001good evening the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all may we have a roll call please Mr Gorski miss antelis here miss armeno here Mr Braverman Mr Chella here Mr cman here Mrs kapano here Mr noin here Mr Po here Mr proso here Mr zareski here Madame board president you have a quorum thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted May 9th 2014 one at
002all schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press and four filed with the clerk of the Miss municipality and at this time we will go to the teach of Year Awards on our our agenda number five and before we honor each of our individual teachers I have um just like to say a few words about teachers of the year and it's always been a pleasure to um to to honor our teachers and for the board it's a highlight during the year because it's an opportunity to celebrate our outstanding teaching staff and tonight we honor eight of our best teachers uh what makes this evening so special it's because all of our honores have been chosen by their peers and not just for being great teachers but for being great colleagues what makes a great teacher
003a great teacher sets high expectations for all students is always prepared and organized is innovative and engages students and gets them to look at issues in a variety of ways forms strong relationships with their students and shows that they care about them as people inspires the next generation and most important has a sense of humor all of our honores here tonight are great teachers but they are also role models and caregivers counselors and motivators disciplinarian and problem solvers and our District's most valuable assets they go above and beyond the daily responsibilities of being a classroom teacher and they deal with the whole child the academic social emotional and physical well-being of their students every day they make a difference in the lives of children and help shape the future and they are the ones are
004children will remember when they look back on their school years they are always dedicated caring and always professional they are special people they are teachers so on behalf of the Board of Education I'd like to extend to our teachers of the Year our deepest thanks appreciation and congratulations and hope that your time in Monroe will continue to be successful and rewarding and very special so at this time Dr Hamilton and I will uh award our teachers of the year with plaques good evening all so the plaque plaques read as follow Monroe Township School District honor the teacher's name as the teacher of the year and it's presented May 14th 2014 this particular a work goes to John gleon as teacher of the year for oak tree [Applause] School our next our next award is presented
005to Ana Shan Shan Holzer from Apple Gart [Music] [Applause] School our next award is Melanie Romney from Woodland School thank you thank no Lakes teacher of the year Dominique [Applause] Walters from Monroe Township from Monroe Township High School so [Applause] rosadi next up from Monroe Township Middle School Natalie bird [Applause] [Music] Barkley Brook School Paula sites and last but not least from Brookside School Nancy Mills [Applause] before our board meeting we had an opportunity to acknowledge all of our honores and have a wonderful dinner prepared by our students from the culinary arts department and um I would say that their dinner Rivals anyone from from a restaurant in Monroe so they did a fantastic job and they fantastic job and we very proud of them and the department so at this time we will go
006to our Applegarth School presentation Dr Hamilton would you like to introduce the principal gladly good evening all again um I'd like to turn this portion of our evening over to our Applegarth principal Mr Dennis [Applause] ventrillo of board Mr gy Dr and obviously our visitors and residents is that so here's the premise the premise is a special presentation tonight from the grade five students uh we don't have enough for all the students to be here this evening so they're a representation of the grade five we have their teachers here as well and the assembly program it's an annual assembly at Applegarth elementary school and it's called the living history museum bottom line very quickly is just the fact that obviously the students through the curriculum the instructional program using technology they research and become obviously
007the historical character that you see in front of you tonight now here's the premise and this is a good time this is a fun thing for tonight the kids have been waiting obviously for a long time to do this but it requires your participation so what I'm going to ask the board to do then is obviously all you have to do is to rise you'll go up to any of the students you can press the button in front of you they have a little Placer in front of them they'll be holding them up you'll know who it is that that they're representing they'll give you a little biological insightful speech about the character that they researched then you'll just go to the next one as soon as that one is done you just go from
008student to student this is their 15 minutes it's not our 15 minutes this is their 15 minutes and I'm going to ask all of the other visitors back here as well please make sure that every student has an adult in front of them so all I ask I'll give you about 7 minutes let's go this is for the children please thank you don't be shy adults they're waiting for you they've been practicing a long time butt and please adults don't let any student be by themselves how are you oh I came from work how are you doing yeah that's Good's going well [Music] to [Music] sorry I dress I'm a nursing student so I just fin you parents adults board members just keep on moving after you hear one presentation just find another students have
009been practicing we probably only have about another 3 minutes or so leave look that aren't they amazing it's amazing good how you doing wait just a couple more minutes everyone but please again make sure that every student has a uh someone in front of them for their presentation I just one more minute everyone one more minute [Music] I like that I like this F parents board members uh students let's just wrap up your presentations now and the board members can go back to their tables Hi how are you good hi one is out that was so cute that was so cute how are you good how are you I'm fine sorry Good Humor truck s front and a proud owner of theak students and adults if we can end our presentations how you doing this
010is terrific very nice yes that's excellent yes I learned a few things actually how kind Encore no what kind of bank is this dra excent that was cool interesting right memorize like memorize like that it's a tough thing we used have to um memorize poems like full poems but this is makes so much more sense but still I mean it's difficult to memorize the whole yeah it's definitely an art to that's what amaz me when I go to some of these shows let's give the kids a big round of appla Applause [Applause] please I'd like to thank the teachers that were here this evening also to help out that' be Miss Russo Mrs Poland Mrs poino Mrs lizo Mrs vza Mrs Kaufman and especially Mrs odonnell as well that helped out let's give them a
011round of applause and thank you members to the board the board thank you for always doing it for the kids thank you kids uh Dennis before Mr ventrillo before you leave very very well done I was very impressed with with the kids and in your usual artistic form it was a very different uh and unique format kids staff thank you very much yes Mr v um I I just wanted to acknowledge the kids I think they did a very an excellent job in learning us giving us a history lesson but I think it's very appropo that today we're we're honoring the teachers of the year who support our students and we have our parents here and the board could not do what we do without the support of the parents so I think you have
012the students the staff and the parents and and we we just want to appreciate everything that everybody does to support [Applause] us thank you and you're gonna wait for the Encore on number eight you're on the agenda twice you can surprise me [Laughter] later okay at this time we will have our student board members reports sure good evening ladies and gentlemen um there's going to be a scoop night fundraiser em and doers tomorrow night to benefit the National Honor Society monant High School teachers will be there from 6:00 p.m. to 9 M scooping ice cream for customers and the NHS will get 15% of the profits the Multicultural event title titled Banger Fest is going on tomorrow night from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the high school come out to the high school to
013enjoy a DJ food performances and dance the softball team won its third division title in a row and have a record of 18 to zero they are currently ranked number 10 in the state by The Star Ledger schools will be closed on May 6th due to Memorial Day and there's a half day for students and staff in service on June 6th due to the junior uh senior prom excuse me thank you oak tree school has created a whole new meaning to the word diversity through their cultural expressions committee the cultural expressions committee is comprised of various staff members across grade levels the purpose of the committee is to promote cultural awareness and show Unity within the community this year each class has been assigned a different country to represent um that reflect the different cultures
014around the world and each month an element of that country is introduced to the class such as a book from that country the national anthem a dance or a video clip thank you thank you for your reports at this time we will 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 3 minute time limit Mar Klein 77 77 7 crch your court a couple of things um on I don't know if was on your report Mike about purchasing additional iPads that showed 100 iPads is that for additional students or is that replacing broken iPads and also when is the last lease payment on the iPads because we haven't and none
015of that we haven't even had an update as to how successful the last iPads have been and whether that cured the problem that we had in the first does anybody have an answer hello Mr Gorski do you have the um leas payments or is that Mr Dr G don't count this is my time yeah no clock the clock's off um with with regard to your last question in the 1415 budget is the final lease payment to Apple for the recent iPads that have been deployed so that means they're paid off and we own them at the conclusion of that payment yes so we don't have to go any further that should be sufficient Dr Gorman but the iPads that we have now the new iPads that we got if they're going to be paid off
016next year and if they've been successful that means we we should be able to continue with them am I correct oh we have a um a a plan that we're going to discuss with the curriculum committee on June 11th we have an IST um Master technology plan with the with the iPads that includes all different stakeholders like Mr Goodall Mr Washington so we'll be providing a complete update um in June and then give options to the Board of Education about the warranty about possibly refreshing about um um looking at one: one because digital digital learning is everywhere with the new park assessments and everything going on so we will um have a full update for you on June 11th so there's a possibility that these iPads will be replaced I have no I I have
017no opinion okay and last thing 13d under the business administrators on uh your other question you asked about the 100 iPads yes that is for new enrollment new enrollment okay not broken ones correct okay I'm glad to hear that 13d on the business administrator I see that we're buying four buses five vans in a truck now is this because we need it for additional population or is this the lore that we have from the state that we can only keep them a certain amount of years Madam yes um we have four new 54 passenger buses and five vans right I recall that three of the 54 passenger buses were mandated by the state to be retired because they aged out at 15 years okay and all but one of the Vans are the same thing
018they aged out and they need to be replaced we are only buying one van and one bus to my knowledge that was non-mandated okay go again I go back to the same thing that I complained about when I was on the board is the fact that the state gives us no money they mandate things that we have to pay for and the rod grants that we spoke about they give us nothing and now they're forcing us to buy new vehicles when we can't afford it so I know that you've done the best that you can and I would hope that the board members are doing the same thing but man this is not right but anyway I thank you for your time sorry sorry anyone else from the public seeing no one we will close
019public forum and go to the approv approval of the minutes for the public Board of Education meeting of April 9th 2014 second miss anelis Mr Kaufman any additions or Corrections all in favor I opposed extensions okay approval of the minutes for the closed session meeting of April 9th 2014 so moved second Mr Kaufman second by Mr noin additions are correct okay all in favor opposed extensions you were not there Mr you were what I was okay thank you this time we will go to committee reports are there any committees that need to report this evening Miss analis we had a buildings and grounds meeting on May 8th uh we had a presentation from Peter Bilton from uh this routes for safe schools and he talked about uh potential projects that could be funded up to
020$300,000 the Board of Education if pursuing a grant would be responsible for design costs the application for the grant is June 30th and does require some monies to be allocated by the board for engineer nearing investigation should the board wish to proceed the administration shall review potential sidewalk and Bridge projects for consideration and report back to the board to see if an application should be pursued uh we talked about the office space for PPS and staff development the administration provided an an analysis of the lease negotiations along with copies of draft lease agreements and floor plan schematics for the three office suites proposed for the lease at Monroe Commons and are you going to have any more for us tonight I know you had sent an email CL session okay uh we talked about the
021roof replacement and site work projects Administration reviewed the bid results for the middle school replacement project the lowest responsible bidder is a highly regarded contractor who has performed well for the district in the past the low bid is significantly under budget and therefore Administration recommends an award to this contractor at this meeting and we'll be doing that I'm guessing in okay and uh the trash and recycling contract Administration reviewed the results of the contract award and I'm sorry Administration reviewed the results of the contract award to midco for trash recycling for the period July 1st 2013 through June 30th 2014 and recommend that the board authorize a contract extension in lie of attempting to rebid the current contract rates are very favorable and it is not anticipated that a savings would be realized should the
022project be rid and that's the end of my report thank you do anyone else have a report Mr proso finance committee meeting we had a budget update Michael gave a nice presentation we also talked about the 2014 2015 State a award possibly in Jeopardy due to the state fiscal crisis and we had an update of the uh financial statement for February March en April for Mecca and uh there was a recommendation for cob Administration to be brought back into house for the cour savings and that was a great idea we thank you um we also had consideration for new substitute caller uh list uh what was that uh the name of that asop asop asop as okay and uh we try to have a discussion on the relative uh non-mandated programs and General Financial variables
023affecting the 2015 2016 budget and uh we didn't get too far with that but that's the extent of the finance meeting thank you anyone else have a committee report Miss armeno it's not really a report just to say that there was a policy meeting held and we discussed all of the policies except for one that was going to be on another agenda okay thank you anyone else okay um we have a need to move the closed session resolution to before the superintendence before report in order to discuss some Personnel matters so in order to do that I would need to have a motion in a second and uh move Mr coffin second by Mr proso all in favor I opposed extensions then we will go to the agenda the Clos session resolution on the agenda
02440 minutes okay the Clos session resolution reads as follows be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into Clos session in accordance with the Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 and JSA 10 colon 4-6 through 10 4-21 to discuss the following subjects board to discuss the lease for pupil Personnel Services Personnel non-renewals harassment intimidation and intimidation and bullying incident number 37 and other Personnel matters the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the need for confidentiality no longer exists and we look that it should probably take about 30 minutes uh Mr Kaufman is there a second second second by Mr zareski all in favor opposed extensions then at this time the board will move
025into closed session at this time the board will move back into public session and I believe there is a resolution to be read by Miss anelis thank you it is recommended that the Monroe Township Board of Education approve substantially in the form attached here to the lease between the Board of Education as tenant and bowan group limited as landlord for premises consisting of Suites a101 and suet c203 in the building located at 239 Prospect Plains Road Monroe Township New Jersey for a term of three years commencing on June 1st 2014 and expiring on May 31st 2017 with two successive one-year renewal options at the rent set forth in the attached lease it is further recommended that the Board of Education approved the lease in substantially the form attached here to for Suite c202 in the
026building located at 239 Prospect Plains Road Monroe Township New Jersey for term of 3 years commencing on September 1st 2014 and expiring on May 31st 2017 with two successive one-year renewal options at the same rent per square foot of the premises set forth in the attached lease for Suites a101 and c203 the Board of Education hereby authorizes the superintendent of schools to execute the leases when in final form after review review and approval of the final form of each lease by the board business administrator and the board attorney it is further recommended that the Board of Education approve expenditures for the painting and carpeting of the premises being leased under the two leases described in this resolution Sarah second second by Mr Koffman any comments or questions by the board seeing none we will have
027a roll call Mr Gorski Miss armeno yes m Tellis yes Mr cherella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes Mr nosin yes Mr Po yes Mr proso yes Mrs phano yes Madam board president motion unanimously passes thank you very much and at this time we will go to the superintendent report Dr Hamilton thank you madam president uh moving on to the superintendent report is your enrollment data for the month of April comparing April 20 uh 2014 to um April 2013 and there is also a noted correction from last month we were off by one student and that notation is included in your report as well you will also see our enrollment report for our out of District placements and our homebound student report also included as item number three are the fire Dr fire drill
028and lockdown drills that have been conducted at each of our buildings and that takes us to the Personnel report um Madam board president and members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel items a and my notes won't open so I have to scroll through a through X be approved by roll call vote please so move Mr tiella second second by Mr noin any comments or questions for Dr Hamilton seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss anelis yes I recused myself on items s like Sam and v like Victor so noted thank you armeno yes except I abstain on R noting Mr Chella not going to help me Mr zaneski yes Mr calman yes recuse on RNs Robert and Sally correct thank you Mr noin yes Mr Po uh
029yes Mr preso yes but recuse myself on r s andv so noted Mrs colano yes mam board president motion passes okay moving on uh I just need one number no I need the um ID number item y it is recommended by the superintendent that employee identified by number 9060 it is recommended that that termination be effective June 4th 2014 nin Mr Coffman comments questions then we will have a roll call Miss anelis yes armeno yes Mr cherella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes Mr noin yes Mr Po yes Mr proso Mrs Kap Pano yes mam board president motion passes thank you and moving on to board action board action items it is recommended by the superintendent the board action items a through Q computer froze up q q be approved by roll call vote
030Mr tiella second second by you comments or questions for Dr Hamilton Mr Question uh item o uh the first policy and regulation listed deals with uh prevention and treatment of sports related concussions uh and the policy on the second page of the policy it says in that top paragraph the school district may require pre-season Baseline testing but in the regulation it says that we will require the Baseline testing and um just based on some past experiences I've had where we put it on for you it's a that it will be based off of our conversation we want to mandate that for next year okay but but my my point is I think it might be advisable in the policy that it states that the school district shall require as opposed to may require yes that
031is correct oh oh okay because the policy that that I see here says may yeah no that's why we brought the policy back to follow up our discussions from last year to make sure that it does say shall so okay I'll correct that and make sure it get okay thank you Mr knin uh just a quick question item H uh is that a reappointment and if not uh who was it last year the um the bullying uh coordinator I think it's the reappointment uh it is the same person and that's just a renewal thank you anyone else then we will have a roll call on the board action board action items Miss anelis yes M armeno yes Mr Chella yes Mr zareski yes Mr mman yes Mr noin yes Mr Po yes Mr proso yes
032Mrs K Pano Madam board president board action items a through Q passes thank you and that concludes the superintendent's report for this evening okay then we will go to the business administrator's report Mr bski yes madame board president um contained in the business administrators report are a couple no worthy items I just wanted to present to the public uh briefly number one um an employee had offered and volunteered to take back Cobra Administration Services which have historically been contracted out and that saves the district approximately $88,000 a year in in District paid Administration fees and generates additional revenue from the participants in Cobra of about $1,500 to $2,000 a year to the district so that's approximately a $10,000 savings Andor income item to the district with no additional compensation requested by the employee and the
033second item that's in my contract is the asop uh Frontline contract that is where the district and Administration has has um recommended to automate the sub CER process and that also has very attractive savings to the district of about $222,000 per year including the implementation fee for the first year and even greater fees thereafter because the implementation fees don't apply so Madam board president and members of the Monro Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through M be approved by consent roll call so move Mr noin Mr Chella comments or questions for Mr Gorski Mr ormino okay um section seven the res the schedule a list of equipment uh page 50 on the iPads there are there any in there that are being purchased through the one of the grants
034these are not Grant funded expenditures these are general fund um procured items and they're okay they're mostly for teachers says teachers instructional use they are instructional iPads yes and then new enrollment these are for new new students yes ma'am we need a 100 yes ma'am okay thank you and Mr proso section seven the iPad new enrollment this is just for the high school the 100 iPads yes yes yes that's correct 100 new students coming into the high school yes between the enrollment at the the new students expected from Jamesburg and the increase in the sixth grade enrollment yes or I'm sorry and the the eighth grade graduates yes okay and laptop replacement uh that's for damag laptops or we just replacing them to upgrade those are for um laptops that have greatly served beyond their
035expected life okay and scoreboard and sound system I if I'm not mistaken we discussed something like that not too long ago maybe this summer or before that about how ptas and we were going to have some kind of monies from not from the budget but evidently this is coming out of the budget yes um that's that's a rather large expenditure and Dr Hamilton and I did solicit external Revenue sources for that but we could not um have commitments for this purchase there was another item though just for your information that was included on the middle school budget which was their sound system that was removed from the budget and the PTA has absorbed the cost for that at the middle school so that's not on the list anymore it is not on the list any
036other comments or questions Mr nin quick question with regard to the uh laptops um I see one is at 1,200 and the the one with the higher quantities at a higher amount um why is that I'm not sure that you want take that I don't know the answer to that that seems awful high for laptops also I could say this there are different program needs for different laptops we have several different models deployed in the district some for example for um uh use like programs like AutoCAD which requires a great deal more uh sophistication than others uh if you're putting it on a laptop cart that's being pushed around the elementary school it might not be so expensive I don't recall exactly on those but these went through Reggie Washington our Tech director and I'm
037confident that the amounts here uh represent the most efficient way to procure these items thank you and these will all be purchased through State contract or um or add data our purchasing Consortium or bid any other questions Mr Po uh looking at this same list of equipment that we're purchasing uh I I see that we're uh buying these Bluetooth keyboards for the park assessment for next year is this the first special purchase that we're making for in order to be able to administer the park test do you know yes it is um that is also part of what the increase in the bandwidth is that's also included on this it is for Park Readiness okay and and what did the state give us uh in terms of aid for implementing this park testing I believe
038it was $ 37,000 it was $10 a student or about $58,000 okay all right thank you you're welcome Mr Cho yeah I just have a question on on um the the football field the scoreboard that that school that the football field is used by our high school team right yes why can't why couldn't we use bond funds in order to fix that instead of or are we doing that it's a very good question um Bond referendum funds could only be used for the specific project that the voters approved and that was the construction of the Monroe Township High School and related aperatures um that field procurement was not part of the original question and therefore any upgrades of of that field such as if we were looking to replace the turf or the scoreboard would
039not be permissible with Bond referendum money because they were not part of that whole project any other um Mr proso well I vote on this on Section s can we change the amount of two 285 to 238 if we we're not counting the sound system anymore correct no no no that's that's a different sound there was that sound system is needed there was another one for the middle school that is no longer in there this is for the high school correct system these are all newly needed items um that went through the finance Comm committe meeting and were approved uh both with the preliminary budget and the final budget adoption okay anything else score about the scoreboard um are we purchasing it from the same people we got the last one from that's a good
040question um Dr Hamilton Jerry tag and I have solicited the um strong recommendation of our athletic director and the high school principal to make the recommendation for this scoreboard so that there is an ownership of the particular model that's going to be purchased and um and erected um I don't know the history on the other scoreboard but I think it's fair to say that we did not get our money's worth and the scoreboard has become very problematic and unreliable at games it uses um Wireless technology to some extent and is just unreliable so um in order to emphasize that the scoreboard that the board is in investing in this time um the athletic director and the high school principal were intimately involved in the selection and um we'll take ownership of such thank you anyone
041else then we will have a roll call Miss antelis yes armeno yes Mr cherella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes Mr noin yes Mr poy uh yes but I recuse myself on item K so noted Mr proso yes Mrs kapovich yes and I recuse myself on item K so noted um action item passes and that concludes my report thank you okay Dr Hamilton did you have a report there is a correction uh on Personnel item why that I read into them into the minutes for tonight on the Personnel uh ID number it's off by one digit so I'd like to ask for a motion to resend the previous red Personnel item y so that I can read a new one in so moved Mr coffin Mr tiella um we don't have to have a
042roll call on that do we or do we y yes yes yes okay B local miss an tell us yes Mr armeno yes Mr Chella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman Mr nusstein Mr Po yes Mr presio so Mrs K Pano Madame board president resentment passes and new Personnel action item y reads as follows is recommended the Board of Education approve the termination of employee 001 060 there motion by by I'm Sorry by the board effective June 4th 2014 and the superintendent business administrative board secretary are hereby authorized and directed to take all necessary steps to implement this action of the Board of Education a second Mr tiella Miss antelis comments or questions we will have a roll call Miss anelis yes M armeno yes Mr cherella Mr zareski yes Mr calman Mr nusstein yes
043Mr poy yes Mr proso absent Mrs kapano yes mam board president new item y passes okay thank you thank you um we'll go to the board president's report and I just have a a few very small items um the first is any of I want to remind any of the board members who have not yet completed the superintendent evaluation to please do so as soon as possible hopefully by the end of this week and we will have to set a date before our next scheduled board meeting so that we can have the discussion um we are currently working on dates for board retreat and some training and as soon as we hear from New Jersey school boards we will forward you some information there will be a senior Awards program on Thursday May 22nd 6:30
044p.m. at the high school auditorium and I think it would be nice for the board members and the public to attend um to support our senior students as they participate in this very exciting and a very generous evening and lastly our our district is working in collaboration with the township to improve the baseball field at Oak Tree School the district has in their budget offered uh to pay for the supplies and the labor but the township offered to do the labor which has saved us approximately $10,000 in our budget and it's another area where the township and the school district are working together as shared services that will benefit the whole community and that concludes my report so we will go to number 15 on the agenda is there any business from any other member
045of the Board of Education Mr tiella yeah it's just really a question I was reading that there's some legislation that has been submitted to offer uh breakfast to students uh and there would be a reimbursement I guess to those districts based upon free and reduced lunch participation and I'm wondering where we would fit into that scheme you know and if that would if if that's something that's going to be coming to Monroe if that passes it looked like it was conditional based upon based upon how many free and reduced lunch uh children we had and that kind of thing our free and reduced lunch uh lunch uh numbers are very low um so if that passes what we would need to do is look at the uh feasibility of being able to provide that and
046increasing the staff to be on hand which would also include supervision of students and see if it's a the if the cost benefit it makes sense for us to to to do that anyone else Mr orino I I just want to make mention on um item uh 18 the adjournment on the second paragraph it talks about no more than three cameras may be used at any time as a regulation for here and we have three cameras but they're all Board of Ed are you I'd like to have that discussion maybe another time we can change that wording because if it's three cameras used at any time that means a member of the public camp bring a camera in and record the U meeting and we don't have to have it discussion now I just want
047to point that out we look at our the policy see what the policy says and update the policy the the I mean the policy needs to be changed because if there's three cameras that are all being controlled by the the board of ed for video that automatically excludes the public so I think that it should be removed and we should just change it okay okay thank you Mr nin I just want to mention it was uh fantastic tonight I was glad I got invited to the teacher uh appreciation Awards and the teacher of the year actually is even even more profound um what we saw tonight it was just fantastic um very moving a lot of times um what we do up here is sometimes you feel that you're removed from the actions of every
048day and and and the hard work that's being done by the staff out there um when you go to something like that it really helps us to appreciate um just how lucky we are to have the staff that we have so I'd like to uh make that comment and to commend uh those teachers and all the other teachers who work so hard in our district because it was uh it's truly moving to see what what's being done um secondly a lot of times we don't always it doesn't always look like what we're doing up here um even affects children or that we're even talking about children but everything that we do up here at some point one way or the other is about the children and it was great to see the children here tonight
049and actually interact a little with them and get to really appreciate um you know how lucky we are to have the district that we have so I just want to mention that thank you thank you Miss analis um I missed the last meeting so I just wanted to make some comments about um the achievement of being number 39 um and I want to thank the principal Mr Goodall the staff at the high school and and actually it's a combination of the whole District but what it really boils down to is the administration the administration doing a great job of leadership Mr Corman Dr Hamilton Mr korski um great job men you and second I'd like to talk about the U Monroe Education Foundation basketball game I'd like to thank the staff of this district for
050their participation coming out volunteering um no pressure they just came out played basketball we raised a good amount of money for Mikey and um I believe uh we're going to give you the check to present to the family so thank you thank you anyone else M arminia just a quick comment um and I should need to be reminded but thanks Tom um we also had a delicious dinner tonight uh prepared by the students and staff and it was excellent and being a foodie I can appreciate that um but also what the children did I was moved to Tears by their performance and I do thank all the uh exceptional teachers in the district for moving the children into such a a fine educational space and I I appreciate everyone's efforts on that but the kids
051did a great job uh from The Young Ones tonight to the ones in the beastro so uh kudos to all the exceptional teachers and especially teachers of the year um but to the children and the parents as well thank you thank you anyone else okay uh public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record and again7 crunch sure three minutes um what is the enrollment projection for next year Dr Hamilton I don't have that number at the top of my head Mr clim I'll be glad to send it to you I missed the last meeting so I apologize also the laptops that are being replaced how old were they I don't know that off hand you know that Jeff not all
052of them but the last is to five years they were they were close they were between five and seven years okay so that lasted seven years and the iPads we changed after eight months and now we don't know what's going to happen uh three years later um a quickie if you read in today's paper Zuckerberg from uh the famous Zuckerberg from Facebook um that was going to donate $100 million to norc whatever he's had to be matching whatever they have spent so far they found it to be wasted so I'm waiting to get another report as to how it was wasted the last thing and this we've had before is Facebook is a great great tool and there was a threat in made against me liar on Facebook and as it can be it's the
053way somebody interprets it it's harassment intimidation and a threat I ask that the person the board member who wrote it and sent it out and we have copies ceases and desists from attacks on me this is not the first time if it happens again I will press charges at the police department and do what we have to do here for ethics thank you you're welcome anyone else from the public Robert roach J team your field Boulevard uh the uh $100 100 increase in the iPads I assume that's uh the difference between there's more students coming in than leaving or is there lossage where there's breakage of the iPads that uh we require more of a more can you explain that it's purely enrollment we're covered under our warranty for any damages okay and Miss anelis
054was talking about the new lease I wonder if she can give us the figures on that as to what the rental is per month or someone can we can't do that at this time because until the lease is actually executed we can't give out that information well wasn't it was just voted on right it was um I don't think there were any numbers in that lease in in that resolution well how could you how how could you vote to approve a lease if you don't know how much it's going to cost you I mean that that's their eltion of Duty well the board knows but the Le board knows if the board Knows Why doesn't the public know because it's it's not a it's a closed session item until the lease is executed and at
055the end of cuz at the end of uh the the discussion when the when the discussion in closed session can be discussed to the public when there's no confidentially confidentiality left so then we have to then wait till the lease is signed by the board members yes before we could even say whether we think they're do they should approve it or not approve it is that correct yes it's a closed session item and it has not been executed and there's still a need for confidentiality and that's primarily because the we're still in negotiations so we can't publicly disclose what we are still negotiating well okay I can understand that but then I guess my question is if you're still negotiating maybe I missed something in what was being approved what I thought what was being
056approved and correct me if I'm wrong is that the board voted to approve the lease not to approve negotiation of the lease I thought that was done last time the resolution says sub substantially meaning that there was still items that needed to be infused in that lease and empowering the superintendent the board attorney and the business administrator to finish those final final items in order to execute but it is substantially complete okay so no lease has been approved at this point in time not a final lease it has not been executed I'll accept your answer anyone else from the public good evening Chrissy scurby 8 seminal Court um I just wanted to commend you Dr Hamilton for today um putting all of the schools on a shelter in place to protect every student in Monroe
057um I know as a parent it made me very nervous but to know that you took immediate action and made sure that every student in the district was safe um that just want to commend you for that um had a question though I noticed on um the agenda there's lockdown drills and um fire drills are there any shelter and place drills I'm just a little I guess unfamiliar exactly what happens during that they they actually fall under the umbrella of safety drills and they are conducted um but the report the the we don't list every drill that's conducted in the report but yes the safety drills are conducted okay and also wanted to congratulate um the district I guess the high school Dr Goodall for being recognized as the number 39 um I think that
058is a great accomplishment for Monroe um I just hope that we see our number going lower and lower maybe one day we'll reach number one um but I think that is a true um showing of our teachers and our students and the support of the parents and I really hope that this District continues to move forward um it's nice to hear good news like that there's a lot of negativity at up at the microphone a lot asking you to cut things um sometimes teachers feel like there's a lack of support for them they want you know cut stiens cut this they get paid too much they truly don't and I think tonight was a very good reflection of how dedicated our teachers are to our students we had a room full of teachers here um
059from Applegarth we also had a lot of staff from all the other schools recognizing the teacher of the year um so I just want to say our teachers are truly dedicated in this district and really should be respected and hopefully we can continue um to do better thank you thank you thank you anyone else from the public hi I'm Katie Alvarez 290 Road Hall Road um I don't usually go to board meetings and certainly never speak at them but I think it's really important to bring up um the terminated employee the what was it why on the agenda cuz I didn't see it on the agenda so um I'm new to the district this year we moved from an alipin another fabulous district and my son has had issues with the bus since he started
060in our old district and the bus driver that he has um got him to like going on the bus got him to like going to school um has been nothing but fabulous and I actually had a meeting a couple months ago with um the school and was raving about how fabulous the bus driver and the Aid on the bus are and what they did for my son in your words Dr Hamilton on the website it says that all decisions are made on the premise that the children must come first I think that if this bus driver is terminated that would not be the case because she's done nothing to the children but be wonderful and I would ask that you would reconsider your decision thank you for your time thank you anyone else from the
061public J de Mayo 48 limbwood Drive I just have a quick question do you have an estimate of how much we have spent on getting ready for the park that number off hand I don't know what what that would entail what do you I mean to me it's preparation on the Common Court state standards are you talking about just the technology component well the technology and you know whatever else encompasses you know did we have to buy more laptops for the park and you know training for the teachers and yes we could probably begin to calculate that information for you specifically um but we would have to associate a cost associate uh attribute it to training staff um the keyboards the bandwidth um curriculum the curriculum documents that had to be addressed and of course
062ultimately purchasing the the the um test itself um so those numbers aren't all finalized yet but we could begin to tabulate that okay all right right I'll look forward to that thanks anyone El from the public cor Masters now I'm Michaela Court um do we know when the next ad hoc committee meeting is no I I don't think we've had one set up we were waiting for the redistricting report and I'm not sure that we've gotten that in yet that's it is we expect it any day now actually okay um we will be having a superintendent's advisory meeting while we will review that data that meeting as I already said I don't have it in my head but after we review that data then we will present it to the the board and then ultimately
063the ad hoc committee okay so let me ask is there a possibility that we could redistrict for September you're talking about for the following oh no no for the following year okay so then my second question is um I know that we've already talked about having adding in a half day kindergarten for Oak Tre for next year um and I know there's going to be at least they're talking about one more section for first grade but that even with one more section that already leaves the first grade's already at 19 at Oak Tree not including all the other movein and the full day casay is there possible that there be an eighth section in first grade then cuz that would make it seven then if we add in one more cuz there's six now I
064don't want to make that commitment okay um because there's a lot that goes into that one is parity and Equity across the district right um so if those numbers increase we certainly don't want 30 kids in first grade class right well I it's just that I know like currently you know we have 16 kids at our barkeley Brook second grade and there's 28 at least three of the kids second grades in oak tree that's d crazy talk you know I mean I'm almost ready to you know drive over to Brook Brookside just to get that's a lot less kids so I just don't know are we planning on making more sections for SEC for third grade for next year so we can get some of those 28s down to you know we have been in
065regular conversations with the principal about potential Staffing implications and I've also shared that with the Personnel committee so we have a plan in place but um a lot of that won't be determined until we see ultimately what those enrollment numbers are going to look like over the summer okay the patterns what we usually look at are patterns and the patterns at Oak Tree are quite an anomaly this year so we don't have historical data that we can really rely on to help us make that prediction I know I'm just concerned because I know the parents are starting to all get concerned and even the staff but we can't really do anything about it come you know August 15th because I know I mean know the one year I don't think my son was in first
066grade but I think some of the other ones we had to add an additional first grade in like right before school started you know if we if we know we're already at 19 kids you know or at 25 isn't it easier just to try to get this section in now rather than try to rush everything in August we are moving a section from Barkley Brook um to Oak Tree of which grade I can't tell you that oh okay but they're all over credit I mean I just pulled I just pulled the you know the sheet today to make to do book fair flyers and there's you know three 28s in second grade there's a and a couple 27s and you know the one special ed class is the small class of 25 that don't really
067that's not really a small class when you have 14 or 16 at Barkley Brook it's just not it's not fair and the you know the parents are starting to get really upset for obvious reasons so if we could start looking at that I may try to even things out a little bit that would go a long way even if it's just for next year Mrs denmore has been strongly advocating for additional staff okay awesome thank you anyone else from the [Music] public one last thing this is Mark Seven crore um the problem that we have as was stated at oak tree is and uh Mr Chilla is now going to be on the planning board so he should be able to do what I did on the zoning board is to follow up on things
068that uh come up applications that come up most of your new family developments are in the southern part of town serviced by Apple goth and oak tree and something has to be done that's where all of you new developments are you got there and then you have the existing ones um the one that um l Masters lives in Stratford is still building you have Renaissance properties that got the uh the conversion approval they sold out to toll their building Monroe Chase's building all of your growth the bulk of your growth is that part of town and that has to be addressed between apple goth and Oak Tree thank you that's what we're hoping that the adock committee will help us with good evening Ira tesler 11 El dve just to like uh just to would
069like to make the Board of Education staff and U and public aware on Monday May 19th they're going there's going to be a kickball game at the U Monro Township Middle School in the gym it's called Kicks for a cause it's the Barkley Brook versus Brookside staff it's sponsored by the Monroe Education Foundation and all the money um raised in that um in that event are going to a u family a Barkley Brook family whose six-year-old child was diagnosed with cancer so it's a small donation $5 for adults $2 students so it would be really nice for as many as uh the a board of education staff families public come and to support the cause again it's on Monday May 19th at the middle school gym at 6 pm thank you 6m thank you very
070much anyone else from the public wish to speak Hi l Masters and I'm Mela uh the Oak Tree Garden day was last weekend had a great turnout parents admins administrators teachers staff uh special thanks to Mr gleon Mr Temple uh and I call him Kevin the janitor sorry that's how I know him uh wonderful experience for the kids and the community came out and at zero cost it was actually no cost everything was donated all the seeds all the plants I just want to thank everyone that came by and if you want to come by take a look I mean nothing's growing yet it's just you're going to see leaves but if you want to buy the strawberries are good they go fast so uh that's a good one in the Cucumbers a lot of
071people from the town and what Miss armino Mrs armino said yeah if you just change that to no more than three cameras per member of the public I think that's a really because if you just say more than three cameras even if you exclude it and I bring in three cameras and nobody else could bring in C not that I would but that would actually fix that but it's a good catch thank you that was it and maybe next time you can bring us all a salad okay anyone else from the public wish to speak okay seeing no one we will close the public forum and we need to schedule a Board of Education meeting before June 11th and um Madam president Madame President uh I I do have a uh based on on the
072uh public session that we just had uh I think it might be beneficial at least informative if as we go forward uh with this park testing uh if we could somehow uh keep track of the money that we are spending uh beyond the teacher training part because I know that's that's that's kind of tough but there are some things that are probably very uh very definitive like the increase in bandwidth uh whether or not we're well we had to check we had to we're purchasing these Bluetooth laptops that type of thing uh and Dr Hamilton you said something tonight that really surprised me the state requires that we give this park test and we have to uh actually pay I I know somebody has to pay for printing up the you know the test itself
073but we have to pay for those tests is that correct we generally pay for the assessments particularly um Replacements that uh tests that need to be replaced or if there's any kind of breach or things of that sort we yes we do have to pay for those things but but but do we have to pay for the actual test the first time out it is my understanding we will have to pay a fee for the actual test now the way they will calculate it I don't know B since it's an online an online item this time um so I don't know what that cost is going to be but I do anticipate yeah it's not a hard copy is it right yeah okay but but I think it might be helpful because next year will
074be our first year to do it I if if we have some idea uh of how much we're having to spend on that uh a and then from that deduct how much Aid we're getting from the state to see actually how much out of our own money we're having to pay for this mandated testing if somehow that could be done that that would be beneficial okay okay um sorry Mr proso just quick can't we use the iPads for keyboards not for the the iPads have in uh touch board on them but you the park assessment we can't use them for uh that assessment we have to have the Bluetooth we have to have uh another keyboard for the assessment they won't allow us to use just the touchcreen but we are only it's not we
075don't need one for every laptop iPad we just have a station and we set kids through so it attaches to the iPad and and it's just a testing center so we it's not like we have to purchase Bluetooth um keyboards for every iPad and those are the keyboards that cost $71 each yeah that's correct and that'll suffice for the whole school any other questions Mr nonin um just a quick thing um miss m just reminded me that about the ad hoc committee I'd like um to make a a a motion uh that the next ad hoc committee be announced be an announced meeting um so that it's an open public meeting so that all the board members could attend second okay any Mr Mr cherella seconded one second ad hoc special meeting open to the
076fullard but it it's no longer ad hoc that point public meeting still still for the purposes of the adoc um so we can do that yeah you can do it we don't have one we don't have one but his motion is actually to have a public meeting to essentially your your motion if I if I understand you correctly is to have a public meeting to discuss the um the next ad hoc be a public meeting that's correct and we don't since we don't have a datea I just said the next ad hoc committee and Mr cherel a second that okay any comments or questions then we'll miss antelis yes Areno yes yes Mr cherella yes Mr zareski yes Mr calman yes Mr noin yes Mr Po yes Mr proso yes Mrs colano mam board president
077motion passes okay and we'll do that um so now we need to set a date for those board members who can participate into in the superintendent evaluation and we're looking at the first week in June I won't be around you won't be around uh how about the last week in May I'll be out the last week in May first week in June well what what date the last weekend um well I don't know how many of you have not finished your evaluations yet because I they have to go to school boards and then they have to calculate them and then send them back to me that should take about two weeks but we need to do it before the 11th of jun June and when when you're going to be a week away the whole
078week yes we could do it theight would everybody be available on the 9th of June yes Monday the 9th so we'll have a meeting on the 9th and that would be just to discuss the superintendence evaluation is that it's a Monday and then we have a meeting on the 11th okay then you the resolution um okay so I need a motion from a member of the board to have a special Board of Education meeting on the 9th of June to discuss the superintendent evaluation I motion to have a special Board of Education meeting on the 9th of June to discuss okay an evaluation uh would you like to add 7 o'cl p.m. to that yes thank you I would like to 7:00 Mr will second to 7 p.m. okay um we will have a roll
079call Miss anelis recuse myself M armeno yes Mr cherella yes Mr zesi yes Mr calman recuse Mr noin yeso Mrs K Pano Madam Bo president motion passes okay that meeting is going to be held here yes and that's all closed that would be a closed session meeting okay um then then our next scheduled Board of Education meeting will be on Monday June 9th 7:00 p.m. at the high school to discuss the superintendent's evaluation that will be a closed session meeting um motion to adjourn so move santalis Mr Chella all in favor opposed exstension and the meeting ised happen