Monroe Township Board of Education 09.10.14 Regular Meeting

001oh jeez good evening the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation indis liy and justice for all may we have a roll call please Mr Gorski oh it's Miss antelis here miss armeno Mr Braverman here Mr Chella Mr calman here Mrs colano here Mr nosin here Mr Po here Mr proso Mr zareski here Madame board president you have a quarum present this evening 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 September 5th 2014 one at all schools

002two home News Tribune three cranberry press four filed with the clerk of the municipality uh we will go to number five on the agenda which is a board update on the superintend attendance search and um just I have a short uh update at last month school board meeting the board had a discussion in the public about utilizing New Jersey school boards Association for the superintendent search and if you've read the agenda you will notice that on on the agenda this evening under the Ba's report I believe it's the Ba's report we will be approving an agreement for their services and helping us with the search until that agree agement is signed and approved by the board we can't move forward with them yesterday I spoke with Miss Gwen thoron she is our school board rep

003from New Jersey school boards who will be working closely with us during the process she's excited to be coming to Monroe to help us with this process but I I think we might have to schedule a date um because she unfortunately has conflicts with our next to board meetings which I believe is September 23rd and October 15th yes but she foresees a timeline something like this uh by the time she gets and comes to talk to us it would be October so she would be here in October talking to the board getting an online survey out to the community to get their input having the community meetings to get input from everybody that wishes to do so and setting up a time to meet with the staff which brings you to November and December which

004would be the time for us to do the advertising receiving applications and having the board go through all those applications to see who they would wish to interview January February having the interview rounds which we can have a few of them we haven't discussed yet whether the public will be helping us interview or the board will be doing it by themselves that is something that Gwen is going to be talking to us with hopefully by March we will have an appointment by the Board of Education usually any person that we appoint as a superintendent needs to give 60 days notice to their District which means they probably wouldn't start until June 1st or most likely July 1st and this is all very tentative at this point one thing that she did point out is that

005there will be some parts of the process that can be done publicly and that some parts of the process the Board needs to conduct and close session for the board's protection um she did give me two dates as I said she won't be able to come to our next two board meetings and we don't want to keep putting this off until the end of October and November and right now her calendar is free on Monday October 6th and Thursday October 9th so if if you guys can look through your if your your calendars now maybe we could set up a date or if you wish to wait and look at your calendars we could set it up on the 23rd but I I would hope to do this before the 24 just in case she

006gets booked so um good for me either date either 9th o it's Monday October 6th or Thursday October 9th October 9th is good for me it's better for you Mar you're not available I I'm I'm not available that week that week okay she she can't come the LA the last week of September she I talked to her yesterday and these are the two dates she was away on vacation for the whole month of August and she's got a lot on her plate right now um these are the two dates that she gave me yesterday if we can't do either one I have to get back to her and then reschedule one for probably later than October 9th and it it would be advisable to have the all the board members here so we don't want

007to have a date when somebody can't come so I I'll get back to her and see what we can schedule after that okay any questions he then we will move on to the public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak to the agenda please come to the microphone give your name and address for the record and we will adhere to our three minute time limit I see Mr Tesla coming good evening everybody Ira tesler live in LA Drive excuse me um notice on the agenda uh there's an appointment uh tonight about Mary Smith as a full-time position for a full-time attorney I just want to know the thought process of hiring a full-time intering instead of keeping the relationship as we did in the past with the uh with the law firm and um

008was that budgeted for in the uh 1415 budget and if it wasn't where's the money coming from yes evening Mr tesler good evening um a few meetings ago the board uh passed a resolution directing me as business administrator board secretary to go out for an RFP request for a proposal for legal services and explore um bids from other law firms to compare to the current firm that we were utilizing W right um we did we put together elaborate RFP specifications we received uh responses from six firms and um through close session deliberation with the board and other conversations it was uh recommended to consider hiring an attorney as a Personnel appointment instead of uh using a firm the benefits of that are uh number one um savings to the taxpayers because the overall compensation package

009for an attorney as a a Personnel appointment would be under 200,000 where last year according to our uh Records we paid over $315,000 to the firm of w alone and um the particular attorney that the board had in mind um had worked for wance and was very well versed in all of the district's legal issues and and there would be no trans transitional matters as if another new law firm was to come in so the continuity of advice um the cost savings to the taxpayers and to have uh a powerful administrator in the central office was all very attractive to the board and um I was directed to negotiate a package with uh the attorney and we were successful I know Mary will do a very good job on that because we're familiar with her

010the past now I notice we're also keeping Wen as kind of a a backup on the agenda as well is that what the case is or kind of the Wen contract is on there to shorten the term of the contract just after the anticipated approval tonight okay so although uh The Firm could still be utilized right uh for transitional matters that the board directs uh I don't anticipate uh much of a need with pursuant to my conversations with the are we going to be paying them any kind of retainer going forward or just on it's kind of an on- demand thing the answer is no and it would be an hourly service as needed okay thank you for your answer thank you anyone else from the public wishing to speak to the agenda I too

011uh at this time we will close the public forum and go to the approval of the minutes for the public Board of Education meeting of July 23rd 2014 would anybody Mr no second Mr Miss armeno I'm sorry any additions or Corrections all in favor I opposed abstentions okay the approval of the minutes for the closed session meeting of July 23rd 2014 so moved nin Miss analis again additions or Corrections all in favor I opposed abstentions uh here abstain you're abstaining from closed session yes I wasn't here what about the public Board of Education I was on the phone okay thank you the number eight is there any committees this evening that need to report since it's the beginning of the school year we're just getting started so we will go to the superintendent Report with

012Mr ventolo thank you madam president um before we get into my reports and recommendations I just want to take a moment just to say this past Tuesday secretary of agriculture Douglas Fischer along with rose tario um director of the New Jersey Division of food and nutrition we had some other politicians as well from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture Pat tomaski and we also had members of the Town um government was here as well John Riggs was here we also had Betty Schneider uh and also representatives of the Mets culinary management team they're Our Food Services Program they visited our high schools as matter of fact to recognize our outstanding Food Service program and as they did that they wanted to commend also Nancy mitac who's the director of Food Services Program and her staff

013uh they took uh they took pleasure in eating some of the kids food is what they did everything from the whole wheat pizza to the other Entre that were there um and the the big thing about this is the fact that obviously you know in this day and age it's it's very easy uh for for students even adults I mean obviously there's a concern about obesity throughout the nation but even for the students is that there is a concern about fast food being you know right there to as far as access also the sugary snacks that are available to the kids so there are numerous mandates as far as nutrition and health guidelines and with those guidelines obviously then the school districts have to Scurry obviously to meet those guidelines by providing healthy food for

014the kids but the other side of that coin also is the fact that well the kids have to be interested in in buying that food and interested in eating that food and Nancy mitac to her credit and her team as a matter of fact has been recognized by the state of New Jersey as far as the agricultural department and I wanted to recognize that that they came here to Monroe uh to give some accolades to Nancy and to our district so I like to have a round of applause from Nancy mitac and also her staff as well also on hand is matter of fact was Kathy Carrie Pano was here as representing the Board of Education and also Crystal Danza was the um she's the high school I believe the senior class president and she

015shared some insights as well about food and eating healthy so all in all it was a great presentation it was very good for the district I also want to give an update to the Board of Education regarding the search for the assistant superintendent um just let you know is that we probably screened about maybe 25 to 30 applications from the last posting that went out out of those 25 or 30 the panel and I'll uh the panel and I'll tell you about the panel in a second but the panel screened we screened it down to from the 25 or 30 applications we screened it down to about six finalists I should say we screened it down two six finalists as we did that we had interviews last night and the night before so Monday and

016Tuesday night the entire panel was there in session we interviewed three and three of the uh the six finalists um and as far as the panel the panel is made up of parents teachers supervisors administrators and central office personnel and there were 20 of us uh certainly uh it was an imposing panel as people came into the interview process with that said is that uh we'll be sharing the next round is before the next Board of Education meeting uh we'll be sharing as far as making a decision uh regarding the finalists uh coming up to the board of education at that time and the Board of Education will be part of that process for the next board meeting okay let's move on to the uh report and recommendations Madame board and president is recommended that

017the members of the Board of Education approve Personnel items a through double e would anybody like to accept that motion second there's no first so move I need a first Mr Po Mr nin any comments or questions for Miss Miss armino yes M on page 13 of the revised agenda um I see uh positions for the cafeteria I I was under the impression that the cafeteria staff was hired by the company that we hire is that correct okay um that's correct the the cafeteria workers are the employees of the Food Service management company Mets however the district does utilize par professionals to facilitate the lunch process and they are our staff employees okay so this is Staffing this is not the Food Service process this is Staffing the lunch room yes that's exactly right thank

018you anyone else Mr Po yes I I just wanted to see whether or not uh going forward I noticed there were several uh resignations of teaching staff members uh in items b c uh and d uh and I was wondering and I don't know if it's possible or not possible but it would possib if it can be done I think it would be informative to the members of the board if uh with each of those items in the future if we could be provided with just a brief explanation as to the reason for the resignation and as I said I don't know if that's legal or not I Mr Gorski um I had the opportunity to speak with Council recently on the uh board member responsibilities and ethics in interviewing and particular court case came

019up recently where the ethics commission decided against board members participation in exit interviews and and I'm concerned about your request because it seems broadly that could be uh related to that same exit interview process providing information why they're leaving um and so on uh according to council it was it was a a prohibited act for board members to engage in the exit interview process okay I understand that point but but uh I I would appreciate it if you could explore with uh the attorney whether or not once we have arrived at the point of recommending uh the resignation of someone be accepted as to whether or not the board could be informed you know is it a matter of moving is it a matter of uh Family Care is it a matter whatever you know

020Doug if I could address as far as you know these particular instance uh instances here is that one was a uh a leave position I won't give you any information other than what I have but one was a leave position and went to a full-time uh position in another District another one did not want to share anything in the resignation obviously they're entitled to that another one was a 3-month lead position that they had here and they left us to go get a full-time full year lead position somewhere else okay thank you okay m armeno i and I was familiar with the um the case that we discussed but um I do think that if I think the only reason why I don't know I'm not going to say why he said that but it

021would be my interest also in case there was some kind of of problem that we needed to address as a board yeah an issue so but if if you as you know superintendent feel that we're not we we don't have a generic problem that that we need to be addressed or be um advised of that would be okay now many of many of these type of positions they're just you know it's just it's just common place uh even especially when it comes to so many of the lead positions in any school district is that you know teachers as you know obviously when they're thinking about their families and paying the bills like everybody else they're going for whatever the the best opportunity is and sometimes you know taking a three-month lead position here well as

022you sign up on board or maybe you're on board for that position and then now there's another Le position out there another full-time position that comes available obviously they going I I'm not hearing you you mean like a leave of absence when when they take a leave of absence and then they resign after the leave of absence or even sometimes as they have the position as we hire them Etc is that sometimes that they want to leave and go some place else okay thank you Mr Kaufman sure perhaps what you can do to get some of this information because I think it would be very important for the Personnel committee to be able to have this data perhaps once a year on an annual basis because it happens all year right you get an aggregated

023report of not the individuals but here's everybody that resigned and you had 18 people that resigned because of this 15 people that resigned to this so that at least that the aggregated data can be assessed by the the Personnel committee to see if there are any things that we as a board can can look at well I think that we should take that under consideration because that would kind of knowing this report there's three people there's three issues we don't want to attach an issued aggregate it just way we know we want to fix the causes not cuz the the people left already right so can't really do much about that I'm not hearing too well tonight so I'd appreciate it if you'd all speak into the microphone but I think I heard somebody say

024you're going to let us know when we're not privy to something is is did I hear that would it be possible to give us a list of those things that are in 18a that we're not privy to for the Board of Education members from from legal council ATA I'm I I I acknowledge that the town the town people are are privy to a lot more than we are that's [Music] evident anyone else well before we have a um roll call I I just want to piggyback on something that Dennis said about our district Food Service program being recognized um in the past year this is just I think one of many recognitions we've had Monro tanip high school was ranked number 39 in the state from us news and World Report we were named to

025the AP honoral district for increasing access to AP coursework while maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning scores of three or above per college board we were named for to innovate New Jersey for our Innovative programs such as Mecca iTunes University Avid the iPad oneon-one initiative special ed programs and our mobile edible wool unit which we we um were recognized for yesterday we were named to the 2014 top 10 transformative transformative schools in the country for technology this one I'll save till later our transportation efficiency is ranked among the highest in the state and yesterday our food service program was is recognized for being one of the best in the state this is why we're getting an influx of students into our district everybody wants to come to Monroe because we're we're recognized all

026over the state for what we do here and um it's kudos to our boards and our Administration for um planning because it takes a lot of planning you don't you don't it just doesn't happen in one night or overnight or even in a year or two takes a lot of planning and being able to foresee some of the things in the future so I I just think this is a a great honor that we accomplished and added to yesterday so if there's no further questions Mr Gorski will have a roll call this is Personnel items a throughou Mr proso yes Mr Po yes Mr nosin yes Mr calman yes to all but I'm going to recuse on BB Double B so noted Mr zareski yes Mr Chella Mr Braverman yes Mr Areno yes Miss anelis

027yes and recuse myself on item U so noted Mrs K panovich okay mam board president Personnel items a through dou passes thank you Madame Bor president is recommended that the members of the monan Board of Education approve um items on the board action a through J Mr bra who would like to Second mrin comments or questions for Mr ventrello Mr Po yes item H uh deals with the resending uh a resolution that we passed uh previously uh relating to the ad hoc committee meeting uh I was just C curious as to when will be the the next meeting of that committee has that been date yet I think it did we set September 29th um we were waiting for the action item to pass tonight and then it was going to be scheduled tomorrow tentatively

028for September 29th at 6:30 announcement to come Miss armeno yes um um I was wondering how that this item came to be on the agenda I do have a statement okay um at an earlier Board of Education meeting there was a motion made by Mr not sign second by Mr Chella to have the next ad hoc committee meeting advertised as a special Board of Education public meeting letter H which we know under the board action items today recommends resending that motion the ad hoc committee is not a meeting of the Board of Education rather it is a meeting of the ad hoc committee and thus no action would be taken taken at that meeting also it is not chaired by any member of the board of education but is chaired by Mr Joe homoki whom

029was appointed to that position a board of education chair cannot Rel relinquish their position as a chair at a board meeting so that they are able to turn it over to a chair of another committee outside of the Board of Education the ad hoc committee was created at my direction as board president for the specific purpose of discussing our growing student population and our facility needs since its creation the ad hoc committee has periodically met to discuss this important topic and it is my understanding that the outout committee is nearing the end of its deliberation process and will soon be in a position to make a recommendation to the Board of Education several board members who are not part of the ad hoc committee had expressed an interest in attending the ad hoc committee thus

030the motion for the special Board of Education committee these individuals would not be attending if we had a separate ad hoc committee as part of the board of education but as interested community members they are not authorized to speak or act on behalf of the Board of Education during the ad hoc committee but it is my understanding that those board members attending the ad hoc committee who are not part of the committee will be there merely to observe the committee meeting and will not be participating in any respect and therefore the resending on the um agenda today in other words to make it short if it's an open Board of Education committee meeting I cannot turn over the responsibilities of chairing to the chair of the ad hoc committee the only thing the ad hoc

031chair would be able to do at a board meeting is give us a recommendation and since the ad hoc committee can't meet because right now they're meeting under the Board of Education they won't have any recommend recommendation to give us so we will be having um an ad hoc committee meeting which board members will be able to attend as part of the public then we will have the recommendation to the board of education and it will be open to the public for their comments and questions Miss armino will the ad hoc committee be um videotaped for to put on we have not taped it yet but um we can talk to the chair about doing that because that's and then we can put it I mean I think I think it would it serve the

032the greater public to know what what has been discussed so I mean I the public is invited to attend they just won't be able to participate or deliberate in the process so that that's why letter H is or letter H is on agent so it's not so in other words though it doesn't also have to be formally advertised either is that is that it's not going to be well could we put it could I can I make a request to put it on the website yes as a meeting open to the public yes yes it's not required to be advertised like a public meeting under the open public meetings act but we were going to get the word out as best we can including um posting it on the website and emailing all the previous

033attendees to the uh meeting um communicating to the principles to get the word out most importantly to make sure we have a good cross-section of the entire Township represented uh in in the town's interests on the ad hoc committee I think that would uh serve us well to um sort of Supply uh evidence for our strategic plan as as well as many people as we can encourage to you know at least witness what's going on that would help our strategic plan and communicating the public thank you anyone else Mr nin there's been some bantering going back and forth with regards to who's on the committee um I had originally requested a list of who's on the committee I received that list and basically it was the sign-in sheet from the last meeting my name was

034on there and I'm not on the committee I then requested the Personnel that basically was assigned uh I assume by board Madame board president and I did receive that list I would just like a clarification of on the meeting on the 29th is anybody who shows up going to be able to have their basically a vote even though technically it's not a vote I get that cuz there can't be any any action but just like we do with our committee meetings we'll say what's the consensus um if anybody shows up at this 29th meeting will their voice be able to have that consensus and actually carry the deliberation process forward no if they're not on the committee list now there will be no new people added to the list there's only probably two more meetings

035uh I think the the next meeting meting on the 29th is in regard to redistricting and then there should be one more in regard to the facility needs of the district so basically that first list that you gave me is the only people that can really have a consensus into this recommendation is that yeah and I I didn't see that list that you got Mr Gorski did do Madam yes the confusion is because um there was an initial list no one was appointed to this committee uh the chair chairman momoki opened it up to anybody who wanted to attend uh invited a broad section of the township so that we have a good again crosssection of the whole community and over time the attendance dwindled so we solicited more attendees who would be committee members

036through the school story and other Outreach um uh efforts which may include how you came about to join I'm not sure but in any event anybody who showed up and participated in the meeting over a time was added to the committee and uh what we'll do after your concern is certainly speak with Mr hoki and make sure we have a defined committee list before the meeting um and that will include those who have a stake in the recommendation that ultimately will come to the board thank you yeah one at one point um we had more board members and administrators on the committee than we had community members and both Mr Prok and I felt that that wasn't a good core section of the community the meeting the the ad hoc was formed because of whatever

037we do we would like the community support to back Us in regard to I don't want to use the word referendum but if we decide to put an addition on or or build a new school or redistrict we needed the community support so we opened it up to therefore get more people on the com on the committee Miss armino yes um I'm not sure what the list says but I know that uh prior to my being elected to this board I had offered to be on the on the so I don't know am I on the list yes ma'am oh okay because that's not the list I I saw a list that did not have my name on it I just wanted to be clear no I I know that you were here from almost

038the very beginning so you definitely were should be on the list on the list thank you anyone else okay um Mr proso item I uh policy I see most of them are mandated here but I also see something that says new and mandated uh does this go for approval even though it doesn't go before the committee I believe all these policies went before the committee we didn't have a policy meeting last month okay it was previous to that anyone else then we will have a roll call Mr proso yes Mr Po yes Mr noin yes Mr calman yes Mr zareski yes Mr Braverman yes Mr armino yes Miss anelis yes and recuse myself from item G recuse on G thank you Mrs colan Madame board president board action items a through J I got re

039passes and Mr calman has recused also on G action item still passes okay okay we will go does that conclude your report that concludes my report very nice and then we will go to Mr borski thank you Madame board president and members of the Monroe Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through J be approved by consent roll call second Mr second by Mr proso comments or questions on Mr gorsky's report um Miss armeno um this includes the um Bill list is that correct Mr yes ma'am okay um I had a question on the Apple services yes I believe is is that is that the final lease payment for that yes ma'am there is an approximate uh $450,000 expenditure which represents the district's final lease payment obligation on the three-year

040lease for the iPad units and that and when will that expire I I should know that but I don't remember uh when will the lease the lease expires technically with the satisfaction of the last payment so now we own the devices and uh the matter is now concluded okay do we anticipate having to buy new devices or refresh I think the word is refresh that's a good question I don't think that issue is going to be looked at until we have uh an assistant superintendent who's got some time to commit to the subject matter uh also it will involved the superintendent and most importantly a committee uh hopefully it's anticipated that this Comm committee will discuss uh and research many different devices to see if it serves the district needs and uh to provide research

041on the effectiveness of the um initiative that we currently have and to go forth and uh continue to commit District resources towards technology and instruction could I ask that maybe at the next meeting we might get an idea of how many books have been downloaded onto the devices for use in this this year if that's possible yes I'll check that how many books have been downloaded for use within the iPads yeah I mean I'd like I'd like to see the the use of the iPads and how I believe that's called the ebook ebook iBook IET whatever you want okay I'll take care of that there they're all ebooks regardless of what we're like I know we have Pearson and all those other things that will include all of them yes okay thank you and um

042Miss AR whenever we get new students in the high school we purchase the iPads for them right that I'm that I'm aware of okay Mr proso who would be on the committee you want take um I I think it's a little too premature to figure that out until we get a new assistant superintendent of curriculum and have them look into the iPad issues and um see where they want to go with it okay before the committee is formed would it go before the board the committee yeah no no no with the way you decide if you want parents or teachers or will it come before us to to discuss no we don't usually form those committees we would form a committee if it's an ad hoc committee if it's a board of education committee or

043if it's a a committee to appoint a new superintendent that's the I believe the responsibilities of the Board of Education anything else would be um just like Mr ventrello formed the his committee for the assistant superintendent the assistant superintendent would form a committee to look at the technology piece okay any other questions okay we'll have a roll call Mr proso yes Mr Po yes Mr nosin yes Mr calman yes recuse on G so noted Mr zareski yes Mr Braverman yes M armenio yes Miss anelis yes Mrs K panowich yes Madam board president board action items a through J passes and that concludes my report okay we will go to the board president's report um I have a couple of things the first is um the September 2014 issue of New Jersey monthly magazine has ranked

044Monro Township High School number 82 in the state up from 14 last year making the top 100 list of New Jersey monthly has been something that we've been striving for for many years and I know it's Mr homoki's one of his big things when he was back here as board president he was very um in tune to trying to get us to the top 100 and for the first time we have met the top 100 and I think the administration and the staff of the high school should be commended for this important achievement so very very exciting news for us the second piece is I have been asked by Miss Sharon sailor the New Jersey Schoolboard Association legislative Advocate to sit on a state advocacy group this group is being formed for those districts who

045are experiencing rapid student growth and a lack of um school aid from the state the purpose of this group is to visit with state legislators to discuss this serious topic and to move legislation that has already been introduced in the uh state by the senator Jim whan and the senman Chris Brown and this is really important because during the month of August alone we registered 150 new students in our district and that's the amount of new students that we had expected during the entire school year and if we take 150 students time 12 months that's 1500 students which I don't think we're going to get but at that rate um we we would have many more students in this district and no place to put them so having that many new students coming in at

046the very beginning of the year affected everything we did from transportation to classroom issues and especially if the financial issue um it is my hope that adding Monroe's voice to the other districts that are in the same um predicament that we are will help us accomplish something more than we are getting alone on in our own voice so um we haven't met yet but I will keep you informed of those when we do and what is accomplished through that committee and my last piece is at the August 20th Board of Education meeting there were some remarks made during the second public forum that I believe questioned my ethics and my character since this was a public meeting and those remarks were made publicly I'm sure that Mr Ryback won't have any problem with my reply

047it is true that I responded to questions and comments that were made on Facebook in regard to our former sup assistant superintendent Mr Gorman and the reasons why he was leaving our district this was not the first time I have done that but it never seemed to be an issue until now I don't know how many times me and other members of this board responded when the new high school was being built that there is no pool in the new high school nobody had an issue with that Dr Gorman knew exactly what I was was posting where I was posting and I had his permission to do so I stated at the I stated that at the June 20th Board of Education meeting Dr Gorman's contract was not approved by the majority of the board

048as required it was letter S on the agenda in June and it stated that we were approving the contract for Dr Gorman three board members voted no and two board members were conflicted out of the voting process this was accurate state M and public knowledge I made no mention of the names of those three who did not vote Yes nor the two Who board members who were conflicted out of the process I then stated that Dr Gorman felt he was not supported by the board and he felt he needed to look at other options this is also true because it was a quote from Dr Gorman and he said the same thing to many other people in the district and I think we know what the elephant in the room is the upcoming Board election

049I don't have control over what other people say in public or what other people write on social media but I'm not stupid enough to think that at this point everything I say everything I do everything I write will be used against me in the next couple of months and to that end I asked Mr Gorski to have my post checked with our attorney just to make sure that I didn't commit any ethics violations and that nobody could file an Ethics claim against me because I didn't feel that what I did was ethically wrong Mr Gorski do you have um an update on that yes pursuant to your request I um gained access to Facebook I printed out all of the posts that you had uh been involved with and uh all the parties involved were

050identified and provided to the attorneys the attorney's main question surrounding this issue was uh did Dr Gorman Grant his permission to you in order for you to represent his comments in that fashion in social media the answer uh was yes he provided that permission to you in writing so the attorney's advice on the matter was she was satisfied that there was no ethics violation and there was no wrongdoing on on your behalf with this social media posting issue thank you and I think I'll leave it at that and that concludes my report so we will go to any other board of education me uh business number 12 on the agenda is there any other business by any member of the Board of Education I saw Mr not Stein's hand first so we will go to

051him I just want to applaud all the uh staff and the uh administration of the district it's my understanding we had a fantastic and very very successful uh School opening it's uh especially with 150 new students to do that as effortlessly as they make it look is really a credit to the district the credit to the staff and I just really would like to applaud them because I heard nothing but positive comments uh from parents uh regarding that so I'd like to thank the district the teachers and whoever was involved in making it look easy because that's really what they do um also I have a question regarding the uh goal setting meeting that we had I'm wondering what is the timetable to have uh Al from the New Jersey school boards Association come back

052and kind of detail and uh document exactly what our goals are going forward Tom first I want to say thank you very much uh as far as your recognition of the the staff the teachers Etc as far as opening uh sometimes you know is that we get involved in our roles and sometimes know as board members you have your role and your responsibilities as well and we tend to forget that you know we're a district uh a unified district that we're all in this together for the sake of the children and the community of residents so with that is that I just want to say thank you very much for that on behalf of the staff um as far as that we did receive a report from Al and um I have that report you

053have that report I believe Mr Gorski has that report I'll be sharing that with you in your Friday report uh so this way you all have that information you can take a look at that and then the conversations will begin after that fantastic thank you and then they should those go should be on the board agenda on the 23rd for us to accept and we only got the report last night so I I know that um I don't think we've had a chance to really digest it yet anyone else who has U Mr proso so I might like to make a correction I approved the Clos session meeting uh I need to abstain in the minutes yes and you were not here we'll make that correction so you're upstanding correct thank you so noted anyone

054else Mr Braverman I'd like to speak to the process that you used for interviewing the new assistant superintendent I I think it's wrong to have 26 people from a commun from the community including teachers administrators union members parents Etc interviewing prospective or interviewing candidates and I think screening them for the superintendent the ACT Acting Superintendent is am I understanding the process correctly that's correct Marvin and then the superintendent the Acting Superintendent is going to interview that individual or individuals and make a recommendation to the board of education to the Board of Education who hasn't seen anybody they have less involvement in this than the public at large I think that's wrong I'm speaking to the process I understand that the superintendent of schools makes the recommendation I understand that I tried to call the New

055Jersey school boards to get some input on this they didn't return my call so I looked at 18a I didn't see anywhere in 18a that it said the Board of Education members cannot collaborate with the superintendent on an interview so I'm really distraught maybe amused uh the last time I questioned something that was told to me by an attorney at the board of education I questioned it and everybody laughed at me and the following board meeting the attorney apologized publicly because he was wrong I don't know where this came from that the board members can't do the interviewing collaboratively with the superintendent but I'd like to see it in black and white in 18a Mr Gori do you want to respond yes um in responding to Mr braverman's uh comments uh the board received attorney

056advice on this matter in Clos session the board received attorney advice on this matter in Clos session so you know no board member um on their own can wave attorney client privilege to divulge that conversation at this time but I would like to read to you some comments from school boards today uh that I've asked my secretary to furnish with all the board we just received this um some moments ago uh she says hello Mike in response to your question about a board memb role in hiring teachers um Etc best practice would dictate the following board members should not be present nor participate in interviews for teachers as this is an administrative function and to be present Andor participate comes dangerously close to crossing the line between oversight policy development and Appraisal which are the

057appropriate domains for board members board member can and should appropriately ask questions see attachment which I'll be sending to the board for samples of those questions questions the superintendent should be prepared to respond to questions that board members may have about a candidate and the board can review the resumés and applications of the candidates board members may vote no on any Personnel recommendation of the superintendent as long as their vote is not arbitrary or capricious and she offers um her her guidance if you if any board member would like to speak with her about that so you know our conversation surrounded it would be permiss ible certainly for a board member and um I think this is not inconsistent with what was discussed for uh board members to be present during interviews and observe uh

058especially for the levels of assistant superintendent and principal um but it would be improper for board members to direct questions or provide the superintendent with a recommendation or any analytical work from the interview process she feels that's crossing the line and I think that's consistent with the ad that we received before if if a board member had a specific question they could furnish it to the superintendent and he and here could consider that for the for the interview process obviously for the last years with three superintendents we have not been doing the best practices but we've been hiring the best people so maybe we shouldn't do the best practices uh maybe we should keep doing what we've been doing we've been hiring good people and we were able to intelligently vote Yes or No when

059the name came up now you're telling me that I'm really not permitted to be in to interview and yet eventually the superintendent is going to name the person that they would like to us to hire and then I have the right to say no unless you're telling me that once the person is named and everybody would be a carbon copy just say yes I will not do that and I can tell you now if I'm not interviewing even if it's not the best practice I will not vote for that candidate anyone Mr Koffman thanks um sorry I have more than I usually have at this point um I wanted to let everybody know I watched a video from the August 23rd special meeting that you had of course I couldn't be here have to go

060on vacation sometime you guys pick the week that I was going away but I did want to commend the board because it was very refreshing to finally see um especially for the new board members it's such a world of difference when you're on that side of the microphone and you come over to this side of the microphone and you start understanding all the intricacies of how the board operates and all the things and how the hipbones connected to the thigh bone and and the complexity of how the board runs it was really good to see Al manage the group have a very good um uh session and kind of get everybody going along the same path to think about these these really really big decisions that we have to make um especially uh related around

061the uh the finances and and the budget philosophy that we have to do so it really did a really good Justice to the entire board because it was a really good meeting in addition to that it also sets the stage for some heavy decisions that are to be decided on uh in the near future by this board and having that information having that Baseline knowledge is going to help you make some very serious decisions that will be coming up shortly that this board has to decide on uh fairly big ticket items so it was really good to see I also want to just touch on a couple of comments that were made and um just maybe give a little bit of background on some decisions that have happened over the course of the years at

062least I've been on the board here uh douggy asked a great question about how do we know we're doing well you know what are the parameters that we can use to to figure that out Kathy thanks to thanks to the report tonight the recognition that we're getting the increasing in the State numbers and the ranking of the high school and and these are these are empirical things that we could see that kind of speak to you know is it is it Tech is it teachers it's really you can't really find what really is the Silver Bullet but I think it really is a a a collaboration of a whole lot of things that really is changing the district around and getting a lot of recognition that I think we kind of all agree that we

063deserve um there was some discussion about the Committees and how they've been formed and why don't we have a tech committee and how did Tech we had a tech and then Tech went away uh when I first got on the school board back in the day we did have a tech committee and over the years that we we T started to evolve and change the way the District of would function it became pretty apparent that there weren't enough things for the technology to committee to do on a regular basis to Warrant a separate committee on technology so we decided to uh you know envelop the technology component into the curriculum committee because they they really do uh work hand inand some board members will also remember back in the day we had a separate buildings

064committee we had a separate grounds committee we had a separate transportation committee uh so when we did the reor we looked at the Committees back in those days we realized same thing it really wasn't enough to have separate committees for each one of those combin them all because they kind of interrelate and that's why we kind of combined them to bg& and that's kind of how we came up to where we are today uh so I thought I'd add a little bit of background and color to that type of stuff because back in the day some of you may remember I used to do the technology reports um so I think it was really really good to see everybody work working really well one thing that was a little bit disturbing to me and I

065guess it's just it's just me personally but you know I guess you know everybody has a right to approve or disapprove things we have to keep in mind that decisions that we make here as a board as a sitting body are based on the things that relate to this school decisions we make here should not be dependent on other activities from other groups or government committees or government boards that either do do things in this District or don't do things in this District decisions we make here and whether you vote yes or no on something should be based on the things that we do here they should not be based on a dependency on things that are outside influences that we do not have control over so I would just recommend that as we move

066forward and we think about these things in big pictures that we keep that in mind we have to decide moving forward on what we do here and how it affects our kids if we say we're voting no on a particular item and you have a good reason make sure that it's it's it's two things have a good reason but make sure the focus is on things that we can control here there's a lot of things we can do we talked about uh our ability to control growth and can't control growth and Mr Klein all the time coming in here about all the different rulings all over the state we have to keep focus on what we can do and what we control here that's our job when we are here last thing anybody in the

067room know who Jim Samuel J junior is anybody in the room okay Jim Samuel Jr happens to be a Monroe Township alumnist from class of 1989 who is the only person who passed away at this December September 11th disaster in 2001 we have a bench out in the middle school now which used to be the high school back in the day uh commemorating um or at least acknowledging um Jim uh that bench is in very bad shape uh it's a wood bench it's I don't you know it it really needs to look be looked at and I think I would ask that we kind of bring that over before the buildings and grounds committee to see what we can do to really put something there that's that's permanent we have a lot of markers for

068other students that uh um we we recognize and um in memory of um it should be the same thing for Jim it's it's a tragedy tomorrow's a a big day of remembrance and I would just recommend that we take a look this buildings and grounds um that's all I got thank you Mr Kaufman anyone else Miss armino just very quickly also thank you for uh the grand opening of the school year it was done well um and thank you to all the uh the bus and transportation Personnel because that's ke especially in the first weeks of uh school I'd like to also welcome new students welcome new staff members and thank all the returning staff members and teachers uh for starting such a good new uh new school year also like to welcome the new

069members of the public that are coming some for the first time uh thank you for coming and I I hope to see you on a regular bases when when time provides so uh we are a wonderful Community here and public participation is essential uh and we'd like to move forward with uh with everybody's uh participation so thank you thank you Michelle anyone else Mr Po uh couple of items uh first of all I think that was terrific news you shared with us uh about uh our latest ranking in the New Jersey monthly uh so I really welcome that uh I would appreciate if we could have some kind of an update on uh vacancy uh for the supervisor of Technology business and Fine Arts I I haven't heard anything about that lately uh so I

070just like kind of know where we are with that one and then I have one other item but I'll let you answer that if I can respond just let you know that we were waiting for uh approval of certification okay thank you um and I think it was today I was reading in the Star Ledger that uh some districts are looking at their the the food program we were talking about that earlier this evening uh some districts are looking at the food program in terms of uh how well it might be meeting the needs of their diverse communities and uh I I think it might be beneficial and I don't know what committee it would be or if it would be here to the whole board if we could have Miss mitac come in and

071explain to us uh how she goes about identifying uh changes in the menu uh for example uh are we providing for students that might be vegetarian are we providing uh a variety of foods in terms of uh the ethnicity of the students that we have in the district uh I found the article interesting and uh worthwhile and I think we all acknowledge the fact that uh food is an important part of every person's culture and if we have a large ethnic group in the township and and we're not providing during the the lunch program we're not providing any of those options for them uh then maybe we should consider doing that so I'm basically requesting that uh either Miss mitac appear at a at the appropriate committee meeting or here with the full board and

072uh kind of explore that with us if she would I think she should take us on a a tour of the um cafeteria because it's like being in the food court there's so many options there for for kids and it's amazing um and to add to uh Miss armeno I happen to be at the um recognition yesterday and just being in the school it's like there was no summer vacation it's like June and September and the kids were back in school they didn't miss a beat staff didn't miss a beat and um in your in regard to Food Service I think my favorite item was the what was it the Caesar salad pizza I've never seen that before so I I think we need to have a tour of the kitchen Madam Mr Gorski just

073to provide some information now although I appreciate apprciate the recommendation for Miss mitac to look at the the cultural needs of the community the Department of Agriculture and the New Jersey Division of Child Nutrition uh provides very rigorous guidelines on what constitutes a type a lunch how many grains are permitted in there how much fat content how much salt it's extraordinarily regulated and audited um every it seems like every other year we have an audit from the Department of Child Nutrition where they come in and they review everything from Storage practices to the grain chart that's posted on the wall for students benefit uh the food pyramid it used to be called um and um you know we've always been in full compliance with the law but uh I don't recall the law having a

074concern over um the cultural needs uh of the community so that's an interesting point and we can certainly look at that yeah and and I I'm not in any way uh criticizing the food program I've heard some very good comments from students about the the change that was made last year uh I I'm just simply saying that uh it would be interesting to see what they are doing to try to U appeal to uh the diversity of students we have uh in the district that's all thank you thank you Miss or Tellis um I'd like to expand a little bit about that diversity um you know I I come from a very diverse background um I have a nephew um Spanish I have a niece whose father is from India um I'm Jewish um we

075have uh my daughter's married to an Italian so we're a very diverse group and that's changing that that diversity is happening all over New Jersey and I've noticed in South Brunswick that they've looked at their population and said um started looking at holidays um so I think we start to need to take a look at our population and take a look at the holidays that they celebrate Dr Hamilton and I had talked about this a couple of times and and I think it's time with our community to take a look at different say it's dwali or maybe some other holidays that some of our um different populations might uh celebrate be a little bit more sensitive in in that way thank you anyone else okay seeing no one we will go to the public forum

076anyone from the public wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record and we will adhere to our 3 minute limit my name is AJ Kumar my address is five Villa Farm Circle Monroe New Jersey Madame board president and members of the board you must be doing a good job that's why I moved in this community few years ago and as we just found out the this school system is in one of the first 100 ones and like me lot of other folks are moving in this community and that's why you have a lot of new students coming over I just want to touch base on the the the diversity comments that were made and the and the holiday festivals that were made I just did uh

077some Wikipedia before I came to this meeting and my understanding is we have more than 12% Asian Indians in the school and this is from 2010 a lot of friends are moving in we still don't have any Indian holidays being celebrated over here like Diwali that you rightfully mentioned I really appreciate if you can just consider it just put it somewhere in your agenda knowing how much Community we have from this this Indian Asian uh sector if one of those or whatever we can do to to bring the culture bring the community together so the kids will feel more more connected and and as you I'm I'm vegetarian and and as we just talked about the lunch over here when my kids go I'm sure there are hundreds of option over there but when my

078kids go to the the lunch room they just find one macaroni cheese that's the only vegetarian option option that they can find over there so I'm sure there are good programs I'm just just bringing to your attention that we need to be culturally sensitive about it there are a lot of uh Spanish Indians Asians in this community that are bringing that are coming together and we need to be more uh culturally sensitive about it thank you thank you thank you anyone else from the public good evening Madame President my name is Cam Kaya for Keswick Circle um so I don't know how many of the board members were informed but many of my fellow uh Town residents uh were involved in hosting a sick games here on August 9th and 10th as a result of

079those sick games um it was brought to my attention that there were possibly board members that had some issue with the rental of facilities to all of us residents that were part of the organizing committee because the title on our Banner was our house of worship which was the Jersey City nanam jahaj godar because there is no house of worship for siks in Monroe so being that it was a nonprofit event from the Tri State we listed it as the Jersey City Games basically our temp our home of worship um I'd like to ask at this this moment in front of your residents if there are any board members that had any issue with that event there was an Oprah request filed by a citizen asking for my personal information um and it was brought

080to our attention that it was possibly racially motivated and bias that's what led to quite a few questions for us um I am also a member of and appointed by mayor pooi on the human relations commission so we're talking about diversity today I would like to know the diversity numbers for the school board all of the Schoolboard employees including our schools I would like to know the numbers of the students that come from a visible minority because as AJ just said we do make we made up 12% of the population back in 2010 four years later I'm sure we are much larger in terms of the visibility in our schools so we would like to bring to your attention and request that the board provide us with your diversity numbers we would like to know

081diversity statistics for teachers specifically students to teachers to see um it's been known and proven facts that children deal well with people of the same ethnicity and and culture what kind of numbers we have in the township regarding that and thirdly and I'm cutting close and I'm talking fast I also understand that there was possibly an EEOC violation made against the board or I'm sorry the school district that I don't know if it's true or not would just like to know the details of that if it was and what type of a fine was levied against the town if it did happen if it didn't it's a mute point thank you okay Mr gorsky do you want to answer that question thank you good evening um a lot of the information that you requested uh

082pertaining to demographics is available on a New Jersey report called the school report card um if you have any specific questions that I can help you with by all means please visit my office and fill out an open public records request and uh I'll give you any documentation that we have accumulated in the office on uh that information um we have reports for affirmative action policies and so on that are required by the state and we could probably extract information from those to satisfy you in that regard um as far as your inquiry into to a EEOC complaint uh equal employment opportunity commission the school district and I'm not speaking for the township because we are a separate entity the school district received one complaint recently from a teacher um who applied for a position

083after the posting had closed but felt that they were overlooked for the position and took their claim to the EEOC the claim was dismissed uh and there was no fine uh in accordance with that action that is the only eeo C matter that uh I could find that's on our records in the central office okay anyone else from the public wishing to speak good evening members of the board uh my name is Bruce rinsky and hello cam I'm I'm the oiler um just just a level set and and to bring this conversation around the okay so just a level subers conversation around in light of looking at the recent events with the rental of public school grounds brings to issue that the taxpayers are carrying a tremendous amount of liability if God forbid somebody were

084to get hurt with a facilities related issue we're getting sued it's the taxpayers that are going to have that liability it's the taxpayers that carry that liability okay so now I'm sitting there as a taxpayer saying well why do I want that liability if you're renting the school grounds for not profit not for profit so basically you're taking my Maserati for a drive beating it all up and then coming back saying oop I ding the doors it makes no sense run it like a business if you're going to rent out if you're going to rent out me school facilities available ask the taxpayers to carry a very large burden as a results as uh as it results with the the possibility of a liability lawsuit from someone getting her from facilities well then you need

085to compensate us you can't just rent this stuff out and say have a good time somebody gets hurt oh taxpayers go pay the bill that's not fair to us okay so with that I propose three things first and foremost a thorough background check on any organization that is going to rent our facilities okay the the organization and the event needs to be in the best interest of the community at large second there should be a zero and I mean Zero Tolerance policy for breach a contract okay because when a contract is breached you're putting us again the taxpayer on the hook for a potential lawsuit I don't want that I pay enough I pay over 28 grand a year in taxes I don't want them to go up anymore so Zero Tolerance you breached the

086contract the event is terminated with that Additionally the members of the school uh Board of Education employees who are facilitating these events need to be empowered to shut the event down they should not feel pressured from the mayor's office or anyone's else's office that they need to keep the event going there should be zero repercussions upon these folks for doing the right thing addition it should be a requirement that the mundro Township Police have a presence at these events in the event that there's IL legal or illicit activity it needs to be shut down you can't allow it to continue you're basically gambling with our money and it's not fair third and final back to my original Point make it Buck okay our taxes continue to go up I joined this community in 2001 my

087taxes were 6,700 my last tax bill is over 28 grand 55% of it is going to support our school facilities I'm okay with that I'm not okay with you gambling with my money though okay so if we're going to use this we're going to rent out these facilities you have to make it a profit Center so and for members of the community who feel that my motives were racist or members of the board who felt that I was racist or racially biased I will gladly make myself available uh to discuss the situation if anybody wants to chat afterwards thank you any questions no thank you for your comments and we will take them under advisement thank you okay can I respond uh we have to go through everybody in the public who wishes to speak

088first anyone else from the public good evening my name is uh Brian bets I'm the new superintendent in Jamesburg just wanted you to put a a face to the the name uh one of my goals this year working with the board of education is to bridge the gap between our district and your District uh you talk about buying iPads um we're looking to procure technology it makes sense if we do the same thing that you do um we want to prepare our students to come into nth grade and to really just fly and there's been a gap there uh I felt it the teachers have felt it so my goal this year is to to close that Gap reached out to your superintendent we're going to meet talk about things sharing things sharing Services sharing

089curriculum visitations of our teachers coming to Monroe Monroe teachers coming to to Jamesburg um I'm very excited about the possibility of of doing this because I think it it uh behooves us as Educators to to help our students achieve at Great Heights and uh we need to start talking having that dialogue we've started that dialogue and I'm looking forward to the good things that come from from uh those those discussions so again um Rob is has been a terrific uh board member in in Jamesburg he's the one uh pushing me uh to make those connections um we have a great relationship the board of education is anxious to to do that work and so are our teachers uh and our students will definitely benefit from that so again um if you ever need anything from

090me uh I can be reach either through Rob um online uh our website my email is there um you'll probably see me routinely at these meetings just to hear what's going on uh in your District again to to close that Gap increase communication that'll benefit our students so thank you well welcome to Jamesburg and Monroe yes um I I understand that you have not been able to see the high school yet and I'm sure Mr V will be very excited to show you around because your students will be here and you should know what we have to offer them and um I'm sure that you will enjoy the tour very much thank you Kathy you're welcome thank you br anyone else from the public uh good evening good evening my name is Dr gundeep Singh

091uh 4 lywood Drive uh kind of down the road uh just by way of introduction the reason some of the concepts and and the conversation today is really dear to my heart uh we're talking a lot about diversity I by training and by practice I'm a a board certified child adolescent psychiatrist and in my work I work with a lot of kids who deal with depression anxiety very serious issues uh and I know in the state of New Jersey there's been more and more involvement and knowledge about the concept of you know bullying and how New Jersey has a zero tolerance policy and I wanted to kind of bring that back to the diversity conversation for a moment because as we continue to diversify as a community and it's not just about Indian or sick

092population just in general uh I think the understanding of that diversity the understanding of those cultures how someone someone might appear different due to their faith for example those are very very important concepts for us to coexist as a community and when there's things that are singling one one person or a group of people out they can feel bullied they can feel harassed and that can lead to a lot more than just you know um some words exchanged in the hallway so kind of speaking from personal experience speaking from the heart being someone who's obviously identifiable how I look uh I wanted to speak to the diversity and talk about or ask the board to speak a little bit about what kind of a diversity programs and what do we kind of involve in the

093school curriculum to help educate and I think some of the ideas of looking at uh the meal plan offerings or looking at holidays to be celebrated is very very vital because it gives us a larger kind of understanding and a recognition more evident okay there are other community members members here but I think in terms of educating staff uh and and people who are Hands-On working with the kids every day what initiatives do we have as a community and thank you thank you do you want to respond to that if I may and this is almost on a on a personal level there's no doubt in my mind that uh and I guess I'm speaking as a building principal now and not just as an interim superintendent but you should know this I believe that

094every principal and the staff members in it is that our curriculum is very very diverse and it recognizes so many of the different religions and backgrounds and ethnicities there's no doubt about that that it's in the curriculum there I think what's unfortunate tonight as I'm just looking at out at the audience is that I would hope um and let me just give you some background as a previous principal of appleg guard school probably is that my East or Asian Indian population is probably about maybe 52 or 53% there's not a difference from the kids to the kids from the teach to the students uh from the administration to the to the students to the to the population Etc is that I don't see the difference I really don't and I think that mon we should

095all take pride as a board of education and also as the administrative team as far as the teachers is that we've accepted that diversity in our community that's there there's no doubt about that um I think it would be very unfortunate as I'm just and maybe I'm speaking at of turn right now I'm just speaking from my heart is that obviously in this particular situation is that we had a polarization in the community just because of an event how sad would that be when obviously you know I understand that obviously you know maybe there's there's a point of view from from the organization that's being represented here there's a point of view from obviously that gentleman that is there and everybody's entitled to that but please I'm I'm imploring all of you is the fact

096that as we go forward with this don't let this polarize our community please don't do that I think as far as you know celebration of holidays Etc that's already in the buildings um as far as you know Traditions uh religious celebrations that's all there that's all part of the curriculum the activities the kids don't see the difference I believe that they don't um I would just ask that the adults just you know what just just think before you act please don't allow this to be a polarizing situation now I'll go back to the superintendent certainly we can look up as far as I can respond to any questions that you have you can come to my office and I can point out any information that you need absolutely thank you you're welcome and i' just

097like to say too that our high school from elementary to Middle to the high school we've we've gotten so much recognition it wouldn't be possible without everybody in this community joining together to be where we are today so I'll leave it at that and I failed to say I thought about saying I obviously forgot in front of the microphone that I wanted to thank everybody for your role in The Amazing accolades that Monroe Township has been able to Garner in the last few years and and the growth that we've had and it is no easy task I we respect that I respect that entirely but I just had that question and I appreciate your time thank you anyone else from the public Mr tesler Ira tesler 11 La drive just a quick question my own

098clarification on on building use because I don't know what's going on here but um when an outside organization uh rents space don't they have to provide their own insurance well I could be wrong but I don't my memory may not be good yes evening Mr tesser again um when an outside use of building um requestor wants to rent our facilities we have a particular policy that the board adopted and addressed no less than four times in the last year posted on our website and one of the requirements as you stated is a Certificate of Insurance holding the district harmless in the event now there could be circumstances where the district could still find some liability for example if our facilities are are derelict and someone gets hurt we have an unpatched pothole that remained there

099and we didn't address it um and someone hurts on it even with that usab building request the district uh could still be held liable for negligence um we have not in the past we have been sued from outside organizations that have used our facilities and through a a lengthy court process we prevailed um so the insurance does hold the district harmless but it's not 100% bulletproof uh attorneys are very crafty at finding negligence and spreading it um through the the suit process okay thank you anyone else from the public wish to speak president and uh members of the board I really want to thank you all of you could you please state your name and address for the record please uh name is arinder minhas address to Maran coat um I like the gentleman statement

100saying it's very easy to talk on this side when you come on this side is different and I can understand your roles and responsibilities all of you I just want to ask a question that what hiring initiatives has school board employed to recruit more Diversified staff since the community is there and what is the current hiring process and where are the job openings that's just my question and I have a statement also to make on because I was a part of the one of the organizer when Cam and sunny and other folks were organizing this event uh and just want to make a statement for to the public who is here to uh say the liability on the school and the whole Township yes we followed the process and the rental amount and the financial

101payments were made as posted by the board and the school of education plus the insurance as Mr uh Michael sorry I can't pronounce your last name apologize for that was also done and on top of it we still have a a proof and um insurance that we took additional on school requirement was for a million dollar per incident we took $2 million additional Insurance not recommended by the board on our own just in case if there is any incident so that board and the school and town is not responsible for that thank you thank you do you wish to respond about the hiring practices I take or do you want mik Michael um as the district's affirmative action officer I volunteered for that position years ago um with a vacancy that was created in the

102district because I believe very strongly in the affirmative action policies and supporting the board and protecting the board um by making sure that they're followed um part of the affirmative action plan is reviewing the demographics and hiring and and diversifying staff accordingly um you may not know this but we had an African-American superintendent just recently before his resignation and there were significant outreaches to um attract minority candidates to the board with the recognition of the changing demographics in the community um for example we provided uh professional development workshops and visited predominantly minority colleges and an effort to recruit teachers from those organizations we also advertised in predominantly minority uh papers um with our positions and um our affirmative action statement is on every job posting that we have it's on every purchase order that we

103send out to every vendor it's on every uh code of conduct at the school every material you'll find basically with Monroe Township Board of Education on it will have a statement affirming to that so um the numbers are not where we want them to be and the effort continues but um we are making every effort that we believe is reasonable and trying to attract minority positions within the district thank you and Madam with with regard to the um uh the insurance rental I just want to be clear uh the group did fully comply with the use of building requirements as per the policy and in fact uh I um I refresh the board's memory that at the last board meeting there was a recognition of receipt of a donation from the organization of $1,000 as

104a sign of Goodwill thank you thank you anyone else from the public please come up good evening my name is Dr conver deep Singh Aiden I'm an internist and um addiction specialist um I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the mandra schools and the mandra school board both my kids go to mandra schools and this was the first school we're very fortunate to have awesome teachers um so thank you first of all we feel right at home over here um we feel that our religion is respected our teachers uh frankly have been fantastic we couldn't have selected a better place um I think part of the um uh the uh fear uh or the little concern my community has had since some comments were made uh after the event was because we have been

105targeted after 9/11 because we look very different okay and there was a tragedy in oak tree Wisconsin where somebody went on rampage simply because we look very very different and I I and you know what it is it's not it is a cultural thing we have had to face so part of the reason that cam got concerned I think is because when somebody makes comment we automatically try to protect ourselves and our children and uh no disrespect to my fellow U mandro resident we understand your concerns um you know we um just want to reassure that we are uh as a community part of the mandro fabric part of the American culture one of my second cousins is an ex-marine uh we are are Americans we look different but we are Americans and I'm proud

106to say I'm an American I just want anybody who looks at somebody uh who is brown skinned and wears a turb and just remember there's a reason why we do it it's not because we want to look separate it's our culture it's our religion we're proud of that and we're proud of being American thank you thank you thank you [Applause] Mr hoki good evening uh Joe hoki 61 hofman Road uh I know it's been said a number of times before but I'd like to really congratulate the board for finally getting to the top 100 that's really great and I just want to say that uh it's not only this board but a number of boards before you they all have worked very hard for their children and I think it shows uh I'm a little

107bit prejudiced now and when I say this that there a lot of things that did Us in in other words moved us under 100 but I think the turning point was the high school that we have with the programs that we have in the high school it's a high school second to none and I think all parents when they look at the high school they say this is where I want my children to go to it's the best around and I hope that uh our number will lower a little bit next year and the year after it's it's one thing to get under 100 it's another thing to stay under 100 so again congratulations and I'm I'm extremely happy about it thank you Mr [Applause] hoki my name is s Kaya and I live at

108for casic Circle um so since we're talking about diversity one of my suggestion here today is to A A diversity or celebrate A diversity day maybe once a year when we can all learn about you know different cultures backgrounds because you know everyone here that you know we want you know all these communities are together and we just need to understand have better understanding uh so that you know comments that were made after the games um you know just because of that misunderstanding and then we can prevent that in the future thank you thank you anyone else from the public yes thank you just in response to Bruce's uh comments um yes we had adequate Insurance yes we paid for the facilities um I think the board uh we ended up paying about $7,100 um

109for the use of facilities for two days on top of that we gave $1,000 donation of which $5,000 was for janitorial staff um and the additional $1,000 that we paid for the additional cleanup which we happily and readily paid once it was requested um and on top of it wanted to thank everybody for allowing us to really highlight our town that was the whole purpose of hosting the events here um the events have been going on for 26 years all across New Jersey and New Jersey has always been host um with our town being so diverse we wanted this to be the perfect opportunity to highlight and say look at Monroe look at what a wonderful town it is and please come here see the diversity that's accepted and embraced here so that was the

110intention of bringing the events to Monroe uh we did have police presence so in terms of requirements for the board we did fulfill those needs we had police presence we paid for the facilities and we had more than adequate Insurance on top of that we cleaned up the facilities ourselves as well and put the waste in the appropriate receptacles so I just wanted to clarify from an organizational standpoint um I have you know Jerry tamboro uh council president Betty Schneider both came to the event saw how peaceful and wonderful it was it was kids 18 and under and competing in team sports and really talking about uh uniting as a team um so it was a great event we really appreciated bringing it to Monroe we thank you but we wanted to make sure that

111there was Clarity in how we use the facilities that that we respected our town and our facilities that our taxpaying dollars do go to and understand that there's a need to pay for that and we did that adequately thank you thank you thank [Applause] you good so name and address for the record please ver rosinski for Majestic Wood Drive so just to clarify that this I I do understand you made restitution and I applaud that thank you it was very good I do understand that when you filed your application I reviewed all the documentation could you please speak into the microphone you filed all the all the proper processes and procedures what I'm questioning the board on is the logic behind renting these facilities out for for no profit it makes no sense because there

112is an intrinsic liability that the taxpayers are receiving if a bleacher collapse toilet explodes I don't know pick someone chps it a pothole who knows we're getting sued that's the bottom line so before and what I what I what I what I I'm begging you to do is to think about this as a business if I ran my businesses as you guys are running this I'd be out of business okay that's the reality you need to run this as a business if you're going to rent out our public grounds ask the taxpayers to be on the hook for a potential lawsuit make us a buck maybe you could offset your $400 something thousand do you know you need to pay for your your iPads so may maybe you could do that but you need to

113treat this as a business and not AC assume the taxpayer is a okay with taking on that liability cuz me and as a taxpayer I'm not okay with it thank you thank you anyone else suender sing to alri C I just like to know make a couple of comments and reply to Mr Bruce's um comments not everything is a business I think we run the school school is not a business we educate our children uh I live for 20 years in South brunic we had the same event for many many years in South brunic this event used to bring unity in the community I was also member of the HRC in South brunck and we used to have Community Unity day those events were also on Township properties schools and all those things there could

114be liability with our own citizens our own citizens can sue us too so it doesn't mean that having those events have a business value they have value to unite our community bring the community together and have our citizens Unite with each other so we need to look from that point of view that what is the value it brings to our community and how it unite us rather than just looking can we make money from it thank you thank you anyone else wishing to speak okay seeing no one we will close the public forum our next schedule Board of Education meeting will be Tuesday September 23rd 2014 Mr proso can I say something if you would like I would like to thank all the members that came out tonight we need a forum like this so

115we could understand and listen to your complaints or just just suggestions but I'd like to say one thing we have so many different types of uh ethnic backgrounds in our schools our teachers see them as students and that's the only color they see them as but I like the comment that that gentleman made there we're all Americans and we should treat each other like that if there's a problem we should show up at board meetings I would like to see a couple of people come to board meetings and speak up there's plenty of times We're alone here we need the public to come out and explain to us what they feel is wrong or what they feel is right or give us a compliment or whatever so that's just my comment I'd love to see

116a lot of people here I think you should come back and come to board meetings and speak up for your kids not just your organizations or your religion speak up for your kids thank you anyone else from the board Mr Po just a quick question um did the school suffer any Financial loss as a result of this event the answer is no all the district's costs associated with with this event and in compliance with the building use policy were covered through the charges passed to the renter and on top of that the um the renter in this case uh as a sign of Goodwill gave the district a $1,000 um donation and and correct me if I'm wrong but I think we have had other organizations uh that might have a religious or ethnic uh

117affiliation that have made use of school facilities in the past that that was a key consideration that we received advice on from our attorneys in the past was that the the schools can be open to different religious events um we have um High holy days use our facilities we had a a church use our facilities we teach Hindi courses in our schools as long as the taxpayers dollars are not going toward the purpose and that's what this policy was designed uh to ensure okay thank you Mr norstein I too applaud everyone for coming out it's great to see people uh we sit up here sometimes and we think we're doing our best but without the feedback from the public um we don't really know so I I appreciate you coming out tonight um with regards

118to the school use um it's my understanding though we also provide the school uh use as a community service uh it's not really supposed to be a revenue generator it's mostly Revenue neutral is that an accurate uh assessment yes it this was the building use was not uh formed to make money for the school district right because these taxpayers are the ones that it's your school basically and uh it's your right to use that any way that you deem uh applicable within our rules and it sounds like that's exactly what happened [Applause] so and I could tell you that our facilities are probably used 7 days a week almost 365 days a year and sometimes it's hard to even get something booked in our facilities because the the um the community has such a desire

119to use our facilities I'm sorry closed session um public forum has been closed um any other questions by the board last thing Mr Kaufman sorry um with the comment about uh running this like a business um if you come to any board meetings uh I I say that all the time I mean we want to try and do everything where we can legally to being Revenue generating uh Enterprise the issue here is we're still a nonprofit too right so nonprofit to nonprofit there are certain things that we can use and target for an Enterprise fund to generate money and there are other things that we cannot uh this is one of those things where we cannot but to your point uh I'm all about trying to make as much money coming into the district to

120alleviate the tax burden as we can this just happens to be one of those things where're we're kind of handtied so miss s tell us I just want to also thank everybody for coming out tonight um I think uh this was important this was good dialogue there were some good comments and it was really good for everybody to come together and we need to move forward with this and and keep it going Mr prosa Michael is there a deposit um towards any damage or anything um in accordance with the policy all fees are paid in advance but nol deposit in case of major damage or anything like that no the Certificate of Insurance um should cover that but there's no no like safety security deposit that's collected per the policy Miss I'll be very brief

121I respect everyone who comes to the um microphone uh whether we agree with people or not everyone has a right to their position and has a right to explain their situation so I would I would would ask that we uh again move forward and have mutual respect for those who disagree with us and perhaps um we can understand each side I think the kind of community we would like to have in Monroe certainly uh I've lived here for almost 30 years and one of the the heartfelt beauties of this community is that we can have a discussion with each other um speak to each other and disagree respectfully and maybe understand the other person's Viewpoint um it's not I I would like it not to ever be one-sided in either direction um people have their

122uh opinions or their concerns that don't necessarily go to something very nefarious or very negative I I I recognize um the position and the concern about uh any fear that that might have especially in light of tomorrow being 911 so I respect that a great deal but please I think we have a wonderful community and every opportunity we have to discuss things with each other is an opportunity to have a wholesome place and thank you all for your speak those we disagree with and those with whom we agree so thank you all and pigging back piggy backing on Michelle anytime you can have a public cordial discussion whether you agree or you don't agree it's the discussion and that makes your community even better so if there's no more comments or questions by the board

123our next scheduled Board of Education meeting will be Tuesday September 23rd 2014 7 o'clock p.m. mono Township High School motion to adjourn Mr Kaufman second by miss analis all in favor opposed extensions the meeting is adjourned