Monroe Township Board of Education 04.25.12 Regular Meeting

001the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allei to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all Mr Gorski may we please have a roll call Mrs kapano here Mr Chella here miss antelis here Mr Braverman here Mr calman here Mr Klein here Mr lirry here Mr Masters here Mr tesler here Mrs Fon here mam board president you have for 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 April 20th 2012 one at all

002schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press before filed with the clerk of the municipality at this time we would have gone to our student board members reports but I do not see our students here this evening so we will go right to our public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak to the agenda please state your name and address for the record please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record no okay seeing no one we'll close public forum and we will go to the superintendent she didn't know she could change is this have okay we will go to the superintendent Report with Dr Hamilton moving too fast for nothing on the agenda okay moving on to the superintendent report before I get into my actual report I

003know I stated it on Monday but I'd like to again uh take a moment to thank the board for coming out on Monday for the training for the superintendent evaluation and response to my requests I appreciate that I know it's not easy adding another night to your calendars um we also want to acknowledge our professional administrators today administrators Admin Professional Administration day um for all of our district secretaries who support all of our work they are indeed our unsung heroes and uh schools had different events to to recognize those people today and we had a very nice luncheon uh at central office today sponsored by myself and Mike borski Jeff and Jerry T um I think everyone had a really nice time um moving on to the superintend tenant report the enrollment report is listed

004there you do see that uh even this late in the year between um February and March an additional 22 students have enrolled in our district and the highest number being at the Oak Tree in the oak tree Community um you also have the home instruction and the outof district placement report that's been included um following that is the fire drill and lockdown drills that have been listed uh one lock Dr fire drill and one lock down drill for each uh of our buildings moving on to the Personnel report Madame President and members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel items a through V be approved by roll call vote so move second Mr Chella and Miss anelis are there any comments or questions for the superintendant seeing none we'll

005have a roll call Mr corsky Miss Ellis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman Mr Klein yes Mr lry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes madame board president Personnel items a through V passes thank you um moving on to board action items Madam board president members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent that board action items a through K be approved by roll call vote Mr terella Mr Masters again any comments or questions for the superintendent seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon Mr calman Mr Klein yes Mr lirry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs Kon yes Madam board president board action items a through K passes thank you

006very much mam board president that concludes the superintendent's report this is good at this point we'll go to number eight on the agenda the business administrator's Report with Mr Gorski Madame board president and members of the Monroe Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through M be approved by consent roll call second Mr Coffman Miss anelis are there any questions for Mr Gorski Mr Klein I meant to speak to Michael earlier on I insurance broker of record the only thing that I ask is is please check and see if uh George norcross's companies are involved with this insurance company I will do so any other questions then we will have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein

007yes on everything except I I'm going to abstain on I until we get that information okay so noted Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes Madam board president board action items a through M passes thank you I guess we're up to number nine of the board president report and I just have a couple of things today um the first is that there is good news coming out of oak tree School the New Jersey Department of Education recently relisted released a list of 370 schools in the state in three different categories the category of priority schools which are low performing schools in need of aggressive guidance focused schools which are schools that need impr Improvement in certain areas and reward schools which demonstrate continual Excellence or Improvement and I'm happy to

008announce that Oak Tre school is one of 112 schools out of 2500 that have been chosen as a reward School in the classification of highest progress highest progress is defined as schools that have high levels of student growth measured using the median school student growth percentiles over time oak tree is one of only eight schools chosen in Middle sex County to receive this unique distinction and on behalf of the board I'd like to congratulate the administration and the staff at Oak Tree school for their continued dedication and hard work work in achieving this honor it's another area in our district that shows that our district initiatives are moving Us in the right direction and helping to put monre Township on the map so that was good news um the second is um I know I've

009spoken about E4 uh E4 NJ Grant in the past and I'd like to give you an update on where we stand now E4 NJ which is excellent Educators for New Jersey is an initiative to Pilot new teacher evaluation systems Monroe is one of only 10 pilot districts in New Jersey that has been part of a Grant during this past school year the new evaluation system will provide meaningful actionable feedback to teachers and school and District leaders as we strive to help all students achieve success we believe our participation in this grant initiative will help to develop a Universal evaluation system for the state and we will we will be ahead of the curve when the time comes that this um new evaluation goes into effect we are using a moal method of evaluation and the

010training of both the evaluators and the staff has concluded and observations are now underway using an i observation tool and so far we're happy to say things are going very smoothly so that is the extent of my president's report so at this time we will go to committee reports is there anyone from the board who has a committee they'd like to report on Mr tesler yes thank you um we had a Personnel committee uh I'll review what we discussed on that number one we got an update on uh E4 NJ which you just went over uh the second item is um um we got an update on uh the interviews uh for the district headteacher for the employe child daycare center uh Dr Hamilton informed us that he and maretta were in the process of

011interviewing candidates so far the pool was pretty impressive um then uh candidates will be sent to the Personnel committee and then also uh the final candidates would be sent to the full board uh since this is a new position we wanted to make sure the entire board had uh were involved in this process excuse me third item was contract review uh the business administrator and assistant superintendent the template for the ba and assistant superintendent contracts and its cost analysis was presented to the committee the committee supported the requirements for submission of the ba contract to the county office for review the assistant sups contract is still in development and it needs further U uh further adjustments before uh being uh sent to the County Board office and that will be presented at personal committee at

012its next meeting um central office support staff negotiations is the last item Dr Hamilton asked the committee if they had any interest in changing the process for negotiating with this group uh currently the process is that representatives of that bargaining unit will present their proposal to the superintendent and the ba the superintendent and the ba will then prepare a counter proposal and share uh that counterproposal with the Personnel committee the um and then meet with the bargaining unit representatives and submit a final agreement to the committee uh then to the full board the committee was comfortable with this process and supported moving forward in the same manner as we did uh in the past and that concludes the Personnel committee report thank you there any questions for Mr Tesla okay does anyone else have a

013committee to report on Mr Masters we had a buildings and grounds meeting on the 17th um the Brookside roof project is coming along we're actually going to wind up saving about $80,000 by leaving some of the trim in place on the flip side we do have to replace some of the footings for the bleachers uh it's going to cost us about 35,000 to replace the cement footings uh the classrooms coming along nicely we're still waiting on doe approval uh we have to spend about 20,000 to fence in a a basin uh next to the high school right over there um we've switched to a mostly organic fertilizer program for most of the grounds in the district um most of the play areas actually have no chemicals on them whatsoever uh Applegarth we started discussing a

014uh Community ad hoc committee that's still under discussion and we've actually given away more of the Apple old Apple goth Furniture to some to another school that's it any questions for Mr Masters John did you have a committee to report on yes uh the finance committee met on the 17th also and uh we had very extensive discussions about the Bas program and after an hour we came to an Manis position and it is recommended the members of the Monroe Township Board of Education approve the least agreement terms delineated in the lease agreement between Monroe Township Board of Education and the Basque Network Incorporated as Monroe Basque with regard the use of Monroe Township Schools as unanimously recommended by the finance committee on April 17th at 2012 and hereby authorized the business administrative board secretary to

015execute sedle agreement for the period commencing September 1st 2012 and ending June 30th 2015 second second uh motion by Mr Larry second by Mr tesler I believe everybody has a copy of the or had a copy email to them of the bass contract are there any comments or questions Mr Braverman just excuse me a little history about Basque several years ago they came to this board of education with an idea year of taking care of the kids before and after school and they wanted the facilities for nothing only one person voted against it because I didn't think the taxpayers of Monroe should be supporting Private Industry there were a few a little Applause from the from the audience but not much interestingly enough the reason why they said they couldn't afford to um pay rent

016was because they didn't make any money they were just doing this for the good of the community a few years went by and then they agreed that they would pay about I think it was $1,000 or $2,000 I forget well about a year ago when Mr Kaufman was president of the board we were talking about income money and etc etc and we asked the business administrator to do a rough calculation of how much money Basque probably makes on from this community and conservatively I think he said it was a quarter of a million dollars now all of a sudden there willing to pay $100,000 to rent this facility our facilities for 10 months interestingly enough the town hall heard that we were thinking of running our own program and then within days or a couple

017of weeks two women the principles of the Basque program came and met with our our our administrators and threaten that if we ran the program instead of them there'll be 400 parents in our audience and they'll be ranting and raving that they want the program run by Basque well interestingly enough we got a letter from a man about our wraparound program and I won't tell you who it was or anything but his last sentence is in conclusion I would like to ensure that uh an on-site KP program is offered to the kindergarten children attending oak tree School regardless of whether it's provided by The Basque Network or the Board of Education and quite frankly I think the board of education's staff are professional Educators and they can run it a heck of a lot better

018than a lot of babysitters that are hired by by a private organization now I'd like to speak in terms of the contract excuse me it's not public form but board members have the right to speak the lease agreement talks about facilities but specifically it doesn't talk about any fac any particular facility so does that mean they can come into any building and use any of the rooms that they want to use that was my first question when I was looking at this contract the um excuse me the uh tuition that they talk about in the contract they agree not to raise tuition during the term of this agreement by more than Bas usual yearly increase that covers increases in operating costs what are those operating costs I'd like to see that in the contract so

019I know why they're raising the oper the um tuition certainly uh the principles can take a raise and that's an operating cost and tuition goes up they talk about sta members they agree to provide sufficient Personnel to adequately care for super for and supervise the children in the Basque program why don't we have a ratio in there parents are very concerned with the number of kids that the teacher is handling why wouldn't they be concerned with the number of kids that one of these supervisors are handling are those your questions Mr BR okay I think also the um the insurance policy shall have limits not less than a million dollars combined bodily injury and property damage 2 million in general aggregate I think that's very low in today's legit legit leg you know what I

020mean Society then there's a there's a clause here no assignment or sublease Basque may not sublease the facilities or assign this agreement without the board's prior written consent which consent may be withheld for any reason why should they permitted be permitted to do it at all should be no assignment or sublease period now validity of the lease I'm not a lawyer but it says if a clause or provision of this agreement is legally invalid the remainder of this agreement remains in effect that breaks the contract doesn't it if they're not fulfilling it personal guarantee the principles of Basque Lori yusi and Andrea macowski hereby guarantee that the terms of this agreement shall be honored and if they don't honor it what's the penalty there's no penalty here that's it so as you might know from

021My Little My few comments I'm not supporting this Miss Tellis yeah I like Mr Braverman have a little bit of a problem with this too um being on the board for many years I remember times asking Dr ferry to ask the Basque program for payment for using our facility and every time we heard if we give you money we're going to raise the rates for the parents and this board does not want to hurt parents so therefore we would always back down now all of a sudden $100,000 a year um there's three employees of bass that live near me who knocked on my door who told me that they were told by Basque that if the Monroe Board of Education took it over that our par professionals who were yearning for more hours would be

022given the positions um I don't remember this board ever discussing that and those employees told me they would much rather work for Monroe Township um about the money okay so it's $100,000 which is great but if they're making $ 250 why shouldn't we make that money we can lower the cost to parents if we have to and still keep $100,000 we can put money away for capital projects such as roofs I believe that the Monroe Board of Education should be running this program and therefore I will not be supporting it anyone else Mr Masters just to not to pile on but the only issue I had when I read it was with the um the operating cost like Mr bran said uh I don't think it's good to tie a an entity's business entity's Revenue

023because that's what you're doing to unspecified operating costs without putting a cap on it um so like Mr bman said you can hire another principal you can hire five more teachers those are operating costs and they'll pass it on to the parents um I would have loved to see a cap in there or some wording to that effect okay anyone else Mr just a quick question while I was there in the finance meeting to talk about the spirit of the the underlining agreement some points that were brought up were pretty valid who is the author of the contract is it the Board of Ed or is it Bas Mr Gorski previous to this uh contract or what now referred to as the lease agreement we had a um less extensive contract in place since 2004

024um the terms and restrictions and legal ease in the current version were designed um in collaboration between our board attorney and and me today and uh previous and um Mr Braverman brought up some points that I'll be happy to answer about the contracts particulars and if I if I overlook any please forgive me and and remind me what those were um currently Basque serves the following schools Barkley Brook Brookside um Woodland mil Lake and Oak Tree and the sixth grade um at the middle school and the reason that these facilities were not specified in the agreement was pursuant to the finance committee where it was recommended that we consider creating a committee with Basque and with parents um to look at the expansion of the program into other schools so so I didn't want to

025design this contract to be so prohibitive to that um consideration it was left open that the board could entertain bask at any of the school facilities that was again to um protect the board um as far as um the uh increase to the rates over the three-year contractual term Basque had agreed in the finance committee meeting where it was open up for them to participate that they would agree to um not pass the charge of the $100,000 uh lease to the parents and that they would restrict the lease to CPI or related um cost of living or cost of material increases I took the technical terms of CPI out and I and I made it more broad to include any increased costs um just to um ease the contract a bit but I think it

026certainly exercises the point in a language that was was discussed in the finance committee meeting so to um not have Basque passed through this charge to the parents the insurance policy is actually more defined in the current legal agreement than it was previously um previously it referred to the use of building form where it asks for a million dollars in aggregate policy here it at least defines the amounts a little further and I did run this by our insurance agent today gr Murray and they were quite satisfied with the agreement as well was our attorney was there anything else Mr Masters your question again no no what was your question oh it was about the uh tying the revenues into the uh specified operating costs which is he kind of explained it with the CPI

027Mr cofman so I guess the answer is we wrote the contract I wrote the contract in collaboration with the board attorney the other question I have is I think it was agreed upon in the meeting that the meeting that was supposed to be held between Basque and the parents was supposed to happen prior to this to make sure that whatever kind of expansion to services or any kind of change in timing or whatever else was agreed upon between the parties was doable based in the dollar amounts that we're all talking about here I can assume then that that meeting didn't happen prior to this meeting there I there has been no meeting between setup P um there has been no meeting I don't I don't recall a requirement from the finance committee to to schedule

028a meeting prior to the uh drafting of the contract um what I recall from the notes from the finance meeting was a consideration to create a committee between Basque representatives and the Board of Education and parents so to address issues that may come up during the term of the contract forgive me if my recollection is not correct but we we're looking at Mr L of the performance and making sure it did not deteriorate and it was an ongoing process it was not a one shot Affair Miss Fon I I don't get to um participate in the vote because it doesn't affect me but I did sit in on the meeting and with Amy and Marv I was here I think when they originally came in we did discussed the issues of um money being given

029to um the board in Prior years and being told that um they would forward those costs on to the parents and in defense of the women that came from bass they said that was never conveyed to them um in in the prior years so uh the other thing was the time which I think Mike is what Mr Kaufman's referring to that they would be able to work out the time in the morning with the parents they would work all that out as far as starting earlier at 6:15 or 6:30 to accommodate more of the parents Mr Gorski um also in in the contract is the lack of definition for the time start dates and end dates and um dates of service for Basque again to allow the collaboration between this committee to determine that on

030an ongoing basis Miss anelis um from what I understand most of the parents who work at the Bas program are Monroe residents what do we do if Bas decides that they're giving all this money to us and to cut the pay of these people we have no control over that but these are our residents and again if we're running the program we know what the pay is we know what the income is we know what we're getting from it we can decide what we're going to do with that money again either put it away give it back to the taxpayers lower the cost for parents they're not sending their children to daycare because they want to they're doing it because they're working and they have to and I think that any way this board can

031help we should Mr [Music] tesler yes Mike could you explain I think it was brought up at the finance meeting also uh just another point so everybody has all the information is that um compared to other districts that solder their own Basque program I believe you said it would take a few years actually make a profit um yes as part of the research into the design of of the consideration for an in-house bass program um I talked to the county business administrator and I talked to and I got Certified Financial audited financial statements from uh the East Brunswick Board of Education and what was apparent was these are separate proprietary funds meaning they're they're separate from the general fund that operates most of the school district's activities and like any new business Endeavor it takes

032a while to get the momentum and the profitability and to get up to speed East Brunswick's first year was um marginally profitable and it took probably three years for them to recognize a net income from all the different components of Basque which are which are numerous to be at about the $200,000 level that money again is considered retained earnings in a proprietary fund and can be transferred into the general fund once enough uh retain earnings is is sufficient to um Carry On The endeav of the operation um separate from the lease Revenue which would be a direct uh Revenue source to the general fund so I guess in oh sorry so I guess in kind of layman's term on that point is um if we uh did it ourselves we'd have to take whatever money

033we make and put aside and we wouldn't be touching it for a few years years uh if we go ahead with the contract we'll be able to recognize at least in the first three years the the $100,000 immediately and use it um is that that's correct that that's correct that the the administration would make every effort to make this as profitable right off the bat as possible right but uh as was the recommendation of our our board auditor um and the county executive business administrator they both suggested and uh that you build up a retain earnings um while you grow the profitability of the end daver to sustain itself and repay the loan back to the general fund for the Inception costs prior to uh any any any contribution back to the general fund the

034one one main concern I'm having about uh that about not supporting so I would like to move forward with the contract uh at least give them a chance for the next three years because I'm thinking we have a lot of things going on next year we're moving into Applegarth uh we're starting the daycare program and I I believe you know starting this up the same year maybe biting off a little more we can chew not that we couldn't but you know I don't if we don't have to I'd rather see us give this a go for three years uh recognize $100,000 and revisit it again in in three years plus reading the contract either party does have a uh right to terminate it within 60 days so you know if we see after the first

035year next summer you know comes around and we're not happy with it we do have the right to terminate it and move uh uh move on on our own next year before the term of the contract is up is that correct yes sir okay thank you Mr Klein though I don't serve on a committee I was at the committee meeting and I listened to the presentation made by the the young ladies from Basque um a lot of what has been said already a lot of it happened before I was on the board but part of it I do remember uh I think we have to come down to what is best for the residents and for the children and of what I've seen with Basque it's a winning [Applause] program whoa you almost never get

036that almost never my point is it's very it's very easy to say we can start our own and we can start our own something that Mr Tesla brought out which is true is we could either lose money the first year or marginally make a profit we don't know what's going to happen the second year we're going to have to fine-tune it I prefer to go with the program the way it is and allow input from our Administration and the parents whose children attend Basque to provide feedback as to what their needs are and then you adjust it I do not want to see raises to the parents if you want to talk cost of living absolutely right but like was said earlier I don't want to see that all of a sudden um we have

037to do this Improvement for $100,000 and we have to do this and you're going to attack it on to the parents I don't want to see that what you're entitled to absolutely and I'm sure the parents will go along with that but based on the presentation that I heard and what I know about Basque and speaking to some of the parents who have children involved I would rather see us continue with Basque and work as a team instead of working against one another and keep the program a winner or improve upon it and make it the best ever that's my opinion miss anelis all right so maybe somebody can explain this to me I'm a little confused the children are already in the program and they're already making a profit why if we employ the

038same people pay them the same money would we lose money the first year I I don't somehow that doesn't make any sense to me if they're bringing in that profit these children are already in the school and I seriously doubt parents are going to say oh the Board of Ed is running it get the kid out they were already here they're already coming to our school but when you mentioned Mr Klein she Mr Klein Miss anelis has the floor oh I'm sorry so I don't really understand and and Mr Klein I don't think we we would be working against them I think we'd be working for the children and the parents of Monroe now the the point that you brought out which I would like an explanation is and I think we spoke about this

039at one of the meetings there's no guarantee that the people that are employed by Basque are going to go to us they may go into another school district and take them so there's no guarantee that we're going to have the same the same leadership in Basque here the teachers or or the assistants what I don't know what you call them you may not have the same you may have to start from scratch look you're on the board a lot longer than I am you've gone back many many years with them same thing with Marvin and I appreciate what you say and and I do understand what you're worried about or what we can do Ira mentioned something like we had last year when we had to open up the middle school and we had to

040open up the high school at the same time now you have apple goth opening up and then we're going to start with the um the daycare and then if we were to start with a an after school and preschool program is that a lot for us to handle at this point two years down the road three years down the road maybe we can look at it again um also as far as the contract went uh there was one member of the committee that suggested one year they wanted five years then they came up with three years I don't think and I don't remember I read it and I I it just with everything going on in my personal life I just I just can't remember it do we have stipulated in the contract how many

041years this this for yes that's for three years three years okay again we have to we'll take a vote and we'll see how it falls um I just have to I that I voiced my opinion I'm I'm up I'm shut anyone else from the board okay seeing no one we'll have a roll call Mr Gorski M anelis no Mr Braverman [Music] no Mr Chella yes M fon Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes M colano yes mam board president motion thank [Music] [Applause] you Mr liry I believe that that was under your committee report no we also have another very fine uh report to make on a Comm the Bas came under your committee report yes okay now we have another item that the finance very good

042that U over the period do you have a microphone oh pardon me I'm sorry I okay uh just give me a second to grab some notes Here uh let's see okay we did refinancing and it was done completed what today Mike we closed on the bonds and the transaction today okay so it's late breaking news and it resulted in $2.5 million through the year 2029 and uh it's on a principal of $ 62.2 million and as Mike said with rates as low as they are we'll never see that kind of savings unless uh the interest rate become zero and I think that Mike is to be commended for shepherding this thing through because for a couple of days there it was bobbing up and down and uh he snagged it right at the right time

043in the right place I I speech now does that conclude your report that concludes my report is there anybody any other committee reports from Mr cockman uh yes we had a curriculum meeting this evening evening it was uh as all curriculum meetings very exciting and thought-provoking um before it used to be the technology committee right all right I I digress um the items that we talked about this evening were the uh basic skills proposal to um incorporate the uh after the um basic skills program at second grade um from an after school um component to an inclass um what would you call it program pushing pushing really all right uh pushing um so um we're going to Pilot that I believe this September uh do some benchmarking to see how successful it is and determine

044whether we can move forward with other grades um in in coming years um after we take a look at how well this performed uh we also took a look at the summer reading list um as well as talked a little bit about a uh a presentation um given by uh Bonnie Burke and Nancy and if you're in the audience again I'm sorry for making it extremely brief I literally gave them five minutes to talk about it uh but we were presented with a um a green living uh proposal to do um Hydroponics here in the high school to be able to grow uh some of the vegetables that we we um use on a daily basis uh in the school uh I've Got U some good information I'm hoping we can post this out on

045the website just to just for an FYI um while I think it's it's a really good program I instructed the administration to go back and double check with our insurance underwriter make sure it would be able to be okay uh because growing vegetables and then using it for consumption within the district so I want to make sure that we're covered from a from an underwriting liability whole you know uh perspective yes um and what else uh course of studies is on the website our course of studies is on the website thank you um and we I asked that that team to give us an update on the iPad program for the next uh curriculum meeting so that's it anyone else with a committee report seeing none then we will go to Other Board of Education

046business Mr Klein my favorite subject what was it four months ago I said I'd never speak about it again I finally received a letter from the state supreme court from the supervisor ing head attorney not the clerks the head attorney and what I had asked briefly in my last letter was a hearing in front of a representative from the Supreme Court where Dr Hamilton and Mr Gorski and um our financial uh heads of the committee um plead OAS and the answer I got and I I didn't take the letter with me cuz I came here from the hospital um basically what they said is we are not allowed to bring up anything at the Supreme Court level we have to file suit which I've been asking for as you know for a year and a

047half in the appell at Division and no matter what the decision that's made at the appell at division we then have a right to file with the Supreme Court to file a case with the Supreme Court for them to to hear and here our police so I was very happy to get that CU before I was getting a snow job from two different clerks the last thing is all I've heard since the last meeting was about um our district our board having to cut zero period busing and after school busing that's all I hear people stop me at the stores and they stop me at the doctor's office I would like to know if people are so angry did they send letters out did they send letters to the New Jersey Board of Education did

048they send letters out to Governor Christie we are being penalized because we were over adequacy in other words they want us to be run-of-the-mill like the average below average school district district and when we do something like this for the betterment of our students in our district we're penalized you know what my stance was when it came to cutting that I didn't want to cut it this board didn't want to cut it we were forced to so I ask that the parents start writing letters I've been asking for three years about the uh the funding if you're angry enough don't yell at don't yell at us here yell at the state send letters to the state bombard them with it that's all I ask thank you okay is there any Mr Kaufman uh I know

049we haven't uh picked the the the person who's going to run the daycare program I just want to make sure you know September is like right around the corner I want to make sure from the administration's perspective that other than the person who's running it we know all the things that what we're going to do how we're going to provide it where they're going to go all the other things behind it we have a site visit tomorrow from the state of courtesy site visit um we have in writing what licensing requirements we have to meet which is essentially none but they're providing this service for us as soon as we get the director slad teer on board we'll begin to order supplies and materials we have a roster of potential students expressed by teachers their

050interest expressed by teachers so I think we're in a good place do we have a waiting list no we don't have a waiting list yet anyone else Miss anel um yes um I believe that we have a policy about animals um especially dogs on our fields and I've been told that for the last few weekends when wreck has been practicing at our football in our practice field people are bringing dogs and and I think we need to address this because the parent who told me said that her child didn't even want to get out of the car because somebody was walking around with a big German Shepherd and of course we know that animals do have to go to the bathroom um nobody said they saw anybody cleaning any up and I think we need

051to address this you know we don't allow smoking and our policy is no dog so um I think we need to we'll definitely take that out with Jerry tag and and I don't actually ever recall seeing signage to that effect no we don't and maybe that's what we need to be a good idea um scoper scoopers um the other item was um item h on the superintendent report the Educational Services representative were we going to vote on that tonight yes the Board needs to um make a recommendation for or a nomination actually for who that person would be and then that person would need to accept or decline so is that on your report to do Kathy no it's on yours guess we skipped over should be corrected middle sex Regional Educational Service Commission M

052I had a note here some is anybody interested in that position Amy oh I recomend Amy you're GNA nominate Amy I nominate oh that was easy done next all in favor I opposed congratulations Amy I'm glad you WR that up she's our new middle sex Regional Educational Services Commission representative and I think you handled that last year yes yes thank you very much okay any Miss saeron um am just made me think of something and I don't know if Dr Hamilton or Mike know the answer but the no leftand turn coming up Pineville Road was it the thinking behind that because they're the island because I see everybody pulling in in the morning and I know a few people have gotten tickets when the policemen are out there but was that just because the traffic

053backup on primeville what was the thinking behind that do you know the Department of Transportation um provides us with guidelines for how those directionality has to happen and so they were the ones who essentially put that in place it really was beyond the scope of our influence anyone else Mr Masters the housekeeping the next buildings and grounds we need to make sure we add a discussion of the motion um the follow-up motion for moving the trailers at Applegarth we were supposed to do it the last buildings and grounds meeting and it wasn't on the agenda I just want to make sure it's on the May buildings and grounds meeting thank you whoever that is for breaking the tension that's just a housekeeping issue well one of the things I know in a curriculum today we

054kind of ran out of time to do some things so we might need to consider adding more time to some of our um big committees because we seem to um lack the time to ask all the questions that we need to in order to make um good decisions so it might be up to the um the heads chairs of those commission uh those committees to decide how much time you might need that particular question on that is it um excuse me m one and a half hours of apps they always go along but it's the last one of the day and that that seems to happen Mally I'm sorry Mr Masters thank you do we have to post start and in times for meetings or just start times just start so if we just don't

055put them back to back we could theoretically go over correct okay right but if we have one that started at 600 and one that started at 700 the 7:00 one has to start at 7 start at 5 but that's something we're going to have to look at okay and I if I Mr trell I just want to piggy back on what Mr Masters just talked about because I think that's important um and we could talk about it at the committee and then at the next Board of Ed meeting but I think that just having the insurance policy you know the ability to move those trailers if we need to just to have the the uh the paperwork filed since we've already paid the fees I think that that's probably just a prudent thing to do

056to make sure that our that we're protected should there ever be a need that Rises where those those trailers you know could be needed so that we're not where the district doesn't incur further costs or or time delays should we have a need for those trailers okay anyone else okay then I I want to bring up something um in regard to this superintendent evaluation uh for those of you who were not able to attend our meeting on Monday um this past Monday night the Board of Education held a special meeting where we conducted a workshop presented by our field service representative from New Jersey school boards on how to evaluate a superintendent since we have some new board members who have not received training in this area and we have some long-term members who have

057not had training in a while it was recommended by Dr Hamilton that the Board of Education receive a refresher course in the evaluation process the evaluation process starts with the um Chief School administrator which is Dr Hamilton providing the board with his progress towards achievement in District goals which the board has already received um we also received many updates during the year on a regular basis the chief School administrator then fills out his portion of an evaluation form which is then given to board members for them to complete the the evaluation anonymously either online or in District the results of the evaluations are compiled and given to the board president at a future Board of Education meeting after the um board president receives the evaluations the board will meet an executive session to discuss the

058results of the evaluation without the superintendent in attendance after that discussion a written summary which is based on the majority opinion of the board will be done by the president and the vice president of the board a written summary will be given to the chief School administrator and then a summary meeting will be held with uh Dr Hamilton and the board in executive session the evaluation concludes with a written report that is signed by both the superintendent and the board president and I believe that's what um the process that we were given the other day so this evening the board will be discussing how we would like to conduct this evaluation and the timeline in doing so since the evaluation is supposed to be completed by April 30th of each year it is pretty obvious

059that we're not not going to be able to do that this year and hold on to that timeline so Dr Hamilton has agreed to give the board permission in writing to extend the date of completion of the evaluation unfortunately due to conflict of interest both Miss anelis and Mr Kaufman will not be able to participate in any part of the evaluation process so at this time I want to open up to the board for any comments or questions or discussion on how you would like to see the evaluation process go and a timeline Mr tesler um I would like to see it online um as uh recommended by the our field rep for uh the U New Jersey school boards I think doing it online and filling out the form online prevents things from getting

060lost in the mail uh we know who completed it and we know who didn't um and the first step would be Dr Hamilton filling out his part turning it over to us and then we fill out all our parts and then submit it to you so I think it'll streamline the process if we did it online that's my opinion since I'm the techy guy um I think uh we probably have enough time our next board meeting is the in two weeks so I'm getting a big no so I guess uh I think that would be pretty difficult pretty difficult for two weeks for discussion on the night so either we would I think we surely have enough time to uh do it by the June board meeting or have a special board meeting maybe toward

061the end of May we can meet our timeline I we lat ready but we can maybe get a jump on it so I guess probably having some a special meeting just to discuss the evaluation toward the end of May maybe in four weeks I don't mean to interrupt you but between May 9th and June 20th we don't have a scheduled board meeting so it might be a good idea to put another something in the middle so that those are my comments Mr Chella yeah I just I want to thank Dr Hamilton for for doing this because we also had to extend this last year I think it's going to be incumbent upon the board on all of us to to to uh to to move on that as quickly as possible only because I think

062that's what's right considering that you know this is the second year where this is happen and I understand that there's you know we're we're going to do some things differently and uh and maybe make it better more well-rounded uh review process for all of us so that's it's more it's smooth it goes smoothly and we we all understand but I just think it's important for us to do the right thing by Dr Hamilton also since he's been good enough to extend this anyone else Mr lry uh I was confined for 6 weeks and I became available on the 17th of uh April and so uh I see a need definitely for an extension and I'm an old fogy and I prefer long hand in a and a pad of paper Okay anyone on Mr Braverman

063yeah um I if you remember remember I asked a couple of questions about rating um Dr Hamilton in in the U on the form and if you remember the form it said uh commendable exceptional average etc etc and then I asked if the proper thing to do is to average all the scores and she said no and she was she gave gave a fairly valid uh reason for not doing that so I was giving that some thought and since probably all of us uh don't Define commendable or exceptional the same way and the way the whole thing is operated is Dr Hamilton will be rating himself first and then we get the form would it be beneficial if we just rated it as agree or disagree if you disagree you simply tell them why if

064you agree there's not much to do I thought that would simplify it well that would simplify and it would also be changing the form that school boards uses that we use from school boards that's simple enough just cross off the five items and put agree and disagree sorry Mr Masters the only issue I have with that is um from what I'm experienced doing is you you have to equate eventually you have to equate it comes down to money and using those numbers to money is a lot easier than using agree or disagrees to equate it to money I I also disagreed with her about the averages I think the averages is a good way to do it because it does she said it was bad to get rid of the PO the tops and the

065bottoms but I think it's good to get rid of the tops and the bottoms because you filter out the the problem reviews um so I'm disagreeing with you I'm saying we shouldn't have a two yes or no or agreen disag I think we should have the five level um but I do agree with we should the commendable stuff I agree that's kind of it's fancy words um we might want to boil that down to um something a little easier to understand because you're right I have a very probably very drastically different view of commendable a lot of people do and I I don't want that to impact Dr Hamilton because you know right well that we can have that discussion too as she said is because the five categories starting from the bottom is not

066observed um unsatisfactory needs Improvement meets expectations and commendable so we can have that discussion as to what you feel each each of those categories represents Mr Klein wasn't there an explanation on the first page detailing what each um each rating meant or what qualified for the rating yes there is right because the same way this type of evaluation that she showed and like we used last year is very similar to the evaluation that's used for other employees other staff people where it's not just yes and no or doing a job not doing a job there's an in between and some things are going to fall in between you don't want to say well it's no good when in reality it may be proficient so that's why I like the way that is the full explanation

067which is like the one that's used for our staff members it explains what each rating what meets the qualifications for the rating and then it's up to us to justify what we give and then we have comments on the bottom and as she said um it's very very important for us to put comments in so if it's if it's an excellent response whoever rates it that way should put the comments why it's excellent if there are problems there have to be comments and then when it's put together at the end of this process then at least we have a solid report good bad and ugly that will go to the superintendent and I I guess I'll explain to the um to the public that the um evaluation is two parts the first part is progress

068toward District goals and objectives which is the part that Dr Hamilton would be filling out and giving to us and then we would have to um agree or disagree that those um goals and objectives are being met the second part is for the um board to F out and it is a document that is identified by the New Jersey Professional Standards for school leaders and this portion of the evaluation measures performance and Leadership or executive skills as outlined in policy 2131 which gives the parameters of the superintendent's job so that would be the part that we would fill out um so that's just a little um so telling the public what the evaluation looks like so I I guess we would have a lot of um different things first we'd have to decide whether you

069want to do it online or inhouse can I just comment oh sure Mr bravoman I thank you um it it doesn't bother me that a lot of you disagree with me because over the years you usually come around and we could we could start with the number of meetings we have every month we can start with a lot of other things but anyway and and I'm not being you um the ratings commendable meets expectations you're right they're all defined but you would interpret a definition differently than I would because I would expect everything he does to meet expectations I would expect that he is commendable because if he's not I think we should get rid of him I want the best and and that's the difference so no matter no matter what what the definition

070says we still would look at it differently interpretation and in terms of the increase I think that's built into the contract anybody so where do we want to go from here do we want to do it online do we want to do it inhouse cuz but what happens when we do it online is and I'm not a tech person so online is not good for me um but you fill out it and it anonymously goes to the um School boards they compile everything that you write and it gets sent to the board um president when it's done um in District it's done the same way only they get sent to Mike gorsky's office anonymously and then get sent to me and I do the compiling and the um uh the um analysis either way I

071won't know who's who's sending me anything so they're both Anonymous okay does school boards charge for that service we pay school boards I I believe it's part of it right it's not an additional I think we should do it online Mr T I I think we should do it online also I think it okay even though I'm old and I could are Mr Miss Miss Fon we I I'm a little more it savvy than you just a little but we jamesb does DARS online it's very easy and painless which I am all about painless okay so would it would we agree because we don't really have to make motions and that we would be doing an online Mr Braverman would would that be okay what are people having been an educator yes Mr I served

072for seven years on [Music] the sex Regional Education Service commiss and I was ohn Mr M could you please I'm sorry oh oh I start over again okay I served for seven years on the middle sex Regional Educational Service Commission and I was a member of the executive committee that did this work because there was 25 directors and uh we did it manually uh Mark Franklin gave us each a book this thick that answered all the questions that are being asked and then we reviewed it and then we sat down with him and said good job bad job needs Improvement here and uh so I'm I'm going to stick with my old fogy approach well unfortunately we're all going to have to do it the same way okay if Force measure I I respectfully we'll

073do it but I'm just saying my brothers are do it the old fogy way yeah but still meeting with Dr Hamilton in the end anyway yeah yeah so it's just a matter of doing it online and coming to me or doing it manual and coming to me um Mr Klein how do I use a computer yeah no I'm kidding so we'll agree that we'll do it online yes so now do we want to have a timeline where we want this completed yes which would be nice yes we do I think if we can add another meeting in may we can have the board discussion in May and then by the June meeting or if we have a June meeting instead of the end of May we'll be able to have this completed with Dr Hamilton

074is that good when are we off from we're [Music] off so what works or what's the week in June birthday that's not good that would work that's what I mean do you have a date either the 23d [Music] has an obligation on the senior Awards senior Awards oh this is going to work out well how about the 22nd of May that works does the 22nd Tuesday the 22nd Work no mik sorry what's okay you how about the first week in June how about June 5th or June 7th yes is that going to be for the final or is that going talk that's just the the the discussion in Clos session the final will be held on I believe ex later on the 20th what dat did you say the 5ifth or the 7th I don't

075know yeah I don't know anybody who has a senior sth is there anything going on that week what's to keep up the uh Awards to senior it's uh May 24th how about Tuesday um June 5th works for me okay because we need everybody here we make it Tuesday June it's mandatory meeting and that what's the goal in this meeting well that would be when we get back the um all the evaluations and it would be a discussion with the board and then so you need everybody to submit before yes that that would be a good idea um then we if if Dr Hamilton can get his um evals done by Monday maybe send it to the board no now you're under the tomorrow actually the superintendent's action plan so it's essentially done yeah and then

076I and and then I guess um that would be um how about May 1st then we could if we had would two weeks be enough time for you to do it online so that we could get it to the school boards by the 15th and then I have no idea how long it takes them to get it back to me because I don't think she did she mention that the other day how long it takes no no but that would give three weeks and I don't think that would be a problem so if Dr Hamilton can get his out next week and then we have them back to school boards on May 15th are we using the same format that she gave us or we making up our own format not we're doing it online

077that's the format you have to format yeah okay good Kathy I'm sorry was is uh is Dr Hamilton able to get that done by I mean this because today's already Thursday I know we got action plan number six Wednesday it's dark already I'm I think I can do that well if if you decide you need it then you let us know and and we yep okay so we'll have them back to school boards by May May 15th and then we'll have our meeting on June 5th and then after that Mr Chella and I have a summary to write and then we will be working with you on the meeting of June 20th okay does that work that works that works for everybody you're going to send these forms out to us no they're online online

078the computer thing in front of you I'll send instructions with the usern password I'm an old man I can't I know okay Mr Gorski is school kids help he's going to send you a step bystep process on how to do that just show me how to start the computer when I'll yeah well he's going to help you with the step by step I have my 17-year-old grandson to help me wonderful my 5-year-old can do better than I do okay so are we all on the same page with this now yes yes okay page 24 so is there any other board business just one other question which I meant to bring up before no the dates of fine okay um when we go into Clos session yes whenever we get these reports on harassment can't we

079also in this report State what the harassment was because I remember that one month we had like 46 and of the 46 maybe two or three constituted bullying uh is that possible is that legal to do um I have to check because the statutes have changed some I mean I'm starting to see stuff here Barkley Brook you know young kids oak tree it's it says whether they're um confirmed or not confirmed but it doesn't list the um I don't think the new reports actually list that it would be very in you know the information would be very important to us if we saw what some of these these things are Mr L you can see why several months ago I said it is an Abomination and I stand by hi Mr Trella yeah I just

080have a quick question I'd like Mr Klein to clarify he says he has a 5-year-old can you explain please he's in Bethlehem Pennsylvania you got to see me pick horses okay okay so are we completed with other board business no ma'am no you have more no I said no oh I said never mind close s be it resolved that the board of we're going to close session resolution be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into Clos session in accordance with Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 col 4-6 through 10 col 4-21 to discuss the following subjects student matters harassment intimidation and bullying incidents number 113 through 1220 the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public

081at such time as the matters have been resolved a motion a second to go into close session moved Mr tesler miss anelis all in favor opposed uh extensions at this time we will move into closed session should not take us very long at all at this time the board will go back into public session and we will have the public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record Jennifer hijack 12 Sycamore Court um I guess my comments were probably supposed to happen at the beginning of the meeting but I didn't know you were going to be discussing Bas under a committee report so I didn't know that was part of the agenda um I think a lot of the parents would

082have liked that opportunity to speak but it went so fast we didn't understand because in the agenda it didn't specifically mention bask being discussed so it would have been nice to be able to voice our opinions before your vote um my comments tonight need to be considered though if and when you ever do consider taking over The Basque program in case I'm not here to speak in the future um I have used the Basque program for the past 10 years and I'm very happy with the program my child enjoys going and and is very well cared for by an excellent staff I hear that the board is looking to simplify and make the program less less flexible that was the wording I was given from Andrea and the other girl who works from Basque if

083the Takeover is being done strictly as a money maker which I'm gathering from this side of the board table especially from Miss Intel she keeps saying she's so worried about the working parent well please listen to me I speak for many working parents if it's strictly going to be a money maker I would think that considering last month's decision that this board came to to cut the late run busing that severely affected working parents that you didn't seem to care very much about last month should provide you with plenty of money that you should not need to Target the same group of students and parents two months in a row for those of you parents and many of them left who might not be aware because you have younger children who are not yet in

084the middle school or the high schools this board decided at the last meeting to do away with all courtesy busing and clubs for clubs and sports effective September 2012 don't worry Dr Hamilton feels that is not going to be a problem and participation should not decline because parents could simply form car pulse as B parents par s many of you here work and I hope you will find it easy to arrange a car pull for your child to be able to participate in after school activities as for myself my son's very best friends are his Basque friends those are the children who he spends many many hours with year after year after year regardless of what class he's in all of these children who he's friends with have working parents and they will find themselves

085in the same predicament as I am I ask the board to stop targeting the same group of students over and over whether be by doing away entirely with services or altering programs that we as working parents are very dependent upon ever since I spoke at the last meeting many people have approached me asking what we can do to raise money that we need to keep the buses I would like to submit something that goes very much in line with s such of the board members said over here about charging Basque to use facilities according to this email I got there are many things that use our facilities such as the rec department Girl Scouts even Monroe Community Church apparently uses Barkley Brook on Sundays this gentleman sent me an email highlighting all the ways we

086can raise revenue to hopefully pay for our buses unfortunately I'm not even sure that raising money is the answer it seems like we won't even be allowed to spend any raised money on our kids everything extra seems to be considered over adequacy it seems like a huge catch22 the bottom line it's already been decided for this year but for the next time it comes up don't mess with a good quality programs such as Basque just to make money that you might not even be able to spend on our students anyway thank you is there anyone else from the public Danielle Taylor 7 black o Court um I again wanted to talk about B ask if or when it does come up again my main concern is with the K WP kindergarten I think that it's

087a conflict of interest and I don't think that you should profit off of kindergarten and that something I should be provided for for free I think if you're going to do the program we should get full day kindergarten for free um I also personally know that that East Brunswick thing that you looked into their program that they run it's awful from other parents that I've heard of that are in the program I just want to let you know that thank you thank you anyone else from the public Jennifer Williams 359 Buckaloo Avenue Dr Hamilton has already received emails from me regarding Basque so I apologize that you have to hear this all again but just for everybody um first of all I'm highly offended by you just calling it a babysitting service it is not

088just a baby bitting service I'd like for Miss Carmella to stand up stand up you need to be recognized because my daughter's been in the program for three years um she had a difficult transition from from going from um a full day daycare where they had naps Miss Carmela was wonderful with the transition where um going from kindergarten to K they're not allowed to have naps you know it's not the same as when you're in preschool or daycare when they're when the state um recom the state says you have to they mandate it um Miss Carmela was wonderful with that um there is a curriculum that she uses for KP and there is also um she sends home monthly um uh emails to us that say what they're learning in KP as well as what

089their the topics are that they're doing um in the Bas after school and before school program okay so there's a curriculum that she uses also so that is not babysitting especially when it's KP it's not babysitting it's almost like a second kindergarten that these kids are getting okay second uh another thing is that the staff is all very seasoned we have grandparents we have parents um we have very well trained Miss Carmela has trained even the college students and the high school students that work there um that are well trained I work in another District where it's provided through the rec center um and they do it in our school it's high school and college students they are on their C cell phones all the time they are socializing that does not happen at our

090bass program and I recommend that you guys go over and look at it I don't know if your children partook in it or do partake in it but I recommend you go over and you see what the program is like especially at the Barkley Brook one that's the only one I can speak to but but um she trains the staff they are not allowed to sit and socialize they are not allowed to be on their cell phones and the staff has been steady it's been the same people and when they go off to college they come back on their breaks and they're still working there so my daughter has had the same staff for three years and Mr Frank who runs the one over at Brookside used to be a Barkley Brooks so there's a

091really nice transition they also have where they transition they have a couple days that they go over back and forth so that they get to know the staff there um let's see what else um there are staff that have just great skills and activities they all have varied skills um there's you know one that my daughter speaks about all the time where he's always teaching them the jokes there's another one that they um that the girls teach them all those little hands songs like Miss Mary Mack that we all learned you know it it's not just babysitting I could pay for a babysitter to come to my house but this is also really good socialization time for my daughter because we don't live in a development we live on a main road so um and

092then the other thing that I wanted to say about about the Basque program is that you cannot compare it to East Brunswick starting next year because East Brunswick is going to have full day kindergarten their profits are going to change now in their after school program it's not going to be the same as our Pro as what occurs here we don't have full day kindergarten I don't even know if we'll ever get full day kindergarten so it's not you're going to be comparing apples to oranges after this year because they're not going to have that part of their after school program anymore because they're going to a full day kindergarten so if you start to look at their if you want to talk about profit and you don't want to talk about my child's safety

093then the next three years while this contract is in place start to look and see does East Brunswick still make that same amount of profit or not okay thank thank you your time has ran out I have just two more things that are not on Bas we have we have a three minute limit and we have gone over your limit so okay you can come back at the endk you for speaking out on behalf of Baskin thank you all of you who voted for it so parents who have their kids in the program really do appreciate it thank you anyone else from the [Applause] public uh Doug Bo for tamarak Road uh I I've sat and listened to all these comments about Basque because I had no clue as to what that was uh and

094I'm sure that you know many of the uh people on the board I guess everyone on the board understood what that program is all about and many of the people in the audience understood what that program was all about but once again since this is a public meeting I would have appreciated and I think for the purposes of the video that would appear on Channel 28 later uh there are residents in the community that probably have no idea what you're talking about I've inferred some things but I would still appreciate some general remarks as to what that program is all about and exactly what action was taken tonight that appears to be changing that in some way uh I'm just a little confused uh so I would appreciate that um also uh I would very

095much appreciate um and I heard some reference to it so this may be preliminary but uh a status update on our uh iPad initiative uh particularly uh how many courses uh do we have that uh we have the textbook uh you know on the iPad uh I am aware of one course but I don't know if there's any other courses um and have we been experiencing any problems this year how many of the iPads have actually uh had to be replaced or broken uh I know there was a prediction at the beginning of the program that that would be a very small number I'm just wondering uh are we still within that limit uh so to speak uh I have heard word and this is understandable uh but I've heard word that the young new

096teachers are all into it but your older veteran teachers won't touch it a and so therefore that seems to call for the need of some type of program particularly next year uh particularly for those more veteran teachers that don't want want to make use of it uh I've heard of another problem with the iPad and that is that some teachers assign projects and sometimes when the project is due suddenly the iPad gets uh taken up by the uh the tech office or whoever collects them and so the kid can't get the uh you know the iPad there because they're they're claiming they have to update them uh it it's just a little confusing so that's the reason I would appreciate uh some information on that because that's a big new Initiative for this year thank

097you okay in regard to the iPads at our curriculum meeting earlier this evening Mr Coffman who was the chair of curriculum had asked Mr or doctor I'm sorry Dr Gorman for an update on the iPad initiative which he will be giving to us at the next meeting so if you attend on May 9th we will be getting an update on the iPads um The Basque program I'll have Mr Gorski give you a little history about that but Basque is the before and after CARE program that we have at our schools apologize for the use of the acronym Basque um BC before and after school care program it has several different factions of services provided to students um before school begins and after school concludes and um you've heard some of the commentary from the audience

098about what that entails the program began I believe in 2004 um when there was a a need expressed by parents in The District 94 1994 excuse me and um what was UN what was being considered tonight was a offer by Basque for the program to remain external of the district um because preceding that the district had prepared some research as far as taking the program inhouse and operating it through a proprietary fund under the management of the Board of Education um Dr Hamilton and I met with bask at the finance committee meeting last week where we presented Basque with a counter offer of $100,000 each year for the next three years which Basque agreed to and uh that was voted affirmatively by the Board of Education tonight to allow the before and after school care

099program to continue to operate under Basque Incorporated okay okay is there anyone else from the public wishing to speak good evening Tom not Stein 15 Nathaniel Street um first question why wasn't the agenda on the website tonight that's uh first question was the agenda not on the website I didn't check I I honestly didn't check I assumed it was there yeah no I I checked right up into the end and actually right up to the time I came up here and it was the only one that was there was the special meeting from two nights ago so we have to really it's imperative that gets up there because a lot of us like to see that before we come to the to the meeting if we're even going to attend or not we'll make sure

100it's on for the next meeting I appreciate that um with regards to the before and after school care um once again I have to um applaud the the board I know that there's not any member on this board that thinks that the Basque is a poor done program I I that's exactly the opposite of what the board was trying to convey tonight especially the two people that uh voted against it um their concerns as my concerns are is that this is a private industry um there's other providers out there that may even be able to do a better job than Basque but you have excluded them from even being allowed to bid on this process this is basically a non-competitive bid that you have awarded tonight and I don't even think that's illegal uh to

101do that you are giving them without anybody else negotiating on this contract you actually the the board here has a need and that need is a before and after school care provider but what you've done tonight you've actually taken a monopoly and you've approved that Monopoly and you didn't even ask to see if there's any other better provider ERS out there was there a specification that was given to Basque as to the minimum level of uh service that the this board requires wait was there yes okay was that was that bid to someone was that requested overall um let me uh go to your first question regarding the uh competitive nature of the contract the before and after school care operation has been been since Inception been approved by the board and been exempt by

102the bidding process as it has been considered a extraordinary un unspecifiable service and under that exemption bid specs for this particular endeav would have been difficult to prepare because of the type of um proposal and would be unpractical because of the specific design of services That Bass provides and the limited amount of competition that could be foreseen to bid on the um program I this has been in effect since 94 I would think between now and n and between now and 94 we should have been able to write a a spec at this point I could understand that at when it was implemented in 94 we didn't have anything to go on but we certainly know what we want based on what they're providing why could that not have been in a bid spec and

103put out for a bid I think I think there would be I think this board would probably uh feel better about that themselves because we know we might be able to get a better price for for the uh for the for the parents if if for example the Board of Education was um offering the utility of the high school baseball fence for an advertising sign that would certainly fall under the bidding requirements because you have multiple vendors who seek the same interest and could in a competitive nature benefit the board by such a process because of the nature the fee structure the services provided the professional lur that are involved by Basque um that is deemed impractical and has been discussed with board counsel and has been in effect since Inception again but couldn't it

104have at least been put out for Bid And if what you're saying is true no one would bid on it and I think I know for myself I'd feel much better knowing that hey you know what they are the only provider it it certainly could have but the extraord orary unidentifiable um service exemption is such to avoid unnecessary expenses for the bed Board of Education and the impracticality of bidding where it's unforeseeable that you would have any competition to um bid on such a service because of its very design in nature and because the development of bid specs would also be an additional unnecessary expense in that particular in that particular instance well I okay I see where you're coming from but my concern also is uh we've all heard the expression too big to

105fail if they mismanage their funds and go out of business tomorrow we're left in quite the Lurch from what you're telling me because there's nobody in this whole state that could come in and provide that service is that accurate I believe that is accurate and the parents would be back in the same boat that they started in so isn't that even more of an impetus to have it taken over by the board it's not for me to comment then that should be food for thought for all these board members because too big to fail we've heard that and here's a perfect example of The Perfect Storm where this board is setting that up to potentially happen thank you for your time thank you anyone else from the public my name is Mariam Lavin 42 Narrows

106way I'm just asking the board to consider uh giving classroom space to bask for the K program uh as you all currently know current currently kindergarten students who attend oak tree are sent to Barkley Brook for the K program and then bu over tog tree these kids are 5 years old and they're being busted you know in the middle of the day in addition to their you know normal busting at other times just be great if we could have a a k wrap program at Oak Tree in addition to on the other side of town at Barkley Brook we are working on that great thank you anyone else from the public Christa shy 8 Forman Avenue being an employee of Basque since 1994 and also going to the schools in monra um I would just

107like to say that I would like to invite anyone and also I'd like to say I'm now although I was a babysitter at the age of 12 now being a certified teacher and running the K program at mil Lake I would like to invite anyone at any time to come see the wonderful work that we do for the children and um it I'm glad that the board did vote the way they did and it's a shame that you'd consider ever getting rid of any of us thank you thank you anyone else from the [Applause] public we'll give you an extra 30 seconds right Andrea macowski and this is lorii right we are the um owners that have been referred to um at Basque we just wanted to very briefly thank the board for um allowing

108us to stay for at least three more years and we hope it's a lot longer than that um but just since this is we're on public record and I don't know if we'll have this opportunity we just wanted to clear up a couple of points that we feel are important um number one the origin we didn't come to Monroe and ask if we could run our program here for no money we were asked to come in um it was um perpetuated by the mayor's office at that time through the rec center and then through the Board of Ed so we were invited to come and give a presentation um to the board we were then accepted um we didn't come to you and say can we just use your space for free um at no

109time ever were we asked um to pay more rent and we said no we can't afford it that's a rumor that's been going around for a long time and the part about um because then we'd have to um pass that along to the parents again that's a rumor we've heard for years absolutely never happened um we never said that to anybody in fact it's not happening now and it wouldn't have happened then so I just want to make it clear we were never asked by the board to pay more we never said if we did we would pass it along um and I understand that you've heard that because we've heard it too and we told the finance committee last week that that's a rumor that's been buzzing um untrue so I just wanted to

110clear our name there that um whenever in the past we were asked for um an increase by Mr holiday we've always agreed um because we know that's the way business is done so that's that um um Mr Braverman asked about ratios you know why you know it was just the way it was stated in the contract which again we didn't write um what wasn't mentioned here is we are licensed by dius um Dr Hamilton was referring to the Child Care Program um that you don't have to be because you're a board program but since we are for-profit and privately run we are under dias's um licensing they come in regularly they check our staff they check our programming but the ratios for dius are very very strict they say that we need one stack for

111every 18 children we are closer to one to either 10 or 12 we are um we have much more staff than dius requires us to because we think it makes a better program and of course for the safety of the children so we're very aware of that um and again I just you know want to make that clear um we will not be firing staff we love our staff this is not this is a business that's not going to go out of business um we're in 18 schools in New Jersey um we've been doing this since 1994 Lori and myself grew this business and we're not just two moms who run I don't want to say that word again um you know we have professional staff the b word yeah the b word um but

112we um we won't and oh the important thing here is um it might sound corny but we truly think that these people are our family our staff a lot of them have been with us since 1994 that's a really long time um and families you heard of one mother who's been here for 10 years um and every business might not say that but that's one reason we fought really hard and are willing to pay this money of course part of it is a business decision but we don't want to lose Monroe and we don't want to um have our staff that's been with us for so long be out of work a lot of our staff or kids who were maybe in our kindergarten program and have come up and work for us now but

113just to address your issue um all our staff isn't from Monroe most of them are but we will not be firing any of them at least not for this reason um um so want to make that clear and anything else your your time has time is that so again it's just a big thank you very much and come and visit us and we do do surveys all the time by the way that's nothing new um and we'll work with you to continue doing that Dr Hamilton would like to respond if you would call and set up um a meeting so that we can talk about oak tree and the request for the middle school we to do do that yeah great thank you I just want to commend our wonderful staff anyone else from the

114public okay seeo i' like to make an observation wait a second seeing no one we will close our public forum Mr ly uh we've had experience with the bidding process people come in with low bids but they've got low quality they have held up the construction of schools we've had to have lawyers go work Hammers and tongs I much prefer quality over low price said as clearly demonstrated by these women this is a highquality program and we should stick with it Mr Gorski I I just wanted to add to Mr Larry's uh comment about the bidding process um the business office and and in conjunction with the superintendent and administration Prides ourself on compliance with all bidding and quoting laws in the district we put many things out to quote that we're not required to

115just to seek the better price we buy under State contract quite often by going out for competitive quotes and we saved over $350,000 this year by joining a countywide purchasing Consortium for supplies um if if this was required to be bid we would be required to pick the lowest qualified um responsible bidder but again this was exempt from the bidding process because it is categorized as a extraordinary unidentifiable service Mr Braverman I I would just like to say that uh taking the lowest bid is a mistake that many school board members make it's actually the lowest responsible bid well that's what he just said I just wanted to reiterate it Dr Hamilton I just need to make a correction to something I said earlier Mr Kaufman I said that we were having a site visit

116tomorrow uh at the M Lake an it's actually next week I check my calendar okay our next schedule public Board of Education meeting TV will be held Wednesday May 9th 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the high school at which we will honor our teachers of the year um motion to adjourn the meeting motion to adjourn Mr lay who is second second by Mr Tesla all in favor opposed extensions meeting is adjourned was