001good evening the meeting of the Monro 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 may we have a roll call Mr Gorski Mrs kapano here Mr tesler here miss antelis Mr Braverman the uh president okay Mr chela here Mr calman Mr Masters Mr poy here Mr proso here Mr zareski here Madame board president you have a quarum thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted November 7th 2013 one at
002all schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press and four filed with the clerk of the municip municipality and before we get to our student board members reports I would like to congratulate Mr Kaufman on his reelection to the board of education and welcome Michelle armino and Tom noin to our board um you will be a welcome addition to us when you get sworn in in January and we all look forward to working with you to continue uh educational excellence in Monroe so welcome and I want to talk to Lou Lou Masters and Ira because I know there's been some disappointment over there um and sometimes we don't realize what we have done when we're on the board it's like we never feel like we've done enough for children so I was thinking about and
003Ira you've been here 7 years almost and Lou three and a half what has been accomplished so the short list two pages short list um is the the opening of oak tree school which is on Mr Tesla's watch untime under budget and returning money to the taxpayers the opening of the new high school on time under budget and returning money to the taxpayers the renovation and Remediation of Apple gorth making it a safe and healthy school Under the operating budget the renovation of the old high school into the mono Township Middle School under the operating budget we put new roofs on bar uh Brookside School in the morasco Performing Arts Center we've had two successful negotiations during your time here with no increase in the budget we've lowered our adequacy spending we've cut $17 million
004from our budget we've made many Safety and Security upgrades improved test scores added buses to our Fleet which has been a safety issue implemented Avid helping the children in the middle we have improved our special ed program and added an autistic apartment in the high school we've implemented Mecca and the kindergarten enrichment program to help us um with added Revenue to our budget and we' see received a lot of recognition in our district in 2012 the school boards we've won an award for innovation in education for Creative classroom mus of Technology we've been recognized in 2012 as one of the top performing high schools in Middle sex County this past September inside New Jersey magazine named us one of the top performing public high schools and I believe Dr Hamilton might have some more good
005news under your report so we've done all this and much more while adding over 1,200 students to the district decreasing the tax rate from 18.7 cents 2 years ago to 2.5 cents this past budget and our graduation rate is over 98% so both of you have a a lot to be proud of during your time here and I I'd like to thank you on behalf of the board for your service to Monroe to our community and to our children thank you [Applause] so at this time we'll go to our student board members reports thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen in October the students of Brookside raised money for breast cancer awareness by purchasing pencils and bracelets the entire fundraiser was ran by the student council the fifth grade students of Brookside donated their leftover
006Halloween candy and made care packages for the troops in Iraq they're sending the candy with handwritten letters and thank you cards to celebrate the troops for V for Veterans Day Brookside participates in the scrips National Spelling be this week classrooms will be holding their annual spelling bees the top five winners of each grade level will come together to compete in the schoolwide spelling be be this January the winner of the schoolwide spelling be will compete in the scripts National Spelling be competition in March held at mouth University last week the Brookside PTA sponsored an assembly called magical songwriter where students created a school song the students had a great time using their creative sides to create the song and it came out fantastic Mille mille's Toys for Tots campaign will kick off on November 15th
007and run through December 13th students are encouraged to donate new toys for needy children the toys are distributed for children by the United States Marine corpse the Milik mik's first and second grade students are hosting the International Food Fest on December 6th which will expose students to the the cultures from around the world and mil's annual Jump Rope for Heart will be held on December 11th the students of the monor Township School District are helping families in need this holiday season the students of Brookside are holding their annual November holiday food drive they prepare care packages for families in need in Monroe and they also prepare care packages for feeding friends which is a foundation that feeds Families in Need for the holidays the monot tonship high school Avid students are running a Thanksgiving food
008drive with the rise Foundation they are collecting pasta canned goods and gift cards bins are located throughout the school for students and teachers to place their items in Avid students will be loading the food truck this Friday the monotona high school Falcon football team participated in tackle hunger where they asked students to bring a canned good with them as they entered the gates to the game on November 8th versus seille all canned goods were donated to the Jamesburg food pantry we want to give a special congratulations to the monot Tanta P School marching band and color guard for winning the US bands group 2 National Championship in Allentown Pennsylvania last Saturday the marching band placed first out of 24 bands in the competition as well as setting a School record and receiving the award for
009best overall effect congratulations to all of the band and color guard members challenge day is coming back to monr tanip high school on December 10th 11th and 12th a handful of students spend their day in the gym participating in team building and life ref reflecting activities the challenge day mission is to provide Youth and their communities with the POs possibility of love and connection through the celebration of diversity truth and full expression American Education week is next week parents are invited to elementary schools to attend special activities in the classrooms and schools will be closed November 28th and 29th for Thanksgiving thank you thank you at this time we are spotlighting each of our schools during the year and tonight we will be spotlighting mil Lake School and Dr Hamilton would you like to in
010yes good evening all um with it is with great pleasure and pride that I introduce our principal of mil Lake School Dr LM [Applause] Barberry thank you very much I am as Dr Hamilton said Dr Lyn Barberry and I have had the privilege of serving as the principal of mil Lake School for the past 11 years it is my pleasure this evening to share some of the highlights of mil Lake School which is currently serving 393 students in preschool kindergarten first and second grade classes our school is located in the mil Lake Manor section of the township on Mammoth Road at mil Lake School we are a professional Learning Community whose number one question is what is best for our students in order to answer that question in various scenarios we seek data identify goals
011and barriers and work collaboratively to find Solutions where the desired result is to have all students actively engaged and learning at high levels we embrace the Monroe Township School District's Vision fully and believe that we are the first steps our children take to be prepared to reach their full potential we strive to make every child who enters our school feel whole capable supported and happy when children feel secure they are willing and able to take the risks necessary for learning to occur we believe that learning should be a joyful experience mil Lake Schools teachers have all achieved highly qualified status as defined by the United States Department of Education this is our wall of honor where we post photographs of every person who works with the children at mil Lake School people who have the
012privilege of working with our children have a great responsibility to always do their very best work for them our teachers and support staff are fully committed to teaching and reaching every single child in every single class our teachers are continuously engaged in professional development designed to enhance their skills they understand that some children may not learn the same as other children our talented teachers differentiate instruction using Myriad strategies to better meet the needs of the Learners they EXA and reflect on the evidence they gather to ensure that their children are making progress in addition to the tools they have honed through their experiences in working with young children all of our teachers are implementing Marzano's Art and Science of teaching protocols to improve students academic performance if we find that children are struggling we intervene
013early through a process called RTI response to intervention which is a team approach to implementing intervention to help the child succeed with regard to what we teach mil Lake School teachers utilize the common core standards the New Jersey curriculum content standards and the Monroe Township District curriculum to provide children with the foundational skills and strategies they need to grow in language arts literacy mathematics science social studies and health our children also embrace the visual arts music and physical education they visit the school library for in instruction once a week we focus on developing the whole child through our character education initiatives we promote respect citizenship caring fairness honesty and responsibility at all times we encourage our students to treat others the way they wish to be treated we use a story about bucket filling to
014bring this concept to life for our young children we encourage the children to demonstrate positive social interactions by filling other people's invisible buckets while I could stand here and tell you hundreds of reasons why mil lake is a great school I will just tell you three mil lake is great because our teachers teach children in active and engaging ways that make the concepts real for the children real firefighters teach children how to get out of a burning building alive during Fire Safety Week the children's teachers lead them through various drills to keep them safe in an emergency including bus evacuation drills fire drills lockdown drills and more children read and write for real purposes such as writing their wishes and dreams for a new school year writing personal narratives about an important small moment in
015their lives or writing a how-to book to teach someone else how to do something that they know how to do children learn scientific ideas by following an inquiry based curriculum that provid provides opportunities for them to observe hypothesize experiment analyze and communicate using real objects and living things special guests teach children about life on Earth and even in space our stud our students learn from visiting astronomers biologists Physicians EMT workers environmentalists entertainers reptile enthusiasts Raptor handlers and many more people willing to share their work lives with our students here our resident worm man shares fossils and helps our students set up composting bins that create fertile soil two mil Lake teachers and staff make learning fun children use real objects and tools to gain life skills and strategies related to number sense problem solving measurement
016geometry algebra and much more children play Interactive Learning Games to help them make responsible decisions learn how to solve problems and to practice newly acquired basic skills each year mil Lake School hosts a real children's author to inspire our students to embrace reading and writing here author author Daryl Cobb entertains our students with a story and a song He composed after an experience he had with his own children mil Lake School has a very prolific Garden this year thanks to teacher Mrs bki and her team of parent and student volunteers who added vegetables and sunflowers to it we appreciate the support of Jerry tag of the facilities Department our parent teacher organization and the donations from many local nurseries whose Collective efforts have created a memorable learning experience for our students recently we were faced
017with the high cost of bringing our children to the local farms for pumpkin picking so we found a man who brings the agricultural experience to us in a way that helps our students appreciate the contributions of Monroe Farmers great fun is had by all during Mill Lakes field day where scores of parents assist our physical education teacher Mrs Lombard and our classroom teachers in leading our students through team building challenges many of our teachers even encourage their students to dunk them in the dunk tank and three mil Lake teachers and staff make learning meaningful mil Lake School has raised thousands of dollars over the years to support various Charities dedicated to the well-being of our students and the people in our commun Community here children are warming up before our walk to support the juvenile
018diabetes Research Foundation mil Lake School has had an held an annual Jump Rope for Heart for more than 10 years raising awareness and funds for the American Heart Association in recognition of Memorial Day last year the students in Miss Pap Andrea's class performed patriotic songs and created a butterfly garden to welcome home her student dad who was a serviceman returning from Afghanistan the mil Lake family memorialized our beloved custodian Angelo sagran with an amazing mural that renamed our cafeteria Mr Angelo's Cafe the image was created using handprints of every mil Lake student and staff member artfully arranged by our teachers Miss Smith and Miss Pine in a nod to the art Forum of pointalism and the vision of our art teacher Miss pine every student and staff member painted this mural that now welcomes everyone
019to our beautiful School the words mil lake is great and we are a family of friends are absolutely true in appreciation of our great nation our newest canvas mural incorporates the handprint of every mil Lake student and staff member forming an inspirational rendition of the United States flag and as our reporter from the high school reported recently mil lak's next meaningful event will help to develop the social con conscience of our students and school Community as we begin this year's Toys for Tots campaign in cooperation with the United States Marine Corps over the years our school has donated thousands of toys for needy children in conclusion I thank the Monroe Township Board of Education and the people of Monroe for supporting the education of our youngest students we strive to give our little ones the
020basic foundation for their educational experience believing that indeed these children are our future when our little friends leave leave our doors our incredible teachers staff and I are confident that we have given them the foundation they need to love learning throughout their lives thank you for your attention and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about our children's educational experience at M Lake School any questions questions okay thank you very much thank you Dr burbar for giving a community a little insight onto mil Lake School especially those of us who don't get to go to mil Lake very often thank you very much he at this time we will have the presentation of the 2012 2013 comprehensive annual financial report and I understand Mr tesler that Mr Gorski is going to
021let you read [Laughter] it m Mike yes um thank you Mrs kopano at this time I'd i' like to give the floor to Jerry stankowitz um certified public accountant partner with Samuel Klein and company thank you um that's a tough act to follow I'm going to do my best um I also have good news like the principal does um we uh prepared the audit for the year ended June 30th uh 2013 um our audit actually started about a year ago I I can only remember the hurricane because I got quite crazy where I live and where my office is so we we started the audit about a year ago in looking at U the Assa which is the application for state school aid we did the audit for that that's included in the smaller of
022the two documents here tonight we also uh came in in February or January and did some interim audit work on the capital projects fund to help ascertain the sufficiency of the balances there and starting in in July we were here reading minutes looking at the Student Activity funds and then in August looking at payroll and expenditures and all the different Revenue items and we recently have concluded the audit we have always been available to the business office in all the years we've been involved here we we kind of think and as they do because they were also trained accountants and Auditors that that the audit process is actually a year- round process if there's something that we need to know we're informed or something that they think we should check out we check it out
023and you know that that makes the audit process go a lot smoother um what we do what we do test on behalf of the board is um is the expenditures we make sure that the expenditures are all a properly documented B in compliance with the public school contracts law and see that at year end that the expenditures are cut off properly with respect to uh the fiscal year that they relate to there's a concept called accounts payable we have accounts payable as of June 30th those are bills that are paid in July August or September of 2013 but they relate back to the prior fiscal year they just haven't been paid because it was between meetings and as you're aware we pay bills only and authorize them at meetings um the other area that we
024look into is payroll uh we we do a sample everything we do is sample based um I don't know any that does a 100% audit uh if they do they're getting a gigantic fee and then it's not an audit but basically we do a sample of payroll transactions in that we look at to determine that everyone was paid properly in accordance with board authorization uh we also make sure the withholdings are proper we uh also flow through that information through to make sure that the the payroll withholdings in Mass for the whole District are paid timely and in the correct amount um and they are U revenues really our two basic revenues are are well our biggest revenue is taxes from local sources and we do get some state aid which is quite easily audited
025um so basically from all of our tests and from the good results that we get from these tests we end up with in at the end we end up with a clean opinion I just want to refer that uh to everyone to that page that would be page 10 of the larger of the two documents we the only thing that actually belongs to us within this larger document is our Auditor's opinion basically everything in here is representations of the board's management U they provide us with the data we then take that data we audit it and then we put it into report format um I also would want to point out too the most important thing is that as we are handed the records um the most important thing is that the cash that's reflected
026on the en ledgers as presented equals the amounts on the bank wreck that is accounting one chapter one it's also auditing one chapter one as well um you've heard in the past the term cash is King well our our cash actually ties out here uh pretty well and it's presented probably the key thing is is presentation um we are supposed to be independent with respect to those records um we are not allowed to make management decisions we are not allowed to uh create numbers that are contain in this audit everything is the representation of the board uh you hear so much adverse publicity every now and then about Auditors U as a result of some of the big corporate scandals that occurred out there um those Auditors I believe maybe got too much involved with
027management um we like to think that we are you know these wonderful Business Consultants as well just because we we've done a lot of things over the years with many boards but for the most part we we don't touch books of original entry and by us not having to do that obviously it helps in terms of our audit opinion we we get good records we get good information I I also want to point out that over at the uh at the board office and actually in the schools that we visited um we've got you know cooperation from all the support staff um they are anxious to do a good job they want to do a good job and they want feedback about their job as well so the whole ball of wax contributes to our
028clean opinion which is on page 10 and actually after all these years the auditing industry decided to clarify their reports and it says in the middle page opinions okay what they really did was the wording is all the same they just put subtitles in so in our opinion the financial statements referred to above which is the financial statements of the district uh present fairly in all material respects the respective financial position of the governmental activities business activities of each major fund and the remaining aggregate funds of the township of Monroe School District that's known is a clean opinion and unqualified opinion um that's the highest level of opinion that you can get and that's a result of all the hard work of the of the business office trying to you know head towards the end
029product which is getting a good order and a good result from that in addition to that we also prepare this thinner of the two documents and this one actually is my representation to the board because in effect I really answer to the board I don't answer to the business office or the superintendent um I work for the board I think it's one of the few positions in New Jersey school districts that actually is a direct board appointment this document here is somewhat boilerplate uh wording somewhat required wording that the state department of Ed likes to see there's information in here you know they they add requirements to us okay they make us put it in the report because they're looking for data rather than just come right to the school for the data so we
030have to kind of play along with it but as a result of our test T in and I would say that we test extensively in the area of expenditures number one we we had no violations of of the Department of Ed requirements which are also embodied in just standard operating accounting practices number one documentation is good two everything is charged to the correct account we're not charging the heat bill to you know the telephone bill or vice versa health benefits aren't charged to salaries it's very important that everything be charged properly I mean board members like yourselves are making decisions based on budgets based on financial historical information so it's important for you to know that that everything is categorized properly in the event you have to really look back at what at the expenditures
031that are contained in this document so as a result we we end up with clean opinion and no audit recommendations I do want to point out I did mention before that there is uh the governmental funds which is your general fund your Capital fund your special Revenue fund those were fine there's also business type activities you now have two business type activities and they're deemed as business type activities because it's a service that could otherwise be provided by a business okay one of which is your food service program um Food Service program had around $2.5 million in revenue and it had I considered to be Break Even it had about a $770,000 loss most of which was attributed to depreciation so in my mind that's at a break even Point there's no reason to panic
032uh or do anything you know in terms of adjusting anything but you're you're at break even there and also in that fund although it is an Enterprise fund and operate like a business we're not allowed to accumulate too much Surplus in that fund either we're we're limited to 30% of the annual operating expenses subject to some adjustments there is one other Fund in here that is newly created I'd be remiss if I didn't point out it it's the mecca the child initiative it it did operate at a loss it's still in its development stage and my understanding from interim reports that I've been told about is that it is moving towards going into the I guess into the black uh in during this fiscal year so that's a good thing and I think that's a
033result of increased participation as well as some expansion of the of the services offered so I have to point that out if I don't I wouldn't be doing my job and hopefully that'll be on track in a couple years it's a development stage type of Enterprise that just needs you know to get some steam going so it it's in there as a comment probably if I didn't comment I'd get a letter from the Department Department event demanding that I comment so I I have to put a little bit of mention in there I mentioned early on our audit starts with the Assa we had no problems with that um there's always been very good results we look at I we actually count the IEPs we review the free and reduced income applications and then we
034verify the the enrollment count as of October 14th or 15th whatever the actual date is it's a lengthy tedious horrifying process but so we are required to do it so um it's time consuming but the state is you know they have their their motive and they want to make sure that all the counts are accurate and that they're independently verified not just certified from internally within the district so the thicker of the two documents and just to point something out um has I guess some key information that I would be again remiss if I didn't point it out it's on page 86 okay basically if you look at page 86 and go down to the bottom of the page there's a recapitulation of fund balance you ended the year with 10,963 th000 okay now that's
035not all free and clear money there's requirements that we have to follow of that um 4122 million is excess Surplus from the 1112 school year mandated to be a revenue source in your 134 budget and it's there the $2,000 is just a small capital reserve that you have um the $4,988 th000 is excess Surplus as a result of this of the 1213 operations which will be a mandatory Revenue Source in your 1415 budget okay and then we have our 2% I call it sealing which is what the department of Ed allows us to keep in reserve in the event of a rainy day or something that's $1,850,000 so I wanted to point that out that the exhibits here um C1 which ends with 86 that that's your reality in terms of how you operate there's
036a lot of different accounting information in here and we're required to convert your C exhibits into these accounting required formats because of things like uh we have to convert some of your state aid to not being state aid because although it's a receivable on our books the state doesn't have An accounts payable set up for it so under the accounting requirements of government entities we can't recognize the income for what they call generally accepted accounting principles for school districts okay it's theoretical and actually the problem is really not of ours it's actually the state's problem it actually affects their ranking and their rating because they are 10% behind in their school aid payments until they catch up it's two payments out of the 20 so but we get the money the money actually came in
037uh on July 7th and they're they're pretty accurate when they say they're coming in it's just that they can't charge it to their 13th fiscal year they charge it to the next year 8 10 years ago it was one payment and about 5 years ago they moved it to two payment so that's a different item in here so there there are some balance sheets in here that that are presented that not necessarily correlate to the rest of the audit it's because we have to convert them to the required generally accepted accounting principle which does not allow us to recognize the revenue under our budgetary basis it's there have it we got it it's available and it's not a problem there's another conversion that we have to do and that's we then take all the financial
038statements of the district and we convert them to that of a corporate model we have to add things like depreciation to our expenses and then a full accounting of the total sick time liability for the district we then convert it to what it looks like to be a corporate model um the Lords of the pression require that I again don't emphasize it because it it it's not that imperative important to what's going on here in Monroe it's more to hold school districts Nationwide sort of side by side so we can say Hey you know they're doing this they're doing this okay and to be truthful it you know I I do it but I don't agree with it or like it so but I we have to go this extra step along the way to
039to do it but we the main exhibits are your C exhibits and that's where your whole you know thing in the nutshell is if there's any questions I'm here um I want to thank Mike Gorski and his staff um they most they're most cooperative and uh happy to see us come but also happier to see us drop the final box of audits off so Mike Mrs k um for the Public's benefit I would just like to go through some of the financial highlights that are contained in the comprehensive annual financial report which are the representations of Dr Hamilton and I and I'll be brief this is for the 1213 school year the district was awarded $2.6 million in general fund state aid Revenue which was a slight increase of only $600,000 from the 1112 award
040that amount was further reduced by $106,000 for mandatory withholding for Debt Service on SDA funding in response to the fact that only 2% of all revenues required to support the 12113 school budget are raised by state aid a direct result of insufficient and inequitable state aid funding District administration drafted legislation known as s237 the legislation was sponsored by Senator Linda Greenstein and is designed to remove the state aid growth limit for districts including Monroe whose populations consist of greater than onethird senior citizens age 65 years or older potentially resulting in $6.9 million of additional state aid based upon the 1213 budget that's Bill still very much live with Senator greenstein's re-election and we'll be pushing for that continuance $2 million of bond Surplus from the construction of this high school was applied against a Debt
041Service tax levy that was the first of more installments to come that directly reduced taxes in the 1213 school year this is a result of the management efficiencies recognized in the construction of the Monroe Township High School although the constrictive tax lebby has prevented many school districts in the state from budgeting for capital outlay projects within the budget the Monro Township School District effectively managed to include a capital outlay project in our budget replacing a 50,100 164,000 the district has recognized Savings of $748,000 since entering into a CO Cooperative purchasing agree agreement with the county um office in May of 2011 the district saved $1,776 1200 in health insurance costs by negotiating stiens to staff that were eligible to wave all district provided health insurance as a result of having alternate coverage as of June
04230 2013 101 staff members have opted out of health insurance and in an attempt to expedite their return to work for maternity leave thus reducing District costs improving the continuity of teaching and learning while also Al responding to the community suggestions to explore external Revenue generating Endeavors the district launched the Monroe employee Child Care initiative in September of 2012 in this initial year of operations there were 14.5 full-time equivalent enrol as of June 30 2013 which resulted in a loss from operations as Mr Stanwood said of $215,000 loans payable to the general fund were $39,000 as of June 30 2013 in September of 2013 the district added the Early Childhood enrichment program segment providing kindergarten Enrichment Services at that time enrollment had grown to 32 full-time equivalent for the Monroe employee Child Care initiative and
04341 full-time equivalent for the Early Childhood enrichment program and a first monthly profit was recognized the district scored a perfect 100 score under the fiscal management assessment of New Jersey qac district performance review in the 1213 school year and the district is in compliance with with s701 in regards to designated and undesignated reserves some other quick facts property taxes consist of 84% of all revenues that's that's that's unprecedented you not going to find another school district with a percentage that high relying on local taxpayers and uh the district is addressing that with all means necessary Mr stankowitz talked about the Surplus so I'll skip over that the district has outstanding $148 million of bonds as of June 30 2013 they're on a uh a pretty linear amortization schedule and are being paid off uh with
044principle on semiannual payments each year the honorable employment rate in Monroe increased from 99.8% last year to 10.2% in 2013 a slight increase that's in line with the rest of the state which is above the national average and finally we're very proud of one of the final statistics in the report in the last four years the percentage change in cost per pupil has increased less than 1% per year that arrived at by taking the operating expenditures div U dividing by enrollment and that comes up with a cost per pupil that's increased less than 1% a year for the last four years and that's a direct reflection of this board's desire to control cost while absorbing all of the new enrollment that the district faces uh I'd like to thank Mr stankowitz for the audit and
045I very much want to thank the board members for all of their resources provided to the business office which directly resulted in in this clean audit thank you Miss Anis I just like to add that um for the 12 13 school year we actually were audited four times once by Mr stankowitz once by the state of New Jersey affirmative action the state of New Jersey Child Nutrition department and the state of New Jersey qac all four of them passed so um on that note I would like to recommend that the members of the Board of Education except accept and approve the comprehensive annual financial report and the auditor's management report on administrative findings Financial compliance and performance and hereby approve and authorize the submission of the required corrective action plan to the county office indicating
046there are no recommendations for fiscal year ending June 30th second by Mr Braverman is there any comments or question questions for Mr Gorski just Mr tesler just real brief this is my final report here as a board member but um I'd like to congratulate Mike in the business office I've been this is my seventh presentation every year we've gotten a clean report and um it's it's kudos to the way the mike in the business office and your predecessor has run the business uh of Monroe Township and it's you know everybody should sleep a little easier tonight that know the money is managed well so congratulations again thank you um I also want to you know thank the administration the staff um this is about the 20th year I think we've been I've been through audits
047that there's been no recommendations and that's that's really hudos to the district and to the financial management so thank you anyone else we will have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella Mr zareski yes Mr calman Mr Masters yes Mr poy yes Mr proso yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes Madam board president motion unanimously passes and I just like to add to what um Amy and Iris said because um I've been on the board 14 years and we've had a clean opinion and no recommendations and it's because of how the business offices run and can't can't get better than that okay now we will go to the public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak to the agenda please come to the microphone and state your name and address
048for the record got go back to work okay seeing no one we will go to the approval of the minutes for the public Board of Education meeting of October 16 2013 Mr Mr tiella and Mr Masters uh all in favor I opposed abstentions everybody was here uh approval of the minutes for the closed session meeting of October 16 2013 second Mr tiella Mr Masters all in favor I opposed extensions okay the approval of the minutes for the special public Board of Education meeting of October 21st 2013 Mr Masters Mr Chella all in favor opposed extensions abstain miss antalis Mr Kaufman so not everybody else was here on the on the okay um approval of the minutes for the Clos session meeting of October 21st 2013 Mr Masters second miss santalis all in favor opposed extensions
049stain s Tellis you can't on something why can't you second it I think you can do you want to keep your second no somebody else can second who would like Mr tesler so we'll see it again all in favor I opposed abstentions Miss anel are you abstaining AB okay and Mr coffman's abstaining okay we'll go to committee reports are any there are there any committees that need to report this evening Mr kman not used to it being up in front the agenda uh we had a curriculum meeting this evening uh we went over a couple of points uh one of the things that we've discussed uh for about almost 80% of the meeting was the topic of AP testing as it relates to the coming budget preparation and it's the consensus of the committee to
050keep it as it is currently which is going to be board funded uh we did ask the administration to go back and potentially look at what we can do if we decide at some point in the future to ask for uh parental contributions with uh funding the AP testing according to the information that was provided this evening in the past uh years ago we had AP courses where we didn't require uh students to actually take the exams and about six or five or six years ago we the board decided to make it a requirement that the students do take the AP exams in order to continue with taking the course and it was determined at that time that if we are going to require them to take the test then we were required to have
051uh to support the uh testing through the district so we're going to ask the administration to go back and revisit that to see if there's uh if that's still the case or if it's something we want to consider as a possible budgetary option uh some point in the future um Mr Gorman also provided us with a high school textbook inventory as a follow-up to request I made back in September uh so we've got a complete listing of all the textbooks and their current um platform at the high school whether they're in print or digital media and we will continue to move forward where it's appropriate to look at uh options um as they become available whether it's in print or digital media obviously the intent is to try and go digital wherever possible but it
052also has to be economically feasible so we'll continue to move that forward and uh we had gotten a research study followup that the Monroe participated in for biology uh iBook or I I E I O U book something e i e IO right um last year uh we will have a a followup and a presentation at the next Board of Education meeting in December uh where the person who led the study is going to come in and uh give the entire board a a presentation on the findings that was were completed as part of this study um that's just uh that's about it thank you anyone else Miss anelis we had a finance Comm committee on Monday November 11th uh we had Mr stanitz in to present the audit and we talked about the njsb
053AIG safety Grant appropriation uh Mr Gorski distributed information to the committee letting us know that New Jersey school boards Association Insurance Group will award $5 million in 2014 for safety grants to member districts and Mr Gorski indicated that Monroe will be applying for the maximum amount of Grants possible we had a Mecca update which Mr Gorski talked about and one of the things that we talked about was paying back the loan so at this time I would like to make a motion is recommended that the members of the Monroe Township Board of Education authorize and approve the repayment of the general fund loan from the Monroe employee Child Care Academy Mecca proprietary fund to be paid from available cash within the Monroe employee childcare Academy Fund in the minimum amount of $5,000 per month beginning
054December 2013 as funds permit at the discretion of the superintendent of schools second by Mr proso any comments or questions seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr cherella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes Mr Master yes Mr Po yes Mr proso Mr tesler yes Mrs K Pano yes Madam board president motion to repay the loan passes unanimously and our next finance committee meeting will be Tuesday December 10th 6 pm at the central office thank you we had a buildings grounds uh Transportation committee meeting the uh same day the 11th uh quickly we're still waiting on the rod Grant projects uh they're hopefully going to get back to us in December uh if you remember that's the um expansion of the classrooms at the middle school we're looking
055at nine classrooms small four small group instructions and uh two offices uh that's also the windows and hazardous material abatement the partial re Roofing and possibly the tennis courts um we also spoke about the Applegarth trailer leasing we're going to move forward with at this point we're not going to look to renewing those leases over at Applegarth and we're going to look into leasing uh office space somewhere in town again we're just starting to look into that now uh the Middle School roof project is going it's it's almost done it's finishing up went really well um oh this one's said the oak tree greywater system has been very problematic expensive so we we authorized Jerry to bypass that system and switch us back on to the um uh Township water and the Field of Dreams
056initiative is currently on hold we're expecting a proposal from them in at the December meeting that's it thank you anyone else seeing none we will go to the Super tennis report Dr H good evening all um before I get into my report there's two news worthy items I'd like to share with the board and the public firstly um I issued a press release that will hopefully appear in the papers this week but long and short Monroe Township High School is among several school districts in the United States and Canada being honored by the school board for placement in the fourth annual AP District honor role and the reason we're being acknowledged here is for increasing access to AP courses while working simultaneously to maintain or increase the percentage of students earning three or higher on
057AP exams reaching this goal indicates that the district is successfully identifying motivated academically prepared students who are likely to benefit from this rigorous AP course and since 2011 Monroe Township High School has increased the number of students participating in AP courses by 50% while improving the 20% of student earning AP exam scores of three or higher by 7% so it is very nice to be acknowledged uh nationally for our efforts to improve AP scores and access to these exams so congratulations to our district and to our high school and our board for supporting it and I also it was mentioned in the student board uh board member report um that I want to acknowledge and congratulate members of the marching band and color guards um we're actually going to ask them to come to our
058meeting in December where we can uh discuss some way of acknowledging and presenting them but they did rank first place out of 24 bands and competitions receiving a School record score of 95.6 and also receiving the award for best overall effect so I want to congratulate our students and our advisers and their parents because uh if you know members of the band and color guards is a very demanding schedule and often impacts families who have to put off vacations sometimes and weekend uh excursions because of the enormous commitment it takes so congratulations to our students for that um moving on to the superintendent [Music] report the enrollment report shows an increase in of only eight students uh this month from last month to this month um and we also have enclosed in your report out
059of District placements and those youngsters who are currently placed on home instruction for various reasons also included in this report is the uh report for fire drills and lockdown drills at both of our schools at all of our schools and moving on to our Personnel report Madame board president and members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent just pull my notes up here it is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel items a through U be approved by roll call vote Mo second Mr cherella Mr Tesla any comments or questions for Dr Hamilton Mr proso Page 11 on the board agenda the anti-bullying specialist That's all mandated correct yes sir anything else thank you anyone else okay seeing none we'll have a roll call oh Mr Po uh I just like a
060clarification on one of the uh the Personnel items uh it's Kelly faviano uh is listed there and I simply don't understand uh the information given about where she's being placed on the salary guide I don't follow what that 120% is all about child studying team members are expected to put in 20 days over the summer above and beyond the regular contract so that's what that represents the other 20% okay thank you anyone else roll call Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes Mr Masters yes Mr Po yes Mr proso yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano Madame board Madame board president board Personnel items a through you passes thank you moving on to board action items Madam board president members of the Board of Education it is recommended
061by the super intendent forgot to tell you guys have a good night um it is recommended by the superintendent that board action items a through n be approved by roll call vote and I have an addendum that I'll read into the record separately Mr Chella second second byis comments or questions for Dr Hamilton Mr Chella oh sorry I just have a just a quick question on uh V section V letter N just what the nature of the damage was in Woodland uh that was we don't know who did it that occurred after hours uh generally damage assess um through the violence evangelis report would be built to the parent but in this case we don't know who who the the v um Vandal was thank you anyone else okay then we'll have a roll call
062Miss antelis Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes Mr Masters yes Mr Po we're voting on items a through n yes sir yes Mr proso uh yes except for a and j no no on a and j so noted Mr tesler yes Mrs K Pano yes Madam board president board action items a through n passes thank you and if I may read in um to the record board action item o on your attachment um there's a job description that looks like it may have been attached in Era but in essence um we're recommending this came out of person NL I am recommending that the board approve the the uh change of the job title from security cordinator to director of security this does not change does not change salary or
063duties at all is just a recommended change and title from security coordinator to directive security and that would be item o item P would be recommended that the board approve the attached sidebar agreement with between the mtea and the m and the Board of Education and that's specific to the Middle School performances and the corresponding stiens is there a motion to accept oh oh I have a question oh sorry Mr potion she comes after right so moved Mr tesler second second by Mr Masters Now comments or questions Mr Po okay uh item p uh could you item cyar agreement that that we're asked to approve tonight with the uh teachers Education Association uh could you just uh elaborate a little bit on the uh the need the history the reason whatever it is for for
064that sure uh since the influx of the sixth graders into the middle school the the current agreement does not recognize the the positions necessary for those School performances uh so it is recommended uh through this sidebar that we add a sixth grade backstage assistant at a stien of $600 and a choreographer uh for $1,700 and again that is because the workload has increased significantly as a result of the sixth graders now being in the middle school and those folks are expected to put on a sixth grade show and the second part of that would be adding another position um at $600 for backstage assistance for the seventh and eighth grade show and that is as a result of the increased number of students in the seventh and eighth grade who participate in the seventh and
065eighth grade show performances yes and there there is revenue uh collected as a result of these performances that would essentially offset these costs did you want to take these separately no we could do o p with cons roll call okay Mr so I'm I'm kind of glad you brought up the first one what's it o yes um because I guess fundamentally I I I do have a problem with the way this is listed here because director of security and then we have a director in the title job description and then the title we have Department coordinator and kind of everything underneath it doesn't make sense to the title so for me I'm going to approve something that makes sense as presented I don't want to kind of just approve a position without it because this
066is going to be what that job description for that person is going to be tied to right um and my motion is not to approve the job description just the change the title change change in title there's already An approved job description for security coordinator that was approved a while ago month ago or so um I'm just asking um to change the title not the job description I know what you're referring to in terms of the attachment but it's kind of irrelevant for what I'm asking the board to do and just so that I could know um because maybe other board members want to know item two on the qualifications does this really I mean this is somewhere else two minimum experience as determined by the board what does that mean again that's not this
067what's attached here is an entirely different position I got it I'm just concerned that that exists anywhere what is what does it mean by minimum experiences determined by the board well essentially when the job does job qualifications were written for this particular position um the board has the opportunity to uh decide whether or not there are experiences that they want to consider above those that are listed in the posting that generally goes out for the job okay okay anyone else justes just another question on that the number one the valid New Jersey teaching certificate for director of security it's not for this not for this I'm just making sure like L says you know you want to look and you see everything's in order here that's all all right thank you anyone else then we'll
068have a roll call on o n p this is a consent roll call for o p miss an yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes as well we said something with the tit indeed it is Mr Masters yes Mr poy uh I'm going to say yes on o uh yes on P but I'm going to abstain on o because I'm totally confused about this so noted Mr proso yes Mr tesler yes Mrs K Pano yes Madam board president items o and P passes thank and that concludes the superintendent's report okay then we will go to the business administrator's Report with Mr B Madam board president and members of the Monroe Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through I be approved by consent roll
069call so move Mr Masters second by Miss analis are there any questions or comments from Mr Gorski Mr prosa item D number two what is that Michael item D number two it is recommended that members of the Board of Education approve education Incorporated to provide Hospital Education Services to students admitted into a hospital or Treatment Center at a rate of $36 per hour for the 13 14 school year it's a teaching right uh it it's an instructional service um designed to provide instruction to hospitalized students thank you anyone else no one we will have a roll call Miss antelis Mr Braverman yes Mr cherella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes Mr Masters yes Mr poy yes Mr proso yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano Madam board president board action items a through I passes
070that concludes my report thank you this time we'll go to the board president's report and um mine should be pretty short um in October I attended the annual school board's Workshop in Atlantic City I went to a number of workshops in regard to board governance and public participation at meetings and I'm really proud to say that we do things really well in Monroe um wehar to our Roberts Rules of Order we adhere to our policies um many other districts have a three minute time limit but they don't don't adhere to it because they don't have a timer they kind of use the clock or whatever um to clarify some of the things for the public that that we've learned or reinforced um the first public forum on our agenda is always for agenda items the
071second public forum is for anything that the public wishes to speak about um something that we do in Monroe that most other districts don't do is that we answer questions most other public forums second one on agendas and other um County counties or towns is is for the public to give their opinion to make statements to give their um an idea or if they're not happy with something to just tell us but we we give you time to ask questions and answer them at board meetings and that's really not what we're supposed to do we're supposed to just um give you the time to speak about whatever and we do that um I I think um none of the other districts as I know this has come up here in the past but no other
072District uses a third public forum so two was pretty good um the chair of any committee has the right to um change public forum we could add one if we have a special topic like we do for our budget in March where we have a public forum we'll open it up to the public just for the discussion on the public forum we also can lengthen the public forum or make the the time of the public forum say an hour or make the time per person less if there's a lot of people in the audience and that um that is done before public forum begins so um I I was just uh very proud of this board because we've been able to to do that and do it well I I believe compared to what I
073was hearing from other districts and um one other thing that's probably not going to be as exciting to anybody else as it was to me but I attended a New Jersey Devils game this past Sunday and to kick off the start of high school ice hockey season Sunday was Captain's night at the game at the credential Center the Devils welcome the 2013 2014 NJ SI I AA High School ice hockey captains and co- captains and had all of them on on the ice between um periods in their varsity sweaters there was 120 captains and co- captains honored including Monroe um the captains for Monroe was Peter maula and Skyler ISO and they got their names on the video scoreboard and I took a picture with it on my phone unfortunately it's not big enough to
074show everybody but uh to me that was a very exciting and um another honor for our sports teams so that concludes my my report is there any other business by any member of the Board of Education Mr Chella yeah I just have a just a quick question I'm hearing a lot of rumors that we may be adding three days onto our school year this year and then to accommodate the sun uh Arena graduation is there any truth to that um partially um we do have some challenges with our current graduation date um Sun Bank Arena we are were not able to accommodate our original date which was June 20 or 21st I forget which one it is um so the option is to either ex uh change our calendar to accommodate the first date that
075they have available which would be June 25th or look at alternatives for the graduation ceremony right now we're looking at alternatives to the graduation ceremony we're not prepared to make a recommendation to change the calendar yet all right I and I just want to just quickly give my opinion I I think that we have this beautiful school and I know the reasoning I know why we we moved it and why we're using sun and and you know the the issues with storms and things like that but I also think that with the beautiful high school that we have and our facilities we just added a new server that would enable us to transmit I'm hoping right the the graduation to other other rooms and other areas where we we might be able to have graduation
076here so I just think that that might be a an added savings and we could bring it home which might help so I just wanted to mention that thank you Mr [Applause] tesler okay two things um uh in reference to the graduation I I'd like to see uh I would not like to see the calendar changed I would like to leave it the way it is and plan A would be try to uh um find a facility that can accommodate our um our schedule if not plan B I agree with Ken we should uh this year have it here I've been attending at graduations for seven years I attended the uh 2007 graduation which was the delu um we all got soaked with a poing rain it was a really nice day got out to
077the football field and we barely made it through all the uh calling of all the names we were all soak and wet and after that the next six graduations that I attended was that SunBank Arena I like personally I like the graduation at SunBank Arena gives the opportunity for uh having as many family members as you want my daughter graduated in 2012 and we got to bring all my family uh we would be limited here uh at the school uh so but if if that has to be planned B this year I would like to see the schedule uh stay as it is um second um the uh letic dance theater on a whole another topic is presenting the Jazzy Nutcracker on December 14th at 1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. uh uh at the Monroe
078at the high school right here the Performing Art Center uh tickets are available uh at a jazzy nutcracker.com or uh you can also see anybody who's on the Monroe Education Foundation part of the proceeds for this um event is going to the Monroe Education Foundation the Monroe Ed Foundation which I've been a member of since 2003 uh sponsors um teacher grant program uh Every Spring and funds programs that are excluded in the U school budget um and just for example this past year the Monro head Foundation donated two iPads to every elementary school so they can get a feel for that technology and share that uh with all their students teachers have the ability to check those devices in and out in their classrooms uh again tickets are available at a jazz cracker.com you can
079buy them online see any member of the MEF which tonight includes myself Amy and Kathy k um and between that there is also a um a lunch with Santa Claus so bring the kids wake the neighbors that stuff that can go there as well it's going to be a great time for all the family and we hope to sell out this event thank you Mr cofman uh yeah a couple notes uh first off uh I'd like to or at least ask everybody remind everybody as they leave here tonight as was mentioned the mono Township High School Marching Band won this national championship and the trophy is actually in the atrium you actually can't miss it um because it's about the size of three Stanley cups stacked up to each other uh so please take in
080uh a second to at least look at that um unbelievable trophy as a former uh pit crew person I can attest to what was mentioned earlier that the the parents and the students have an enormous commitment to that program and a a heartfelt congratulations is is well overdue that's an incredible feat um and one request perhaps when the marching band comes in it would be nice to see the allent toown presentation here and maybe posted on the website so everybody could see what that type of program is Because unless you go to these things you really don't have an appreciation for the logistics of getting the band The Color Guard and everything else that's related to the program there perform and to come back it's it's an incredible feat so congratulations again oh one last
081thing um talking about the high school part of that 2007 ter IAL rain with Miss cap Miss capalo and myself when we had our sons graduating uh we we also have to keep something in mind another reason why we it's going to be a challenge to have it here uh is because of the the the turf field that we have at the high school um is not designed or can hold chairs on the field so if we ever to consider that again as long as we don't um cause any irreparable damage to our facilities to bring it back here I don't necessarily have a problem but that was a major consideration in addition to the Rain uh when we had the new astro turf put on there that uh the chairs you know were were
082can't be put on that field because it could tear it so thank you and I and I know um while we didn't really appreciate the rain very much my son said it was the best day of high school he had I don't know what that says anyone else m s Tellis um just talk about an article I saw um online in the New Jersey Spotlight and apparently a senator Teresa rues from Essex has um is sponsoring a bill that was once rejected by the legislature um brought on by Governor Christie and it talks about proposing $5 million um to Foster innovation in New Jersey schools um I hope it passes I don't think 5 million is all that much but one of the things I wanted to point out in the article it really talks
083about what the agenda is going to be this Thursday when they meet and one of the bills also for consideration is a task force to study all day kindergarten and I know that a few people on this board have brought up about all day kindergarten and I think once a task force um is put into place it's going to be a while before they come to any kind of conclusion the way they work so I just wanted to bring that up about the all day kindergarten because I know we've discussed it and um I hope that uh Senator Ru as his bill passes and maybe we can get some thank you Mr Masters well about the graduation everybody knows I've been talking about that for a couple years now I say bring it back um
084but again we'll have to vote on it uh with the marching band would it be possible to get one of those like we have the football sign out front where it says you know home of the whatever could we get something similar for the marching B because it has some sort of 2009 award on it um I think we should refer to our policy and make sure we're being consistent with the policy so that it um promotes a a procedure that would be applicable to All Sports and co-curricular activities okay long as it's being looked at um there's going to be um I've leave it still on I haven't heard back Thanksgiving over at the um Senior Center I think the the honor students are going to be over there serving up some food um
085so I think you have to pay a little bit if you want to come on down if you you know if you're um if you don't have anybody to spend thanks with you might even see me over there if any somebody from the township gets back to me I'm still waiting um and also like to congratulate Lou Tom and Michelle on the election it was a pretty hard run election and also Mr Rybeck um just want to commend them it's a lot of effort a lot of work and he did go to distance so a lot of respect to you that's it anyone else Mr Po uh yes um with some of the fellow board members I want to commend uh Mr Gorski based on the auditor's report and the cfer report I just want
086to commend Mr Gorski and his staff for keeping our financial ship afloat and on course and I particularly want to commend the teachers of our advanced placement courses uh for all the work that they have done and the role that they have played in helping Monroe uh be recognized on the AP honoral list uh without the the dedication and the hard work of those teachers I don't think that would have happened so I want to commend that group of teachers for for having helped us uh achieve that accomplishment thank [Applause] you anyone else okay we will go to the Clos session resolution be be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into close session in accordance with the Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws
087of 1975 njsa 10 colon 4-6 through 10 4-21 to discuss the following subject uh harassment imit in intimidation and bullying incidents 4 through 12 the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public at such time that the matters have been resolved mov second what 10 minutes not even five I know I was going to use a um but I didn't get the first and second Mr Chella and miss sellis all in favor opposed abstentions okay this will only take us about 5 to 10 minutes maybe not even and M at this time the board will reconvene into public uh into public session and go to number 16 on the agenda the public forum anyone from the public wishing to come and speak please uh come to the microphone and state your name
088and address for the record okay uh good evening CH will adhere to our three minute limit right um chrisy scurby 8 seminal Court um I just wanted to give a quick update um I know Ira said that the Monroe Ed Foundation provided each school with iPads um the oak tree Applegarth PTA this week approved um $5,000 in Grants above what we already fund for the schools and we will be supplying oak tree with two iPads as well and Applegarth um our teachers are using them in the classrooms um it's very exciting to see the technology in our classrooms like that um so I'm just wondering if at any point um technology this technology will be expanded down through the middle school and the elementary schools as it is in the high school Jeff say the
089word I mean you know because we're getting requests in from more teachers which is wonderful and what they're showing us as PTA that they're doing asking us to fund them is great but I mean we're volunteers we cannot provide every single teacher in our schools with this so we're doing the best we can and I know that every teacher in the high school has it so maybe not for next year but is there any type of um planning Maybe a couple of year to go into the schools honestly we haven't really discussed the elementary level um and I certainly don't see it happening in the next probably even two budget Cycles uh we have talked about ways we could expand it perhaps to the middle school we have not approach the elementary level as yet
090okay um and just on uh board action item v letter e um the Middle School dare trip to Trenton Thunder U the $6 per student what is the uh $6 cover I'm not sure you know hand probably a ticket price okay let me look at it oh we have to back up what letter was that Mrs uh action V board action V letter e normally it would might be ticket price it might be bus transportation I think that's a mission yeah I know that yeah it looks like that's admiss that's admission admission oh do are the parents driving the students there or are they going to be taking a bus um that's a dare program so uh there may be a bus fee that's covered by the school okay so the the actual trip cost
091isn't going to be 3,300 it would probably be another $3,000 on top of that because you'd need buses I'm not sure I don't want to say yes to that without well there're 52 passenger buses you have 550 kids going you would need 11 buses I'm my I guess my question is why has the board approved to pay for this field trip but we don't pay for any other field trips or any busing for any field trips why this particular field trip yeah no I would need to get back to um get back to you on that because I don't have the particulars on the origin of that and or what's covered by the grant some of this is covered by a grant because it's a dare Endeavor all right but the $3,300 isn't covered because
092you the board just approved that this evening and my question is why why would the board approve that we don't pay for field trips and I have a sixth grader so it's going to be money in my pocket but I also have a third grader and I pay for those field trips as a parent so my question is why are we we'll have we'll have Dr cuz your time is up we'll have Dr Hamilton get back to you with that information okay so it was voted on but nobody knows why well it I that's my question is why would we vote on why would we why would we vote to cover the cost of this field trip but this board has voted not to cover field trips that's my question anyone else from the public
093AR min9 Nathaniel Street could could someone explain a little bit of the graywater system I mean I know what it is but what the cost actually was and why it would be best to discontinue it that's an environmental Mr Masters I remember that's why okay a part of the question though is um that was built into the new school as an environmental lead Pro part of the lead yes certification that's correct yes okay well that and also the end part of the question would be would that change our lead certification in that building okay I will answer it whichever way the cost first so the cost that we're recouping from the gray gray water what it does is it collects the rain water we filter it we chlorinate it and we use it to flush
094the toilets right um the cost that we we recoup from not using um Township Water uh is infimal compared to what we're paying to maintain and repair the system um we use chlorine we have to chlorinate it cuz kids can come in contact with it so even the price of that is more than we get if we just used um Township Water um also if it gets we just had um it broke and it was about 15 grand to repair the system because it's a custom system um which I didn't even know until uh Mr T explained it to me that it wasn't it's not an offthe shelf system they actually built that in the school okay um so to get it repaired is very very very expensive so we've decided the board decided um
095to basically hook it up to the town just for that portion well whether it will affect it or not we're still looking into that we don't think so but it could could we go back to the to the the I know there was like a lead consultant on that and find out how maybe we can maintain it and also um maybe we can find some grants because I'm sure there might be grants um for environmental uh you know like changing and and opening uh schools environmentally so we might be able to get a grant to actually um pay for that system and still be able to use it I mean I I you know it's just a possibility yeah we can look at that except that like Mr Master said it was a custombuilt um
096piece of equipment and we find that it's been causing more trouble than it's worth and I understand that I'm just saying looking forward instead of I mean and maybe now it's the best thing to do to eliminate it at this point I I understand that but maybe we can look into and I know there's a good environmental um committee in I think it's Concordia or Clearbrook I'm not sure I'll look it up and they may be willing and the gentleman's very Into Water Resources so he may be able to help us okay thank you anyone else from the public hi Steve Ryback I get an introduction uh 23 ruier Drive I I really have a question um directed Doug poos I know you're on that special panel excuse me you have to direct all your
097questions to the chair I'll direct it to you uh there's a special panel with the board representative to look into the uh impact of uh students from The Villages at Monroe which is a proposed development for uh um Mount Mills in 613 originally the um impact study showed 90 94 or 96 students and uh there was a subsequent impact study now he's claiming 250 some o students I don't remember exactly a little over 250 but yet the expected tax revenue to cover the tuition of those students would only cover for 22 students and I'm just wondering if the board had any um updated information from that panel on this impact study Mr Po you there hasn't been a meeting has there I I have received no communication and there have been no meetings uh from
098that subcommittee of the planning board so no there are no updates on that it's fortunate because uh I I just find it to be ludicrous that these developers are getting away with uh this kind of misinformation and using uh studies that are 23 years old and and don't consider available classroom space and then the problem gets dumped into your laps and um I feel bad for all of you for that thank you thank you anyone else from the public Robert roach a team mfield Boulevard M um at the past meetings Mr zarski has mentioned about the connections fees from the municipality uh there's also been discussions with the Town Council about sharing some of the municipal connection fees with the Board of Education to uh to help the board and I wonder if the board
099has thought about that as and whether they have any uh any idea whether they will approach the township on that issue that has not been discussed by the Board of Education um that would be something that the township would have to decide I I don't know what um I know what laws and and um um things that we have to follow but I don't know how they would have to handle that I don't even know it's if it's legal for them to do that to just give us the money they have indicated that there's no prohibition against doing that at Council meetings uh I you know I'm just wondering whether you feel it's a worthwhile issue to consider and pursue even internally before you would would go again go and contact the uh Town Council
100that would be something that the whole board would have to discuss so it hasn't been discussed as of this no it has not okay thank you great anyone else from the public okay seeing none we will close the public forum and our next scheduled public Board of Education meeting will be Wednesday December 18th 7:00 p.m. at the Monro Township Middle School at the Performing Arts Center um motion to adjourn Mr Coffman second by Mr Tesla all in favor oppos and the meeting is adjourned