001you know over there and help good evening members of the public assistant superintendent gourman members of the Monroe Township Board of Education the Monroe Township Board of Education reorganization meeting is now called to order would you please join me in a pledge of allegiance to the United States of America pledge allegiance to the 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 I will now proceed with a roll call Miss antelis Miss armeno here Mr Braverman Mr Chella Mr calman here Mrs kapano here Mr norstein here Mr poy here Mr cioso yeah Mr zareski is running late members of the Board of Education we have a quarum present this evening in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey
002open public meetings law the MRA Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted December 19th 2013 at all schools home News Tribune cranberry press and filed with the clerk of the municipality due to the inclement weather uh there's been an agenda change and the second public forum has been eliminated um any topics may be discussed during the first public forum but the public forum is going to be limited to no more than 30 minutes in total and of course uh each individual person's limited to three minutes the official election results and the agenda are available at the front desk table and it is now my duty to administer the oath of office to the following individuals would you please join me
003at the front table miss armenio Mr calman Mr norstein and Mr zareski who is coming any moment I just saw him bathroom stop why don't we take a recess for five minutes no he he's he was just out there so he might was going to check have to sing for five minutes the Talon competition count no get hazed first he okay this is the required o for school board members please repeat after me I I lukman do solemnly swear or affirm do solemly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that will support the Constitution of the United States United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey New Jersey and I will bear true faith and Allegiance and
004I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States United States and this state and this State under the authority of the people under the authority of the people of the people so help me God God God I do Solly swear or affirm do Solly swear or airm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I possess the qual by law for the office of member of Board of Education the office of member of education and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully fath and partially partially justly justly perform all dut of that office for formals of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best
005of my my ability so help me God so help me God gin do solemnly swear or affirm do Solly swear or affirm and declare that I am not disqualified as a voter and declare that I am not disqualified as voter pursuant to rs9 4-1 pursu to RS 194 and that I am not disqualified to hold this office and I'm not disqualified to hold this office this office due to a conviction of a crime due conviction of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a 12-1 so help me God or offense listed NJ 18a 121 so help me go so help me go congratulations thank you [Applause] all and people do that too your name different side next one somebody have them out already all right okay next on the agenda is the election of board
006president I'll open the nominating process at this time for president of the Board of Education um commen with um other board uh reorganization meetings uh nomination requires a second first and a second are there any nominations for Board of Education president at this time M I'd like to nominate Kathy k i second do you need her whole last name Kathy Kono guess for the record thank you I was going to leave this that's by middle are there any other nominations for president seeing none I will close the nominating process for president and as required we'll have a roll call this is nominating Kathy kapon president of the mono Township Board of Education Miss armeno yes Mr cman yes Mrs kapano yes you sure no Mr noin yes Mr Po yes Mr proso yes it is
007now my pleasure to introduce the new monre Township Board president Kathy kapan [Applause] congratulations and I will turn over the chair to Madame Kono thank you very much and I'm just going to keep this very short because um we all want to get home because of the weather um all of us seated at this table have been elected by the public to do a job that job is to educate kids and and they're our future our children here are our future and obviously there is a difference of opinion on how we're supposed to do that but we're all here to respect the opinions of everybody else and to have hopefully a great dialogue but we're all here to respect the the opinions of the public also so um I want to congratulate the new board
008members and welcome you and we look forward to working with you and Lou um you're still here yeah and and Mr tesler we didn't even un see or recognize you with your new little facial feature so it's nice to see you tonight um so we will go on to the election of the vice president at this time I will open the floor for nominations for the position of vice president Mr proso nominate Doug po second second been Mr noin is there any other nominations okay seeing none we will close the floor to nominations for the position of vice president and have a roll call this roll call is for Mr Doug po vice president of the B Township Board of Education Miss armenio yes I don't know if I'm yelling Mr calman yes Mrs K
009Pano yes Mr nothstein yes Mr Po yes Mr proso yes mam board president Mr Po has been elected mon Township Board of Education Vice President congratulations than you congratulations Mr Po thank you we all look forward to working with you this coming year and yes and I will be praying that you will be at all the board meetings for the remainder of the Year going to try I do have I no I could be back in the summer but I I have a little vacation to Paris so um we'll see if we can work that in that was planned before um number nine on the agenda the suspension of the policy of bylaw for uh public forums it is recommended that the Board of Education suspend the operation of policy bylaw 0164 to permit the
010board to conduct only one public form at this evening's public meeting Mr Kaufman second by Mr proso all in favor m m that's just for this evening that's just for this evening and and that's because it's weather related and a safety issue to be clear okay um all in favor I opposed extensions okay then we will suspend our public forum the second one but we will go to the first public forum anyone from the audience wishing to the public wishing to speak to anything please come up to the microphone state your name and address for the record uh we will Le limit our public form to did you say 30 minutes and um or 3 minute time limit uh good evening Joe castal luio 20 Ashley Court Monro Township uh first I congratulate all the
011new board members uh on their position Madame President congratulations to you and Mr Po congratulations to you as well I just want to State something that I think is important I saw the minutes of the last meeting I was a little Disturbed at Mr cowman's comments and I wanted to make sure that his comments were said but however that he will make every effort to cooperate with the new board members uh even when I looked at the tape uh he wasn't even facing some of the board members they weren't board members they were elected uh getting ready to be uh nominated uh sworn in but he wasn't even looking at the speakers and um that kind of concerns me because we're as you pointed out and I'm glad you made that in your opening comments
012that we're here to do the right thing for the people and of course the children are part of that Community they're a big part of the community but we here to do the right thing overall we're not here to say it's them against us and that was the impression I got maybe I'm wrong but I think it was a very very poor taste to say that there's two of us that are off the board now that don't represent you who is you we're the people of Monroe Township that would we're elected in Monroe Township or you're elected in Monroe Township by the people and whether we like the vote or we don't like the vote quite frankly I didn't vote for you so I didn't like that you got elected but that's I got to
013live with that and so do other people people and we feel that if the people speak then that's what that's what we have to go by everyone in this board should have a a voice everyone on the board should make an objective uh um vote on what they're looking at not whether it's good for them or whether it's good if I have a kid in the school I don't have a kid in the school that's not the way you're supposed to do it you're supposed to do it because it's the right thing to do right's always right wrong is always wrong so I would hope that those comments are just kind of made without thinking it through but I got to tell you something I was really astounded that a board member would make that
014kind of comment that now you got two people voted off the board and those people are you know as if the the two new people weren't going to be as good so just a point and I I hope again that was just a passing comment thank you I have all the confidence in the world that Mr Kaufman and the rest of this board will work together for the benefit of all our children Robert roach J team mfield Boulevard like to congratulate Michelle Tom and Lou on our uh swearing in tonight and on you Kathy and Doug on your selection of President and Vice President best of luck in this year thank you good evening Christy scurby uh 8 seminal Court congratulations to our new board members um and Kathy and Doug as well um I
015I just hope this year is going to be a good year year for our students we the Board of Education I looked again this evening at the mission of the Board of Education and it is to provide an exemplary education to our students and I hope that is what the focus continues to be and I wasn't able to say the last meeting to the end but I know there was a lot of talk about policies and um nepotism policy and what we call holiday parties at the schools and I don't know who's going to be on the policy committee this year but there are some real policies that I think need to be looked at for the students we're here really to make this the best educational experience for the students I've brought it up
016for several times um the headlight policy I hope that this board will take a look at right now students are allowed back into the schools with knits in their hair which are um bug eggs that can hatch at any time um you're not allowed in with live bugs but you are back allowed back in um with knits in your hair it's nobody likes to talk about it when their children gets it it goes around it goes around it was very bad at Oak tree this year um and I think that's part of the reason because students are allowed back in and the eggs do hatch so I hope the board will take a look at that um and also at the middle school students are allowed to carry backpacks all day long and I volunteered
017recently in the cafeteria and looking around I got a little scared being there I said said wow look at all these humongous backpacks just laying around every student was carrying one they don't come through metal detectors in the morning and they're carrying these big bags we live in a different Society children do bad things at school sometimes I really think we need to look at the policy of letting students carry bags around all day I know South Brunswick just had an incident and the superintendent cut that out there's now a new policy students are not allowed to carry backpacks so I hope that we'll start looking at things like that those are things that really are important to the students nepotism policy what we call holiday parties that's not something that I want to see
018our Board of Education spending a lot of time arguing about try making a real difference to our students thank you thank you good evening Ira tesler 11a Drive wow this is kind of odd um i' like to congratulate the new board members Kathy K uh for uh being president Doug uh being vice president I got lucky last year I didn't have to fill in for Kathy and I wish the best of luck to you as well on that um just like to uh kind of reiterate some of the past comments I hope everybody works together for the best interest of the students uh having two two kids in the uh district and one graduated I'm proud of Monroe Schools and um proud of the work I've done in the past seven years and look forward
019to the great work that you guys are going to do uh in the coming years to come and uh I just wanted to vouch for Mr Kaufman I've known him for a very very long time and uh his comments maybe were taking misconstrued or something like that I know he has the best interest of the kids and he was just making an observation I know he will work together with everybody uh on the board in the future thank you thank you hi Steve Ryback 23 Riviera Drive I just wanted uh say congratulations to the uh newly installed board members and certainly to the President and Vice President and uh wish you all just a fabulous uh school year I know you'll be working together for the benefit of the kids and the to Total Community
020thank you Bob zarski 162 Tournament Drive adding my congratulations to Michelle and Tom as well as the new board board president and the vice president and would just like to submit to you that I know that one of your largest expenditures in your budget is the uh dues for school boards uh and when the school boards Consultants or Representatives come here and do their little um their little workshops one of the things that they seem to stress is that the the main job of board members is to see that the school district is run well so I hope that uh you are successful in that regard thank you Brian hacket 3 Avenue D uh despite the weather tonight I thought it was important to come out and um wish everyone a Happy New Year and
021congratulate everyone um Doug I'm sure you'll be a fine sit in for Kathy if you needed to um from those debates uh we had together last year you were fantastic and um on behalf of a lot of people who couldn't make it here tonight and behalf of myself I just want to recognize Michelle and Tom uh I've known them for many years from our activities in the town and um as I said on behalf of a lot of people we're really proud of you uh we know that you're advocates for the students and for the taxpayers um your advocates for open fair and honest government um and just we're very proud of you so congratulations and God bless everybody anyone else from the public okay seeing no no one we will close our public forum
022and go to um our organizational items um 11a meeting dates be it resolved that the regular meetings of the Board of Education of the township of Monroe shall be held as per the attached schedule at 7:00 p.m. at which time formal action may be taken need a motion in a second some Mr cofman second by Mr nin all in favor I opposed abstention motion has carried policy be it resolved by the Board of Education of the township of Monroe that all policies of the previous board are hereby adopted until such time as the board decides to revise or otherwise alter policies Mr Kaufman second second by Mr proso all in favor I opposed extensions C designation of banks or depositories be it resolved that the Board of Education designates the following Banks or depositories for
023school district funds TD Bank Commerce Bank PNC Bank the depository Trust Company state of New Jersey Cash management fund New Jersey asset asset and rebate management Provident Bank which provides most of our banking services and JP Morgan Chase be it further resolve that the business administrator is authorized to establish accounts and wire trans ER funds among the accounts as needed and provide the payment of bills between board meetings so moved Mr Po second second by miss armeno all in favor I I I opposed extensions recuse Mr Coffman same newspapers for legal advertisements be it resolved that the Board of Education designates the cranberry press home News Tribune or the as Berry Park Press all of which circulate in the school district as official newspapers for legal advertisement so mooved Mr Kaufman and Mr Po all
024in favor I opposed extensions then that motion is carried we would go to the student board members reports but they're home safely so we will skip that um any committees that need to report this evening I didn't think so board president report uh is going to be very quick um each of you received your committee preference sheet this evening and um if possible because it's a short sheet and it doesn't have a lot to do um if we can have it back to Mr Gorski by Monday I would like to work on getting the Committees ready by next week so that we can work on um getting committee meetings set up so that maybe we can have something in place for the um January 15th meeting and um are there still meeting yes Mr are
025there still meetings Monday and Tuesday before the well I don't think so we don't have a committee okay it's on the calendar that's that's where we're hoping to have if I can get everything as soon as possible and we have a committee ready then the meetings are scheduled so we don't have to worry about that and I believe you have a copy of um Robert's Rules of Order for everybody yes okay so we'll get that um and that's all I have so we will go to number 15 is there any other business from any member of the Board of Education Mr knin I'll make this brief I know that uh a lot of people obviously have to get their Stop and Shop to buy milk and bread so I'll make this very brief um in
026the big scheme of things the you know after looking at the organizational chart of the of the board um getting elected to the board is really like being demoted because if you look at the or chart for the Board of Ed and for our district the people at the top are the people in the public so it's the first job I've actually ever uh went through to actually try to get demoted because that's really what has happened um I intend to keep that in my mind how important the public input is to what we all do up here um without the public we don't really have a district so I I intend to keep that in mind I also want to uh thank all the voters that voted for me um and I also need
027to acknowledge Mr Ryback who his tireless efforts um in getting us elected um I can't even begin to comment on uh he's accomplished something personally that's probably never happened in Monroe he went from 11th on the ballot to come in fourth uh fourth place just a tiny bit behind me and quite frankly it could have beenin him sitting up here instead of me and that would have been great too so I just want to I want to thank him too especially for that um I also want to make sure that I pledge to work with my fellow board members I'm actually uh looking forward to that and I I'm looking forward to working as a team with everyone to provide the highest quality education at an affordable price to our taxpayers and for the people
028that didn't vote for me I ask that you keep an open mind I intend to do everything in my power to convince you that you made the wrong choice so thank you and happy New Year to everybody thank you anyone else Michelle armino I was ready to say my um address so it's gonna take a while getting used to can say any I can say it anyway everyone knows where to find me um I would like to thank also the the board members uh I am excited to be here I am grateful and appreciative of the community of Monroe which I have grown to love dearly I consider it my hometown even though I wasn't born here I've been here 32 years and I appreciate the opportunity to serve as a public servant I am
029grateful for everyone's support and I pledge to do my very best to uphold uh a premier educational system and also be a good Steward of taxes and the people's trust um it is a as I am humbled by the task uh for me but I am passionate about doing a good job for everyone so thank you very much thank you anyone else okay seeing no one our next scheduled public Board of Education meeting will be on Wednesday January 15th 7 o'clock p.m. here in the high school motion to adjourn Mr Kaufman and second by Mr noin all in favor I opposed extensions then the meeting is adjourned and and everybody get home safely congratulations thank you