001for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of 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 for all we got that out may we have a roll call Mr [Music] Gorski miss anelis here miss armenio here Mr Braverman here Mr cherella here Mr calman here Mrs kapano here Mr nothstein here Mr poy here Mr proso here Mr zareski here Madame board president you have a quorum thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law why is this the Momo Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted January 9th 2013 or 2014 I would assume that should be at
002all schools home News Tribune cranberry press and filed with the clerk of the municipality and before we go into the um rest of the agenda I just have a a statement to make regarding the agenda I'm sure that those of you who picked up an agenda this evening here have found out that it was a little thicker than normal um about maybe 200 Pages more than normal uh to make a long story short short recently a member of the public filed a lawsuit against Midland Park Board of Education regarding not having attachments to agendas this is the short version therefore they were not able to understand some of the items on the agenda the superior court of New Jersey ruled in his favor and said that attachments should be included with the agenda one of
003my responsibilities as board president is setting the agenda which I do every month with Dr Hamilton and Mr Gorski there isn't very much to change every month the agenda is usually set in policy after Consulting with Mr Gorski and our attorney my decision was for us to include the attachments with our agenda since we as a board feel we have nothing to hide and are very proud of the protocols that we have put in place throughout the district I want to make sure that we are as transparent as possible in our community to our community and including the backup materials that um is included with the agenda and hope that this will help to bring trust back to the board many other districts have decided not to go in this direction and will not be
004including attachments to their agenda but I believe that we should be doing that there's still some information that is exempt from the disclosure under the pop open public records acts such as Personnel student information and anything that is advisory consult consultative cons consultative or or deliberative material the attachments this evening is about 200 extra pages as I said so to keep green and save as many trees as possible we are going to have a li a limited number of agendas with all the backup materials at our open meetings um they will be on the website so that we ask that if you are interested in seeing them or you don't get here early to please check the website before you come to a board meeting and all the attachments will be there thank you at
005this time we will have reports from our student board members good evening everyone the monre township Middle School chorus has recently had six students accepted into the oak National choir these students will travel to Atlanta Georgia and perform with the national ensemble in March Additionally the seventh and eighth grade chorus has been invited to attend the acda coral workshop at the workshop students will perform pieces they have prepared in front of other New Jersey choirs the eighth grade Wind Ensemble and chamber singers of mtms performed for the residents of forsgate and St Peter's adult daycare before the holiday break the retired Community looked forward to and greatly enjoyed their performance the New Jersey Deca Central Regional Conference took place last week 150 of monre Township High School students competed in a variety of event of
006events and 64 students qualified for the state conference which will also take place in March about half of the 64 qualifiers placed in the top three of their categories at the state conference students will be competing against other High School Deca students from all across New Jersey good evening ladies and gentlemen um the drama club is presenting its Murder Mystery Dinner theater on January 23rd and 24th aasta a pasta dinner will be served at monach high schools um and uh the very own drama club will be performing a murder mystery show um as one of her own um if you may have heard Mikey Nichols was recently traumatically injured in an ice hockey accident the mon tonship high school has responded greatly with support efforts t-shirts were made and are currently being worn by winter
007athletes before games teachers participated in a video log Avid students made baners for him that included inspirational quotes and hand handwritten Getwell messages and the FCA is creating a prayer portion of an upcoming meeting to devote a prayer for Mikey many other efforts are being are taking place to show thought and support for Mikey the mths has clearly demonstrated a great community and family Unity through this tough time there's a 4-Hour session this Friday due to staff and service and schools will be closed on January 20th due to Martin Martin Luther King Jr Day thank you thank you this time um we will be continuing in our Spotlight of our schools and tonight we will be presenting Brookside School uh Dr Hamilton would you like to introduce Brookside yes at this time I will ask
008Dr alvic and Mr Pepe principal and vice principal to come up and set us up for this [Applause] evening good evening um I just want to uh tell you about how proud I am of working at Brookside School both both Mr Pepe and I are thrilled that we work there we have a wonderful staff wonderful students um so at this time we're going to present a brief video of some of the great things that go on at Brookside in addition to the great teachers and the learning going on in every classroom we strive to give the students opportunities to reach their full potential and to participate in the many community service activities so with the help of Boris ladic and two of our former Brookside students Vincent arizo and Danielle Paxton we present to you
009our student council students [Music] our student council is very active and have many activities going on throughout the year where students can help get involved in their Community during October Breast Cancer Awareness Week students raise money to the sale of bra charms pencils and pink shoelaces we also had a snack sale all the proceeds went to the jsumc foundation in Neptune the money will be used by the foundation for NC no cost mammograms in November we focus on helping needy families locally and in the community students collected various canned and box food items student council sponsored a Bagon juice sale and all proceeds will go to help the Philippines typhoon family Relief Fund student council members made Thanksgiving bags for children students in fifth grade donated Halloween candy and wrote thank you letters to the
010soldiers in Afghanistan in December student council will sponsor a pajama day to raise money for the Illinois tornado families Relief Fund and students across the grades will participate in collecting items for needy families in Asbury Park we will work with an organization called feeding friends the third grade students will make goodie bags for children fourth grade will collect scarves hats gloves for children and the fifth grade will collect toiletries to make gift bags for adults we have more activities planned for the year like in January we will participate in pennies for Pati for the leukemia and lomia Society in February we will collect food and other things for a pet shelter in need in March we always collect food for the middle sex County food drive for the past 2 years we have collected over
0111,000 lbs of food in April we celebrate autism awareness and Cat day to support kids in the community coping with and battling cancer in may we hold our annual empty bows [Music] event did you know that over 1 million people were food and in secure and nearly one in five children go to bed hungry in New Jersey also because of the high cost of living here nearly 1 in four of New Jersey residents which is more than 2 million people are considered poor this is the second year that our fifth graders will undertake a great Pro program called empty Bulls in conjunction with the community the PTA and the high school students they create a ceramic Bull in I crft this National Art Honors Society and graphic arts high school students help the fifth grade
012grade students glaze the bowls finally the Honor Society students fire the bowls in in a Kil to finish the bowl making process the library teacher also teaches us about hunger in America and around the world after the bowls are finished families and friends of Brookside students will be invited to a simple meal of soup bread and cookies families and guests will be allowed to keep the beautiful student created bows for a cash donation as reminder of all empty bowls in New Jersey all proceeds will be donated to a local food panries in our community Brookside School in goinging on our sixth year of participating in hoops and jump for heart as a school we raise money to help support the American Heart Association we learn the importance of taking care of our bodies through exercise
013good nutrition and making healthy choices we have learned that some people are born with heart problems and some develop problems later in life we strive to meet at least 60 minutes of exercise a day eating right and getting proper rest to reduce the chances of a heart problem later in life students have participated in five basketball events foul shooting speed dribbling 3v3 hot shot and knockout as Wells are four jump rope events team jump rope partner jump rope speed jump rope and jump rope run students are encouraged to participate in any or all events they work to find a class champion and then move on to find an overall gr champion in each event it is a fun great way to keep active and have fun with friends as they work to practice and encourage
014each other throughout the event participating in our hoops and jump for heart event helps others through the donations we have raised as well as the individual participating by exercising and taking part in a community service as a school last year year Brookside raised $842 [Music] 621 this is something we are very proud of our Brookside community and thankful for their generosity and helping the helping fight the number one and the number one and four causes of death heart heart disease and strokes for the past several years Lunch Bunch groups have been created at each grade level at Brookside School the purpose of Lunch Bunch is to provide structured social opportunities for students with special needs along with regular education peers at their grade level peer models for this group are identified based on teacher recommendations
015peer model requirements include positive character traits such as kindness respect towards others and appropriate social skills regular education students are invited to Lunch Bunch on a rot a rotating basis which help students with special needs generalize social skills and become acquainted with a large number of peers lunch brunch groups are scheduled during the students lunch SL recess period once per week the group begins with an opportunity for a conversation while students are eating their lunch conversations are usually structured in game format for example choosing an open-ended question to answer out of a question basket following the lunch the students play an age appropriate game or activity as a group as needed visual supports and non-verbal cues are provided for students with special needs in order to faciliate interaction and communication with their peers this year
016students with special needs are invited to attend lunch Munch every other week in order to keep the group size small on weeks that students with special needs do not attend Lunch Bunch they are given Lunch Buddies to play with during recess time this structure provides another opportunity to practice and generalize social skills and to build relationships among students and students with special needs and regular education peers in addition to providing meaningful social interactions for students with special needs lunch buch also builds understanding and acceptance of differences among our school's general education students this understanding relates directly to our school's anti-bullying initiatives and positive behavior support programs Pals is peer assessed learning in Social settings is a pure meditated teaching model model used here at Brookside to bring regular education students together with special education students
017and a teacher to provided environment using this program for non-speaking students helped to greatly increase their vocabularies while decreasing their disruptive behavior regular education students and special education students participate in a variety of activities that are created to require the special education students to communicate regular education students learn patience and acceptance and show good citizenship throughout the [Music] program the Brookside Garden program is a program that offers Hands-On instructional opportunities for our students to gain exponential learning Rel relating to the goals of the common cor standards teachers incorporating the Brookside Garden into their lesson planning take learning to a new level by offering their students opportunities to experience a deeper insight into their learning students will use Keen observation and critical and independent thinking skills as they work in our garden in a sense it
018helps to make the curriculum come to life in addition to the curriculum aligned benefits Garden learning opportunities Foster an understanding of conversation environmental stewardship and an appreciation of the growth and life cycles of all living things it also offers the opportunity to develop collaborate working skills with their peers gardening opportunities are also thetic in nature our special needs students are experiencing many benefits as students practice communication skills receive opportunities for sensory exploration develop gross and fine modern skills and develop a sense of working with others for a common goal the activities ProMed for year to year vary as we explore new avenues this year we have designated Garden that have been adopted by various classes as various grade levels as well as the with the special areas program this fall we have utilized our pca's
019Brookside Garden Grant mon to purchase garlic and Tu of bulbs for fall planting during the cold months we Explore More indoor related gardening activities and preparation for the spring planting season classes have the freedom to incorporate any grade level related C curriculum learning goal based on their particular unit of study activities activities are then shared as great level meetings our fifth grade students are G at Brookside are given an opportunity to participate in the school safety program sponsored by Triple A at the beginning of the year Dr alvik shared with all the fifth graders how the program works and we are given the opportunity to apply for the position 20 CH were ch for the first half of the year and 20 more will be given the opportunity for the second half of the Year
020our job is to help all Brookside and Brookside students safely arrive and dismiss from school on the buses we take our resistance seriously and understand that we are helping to keep our school safe our school rules are be safe be kind be respectful and be responsible when we follow these rules we can receive new coupons at end of at the end of each month three coupons get chosen from each class box and those students get to choose a reward as a whole class we can receive feathers for our class Falcon the classes at each grade level with the most feathers at the whole at the end of each month are rewarded the Falcon trophy as the whole school earns feathers we add them up on a large feather in front of the school when we
021reach a certain amount of feathers schoolwide we get special days like pajama day and lunch outside so far this year we have 136 feathers since October 1st last year we collected over 750 feathers as a [Music] School chorus is available to students in grades four and five chorus students are either soprano or Alo and our tested to determine which category they will fit into we are looking forward to our Winter concert where we will share these amazing voices with songs from different cultures to celebrate the holidays Brookside holds many fun and educational assemblies during the school year the PTA helps pay for many of our assemblies some topics our assemblies have covered are rocks and minerals our school song and fire safety brookside's assemblies are great and enjoyed by many [Music] students Brickside school has
022many fun activities each day so the kids and teachers can take a break each day we go to specials like art music library and gym for some Advanced students they get into tag and attend special classes on a science days of the week in science tag the fifth grade students work on projects and experiments there's also art tag for fourth and fifth grade students also work on projects but is for an art tag art show there is also math tag that is for students for learn advanced math and getting challenge lastly there is L tag an L tag the students do book reports like projects by reading a chapter book and then doing projects based on them specials and tags give Brickside students unique and fun ways to learn new things thank you so much
023for listening to our presentation all about all the great things happening at Brookside school we want to thank the Board of Education and the staff of mon retention schools for making these opportunities possible thank you [Music] [Applause] since we don't get a chance to go into our schools that often we'd like to thank you for bringing us a little glimpse of Brookside tonight okay at this time we will go to our public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak to the agenda please come to the microphone state your name and address for the record good evening Steve Ryback 23 Riviera Drive uh first I'd like to pick up on what student reps uh said about Mike Nichols um anyone watching today certainly all of us here I'm sure support Mike and we should all
024come together to show that support and uh all of us Mike wish you a speedy recovery 100% recovery um thank you I'd like to bring up uh some issues on the agenda today that I found a little troubling the minutes of the December 18th meeting which is an attachment to the agenda makes no mention of the discussion on the recommended change to nepotism policy nor tabling of a motion to change it that being said I noticed that a recent board member's relative is listed as a special education par which is classified as a new position now even if we don't extend the nepotism policy I believe uh that should still be covered by the current one which prohibits uh uh for a six-month period uh a relative getting a new position of a of a
025board member or board um I I do recall in the minutes that it did address the uh tabling of the motion I didn't see it in the minutes online there was an attachment uh around to the agenda it it was in the minutes from the December meeting right that's what I was referring to yeah yeah it should be in there perhaps uh we can go over it afterwards okay all right and what about the question of uh oh you're talking about that that specific uh item that I mentioned the position was addressed in that that uh uh a former board member's uh relative is um being offer a position today on today's agenda I I know that the policy states that a board member cannot have a position in the district for six months but
026I don't think there currently is a policy where a board member's relative could not get a that's correct could not get a a position in the district um okay I guess that's under the new proposed uh change to that policy then okay thank you anyone else yeah my name is Charlie lurman you live in Dell Drive the um the township m the plan permits a significant number of non-age restricted clustered and non-clustered development is this something that's on the agenda no then you have to wait for the second public for okay thank you anyone else want to speak to the agenda about about who's comment about Deca that is not on the agenda so we'll okay so I would do it all right okay is this an agenda question yes okay Lou Masters n Michela
027Court this is intimidating uh item L which is the Denny Mo show what is that and is the total cost 538 or 179 that's under Personnel or board action under personel yes page eight yes correct all right so what's your what's your question Mr what is it and is it what's the total is it 4 * 3 * 44 or just 4 * 44 it is 4 time 3 * 44 okay 538 what is it it's a play it's what is their their spring or win spring production thank you thank you anyone else excuse me but I think it is on the agenda under field y okay Joanne Cardone Gravel Hill Spotswood Road um I had the honor of chaperoning the January 9th trip that Corey has been on with me for a few years
028now the DECA competition at middle six we had again proudly at least onethird of our students uh become finalists but one thing that Corey did not know about because we were just informed today is that three of our students qualified uh for the international competition Thrive which automatically entitles them to participate in the Atlanta trip we were one of 12 schools in the state to have this honor so that adds three more to our finalists and I think we had 50 so it was better than onethird of our staff ex I mean our students so I'm proud to say that I enjoy doing that trip and I hope the board continues to support us as we go into state competition thank you thank you thank [Applause] you anyone else from the public yes it's on
029the agenda Ira Tesla 11 La drive under field trips there's two field trips with costs listed next to it one is partially uh funded by the district and students and one um fully funded by the district I just want to know if you can tell me what determines whether a uh field trip is is uh is uh funded by uh the the students and the district or totally funded by the district Dr Gorman you're going it's curriculum based so um so the cheerleading competition for example is part of the is part of the um curriculum so we paid for registration only okay um but kids took care of all travel right and all expenses the deck is directly integrated into the curriculum at the high school okay thank you anyone else from the public good
030evening excuse me John cin 11 Fox Run um on page 17 of your agenda second to the last paragraph um actually I find this sort of embarrassing the Board of Education um in your third sentence down you have both a grammatical and a spelling error in your agenda um that's sort of I find that embarrassing that the people in charge of teaching our children to read and write have a mistake on their agenda that where where is it P 17 second to the bottom paragraph third line down beginning with no more than three used yeah I would think somebody proof reads these but apparently not yeah okay we will check that correct it anyone else wish to speak to the agenda seeing no one we will close that public uh public forum and go to
031um the revised public meeting schedule will be uh voted on under the business administrator's report so we will go to the approval of minutes for the public Board of Education meeting for December 2013 so move by Mr Chella second by miss analis any revisions to that Mr proso December 18 meeting had quite a bit of U information about the nepotism policy that we were baning back and forth for almost an hour and the minutes had absolutely no really no information so I think I should be rised you want to revise it how because I think it where we were debating about the nepotism policy isn't there discussion in there about um the nepotism policy one on the website two paragraphs long you spent an hour on it I I but we didn't we don't put
032our minutes for btim mam Mr Gorski there was a motion made and it didn't tell you what type of motion it was it was tabled Mr presio so the American civil liberties Union ACLU has a guidance that dictates the minute keeping requirements and it illustrates that public bodies must keep reasonably cons comprehensible minutes of all their meetings at a minimum the me the minutes must reflect the time and the place members present subjects considered actions taken and the votes of each member we've discussed our minute keeping at policy meetings in the past and our attorney consistently reviews our minutes and the consensus of all is that our minutes at least meet the minimum reasonably comprehensible guidelines and in fact quite often we put more information in the minutes than is required or that of our
033peers so the minutes are did not design to capture the verbatim transcript of the event but the essence of the argument and I and I believe it does well you have something here down other the board education business where you have a former board member bantering back and forth with the member of the public so I don't see that's important why would it be in a minutes why shouldn't we have important things like this nepotism policy that we wanted to push or that was presented and there's very little information about it so just bringing up an issue okay thank you anyone else okay then all in favor opposed no um Mr preso is opposed obain abstains Michelle and Tom Miss armeno December 18th correct yes abstain and Tom not got it the Clos session um
034approval of minutes for the close session meeting of December 18th 2013 Mo Mr Chella there a second second by Mr zareski any revisions to that seeing none all in favor opposed abstain okay Lou Amy Michelle and Tom so noted okay the approval of the minutes for the public Board of Education meeting of January 2nd 2014 is there a motion in a second so moved so moved by Mr noin notein second by miss armeno any revisions seeing none all in favor I I opposed extensions M Mr Chella miss antelis Mr Braverman thank you very much uh this time we will go to committee reports but before we do I have a a little um subject on committees um just for the public uh our board committees have been established our board members have received their assignments
035chairs have been selected and we will soon be having our committee meetings back um my responsibility as as board president is to assign committees and the chairs and once I do that is is the responsibility of each chair to conduct their me their meetings along with the administrator for that committee for instance curriculum would be Dr Gorman Personnel Dr Hamilton Finance Mr Gorski it is important for our board members to try to hold monthly meetings preferably for a week before a board meeting so that it gives enough time for discussion before we put anything on the agenda the date time and place are up to the chair but I would suggest having it at the same time each month for instance the 2 Tuesday of the month at six o'clock or whatever keep it consistent
036so that the public has an idea of when each meeting is um when scheduling meetings please keep in mind the members of your committee because some of them have flexible schedules and some of them do not have flexible schedules so we want to make sure that the meetings are scheduled when everybody has a chance to come and we will make sure that the committee meeting dates are put on the um website as along with any agenda if we have one before the meeting um I'm going to ask that if any board member is not able to attend a meeting to please call Mr gorsky's office and talk to him or his secretary Nancy so that we can get an alternate to the meeting and lastly in order to make sure that we are in compliance
037with the open public meetings Act only committee members MERS from the board will be allowed in committee meetings any other board members will no longer be allowed to attend any committee meetings as a member of the public so at that time are there any at this time are there any committees that need to report this evening Mr proso does this include the alternates the alternates a part of the no the alternates will be called if a member of the committee is not available allowed to attend they are not allowed to attend because that would make a quarum we have five people on a committee is quum six no yeah that would make a quorum we don't want to have a quorum on our committees are there any committees that need to report Miss anelis we
038had a buildings and grounds meeting prior to today's meeting and uh Mr Gori I'm going to turn the first item over to you the rod Grant approval status good evening prior to the governatori election the governor announced um grants for school districts called regular regular operating grants Rod grants and these are designed to help schools improve their facilities the need for this has arisen from the fact that the the cap that was imposed in 2010 made it uh almost impossible for school districts the budget for large Capital Improvement projects like roofs within the general operating budget with a 2% addition to the general fund tax levy uh Monroe um has tackled a couple such projects in the past within the budget but Nation uh Statewide there is deteriorating facilities no matter where you look so
039these Rod grants were designed to help schools improve and add on to existing facilities Monroe immediately applied for four projects and one was split into two the first and most important one that's included as a budget priority was stop Gap measures at the Monroe Township Middle School to make internal Renovations for space creating nine new classrooms to deal with overcrowding the project cost was $2.2 million and the state's share was about $900,000 that project um we were verbally told recently from State officials was denied the second project was mono Township Middle School window replacement project this was a longer term Visionary project for us as it was not a priority and it was designed for energy and efficiency improvements but not an immediate need to the school this project was approved the project cost is
040a little over a million dollars and the 40% State Rod Grant contributions a little over 400,000 the third project was a priority it for us and that's the Monro Township Middle School instructional Wing roof replacement and site upgrades state of New Jersey has denied the site upgrade piece which has uh lends the part of the drainage but has approved the re-roof project at a at a project cost of about 1.2 million and the states portions about 500,000 and the fourth project was the mon Township Middle School restoration of tennis courts which is part of the curriculum this would have been a nice project because the community greatly uses those tennis courts and if the state was going to help provide the restoration of these um it would have been a project that I'm sure the
041board would have considered but that project was denied so despite the states um uh statements early on that these projects were a priority that the money was available once again we're left with uh a broken promise and only partial Grant approvals at this point and and again that's the window project that was not a big priority and the re-roof project so these are disappointing to say the least building grounds and Transportation uh met this evening and decided to proceed and take advantage of the state's award for the partial re-roof project and include the district's 60% portion of that in the budget and to take on whatever internal um Renovations at the middle school are most immediately needed and can be done in accordance with the calendar um through board funds um the other items we
042discussed was the district it equipment for Recycling and Disposal or sale um this is our list of broken equipment that hopefully we will be able to sell um and the last item was the discussion of the Applegarth boiler and according to Jerry T we've been told that the boiler while it's not the greatest boiler in the world is not CR in critical condition at this time thank you Mr is there any questions for Miss Areno yes um so what would in terms of the rod grants do we have I know they were split up in four sections but do we have a total of what we requested and a total of what we received okay is this yes is that for me though or is that yours okay thank you he's adding them sorry is
043there any other questions PA or and maybe we could send out one of those to us yeah to everybody I'm sorry Mr the total applied for exceeded just over 5 million million okay um and again the only projects that were approved was the Monroe Township middle school re-roof project without the site upgrades and that's a $1.2 million Project without the site upgrades and the state's portion is about 500,000 and aside from that the mundro township Middle School window replacement project was approved at a project cost of just over a million dollars with the 40% Rod Grant contribution of about 400,000 what was denied was the most critical stop Gap measures at the middle school to do internal Renovations for space creation that was a project of $2.2 million and the restoration of the tennis courts
044at about $300,000 and of course the site upgrade piece of the roof which is part of the roof in our opinion and lends to better drainage and um runoff for the roof and that was denied and you have indicated we already have monies put aside for one of these projects we had uh the board had in its budget philosophy development meeting recommended about $1.5 million of District share Monies to be put aside in the capital outlay fund for the Stop Gap measures at the middle school creating additional space and the design costs for the roof for replacement project so what building grounds uh and transportation recommended again tonight was to substitute instead of the stop Gap measure project that's currently in the budget the re-roof project and to do as many internal classroom Renovations as
045as possible and which coincide with the calendar thank okay anyone else Mr Po essentially I just want to make a comment about uh a statement that you made earlier uh Madam president concerning uh our committee meetings and I I just want to say that I'm I'm disappointed that uh non-committee members that are on the board uh basically are banned from those meetings uh going forward yet in the past it appeared that they could attend uh I know in the past the rule was that they uh could not comment could not participate in the discussion uh therefore they were essentially operating in the capacity as any other member of the public what I found beneficial about being able to attend those committee meetings whenever I could was that I was better informed as a member of
046the board in terms of what the discussions deliberations were and a I had a better understanding of what the recommendations that were coming out of that committee were uh so I am disappointed that uh we are losing the benefit of being able to do that and um I I would simply say that I would hope we can find some way in the future that uh if a member of the board who is not a member of the committee uh cares to attend one of those meetings that they could do so with the understanding that they have to keep their mouth shut uh at the entire time so just a comment I want to share with you the question came up very recently from a new board member so we checked with the attorney and the
047attorney advice was to not have board members attend committee meetings yeah I I understand what you're saying I'm just saying I'm very disappointed in that and I think we actually lose more than we gain well we do send the committee notes home on Fridays with the conf itial so that will have the synopsis of what happened at committee meetings Mr not Stein thank you madam board president um with regard to Mr Po's comments um I too feel the same way and as you know that I'm the one that kind of I guess brought this up um as much as I hate it I'm also an advocate for open public meetings and following the law I realize that if we're going to announce these meetings and make them public they'll also have to have a public
048forum and it changes the whole dynamic of a committee meeting and at that point you might as well just have uh a committee of the whole at that point because it really gets unruly um however uh because we don't want to lose something I can't believe there's not a way that we could possibly record uh these meetings and make that available to the to members that may may require it or may may request that um certainly in the age of the digital age now um I would think that we' be easily be able to put just a recorder in there and then make that available to to the other you know committee members if they so to that would be something we would have to go through the policy committee to see if they would
049if they would want to do something like that and then go to the full board Mr meno just a quick comment i' just like to be clear that the public is still able to attend those meetings absolutely thank you it's just board members cannot be considered a member of the public anymore thank you okay any more questions seeing none we'll go to the superintendent report Dr Hamilton yes good evening all um before I get into my report I just want to share a few a few things from the last few days um firstly I want to commend our transportation department for handling the unexpected IC conditions so well we immediately halted all buses on the roads after the temperatures dropped to unsafe conditions drastically um in consultation with with my colleagues it caught all of
050us off guard and fortunately because of the Swift thinking and cooperation of our transportation staff and our two-way radios which made life a lot easier for us that day we had no District buses involved in any accidents and all of our students ared safely um so I do want to commend our uh Transportation Department for an exceptional job in that under those [Applause] conditions um I also want to address yesterday we had um I tried to keep the board as as uh informed as I could given the uh urgency of the matter but um there was uh reports of of gunshots heard in the vicinity of the middle school yesterday um and the school did go into a Sheltering place as a precaution and of course the police confirmed that there were hunters in the
051back of the school which is not unusual um so they ultimately decided to use that as an opportunity to uh Implement one of the drills for for the year but I also have a statement from the uh police department that just came over this morning um and they essentially provided me with a copy of the ordinance regarding hunting um in Monroe and the synopsis of the incident from the police standpoint is that the hunters were well beyond the School boundaries according to the ordinance um they were beyond the boundaries near the post office as well they were properly licensed they were discharging their weapons in the safe Direction toward the tree line and the only thing that they were able to determine was that the sound of the weapons being fired created alarm and no
052student or staff member was any danger at any time when the police arrived so I just wanted to uh share that information with you as well because I know it got some media attention we're also in the process of working on our 2014 2015 budget and Mike is going to give you a brief update during the ba report and I've been in constant cons uh conversation with Mr Nichols Michael's dad and he provided me with an update today he says that Michael is really starting to turn for the better he is scheduled to have the breathing tube replaced with the tra tomorrow which is the next step for getting him totally back to breathing on his own uh he says that Mikey is extremely determined to regain his strength and often has to be rained
053in because he's actually pushing himself a little too much um he will soon be moved to another facility and what really touched me today was um while I was talking to him his wife was reading letters and cards from Mikey's Abbot team um which has been a tremendous source of strength for him through this this process and it says a lot about the efficacy of the AVID program and the collaboration and camaraderie that that program has developed and he just went on about how the Avid kids have been such a source of strength for Mike in in addition to the community and he sends his thanks and appreciation for all that's been going on and moving on to the superintendent report um you have the attendance the student enrollment data enclosed in your report for
054this month you will note a notation for correction on the November numbers for the high school our enrollment for outof district placement and homebound instruction is also included in your agenda along with the lockdown and fire drills for the month of December at all of our sites moving on to Personnel items Madam board president members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel items a through Q be approved by roll call vote Mr Chella would anybody like to Second it second by Mr caufman okay is there any comments or questions for Dr Hamilton Mr CH just under o it says following the step on guide that should be step one I would imagine where is that o you said oh yes no let's step on Guy step on guy okay
055Sor step nice Mr nin with regards to under item uh p uh Miss Laura tesler uh how many hours does she currently work work and how many will she work if approved um we should probably address this in generic terms because this individual has not been raced um so we should not have open discussions about an individual um but in this regard the person assigned to provide um train um assistance for this individual student would be a maximum of 3.75 hours per day part-time status and that's what she's currently doing now is that accurate yes okay um would she or could she have been hired if her husband was still a board member yes um if she's not approved this evening will there be any change in her step oh if he was still a
056board member correct I stand correct it now M your question oh I'm sorry so let me let's get this let me clear this up would she had been hired if her husband had been reelected no she would not have been allowed to be rehired no ma'am no sir okay um if she's not approved this evening will there be any change in her status with regards to the students currently in her care I'm sorry please repeat um if she's not approved this evening will there be any change in her status with regards to the student currently in her care no why are we considering this this evening with the nepotism policy revision currently scheduled to be reviewed in policy um I've presented Personnel records as I Personnel recommendations as I would under any other conditions um
057absent any pending policies um my responsibility is to make these recommendations and it's up to the board to approve or not approve these recommendations so you could not have made this this re this um recommendation this evening if um her husband was reelected I just want to reiterate that that that's an accurate statement that is it would not yes that so obviously this isn't that important to do this this evening and I urge my fellow members to please not approve this this evening because we need to discuss this in the nepotism uh policy um this to me seems like a blatant end run around the nepotism policy and I don't think that that's really I don't think that's really looking out for the best interests um nepotism has a way of blurring qualifications and I
058think that we need to instill the trust between this board and the town and our citizens and say since at the end of the day the most important thing is the education of our students you've told me that nothing's going to change if it's it's not approved this evening that was very important to me because I realize how important this position is I am not I am not I'm sorry I I am not questioning the qualifications of this individual um I've done a little research and everything is fantastic so that is never under discussion this evening what's under discussion as far as I'm concern this evening is why are we doing this why are we making an end run knowing that the ne ISM policy was brought up so please take that into consideration when
059you're all voting thank you and I I just want to go on record to saying that my my decision to add uh these recommendations on this agenda are not P person specific these recommendations are made with the particularly um those young those folks who will be working directly with with classified youngsters maybe because these are the people who work best with these youngsters and in my estimation is the best interest of those youngsters so I just want to go on record for saying that but but again I I'm sorry I'm go ahead I'm sorry has she already has Miss um this position she's already working with this student yes she's so and do you know about how long so uh since octo sometime in October okay so basically what you want to do is not
060have her work with the child anymore is that what you're saying um of course not and that's what I thought so I don't understand because in six months she could be hired anyway I I don't understand like what is the discrepancy we we not talking about a principal position we're not talking about a high-paying position we're talking about a paros of a woman who has already been doing it she has established a relationship with the child I I she's not receiving benefits it's a part-time position I I'm not quite understanding why Madam board president I'd like to encourage you to Cease the conversation because this individual has not been raced okay um there's a a recommendation to um not approved then I'd ask that the board call for a vote on it or if there's
061a recommendation to do something else that there should be a motion made to do that but the discussion is getting a little too specific well I I just have a problem with this because Mr noin seems to be indicating that you're doing something Shady that's what it sounds like and you're not and as long as I've been on this board I've never seen anyone do anything underhanded sneaky like you're talking about and and I really think you do a discredit to the administration by what you're saying you madam president as long as we are not specifically talking about this position anymore you can you can speak first of all um I am not inferring anything I think that the record speaks for itself um Miss anelis knows we have a NE nepotism policy she's obviously
062in favor of nepotism it's pretty evident and um I think in favor I think we need to keep in mind that it is about the children and that's why this decision to me um was was fairly easy because I was informed that nothing will change you know we're going back to that uh things will change if it's not approved and I think that we need to stress that nothing will change if she's not approved all she was was subtitute Chang this conversation about a specific person is going to cease right now and I just want to clarify the nepotism policy at this point we the the policy states that any board member cannot have a position in this District until they've been out of the district or out of a board member being a board
063member for six months it does not there is nothing in that policy that states that a board member's family member cannot have a position right away any future nepotism policy could or could not be approved by this board but that's that's something that's at least 2 three months down the line I I this board has to go by the policies it holds now and not by something that potentially could be approved or not approved in in um the future so that's just to clarify the policy we have in place at this particular time excuse Madam board president so what you're saying then is the the the answer that I received was incorrect if he was still if he was a member now he she could be no no once the board members is off the
064board oh I got you got board members family member has the right to have a position the board member does not but the family member does the board member cannot have a position in this district for six months a family member there is no um no limit no time limit any other questions Mr proso this item was tabled the last time we got together I don't understand if it's the the nepotism policy was tabled yes should have had a policy meeting so we could have voted on this we did not have enough time for me to get you had a time for buildings and grounds right so why not policy which is so important to many members on the board I just find that hard to believe that's all I have to say Miss Miss
065Armenia um president k panowitz um just in terms of the uh the policy the nepotism policy and ethics um it's very often stated that a perception of impropriety is just as important as an actual um act so I think giv the uh public perception and my own uh prior to my being a board member my own concerns uh dating just about a year ago um that uh certain policies should should be uh put into consideration when making some of the decisions in this um but also I have a question on p uh with the mecca it says a Mecca custodian is the mecca custodian going transferring from Mecca to another school or is he transferring into the mecca program uh there's a change in hours there's no additional um person add it just folks are
066being switched from a full-time position to a part-time position and someone who was in a part-time position is moving to fill those other duties okay I I I still don't understand um it is this person going under the mecca program has that has a custodian for that program been assigned already or is this there's always been a custodian there yes and and any of the budgetary um expenditures has counted this custodian in or a custodian in that uh actually I'm not sure that yes okay any other questions just let me one I'm no no my mistake so uh the mecca budget will not be changed based on this transfer any expenditures to the mecca budget won't be changed no Mr yes no no it will not be changed thank you any other questions Mr Po
067just a comment on the earlier discussion and I'll try to keep this as general as I can uh It just strikes me that that this particular recommendation is untimely uh because we are in the midst of discussing revisions to the nepotism policy and I do not see the wisdom in ignoring the fact that we are going to consider that in the near future I would hope uh and moving ahead with this uh so I I do have reservations about that particular recommendation thank you anyone else then at this time we will have a roll call Personnel items a through Q Miss anelis yes Miss armenio uh yes with the exception of p uh Laura Tesla so noted Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mr zareski yes to everything I want to abstain from p and
068that's for that same specific person abstained from for the whole block so noted Mr calman yes Mr noin yes with the exception of P Laura tesler so noted Mr proso yes with the exception of Laura Tesla so noted Mr Po uh yes uh with the exception of item P Laura tesler Mrs kapano yes Madame board president Personnel items a through Q passes with the exception of P Miss tesler because there is you got five and you got four no one abstention it requires six to pass okay and we have uh one abstention and four NOS okay moving on to board board action items Madame board president is recommended by the superintendent that board action items a through K be approved by roll call vote so move Mr cherella second second by Miss analis are there
069any comments or questions Miss sarmo Board action item C previously submitted list of student teachers for the school year and that was previously submitted before January 2nd yes so what I need to abstain from that yes um Madam uh previously submitted in that reference refers to it's been previously submitted to the board members prior to this meeting this evening oh okay I just but but the um list was was determined before January 2nd is that correct no not necessarily it was it was for this board meeting so you can you can approve it or disapprove it thank you yeah anyone else Mr Po a clarification on item K I'm assuming that tuition rate is a daily rate that is correct okay thank you anyone else Mr cherella just on item H the the uh H
070job description for security for security guard is that what we that's the the revision we did with that is yes anyone else okay seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss antelis yes Miss armenio yes Mr Braverman yes Mr cherella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes Mr noin yes Mr proso yes Mr Po yes Mrs kapano Madame board president board action items a through K passes thank you and that concludes the superintendent's report okay we will go on to the business administrator's report Mr Gorski Madame board president I would like to uh take action on the report and then give my update for the budget okay that that's satisfies you Madame board president members of the mon Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through L be approved by
071consent roll call so Mr Chella second second by Mr analis are there any comments or questions for Mr Gorski just on Jay one yes just what is the web filter software what is I don't understand what that what we that is um web filter software is a uh a screening device to keep improper um elements out of the network um viruses um inappropriate content and things of that nature and it was determined that this web uh filter that we had previously uh could not keep up with the bandwidth and everything that the district had expanded through uh recommendations of the board and as such the web filter was was slowing the entire network down to a crawl and it was the recommendation of our technology director to um alleviate this with a a cost effective
072fix which is simply a new web filter anyone else Mr Man on that same matter uh is the Trey Bron is that it is that the is that like a third party no that's the manufacturer of the oh that's the manufacturer and the the contract uh for $220,000 and that had to be signed before December 30th is that correct according to what I read here I think one of the one of the recommendations or the criteria for the contract to be enforced and we I'm sorry I should have marked it myself the cost is uh confirmed $20,000 and the contract has not been signed or is or executed yet it's waiting for board approval tonight oh okay oh a buyer's license for the pro oh okay I see thank you on the Miss armo yeah
073on the board of education miss anel us now we have two to a On The Board of Education meeting dates I believe there's an error on the February one you have that as February 3rd but that's a Monday it should be Monday febrary should be Monday February I think that we done an electronic um replacement for that in in uh or email oh okay because yeah it says Wednesday on there Mr prese also yes getting back to web filter software and item J I don't know too much about computers but can we block some of the information that the kids are get on on their iPads in in the high school with something like that and a you oh Mr Coffman might have an answer the web filter is applied to the servers that connect
074to the outside of the building so it would restrict certain sites both outbound and inbound thank you anyone else I say seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss anelis yes M armeno yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mr zareski yes Mr cman yes Mr no yes Mr proso yes Mr poy yes Mrs kapano yes madame board president board action items a through L passes thank you and I would like to continue my report with an update to the board of education and the public regarding the mon Township Board of Education 1415 budget chronology so far consists of the following the Board of Education had a meeting on on September 25th where a board philosophy governing the 1415 budget was established and in that meeting considerations for increased enrollment consideration for school construction needs
075consideration for school transportation needs consideration for special education stat expansion needs considerations for negotiations with two groups the mono Township School administrators Association which has since been ratified in a collective negotiation agreement and the mon Township Education Association uh will impact its 145 budget and um the conclusion of that meeting the board recommended the following actions um that the Board of Education dedicate $2.5 million of construction mon potential high school bond Surplus to tax relief for 1415 that's $1 million less than the preceding year and it leaves a balance remaining of a few hundred, the monor Township Board of Education would proceed with construction projects specifically to stop Gap measures at the middle school and the design cost component of the roof replacement project as we discussed this evening we had disappointing news from the
076state department dep that the stop Gap measures which are most critical uh a need to facilities has been denied so the recommendation from building grounds and transportation tonight was to substitute the roof replacement project and also do as many internal Renovations at full District expense as possible um on an emergent and basis and that which conforms with the school calendar the board's recommendation continued to expand the child study team by one additional team and the benefits of this um impact the budget because the child study team does uh evaluations on students and uh it's recommended that with more professional help in that regard students could actually be brought back into District saving money the board also recommended that the budget be constructed to stay within the very constrictive State 2% tax levy cap um and
077also to not only buy the state mandated replacement buses but to buy uh a couple others to replace those that are over 12 years old with severe rust next the budget calendar was adopted by the board on December 18th 2013 that shows the important dates that are statutorily driven and that's available on the website and then Dr Hamilton Dr Gorman and I began to meet with the principles to engage in what's called uh defense rounds budget defense rounds principles at these meetings have to defend all of their budgeted items and uh demonstrate that they conform with board goals and that they're efficient and that there's a need for such these are zerob based budgets that begin with the teachers and their recommendations for supplies and needs in the classroom that go to the principal and
078a budget is developed from scratch and turned over to Administration all of these budgets were revised and we have received them all back now Dr Hamilton and I Dr Gorman also met with technology department the facilities department and the transportation department where in certain cases we made use of estimates from third parties experts in line of uh items like healthc care rate projections for next year and also energy costs electric natural gas oil gasoline diesel all of these are beyond the sophistication of the administrative team so we use experts in that regard who are a part of the the um professional appointments anyway um currently with the budgets assembled into one master budget we are not in Balance we are $2 million over budget and that is actually favorable for this First Assembly of the
079budget because in Prior years it's not uncommon to be $4 million $5 million over budget so I think the conservative uh Direction has been received by all the recipients and um it's being prepared more conservatively to reduce the budget to cap administration's going to meet and we're going to review and examine certain special education accounts um and perhaps recommend a reallocation of resources not impacting any students but to operate more efficiently we're also going to review some of the estimates that have been put in place in the budget pers pension contribution is a significant one that's not available until right at the time of the final budget adoption so we have an estimate in there and uh that that revisit that utility costs and health insurance costs are also estimates that we'll see if we
080can tighten up with this extra time that we have available to us Dr Hamilton has also performed a co-curricular audit and an audit of the athletic programs and he Dr Gorman and I are going to look at those categories for potential savings and curriculum realignment in addition to that once the budget's put together and it's to cap uh and a very important piece is the ratables and this is a very important component for Monroe residents to understand this part this year ratables are the property valuations that share the tax levy and this year in Monroe there was a re-evaluation of all the ratables throughout town and that's going to cause an anomaly in comparing this year's budget to last year because what happens in general terms is the property valuations double and the tax rate
081gets cut in half and um one potential problem of that is our preliminary budget meeting is early in March and our final budget adoption is in the latter part of March the re-evaluation process has lent itself that the certified ratables are not going to be available to the Board of Education until March 15th right in the middle of those two budget adoptions so for the preliminary budget hearing you're going to see an aster when it comes to the tax rate because it's based upon preliminary rateable subject to change and the final numbers will be available again by March 15th so for the final budget adoption they'll be tight and you'll know exactly what the tax impact is going to be and and we talked about the rod grants already that was a great disappointment because
082as everybody knows Monroe is underserved in terms of state aid and this would have fored us an opportunity to deal with some of the facility needs but it appears that the state does not have any uh ample money available for this critical project so that that is my budget update and if anybody has any questions I'll be more than happy to entertain them okay see none I had asked um Mr Gorski to make that report tonight because we didn't have time to have a finance meeting this week so I just wanted to give the public an update um at this time we'll go to the board president's report and I'll try to keep this really short because I've talked enough tonight um for the board members anyone who would like to have a tour of
083the schools if you're not um familiar with them we will set up a tour between uh call Mike's office he'll set up a tour with him and Jerry or whomever and um hopefully we can limit this to one tour for everybody instead of separate board tours so um it'll be good for you to get familiar too for our schools um next ad hoc committee the our ad hoc committee on growth and Facilities um we're finally going to be able to meet again we got the latest update on our what is it were we looking demographers report yes thank you um we have right now a tentative date of meeting on Tuesday March 4th at 6 o'clock for about an hour um we are here to we will go over the updated demographers report and continue
084the discussion on where we're going to go with the influx of children that we expect in the next few years um we all know that Applegarth School needs some major work done that cannot be accomplished under the general operating budget and we will be needing a decision soon on where we want to go in this community so I invite any member of the public who would wish to attend and have a say in this major decision um to attend this meeting when we will have that meeting the date and the time and the place posted on the website um I also um about a month ago December maybe uh there was some information going around our district that the Monro Township graduation rate was about 54% so there happened to be an article in nj.com
085on December 20th with the high school graduation rates of every High School in New Jersey so I'm really happy to say that Monroe's graduation rate is 95.6% and just to compare that to some of the others schools around us Oldbridge is 92.5 4% Edison's rate is 93.9% West Windor Plainsboro and South Brunswick are 95.9% which is just like almost exactly like ours East Brunswick is 6 96.4% and the only two schools that have 100% graduation rate is Ocean County vocational and Union County vocational so I'm very happy um that our vac that our graduation rate is so high in Monroe and lastly I I know we've talked about it a few times today um to continue with our prayers from Mikey Mikey Nichols is our senior who had a um ice hockey uh injury and
086broke his neck and is now in the hospital and we need to continue to pray for him so that he recovers um it's not just the Monroe Community everybody outside of this community and outside of this state and in especially in the hockey world has been um very supportive of Mikey I know the New Jersey Devils the New York Rangers and um hockey venues in and out of New Jersey Connecticut Chicago are all supporting Mikey so we need to continue to pray for his recovery and I hope to see him back on the ice someday um at this time we'll go to Other Board of Education business is there any business from any member of the Board of Education Mr proso yes on the ad hoc committees why could we have one in January before
087the next uh well we are setting we are setting it up with the chairperson of the ad hoc committee Mr hoki so I know he's going to be away for a while and I think um that's the first day that will be good for him well if it's going to have a direct impact on the budget when was the last time it's not going to have any impact on the budget when was the last time we had a meeting probably and very late last spring we were waiting for the demographers report we got that in October but it was a it was a tentative one and we just got that one probably in December so now that we have the the finished demographers report we will be working on that seems like we're waiting a
088long time to get the committee together so well if we got the report in December and we just contacted Mr hoki that that's the first um available dates he has and he's the chair of that committee anyone else Mr Chella yes I just have a few things I apologize for missing the uh our last meeting so I just wanted to officially welcome Mr norstein and miss armeno and I wanted to also congratulate you madam president and Mr poy on his vice presidency um also I just wanted to mention a couple things that have been going on with with regards to the W board I'm the liaison from the Board of Ed to the rec board and the seventh grade basketball team took the mid Mammoth Championship so that that's pretty big news um Grandparents Day
089the the uh the town had a grandparents day and they the the W board wanted me to convey to the to the board and to the administration and also to the the the children the uh importance of the Key Club and how um how much help that were during that event so they said that the the uh the kids from the Key Club were wonderful they just wanted to you know keep maintaining that relationship and and you know hope that that you know that be that uh stays a vital part of what we do you know and maintain the maintaining the Key Club um as far as Mikey goes and I want to thank you I think you Dr Hamilton and Kathy you did a great job in uh honoring Mikey but there's also a
090Facebook page that's is pray for Mikey 23 and from what I understand uh from the wck board that Joy Sola who's the chair of the wck board said that he he uh his family and he get to view those get to view the messages on Facebook and that it it really uh helps his spirits so if uh you know everybody's welcome to go just like the page and then just you know you could wish them luck and uh you know just pray for him and whatever but I but it really is a it's a nice thing and uh just as far as the nepotism policy goes I you know as soon as I think the policy committee can meet I think that it is important just to put this to rest and let us uh
091let us go through it in in my opinion it should be it should be strengthened and and uh uh and it's just something I think we need to do and look at so that's it that's my piece thank you anyone else Miss armeno uh yes um just a small business matter I think um a housekeeping matter actually um could we have once again this year the sign uh in the high school reflecting the meeting dates and time we are supposed to have notic that it was missing this month and I just thought that maybe going forward we may able to have that I know there were a lot of important things on there and congratulations to the students that they um that they posted so but I like a little short thing reminding people that
092we have our meetings also um I'd like to applaud uh president konowitz and and the administration for taking a proa Ive uh decision forward and putting all of the information online goes a long way for transparency it gives people an opportunity to see what kind of work um that we're doing and I think it serves the public very well to be informed so I appreciate I appreciate the efforts uh for that um this weekend I attended this last weekend I attended the New Jersey school boards Association um trainings for new board members it was extraordinarily exciting it was intense it was from Friday to Sunday afternoon they kept us busy just about every minute met new board members from across the state and I have a huge f a huge um book to go through
093and learn about uh ethics laws um and a lot of things I'm looking forward to doing that and um it's it's sort of like a new dawn there there was a lot of mention that 10 years ago the school board members didn't have the same kind of responsibility so I'm looking forward to going through everything and um happy to learn more so I appreciate uh oh and it was no cost to the school system the uh the weekend was and we it was an overnight they did provide um uh meals but it was done with grants from outside agencies so um it was no cost to the school board no cost to us uh just a lot of time but it was well worth it good and lastly I'd like to um send my best
094wishes and heartfelt concern for Mikey his family and his teammates cuz I'm sure they're very concerned about it but also to the wonderful students in Monroe who feel um who feel the concern and I think it's a beautiful community and I appreciate so I wish um I wish him the family and his teammates the the best going forward yeah it it was really amazing to see how this school district came together so quickly in support of him and to raise some money was just overwhelming it's wonderful and I thank the community for it yeah anyone else Mr precioso Dr Hamilton mentioned about how uh we had a stop bus service because of the icy conditions during the day I listened to the news and you speak into the microphone please I don't want to miss
095anything that you say okay last week when Dr Hamilton made a decision to to take back and uh leave the buses on the side of the road I listened to the news that day and the radio said that there were 270 accident reports in middlex county and Mammoth County within one hour that morning so I want to thank you for protecting our children because from what I understand we didn't have any accidents with our own buses and nobody was hurt and because of the action of Dr Hamilton Mr gski and Doug from trans Transportation our kids were safe and it was a testament to how fast you responded on such a situation so thank [Applause] you Mr Kaufman um back in October we had the uh report on how all of our schools were doing
096what all the the things that came back from the state and I forgot what it's called used to be the quar it's got a new name right um I had made a request that we see a breakdown school by school so we can see what the numbers are school by school can you tell me when we're going to see that next curriculum okay um and just one other thing that maybe we have we as a group need to think about we're going to be setting up the ad hoc committee we're going to be doing a lot of discussions around facilities and growth years ago back in the good old days we used to have Board of Ed meetings at individual schools and I think it would be incredibly advantageous given we actually have more folks
097now coming to board meetings than we did back in the day to open it up rotate the board meetings school by school because it gives the public an opportunity to come in and see the facilities that we're going to be talking about through these ad hoc committee meetings typically the general public really doesn't come to every school they may come to a a specific school if there's a um uh you know they're having a show or a play or whatever but we have a lot of facilities in our in our district that are nice to show and we'd like to see more of and it would be great to just have these meetings at different schools since we're talking about them individually I'd like to be able to see the Brookside presentation in Brookside just
098a thought thank you thank you anyone else miss an Tellis unfortunately we had another tragedy in town I'm sure a lot of people don't know about it we had a house burned down in I believe uh near you a single mom with children in our school uh I found out about it I had contacted Dr Hamilton who uh contacted the principal of those children's school because the family lost everything um thankfully the police department and our fire departments got together and helped the family out and when I contacted Dr Hamilton U Miss Dinsmore and Mr vent trillo got together and helped the children out with whatever supplies they had lost so I thank you and once again the community coming together to help Mr boy um the demographers report um if we have not yet
099done so I would uh I would encourage that we send a copy of that to our planning board because I know they wanted to see those figures so they could compare them to the figures of The Firm that was doing their study uh just to see how close those Figures were so I would make that recommendation uh and and my next comment is going to basically come totally out of the blue and maybe totally Off the Mark uh but I only started thinking about it with the yet again uh shooting within a school in New Mexico which I believe happened just yesterday where two students were injured and it seems that these things just continue to happen uh and in most cases and I don't know it's true in all cases but in most cases
100uh it is often done by a member of that student body by by a student and the student uh has gotten the weapon essentially from their own home um so I would I I am proposing that that the board discuss or look into uh how we might uh Foster our state government uh adopting a law which essentially holds every gun owner responsible for making sure that their weapons are either totally disabled while they're in in the house or they are totally un underlock uh because if the child can't get to the weapon then there's less chance that they can bring the weapon into school and and do some damage uh and I would suggest that maybe this would be a practical way that within the state of New Jersey we could take a step to
101hopefully uh see that we don't have these kind of tragedies occur uh here in the state of New Jersey uh I don't see that it would cost a lot of money uh all it takes is some legislation and somebody needs to get the ball rolling and it has to start somewhere so maybe as a board of education we could uh appeal to the New Jersey state school boards Association as well as the New Jersey school administrators Association uh and any other groups like that uh to sponsor some kind of legislation uh in the assembly and uh in the Senate and see if we can't get uh Governor Christie to uh sign that bill uh the sooner we do this I think the safer our schools will be uh because beyond that I don't know how
102we're going to put a stop to these violent acts that are happening in the schools when children have access to weapons and those weapons are in the home and those weapons are so easily obtained I mean look at that young child that was killed in Tom's river that was not a school shooting but that was simply one kid going into his house bringing out a gun playing cops and robbers or whatever he was playing and shooting the child of the neighbor uh just just tragic and that could have been avoided had there been a law that would have held that parent responsible for assisting or or whatever the word the proper legal terminology is that if your child gets a weapon from your home and and injures or kills someone else then you as the
103parent are going to be responsible for that because I think we've let the parents off on that particular thing but we've got to do something and uh all this business with the NRA and gun control I'm not I'm not getting into that I'm simply saying what we can do to protect our children so I would like for us to uh consider that somehow I don't know what the Forum is among the board here but just give that some thought and we can bring that up again maybe thank you anyone else Mr zareski i' like to make mention of the middles six County School Board Association Michelle had touched on training that we get as school board members our executive director in the past year has been going around the state and contacting the middlex county
104school boards along with other County School boards and promoting learning availab availability to all board members and all you have to do is go online to the New Jersey School Board Association website and it's all there for not just middle sex County but all the upcoming counties all the other counties and upcoming events and I'd like to thank Mr Braverman here for going to the one in February on February 5th the uh student achievement one it seems to be that Michelle hit it on the head where you need to be informed you need to get as much information as you can and just to let everybody know that the New Jersey school boards especially through middle sex County School boards is on the Forefront of bringing that training to us so we don't have to
105go travel into Atlantic City and try to get everything crammed in in three days this is giving everybody an opportunity to do it on a month or every couple months whenever they can plan everything in so that is it okay thank you anyone else okay seeing no one we will go to close session resolution beat 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 of 1975 njsa 10 col 4-6 through 10 col 4-21 to discuss the following subjects personel matter Personnel matter employee 00408 and student matters harassment intimidation and bullying incidents 23- 25 all uh motion to who was that Mr Kaufman second Mr hunstein uh all in favor I opposed extensions at this
106time the board will go into close session 15 15 minutes we should be back at this time the board will reconvene into public session and I'm going to turn um the meeting over to Mr Gorski for a point of clarification um members of the Board of Education ladies and gentlemen some additional information has become available on Personnel items a through Q specific Aly letter P regarding uh the employee that was not passed with this consent rle call a through q that individual in this Personnel recommendation uh will only be servicing oak tree school it was confirmed that that person will not be servicing the Monro Township High School in any capacity therefore according to statute the Jamesburg representative is ineligible to vote on that uh roll call making the eligible voters on that roll call
107nine and not 10 we had five Ys on that roll call so the motion passes on in its entirety sorry for the confusion okay okay at this time we will go to the public forum anyone wishing to speak to the board please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record my name is Charlie lurman I live at 11 Durell Drive the township master plan I before you start I just want to let you know everybody know that we have three minutes that we're going to stick to our three minute time limit thank you uh the township Mr plan allows for a significant number of non-ag restricted clustered and non-clustered development presently some 3,000 that's 3,000 homes have either been approved and being developed or waiting to be developed or pending
108planning board approval this would conserva conservatively conservatively generate some 3,000 students into the system this might only be the tip of the iceberg has any thought been given as to how you will address this massive influx of students into a system that is presently busting at the seams it stands to reason that additional space will be needed uh within the schools and possibly additional school or schools might be needed as well what happens then to the quity of Education given our students and the tax revenue needed to sustain the high quality of Education given to our students that we all expect that is why that we are having the ad hoc committee it is a Community Committee that is going to be tasked with giving the board um a recommendation as to where would they
109what they can support in for facilities do we need more schools do we want to add on to schools um it if if we need to do something where we're going to expand we're going to need a referendum and we would need the support of the community so the community is going to get involved in giving us the recommendation and and that will be where the board will has any comments been made by the school board to the planning board regarding the the the concerns that that you all have yes and would you like to share those they they understand that the their planning and their building has an impact on the school district I've spoken to them I know the administrators have spoken to them I know other board members have spoken to them
110we've also attended planning board meetings okay and I I I assume that you you're not you're not in favor of of the master plan as it as it presently exists which would allows for this unrestricted age uh development the board has no say in the development of the the community we are not a part of the master plan we have no say in the master plan that is a Township is that legally Legally you have no say or you just choose not to no we have no say the the the responsibility of the board of education is to educate all the children that come into the community that is our responsibility we do not get involved in planning the community or developing the community that is the responsibility of the township I would think with
111all du respect I would think that considering this is going to have a dramatic dramatic impact on the school system that maybe you should reconsider your your your feelings regarding getting more involved in in planning uh that's that's why we can't just invite ourselves to be on the planning board or you can't attend meetings and you can as as board members I think you can and and and exert your influence on them because as I said this is completely out of control and taxes and the school system is going to burst and uh without your input it's going to be real serious problem going forward and I have maybe one more minute I only use one more minute okay at a recent um school board meeting Mr calman made a statement downplaying the importance of
112the newly elected members because they do not have students in schools thus implying that only those that have children in the system are more qualified than those that do not regarding making decisions that best serve the system the board the school board should represent the interests of all citizens of monreal Township and not just those that have children attending schools Monroe Township has many Senior Communities and many in those communities have a wealth of experience in education am I led to believe that Mr cman would would discount their qualifications because they do not have children in the system thank you thank you anyone else wishing to speak good evening Mr hoki I'm here and alive uh Joe hoki 61 Hoffman Road uh the last ad H committee meeting was March 19 2013 exactly we had
113three meetings and uh I just want to say at that last meeting we did make a decision made two recommendations to the board one recommendation was based on what Mr T told us is that he can provide or find seven classrooms at appleg guard school and we found that that was a a very good statement and that we encouraged him to pursue that so one of the recommendations that we had was that yes let's get those seven classrooms and I think it there's been references to it trying to get money for it and everything else and the second recommendation which I think was a very wise recommendation the uh demographic study that we had the committee felt that it was not adequate it didn't really reflect what's going to happen in Monro Township and so
114the recommendation was that we have a new demographic study which I understand is just about well done now you got it about two weeks ago and that's the one we're going to work with so it took almost a year if it's going to be in March or so almost a year to uh have the next meeting but I think it was worth waiting for because as the gentleman said there's so much going on in Monro Township that we hope that the recommendations that we come up with will be meaningful to the board so that's one point and the second thing is uh about seven years ago I was uh on a pilot program sponsored by the State Department of Education through Montclair State college and I was an evaluating team we had five districts picked
115out the state picked out five districts and there were five member teams and the evaluation that we did at that time became the model of what you are experiencing and every school district is experiencing every two or three years whatever that is I don't exactly know and I was in charge of governance in Jersey City and I spent 20 days in the Jersey City School District just dealing with governance and one of the things they did was they had committees as a whole every board member could ATT attend every one of the committee meetings and I brought this concept back to our board because I was president of the board at that time and uh it was very favorably received I think we have like six or seven new board members who were not present
116at that time and uh I I feel that by doing what you have done cutting out other board members from just sitting there and listening you are are depriving them of some very important information I think it's a different thank you joh yeah let me just finish I I think you your time is up yeah but I had all right I know I just want to tell come speak I hope you reconsider that and I think there's an awful lot of value in all board members being able to listen to what the discussions are all about thank you so please consider that anyone else from the public please come up to the microphone Sten Ryback 23 Riviera Drive uh just uh for clarification the uh 2.5 million being returned for tax relief is because it's
117required by law do you want to take that Madam yes unspent Bond referendum proceeds uh can be handled either to be spent on the project in accordance with the question that the voters approved or you could refund the bonds and apply it against principle or you could apply it against the amortization schedule to pay principal in the forthcoming school year um so the Board of Education consistent with how it's handled this for the last two years is applying it on an installment basis so that there's not a massive amount of tax stimulus one year with a massive rable in increase in the next next year okay I just have another comment as a as a resident sitting in in the audience today I was a little upset at the tone Mr bravman used addressing Mr
118precioso uh while literally there was nothing wrong with his words there was a lot of sarcasm there and uh I think that that is uh very unprofessional I think it shows divisiveness on this board this is and it's certainly not an example that you should be setting for members of this community as board members uh I think that uh that's your your personal differences should be those kept there or behind closed doors but when you sit here you're an example and I think you should act a lot more professionally than was displayed by him and I think you you owe him an apology direct thank you anyone else from the public right uh Bob zagari wants 62 Tournament Drive uh regarding facilities uh back in I believe it was November there was an agenda item
119that uh regarding capital reserve account maximum amount and it was talking about uh4 projects over a 5-year period at a total cost of about seven about $8 million and then uh recently we received from the superintendent in a publication called the school store uh uh a description of some grants uh that you were actually discussing tonight and that amounted to about $5 million uh in total uh are those my question is are those five million included in that 7 million and maybe could you just expand a little bit about what that 7 million is all about uh certainly not in great detail 124 projects U but it brings me back to to uh financing of projects and um I just wanted to remind you of that plan that I keep going to the burough council
120with that I had while I was running for Town Council of course I didn't win but I'm still interested in helping the Board of Ed uh and financing some of their construction projects uh basically the plan uh is all about uh uh when developers build new homes they pay Sur connection fees they also generate new students uh they pay those fees to the Monroe Township utilities department which builds up as a surplus now uh the mayor and Council then transfer that money that Surplus money from the utilities department to the town budget over the past uh four years they've transferred 40 million and they used that to expand Municipal spending 16 million of which went to um uh to cover tax appeals um the plan that I suggest calls for a portion of that sore
121connection fee to be distributed to the Board of Ed from the township government to the board of ed so that the Board of Ed could use it for uh covering the initial cost of construction of and renovation of new classrooms were paying down a portion of the debt resulting from the construction and certainly uh this is the type of money that could be used as your local share for Rod grants and maybe uh if the board if the township council is willing might be help uh able to help you in that emergent issue of the renovation of uh capacity generating classrooms to address overcrowding at the middle school and also just one final question is the Apple GTH boiler is that the only one in the school or are there two Mr Gorski yes Mr
122zarski uh as you mentioned there Rose a resolution recently establishing the capital reserve identifying the projects and all that information comes from the long range facility plan the last plan that was uh submitted in its entirety and approved by the state was in 2008 and much of the information that's contained in that resolution still comes from that that plan is is uh PL is constructed to um help districts plan and and on an installment basis meet the facility needs throughout the district and also anticipate the costs and any state aid that may be available for said projects the rod grants that uh you you referred to in the school story um authored by Dr Hamilton were all included in the long range facility plan because any plan that you have to submit for approval for
123requires an update of the long range facility plan with its inclusion so um our long range facility plan was updated for all of these projects certainly the roofs and the windows and a lot of these bigger items were in there already but like the classroom uh space creation was probably not but has certainly been sent in as an amendment boiler uh the boiler yes in Applegarth school there is two boilers uh one is a steam boiler and one is a hot water boiler that was added later with an addition to the school uh the one that re had recently had a trouble was a pipe related to the steam boiler and as we discussed in the building grounds and transportation committee this steam boiler probably dates back into the 1950s but but because of that
124constru struction it's a very reliable machine it has ancillary parts that are subject to wear and breakage but the unit is like a an old engine block you know um it it continues to function and it would take a catastrophic event in order to really destroy it in its entirety and we do have boiler insurance for such an event thank you anyone else from the public good evening hello my name is Karen ogrady and I reside at for Mount Nash court right here in Monroe I have a graduating senior her name is Lauren she has been a student in this Monro Township School District since kindergarten through this final year of high school I believe it will be shameful to have our graduation ceremony in our high school gym I've been to both our daughter
125and our son's gr grade eighth grade graduation ceremonies in the Middle School gym and both times it was a terribly hot and humid day and not enjoyable at all in the gym without any conditioning it was extremely sweaty and smelly and each time our two other children had to watch their sibling graduate on a screen in the pack Center at the middle school I remember each one vividly and each time their grandparents had to surpass their this achievement due to not enough space being available for them to attend another issue with having the graduation in the gym is that I was informed if we do this this year we risk losing the Sun Bank for future years I was also told that with in two years which is when my son who's a sophomore now
126will graduate we will not be able to fit mom and dad in the gym due to our growing student population I feel very strongly that this graduation should be in some type of venue with air conditioning and that seniors be allowed to have their siblings as well as other family and friends there to watch them receive their diploma this type of Milestone should most certainly be celebrated in front of family I thank you for listening to me tonight and I hope you're continue searching for another venue because the thought of it being in this gym as much as I adore this high school and it's a beautiful facility is absolutely ridiculous are you looking at other venues Dr hilon um we have looked at other venues there is still one pending that we do not
127um we have not excluded from our our search well I appreciate that I obviously reached out to numerous senior parents friends and numerous people couldn't be here tonight so unfortunately I'm I hope I'm not alone with this but you're not I've Reed my opinion and I just find it crazy absolutely crazy and I look at her face and how do I explain to her that again she can't have her siblings there let alone the rest of her family to celebrate this again milestone in her life but thank you thank you IA Tesla 11 drive I'm just going to concur on the previous speaker uh as a board member I attended U seven graduations the first one I attended was out here on the football field in the torrential downpour I know Kathy was there I
128believe your son graduated that did your son graduate yes and that was not a fun experience uh after that I attended every single graduation at sunag Arena including my own daughters we got to uh invite just about as many family members as we can siblings Aunts Uncles cousins it was always a wonderful uh dignified uh event and um I would like to see that um continue uh in the future having a graduation at the high school would be too constrained uh if we have it outside you always risk the weather if you have it inside you can't share that with your family members and it's a wonderful achievement that your student has spent 13 years including kindergarten uh of their public education and to culminate that by not sh being able to share it with
129your family would be would be a sad thing so I encourage uh the board and who is Ever responsible to look for another venue and if it means maybe changing the schedule so be it the kids deserve that uh the kids deserve to be uh in a venue and graduate with dignity and uh to have their family members um there and present and not just one or two parents thank you thank you anyone else from the public you please come to the microphone John CES 11 Fox Run um in reference to the previous discussion on the lockdown at the middle school the other day and and the hunting in in the back of that there uh I would suggest to the board that uh you folks officially communicate with the Town Council and make a
130recommendation that they can reconsider their restrictions on the hunting not only by the middle school but any of our schools I I believe that's actually controlled by Town ordinance and they could change change the ordinance to just push the hunting farther back from the school so it wouldn't interfere because uh my impression is that a lockdown uh immediately halts the educational process in the school um calls for First Responders police and uh medical personnel including the state police and the helicopter a big expense and very timec consuming for people who could be doing other things and worst of all I think the anxiety it creates with parents who have children in the schools they hear there's a lockdown at the school and they're worried about their kids so once again I would suggest that the
131board uh officially uh communicate with the Town Council and request that they reconsider their uh their limitations on hunting near the schools um which I think they could do by you know resolution then I have two questions um the discussion on uh relatives working in the town with board members do do we know how many board members have relatives employed by the board right now how many how many board current board members two two okay and then one other question is uh your electric bill do we know what the annual electric bill for the board is beg your pardon annual electric bill for what the board the board the you pay the Board of Education pays I don't have uh the uh the budget for that particular account with me but if you wish to
132give me a call or email me I'll be happy to provide that to okay you don't have a guesstimate on what we pay every year for electricity Hazard a guess uh that's something that's subject to change quite frequently with the rates I could tell you that uh next year's increase is 8% but I don't know what the aggregated amount I don't recall from last year okay and and the schools are all involved in this thing that the town did for all residents in the town we have to buy our electricity through the company the town has signed we we purchase our electricity through a purchasing Consortium called Aces and it's run through the middle sex County Regional ed Service Commission and we have very very attractive rates on our electric uh program show you that
133okay so I can give you call you'll have that number for me in the next few days absolutely all right thank you Joanne Cardone Gravel Hill Spotswood Road I know I have brought this up before the board in the past and I'm going to bring it up again and I will probably continue to bring it up because I think it's a real need the high school currently has coordinators in charge of the people in their Department years ago the board eliminated the department head positions supposedly to save the tax payers money and they created K12 supervisor positions correct me if I'm wrong it's before my time all right well needless to say that's not the issue right now my issue is having worked under both a department head for many years in this building and
134also under coordinators there is a distinct difference between their job descriptions um next next year we're going to have to take the park test which will be given to all of our students since they're eliminating the hespa there will be five different math tests no six different math tests given Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 and then math 1 two and three which I'm not sure what that's all about we probably have approximately four to five teachers teaching the same math levels um the curriculum in math is quite different from that of language arts because of the ability levels and the skills that you're covering I feel a distinct need for a department head in the building who can monitor what is going on in the classroom who can offer guidance to those teachers who might
135need it who can mentor them implement or make sure that the curriculum is being implemented across the board so that there is equality in all the classrooms to prepare these students for that Park test um I know for a fact from working in this building for 35 years or I should say in the district and subbing for the last four years that the teachers are doing an excellent job I've been in several classrooms I've worked with several teachers we have a Dynamic staff here but if there were a supervisor within the building for each of the disciplines it would provide more consistent equality in especially in the math the math is a real area of need but I know you're not going to just put one in math you would have to put it across
136the board but somewhere the board has got to find the money to have that person within the building to provide the leadership to these teachers teachers and to help them provide the consistency in the curriculum thank you anyone else from the public Maran Lester 44 Avenue y both the administrative and teachers union contracts uh do not expire until June 30th of this year and I was wondering why it was a priority to have the administration's contracts voted on and approved prior to the new members being on the board and not the teachers union contract why were they handled differently the administrators the Monro Township administrators Association requested to have um probably back in August to start negotiations the mtea I just received a request from them this week to start negotiations okay but the old
137members aren't going to be involved in the new budget and this contract that the old members vote on they're not going to be voting on the B the current budget that's coming up so isn't it more priority that you would have had the new members uh involved in approving the administration contract since they have more uh more weight in it because now they're going to be uh voting on the budget for the coming year well the document is a three-year document so it changes with the board every year every year you have a new board so whatever one board approves the next three boards have to abide by that contract but you had the discretion of waiting until the new members came in and it direct and they're the ones that going to be voting
138on the budget so you did have that discretion of waiting we did we checked with our attorney and the attorney said that we did not handle it wrong okay so the answer is you could because because it was legal yes and and because of the requests from the mtaa if they didn't request negotiations we wouldn't have negotiated with them but they did and it only took two meetings um to to come up with an agreement and um therefore we approved it okay is there anyone else on the board other than you that can respond to my question I don't think there's anyone else that needs to respond to that question or another opinion other than yours poliy no okay thank thank you anyone else from the public L Masters n Mel I have a bunch
139of stuff so I'm going to whip through it um you have three minutes I know um disappointed with the rod grants I know they had given us not a verbal okay but I would urge miss anellus that we do push forward with the stop gap for the middle school I know you said you are that's uh the transportation department yeah great job from member of the public kids worried about buses great job with that last week um the pray for Mikey in addition to the Facebook site there's also give forward site hash pray for Mikey so if anybody wants to go on there um Everybody um I'm happy that the ad hoc is reconvening just a note there's another development that just went up a sign towards 33 it's totally new I don't have the
140numbers but I'm already seeing by my numbers we're going to see about 1,700 additional students and that's conservative so if you divide that by the number of schools we're talking hundreds of students in addition um I think this is very and I think the public should really get involved because it's a very important thing we really got to start talking about some some very some things we don't want to talk about um the teachers union contracted up I wish the board members would keep in mind the excellent teachers that we have and how hardworking they are thank you thank you um reassessments Mike I'm glad you talked about reassessments I know I've been hearing through the grap Vine is a good deal of the reassessments the ratables went down um so I'm worried that we
141might want to keep in mind that if the actual ratables go down again this year we might have a problem so but I know you discussed it uh and I was going to complain about the Applegarth boilers but I thought I would wouldn't kick that horse the hunting near the school I'm going to I have a big problem with that and I agree with the other um discussion um I believe it's a County ordinance middlex County uh and there's a certain distance and I know the park it's they were legal what they were doing um but I really do urge the board to look into changing that I mean you're talking if they were 400 ft which I heard was what they were um some of those rifles which it wasn't bow hun season they
142can bring down a 400 lb animal a th000 yards so I mean that's definitely going to go through sheetrock it'll go through most of the cinder blocks in the school which are Hollow um and it could do some definite damage back in the 80s in Woodbridge there was a police firing range um and what had happened what police range too all legal a Ricochet from a handgun now um went about 450 ft into somebody's house uh and what they did was a Township pass in ordinates no more firing range no more you know firing and this was a police range that they actually got rid of and removed I really urge that the board should look into either pressuring or talking to the town or whoever hat we have to talk to about maybe like
143we said make a like we have the drug- free school zone maybe a gun for hunting free zone and I know we have the park and all that um but I I have a definite problem with that thank you thank you U Mr Masters I will just definitely be um speaking with Town Council about amending that ordinance it's already on my agenda thank you that's what I like wait M Mr corsky Mr Masters your comment about the ratables the I didn't want to announce this tonight because it's preliminary and it's very subject to change again the ratables will not be certified until March 15th and there are some significant appeals that are still open but as of this juncture the ratea bus appear more favorable than last year so that's a very reserved way of
144saying that Mike I didn't want you to be desponded that you were anticipating a drop in rate of bulls that in fact the opposite will probably be the case I understand what you're saying thank you anyone else from the after I close anyone else from the public after everybody gets a chance to speak Cheryl reneer 30 in veness court um I have two children in the middle school and I wanted to talk about the incident that that happened yesterday um I agree with what everybody said about looking to see about um hunting around the school but I wanted to know if there's going to be any postmortem on the communication that was done to parents and the community in general regarding the incident um we did receive a phone call from Mrs Shanley which was
145appreciated but it didn't start with everything's okay it started with there were gunshots heard the police were called and about 60 seconds in then she said that everything was okay um we did not get any kind of phone mail email blast from anybody at the school or even do Hamilton when we do when there is a snowstorm or school closings um and the way a lot of other parents heard that did not have children in the middle school was seeing something posted on nj.com saying that there was a lockdown at the school as far as my children um my eighth grader didn't know anything he was upstairs my sixth grader was in the classroom and she saw police officers outside with guns and there was nothing said in school that there was an incident they
146were told that it was a drill and they didn't know that parents were notified um and really what happened until after they came home so I wanted to know what was going to be done as far as looking at the communication strategy for future incidents Dr Hamilton um well you I'm a little confused because you said there wasn't communication then you spoke about the method of communication not being most appropriate um I think it was handled well I think Mrs Chanley communicated we were all communicating the same message the police department the superintendent's office the school the the entire District was notified by way of an all staff email which was the same press release that we had provided to to the district um I I don't know that there was a better way to
147do it um so you don't think that Elementary School parents should have known about this as well rather than hearing it or seeing it somewhere else rather than I don't think it rise to that occasion no ma'am I don't okay I disagree because I think that that is a pretty serious incident that would happen and I would think all parents would want to know I would agree with you if we if the police had not uh confirmed almost immediately that there were it was the result of hunting if it was something that was unknown or we weren't weren't certain about it then then maybe I would feel a little differently about about that but um it really was was handled to in my expect from my perspective and collaboration with the the chief of police
148I I think it was handled appropriately as a parent that's dis that's really disappointing anyone else from the public hi my name is Christine Lester I'm at 261 cranberry Halfacre Road I would like to piggyback with what Mrs reri said the message was alarming I did actually know about the circumstance before I got the alert now but usually when the nurse calls the first thing it's like everything's okay and then they go into like someone spilled water on their pants so it was very alarming I just wish that um obviously Miss chany was obviously upset even if it came from Mr Hamilton um that probably would have been appreciated um I want to ask the board's um recommendation I really think we need to consider doing a referend um I know with Oak train appar
149we have at least 100 new students and I know we also have ones that travel abroad and then come back and reenroll and those numbers actually would be inflated um I know personally that the boiler at Applegarth has gone out twice both boilers so for them to say that they're wonderful it's really not um the administration and the staff are doing the best that they can do with the circumstances and it's not their issue we knew going in when we opened Apple guard that there was issues we knew the boiler would be one there's other issues in the other schools I think we really just need to figure out some way to fix it I mean we we keep putting Band-Aids on it if the boiler is going to keep breaking if is there an
150insurance policy maybe that we can consider getting a new one I know that there's not funds here I know we're here to cut taxes and things but the kids can't be cold and I know Mr V really went out of his way to keep the kids warm and bringing in space heaters and moving them around but it's not the atmosphere that I want my child in um on that note I think if we did build a new school or find some other way to provide heating and cooling units we have to look at that the school is not ADA Compliant and one of those big issues is the school has high levels of CO2 we're supposed to keep the windows open if it's 27 degrees out we're not keeping the windows open so when you
151have children that have compromised immune system respiratory issues that are impacted by those high CO2 levels and the windows are shut because it's freezing outside you're going to have children like mine have issues and I think we just need to readdress that because there's new members of the board that are not aware of that we really just need to look at the bigger picture we're going to need a new school we need to fix this if we build a new school we can do the solar panels and all that other fun stuff and make money for the district I just we have to do something um I wanted to mention the ADA compliance and I also wanted to address something with Mr Po had mentioned something about the the gun laws and stuff I believe
152that there are if you are held accountable so I think that is a national law um but again just I really want the board just to really look at we have to fix something I know money's tight but the kids need heat it's just a basic necessity um and we knew that the boiler's going to go we know that other schools have issues with their roofs and things and I know you guys are going into the purse and there's there's no money in there I get it but we just have to look at a bigger picture we have more and more children coming in we have my son has new students coming on there's bus's bus is now 20 minutes later CU they're picking up new students I've heard other kids where their buses are
153being rerouted because there's more students and they've changed the busing route so obviously we're going to have more students coming in the district thank you and and all those uh issues that you brought up will be part of the conversation that the ad hoc committee will be having and again I'm going to um ask anybody from the public who wishes to be part of that conversation to come to that meeting thank you anyone else from the public Cardone Gravel Hill Spotswood Road I feel the need to uh mention the difference because we have so many new board members since I brought this topic up before um that I it's there's a need for them to understand the difference between a coordinator and a department chair coordinators are staff members who have absolutely no supervisory responsibilities
154uh I'm not sure what the job description is I know budgets are involved but they cannot do any observing and with all the new laws regarding how many evaluations teachers need that would be a major difference many of them have supervisory certificates which would enable them to do observations if the title was changed to department head in addition to changing you know the other requirements and one other one question I have is is there a possibility of ever putting speed bumps in front of the high school seem to be several complaints do we have an answer to that want me to take the speed bumps ma'am Administration along with the township of Monroe and a Township engineer have looked at the uh traffic flow at the high school and the revisions were made at the
155school already to change the traffic pattern to try to alleviate the congestion and the problems that we were occurring with students in and out and and the the traffic but speed bumps were strongly discouraged if not prohibited by the township I think it's primarily the front of the building where the staff is coming in and there's so much traffic going through two lanes I've seen it myself they not only do a drop off thank you but I'm I'm reiterating what the township had uh uh told us during our meetings with them so they're saying there's no need or can't be done it was strongly discouraged we have speed bumps in front of the Middle School it resulted in numerous lawsuits with trip and falls and with emergency vehicles going in and out of the school
156it was uh discouraged strongly from the township zoning officials okay thank you anyone else from the public hi Kareem Masters and I'm Michaela court and I know Mr gor is probably gonna have to answer my question on behalf of Mr T but um what does Mr T consider to be a critical in terms of the boiler he said it wasn't a critical problem so I don't know what yes I'd be happy to talk about that um there's two boilers again at appleg guard and the one the steam boiler the older one of the two had two problems this here one a computer part that controls the firing in the and the and the unit which is only 10 years old failed and uh so that computer part that's only 10 years old failed and had
157to be replaced um as soon as the store that houses this component was open the next morning our our maintenance person was there and there was really no disruption the second piece was due to well I was there that day and that was actually two half days out the boiler was that boiler was out well because I was happen to be there for a meeting and I was sweating because the other boiler was turned way up to compensate for the boiler being out probable and this the second event happened to uh due to the fact that we had an Arctic blast with sub-zero temperatures and um the uh pipe froze and broke and that's not uncommon it was actually anticipated and discussed amongst Administration and energy for America which monitors the school's electrical use made
158a a proactive change in the usage to keep it running higher and longer whether the B building was occupied or not but the cold still hit the pipe in a way that it broke uh and again that happened throughout numerous school districts in the state right yeah know but okay but back to my question so what does Mr T consider to be a critical problem so like I don't understand like how many more times does he have to go out does the boiler have to catch fire like what is considered to be critical critical I don't want to speak for Mr T but critical would be something that affects the safety and comfort of the school and these were parts that needed to be replaced or a pipe that had to be repaired not a
159critical malfunction of the unit and then um oh and then with the upcoming teacher contract I just want everybody to keep in mind that we have really great teachers here like I've been happy with all of my children's teachers for the last five years that we've been in this District so I hope you realize that and that they're worth you know more than they're definitely than they're getting paid so they all definitely deserve um you know raises as opposed to pay freezes or pay cuts and things like that nature so that's it anyone else John cunes 11 Fox Run I'm back again just on a discussion on the hunting type thing there maybe a little clarification so people don't panic on that in New Jersey uh hunting uh rifles are not allowed they can only
160use shotguns and at 300 ft a shotgun isn't going to blow that cup off that table so parents need not worry that Hunters out there their bullets are going to go through the window Windows of the walls of the school because rifle hunting is prohibited in the state of New Jersey that's all thank you is there anyone from the else from the public seeing none we will close the public forum I know Miss armeno did you have a question I I just want a quick comment if we do um communicate with the township Andor the county which I would agree that the board should I think could we also communicate with the ptas and also ask the parents to get involved and maybe write some letter if if if they're concerned that we should also
161notify as many parents as we can and you know participation from the board is one thing but when parents start writing letters and everything so that I would like as a as a conjunction with that Dr Hamilton has monthly meeting with all the PTA presidents and that would be something I would encourage thanks okay um our next scheduled Board of Education meeting will be Monday what I thought February 3rd is Monday is it Monday Monday will be Monday February 3rd 7 o'clock at the high school uh motion to adjourn uh Mr Kaufman Mr zareski all in favor I opposed extensions meeting is adjourned now