothing that I could report as far as uh dollars they couldn't even um tell us what their costs would be and uh so we're we're work we're still working on that so hopefully

069at our next uh at our next meeting I'll have more information um we had we had some public transportation requests and the uh the committee uh decided to uh make a tough decision and make sure that any non or any for-profit businesses that are requesting services from the from from our from our board that we look at those and and that we apply a fee for those services so uh for instance busing is one of those Services busing to for-profit businesses we looked at that and what we're going to do uh going forward is make sure that all businesses that have any have any requests for transportation or any that stuff that we that we're willing to work with them but we need to work with them for the cost that it cost the taxpayers

070in order to uh in order to fund those things um the other thing is we talked about the renovations here at the Museum that's in this school it's going to be converted to a uh much needed journalism classroom and some of the some of the upgrades that are needed in order to do that are electrical lighting and uh uh air flow work and so we I think we just talked about that a little while ago we also discussed Applegarth and the renovations going on there we're going to have another buildings and grounds and transportation committee meeting uh in a in a week or two in order to discuss that further and to look at all of our options and figure out exactly where we are and what you know what we have to do um

071we had uh we already talked about the snow removal bids uh and again we had several applications to bid but then only one company decided to bid and uh so that's where we're at with that and then uh that was it thank you okay Mr Tesla I'm sorry microphone on thank you very much um on Monday we had a Personnel committee meeting uh we discussed the following topics uh topic one we reviewed some job descriptions the committee reviewed new job descriptions for the benefits coordinator and the use of buildings uh Adult Ed liaison these are not new positions but revisions to reflect the current Staffing the committee also reviewed job descriptions for having staff available to supervise each uh evening event in the Performing Art Center after hours and on a weekend uh this will

072uh include Staffing for outside groups who use our Performing Art Center at Monro Township High School and Monro Township Middle School outside groups will be expected to bear the cost for the staffing uh number two uh band director uh the committee discussed a recommendation from the administration to add a stipend for the assistant middle school and director consistent with the structure already in place at the high school number three we reviewed uh the health benefits law implementation uh the business admin ministrator gave a committee update on the district status and Readiness to implement the new laws regarding employee contributions to health benefits and we are on Target and ready to meet the requirements of those new laws uh number five number four Transportation we're also giving uh we also give an update uh on the

073transportation department um and the status of the transition with a new director everything's going well there and lastly we also uh discussed a few more personal matters which will be shared on our uh when the committee notes are available uh with the board packet coming this Friday thank you Kathy Mr Klein we had our first discipline committee meeting yesterday with um Rob Goodall the high school pres high school princip high school principal and the assistant principles we had two of the staff and we had a so psychologist I believe and and um we basically I basically voiced what my concerns were it was explained clearly they do one hell of a job um they had a print out for me showing uh a graph of the problems you so we saw as if we didn't

074know where the main problems were whether it be cutting class um abusing staff or authority that that seemed to be lower than last year um what I did bring up and that's brought about by that list that we have to go over in the closed session about bullying unfortunately the way the letter the letter of the lore is written is that if a student calls another student to name even if it's only once it's bullying which I think is asinine um what we have to do in the policy committee is write um a policy that breaks down the severity of these infractions because if you have a kid that has he had a fight with a kid and he he called him a name and he took offense to it that's not bullying bullying to

075me is constant harassment getting other children involved that's my opinion so I think we have to do something with policy there also and the another thing uh that we also discussed was uh changing when the prom can be held and we'll go over that in a policy meeting but otherwise uh it went very well I believe we plan to hold a meeting about every three months and I think based on the facts that we see so far this year a lot of the infractions uh should be eliminated or at least brought down immensely thank you thank you Mr Klein anyone else Mr lry yes in my capacity as chair of the negotiating committee I have uh sidebar agreement uh quotations that uh it is recommended that the Monroe Township Board of Education and these Mr

076L not supplement AG right not after close session okay fine stop Mr caufman yes um there was a curriculum meeting this evening uh we went over some of the um student test data analysis as well as uh Bonnie Burke gave us a great presentation of the new K5 Science Program material uh so again uh thank you Bonnie for all that material that was presented this evening additionally we uh went over the Rosetta Stone uh implementation for Spanish in the elementary schools and it's uh going along nicely and we're looking at how we can embellish the program and possibly leverage how we're going to be uh manipulating the site licenses to uh get more students engaged and uh possibly look getting looking at next year to uh expand the site licensing program uh let's see what

077else did we do and we spoke a little bit about technology and the presentations that we were going to be given this evening so it was a very good meeting thank you you're welcome is there any other committee reports if not number 16 is there any other business from any member of the Board of Education Mr kleene I thought I would not bring this up again but finally I received a response from the state supreme court and I wrote two letters basically asking them when they were rehearing um the governor's cuts to education and how they were going to settle it was when the letter was written had nothing to do with the Abbot decision it was that what's fair is fair is give us back our money and the Suburban schools well the letter

078I get back is from a staff attorney not from one of the injustices and uh basically says in order to turn overturn the Abbott decision it's a long legal process and all that in other words it went right over his head but now I have somebody to contact UM the other thing that I find very very discouraging which came up at our meeting this week is the fact that we have major work that has to be done in appleo along with what's being done we need a furnace now when I read in the paper schools like Edison uh Woodbridge receive state grants for furnaces new roofs and I've always attacked Mike about it why can't we get state grants for this and the answer is what you heard earlier is that um what is it

079per house value of the house versus students we're wealthy area but then when I look at East Brunswick which is wealthier than we are and they're getting a hell of a lot more it's baloney it's the formula is baloney whatever excuse they want to give you is baloney and I don't know what we have to do to get off fair share but it is now getting to a point where it is going going to affect us big time because we could no longer go back to our taxpayers with 21 cent increases every year thank you Mr tiella yes I just have I have some just quickly and I'm sorry that I don't have um I don't have the information to be able to give out an email address or something but um there are a

080couple members of uh different PTA groups and stuff that are putting together baskets for um some of the people that were impacted by Hurricane Irene and anyone wishing to donate um if they want to be put in contact with the people who are putting together the baskets it's hope Fischer and Patty sabellico I think I said I hope I said her name correctly if you give me that information I'll send out an alert now okay and so that folks will know who to contact I think that's a yeah they could contact me and I'll put them in contact too thank you okay anyone else okay seeing one um number 17 be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of monreo hereby moves to go into Clos session in accordance with Sunshine Law

081chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 colon 4-6 through1 Goan 4-21 to discuss the following subjects Personnel mtea contract Personnel Teamsters contract Personnel Employee number 00241 6 student matters harassment intimidation and bulling incidents file number 29 through 72 need a motion and a second second miss anelis Mr L all in favor I opposed extensions then at this time we will be moving into closed session at this time the Board of Education will move back back into public session and Mr ly I believe you have a motion on I have two motions okay they have the the microphone please okay uh it is recommended that the Monroe Township Board of Education one wave the September 15 2001 time requirement stated in paragraph 17 of the previously submitted proposed memorandum of agreement between the

082Board of Education and the Monroe Township education Association otherwise known as mtea for the period from July 1st 2011 through June 30th 2014 this is a memorandum of agreement MOA because an agreement regarding the subject matter of the aforementioned paragraph 17 was achieved subsequent to September 15 2001 to the s to the satisfaction of the Board of Education two wave paragraph 19 of the mo MOA as the mtea and the Board of Education have agreed that article six sidebar supersedes the sidebar agreement between the Board of Education and the MTA regarding the extended school year reference therein and three approve the mo MOA retroactively to July 1st 2011 the board president and the business administrator Business board secretary as the attesting witness are are hereby authorized and directed to sign the sidebar agreements and to

083sign a collective negotiation agreement incorporating the terms of the mo MOA additionally the business administrator board secretary is hereby authorized and directed to take all necessary steps to implement this action of the Board of Education dated November the 16th 2011 is there a second to that motion Mr Chella yes I'll second it okay is there any comments or questions from the Board of Education I Mr Klein oh you'll hear me I would like to address this to the leadership of the mtea we all know what the economic are in the country and I also know how close are the teachers of associations work with the board and cooperate with the board there are some things that I had something here prepared but unfortunately a lot of it I can't discuss but I would like to

084know why when we were rewarded that what is it the New Jersey E4 I have it written down here somewhere e4j E4 NJ grant that the union leaders made us think about it because they weren't involved and could have costed us that Grant we're supposed to be on the same team as they do in other schools and other school districts where the unions work closely with the school board I think you can smile all you want ladies but it's fact I do want to compliment you on whatever help you did for the flood victims I understand that your union did do help but I also know that um the other Union did absolutely nothing for us and gave a lot of money to to pic to their flood people um I'm trying to paraphrase what

085I have here uh you know what my standing is as far as funding getting proper funding I ask why the mtea did nothing to help us obtain more money from the state we know how powerful the teachers union is with the Democrats in Trenton it's widely known it would have been nice if the leadership of mtea would have at least attempted to help us going to a parent Union helping us to get our fair share we can't keep going back to our residents to pay for the shortfalls of the money we do not receive from the state we can't hit them for $1,000 again like this last time we have great teachers I would never take anything away from our teachers their commitment and what they've accomplished All I Ask as a member of the

086board of is help we're not getting it from the state we're not getting it from the Supreme Court I would have thought in these past two and a half years since I'm on the board that we would have had help from our Union and we had nothing just silence I find it very difficult I'm not going to go through all this CU I can see the reaction I'm getting but I myself myself find it very difficult though the teachers deserve a race I'm not against that but I cannot bring myself to vote for it based on the leadership not doing anything to help our students our taxpayers and this board when we're elected to this position we are sworn to do the best we can for the children but also protect our residents as far

087as the taxes they pay and all I ask for the future is that perhaps you'll work with us to attempt to help us get more of our fair share thank you anyone else okay then we will have a roll call Mr Gorski the roll call will be for the motion on the floor which reads as follows it is recommended that the Monroe Township Board of Education one wave the September 15 2011 time requirement stated at paragraph 17 of the previously submitted proposed memorandum of agreement between the Board of Education and the Monroe Township Education Association mtea for the period from July 1st 2011 through June 30 2014 Mo MOA because an agreement regarding the subject matter of the AFF forementioned paragraph 17 was achieved subsequent to September 15th 2011 to the satisfaction of the Board

088of Education two approve the previously submitted sidebar agreement skip to three big um three wave paragraph nine of the memorandum of agreement as the mtea and Board of Education have agreed that article six sidebar supersedes the sidebar agreement between the Board of Education and the mtea regarding the extended school year reference therein and four approve the memorandum of agreement retroactive to July 1st 2011 the board president and business administrator as the attesting witness are hereby authorized to direct and sign the sidebar agreement and to sign a collective negotiations agreement incorporating the terms of the memorandum of agreement Additionally the business administrator board secretary is hereby authorized and directed to take all necessary steps to implement the action of the Board of Education Miss anelis I recuse myself so noted Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes

089Mr calman recuse Mr Klein no Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes than me Mrs kapano yes Madam board president motion passes [Music] I stuck down there I don't know if that's a good sign or a bad sign um I just like to say a few words iners I want to say Yes um in in regard to negotiations with the mtea and um I I think um I've been on the board 13 years and I've been involved in every single negotiations that has ever occurred in this District and when I retire in a couple of years I'm going into the negotiations business um it's never easy but there's give and take on both sides and I think the bottom line is always what's best for children and I I I think that the

090agreement we reached has done that for the mtea and the Board of Education that our agreement is what's best for children um I I need to say too that the mtea was with without an agreement all summer and they worked really hard to make sure that the opening of school occurred without a problem we moved into the new high school we moved our schools around we moved our our classes around we we moved our grades around and they were there helping and there was a seamless start to the school year so I have to commend them and um both the mte um uh negotiating team and the Board of Education negotiating team I i' just like to thank you for all the time and the hard work that you put into getting this contract accomplished

091thank you thank you Mr lirry yes uh this is with regard to the Teamsters Union is recommended that the Monroe Township Board of Education approve the previously submitted proposed memorandum of agreement between the Board of Education and Local 11 affiliated with the International Brotherhood of teamsters for the period of July 1 2011 through June 30th 2015 and it's identified as an Mo MOA retroactively to July 1st 2011 the board president and the board administrator board secretary as the attesting Witnesses are hereby authorized and directed to sign a collective negotiations agreement incorporating the terms of the Moa Additionally the business administrator board secretary is hereby authorized and directed to take all necessary steps to implement this action of the Board of Education a second any comments or questions and this was dated November 16 2011 then

092we will have a roll call Miss antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mr calman yes Mr Clin yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes madame board president motion passes okay thank you I there are no more motions on the floor John that's it okay then at this time we will go back to our public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record good evening my name is Bob miglani 42 equest in way two things first I'm appalled at the fact that this public forum has been pushed so far out that it really discourages parents from showing up I mean it's ridiculous you know you made 7:00 you show up and then you push

093this public forum part out so much that you know you don't have time to speak so I'm I'm I'm on the record I'm very appall disappointed and dissatisfied at the fact that we don't get a chance to speak early enough and as working parents that we try to do we try to get here on time from our from our jobs number two I want to talk to uh the issue of busing uh that Mr uh Ken that Ken raised so I need a clarification is the township going to charge for profit Enterprises as of when the township isn't the Board of Education okay Board of Ed when uh that is if you want to address that Mr [Music] Gorski as recommended by the building grounds Transportation committee last night I am going to uh instruct

094instruct all parties currently receiving transportation services that their term will expire through June 30th and subsequent to that they will be provided a fee structure for their existing routes and they could opt to pay or with withdraw why June 30th why not now to afford the parents an accommodating time to make other arrangements that's discrimination you you're you're you're supposed to be good stewards of my tax dollars and what you're doing today is discriminating against my child who happens to go to another for-profit Enterprise which is not getting the current bus service are our bond our our board councel has reviewed the matter and has determined that it is not in any way discriminatory and in fact legal is there a contract with remsterville the for-profit Enterprise in question no if there's no contract why

095can't you say no to them and say say you got to pay now again it's to accommodate the parents to make other arrangements accommodating one set of parents and not another set of parents I think there's something funny going on here because excuse me there it seems to be a Unwritten rule in a lot of things I'm hearing today for the first time and bond we have a relationship we have this we have that there's no contract and and I'd like to see what contract there is is it open for public view I I already expressed there is no contract there's no so then why can't you get rid of them we could but it would it to serve the parents yeah but then it serves me because my child goes to another for-profit Enterprise

096these children are already in this program they've already been busted to rip the rug out from underneath these children and these parents about about child no but that has nothing to do with it the following days my tax dollars right that I'm trying to survive in this economy I'm working very hard to do funds excuse me EX on excuse me I I just like to say um we have been accommodating rster bill that's the only one that we have been working with for the past 10 years and the Board of Education the buildings and grounds committee have been meeting we've been discussing this situation and it has agreed that at the end of this school year that we will be terminating their services for non fee that if they want to continue they will have

097to pay a fee we needed to give them the time to make sure that they they have been doing this for 10 years that the parents have enough time to make other plans for next year we have also decided that at this time it it would not it it would not um be prudent to start any other transportation services to other places for for any profit right now we're just leaving it alone until the end of June right so two things one does any of the Board of Education have a financial relationship with remsterville not that I know of so then what's the deal why two this is the decision that was made by the what's but it's my tax money how much how much is it subsidizing it how much is how much is

098the subsidy that's currently going to remsterville in the value of the busing service that is going to remsterville from the schools in Monro Township sir as Madam Bo president explained the agreement goes back there's no agreement right years excuse me and uh has evolved over over the years it wasn't to the magnitude that it was at that time right um this is a board of education it's not a Public Transportation Authority then you should discontinue that service today we will discontinue it at June 30 again to provide an accommodation to parents to make other arrangements I am very dis dissatisfied about this issue and I feel that this is a ripoff of my tax dollars this is a complete ripoff because it's it's this it's this it's this and this and and you're killing me

099here the taxes are so high and you guys are spending money and everybody's getting raises I don't understand I I just don't understand why this is why this cannot be ended today because if you can charge them why can't you charge them now they're for-profit Enterprise you're continuing to subsidize let me just be very clear you're continuing to subsidize a for-profit Enterprise until June 30th of next year right yes okay so what is the resol well how do I make a opposition to this what do I do you're talking to us right now we appreciate your comments and we will take what you were saying under consideration I I I mean I'm I'm I'm really appalled to this you have something to say yes yeah somebody's reading I'm really appall to this I don't know

100what else you wish to speak I'm sorry but she's running the meeting go ahead run the meeting I'm a tax I'm just a taxpayer asking about where my tax dollars are going God for he's right the man is right you're now going to give we're subsidizing this this for profit organization until June 30th and then we're going to make a decision no we've already made it let me understand that you're giving these people until June 30th the ones that are currently R riding you're giving them until June 30th to find some other accommodation yes is that correct yes that's what the bill well then he's right and that was a lousy outcome for this committee was ridiculous it's very one-sided he is paying taxes so just like the others and for years that before and

101after are you talking about before and after school what are you talking about Transportation do you want to explain that this we're not this this is not before and after school care bask this is transportation services whereas a day camp requested that the district deliver student stents to the day camp at the of the Board of Education I understand that I'm beyond that who are we transporting and to where students of the district to the for-profit camp before and after school does that really seem right or just seems like a way out I mean if either we transport everybody or come up with a with a a policy about the history of this just a little bit of history of this miss an Tellis what happened was yeah sure okay this board of education is

102always try to accommodate parents so if a parent came to us and said you know what I work instead of dropping the child off at my house can you drop him off at the people on the other side or or somewhere close the district said as long as it's 5 days a week that child is always on that bus then we will do it it really was the same deal with remsterville it was a group of children from Barkley Brook School who were going there and that's how this all started it was one group of kids from one school they were being transported five days a week to remsterville always going in the same place so therefore really we weren't subsidizing it we had to transport those children anyway now what's happening is everybody from

103all over the district I would send my child there send my child there so now we've come to a point where we said we're not a transportation service and if this is the case where you want us to pick children up from all over the district and that includes remsterville then what we're going to have to do is now charge because we're we're going above and beyond the surface and and I do you know the committee discussed more of I'm sorry but you know parents do work they got to make accommodations to all of a sudden say to them Hey listen by next week get your kid out we you know we're doing something else about me we not transporting your child or ready understand that that's fine F this is public forum accommodate him

104and charge him as we charge the others let's we're not charging anybody right now I'm sorry we're not charging anybody institution right so this is public for well then we should start charging the people that were not charging him the same we are that's the conversation we are going to do that when as of June 30th well that's wrong well that's what the committee decided and the three minutes are up for Madam chair Mr lry we should enforce Robert's Rules of Order you control it and all this back and forth is not parliamentary I know thank you and and your your time is up thank you you know I just want to say I think this is really appalling and it uh it it encourages me to gather other parents to come and participate as

105much as you I can and I plan on doing so and I want to just you know be very clear I ask for nothing special okay I want transparency and fairness and I think those two things are not being done in this decision so I just want to put on the record that I pose the committee's recommendation thank you thank you wait Bo I didn't even stand up here yet my name is Barry werman 30s Bruce Meadows Drive live in town and I own Eagle River Day Camp which is one of the facilities that are for-profit that are in question tonight where I I'd like to ask how many facilities in total do receive transportation services from the Board of Education that are for-profit for before and after care from the schools to the best

106of my know it's rille one just one so because I realized that the Board of Education offered us Transportation at cost we have uh for our students to be busted from Barkley Brook we received an offer to do it for the school year for over $40,000 so knowing that it's a depressed economy when there are no funds why would you continue to do it for free for a larger facility why not charge everybody I don't understand when you could be making $100,000 for your budget and for expenses why is that now given out to the parents of remsterville as an accommodation for the parents yet the accommodation for the parents from Barkley Brook who are busted in addition to Mr miglani who come to Eagle River don't receive free Transportation so it's not an accommodation

107for Barkley Brook parents because it's not equal for everybody so as a government entity your your decision should be equal for everybody and why a loss of opportunity for revenue on the board of education why do we our tax dollars have to come instead of collecting $100,000 and saving us money not having to raise our taxes so what I would like to say is that the board should immediately end of this year December 30th I understand it can't start next week you should be charging it's the business's responsibility to deal with it and how they're going to deal with those parents whether they pass it on or they absorb it but it's not necessarily passed on to the parents and you can't expect that a business is going to do that so I would say

108take the money into the town and let the Board of Ed use it instead of giving it away thank you thank you Mr Klein we're under public form Mr Klein go ahead if you can keep it short short and sweet please okay though I was not on the board or on that committee and I heard the discussion but I wasn't allowed to speak my suggestion was after the fact that the present agreement that we have should run out the end of January I origin said January 1st give it until the end of January stop it even though we understand that it's supposedly grandfathered but there's no cont contract then holding it until June I think is ridiculous I think if we set a date of January 1st or January 31st where the parents will have

109to pay for that school as his daycare now you're making a profit you also have a day camp who pays for the transportation for your day camp we do thank you very much and that's exactly what should go on now it's either it's either the uh daycare is to pay for it or the parents have to pay for it and when the other gentleman brought up the bit about his taxes look at all the people that live in this town and we won't even talk about the seniors let's just talk about the parents that are not involved in the after school and they have to pay for it it's getting to a point where we cut programs because we had to we had to cut a million dollars ordered by the council we cut one

110program we delayed a uh a um uh uh curriculum item and we started to charge for pay to play which is being done in many many districts and the parents complained so we had to absorb the the extra money that we got from the state that would have helped us in paying for the teachers and paying for these other things we had to go bring back um zero period busing which a lot of the schools have cut out we put in the science program and we had to do away with pay to play okay Mr Klein does that have to do with this question because you're in this case parents are going to have to start paying the other residents cannot afford to pay it okay thank you and I would change what's it roosterville

111rille rille I would let them know that as of January come up with a date the deal is off and they're going to have to pay what was it well I believe the committee already made a decision so we'll continue with the public forum anyone else would like to speak oh this is going to be juicy good I like this hi Karen castaldo monra Township education president I know I'm very tired and I want to say Kathy thank you very much for your kind words and back to you and on behalf of the board thank you very much Mr Klein I offer you a meeting with some of our representatives to discuss some of the things that you had publicly stated I choose not to go back and forth publicly but you're always welcome to

112come to the office or we'll meet over a cup of coffee that would be my pleas and I would be more than happy to meet with you and some of our committee members to address some of your concerns my pleasure I've worked with many of you through the years Amy across the table John we know this negotiations was probably one one of the most difficult ones 13 that last day yeah Ken you're a rookie Lou I thank each and every one of you Ira for all your support uh Lou as well getting to know you uh we all have the best interest in mind which is our children and I think our staff behind me and many who cannot have could not have attended tonight do one heck of a job and they work hard

113day in and day out and they are more than professional so I want to personally thank each and every one of you thank you thank you at a girl thank you Carn Kesner on the lighter side of things uh can you hang hold on thanks press the fles anytime you're ready thank you on the lighter side of things uh Cas 376 Daisy Court Monro Township and Joe plotnik 17 Aon Boulevard monor Township we would like to bring to the Township School System model airplanes radio control airplanes to show the students how things fly Aeronautics engineering won't cost anything that's free and we will give we have computers where we get demonstrations and we'd like to fly possibly fly inside the gymnasium ples of 4 ounces and uh we would appreciate your help in doing this

114and I've spoken to the principal and I spoke to Mr Klein and Steve Galina and John Rigs and everybody else yeah and just to add um we've uh we we belong to a a local club uh which is uh comes under the aaces of an organization called called AMA uh we have educational programs that we can actually um uh perform for the for the children and um and it and it it would definitely impact a lot of the curriculum uh that that is being offered right now such as Aerospace um physics and what have you and and these are um these are programs that are in place and we'd like to propose to do that uh within Monroe Township in the gym oh sure yes um would you be kind enough to make sure Dr

115Gorman has your information we'd like to uh review what the presentation would entail and make the connections to curriculum and it sounds like it's something we' definitely like to pursue thank you very much and Marie saw one of my airplanes I was in your office it's 4 o okay thank you very thank you very much for your help thank you anyone else from the public good evening Tom not Stein 15 Nathaniel Street um I just had a question for the board is that a lawyer that I see on my right here next to Mr Klein yes okay that's being paid by paid for by us so we obviously knew that there was going to be a vote tonight on the teachers contract yes okay why once again you can pull the records from last year

116I went through the same thing and you did it again why wasn't this on the agenda the teacher certainly knew about it why why do you continually disgrace the public by not making things public please answer that question two years in a row second year the uh the item items in question were on the close session agendas from previous meetings and as such there are there deliberative processes that um would have be assumed to have a resolution was this lawyer here the last time this was on that closed session agenda the answer is no so you knew that you were going to vote on tonight and that's why she was here and you chose to deliberately not put it on the agenda so the public other than the teachers union wouldn't be here is that

117an accurate assessment we have not had the mtea contract on the agenda before at all okay what did you vote on tonight because there certainly was no on the agenda under closed session that's right but it didn't say you were going to vote on it but yet the lawyer here no but what it always says under closed session that when there's a resolution the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public at such times the matter has I'm well aware of that Mr ly started to read it before you went into Clos session and you stopped him yes I did the lawyer was here you knew now please I expect an honest answer did you or did you not know that you were going to vote on this yes we did so

118why wasn't it on the there's always there's always a consideration when you go into close session that we don't vote on I get that but how about we put that on the agenda anyway let's are on the side of the public it it is on the agenda where okay mine doesn't say there will be under Clos session resolution but it doesn't say there's going to be a vote it always says after Clos session resolution that may it again I know I'm well aware that there may be action but then why wasn't the lawyer here every other time that was stated because there was no mtea contract on the agenda before this evening Mr Gorski just said that there was no there was no there was no memorandum of agreement there was no memorandum of agreement

119until prior to tonight outline proc so this is the first time was ever on closed session that you were discussing uh this so the first time you went in you were in for less than an hour it's settled yes wow that's pretty scary what exactly did we vote and how much of a raise did they get um would you like to explain the situation the the process because we're not allowed to bring it to the board until the night of the vote yeah that's correct and grab the mic Mary so you knew it was going to be voted on and Mr gorsy saying yes but yet you didn't say at the bottom there will be a vote tonight on this they're not it because it goes into Clos session doesn't necessarily mean there is going

120to be a vote we assume there will be a vote but there's that's all I ask if you assume there's going to be a vote and you're willing to pay a high price lawyer excuse me I'm sure you are because all lawyers are if you're going to pay a high price lawyer to come here you are pretty darn certain that there was going to be a vote tonight is that an accurate assessment it is an accurate assessment it's on the the agenda and I will have our lawyer explain the situ it's on the agenda but it doesn't say there will be a vote tonight on there's always a chance I get that there's always a chance there is also another reason why the attorney is here because they also were part of the negotiation process

121they were hired to be the negotiators on behalf of the board so when it's time to discuss the parameters of the negotiations is most appropriate for the chief negotiator to be present to outline the details and the specificity about the settlement okay well I I get that too my contention is that all the teachers knew that there were going to be a vote tonight the public did not and that you did the same thing last year and you said you were going to look into it and not let it happen again the teachers couldn't know there was going to be a vote tonight because until and unless the board after Clos session and discussions and Analysis there may or may not have been a vote they may have thought there might be a vote but

122but that doesn't necessarily mean there would would have been a vote and there have been many times let me just say that I have been here gone into close session for all all sorts of different reasons to receive for the board to receive receive uh attorney advice when we come out there isn't a vote not in the last year you haven't been maybe I haven't but maybe somebody else except for the last contract negotiations okay and that's what I'm getting well I can't speak to that soon as I saw you here tonight I knew there was going to be a vote on the contract as did you and I don't know why you try to do this every time you try to hide things but I'm wasting my time what did with what was the

123raise they got could somebody please give some specifics because this was appalling what you read without any discussion this board never discusses and it's another insult to the public so please let me know what the heck you voted on if you even know the um the contracts gives an increase a percentage increase of 2% for 201122 2% for 2012 2013 and 2.5% in 25 2.25 what did I say 2.5 oh I'm sorry 2.25 in 2013 no 2014 no movement on the guide how about Healthcare Health Care they are following the law um and maybe Mr Gorski is better at explaining that than I am sure beg your pardon I'm answering gentleman's question with regard to Health Care there is a major um consideration that uh the union members are entitled to opt out completely if

124health insurance if they choose to do so um from a family based plan which [Applause] costs currently $ 22,4 42 they'll be paid $4,000 of additional compensation a single participant would be paid $2,500 for a plan costing approximately $8,800 with a very conservative estimate of participants in this plan which is half the amount that participated in an mtea survey that said they wanted to opt out the aggregate Savings of this health insurance opt out over the three-year contract is over 3.2 million that alone negates any cost effect of the increases on the budget and actually results in a net savings over the three-year period so you say opt out they opt out and then we pay them what we were going to pay their subsidy is that what you're saying no when they when they

125completely opt out of health insurance and they're no longer covered and the district no longer has to pay the premiums they're entitled to compensation of $4,000 for a family plan 2500 for a single plan okay it's okay I know what you're saying okay and has there's many other contractual terms but those are the big ones has there been a a consensus or uh any idea of how many you you gave that $3.2 million number as an estimate um I guess there was some sort of polling done yes and that's that's the number yes the the poll had indicated approximately 126 members showed interest that they would opt out um we use 10% which comes to about 75 members and out of that those subsidies that you're going to give them for opting out uh what

126percentage of that would is is that the actual cost that it would be costing the township if they were not opt in in other words if the plan that you said was 224 and we're subsidizing 4,000 uh we're giving them that 4,000 anyway then so where's the savings the district saves 18,000 by not having to oh I got you okay I see what you're saying okay so okay we have a small but precious savings for the school district overall when you look at benefits and you look at salaries okay also you mentioned uh basically sounds like it's a a was it 5year contract threee contract three year contract and it looks like it's roughly 6% over three years now two two and two and a quarter okay so a little over okay over 6% uh

127Mr gorsy did you mention before that the unemployment rate in Monroe is over 11% that's correct okay can you and your good conscious why are we giving a raise why could not we get a pay pay freeze for at least one or two years during an 11% unemployment rate I I I don't want to go into the specifics of the contract in too much detail U for this forum but I can tell you that that this contract is the equivalent of a three-year freeze when you consider the savings from the opt out alone okay where where will the details of this uh now that it's actually uh it's been voted upon it has to be signed by the union I guess or has the union voted upon it yet the union has ratified it and

128tonight the board has okay when will the details and where we be able to see that will that be posted on the the website or the government websites when will it be uh because it's there's a requirement for the certain Government website to post the contracts once it's executed it's it's a public document and that would be after tonight correct it will be sometime after tonight because it has I haven't signed it it hasn't been signed yet okay sometime very shortly because it's now an official it's official document correct it's not an official document until you sign it I get it okay thank you my name is Cena cette I live at mil Lake School and in East Brunswick um a couple of things I'd like you to consider um having your your your meetings

129I forget what you call them secluded meetings close session close sessions um in the beginning of the at the beginning of the board meeting giving the public an idea a general idea of when the meeting would begin it feels kind of rude when you all leave and we have to just sit here and wait for you and I think if you could work out something better for the public um it would be greatly appreciated um also Mr kleene Close session right away Mr somebody Mr Klein I work um many hours with the legislators of New Jersey and I think you're really not aware of what the members of njaa do for our school districts in Monroe Township and other townships I think you are angry and you don't even have information I don't no you

130don't can I address this no let's just finish with the with the public forum and then we will what this is see what this is Mr see what this is that's facts Mr Klein I dropped it it's facts she says I don't know what I'm talking about will let her finish speaking pleas no go ahead keep going many of us many of us year after year after year have been asked by superintendence to please help pass the school budgets we make phone calls does it help us yes does it help the children of the district yes we help all the time we make phone calls to our parents we make phone calls to legislators we email legislators and you can't believe everything you read I think you need to look into um get more information

131yes I see what literature you're showing me but you are talking directly to the mtea is all I in Anger over that article and um I feel that you has my turn my turn my guess be my guess and I feel you don't have enough information to be that angry yes you read did you look did you speak to anyone can I answer no well well her your time is up no we're not going to have you answer right now we're just going to do the public forum thank you for listening you're welcome and as um Karen has asked Mr kleene if anyone wants to ask questions of what we do um please come forward don't Harbor anger and get the facts thank you very much anyone else from the public first of all show

132anger Mr Klein that's okay I complimented on what they did it's okay Jackie Winters 14 Alexander Drive Monroe um I would just like to uh thank the board members who sit before us that I know have walked the streets um with in regard to passing school budgets and referendums Ken Chella I tesler uh John ly and I have um come full circle with our work on getting this High School built um Kathy kapono Luke Hoffman um Mr kleene um you're newer on the board you I don't know if have ever had conversations with some of your fellow board members but they can look out in the audience and they can see many people some of them have left already but they are joined at the hip when it comes to passing budgets and trying to

133get referendums passed and do things for our children okay there have been many many years that you weren't around I think you have to recognize that you failed to recognize that and I would like to compliment the board all the years that I've lived here which is since 1978 and I've worked here since 1981 I've always found the board to be very professional and never had any type of insulting remarks made until I've heard some of the things that you've said from the table uh not just this evening but in the past we have come to board meetings and I remember watching you open your wallet when we had our last contract negotiations and saying what do they want a five or a 10 when we had our red shirts on so those I heard

134it with my own ears but um anyway I would just again like to thank the board members who have worked with us uh all along and many of the things we've accomplished are because of the great things that the mtea has done along with the Board of Education members both past and present thank you is there anyone else on the bu I was not even involved in that's when I was first elected but that's no here nor there sh min9 ethaniel Street uh in reference to Abarth I saw in the newspaper that you're just starting to send bids out for uh reconstruction has anything been done since June we decided intentionally to go out to bid for asbest remediation at this current time because there is a bottleneck of school district that go out for

135it over the summer and consequently the costs are exorbitantly higher so we're actually saving money and we have the luxury of the time in this instance to do so okay because there was a whole thing last year about keeping the students in the school and you how you were going to do everything this summer and and nothing happened okay two um on the board action the student teacher placements does that fall under the regulations of uh nepotism the nepotism policy student teachers no they are not um employees of the district so the nepotism policy doesn't um come into play on that so it's possible that board members can have their family members and student teachers conceivable yes okay are there any in this round not that I'm aware of actually okay um the uh the

136solar study U Mr chello said something about uh they're still looking into the um the U excuse me the organization or the the construction the construction for an outside solar person my question is I I didn't hear him discuss anything about a study that we had asked for that some of the members of the public asked for including myself about a b a study evaluating both an outside Source uh for putting the solar and inhouse like they're doing in oak tree so is that off the table has that been discuss in facilities no no and I should have I'm sorry for not being clear but no we're what we're doing now is we're just in the process of looking at different options so the the original I guess a couple meetings ago where we were

137talking about looking at solar we were we had a a company come in and they were showing us the option of buying the panels and installing them owning them ourselves this time what we were looking at was the other option of not of not purchasing them and then buying buying the energy but allowing them to install the uh the panels and then we would get a reduced rate what we're looking at what we're doing now is just evaluating that proposal and then we could make a decision as to well I think any proposal that is any proposal outside of actually owning it like oak tree should be evaluated next to that I mean the the prime thing should be we should own it we should get the benefit of it because it seems like it's

138a money maker for oak tree and then any other proposal should be compared comped to that and then I would also ask Will that decision be made in committee or will it be deliberated in public like it ought to be when that decision is finally made well I I what I what I'm thinking is we're going through you know we're looking at the different things and then we would talk to the entire board because I don't know that you know something we'd come up with commit at committee would be something that everybody else would agree with because to your point I mean we have if you if we buy the panels outright and then we put them up then we have you know we have considerations to make first of all we have to you

139know pay for the panels and then we'd have um to wait for the return on investment then on the other hand we have the other option which would be to have them have the company bear the burden of the cost and do the installation the upkeep and then we buy back the energy but then we have other considerations to make with that like is that and then it's long-term cost is that cost effective if we're say 14 cents a kilowatt hour or whatever that is turns out to be and then you know prices go way up we could look like we're Geniuses but on the other hand if prices somehow go way down and we're still paying 14 cents and we could really look ridiculous so it's something that we all need to talk about

140Mr Chella is is correct because the um it's the committee that's doing the research and when they decide on one way or the other they'll bring a recommendation back to the board and then the board will consider all the options and and that's fine except that that usually doesn't happen in reality the reality is the Committees tend to make policy or make the make the decision and then it's not deliberated on or discussed in public and it's just voted on as we saw this evening with the with the contracts so these are the kinds of things that should be open discussed in public there's no reason not to and so so we can have a participatory government in this town which leads me to my last question um was there anything different from the statement

141Mr Larry almost read to what the resolution was this evening no was the exact same statement he was just reading it at the wrong time okay so the point is there was no need for deliberation in closed session because you've already made the decisions to no no we hadn't made the decision well it doesn't make sense you had made so if nothing changed what was the discussion you can say what the discussion was now the discussion was that only the negotiating committee had the information and we had to discuss it with the rest of the board so that they would be able to vote on it I was the chair there was no okay then objection is my objection is there was no deliberation after the closed session it was just brought when I Mr

142Mr Larry when I when there is a motion made there is a motion there's a second I always ask if there's any comments or questions and if there isn't any we go to the vote so there is the opportunity for anybody to to discuss anything they would like well shame on the board of education for not bringing all the facts you're going to vote on it fine you're going to have a pre a prepared statement as we saw before the Clos session you're going to read it fine but at a courtesy to the public the details that had to be asked by a member of the public should have been discussed before the vote and that's what we're asking for when we talk about transparency we have a right to hear the deliberations from Mr

143Gorski I I I see that you're pointing that my time is up but the the the chair has let other people talk beyond their time sto you from talking so my point is deliberation transparency and respect for the public that you put these things out before the vote any number of board members could have brought the facts to to the floor before the vote was done that's all we ask if it's a done deal if it's a predetermined situation well that's a different issue but the the public has a right to be told and again I object to the way the close sessions been handled as I did with with the um superintendent's evaluation we were never told it was the superintendent's contract that was being discussed we're never told that there were contract discussions

144the superintendent's contract went on for three months we never knew it was a contract we knew it was an evaluation we were never discussing his contract we were just well then the last the the third time you came out we were discing for the evaluation you voted on his contract and there was never anything on the agenda that said it was a it was a vote for for a contract the public has has a right to hear the deliberations of the board with respect use your mic please with respect to the board going into Clos session to discuss the evaluation of the superintendent that is ample notice to the public that coming out of closed session they may act on something that results from that discussion which could be ar raise which could be some

145other action of the board but that is appropriate notice so legally you're saying you're satisfied the way the closed resolutions are put to the public they follow the statute I am telling you I'm satisfied with the the particular resolution that you're referring to and and I'm satisfied with the resolution the way the process has proceeded tonight with respect to the negotiations to and to the closed session the way they go into closed session and then come out it's according to the open public meetings act you're you're clear that that that the resolution was put out to the public and um I just answered it twice yes okay thank you anyone else from the public yes once again Doug poy for tamarak Road uh I have a rather mundane question on page 21 uh item R

146there was a performance agreement uh $4,000 plus uh and it's for the Middle School uh Musical that they're going to be doing my question is uh do they charge for that performance and if they do charge do the ticket receipts then come back into the board funds to help defray the cost of those royalty fees that you're paying uh and so that I don't run out of time I agree with what some of the other members of the public have said tonight it may be all legal but it is a disservice to the public I was shocked because I come to almost every board meeting almost everyone for the past two years I was shocked to read in the Sentinel that the superintendent's contract had been approved I'm not saying I disapproved that the contract

147was approved but I had looked at the agenda I did not understand that that contract was going to be voted on last month and as a member of the public I feel that I should have had an opportunity to know that tonight I come to the meeting not knowing that the teacher's contract was possibly going to be voted on I realized legally it's perfectly fine but I am telling you that when things are done that way it is a disservice to the public and I think it alienates Ates the public because they feel that you're trying to do something behind the Public's eyes I don't think you're trying to do that but I don't understand why the superintendent's contract could have been discussed you could have made it some kind of a decision but the

148vote could have been this month it could have appeared on the agenda as a separate item likewise for the teachers contract it could have appeared as a separate item on next month's agenda so that the public would have had an opportunity to know that yes these things are going to be possibly voted on tonight that's all I have to say thank you do you want to Mr Po with regard to your first question on the performance agreement the 4, 37250 is a copyright fee for the Peter Pan play itself and um there's a contract that we have that um delineates all of the terms of that and specifically to your second question yes revenues are collected for the play and the last time the middle school had a play that's what we uh there was

149a complete break even so there was no cost to the district and it was a good educational experience for the students okay anyone else from the public Mary Payne five mbery Court I just have a question about the healthcare cuz I am a teacher myself so I know what we're going to be paying into it I just want to know where that money is going to go is it going to relieve taxes in Monroe um I'm going to elaborate at the risk of going a little further on this topic because there's two Health Care issues um the first one is the new health insurance law as of July 1st um all employees of the district were require required to pay 1.5% of their salaries into healthc care that's currently being collected um subsequent to that

150there's a chapter 78 law that collect a percentage of benefits or the greater of the 1.55% of salary that's also being implemented those collections from employees paychecks are budgeted for in advance and offset the appropriation for health care costs which directly reduces the burden on the tax levy as I know starting next year it's based on your salary and it can be up to in four years 28% of what you're paying for their healthare so that's a lot of money that's going back to the district is that going to be budgeted in so that maybe we'll see a little relief in our taxes is absolutely it has been for the 201122 budget and it will be in subsequent years it's requirement of the budget approval process thank you okay is there anyone else from the

151public wishing to speak okay seeing no one our next scheduled public Board of Education meeting will be held on Wednesday December 14th 2011 7:00 p.m. at the high school is there a motion to Mr Coffman who second Mr Mr Masters all in favor opposed meeting is adjourned