001okay good evening the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God liy and justice for all may we have a roll call please Mr Gorski certainly miss antelis miss armeno here Mr Braverman here Mr Chella here Mr calman Mrs K Pano here Mr nothstein here Mr Po here Mr proso here Mr zareski here madam board president you have a quorum present this evening thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the mono Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted August 15
0022014 one at all schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press and four filed with the clerk of the municipality and before we go to the public forum for those of you who might be new or have not come in a while you might notice a different look at the table up here uh Dr Hamilton has retired and he has left our district to take another position and we now have our interim superintendent Mr Dennis Vella thank you everybody and I hope to live up to all of your expectations in this temporary position thank you so at this time we go to the 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 and we will adhere to our three
003minute limit Mark Klein seven crunch or Court Mr V yes you're where you belong thank we spoke about this four years ago I know you'll do a great great job because that's all you've ever done here is only the best for this uh this District as far as uh Dr Gorman I wish you all the luck in the world in your new Endeavor and I hope you take with you the good that you did and anything that may not have been successful or bad I hope is forgotten and corrected so again I wish you all the luck in the world thank you anyone else from the public Robert Ro team your field Boulevard I was looking at the uh agenda on the um website today and with the backup material and I noticed it's somewhat
004different than what was on the website I don't know whether that's because changes were made and different things but um I had a question on one of the items on the uh the backup material that was on the uh website so if you don't mind I would like to ask the question even though it's not on my page here there seems to be some pages different I yeah I haven't gotten a revised agenda since Monday uh it's the backup material not the particular agenda you know the the backup yeah that that hasn't changed either because I don't think anybody received any different backup materials so well so just go ahead you can ask your question it is different than what's on the website but uh there was in the uh vendor check items there were
005were several checks to and I wish I had made a copy of the past and I had question them but it was it began with h it was like a it was a Jewish name and it was the account was charged was for special education but the comment was charter school and I was just wondering why we were paying maybe $35,000 to a charter school there were two different checks okay Mr Gorski state law requires public school districts to pay tuition to charter schools for residents who resign in that Township and enroll at their own on their own accord in the charter school the Jewish name that you refer to is probably the hatikva charter school an H haa H yes okay and they're in East Brunswick and we do have now I believe three
006students that go to that school and were required to pay tuition why would it be charged of a special education account it's it's not special education it's charged to an account called um tuition other it could be a special ed program that the child's engaged in in that school I don't know okay but but that you know my answer is that's what it is it's a hatia charter school and it's a school in East Brunswick and we're required because the uh the public funds follow the student in this regard as long as it's a an approved Charter that one but uh if it was if it was just tuition for them wouldn't that be under a tuition account versus a uh a special ed I can assure you that the charge is charged to a
007tuition account okay thank as required by the state thank you anyone else from the public wishing to speak to the agenda I tesler 11 L real quick I'd like to uh thank Dr Gorman for his Services over the years I'll be very brief uh for all he's done for Monroe uh Township I wish him the best in the future thank you thank you anyone else from the public okay seeing no one we will close public forum and go to committee reports are there any committees that need to or would like to us report this evening and I'm sure Mr Kaufman would love to it's like the old technology reports right um uh there was a curriculum meeting this evening and uh we approved a series of uh new content curriculum materials 22 of them to
008be exact uh to be introduced this new school year um thanks to all the staff for their hard work over the summer um in creating all of this lovely content that our teachers and students can use uh we also approved the new AP textbook which is an ebook for AP Human Geography uh which will be implemented I'm assuming in the high school since it's a eBook uh and then we also had a lively discussion on the new park assessments that'll be coming uh this year on uh uh hitting all of our schools throughout the state and uh we went through the website of the mat materials that's produced uh which provides great information for teachers parents and students on the new park assessments that are hitting the district um it was also discussed how we're
009going to go ahead and market this new information to um parents for example that is there coming back from summer vacation uh to back to school nights and such so we're going to be uh continuing to move forward um with Park assessment um I guess marketing material for lack of a better term uh so that parents can get a better idea of what it really means to them um more than likely there will be some announcements at back to school nights and some other references maybe to a a park night that we talked about at the meeting to have parents come in and and really just concentrating on what park means to me as a parent um so um there'll be a lot of lot more information coming out about the park assessments as we
010move move forward into the school year um I think that was pretty much about it thank you are there any other committee reports Mr proso finance committee meeting on Wednesday and uh we covered a few items there was a cafeteria fund uh food Management Corporation they made a profit I'll ask Mike to give you some figures and a year and cash report we also discussed the iPad Insurance considerations and according to the minutes and uh at the meeting Mr Washington presented to the committee an iPad insurance issue whereas the district is engaged in a three-year Apple lease but only purchased a 2-year Apple Care insurance policy with the expiration of that insurance the district's 2100 units would be uninsured for the 2205 school year he indicated that approximately 350 to 400 units have crack screen
011damaged every year Mr Washington recommended an external insurance policy to cover the 2014 2015 school year to ensure a quick turnaround in repair time and a limitation limitation on Financial Risk to the district the recom the committee recommended that Mr Gorski procure the insurance through compliance with the NJ P purchasing laws that the following changes be made students will be asked to pay $65 for insurance and a $50 deductible upon on damage should be paid by the parents and that's it for the iPads and there was also an order update Mike do you like to do that mam sure um as Mr proso chair of the finance committee stated um the cafeteria operations are are managed through a food service management company and the board may recall that last year we went out for an
012RFP which is an exemption from public bidding request for proposal um for solicitation of food service managing companies even though we were getting a satisfactory performance from our former and through that process we found a vendor that has dramatically improved the cafeteria food is in compliance with all the federal regulations and they guaranteed us a profit of 95,5 A2 before depreciation for the cafeteria operations and we're pleased to announce that the profit before depreciation for the year ended June 30 2014 tentatively is 19645 which exceeds the guarantee by over $100,000 so that that recommendation to the board and the board's um acceptance of such is really paying off both in terms of better food and better service throughout the schools as well as um um good fiscal operations and uh we are now engaged in
013the audit the auditor has reviewed all of the district's many minutes minutes for The public's information is where uh there's an official record of approved contracts and the auditor begins there to make sure that the particular contracts during the year were approved by the board that the dollar amounts match the purchase order that that also matches the contract that the payments don't exceed that and all the terms are met so that process is ongoing uh the auditor has selected a sample of transactions to verify that far exceeds the required uh statistical sample by the accounting board and um we're progressing with the audit okay thank you Michael any other committee reports Mr Po we don't usually have a report from the Personnel committee since that is a closed meeting uh but uh we met yesterday
014and uh there was a uh considerable discussion about uh athletic trainers uh for our Sports programs and we will be further discussing that as well as there was discussion uh in terms of the assistant superintendent vacancy with Dr Gorman leaving and uh superintendent ventrillo will be uh moving ahead to uh fill that vacancy so at some point hopefully in the near future uh we will have a recommendation from superintendent ventrillo thank you I have a question sure about the other report uh Mr Gorski you mentioned that uh the that we that uh the Food Services uh garnered something like $100,000 over what they had guaranteed now I know that's a proprietary fund and so any profits any profits that that that that fund makes has to stay within that fund is that correct M that
015is correct because Federal pass through monies are Revenue Source in that fund um the profit or retain earnings is restricted within that food service operation fund and it's designed that if you have a profit specifically if you have a retained earnings which is accumulation of years profits that grows to an extent where you have so much cash on hand um you are required to address your lunch prices by reducing them the food service operation is designed by the state to be a break even fund not to profit off student lunches so although we do have a handsome profit this year it will add to the retained earnings there is still yet a depreciation charge which averages about $150,000 a year mainly because of the cafeteria equipment in the school and everything that's still being depreciated
016um so $50,000 approximately will contribute to retained earnings and we will continue to monitor that and address lunch prices accordingly thank youo yes um does that mean that if equipment goes or anything that needs to be repaired can come out of that fund instead of a general budget fund or an operating budget if equipment that serves the food service operation goes it can be purchased from that fund absolutely ovens cash registers those type of things refrigerators uh we recently replaced a a um a delivery truck to take lunches within the schools so yes and that would be further depreciated against the income in that fund okay is there any cap on that like that that there's a maximum accumulation that can be had by that fund yeah it's a it's a multiple of monthly uh
017cash usage and we're under that amount it's checked every year it's also an audit uh uh a checklist item that the auditor keeps an eye on but uh we've always been under that amount uh we're not hoarding cash in the fund and uh we make every effort to keep lunch prices um as low as possible thank you and in fact um I'm while we're on the topic our lunch prices are among the lowest in the county and have been for many many years anyone else have a question okay is there any other committee reports that need to go come before us Mr noin actually I just had a clarification I need a clarification or um maybe for the public uh we we're changing the iPad uh Insurance fee from 65 a person um and that
018$50 deductible only applies for a cracked screen is that correct Mr Gorski no the $50 deductible applies if it has to get sent in for repair no matter what the damage is it could be a cracked screen it could be um a dropped case but not mechanical or electronic failures correct it could be that too really okay that's not how I interpreted that I thought we discussed there is a warranty but this is more through usage type problems kid drops a book bag and it doesn't operate gets scratched broken if it has to go back through usage it's the deductible that's now being passed through to the parents if it's a warranty issue if the Apple device fails on its own then the $50 does not get charged to the parent okay that's yeah that's
019what I'm I'm mentioning and those devices have been pretty reliable we've had few if any that I I know of that went back uh due to their own failure I'm thinking the mechanical switches uh you know for on off the headphone jack is always a weak point I'm just trying to figure is that would that be considered uh damage to me I don't think that should be you know something di Minimus like that our staff could probably handle broken button stuff like that you know we're not going to waste time sending it back and forth um but if it's something material and it has to go back and it's through usage then the deductible applies and do they have any type of uh a hot swap feature where you know you can send it back
020in and they already got another one returning to you um or do we have will the student be without this piece of equipment for X number of days no uh they student will never be without the piece of equipment because it is used for instruction so the board generously purchased a few hundred extra units which are laners um and they're kept in a tech office so if one has to go back the child's not missing a lesson or can't or won't miss homework they have a loner thank you Mr armeno is that a per item charge or is it um $150 deductible and that's it for the year it's per item for D you break it twice you're subject to two deductibles thank you m Braverman yeah I'm missing something is that $65 charge on
021on our agenda yes it's in the business administrator I missed it um number H H like it his section H yes your section yes sir page 16 letter H insurance coverage for district iPads it's a rather lengthy resolution procuring the insurance through extraordinary unidentifiable Services okay thank you Mr presiosa that insurance policy is only for one year because we're short to one year correct we have that is correct it's a one-year insurance policy I don't see it the 65 isn't on there but it's the insurance policy P 16 H anyone else Cas seeing no one we will go to the superintendent's Report with Mr ventell uh Madame President before we go into my report I would just like to um recognize Dr Gorman's career here in Monroe Township maybe just share some information publicly as
022far as you know his part of his resume as matter of fact um Jeff began Monroe on July 1 1996 as an assistant principal of Applegarth middle scho school after that became the principal of apagar Middle School uh to his credit in July 2000 and was there for about 8 years in July 2008 he was appointed assistant superintendent of schools I just want to personally and professionally on behalf of the district Jeff just to say thank you for everything that you've done for the kids for the programs and for the teachers and for the district thank you for years of service thank you I I I'd like to add to that um Jeff you're really did quite a job you you really did you did the heavy lifting putting the computers into the school and
023we will probably be thankful in the future even now some of us are one of the problems with education is everybody goes to school and therefore they're experts um and and that's that's too bad and that's the kind of junk we have to put up with but I want to thank you for really doing the heavy lifting having those computers in here and doing the the very basic work to put this school district on the map thank you we usually do that after the report is done but we could do it before so Mr cheer I could wait oh all right I'm gonna I'm just going to go uh I Dr Gorman Jeff I just you know I I've known you for a long time we go way back to our PTA days when I
024was in the PTA of Applegarth and you were the principal and and I thought you talked way too much about math back then I didn't understand what you were saying but I but I am grateful for your service and everything that you've done for us and uh you you know I'll miss you personally but I know that our district is is going to miss you and sometimes I think we don't end up realizing how much we we miss someone and and their contributions until they are gone and that's unfortunate but I think uh I think that's exactly what's going to happen so thank you anyone else wish to share I'll wait till after the report Madame bordon President it is recommended that the members of the mon Township Board of Education approve Personnel items uh
025a through douf by consent roll call so move second in Mr cherella Mr noin any comments or questions for Mr ventrello Mr proso uh DNA why are we taking away boys soccer coaches are we replacing [Applause] them and Anthony I can't answer that right now but I can certainly find that answer for you tomorrow if that's okay we're not we're not replacing any we're not doing away with any soccer coaches we resigning from they may be are they being replaced yes it's probably somebody who really can't handle that position anymore resigned and we will definitely I didn't see it in the agenda I will get that answer to you Anthony anyone else well before we have our roll call I I'll talk about Mr Dr Gorman for some reason I have this very bad habit
026of calling you Mr Gorman and it's probably i' I've known you since 19 1996 when you started in this district and I had children here so we've grown together um a a lot of what have we be we we were put on the map last year with innovate New Jersey and with um the park Readiness and AP honors district and being named number 39 in the state we we couldn't have been recognized without the hard work that came out of the curriculum office and you being the leader of the curriculum office have really made a difference in monreal when where we are and how we are noticed by other people now both statewise and nationally so I just want to um say that I first I was surprised to hear that you were leaving disappointed
027but I wish you the best and in your endeavors you and your family you have to do the right thing for them so we wish you continued success and I'm sure that we will be reaping the benefits of what you've done here for many many many years to come thank you so we will have a roll call on accepting this superintendence report Mr proso yes Mr Po yes Mr noin yes Mr cman yes Mr zareski yes Mr Chella yes Mr Braverman yes Mrs kpano yes madame board president Personnel items a through F passes I was not asked to vote I beg your pardon Miss armeno yes thank you Madame Bo president motion passes thank you we will go to board action items Madame board and president is recommended that the members of the mon Township
028Board of Education um that they take action on items a through G as approved by consent to roll call so move Mr T there a second Mr nin any comments or questions for Mr manello seeing none we'll have a roll call Mr proso yes Mr Po yes Mr nosin yes Mr calman yes to all but I'm just going to go ahead and recuse on E just to be safe recuse on e as an excellent Mr zareski yes Mr cherella yes Mr Braverman yes Mr armeno yes Mrs colano Madam board president board action items a through G pass Madame board president this uh concludes my report for this evening is the um policy on the sports yes is that listed on here yes yes it is okay that must be later 5450 5450 okay all right
029so we will go to the business administrator's report Mr Gori Madam board president uh before I begin the business administrator report I also um wish to acknowledge Jeff's contribution to the district anybody who feels that curriculum is an easy um nut to crack something that's easy to understand needs to take a course like I had in my master's program uh where you study something like understanding by Design ubd it's a very complex very technical um profession and Mr Gorman has served behind the scenes and a lot of that technicality very well it's been a pleasure working with him on the budgets so throughout the years and uh and uh it's with um it's with this appointment that I I received your news that you leaving us um Madam I also want to report to the
030board and the community about a transportation route that was initially cut from the budget it was a mil Lake m011 route and it was reduced because of the district being overcap with $2.7 million of budget cuts um we reviewed that route more closely and from a parody standpoint it's it's uh my recommendation that we reinstate that route it had a $42,000 cost savings for that particular segment of the transportation Cuts alone and we were able to offset the $42,000 addition back to the budget by eliminating another route placing those students on existing routes um and better utilizing efficiency within our own Fleet these uh Elementary age students were walking about a mile from the furthest stop to school and although there are two crossing guards there and although that's far under the states um maximum
031two mile limitation where they require Transportation it's in the best interests of the students and the district to reinstate that route it does not require board action but I just wanted that noted uh for the record Madame board president and members of the Monro Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through n be approved by consent roll call so move Mr tiella second second by Mr Koffman she thank you on the bill list there are it looks like and there could be a reason for it but I'm just trying to understand it myself it looks like it uh for First Student buses there are two entries for 7,7 $256 it just struck me as odd that they were the same exact dollar amount yes that's common place um when we
032cut checks we have a lot of reoccurring items and that could have been one and two months payments paid at one time or it could be two routes that we paying um that are the same amount but um we do have a software check and if something comes up that's a duplicate amount that's been paid already it it it reminds the uh user to look into it so I'm I'm confident that that's um accurate but thank you Mr nin Mr Gorski with regards to the um the loan that we've been repaying through the mecca funds um could you just give a little report possibly and let us know uh where we stand I think I saw an entry in there for $5,000 for loans payable um could you just let us know if if and
033I apologize for not asking you prior to the meeting but I kind of got a little tied up but if you just let us know where we stand how much has been paid that would be great sure um from the June 30th financial statement for Mecca there was a tenative year-end profit of about $75,400 and the loans payable account which is a balance sheet account that does not impact profit has a balance due back to the general fund of $274,200 action uh to pay it down by $5,000 so that's what you've been seeing um a reduction in that account and that's that entry in here where it says mon Township for a bed loans payable yes sir yes sir it hits it hits the bill list as an expenditure and it's posted to a balance
034sheet liability account um being the loans payable to the general fund it's an interfund loan and every month that balance continues to decrease thank you anyone else okay then we will have a roll call give Mr proso yes Mr Po yes yes Mr nosin yes Mr calman yes Mr zareski yes Mr Chella yes Mr Braverman no on H yes on the rest no on H so noted Miss armeno yes Mrs kapano yes everything but recu on letter N recu on n as in Nancy so noted Madame board president board action items a through n passes and that concludes my report thank you did you want to okay um not quite finished yet thank you for reminding me um the district has had a um a vendor dispute that dates back to um before I became
035the business administrator and there was a change of contractual terms with Verizon where we went from basic telephone lines to um um internet lines for the phones and um the way Verizon had builded all the services that we had at that time they were around one aggregate Bill and uh we we noticed and fought some billing discrepancies and misinterpretation of terms going back many years um we've talked about this before this is where our attorney did have a conflict on this issue and I was comfortable negotiating with Verizon myself and I'm pleased to report that the matter has concluded to our favor I'm certain and we received the sizable check back the terms of the agreement are somewhat confidential so I really don't want to go into too much detail but it it's in excess
036of a six-figure check that goes back to fund balance back to the taxpayers it was a great Endeavor and a big win for us uh and took a lot of people able to get there Reggie Washington Nancy Tagle faroh lanne from our office and and U and I help with the negotiation piece very good thank you thank you okay at this time we'll move right along oh Mr nin I'm sorry didn't it's okay I'm used to being ignored I just making me feel at home um well you moved down the table a little too I just had a qu actually I just want a clarification on policy 5450 um it's my understanding that we corrected the issue that's uh been kind of coming up at several meetings with regards to the uh recognition of the
037uh marching band has that been uh resolved I read the policy but I didn't have the old policy yeah we we did that um probably in the spring the the policy committee came up and we agreed on it but we didn't want to approve it then because it would have had to start then and we didn't want to do anything retroactive so we figured we would approve it tonight and this way it's fair and to everybody for the new start of the new school year fantastic it looked like a a good Fair policy so I appreciate that thank did a lot of work on that so I think I'm going to the board president's report so as part of my board president's report each month I'd like to give an update on where we stand
038for the search for the new superintendent because I as a board of education that is the most important job that we have to do is look for the next leader of our district and the conver ation we have as a board I believe should be held in the public conducted in the public and your community input is very important to the process but first um I'd like to say that both Miss sellis and Mr Kaufman will be excused from the entire search process due to law because of family members working in the district and a could be conflict of interest and it's unfortunate that they have to be excluded in the process because both of them have been involved in searches before and they have a lot of valuable information and uh contribute a lot
039of experience to the to the process but unfortunately I know you were involved both of you were involved in the last superintendent search but the laws have changed and they are no longer able to participate again I think that's very unfortunate so um last meeting we had a discussion on where or who we're going to um have as help to the board in going through the process so that's what we're going to discuss today and come up to some kind of a a solution or an agreement so that we can start moving on the process so um School boards did give us a a presentation um I have received a couple of um names of search organizations but they don't give you a price they want to come in and be interviewed and then give
040the price so I have no idea how much that would cost or what would be entit go what their package would include so um I don't know if everybody had the opportunity to read over the um little booklet that school boards gave us and or how you feel about we how you want to handle this Mr noin um yeah I mean I'm I'm looking through this and obviously we did use the school boards last time that's correct um and I I I requested the materials from last time because I thought that could help us in this search but I guess we don't have those materials so I think it's imperative that no matter what we do now we save the materials because um we don't have to always go back and you know I'm a
041firm believer in duplicating success and we obviously come up with a criteria last time um and the school board since we went with them uh they had to generate a report according to what they're doing now I'm sure it was the same so they generated two reports that would have been very beneficial for this board to see so it's unfortunate that we can't see them but with that in mind um I would definitely be uh in favor of going with the school boards again uh the program that I'd be interested in is the $122,000 program uh basically it looks like the only thing that's um not lacking that's lacking in that program versus the $115,000 program is a strategic planning 3D model um so um it sounds like from my perspective as a a novice
042here that um that would be a good program to have and they would really sound like they're going to work very closely with us um to come up with uh a plan based on our criteria so I guess if um if we decide to go this way the balls back in our court as far as coming up with a criteria um that we would want to go with and Mr zareski who has just been through the process might be able to help uh elaborate on school boards and what they've done and how you fared through the process I I found to be very easy they take you step by step through everything they have legal come in and give you counseling on what legal ramifications everything and everybody's doing will come in like we discussed
043here about having conflict of interests for certain board members all the way through the final process to where you work out a contract they have their team come in and sit down and go over with us what is involved in putting a contract together giving us a sample of what goes on and how to go about working that out with the perspective new superintendent so I found it to be very enlightening uh very easy to work through they have Team set up to contact if we have any questions so it's it was a very valuable service they take all the applications that come in they do it on SE as Gwen had said on several websites and compile all the information according to our criteria what we want and then they also categorize it in
044a way where here are the applicants that fit our criteria here are the ones that don't and these people don't even qualify because you do get several applications of people qualify just to want to get their names out there and it's done all the time and I found it to be very streamlined very to the point and direct uh School boards also has a lot of personal information on some of these candidates because of the field service reps that might have worked with them in other districts that she doesn't offer any opinions but just offers us maybe a few different references or a few other areas to look at as far as their qualifications that might not be on the resumés so I found it overall to be very helpful especially in that aspect where
045in our cases Gwen thoron might know a few of these applicants do they don't do they do the advertising they do all the advertising they do everything we just have to sit back and say thank you and here's look over the information they give us and work on our choices so they will come to us for the criteria so we don't have to discuss criteria tonight we just need to know whether we need to know what we're going to do tonight as far as what our criteria is as a board what we're looking for whether it be in going on to pass a doctorate now doctorate how many years of Education you want those sort of things we're going to need to know to give to them so they can put out the proper advertisement
046for the job okay do they come in and speak to us about that or we they will yes they will okay um Mr Po uh on page three of this document that I Believe Miss Thorton passed out at the last board meeting uh she outlined or the document outlines uh four different levels of program uh which level did you use in Jamesburg um I'd have to actually look at that to tell you because I don't remember that was almost a year ago now we went through this because there are some minor differences from one level to another and uh even though I do favor that we use the New Jersey school boards Association to assist in the process uh I think we we need to consider which level program do we want and uh is
047it worth the you know the additional cost uh for the higher level program so to speak well Mr Stein suggested the $112,000 program and and that I think we need to discuss as opposed to the $6,500 program okay I believe we did the $1,200 one memory serves correct 12,000 12,000 I mean sorry is there any other comments from board members who can participate well I I think I can participate at least at this level it has nothing to do with a search it has nothing to do with anything you can't I'm we had a board member who is conflicted and any time that we went into any type of discussion we it was mostly in closed session because after we go from this step here everything that we talk about will be in closed session
048that board member was excluded right anyone else have a comment Mr Mino uh yes I I also would like to know if we can get again stakeholder uh input on this choosing choosing how we go about actually soliciting for candidates is one thing but I think I would like to hear from members of the public or at least a committee that talks about what our goals and everything are I mean school school boards when they come in and do this not only do they sit with us and ask us what our criteria they set up separate meetings with the general public and other organizations on the outside that we are not to have any part of Simply for the fact that you're going to have members of the general public who would be afraid to
049give some kind of input to what they would like to see in the district and having a board member there they feel that it would be counterproductive to try to get the proper information from the public so we're asked not to go to those meetings well I don't have a problem with that I think that's acceptable it's it's done I understand that but my point is I think we could also open it as board members to if the public if there are some members of the public who choose to speak fre you know with us I don't see any harm in listening to the public if they would like to speak I in addition to in addition to what the school board does to have uh independent uh committees with with the public I don't
050have any idea those members of the public have every right to speak in public session here they're not the public is not entitled to sit in on our closed session discussions about the superintendent nor like School Board suggest that we are not or should not sit in on discussions about them not wanting to influence the public in any way or skew any kind of thoughts or recommendations the public might have to that aspect and that's acceptable to me except we do get the reports from school boards on what we do to align or with the criteria of the different groups that they speak to I know they talk to administrators they talk to staff they talk to PTA they talk to parents they'll invite the seniors in and and have conversations with them well is
051that before we set criteria or after I mean every everybody's setting we will be setting criteria they will be setting criteria they will be having an input into the criteria and then it will be brought back to the board and we will decide how what criteria is is important to us with the input of the community but but right now we just need to decide who we're going to go with before we decide anything else cuz that could make a difference okay so if I move that we uh uh have n njsba assist in the superintendent search at Cost excuse me at which cost well first let's just get that on the board okay is there a second I second is there any comments questions discussion Mr Braverman I seconded it than you second it
052I thought Mr cherel did I'm sorry um comments questions discussion if not then we will have a roll call on using School boards New Jersey school boards as our Search Group Mr pres Oso yes Mr poy yes Mr noin yes Mr calman do you wish to recuse sure Mr zareski yes Mr cherella yes Mr Braverman yes Mr armeno yes Mrs K Pano Madam board president motion passes okay thank you so now that we know we're going to use School boards we have to decide which program we're going to use Mr noin yeah I was looking at this in- depth um over the weekend and the the primary difference is really between the 6500 and the 12,000 are the consultant interviews and the consultant participating in all candidate interviews I mean they they uh consultant interviews
053the first round okay the consultant participates in all candidates interviews and the the consultant performs the initial reference checks in conjunction with the interviews that to me is the biggie right there um granted it's almost double the $6,500 program but we all agree that this is the most important job that we do to me to cut Corners here could jeopardize us down the road and possibly change the district in the three to five years that we're going to have this new superintendent potentially for So based on that and and the differences and the small difference in the price uh in the big picture even though I am an advocate of saving money I think when it comes to the most important job that we're going to do I would I would suggest and recommend that
054we go with the more expensive $122,000 program would you like to make that if that's a motion I'll second it I would like to make the motion to go with the $122,000 program with the New Jersey school boards Association yeah and that's second by Mr Braverman so now we can open it up for discussion so anybody have any comments or questions Mr Po well I I I do question uh why we need them to do the initial reference checks I I think we have people in the district that can conduct that uh I don't I don't think that would be something that the district would do it would EXC me that the district would do it would be the board would have to do that if Madam Madam to facilitate the conversation at that sophisticated
055level of of super tendency uh position fulfillment New Jersey school boards has many years of expertise and they are the the search firm for that process and as far as checking references and so on it may beond the sophistication of our our central office staff to reach out to a a former school board and ask very sophisticated questions uh of their superintendent performance whereas School boards is really oriented to do that and under current labor laws uh do you think the district will will provide information beyond the fact that yes they've been employed here from this period of time because I know there's such I've heard you know these stories about uh when you do reference checks there's very little they'll tell you any longer for fear of uh lawsuits answer yes anyone else mrry
056on the reference check thing I did have a question question to Gwen when she was doing our reference checking there's a whole team of people that go out and pretty much know all these people they're going to contact so they already have a personal touch with them and they do tend to answer the questions that they have they have formatted questions on these reference checks that none of us I don't know myself I personally haven't called anybody for a reference so for me to take an application from somebody and ask questions on that and what to do I wouldn't even know where to begin with this team of people that they had put together over the years to do this process already is familiar with a how to do it and B might be familiar
057with some of these people might have already talked to them in the past on other jobs that they went on where they're comfortable on either side working with them and they have experienced that probably not too many of us have in that area anyone else Mr proso Question to Robie you think we would get the same interviewers how does that work do they have a whole team of different groups of interviewers or what do you mean interviewers you work with a certain amount of uh the interviewers correct when they you mean applicants yes they interviewed the applicants now would those same people be interviewing us who's ever looking for a job Oh you mean the people as far as checking references I'm sure they would be it's a it's a whole team but again this
058is a different District there's different qualifications different things that we're going to be looking for different recommendations and suggestions from the public on what the public wants to see my question that way is I want to make sure we have the same quality that you had oh I'm sure we are I'm sure it would be the same people because like I said this is a team that Gwen has and actually School boards has it's a whole separate Department that sit there and this is what they do she part of that the interviews and stuff Gwenn to a certain point yeah anyone else Mr AR Mino this may be a question for the school board or the attorney um is I think I've read recently and I could be wrong we cannot get outside we cannot
059get people from outside of New Jersey is there a law regarding that now that President yes I'm so can you just explain it to the public and may again we can't seek people from outside it's it's a certification issue see law I think oh The Residency that's where it was they can be hired from outside the state but they have to have res residency within a year within a year and they have to have the New Jersey certifications right that's correct that's correct everything that has been said is correct and and if you're um working and you went in you you took your employment before that law went into effect your grandfather had only in that spot okay thank you anyone else okay then there's a motion on the table to go with the $112,000
060program so we will have a roll call Mr proso yes Mr poy yes Mr noin yes Mr Calin excuse Mr zareski yes Mr cherella yes Mr Braverman yes Mr armino yes Mrs col Pano Madam board president motion passes for $112,000 fee under the school board option okay and would we want to go through characteristics that we would want for now or would we want to wait till school boards come in I probably would suggest have school boards come in and walk us through the process in more detail okay before we decide to do something I I think it'd be beneficial to us so we're not wasting a lot of time between then and now each of us think of some qualifications or some attributes we would like to see from the new superintendent so this
061way when school boards come in we all have an idea of what we want what we're looking for which will streamline the process and we're not sitting here all night because we're going to find or all of you are going to find out there's going to be a lot of late nights doing this over the next several months a lot Tom yeah I definitely would not want to do it tonight because I'd also like to get it on the agenda so we can get some public input and see where they stand on this um secondly I was wondering from a Jamesburg perspective obviously according to this they they build a report based on your criteria um I don't believe that would be confidential because a criteria is something that would have to be bet public
062um I would like to see that uh piece of information to see the criteria that you developed so that we have actually uh some sort of a foundation that we can either uh add or subtract to what we were looking for in Jamesburg would be I'm sure totally different from what you're looking for here Poss I mean just well not possibly just simply the size of the district and the overwhelming difference of a students buildings and the work that goes into superintendent job in this capacity is totally different from what we were looking for in a small little K through 8 district with n students would it be possible to see that I'm not saying we're going to copy it I think it no and I would have no problem I'm sure copying it if
063we have it available I'm sure we can no I mean I I mean I don't suggest that we're going to copy the criteria for our district but I would sure love to see just just a sample well that's what Gwenn will come in here and work us through what the Bas are huh you don't want to show us it has nothing to do with not showing you it's just it's going to be totally different I think it's mostly relevant of what goes on I I can get it and show it to you that's I don't think any problem but I I'm just trying to emphasis that the fact of the being two totally different districts and not only size but and everything else we get that um Mr presos did you have a question uh
064no that's okay he answered it okay so so we're okay we'll get in touch with school boards and then see how we proceed from here okay then I think that concludes the board president's report so is there any other business by any member of the Board of Education Mr poy yes in the um in the Personnel section of tonight's agenda items Q through able a we we approve those and uh therefore supplemental uh instruction or supervision because they all occur after school and uh it totals about $130,000 alog together uh or it could let me put it that way it could total $130,000 a little bit under that uh I think it would be desirable and it would also be the board's responsibility to ask that uh participation in all of those different supplementary uh
065programs that occur after school that we have an audit of that what is the level of participation if we're going to be spending $130,000 on it uh this is from you know giving help in math giving help in foreign language giving help in history uh supervising the kids that are simply staying after school because they don't have a ride home uh I mean I've heard reports and I realize it's it's just you know it's it's heard reports but I've heard reports that uh that in some cases there there are no students there or there's only one student there uh and you know this is at various after school activities and I just think it would be appropriate that and I don't think it would be that difficult to administer uh that that be audited by
066asking the people that are in charge to have the students sign in and that those be collected and that uh then a little bit of data analysis be done by someone in terms of how many students on a daily basis are participating in these uh I I and if it's if it's sufficient to Warrant the expenditure then fine but otherwise uh I I I I think we could be wasting some money if I may Doug is that I believe that that's probably administrative position as far as are you looking for the enrollment in those classes well they're not classes specifically well they're courses after school and I get that well they're not really courses programs after they're basically most of it is at the high school M where kids can stay after uh if they
067want to or not but they don't have to okay and uh it's a lot of times are children who stay after to to wait for their ride home oh I know and that's another that was a separate item that one but what I've heard is that sometimes particularly for the late session there aren't any kids waiting there okay now I heard last year when I brought this up well if they don't wait there then the teacher doesn't turn anything in okay uh and that could very well be but we're also offering uh assistance in history and foreign language science math language arts all those different programs we're paying teachers to stay after to give supplementary instruction to to students and I'm simply saying is it worth what we're paying for it does it need to
068be offered every day because most of these are set up for $10 days yeah and then there's the other thing with they're helping students after school so even if they're helping one child they're there for that child I realiz that I think that's an administrative issue on how how they they handle the high school but what's wrong with the board asking that that be audited I asked for it last year and it was denied and I just see no reason why we can't have some accountability there I don't see see it as micromanaging I don't see that we're stepping on any toes we're simply asking what is the level of participation in these after school programs that we provide on a voluntary basis we can we can get the numbers to you dck it could
069be done yeah last year's numbers because OB I don't think you do no I'm not asking for last year's I don't think you can get it well yeah because it's it's over with they would be last year's numbers they wouldn't obviously be this year's numbers but but going forward this year because the school year hasn't started it's a very simple matter to as the year goes along we get you know we just have the kids you want a monthly audit of our it could even be done every three months they could put it together as long as they do it on a daily basis it's not that much I don't think Miss armeno yeah I I would I would compliment you on that thought because I think the efficacy of any program should be something
070that every once in a while we could take a look at and if it's on a a quarterly basis I think would be okay and just make sure that we're serving we're serving the needs of the students while while also making sure that there's no waste that was I believe one of Dr Hamilton's goals last year was to look at all these different programs and to recommend if any should be um eliminated continued and um I I guess that's something we could talk with the next superintendent that is not our job as a board of education that's more of an administrative job to see what's working in the district and come back with the recommendation if it's not working but I think it was a goal that we didn't hear anything about Madam Madam U
071Mr Gorski uh respectfully when I hear terms like auditing programs and uh determining the E efficacy of a program those are most definitely L administrative functions that should be performed at the high school and administrative level um there's there's a unique sophistication that goes into determining the efficacy of a program um and that's something that's been that should in by by position is entrusted in administrative levels I don't mean with any disrespect but I don't know if the board has generally the sophistication to determine efficacy of programs um or have evidence enough to audit programs um based upon well but if you remove efficacy and deal with the level of participation Mr pres I mean that's that's very objective if it has to be cost efficient I mean we're looking to save some money and
072if it's not cost efficient we should we should be looking into it well it's just like having CAC it's there if a a student needs that and it might not be every day that one student for 170,000 it's not worth it so we should be looking connect to some of these program it is if it's you a student Madam I I I I believe that it it is overseen at the high school level and at the curriculum office level uh and at the superintendent's level uh I I don't think it's going to the extreme that we're paying $160,000 for one student I don't want anybody in the public to get the impression that that's that's the administrative function here and something like that would be allowed um just want to state that do you have
073any certainly we can come up with a number that's that's easy enough to do but I think what Mike is trying to share with you is the fact that it's a really administrative responsibility and I think as Mr braveman also said as well too is that sometimes you know if you look at efficacy as far as of a program it's not just because of the quantity of the children that are involved in the program it's also the quality and the impact on those kids uh and their educational programs and their lives so certainly if you want numbers Doug we can certainly come up with some numbers if you give me the spefic specific programs that you're looking at I can probably give you something as far as what the numbers were maybe for last year
074Etc uh but if you're going to make a determination as far as then saying well based upon let's say the the low number that are in a program uh and then you know whether you're going to get rid of it because of the financial obligation I would say that's not for you to do I would I would not want you to go in that direction as your superintendent well it as I said earlier but I'd like to repeat it we've approved these programs to operate every day of the week throughout the school year with few Exceptions there are a few exceptions where instead of 180 days it's authorized to be 120 days now if it turns out that we are averaging two students per day that are seeking assistance with uh uh social studies because
075we have a history Forum or they're seeking assistance let's say in World languages okay and and we see that we're averaging two students per day then why not consider instead of offering it every day offering it three days a week you know I mean why does it have to be every day if we're getting so few students I mean I'm certain that student that could that was going on Tuesday could probably go on Monday or Wednesday uh all I'm saying is we we we we authorize this program but we don't know to what level it is being utilized and I'm not talking about the efficacy of the program I think all of these after school supplementary instructional programs that we have at the high school they're in theory they're they're they're wonderful to have right
076okay but all I'm saying is are the students taking advantage of it because we're spending about $130,000 and uh sometimes we wonder where can we get $130,000 to pay for something and I'm not looking to cut it I just want to get some accountability there that's all Michelle just one minute I I see Mr Goodall's in the back matter of fact it's mad rob you able to come up to the microphone just to address the situation this time before that and the other thing Doug too is that this year it might be an anomaly we're having the AP par assessments from grades three to 12 to 11 and that after school program might be vital to a specific person we also don't know every child in that school whether High School Elementary Middle School everybody
077has a different schedule they might only be able to come on to Tuesday somebody else might only be able to come on Thursday we have kids who work we have kids who have involved in sports so well it's let let Mr Good off just Kathy alluded to some of the stuff I was going to speak to but Mr ventrell I can get you I'm sure some numbers uh once we get back to school and work with the people who supervise those programs I don't know exactly everything on that list but I'll do the best I can from last year I know they were keeping pretty good records but historically when we added programs we considered the kids participating in other activities um they were going for multiple subjects we certainly knew that Friday probably wasn't
078going to be a heavy participation day but we did provide that for kids especially Math Science and English which we provide something every day for kids to come on Friday if they're involved in activities all during the week um just in my view as the building principal the vast majorities of the things listed on that list are very heavily participated in especially in math and science and language arts the subject areas that are less than 180 days a year that's what you accounted for that and provide less instruction for that as far as the supervision after school that always varies about what's going on during the school year uh reports of kids not being at the second session close to 6:00 well maybe on June 18th and June 17th that's that's true true because uh
079the kids are just um you know they're done with their activities for the most part but we do provide it for those who are still doing things in the middle of the winter athletic season it's completely packed so we did just provide a consistent supervision for the 180 days for all of our students and we did consider and we do know that um on some days there'll be high levels of participation and some days there'll be low levels of participation thank you Mr Good M armino for the record I'd like to change the word efficacy um because it's been misinterpreted um my my point was if a program is if there is no child in the classroom on a regular basis that's what I meant the efficacy I didn't mean the efficacy of the educational
080program so I would imagine that they are all done well and I know that is not our purview but the point is as as Mr Po points out if something is not being utilized I think that's a fair place for us to take a look at not to delve into the academic situation but to see if the classrooms are empty four out of the five days of the week for certain situations I think that it would be reasonable for us to oversee that thank you it we'll get some numbers okay Mr noin I mean I think think we all agree that it's not the purview of the board to decide which ones are working and which aren't however I don't even see the administration having these numbers so to me there may be some that
081we may need to add another teacher maybe they're so packed every day that it's being over utilized and we need to add another one um without having some sort of a metric such as a simple thing as having the teacher submit how many students she tutored that day how does the administr even know if these programs are are are worth it or functioning the way that we want to so I don't think it's asking too much to just give us some ruin numbers uh so the Administration has those numbers or if the Administration has those numbers I would at least feel better uh right off the bat that at least someone's looking at these numbers well I'm sure the administration in the high school has those numbers because they deal with it all the time
082and I don't know that Dr Hamilton did or didn't have those numbers um on yes may I pose a question to Mr Goodall Mr Goodall you referenced participation as being heavy at times before I B I assume you base that heavy participation explanation on numbers is that not correct when when students come to certain activities they do sign in such as CMAC writing lab a science lab those are numbers I think I can get right away do you feel you do your due diligence in evaluating the cost benefit of these programs yes and actually if you recall during the budget process I actually look to add additional hours because of heavy participation but we had to make a difficult decision and then and did not at this time add for this year so we do
083do our diligence and um you know to assure the board without having the numbers in front of me I don't believe there's a crisis of waste that is going on with these after school um supplemental uh activities and instructional supervision so but I will get some formal numbers I'll give them to Mr vello he can share them with you and uh again just reemphasizing that reports of perhaps kids not participating on particular days just could be that time of year um but we did make the decision uh when we did all that those things to consider that some students can come some days and some students can come other days so that's why we do most of those things 180 days a year good thank you rob okay so we'll look forward to to those
084numbers anything else any other board Mr cha you doing all right and let me just preface this by saying that my good friend Marv over here is probably going to punch me in the mouth so if you see him see a fist coming just warn me so I could block it but anyway um I just wanted to ask the policy committee and I I asked I sent an email to to our board president and to uh Mr Gorski I don't know a few days ago maybe couple weeks ago regarding um the tearing of cultural arts so I'm not asking for a bill change or anything this time but I am asking that for the policy committee to consider looking at the way Cultural Arts is tiered I don't think that I think the way we
085teer it now is we're tearing it as an outside group if you look at the history of cultural arts and and what it provides to the community we have we have uh you know we we have a history of cultural arts being under the rec department and and uh and it was broken out a couple years ago and since that time we started we we you know we started to treat it as an outside entity when it really is a part of our our community it's not a for-profit you know group that's running around trying to make money but that's neither here nor there I just I'm just asking for the policy because I I hadn't received a response to look at it and before anyone wa before anybody calls me a shill for the
086township or the mayor I just want to be clear that I value my independent nature and this does not this is not coming from the township at all but from uh a number of people who have taken part in some of the shows most recently shows like aita who had some concerns parents and things like that who had some concerns about uh shows being cut and the and and things like that because of the the fees that we're currently charging them to use our facilities I'm sure Mr Braverman will have a comment the policy committee discussed this three times three times they voted to keep the cultural arts on the second tier because that's the definition it fits into I would furthest tell you that I have gone to Cultural Arts programs they never get
087more than a half of the auditorium filled my community runs shows every month I believe except December I think I don't go to all of them but we invite the rest of the community in we pay $2500 in expenses before we even pay for the entertainment we fill up the auditorium we pay our bills the problem is the mayor is this is the mayor's program and we did discuss it and if they had so many people that they can fill up the auditorium they could afford the program quite frankly if they were in business and they were only getting half the pro the auditorium filled they drop it or maybe if they would think outside of the box they could team up with East Brunswick or South River or some other town where they also
088get half the auditorium and then you'll have a full full Auditorium and you'll have a program that the mayor likes I believe um Mr cherill that it also had to do with that anybody in the first tier were student related groups such as um Ed Foundation student groups yeah student groups the PT um the rec center because it had students and Monro Ed Foundation the other tiers were either for profit groups or adult groups that were using our facilities so we go through all of our policies yearly when it comes up again we'll look at it again well i' appreciate that I just think we're making a mistake I think the Arts are important and I think that you know I just I I think if we're not if they're not filling half of their
089Auditorium then we should then then we should probably be looking at what how we're charging them for a full Auditorium I think that I think those things go both ways but as far as the mayor's concerned and I know you brought the mayor up I'm here to tell you that I haven't spoken to the mayor I haven't talked to the mayor in nine months so this is not about the mayor and me or anything else this is about me bringing this forward on my own and like I said I I'm an independent I I everything I've done on this board has been with it with Independence in mind and the students first and so you know I don't I don't I don't appreciate you know saying that this is the mayor or the mayor bringing
090this forward right now uh this is this is me bringing this forward because of concerns that I've heard and the things that I've seen and and and just something that I see uh as far as uh our policy committee that that's an injustice just like the the our ban policy I think was an injustice and I think we should have done something retroactively with that because those kids came in first they won nationals and we turned around and said well we don't want to retroactively do this because uh we don't I don't I don't know why maybe we didn't want to spend the money whatever but whenever that policy was first implemented and made someone should have thought about all of the children and not just hey this is important cuz it's football or this
091is important cuz it's baseball but these kids blow a horn and that's not as important as putting on you know putting on a helmet and and and going at each other 90 miles an hour so I just think that I understand that we review our policies yearly and we look at this stuff but I think that when we review those policies and you know we should also we should also have an open mind so because we we we we are recognizing with this policy change that we've made a mistake with band right I was I was hoping that we would also uh recognize that we made a a mistake and not retroactively uh you know giving those kids what they deserved after what they want so anyone else Mr Kaufman I wasn't I was going
092to really just kind of going to go with the flow but you brought up a good point that I just want to touch on I agree with everything you said about the the the the awards that we have we the board got the schedule of what was adopted uh through the policy committee and I guess you know I approved it uh to move this thing forward but one of the concerns that I had when I looked at the the the dist distribution of of how the awards work one of the things that I guess stood out for me was that we have a we have a carve out we categorize these things and I I don't I don't know why winning a state championship in football uh should be treated differently than winning the state
093championship in physics um academics is just as challenging as as physical accomplishments as well and the way the schedule is broken down you know if again this is just off the top of my head we have you know Sports excluding football then football then I think cheerleading is a carve out then the band consideration was put in there again because we won the National Championship this year and I would agree with Ken you know we knew fairly early on I think it was if I'm not mistaken at the Des December 20133 meeting perhaps when parents came to the table complaining about where we were with the policy and uh we knew Midway into the school year last year that that that we had a championship team on our hands National Championship team and you know
094retroactively well okay but the year was half over and we kind of delayed it and and we didn't have whatever that was then and this is now um but I agree with the things that you mentioned before I I think that it shouldn't be if you win a National Championship in in whatever you get this if you wanton a state championship in whatever you get that it shouldn't be broken down to the level of detail who's to say that a a cheerleader Works any harder or less harder than a football player uh I'm sure if I had daughters and I was going to all the competitions and I saw all the hard work that they do I I would be somewhat uh put off that it it's treated differently because of that particular uh uh
095Enterprise so um you know thanks for bringing that up and again I Echo your sentiment that it was it was not uh the best phase of this board not to do uh something for the national championship seniors that have graduated that won't get the benefit of of the the new standard so anyone else M armeno uh I I my only comment is while I may agree with you I think all of those recommendations were made by um you know the uh Administration and therefore by not micromanaging I think we just accepted the recommendations Madam I'm not sure about that Mr corsky that you know that was deliberated at length at policy that wasn't just Administration that was more of a committee process okay anyone else okay then we will go to close session resolution be
096it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of monre hereby moves to go into closed session in accordance with the Sun Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 col 4-6 to 10 col 4-21 to discuss the following subjects board to receive attorney advice in relation to board ethics on RFP for Legal Services process update the con the discussion conducted in Clos session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the need for confidentiality no longer exists so moved Mr proso all in favor opposed extensions then this time the board will move in to close session long that was Tom how long uh how long how how long half hour how long you going to take B in our a uh mine will be relatively quicker the
097other one I think I would say 45 minutes minutes at this time the board will move back into public session and go to the public forum again anyone from the public wishing to speak please come to the microphone give your name and address for the record and we will adhere to our three minute time limit Mark Klein 7 cure just one question something I asked a few meetings ago and I've been asking for it from time to time um as far as it was brought up earlier about the repairs or Replacements of the iPads and what we wanted what I wanted was the figures as to how much we take in through the insurance versus how much it cost to replace and repair and we never got that but I see on tonight's $112,000 broken
098down on here and it's on your page page three and it says it's $122,000 for iPad replacement Andor repair but give you the benefit of the doubt there's one here for $1,200 General supplies for the high school so if you back that out still over $10,000 and what we found after the first year and that was public so I can I can bring this up is the amount that they took in at $50 a computer we wound up spending I think the figure was about another eight or $10,000 above and beyond the insurance so it would be nice if every month or every 3 months that there's a report made keeping it keeping the public up to dat as to how much money is being spent on repairs and replacement thank you very much Gorski
099just just very quickly to your comment Mr kle with the new insurance policy uh there would be no extraneous cost to the board okay what did we have last year did we have any of that last year the outside Insurance um I don't know I'd have to check I don't so this will cover for whatever had Apple Care for the last two years so there is no cost to the board because the parents paid the $50 deductible and so it cost $50 to repair it so to to offset it so there was no cost to the Board of Education based on the $50 that the parents were paying that's if it's a $50 repair no no no regardless of the repair any type of repair you $50 and you get a brand new yes okay
100so if somebody stomped on the uh the board the the Monitor and they stomped on it are you telling me that that would be sent back and they would replace it unless it's totally irrevocable damage and then the cost goes right to the parent for the full there was one or two the first year that was stomped first year there was no Apple Care Plus okay thank you good evening stepen Ryback 23 Riviera Drive Madam president on around August 8th someone showed me your posts on Facebook all of which had no disclaimer that we not that you are not speaking on behalf of the board noting Dr Gorman's contract renewal was not approved by some members of the Board of Education leaving him without a contract for the 20145 school year you went on to
101say it's sad because of all the accolades the district has received on another post you noted that the ad hoc committee has not met because of summer vacation you also stated that any Sound Decision must be approved by the majority of the board or six memb members those votes are not there both these po posts show a divisive and unprofessional attitude which ferments mistrust and antagonism the charge of the ad hoc committee is extremely important as you admittedly had the redistricting study in hand you might have reached out to the members of that committee to check to see if they a uh of their availability instead of assuming they aren't available during the summer as was correctly suggested by a resident who had wrote post on Facebook as well furthermore your comment about the number
102of votes by the board is highly speculative as well as unprofessional this board has the ability to decide what will work or not and you shouldn't be making such decisions in advance your statement about email conversations getting misinterpreted when done in writing needs to be addressed first you are not emailing and secondly I don't think you should be editorializing board business on Facebook the innocence of your statements must be questioned as you have previously used fa Facebook to offer or support comments or opinions we need to work together and encourage discour not be fearful of differences of opinion infighting unprofessional behavior mistrust and misinformation by board members set a poor example for the school system you lead and the residents who support it thank you anyone else from the board from the public evening my
103name is uh Jeff Bell 49 Keswick Circle monal Township um I think my question would be directed to you Mr Gorski can you bring me up to speed with respect to the process Andor the methodology that was used in determining the reduction in the bus routes to mil Lake um and the devire community I think given the fact that um as you previously stated the mil Lake route was now reinstituted after some scrubbing of the numbers so to speak the Devon chire Community now is the only community that would be adversely effective exclusively and yet there doesn't seem or there didn't seem to be any Outreach by the board um for members of that Community to discuss any of the concerns that they had Mr Gorski yes uh I appreciate the question and um when
104we were faced with 2. $7 million of being over cap at the last budget cycle we had and I'll be the first to say it we had a rush we had a very short period of time to find um cuts to make up that amount of money I worked intimately with our transportation director who has very sophisticated software showing all of the routes showing all of the stops showing the cluster of of of students that are in each spot and it's very helpful in in in the process uh we review state laws um and with regard to the the um the mil Lake route as I said before you know I actually went out to the route and I and I uh I walked it myself and it's a mile and I my opinion was
105it was too strenuous for a child to be walking that route at that age level um and not to mention that to create parity with the other schools there are no other schools that have kids walking that far that I could find so it was fair and reasonable to put that route back especially because it was easy it was one route to reinstate it and then eliminate another one and redistribute the kids to other um buses that exist already so the cost savings was still uh recognized the Devonshire is two routes um affecting that development it's about $80,000 and from inception of that development we had worked with the developer who to the knowledge that I've been provided was supposed to put sidewalks to facilitate walking from Devonshire to uh the two schools and that
106sidewalk did not never made completion it stopped short correct the district then through the recommendation of the board members building grounds and transportation committee finished the sidewalk at our expense I walked the uh Devonshire route from the furthest bus stop to the building I walked the sidewalk I walked along the crosswalk where it's going to be staffed by a district teacher I walk through Brookside on the sidewalk again to Barkley Brook School if the if the student was going to go over there again this is all supervised by staff from start to finish and in my opinion and in the opinion of the transportation director um that route is perfectly safe and it's not unreasonable to expect children to walk that very short distance um under those conditions to get to school okay I would
107I would think that um the only one of the only problems that I see with that the transportation has been provided up until this point um and in that I would agree that the schools are very close to that development and my understanding was that there was supposed to have been a pathway created um within that development to access access those two schools my biggest concern is that you would have um kids as young as 6 years old walk along even though it is a small distance let's say from the corner of the development down to the school I think it just be more appropriate for at least kids going to Barkley Brook who are you know six are in kindergarten first and second grade um kindergart first and second would possibly continue to be
108bust and kids who are in third fourth and fifth grade who are a little bit more mature and would feel people would feel a little bit more comfortable about allowing those children to walk versus you know someone as young as six we'll certainly take that under consideration uh as we do all all residents comments um fortunately if if it helps that sidewalk is far enough off the road that I felt that you know it wouldn't be something that a child could easily walk off of and the and the momentum of the cars going around that corner would take a spinning car away from the sidewalk and and and away from potentially hurting a child there but right cuz granted that like the Mammoth Road um road that actually would access to two schools in mil
109lake is I believe it's a 25 posted speed limit 522 in that area that's that's posted at 45 and I just for a six-year-old I just think that's a little bit a little bit concerning us you know not just only for myself but for a lot of the parents in the neighborhood it is 25 when students are present there's a flashing sign there but but your Point's still noted okay thank you anyone else from the public L Masters and I'm Mel Court uh welcome Mr V uh Dr Gorman good luck that's all I'm going to say we've I talked to it before so it's not a big deal uh my first two questions are for you Mike are you ready yes sir all right the um right around this time we usually apply for the
110energy for America Grant um is that in process I know last year it was about half a million over half a million right uh you're referring to the safety Grant I believe yes about 550 yes uh we did apply for a safety Grant we were awarded a safety Grant it was previously reported to the board and the number that comes back into memory is something in the range of 48 49,000 that we that's not the one I'm thinking of them but all right I'll there was one roughly it was a September was energy I think it was called energy for America EFA EFA is the contractor that regulates the temperature in all the buildings that might be it but it was a they never had any kind of Grant like that all right but but
111uh we we did get a um a safety Grant through uh the insurance Consortium and that's what I referred to before and that's going to go to good use uh at the schools I think that's what you're thinking of but I'll look I write everything down um the second one the uh the renovations the Middle School the parking lot looks great the roof though is that on track still it's making me nervous yes I'm glad you asked uh we talked about this at the building grounds Transportation committee meeting that we did have delays because of the horrendous rain that we've had recently um the rain has gone through some of the roof areas has caused havoc on some of the um electrical systems in the school fire alarms went off one night uh we've got
112all that uh corrected now what you're seeing on the roof is those white they look like spongy panels that's actually insulation that goes up there and then a layer of roofing goes on it'll be more insulated than it was before and uh we have a very good contractor on that was part of the low bid on on that project we were fortunate so our our work schedule is uh on par where we're supposed to be uh will be completed by school I'm I'm very pleased to report that the state's picking up 40% of the tab for that roofing project however they disassociated the site work project which is the cement and the paving and that's the district is going to have to put the full bill for that that's the rod grants right we're we're
113on uh we're on task and another thing that is kudos to the Board of Education if I may say so as the secretary is that that project in its entirety was done within the very tight school budget cap that cap is very difficult for some school districts just to cover bargaining agreements and we're we're doing Roofing projects site upgrades and we do this every year so that's that's a wonderful uh use of the taxpayers money I agree all right now the Personnel um e talks about a Chris Sidler who's resigning as soccer coach just just clarification I'm not I'm not understanding this and then 25 under DD it says you're hiring as a soccer coach assistant soccer coach so is that is he resigning as head and you're hiring as assistant if I may L
114he's going from one position to another okay I just wanted to make sure yes um because the other thing that kind of concerns me the you have if you don't count him he's the only one that's a duplicate eight resignations in personnel which is to me is a quite quite a large number if you look at the percentage it's pretty high um that's very disconcerting are we doing we still do exit interviews right at do we do them at all levels or answer is yes do we do do we do them at all the levels even pars or no I think everybody gets an exit interview okay as long as just something to keep an eye on that's a disproportionate highly highly disproportionate number of resignations you may recall uh from your service on the
115board that the board is surprised of some of the higher level exit interviews um but I believe everybody at least gets an interview with their immediate supervisor principal or whatever the case may be and we're keeping an eye on it just in case there's a yes sir problem all right thank you if everybody else is finished with the well we'll see you again on my last question I sort of give your name and address sort of Let it go over my head seven crore Mark Klein um the cost of an iPad is roughly $549 approximately how much current iPad it depends what what Val okay well here's what I'm getting to if we're covered by Apple's Insurance we're no longer covered this is for last year yes $122,000 240 iPads okay but and it was
116didn't you just say that we had insurance from Apple last year up and and it expired June 31st okay these are all dated 613 June 13th correct $122,000 if we have Apple's Care Program why are we spending $122,000 on repairs and replacement didn't those were just the the $50 that parents paid to initiate so when you when you have Apple Care and you say okay I won't need an iPad then they say well you got to give us $50 to process it that is what we collected from the parents so in other words all these bills here the money did not come from our general fund correct it came from the insurance paid for by the parents the protection fee yes and the amount of money collected from all the parents covered all our expenditures
117or were we in the Black Say in the red we're actually we're actually Mike we have additional money in that Fund in that in the F Insurance Fund we had like $70,000 left um when the policy was developed the um there there was um a a surplus that was intended to be established in that fund that would then be carried over to use on a future refreshment program okay um there were some extra units that had to be purchased the insurance comes out of the money paid for parents um well extra units based on population yes I understand that I'm just concerned with what it's costing us in repairs and Replacements if the insurance covers that that's all well and good but as you know the first year it did not well well the good
118news is as I stated before going forward uh there will be no District contribution for repairs and such it'll be covered by insurance and and and the cost of the insurance and the deductible are passed to the ultimate user being the the students and parents good thanks anyone else from the public wishing to speak seeing no one we'll close the public forum and our next scheduled special Board of Education meeting is Saturday August 23rd 2014 10:00 a.m. at the Monroe Township High School motion to adjourn Mr Kaufman second by Mr zareski all in favor opposed extensions the meeting is adjourned