Monroe Township Board of Education 08.21.24 Regular Meeting

001[Music] good good evening everybody this is the Monroe Township monthly Board of Education meeting can everybody please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation God indivisible liy and justice for all Miss alen could we have a roll call please yes Miss Alvarez here miss Bora yes Miss dep here miss Fabiano here Dr P here Mr Piro here miss Ratner here miss Sharma here Mr Tano here Mr ziker here we have a quorum in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monro Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published an electronic notice provided by having the day time in place thereof posted May 10th 2024 and August 16th 2024 at all schools

002on the district website home News Tribune cranberry press and file the clerk of the municipality thank you the next item on our agenda is the closed session resolution whereas the what oh where has the senator Byron M Bear open public meetings Act njsa 10 col 4-6 provides that the Monroe Township Board of Education May hold an executive session from which the public is excluded to discuss matters that are confidential or are one of the nine subject matters listed section 12b of the act and whereas that the board hereby declares that its discussion of the following subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure now therefore be it resolved by the Monro Township Board of Education that the

003board shall go into executive session to discuss the following items additional items may be determined and announced as needed matters concerning the protection of the safety or property of the public pending or anticipated litigation and matters covered by the attorney client privilege matters involving employees in terms of their employment and contract possible imposition of aivil penalty or suspension be it further resolve that said discussion may be disclosed to the public when reasons for discussing and acting upon it in Clos session no longer exist action may be taken on any of the items stated above can I have a motion make a motion motion second all those in favor I okay we will be back at 7:15 uh just for the record um the board will not be taking any formal action in executive session any

004formal action that will be taken will be taken out in the public at the after the conclusion of executive session thank you okay the board has returned from closed session um the next item on our agenda is the approval of our minutes um the first is the public Board of Education meeting from August 21st 2024 can I have a motion to approve second are there any questions OB um all those in favor I I recuse thank you okay the next um the next one is the Clos session meeting minutes from August 21st is there a motion motion second oh wait should July hold on both of those should be say July yes July say July is there a motion to approve I made a oh sorry motion second okay are there any questions any abstentions

005all those in favor exstension exstension sorry okay the next item on our agenda our committee reports are there any committees wishing to give a report Miss Ratner the leg the legislative advocacy and Community engagement committee met on August 14th Board of Education members present were myself Miss depine Miss Sharma Dr pek and Miss Fabiano the district administrators in attendance were Dr Chanley and Dr lemman the first item on the agenda was a recap of our July meeting with our legislators the committee discussed the creation of a one-page letter outlining the cost of full day kindergarten clarify CL ification on Election legislation restrictions on preschool Aid and changes desired with impact fees the next item on the agenda was the impact fee resolution after the committee initially approved a rough draft of the resolution a few

006months ago we sent it to a for review to our board attorney Mr Weiss to ensure legal accuracy the committee reviewed the modified version of the resolution and recommended it be reviewed by the full board for approval tonight so that it can be sent to the New Jersey School Board Association delegate assembly thank you Mr Weiss for all of your hard work on that it's appreciated next the committee discussed the updates to our website Dr Layman explained that the process is taking longer than initially anticipated because each piece of data must be transferred separately they plan to roll out the new website interface after the start of the school year to ensure that there aren't complications while people are looking for back to school information finally the committee discussed a collaborative effort to help legislators

007understand that a new funding formula must be a priority it was decided that we would make a list of districts who have either lost funding or never received Fair funding in order to create an alliance for Maximum Impact Miss deine offered to handle this research for the committee that's all thank you any questions for Mr Ratner any other committees that would like to give a report Mr P yeah building grounds transportation and security so uh presid was myself Miss Fabiano Miss rner Miss Bora uh Dr Chanley Mr tag Dr Layman um we discussed the uh rag rant and the project at appart school administration reported that the electric service upgrade is ongoing and that we're still pursuing delivery of the new Transformer from Jersey Central and power light hopefully by June of 2025 um Mr

008T's on them to get that completed we need to transform to proceed with the HVAC and all the electric upgrades the 1936 roof project is also ongoing and they've been able to address issues with deteriorating underlayment and the change in the roof surface superial on the lower shed area through the project allowance so with no additional costs of the roof work um woodwork registration will be completed for the start of the September school year the next phase would be the HVAC project it is going out to bid it went out on August 13th the bid opening is September 10th uh after that they will uh pick a contractor for the hbac uh they'll finalize the plans for the remaining roofs sections um which will be bid on in the fall of 2024 and scheduled construction

009uh more construction the summer of 2025 with hopefully a completion by the end of uh that summer if everything goes as schedule as Mr T plans uh the New Jersey clean energy grant program rebate um Mr T through Administration presented us at the committee meeting with a rebate check of $9,600 uh for LED lighting upgrade project conducted entirely with District staff uh spare headed by Mr tringali uh that is Mr T's assistant this project replac lightning and appleg guard school's kitchen cafeteria the facilities department will continue to pursue these projects ahead of the upcoming esip program to hopefully save us more money so that was another plus he also said that Princeton University resource recovery program had invited us to be a part of this through Princeton University it's no cost to the district and

010any that what they do is they post things on their website desks uh chairs boards um shells anything that Princeton University isn't using we have an opportunity to take free of cost uh we are lucky enough to get picked for that so we all agreed that we should move forward with that for another savings for the district uh also the New Jersey Department of Education renewal application for the uh temporary class units at the Middle School uh we confirm that the two cardio trailers are being removed for the summer they will no longer be used in the cardo trailers but the eight remaining classrooms and bathroom trailer assemblies will remain in effect Administration will process the annual renewal application and if needed the county business administr administrator would a site inspection for the trailer so

011after so many years Mr T said sometimes they require an inspection uh we're all up to date with everything in the county would just come out and look at them that's it for building grounds uh Transportation overview basically um we were told by Dr chany because Miss McDonald couldn't make it is that everything appears on schedule we have 15 outside routes that will be utilizing and uh we should have enough bus drivers for to start a school everything is supposed to be right on track um Mr Selby wasn't there for a security overview so hopefully we will get one uh shortly this as soon as school starts from Mr s that is the end of my report thank you any questions for Mr P Miss rner um yeah I just wanted to clarify quickly with

012transportation we had discussed that parents should submit an email if they have issues with their buses um do we know if that's something that will be going out for with the bus notifications Dr Chanley said that she was going to talk to Miss McDonald about putting that out I don't know if it was it's not here I tried to look both of you so bus pass or bus uh routes are handled through Genesis so you would just log in and see it's not like a letter that we used to send out anymore but if you need to get in touch with Transportation it's Transportation at Monro at k2. nj. us it will go to the entire staff instead of just we talked about not having to email just one person the director or whatever so

013then they can kind of divide and conquer the the work um so we uh we have we'll have that updated on their transportation website but the email for any transportation related question that is not let's uh call it Mission critical urgent you know missing child kind of a situation uh if you run it through transportation. monroe. k2. nj. us um they will prioritize that and it'll also free up some uh phone lines from them so they can handle and manage the uh the Urgent emergent uh issues that come through okay thank you Miss Bora um to what Dr Layman just said could we have a PSA um like a social post with that information put out uh before the first day of school so and maybe pin it to our Facebook page for the first

014few days so that people know what to do I know we would probably geted going to do that that she would put something out there so the parents could send an email for the beginning of school because we know how flooded Transportation gets the first couple days so um Dr Chanley had said at the meeting that she would instru miss McDonald or somebody and that they would put a a message out to all parents that if there is a transportation issue because it's hard to get through on a phone please send us an email immediately to the transportation email so that everybody in the office somebody would be able to grab it to uh take care of whatever needs are done because we all know that the first week of school is very tough any

015other questions okay any other committees Miss alarz hi so I'm going to start with personel all right the Personnel committee met on Wednesday August 14 2024 in attendance were Dr Chanley Mr Pio Mrs Fabiano and Mrs depan Miss Allen was also present for a portion of the meeting there was a total of 11 resignations six power professionals two Math teachers one bus driver one custodian and one guidance counselor two exit interviews were conducted and of those two one resignation was due to retirement and the second person listed their reason for resigning was to stay home with family the administration continues to work diligently to fill these position positions on tonight's agenda for approval is the new director of Transportation three elementary teachers three Middle School teachers and a systems data specialist the new director of

016transportation is going to work closely with our current director to ensure a smooth transition prior prior to her retirement any questions no okay can I do the next one short and sweet okay hold on I printed the wrong paper so that's why I have to go on my phone I apologize for that okay the policy committee met on Tuesday August 13th pres present at the meeting with Dr Chanley Mr morala Mrs Fabiano Dr peek Mr zner and Mrs Ratner the meeting began with a new discussion of the use of pH facilities policy the discussion centered around whether a fee exemption for religious groups would be appropriate in the interest of consistency and fiscal responsibility the committee felt the policy should not be amended at this time the remaining policies from Strauss Esme alert number 233

017were discussed and are on tonight's agenda for first read most of the changes involved updated language in the interest of time three polic policies uh p855 School nutrition P 2365 acceptable use of generative artificial intelligence and p1110 organizational chart was tabled to the September policy meeting that concludes my report any questions for Miss Alvarez Miss Bora I'm from what I saw of the meeting was the discussion on the school facilities policy at the end of this meeting uh i m Fabian I remember you we discussed uh you discussed uh uh uh community members or rabbis was it at the policy meeting yes yes cuz um I had an input to give to that I know Dr Chanley is not here tonight but I was at the Shar Services uh meeting uh with Dr Chanley our

018lawyer U Mrs Kirby at that time and uh I think the school facilities policy as it stands today which is up for a second reading today should be tabled because our shared services agreement was definitely modified after conversations with Miss Lang and the mayor that the in as part of the shared services agreement they will handle security so I know that the shared services agreement and Miss Allan might remember this that the language of the shared services agreement was modified to show that they will bear responsibility of the security but like Miss Ratner pointed out in the policy meeting our school facilities policy says that anybody in group one does not have to pay for ex you know all the listed items and security is one of them so I feel like there is definitely

019a gray area that we need your perspective on M um Mr Weiss and we shouldn't be passing that policy through a second read today so I would um just because we've gone into a shared services agreement with the town recently and we've had such an elaborate conversation and Mr Rita was part of that where we said that we can provide security guards and they assured us that they will train coaches and they will take the responsibility of making sure that our buildings are secure when they have basketball practices or what it what whatever it may be right so it it's it's not a matter of trust it has to be a legal writing somewhere so while the shared services agreement says that our school policy does not say that so there is there's a I

020think they need to be connected yes M rner I was just going to ask because you know I brought up so I understand what you're saying because we have already put information in there with like the additional fee for like after midnight and stuff like that if we were to approve it as a second read tonight but then bring it back in in the future to policy is that something that we could do um instead if you'd be amendable to that just because I know we want to make sure we take care of that as well is what you your conversation in the policy meeting kind of completely put to light that there's a gap between like there's a disconnect between two things the shared service agreement and our uh facility use policy so I'm

021amenable to passing it tonight if in the very next policy meeting you're going to bring it up and say let's fix this Gap because there's a disconnect between two things here this policy 7510 all I can say is that the administration that was at the policy meeting didn't inform the committee about the shared services agreement right we had no way of knowing it should have been from the should you're right it should have been it was a myth but right now that I it just came to me that day as you were talking and Dr Chanley was thinking about about the people who were part of that conversation and I remember it as day and night what happened that night because we we were really pushing back as School administration that we cannot afford to

022pay for security so this was a very elaborate discussion that day Miss Allen would remember and they assured us that we understand the liabilities and we assure you that we will do better because in the past the coaches have allowed anybody to come in from the doors they weren't really careful so it in that language was kind of incorporated into the Shar service agreement but you're right we missed a step The Next Step should have been policy and now that we have that for you know approval I feel like this is our opportunity to I don't think it'll hurt if you push this by one more meeting I don't know what's the pressing change on that today but if we cannot then we just bring it back whatever so the uh Shar services agreement is

023that is that only for security what about custodians and the other costs related to keeping the buildings open okay but would you be able to bring it back in the next month for discussion polic the policy yeah mean sure then then I'm fine Mr P the the only thing I see is that um the tier one a lot of times is the ptas the Girl Scouts the Boy Scouts and it's always been a practice of the district when needed that the district provided security where with the township shared service agreement the district the the town holds their own separate insurance where the Boy Scouts and then more Girl Scouts may have their insurance but they still fall under our school use so I think that's the little bit of a disconnect is that the town

024assumes all responsibility if something happens in a school and that's why um and plus I'm sure Mr Selby will tell you that there is no way that they would be able to cover the town events you bring up a very good point but I know that I just wouldn't want it to affect the little kids and stuff that we allow to use the school like I think that um it's two separate things to me the township right so functions we should probably delineate that and say if we do have the discussion Miss Al in policy we probably will need to kind of drill down to this is the rec department which which is the town share Services right and this is PTA this is Boy Scouts this is Girl Scouts how are we handling security

025for each one of these um and and then put that in into the regulations like we I don't think we have a choice here but you're right they're they're all hand they're all different baskets and we should be thinking about it all it sounds like before the next policy meeting then Mr Weiss you should probably get a copy of the shared services agreement so that you can see it and as it relates to policy and I'm happy to to review any policy any regulation that the board wants me to review um lately I've been doing a lot of facilities use policies uh understanding that they're different organizations that have relationships and all of that but my just listening to the kind of higher level uh topic here there is the ability to make the policy

026say that unless otherwise agreed to in a facilities use agreement the default position is X that way it would cover you for your shared services agreements which would be different that will have it spelled out and also for your non-shared services folks it would it would cover them the same way that they're currently covered so there's all different ways that we can do it and I'm happy to help in any way that I can you just gave the solution in a sentence I was going to ask if we can modify the policy as I say so can we just modify the policy policy 7510 am I I correct that's correct unless we want Dr Chanley who was part of ser shared services to to weigh on that just because she's not here tonight Dr Li

027I don't know if you and Miss on I know you guys were at that meeting um and I also the other thing that I did just want to ensure is in writing I don't know if we if we need this for sure Mr W is if we are stating that we are providing security and you know custodial for these other groups I mean listen I'm a Girl Scout Troop leader I'm I'm PTA volunteer so I absolutely agree with Mr pero like I don't want to see any of that affected but I just want to know like in the event that these groups are there without those like is the liability falling on the district if something happens I know these groups usually have their own insurance but that's a little more depth than just that

028one line of the shared services part of it yeah make no mistake I I didn't mean that I have the silver bullet and just by Whispering these words we're going to be covered there's there's a lot of twists and turns and variables um to be considered when you're when you're making a policy um so that you can have the appropriate car vs to address some of the issues that you've addressed um you know all I can say is generally speaking all groups that use our building should have a certificate of insurance that names us as an additional insured there are going to be times where that's not possible but the default position should always be to the greatest extent possible we're covering our exposure to liability wherever and whenever we can right but so just

029for clarification if the district says they're going to to provide it are we void of liability then if something happens if they have insurance that would that would be my question so the way that the insurance typically works is that one uh insurance policy would be designated as primary if you will um typically we have the facilities users uh designated as as primary but if we're indicating that we're going to take care of certain Services IE security um it's on us to ensure the security at that point and you know if your question is does that expose us to liability in having that position the answer is yes it does are there any other questions so I guess it's a matter of do we want to move forward with the policy as it is tonight

030and then bring it back to policy for discussion next month or are you making a motion we don't have to make a motion just asking well that we would have to make a motion to table it if that was the case but is it a first read second second second okay okay um Miss Bora are Comm yes um I have two meetings to report for finance and shared services committee minuts um meeting was held August 14 2024 uh the committee reviewed the bill list which at the time of the meeting was approximately $9.5 million with an addendum expected closer to the public board meeting I think tonight the addendum is for another $44.5 million um for the benefit of the public it was noted that we received the final bill for the April 2024 election

031from the county for $74,000 which along with a previous bill of $8,000 from the town put the overall cost of the election to approximately $82,000 uh which the board of education is going to fund the attorney invoice for the month for month of June for porio and July for the bush Law Group were then reviewed uh next item on the agenda was an exciting update on the gov deal sale of of our six buses uh by Miss Allan she shared that we sold all the buses for a handsome amount of $31,500 uh we got a lot of interest on these and another school district ended up purchasing these from us the original cost of these buses were was about $548,000 and with the sale we recoup 301,000 making the cost 246,000 for six buses which

032is about $41,000 for each bus that we used for 8 years so kudos to our um administrators for doing that last item on the agenda was District legal cost overview to address public in board concerns about the state of our legal cost in the recent years the business office compiled a report that summarizes the legal cost over the last 11 years Miss Allen presented this report to the committee and um post the meeting a redacted version of the same report was posted for the general public on board docs in the finance committee agenda for the month of August I urge the members of the public to take a look at it the report showed the various buckets of our legal costs which is General councel fees bound Council fees Insurance assigned deductibles for all ethics

033and other lawsuits um it gave a great snapshot of the comparison of year-over-year of these buckets an additional report detailed the various aspects of the legal fees for the general Council for The Last 5 Years and how they have varied lastly the report had a section that shares the data of legal Fe fees per pupil which is a standard metric uh specifically for mro Township in the last decade and how we rank with in comparison to other districts that are also K through 12 and over 3,500 students in size uh notable observations from this report by the committee were that the legal cost for the district for the last school year 2023 2024 is the lowest we have had since the year 2014 2015 which is the year that we transition from L legal firm

034to an in-house C councel last year the cost was 230,000 and in 2015 it was 225,000 uh legal fees per pupil has also stayed very consistent for Monroe over the last decade and so has our ranking as compared to other districts uh please see the meeting recording for detailed discussion and this concludes the finance update any questions yes Mr um I would just like to bring up a point uh we spent $82,000 to run an election last year um I think that going forward we are one of the few districts that actually got more money this year than lost money so I would like to make a motion that we move the election back to November so we don't waste any more taxpayer money on separate elections I think that that's important I think that

035we need to uh be very more fiduciary in our spending and how we we do it and I just think that it's important that any money we could save for children we put towards the kids instead of uh moving it in another Direction I mean we're there's many districts take East Brunswick they lost $8 million I haven't seen them change they're election yet April they're still in November so I think that we need to move the election back to November and I like to make that move okay um can I second it or is it something that needs to make a motion do we make is it a motion or he made a we mov yeah so we so it has to be seconded I'll second it and then discussion discussion so let's discuss that

036um Mr tupo the fact remains that if we didn't move the election when we did we wouldn't be able to go out to the public and ask to go over a cap if we didn't ask to go over a cap we would had a lot of programs to cancel this year so changing the election is just in my opinion a spiteful move and and not productive for the community Mr rner so I think that I I agree with moving the election back to November because with the passage of s 2837 now we can have a special election in it's January March September or December for the following year so no longer is our election tied into the budget however um I think that the right way to do this would be to have a discussion

037in the committee next month um and then bring it back to the board for discussion um so I would like to make a motion to table can I make a motion to table yeah that's one of the only motions that you can actually make while there's a pending motion so yes I'll second that I'll second that so you did already and have this vote next month but I can I still discuss this Miss Miss Ratner made a motion to table so we need to have a vote on the motion to table so you're voting to table the motion to move the election is there discussion questions discussion on the motion to table yes any questions I I can just reiterate what Miss Ratner said we have the the district ad Administration working over time to

038present a budget philosophy far ahead of time uh the cost of this election I would like to say is a cost of one full-time position in this District um and at this point the point the the driver of this conversation is that we didn't get any Cuts but the driver of this conversation should be that we are owed a lot of money by the state that we haven't gotten that we've been fighting for the last two decades other towns have been getting that money they stopped getting that money for 2 years and they went through so many Cuts so we've we've survived with far less money and we want to still continue to be public fiduciaries and spend our money money well but not at the cost of taking away quality education from our children

039so if not having this and I would I would like to ask Miss Ratner this so is it has it been passed so it's passed both House pass both houses um it has not been signed by the governor yet but usually if it's passed in both houses it's that matter another reason for us to wait before we go through this but the the reality is I I remember we had this discussion and we saw Robinsville had actually done this this year anyway so I'm not actually sure where they were different from this legislation but I think that the budget discussion it it's now honestly separate from from this question right I think just that we can ask the administration to do what they can so that we don't go above cap next month we can

040have this discussion move the election to November so we know there's no cost and hope that we don't have to go overcap but in the event that we do we still have that option I'm not disagreeing to that I just say why are we jumping the gun when we're already in the process we don't have to decide we're not paying $882,000 today we will pay that next year in the summer if we have the election in April so can we wait a few months let's go through the process let's see what it is let that thing become become a law so that we know we are completely covered we got we really got challenged by the law last minute last year so we don't know which way this is going this till it passes as

041a law what's the rush to do this today just because we got a bill this year in in August for April we just need to make a motion and and and cut out all of our chances for Quality education in case we need one let's go to the that's not cutting out all the chances at all because their legislation has pass just has to be signed so we're still able to go forward we're still able to go forward with a second question at other opportunities like we did with the referendum we're not but we're Ming the Board of Education we won't be able to start the school year we may not be able to renew some people because we don't have in the budget you don't know if the question in November is going to

042pass can I can I just finish the sentence yes you can put a question in November right but your budget passes in April this isn't about putting a question in November you don't have to put a question in November question in September April March December no but if you put a question in April we pay for it well same thing right right so why are we changing oh because we don't want to have a school election in APR we don't need to have a school election in April right so if you're already paying for it the cost is not it's not double or less but we don't know if we need it or not exactly we would know by November we're going through the budget philosophy so why not wait till November we can't go

043after the taxpayer we will not if you don't need to more and more Mone I age we're District that gets more more not our fair share but more than we got the year before Mr I'm not disag I think that the the play on words here is like Miss Fabiano said we have an election general election then if we need a special question then we have all these months to do it I don't I don't understand what the grants it can be a recomendation you're the one doing the grand standing I am saying why are we rushing into something when we don't have to we told by the lawyers we don't need to decide anything for the April election till February right so now when the when the entire Administration is lining up the budget

044philosophy so we can all deliberate I am not I am just saying that when in May we have to renew our staff right and we don't have the budget allocated to it we cannot renew our staff so if you're going to go for a question in May or April and move the elections to November we are still paying two times whether you take it out of the right pocket of the taxpayer or the left pocket it's the taxpayers money we only paying once just like we do now no so if we go to the question like you just said if we don't have the money we can go to the question anytime so if we are going to go to a question right before 2025 2026 school year starts right yeah listen I am this

045is all hypothetical right now I am not saying we have to go for a question I am only saying at the end of the day we need to do right for Student Success we have the time to wait and then decide deciding to today is not going to save us the $80,000 that we may spend in April or November next year but deciding in November we will be deciding with all the information laid out in front of us I am not here to spend taxpayers money unnecessarily for a good quality education well then we wouldn't but if we needed to then we would do the question but if we don't why not do like every other district and leave the election we can decide that in November to decide had her hand up m I

046wanted to I have to agree with Mr um hero and also I think it would give uh Miss Allen some more time to get the numbers that she needs to make the proper adjustments to our budget above or below and where we need to make adjustments as a board where we can find out and I know that the New Jersey school board's December meeting is going to have um a superintendent a ba and a board member there to discuss what a board has the ability to do with regards to a budget right now I'm last year I knew nothing as soon as I walked out of a closed session I was given a form that there was a second question I knew nothing about it so I voted no because I didn't like the process

047but now we need to know we will need to know or we will be told how the process works and then we can make a good decision about our budget and it gives Miss Allen more time to properly adjust our budget the way it should be but I think that's mine I think this is important to note that moving moving the election back to November is essentially separating the board election and the budget question they become two separate things so you'll have your board election in November standard which will not cost us any money because it's part of a general election but then you have your budget question if if we need one that can be put out at various other months throughout the year that we would pay for right but Mr like what

048you actually just said was actually the reason I made the motion to to table because I didn't like that we had a motion a resolution that was given to us that day but here we are now and I think it would be hypocritical for us to say that we were upset when that happened then but then have this happen tonight we're Board of committees the recommendation should come from a committee I I know we were discussing it in lace and then we said it would be discussed in finance I don't believe it came up in the finance committee meeting and I would like for it to just be discussed there recommended there and then handled the correct way just like we were upset about happening last year thank you Miss rner I think the difference

049between the finance what we were talking about Gail with the um budget question is we didn't know know what was part of the budget question until we went into that until we came out of that meeting right um totally I feel like this is different because we know what this is we're just asking to move the board election back to November we know that that will then extend yay everybody's terms until like the three of us our terms until January of 2026 Miss Ratner um Mr tufano and no not m m al myself sorry till June January of 2020 we are we're April 25 and they're April 26 right now 25 26 and 27 it all be January of those resp ion that's different listen I've been most vocal about moving it right like I

050I get it we save money I just don't know why we can't do this the the proper way go through the process as Mr P said right and and M if I can miss Fabian what you just said that yes now we don't need the you know we do it anytime based on the legislation but anytime we do it will cost us money right so if we if that possibility still exists can we just go through the process right we we not you know that we don't have to decide anything till February for the April election and we will decide way sooner because we starting the budget philosophy in SE September I don't understand the urgency just because I said in finance that and I pointed it out in public transparency that it cost us

051$82 not for you to hit a button all right let's stop this right now we'll never ever do this again we're going in the we're going through the process let's go through the process like it's it's I I get the impulse and I get the passion believe me I'm just as passionate as you are but we started a process and we started this back in June when we asked the business office that this year we want to do it early so the board members all know what is at stake what they want to go what they want to cut at what they don't want to cut and which is what is going to start happening starting September and I don't think we're changing the budget process the budget process is still going to remain the

052same weang go out for the question in March M fa but by passing that motion we changing the flexibility we have for no reason like there's no advantage of doing it today than doing it three months later what is the advantage of passing this motion today versus three months later public trust public is looking at us work there's a lot of members in the public who will distrust us for taking the action today as many as they are that will trust us more so we have both sides of the public here because honestly end of the day all of our goals as Student Success as public fiduciary so if it's not going to change the needle any way from a financial Point can we wait and deliberate through due process so we have we have

053the motion to table so let's let's vote on the motion to table this um Miss Allen can we have a roll call please yes Miss Alvarez no Miss Bora so I am voting to table to table so if I say yes it'll get tabled right well you're voting to table it if you are in favor of tabling vote Yes yes yes okay Miss dep no Mr PIR no M Ratner yes Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr zner no Miss Fabiano no no so um no the answer is V Dr I'm sorry Dr Miss Scott voted but I don't know yeah I don't know does Jamesburg does Dr PE vote on that I have to look at your bylaws to see what last time the Jamesburg I would imagine I'm only imagining here but I

054would imagine that she does vote since it's a matter of the whole board yeah I'd have to see this I'd like to abstain thoughs the school she want it's so it is not tabled then okay so motion the motion is not tabled so now we have to vote on the motion to well well just before we do that um we were in question discussion on the main motion When Miss Ratner made the motion to table so we will now continue with questions discussion on the main motion to move forward to to change the date of the election to November is there any further discussion I just want to clarify it would be November 2025 not November 2024 correct correct November 2025 and then um the outcome of that election those people whoever uh wins would

055be installed at reorganization which would be January of 2026 may ask a a point of clarification if there is a motion that does not pass can that motion be reconsidered in in the future absolutely someone can just make I mean you could actually as silly as it sounds you could just keep making the same motion that could be fun but yeah you can you're not you're not precluded uh just by virtue of the fact that it was voted on tonight and did not pass so if this I have a question so this if this passes our elections will move to November 2025 but the budget process that is going on at the end of that we can as a board say we're going to have a shortfall we're going to have an election in April

056with a ballot question and still go out go out and pay $82,000 all it does is extend some board members terms just giving us a second giving you the option to go out for a second question yeah you you'd be able to go out for a second question one thing though that everybody needs to know once the board moves it to November if the board moves it to November the board then must continue to have it in November for the next four years so it's not something that you can pingpong back and forth um there is teeth to it in that you're you are going to be for lack of a better term living with it for four years so we just moved it to April this year that doesn't that fouryear rule doesn't apply

057right now under the statute it's my recollection that um it would apply only if you're moving it to November and it's that November that holds of April all right may I just ask one more quick Point um in regards to judging um because I know there's been confusion at at other points an exstension does that count as a a no votee is there a certain number of votes we need in the affirmative and or you you will need a certain number of votes in the affirmative in order for it to pass an exstension does not count it's neither a yes or or no and just just for the clarification um for the public do we need the majority of the people here so it would be six people in order six yes votes in order

058for it to yes move forward it's a majority of the full board when all seats are seated or when all uh people are seated can I make some comments sure so just from a district perspective um like Miss Bora has said we do have a process in place and it's budget related which I understand uh the intent right now is to make to potentially separate the two um with pending legislation that would allow for potentially what we would need in terms of recouping uh an additional overcap expenditure uh through this pending legislation knowing what we went through last year some of the things that were on the table uh the difficulty of reaching our Target goal you know we always look to run the most efficient uh District in terms of expenditures in terms of

059uh Staffing you know we move staff around we uh keep a very close eye on class sizes and things and I just feel at this point there's a lot of variables out there and if if you're not pressed for time um we are heading in the direction of next month having a very preliminary snapshot that would give you a a glimpse of what we're looking at but also um and it just could be the conservative side of me I don't believe something until it actually happens and that's you know whether it passed both both sides of the legislature that's fine until it's signed um it's a risk you take all of us take with anything um expecting something to happen and and then it may or may not happen or it may happen in a

060much belabored time frame than expected which has unintended consequences and things so it it would be my recommendation to delay this decision uh until you have certainty things are in place in terms of what you're looking for um it also gives us time to share more information with you in terms of a completely transparent uh process obviously what we're going to share with you in September is much broader much more General than every month we move closer towards the end of the school year as numbers get more numbers get finalized enrollments settle down and actualize state aid gets figured out what it's going to look like next year we talked about you know S2 is fully funded we're sitting at what the state perceives us as to be fully funded does that mean we maintain

061our funding does that mean we lose funding next year is it purely enrollment related there's a lot of variables involved um a lot of questions we have but my recommendation would be to and not that you know I'm a voting member of the board but from a dist District perspective um I would wait till things are in place so we have the options that we potentially may need to maintain the expected level of Education that we have in this Township Mr zner yeah Madame President can we have the motion read please well motion yes so we have the motion we have the motion to move forward with moving the okay the date so we have vote is the date included in that motion that was made I want to make sure that motion has the

062date that we're saying we're saying as of January as of November 20125 is that correct yes there's a resolution so I had it a fear feeling that this was going to come up today and I did speak with Mr Weiss earlier today hours before the meeting so we do have a resolution here um that we need to see if we get to that point to pass okay I just wanted to make sure the date was there will be dates and specified in the resolution to move it thank actually Election Day next year is November 4th November 4th thank you Miss Bora Miss did you just say that you had a feeling this was going to happen and you have a resolution in place I don't have it in place but I did speak with Mr

063O earlier today it was mentioned to me that this would be brought up and I did ask I am shocked but thank you for sharing that and I would like to urge all board members to please listen to what Dr Layman said and Dr Layman thank you for articulating it way better than my passion itself good we're not losing any pennies of the taxpayer by waiting a couple months let's all not rush into a decision I we all have the same due diligence to the community and the community is not just taxpayer their students is education is the future of our town if we can wait a couple months it's not going to cost us money can we please not rush into Grand standing to fulfill election promises and come up ready with resolutions for

064something that the rest of us are completely blindsided by when we've been trying to work towards a budgets philosophy meeting in September I am beyond appalled today at what is happening I am sorry Miss not to to put you on the spot um but would it be your recommendation from the business office to to wait to do you I guess what are your your thoughts I I don't if you you don't have to I'm just curious what because I guess if the reality is it's separate between budget and election anyway well exactly they are two separate things at this point so we do have a motion on the table on the floor to vote on moving the election back to November so we need to have a roll call on that motion so yes is

065in the affirmative correct V yes it'll it's a motion to move thank the election back to November correct starting in November of 25 right uh Miss Alvarez yes Miss Bora no Mr Pay yes Dr PE obain Mr pero yes Miss Ratner abstain M Sharma abstain Mr Tano no Mr zman yes Miss Fabiano yes so motion does not we do not have six I counted five right affirmatives five five affirmatives so it does not doesn't it need six votes to pass it did not pass the motion did not pass did not pass thank God no I'm not okay so move are there any other questions or comments about the finance report I have committee report um and Miss Bora also has curriculum so m M's real mine's real small the uh citizens advisory committee met on

066Tuesday August 13th and um in attendance were Mr morala Miss Fabiano Miss Ratner Miss Alvarez I was on virtually and Dr Chanley um it was just three or four things were mentioned I was asked Mr moraldo if he would volunteer to put a signin sheet together when the committee meets in October he agreed he was kind of volun told but he was very nice to agree uh also I wanted to talk about how the meetings will be run and I know Dr Layman was missing he was took a very well needed vacation and we will get more information out of him with the Strategic plan to be um discussed with the people that are picked for this committee and actually that's why put Dr Layman to present the committee when chosen the Strategic plan and

067other appropriate information needed for the members to be well informed about the assignments of the committee and the CAC committee uh meetings have changed they will now be held on Tuesdays uh I guess the the third Tuesdays of the month from 7 to 8 and that is the end of my report thank you any questions Mr Miss Bora yeah I just had um I've been listening to it every month and I appreciate because you guys are starting from scratch so there's a lot of um you know variables out there there and I appreciate the work that the committee is doing but just this time listening to the committee meeting something came out to me and I know that you guys are probably looking at other districts and um or you know other formats of this

068but the only thing that I I did not hear about in this discussion so far that I would uh recommend or suggest is when the letter goes out to let these people know that they're part of the committee maybe a little guide all of us board members we go through the board member training and so we understand our roles as to only interacting through Dr Chanley the superintendent and we don't directly interact with other you know District members so if we could kind of give them some sort of a guideline that all of their interaction needs to happen through the committee chair and there should not be any you know because they're members of the public they've not gone through the training we've gone through so just to keep the sanctity of the relationship um

069you know between the community members and the administrat dis make sure they don't cross any lines and doesn't become awward for anybody totally understandable and and Dr Layman had brought that up I think the the month before okay that yes that we would do that and um if we were going to put assignments out have them we have a lot of different things but it's so it's so much in L I can understand the complexity till it really we trying to get it together as fast as we can thank you for that though I appreciate it of course any other questions from Mr Pay mner um just a quick clarification as far as um the application I know we had discussed it going out um I guess Dr lman with the roll out of the

070new website will there be any issues with doing that no I I think whatever we're going to put in place in anything we're emerging with the new website it's taking what we have and just so think of like reformatting a document you know when you when you you know take a word document turn something else that's what we're going through with the website so whatever we're doing with this Committee in terms of communications will fit seamlessly with the the new website okay thank you any other questions comments hey Miss Bora thank you uh the curriculum committee update um this is for the August 13th meeting and I apologize this long like every curriculum committee starting next month the meeting is going to be one and a half hours long so these minutes will also be

071longer um the agenda for the August meeting is consisted of 18 curriculum documents that were discussed and are on the agenda for approval tonight most of the existing curriculum documents uh were updated to reflect the 2020 New Jersey state learning standards uh Dr Roselle discussed world languages documents covering grade seven Spanish Spanish 2 Spanish 3 and and Spanish 4 and also honors French she shared information on seal of biliteracy and how we support alternate Pathways for it allowing for more languages than just Spanish French Italian and Latin uh she then discussed a newly established uh Advanced gr um 6 Ela uh grade 6 Advan Ela which has gone through uh onee cycle last year uh next on the agenda was the sixth grade course was the new sixth grade course life literacies and key skills

072this was presented by Mr morala who shared that this course was temporarily referred to as Champs but the Administration has decided to go with this new name which is better aligned with the revised njsl uh 9.1 and 9.4 standards which is titled career Readiness life literacies and key skills these standards are mandatory while many aspects of these standards are Incorporated in multiple courses through high school this sixth grade dedicated program would be an excellent addition to our curriculum this document was very detailed there were good discussions and the document was extremely well received by the committee next Mr Russ presented a few science doc documents namely honors molecular research AP Physics 2 AP biology and AP environmental science all updated to reflect the 2020 uh new New Jersey state learning standards she highlighted the excellent

073opportunities our students are awarded when they take these high level uh high high level courses and science she then shared the document for seventh grade social studies in Civics this is a new and updated and has been updated to integrate the various aspects of civics curriculum into the ascian Greece ancient Rome Middle Ages and renisance portion of the social studies curriculum for 7th grade she then shared a new textbook for adoption which is Grand funded for the AP africanamerican studies program next on the agenda was Mr Schneider who presented documents for Performing Arts Fine Arts and also PE reviewed symphonic band curriculum which will have 84 students enrolled this year which is phenomenal the mon Township High School symphonic band achieved a goal rating last year um which is a matter of Pride he then

074shared details of the graphic design Three Studio Art one Ceramics and sculpture and great two art documents um last but not the least he presented the Falcon Pauls program this is a Special Olympics nj's unified Championship School model program that we take a lot of pride in next we discuss renewals and notable amongst those are uh as shared by Dr Layman was the score program which uh score platform which we will be transitioning to this year in place of navian in the last meeting we renewed enough licenses for navian to cover our senior class who are already in the middle of college app processes and so the administration did not want to disrupt their process rest of high school will start using score that comes highly recommended by Dr crell the district will also see

075a cost benefit due to this transition uh Dr Layman also discussed two professional development opportunities by Dr ramini in mats and Ela for our interventionist this will be one-on-one feedback model of training next on the agenda was an update on the overhauled uh MTSD gifted and talented program Mr meralda shared the work that has been done across various areas of our uh to give our students a variety of opportunities he gave a detailed handout of programs currently being offered that listed criteria of Eligibility as well this information is currently on our website and there was an Ask made by the committee to include this in the back to school night Communications by building principal uh lastly he recapped the successful completion of the extended school year and shared that the enrichment summer programs are in

076their home stretch the pilot SAT prep program which was approved in the last month's meeting also kicked off a day before the committee meeting that concludes to update any questions questions or comments for curriculum okay seeing none we are going to go to the next item on our agenda which is the public forum for agenda items only if there are any members of the public wishing to speak you have four minutes please come up and state your name of municipality for the record hi um I'm Sarah aiz I live in Monro Township um I have a question about item Buu number three which involves hiring a teacher of study skills at a cost of $53,000 as a resignation replacement is on page 30 of the agenda uh why are we hiring a teacher just to

077teach study skills when the teaching of study skills can be incorporated into all the regular content areas like Math Science Social Studies Etc upon review of the previous agendas I didn't see any resignations of teachers of study skills so how can this be a replacement of a resignation this seems to be like a new position um when was the job description of this position approved by the board I don't recall seeing a job description for a teacher of study skills getting approved by the board beforehand um so I was just wondering for an explanation for this position answer to my questions um do you Dr lman so that position is uh the term study skills it aligns with our position control rosters as well as connects with our state reporting so that would just be

078uh a general teacher Des job description we don't have a job description for ELA teacher math teacher it's just a teacher of uh a general teacher job description so that's why you don't see study skills that position specifically is uh that teacher will be working uh in the new uh career life skills course um so it's a resignation retirement resignation position because uh the position whether it was a science teacher a social studies teacher previously that position in our position control roster is not a new staff member to the district it was transferred over on paper to be filled with this teacher um I don't know if that helps you understand it's it's an existing position we're not hiring a new teacher into the building in terms of adding a new position it's a retirement

079that position is not needed in its previous role we are reclassifying renaming it and that teacher will be teaching a different course and that's the uh license slash uh title that we use when we report to the state okay so you're saying the job description for this career Readiness life literacy class doesn't the job description doesn't need to be approved by the board it's a teacher position so teachers have a generic job description uh by the board uh it's not every individual teacher that teaches an individual subject doesn't have an individual job description so this is a teacher in the district so we're bring on a teacher in terms of its specific assignment role that's those uh roles you see connect it to our HR department which connects it to the state in terms of

080uh and payroll connects all the dots um so we when we're audited and when we're monitored by the state we we have a position control roster that lines up with the actual physical teachers that are in the building okay thank so that's why you see teachers mil you know teacher of third grade in in a specific Elementary School um that all syncs through our backend systems so when we uh we monitor Staffing expenditures you know we can track it that way yeah I just thought for the Middle School level I usually see teacher of social studies or math or science that's why I was surprised to see this as a middle school it wasn't clear what what this was for yep yep thank you for the question all [Music] right good evening uh my name

081is Dominic toito I don't live in town but my children go to school here um I in response to the motion to elect and change the election and I work for the government I know that it moves at a snails PL pace and I think that trying to all of a sudden be proactive to save $82,000 when really you're just extending the terms of your colleagues under that guys is what it is uh yeah okay that's all I have to say good evening good evening Sher min9 Nathaniel Street on page 3040 the approval of the minutes was there a correction made to this because my agenda it says close session meetings August 21st 2024 yes the date the date is wrong there I did say that it should be July 31st okay so these should

082all I'm sorry I came in a little later that's okay they should be it should say July 31st 2024 when they were voted on yes it was corrected yes at the time of the vote honestly I I think I don't remember when you voted on the just a few hours ago yeah yeah no I think you've said it but we didn't I said uh July and then you changed it and you said it's July 30 okay okay so it's it will be corrected the minutes will be cor okay and on the and again I apologize I was not here when you came out of Clos session the first time so your new uh system what you put x's on 2 of 40 page 2 of 40 you put X's where the discussions going to be

083in close session is that correct correct okay so the first X matters concerning protection of the safety or property of the public pending or anticipated litigation and matters covered by the attorney claim privilege was there any t uh action taken on that when you came out a close session no can there it was it was litigation discovered because you have a few things here anticip uh protection that safety or or property and then pending litigation and matters covered so there's like four things can you be a little bit more specific is there any litigation discussed on in Clos session yes okay and is it P is the litigation some litigation is private if it's student litigation it's um the litigation that was discussed in uh executive session this evening um relates to the matter of

084armeno versus the Monro Township Board of Education um there was also um just trying to think there was no other litigation discussed in closed this evening okay um as far as the other items uh that you read uh I'm just you know when I add when I heard them I was thinking to myself yep we did that yep we did that so I don't I don't have I would ask that going forward again since since it since the that litigation is public it's in the courts and it's public I mean you if you you when you do the minutes of that meeting that you actually say that was uh discussed I don't have a problem with saying that that that was discussed it's an ongoing case but to the extent that the board in the

085future is going to seek my advice on potential litigation that that won't be listed in the minutes uh with the with a name um only because that's giving the name in it of itself may be um problematic for you okay well if if but I understand your concern if I have anything to say about it since it's I understand your concern we do need to balance um you know the Public's right to know with the the board's confidentiality especially since people can go to ecourts and find the litigation absolutely but what they can't go to EC courts and find out is my recommendations to the board and that's what's that's what goes on in in closed thank you sure any other members of the public wishing to speak seeing none we going to close the

086public forum the next item on our agenda is the assistant superintendent report Dr Layman do you mind if I do both and we'll right into the superintendent report okay so we're nine and 10 yes nine and 10 so I'll just start with uh so on the agenda tonight I just wanted to draw attention and thank the residents and organizations listed for their donations to the district among those donations are several instruments that will be utilized within our arts program here in the district we actually had a last minute literally probably noon time today edition of uh two instruments that a resident donated so um they happen to be uh vacating the area quickly and we wanted to make sure we could receive them and give uh the proper uh documentation to them so thank you

087for your flexibility in that last minute adjustment for those donations um we're making our way through August and our fall sports teams and programs are already up and running in preparation for September uh when you drive by the high school and and uh our facilities I'm sure you see practices going on and the lights are back on at night um our high school's homecoming event is scheduled for September 27th uh we look forward to continuing to celebrate our student athletes along with our Learning Community throughout the fall our athletic department is grateful and excited for our partnership with the mths booster club um last spring we had a tremendous uh car show and we're looking to potentially make this an annual tradition uh and then lastly we're on schedule and working on past open the

088district as we heard uh in the facilities update um you know we're we're wrapping up the cleaning of the buildings we're wrapping up some of the construction projects we have the roof Replacements we're planning for next Summer's work already um we also have some vacancies we're looking to fill most of those are historically challenging positions uh to find and fill if uh if we get in a position we do have plan B's and plan C's in place um but we are still uh reaching out and identifying very strong candidates um so you know we expect to see some of those candidates on a future board agenda for approval as well and then lastly um like I said the facilities are on track for cleaning on track for opening uh this coming week so next week

089I'll drive through the the buildings and take a look I'll do a walk through I try to do that in the Summers just to get a field make sure we are good to go and get the visual inspection so that's something I'll do probably Wednesday Thursday Friday next week um and if anything comes up I'll certainly keep you in the loop any questions or yes just a quick question I know you had mentioned the the high school booster club my oldest is just going into eth grade now so I'm just want I wanted to get information does the booster club work with all of the high school teams um including the ones that aren't like as well as the ones that aren't necessarily considered Athletics they clubs but they're athletic clubs or are their specific

090groups that it it works with the high school booster club is open to working with any Athletic Club um that is willing and interested in working with them um some athletic teams have their own you know uh parent groups or organizations uh touchdown club for example but they're open and interested in working with any any student or any athletic organization they do hold uh you know like a food license and things so uh that benefits some of the smaller teams you know where there's maybe 10 athletes they wouldn't necessarily be able to get a a Gambling License to hold a raffle or something like that or 5050 um and that's where the the booster club is a real benefit for them so if you have a specific question about a uh your son or daughter's

091I guess direct Club experience uh we certainly can you know I can get you in touch with Dr Higgins we can get you in touch with the booster club uh Mr bar is over here he he meets with them on a regular basis and he can kind of connect the dots okay hi um I noticed that usually we have enr numbers but we don't have any for the schools is it because it's summer yes summertime we uh we pause that and then we will put publish that again starting uh once we reopen schools Miss B um DRC lemman was the car show through the booster club yeah it was a partnership with the booster club yes and what did we make through that event um I don't have the exact number but I know we

092have uh and we're working collaborative with them to have an exciting event that will um display and show some of the fruits of the labor and it the goal is for it to be very exciting surprising event um at the same time this year um it'll be it'll be this fall Mr it'll be fall yeah Mr barend is working closely with the booster club um we're looking for the right the right time yeah it could be that we're depending on the installation and depending on how the the fruits of the of the Returns come in then we hopes all we will have an event planned so thank you yep any other question questions okay Dr you're going to do this superintendent report absolutely so it is recommended that the board approve the attached personal items

093for a 10 member vote items a through AO and just a note I'm including the assistant superintendent's recommendation there as well so this is a through AO motion I have a question yep second on page Dr lman page 12 X Y and Z can you explain those to me I'm not sure I understand why those teachers are being um there for covering the high school in the morning what students come in early for something or so in managing the traffic in the high school what we've decided and it's something that Mr Pi can speak to this as well as experience years ago as well um all the students all the staff arrive into the very narrow window of time um and historically it backs up into the roads so what we offered um as a

094solution is parents with within this time frame can drop their students off a little bit earlier to get ahead of the traffic um because and if they're going to work or things like yeah if they're going to work or if they just want to not wait for 10 minutes on the road and deal with the traffic and things so this has significantly increased our ability to get everyone to class on time because it's like like going to any sporting event anywhere where you have a lot of people convening and converging at the same time so that this is all a safety piece getting our students in and uh in the building without having to open Traffic the same with Z that's after school so this is the testing center yes so this is a A

095system that the high school has in place uh and these teachers rotate through and uh what the teachers do is when there are assignments to be made up and this is specifically testing um in lie of missing core instruction or uh because the teachers are teaching in an 84-minute block if if they students take an 84-minute test or a 60-minute test they're going to miss a large chunk of instruction so this gives them a uh a timely fashion to get tests taken um and it's these are just basically supervis you know teachers that supervise it and then uh we can get those teachers back the the test so they can score them and then the students don't miss out on instruction moving forward okay thank you very much for the explanation M um I don't

096know I don't I don't care um so I just I had a quick question regarding letter um am it mentions um non-certificated substitutes for um Avid my am you said letter is it yeah letter am um there's certificated and there's non-certificated but the non-certificated ones say substitute Avid tutor I was just curious because I I know like our avid teachers go through a lot of training are these not teachers so so these are some of these are actually most of these are students so we use our own students to tutor within the AVID program um and it's just like our mentorship programs and things it's an opportunity for our students to uh work and tutor and get paid through the district yep and this is we do this annually um actually all these time sheets

097run through my office um after they go through um the high school for approval some of these tutors will work at the middle school in the Middle School a program as well okay Miss Bor um I had a suggestion Dr Layman for item k um two and three is and I understand that one person's role is being shared by two and this is for the SAT prep class so it would have been simpler to just write three sessions for each one of them instead of writing that 50% but still approving them for six sessions at $55 an hour okay thank you y any other questions okay Miss alen can we have a roll call yes yes Miss Alvarez yes Miss Bora yes Miss dep yes Dr P yes Mr Hero abstain on AO and a

098n and yes to everything else okay M Ratner yes Miss Sharma yes Mr tufano yes Mr Zer yes Miss Fabiano yes motion passes so it is recommended that the board approve attached Personnel items AP through BX that's the nine member vote motion second Miss Ratner yep um so item BV number seven and I might have seen this in somewhere else but specifically this one um I just saw it has a unified leason for an instructional hourly rate of $55 I know a lot of times we usually see up to a certain amount of hours is that not the case for this not the case for this position some some months they don't meet outside of school hours some months they meet a couple hours um it's a very minimal expenditure used to be paid for

099by the special education or the Special Olympics grants we received um we approved everyone else as a un uh unified leaz on last month this is the uh last assignment thank you any other questions Miss um Miss Al Miss Alvarez yes Miss Bora yes Miss dep yes Mr Piro yes Miss Ratner yes Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr ziker yes Fabiano yes motion passes it's recommended that the board approved the attached board action items a through S 10 member vote motion second any questions I have a qu I have a comment Miss Al sure on the school calendar it's just a comment is there any way we can streamline it to fit it all on one page one-sided versus flipping you know what that's and and I think that's an appropriate question as we

100merge into our new website has a tremendous calendar feature so maybe there's something that we can better connect with we we certainly will have the calendar live and interactive on the new website but maybe we can have a document that's a one-sided piece we can look at it and that this does come we generate the document out of our office the calendar itself is you know lots of people are involved in um but my my uh Administrative Assistant she works on it so we certainly can do that um my recommendation would just move forward with this right now um because we I have seen districts that have it on one page it's more of like a line but based piece or they have small calendars so we can play around with it but I also

101want to see how we can potentially merge it into the new website okay thank you yep Miss Bor yeah I have a few um questions so the first one as clarification we are going ahead with the school facilities policy 7510 right and we'll just bring it back to discussion but for now today we are passing vote uh for item F the calendar change I just wanted to say a quick note of acknowledgement and thank you to Dr Layman and Dr chany um I know that the Muslim Community has um has been very upset because the senior prom is is on the day of a holiday but you've been working collaboratively with them and that has resulted a slight change it's like a peace offering uh but I did wanted to thank you guys for um

102listening to the community working with them uh for a you know a constructive approach to handling that situation um and my hope is that never again in the future will a senior prom be on the same day as a holiday um item number k um Dr Le I do have a question who will receive the and let me just read what that is it's um it's a 90minut virtual professional development session on black history and OPI history over two days so this is I think in collaboration with New York Historical Society um who will be receiving this professional development so this is our uh this is all funded by the grant that we received to implement this oh course AP African African-American studies course say in did it say in parentheses Grant funded uh it

103doesn't look like it does but anything associated with that Grant with that course this year is 100% funded by that Grant um with the whole intent of the grant to we're purchasing textbooks with it and we're also uh training the teacher so this is teacher training um for the for that staff member um just the just a who's getting it would have been enough but as Grand funders that's a cherry on the K item number um item M I think it is the Savas Learning Company would you share who I think these are consult what is it used for so this is uh we're in year two of our uh K5 literacy adoption the my view literacy I'm sure you've heard talk about every year or is that this is part of our onboarding for

104the new the new uh the new series last year was year one we approved as a textbook okay so this is uh we have trainers come in work with teachers uh it's usually groups of anywhere between 15 and 30 teachers um and we'll Target uh whether it's you know icr resource from teachers uh you know different grade levels of teachers and it's all driven off of the data we got last year during their initial implementation when we signed up for that we that did not include this this was an additional cost but this is a budgeted piece as we roll out this is a massive overhaul of our language arts program probably one of the largest curriculum adoptions we would we could make in a district this is part of our plan implementation plan is

105supporting the teachers not just year one and onboarding it but also the F year so My next question was going to be are we being proactive or reactive but you're saying that this is a followup y uh like a refresher well training when and when you get a massive resource you don't know what you don't know so as you go through it right you learn it you get comfortable and now they can come even more prepared last year is this is how you use it this year is now that you used it here's a little more information but what else do you have questions on how else can we help you do this and implement it with Fidelity thank you very much so we will be comfortable with it by year three you think yep

106okay yep thank you that's all any other questions Miss R uh yep just um really quick first I just wanted to um congratulate um the district on getting the grants for the professional development um for Dr Rini I might have said his name wrong but um and then I also um just wanted to briefly bring attention to letter s which is the impact fee resolution um and I can bring this to the committee next month but with um agreement I would love to also send this to the person who had brought up this legislation in 2022 at the legislative level and our legislators um to see if there's any Chang me there mayor I if I can please I'm sorry it was in my notes but thank you for pushing this forward thank you for

107adding this to the agenda there's a couple years in the making so glad to see that it's finally on page um any other questions comments Miss alen can we have a roll call please yes Miss Alvarez yes Miss Bora yes Miss dep yes Dr PE yes Mr Piro yes Miss Ratner yes recuse on item G I believe it is which is um an agreement for the the band Department um and recuse on the professional development for Miss Smith okay um Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr Zer yes Miss Fabiano yes motion passes it's recommended that the board approve the attached board action items T through AB nine member vote motion second second any questions comments okay Miss alen can we have a roll call yes Miss Alvarez yes to all recus on items related

108to The Learning Tree on letter A U Miss Bora yes M dep yes Mr Piro yes M rner yes to all recuse on the field trip for Mr Ratner field trips for Mr rner um Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr zner yes Miss Fabiano yes motion passes okay I think that concludes the super intendent report correct thank you thank you Miss Dr Layman um miss alen the business administrator's report y it is recommended that board action items a through J be approved by consent roll call under 10 me 10 member vote Mo second any questions Mr R uh just really quick I know Dr lemman thanked um our are some of our donations I also just wanted to thank our new partner in the district um Thompson bark um for working with us um

109and as well as um the mtma mtaa which donated um for the capturing kids heart uh professional development I had one question on the bill list um Miss Alan this is on the addend addendum that was shared uh yesterday it's check numbers b651 168 and 651 167 this is for the roof replacement and the electrical work y I'm assuming this is the 1936 roof $81,000 and $777,000 is can you confirm yeah these are for the um the Brad Grant um the first payments that we are um paying for the broad Grant so those are so this is for that project that's ongoing right now I wanted to get an understanding so we sh out $150,000 what happens what's the process like to get it back do we have to wait for the entire project to

110finish or can we start applying as we're spending no well we have to wait until we get to a certain point to to the project is a certain um percentage complete but right now we have um other funds in that Rod like we have the township share and we have the $1 million of um additional state aid that we got and we had a a small budget appropriation so that money we have on hand that we can pay the township money is in hand no we will submit for reimbursement oh so okay so we still have the 1 million we have the 1 million and then beyond that we can start submitting to the town for re and then we can ALS and then at the point when we get um to the I don't

111I can't recall the percentage of the project completion um we can submit to the state um for the for the for the rod Grant actually for the um funds from them okay for reimbursement the reason I asked so we basically have to Shell out the money first and then we get reimbursed okay for and and that that holds true for the 5 million that's coming from the state uh the 5 million the one that's coming from the town can be can we get reimbursement as we go we can okay because we don't have that much of a right yeah correct so as soon as we use up these funds we can start we can go to the township for their their share and at some point we will bring in you know start to um

112go to the state for their um for their share thank you for that clarification I also wanted to Echo what Miss Ratner just said that uh thank you for all the there's a whole lot of donations here today so that makes us and uh Dr Layman even if it's at 5:00 p.m. please feel free to add donations to our agenda we will not mind um I did also want to get a little bit of clarification between when you say sponsorship and then when you say donation so the um the Thompson bark um is a sponsorship as I understand for Enrichment Services and the wrestling team so how do do we have the team app perel say something for them or do we put Banner like how do we handle a SP sponsorship different than a

113donation so Mr moraldo in his role will work with each donor or sponsor they could be used interchangeable um in terms of some say hey I have $2,000 and I own a restaurant how can I contribute to the district so he says well we're running an enrichment program would you like to purchase all the supplies um you know that's about this much money and they're like yeah we'd also like to do a scholar so it's a conversation about what the district needs what the what the donor SL uh sponsor is interested in receiving um we do have a straight transaction a donation of $1,000 you could get a sign out at the uh football field a lot of the other sponsorships also involve in donor donations involve a sign um because uh we will build

114in the cost of the sign into their donation and or their sponsorship um and a part of that contribution uh they say we also want our name on something well the sign is fine or every once in a while like I think that we did uh Pizza Cutters one time with the you know cooking with caner pizza Cutters and things like that so it's a it's a uh you know a mutual agreement the district is always thankful to have these partners and and that's how we really grow all these enrichment experiences they are not funded through our general operating budget they are Feebas programs and uh expanded pretty much exclusively through donations um they self sustaining the message to our community is that we work with everyone on a case- toase basis so it's not

115like you can only get a sign there so start the conversation with mral if you want to spor something and he will come up with um ideas to how you can contribute towards any program Y and sometimes we have we've had donors or people that can say I have you know uh an inheritance and I would like to donate $5,000 towards technology to be used in the district right so it's a very general piece and then we have the conversation and they anybody can reach out to myself uh Dr Chanley uh anyone Mr morala Miss Allen doesn't matter we'll get the conversation started and then depending on what their interests are we can point them in the right direction or just receive the funds uh and allocate them to where we need to allocate them

116to it reminds me of a comment uh Mr Payne you made in your committee meeting about somebody writing $5 million to us in their will and I was like what a brilliant idea we'll take 5,000 at a time in your generous will US 5,000 a week or a day you know anytime but what a great idea that people can you know leave us in their legacy money that's what the citizens um advisory committee is one of their um how to get more money yeah how to get more money into our district by the people that belong to the committee and um matching and right Dr Layman things like that so I just wanted one final comment on that everything is grounded in the district needs right right so that's um that's where everything is is

117centered um if if an organization or a person came and said I have this um then we could also consider that but there may be times that we decline it as well um it's all centered around District need so if this and we have needs that are must haves right we use it before and wants and things like that so um that's what it's driven by is the district need very good point thank you Dr any other questions comments okay Miss Allen okay Miss Alvarez I misspoke last time so yes to all recuse on letter A for The Learning Tree M Bora yes Miss dep yes Dr P yes Mr pero yes M Ratner um yes to all recuse on the instrument donation I believe it's letter h&j um as well as the bill list

118um check B 65242 for Mr Snider B 65215 for Mr lurry and B 65256 for Mr Ruben Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr zeer yes Miss Fabiano yes okay uh motion passes it is recommended that board action items K through M be approved by consent roll call under a nine member vote motion second second questions or comments okay Miss R just congratulations on UniFi Grant um that are listed I can't say other okay Miss Alvarez yes Miss Bora yes Miss depine yes Mr Piro yes Miss Ratner yes to all recuse on letter L the marsh Foundation Grant um received by Mr Ratner uh Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr Z yes M Fabiano yes MO classes that concludes my report okay thank you the next item on our agenda is the board president's

119report so um first off I want to thank our staff who helped facilitate our summer programs our students have had so many amazing opportunities to participate in a variety of activities and this would not have been possible without them and while one area is wrapping up another is beginning so our sports teams and marching band have begun their practices for what we know will be another amazing season for our Falcon teams it's hard to believe that two weeks from today will be our first day of school I know I affectionately called August the Sunday of Summer and so Monday is coming um but um please remember that buses will generally run a little off schedule the first week of school as drivers and families adjust to their new routines staff and administration have worked diligently

120to ensure a smooth opening of our schools thank you to everyone for your hard work and dedication to our students on behalf of the Board of Education we are looking forward to welcoming everyone back and and we wish all of our staff students and families a wonderful and Su successful start to this school year um but before I do wrap up I do want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of longtime board member Kathy kapano having grown up in Monroe Kathy was a staple in our schools I would always see her attending events and volunteering her time in our classrooms for over 20 years Cathy served on the board of education selflessly devoting her time and efforts away from her own family to work towards the betterment of our schools during her 10

121year as the longest serving board member in monro's history Kathy helped oversee the building of oak tree and Monro Township High School it goes without saying that monrell would not be the district it is today without the foundation that she helped lay for us it is my hope that this board and all boards after us will continue to serve with the same love and dedication that she did and to always work with the best interests of our students at the Forefront so thank you Kathy you serve Monro well and we hope that you rest easy that concludes my report [Applause] our next item on the agenda is other board business any any board member would like to speak M rner um y just really quick um I can Echo your sentiments I won't take too

122long but you know I've served on the board for almost three years now I can't imagine serving 20 so you know kudos to anyone who can do that um and then I did notice that New Jersey Schoolboard Association has put out the count meeting dates um as board members we are all able to go to them some of them are hybrid so you can attend online or in person some of them are I believe online only I don't think there's any that are only in person um but definitely look at the um Schoolboard association website for the for the dates and and to register for those those are all free of charge for board members I would like to start by extending my heartfit heartfelt condolence to um Kathy's family um and sharing a memory

123that um I've always been on that side when Kathy was the president uh but uh there was a time that I worked with her collecting signatures for our um uh we were going to we were writing a petition to change the funding formula and um um Kathy used to go door too she came to my house so um the the service is is definitely something that uh will be at you know attached to her name to the district that she's given 20 years to so my heart heartfelt condolences to the family um I want to Echo the thoughts about the sports um it's it's such a heartwarming feeling driving around in the morning at 7:00 a.m. seeing every single field completely OCC occupied by our athletes working really hard at it triy outs are over

124um and uh we're excited for the fall season um on other note there has been um there there's been a lot of discussion on the senior parking situation um and I wanted to bring that up here for a quick uh discussion with Dr Layman if he could inform the public as to why the change was made so what has happened is that for the last two years um the seniors would have an assigned parking spot in the high school and uh the letter that went out to the parents yesterday said that it'll be on a first come first of basis uh so basically you drive in and you find the first available spot in New Park uh there's a lot of concern there as to kids who have option to who will be coming in

125late every other day you know who have gym in the first block they will probably never find a spot or would be driving around a lot to find the spot and also that there is you know there's parking in tennis court parking by the cage field and parking here so there is a lot of driving around to look for a free spot where say which used to happen every year for the first few days till the spots were assigned and then things would smooth down so the concern that's coming out from the parents is that why was this changed to first come first so bases um and will it be safe so Dr Layman would you share with the public would you share with me sure so uh I reached out to Dr Higgins and

126he explained that uh all students that are assigned a parking spot uh and a parking pass will have a spot so there will always be enough uh parking places for anyone who uh is allowed to drive to school all the seniors uh that that have that privilege um he said that they used to have unassigned parking spaces uh they have recently the past couple years assigned parking spaces um from their uh experience they've seen an increase in accidents Fender vendors they see increased uh unauthorized parking uh and most specifically the students educ ational environment is has been more impacted with assigned spots the reason that uh educational piece is in there is as you can imagine whether it's intentional or unintentional if someone is in someone else's spot it turns into a ripple effect um

127and you could end up with two three 10 15 20 students end up in the wrong spot and then undoing that becomes extremely disruptive uh to the students educational day so he said uh he assured that anyone who uh would have been a signed a parking spot so in in other words would be allowed to drive will have a spot um we've been using and we were able to expand uh the high school parking over the years to include uh the three locations the the high school uh the tennis court area right in front of the tennis court area and then also um up here by the athletic fields ELD and the cage Fields yep so we have expanded how many students can drive over the past past years um so he understands that both

128systems have challenges um but their administrative experience seeing both sides they believe that this uh is a better situation uh for you know the students the novice drivers and we get it um it's a busy time we talked about you know why do we have coverage in the morning for students that get dropped off it's to help uh you know alleviate some of that traffic speaking to some of the students that may come in after period one uh those students again would have their would have spots available to them because they are reserved in the sense that um there's 10 students there's going to be 10 empty spots um so they certainly would have a spot to to come to there'll be less traffic when they're arriving obviously so they can drive around looking for

129that empty yeah and and I think just like uh all of us I think you end up everybody tends to gravitate to the same area when you come in anyways um so I think we find we get ourselves in a routine maybe those students would identify where their spot most most likely would end up being at their time of arrival um we do have students that leave you know this the campus early as well uh for early dismissal and then also those students that are arriving late are less students that are driving at the 710 arrival time 7:15 arrival time so that's Dr Higgins perspective um my my uh advice to the parents is if you have a concern specific concern about your son or daughter if they have a special circumstance please reach out

130to him um him and him and his team are certainly open to feedback open to comments um you know they're available they're they freshman orientation this week so they're they're all on site and uh you know looking forward to starting the school year uh can I ask you a follow-up proceed so the the security team because I know there are passes given and then there are some high schoolers that are on weight list and we'll probably not get pass do they um patrol every day to find out if their cars park without passes because that tends to happen a lot so we're saying there's enough spots for the uh passes allowed but are we patrolling enough to find the car the car because I've heard that a lot of stud Juniors tend to drive in

131and park their cars which they should not be doing correct uh but it's a it's a security team on board I think I think it depends on also what's going on in the building you know that the security team is certainly present in the parking lots and I'm glad you brought that up so as students are arriving we have our security officers helping students cross the roads um during any transition because we also have students that cross the road for fed and things um and that includes students leaving early so um there's a large chunk of the day where we have a staff member out there if it's a non-traditional transition time or inclement weather when no one's out there there's it's unlikely there would be somebody out there um but for the standard arrival

132times which would be regular arrival uh early in late in early out we will have staff members there and present um one thing that we uh are not leveraging is the Monroe PD to come through our parking lot and issue summons and things that's not something that we prefer to do in any way shape or form um but we do you know we certainly look for patterns we'll look for uh you know repeat offenders things like that and as anything happens I believe we get in a routine we identify where things are going uh this is a change again any specific questions I would Direct to Dr Higgins though um is it possible to reeval like everything starting of the school year there's going to be chaos so even with this change it's a big

133change there's going to be chaos we just go with that first few weeks but can we re-evaluate the safety of this idea sometime in October early October to see if you know there's not too much driving around happening are too many seniors uh tardy in coming in because they're just driving around looking for a parking spot so they did get to School in time but they have to drive around for 5 minutes now they're stepping in and their target can we do an analysis like that I think that's standard procedure for anything that we're doing in the buildings you know I think if a month later yeah absolutely and I think you know this is certainly a change so he'll be monitoring it but we you know anything we change in the building we're looking

134for you know whether it's changing an up hallway to a down hallway you know we'll look for the unintended consequences right the unintended effects and things like that so that's just the nature of our profession is if we make changes or when we make changes we're also looking you know do we need a tweak do we need to you know add adjust thank you Dr L I appreciate that and I do uh like you said they've they have experienced doing both things assigned spots on assign spots so we should trust their experience so I would ask anybody uh listening with concerns to go with the flow let the students try to figure it out and a month later if there's still concerns uh bring it to Dr Higgins and um we'll take it from there

135thank you any other board members wishing to speak Mr P what is option two I never heard that before so option two is a broad term that allows students to uh receive credit for alternate let's consider placements or activities so one thing we have in place is students can uh opt out of in-class physical education and we schedule them as a SE this is seniors only we schedule them as a first period uh physical education class and what they do is they document um IND thisis model through high schools in the county they document whether they go to a gym whether they're and it's a certain frequency that they have to do it because they have to hit a certain hours if they're a varsity athlete if they're on an athletic team um and it's

136assessed uh each marking period if they aren't meeting and fulfilling their phys requirement we will require them to attend in person again uh in class and there's other option to Pieces uh Dr Roselle spoke to uh there's a pathway for students to receive Credit in a foreign language and in a a world language in an alternative fashion so so um what Miss Boro was speaking to is these students uh seniors specifically if they're taking physical education in a different setting and getting credit for it that way they'll come in after first block so they'll they'll Park and and be in the building for second block on it happens each block though correct because I was told by security that they have a hard time monitoring students because there's always seniors coming and going to go

137to the gym or go here or go there so they are scheduled for a first block late in that's the that's the uh that's the goal for scheduling if there's uh some outliers you know that would be not the ideal but the the goal is a first block late in and just like it's the early out so fourth block if they go to a job or they go to an internship or something like that um there may be seniors that leave throughout the day for other reasons as well um but the goal is to schedule them for first block and then they they actually they will come in for health they have to be present one market period for health for seniors this year that would be third Market period just for clarification option two

138is for all high school grade levels no it's for seniors only for seniors for for physical education as well and and it has to do with um how would students that are say freshman be able to without a parents driving in dropping off and picking up get themselves to and from it's something we need to explore you know in the future again some districts that have it for multiple grade levels have students attend a study hall call um it's not an option right now for us because we are busting at the seams as we all know um but as we you know correct things in terms of space we then have can have other conversations and other ways to to address it okay thank you okay any other board members okay see none the next

139item on our agenda is public forum any member of the public wishing to speak you have four minutes just state your name and municipality for the record hi Sarah aiz Monro Township um I have a follow-up question about the new teacher for study skills that's going to be hired to teach the sixth grade career Readiness class um according to the agenda it says that uh she has a pending certification so I want to know what she's going to be certified in um and uh my my next question is that this agenda is missing information that I've seen on all previous agendas and that is the enrollment information by school um I want to know why that's missing and furthermore um when I saw the previous agenda I noticed that the middle school had 41 students

140less than it did the prior year the same time and I was wondering if I can if I if I send you or Dr James Higgins email can I get the breakdown of uh student enrollment change in fif in 6th 7th and 8th grade year-over-year to see because because if if if the enrollment decreases by 41 students for the whole Middle School I mean how do I know how many of those students are sixth grade seventh grade or eighth grade um so I was wondering if it's possible to get a a a breakdown of enrollment change by grade level for the Middle School school so those two questions would you like me to answer yeah so regarding uh any staff member that we bring on board we hire them pending certification pending our HR process

141going through making sure fingerprints are squared away and things like that so that's a standard piece for us um for someone that's coming in new from out of the district so they're not certified any particular subject or we're not going to talk about any staff member specifically so we're going to talk about staff members in general staff members in general when they come in they come in with either provisional certificate of ADV standings so as HR now that we the staff members approved they will go through and they will they will notify the state that the any staff member that is brought on board now can be transitioned to the next level of certification if they're non 10er things like that okay um it's like I said it's a standard process for any staff member

142we bring on board um we hire them pending completion of all the other paperwork that they need to do okay um you know drug screenings and things like that and and the enrollment information why is the enrollment information not here by schools and can I get it by grade level you answer feel free to answer I asked this question before I don't know where you went I I'm sorry must have left it's because it's the summertime so they're going to be back on the agenda starting in September oh okay I'm sorry and and can can I get a grade level breakdown of the change yeah that's something we can certainly look into it's uh because I know there was you know Oprah request and things like that so um I have to look into the

143reasoning behind whether that was approved or not approved um you know we we certainly have the monthly enrollment by school by big chunk and then you know if you ask me enrollment right now it'll be different than 11 o'clock tomorrow morning it'll be different than 4 o'clock tomorrow after any point in time for like you know what's the difference in sixth grade what's the difference in seventh grade corre yep and and I think you know that's a question that we'll work through as to what granular level do we communicate that out at are we looking at you know just I know you're asking for something specific but what does that lead to are we looking at class side you know what to what extent are we I just want to look like the total number

144of sixth grade students and I understand that but I just want to put that in perspective of how far we're required to how far we need to how far we're allowed to before we risk you know potentially uh you know any concerns we may have a district I don't know you know but I'm not giving you an answer right now okay so but I certainly can we can like I talk to Mr Weiss we we will figure out to what granular level we can dig in and provide you all right thank you yep my name is Dominic too I don't live in the township but my children go to school here last uh meeting I had brought up the freedom to read act which has passed the assembly and is moving to the senate in

145New Jersey and it is it was voted overwhelmingly by the assembly and has traction to pass in the session uh it's supported by the NGA and the Librarians Association and I'd like to know because I tried to see if it was on the plank of any of your uh campaigns but I couldn't find any of that if this board is in favor or not of that bill um because it could be important to parents uh making educational choices for their children and also for parents in voting booths um what is it the fre the freedom to react I brought this up at the last meeting right yeah I don't I I did not read about it so I'm I'm not aware of what exactly it is um does anybody else I can tell you what

146it is it uh lifts liability off of any type of media or book uh placed in libraries either public or school um it lifts the liability off the person who puts that in the library regardless of obscenity pornography uh whether it's age appropriate um yeah I mean certainly we would have to read about it learn more and discuss it as a board I feel like this would definitely be something if legislation was passed that it would come then to policy um and we would have to be put you know certainly want to put policies in place judging by like how proactive we all want to be here I was just wondering if you were um Miss Ratner did you want to say or if there was a way to get this onto a future agenda

147or away because I think this is very important and I think a lot of parents would think this is very important I know there's not a lot of people in this room right now but they vote and sure absolutely M Ratner do you want to say something yeah I was just going to say from my understanding of the legislation we can obviously discuss it at greater length at a committee meeting I'm happy to do that if if that's what you know the committee decides um it allow it doesn't provide for specifities as to what books and things will be in libraries it allows parents to opt out um without requiring um libraries to opt out a books that there might be some parents that are not happy with so it sounds like conclusion of the

148bill uh basically takes the onus off of whoever puts that book in the library whether it's inappropriate or not so it's more of the same when it comes to the politic type of stuff where you just get to do whatever you want and there's no no consequences Mr tono do you want to say something yeah just I I want you to understand that no matter what any of us think up here if we get a policy sent to us from the state and there's an m at the top of it that means mandated by the state which means we don't get to vote on it so if it pass I I wasn't asking about a vote I was asking about a position position my position is irrelevant because I can't change something that's mandated by

149the state that's something that the school has to follow by state I think your position is relevant as far as your constituents wanting to know what your positions are correct I I I think parents and voters would be interested in something like this should it pass which it passed overwhelmingly in the first house it looks like it will pass uh regardless of whether you can do anything about it that is what the voter isn't able to do by knowing your position which is why I am interested in knowing your position on this well I think it all depends on what comes down from the state after if if when it does pass and it comes to into our hands and that becomes a discussion of the board we a board of committees so it would

150go to the legislative action committee it would go to the policy committee and we would talk about you know this is the legislation that's here and this is what it will look like here in Monroe okay that's I'm Michelle arm min9 ethaniel street again um for I I think I'm so grateful for the resolution of the impact fees I think one of the things that this board should do is really put that out to the public we've been talking about it for years and years and years we see what what not having impact fees does to our infrastructure and our community so please you know people have asked what should they do to get involved this is the kind of thing people should take from the board and send it to their legislators and we

151should have a discussion about this on a regular BAS basis because this is essential to our future funding uh and now I'm going to do something that's sort of out of character for me and I hope I don't ever have to do it again but I want to clarify something I said last meeting and I do have a prepared statement as a member of the community I attend and participate in public meetings as a concerned citizen it has come to my attention that my the comments I made imp person during the July 30th 2024 public Board of Education meeting were reported on social media and editorialized by the person posting that person was not present at that meeting and to clarify my statements number one Senator Greenstein is fully aware of the board education of

152the board of education's Financial and budgetary pressures I'd like to thank board member depay for her attention to this ongoing matter of State funding and her involvement in continuing to bring the information to our state representatives senior uh Senator Greenstein so in no way was I disparaging uh Mr depay last month I just want to make that clear I didn't think you were I didn't think you uh did but social media is can be a terrible thing I I don't read it so neither do I that's why this is out of character for me number two I did not slam our kerm president Katie Fabiano Fabian uh president Fabiano inherited the dismantling of the policies designed to bring transparency and more public engagement to the Monroe School Systems instead uh and while I disagree with

153the time the timer I have no no issues with the fact that this board has chosen to do so what I try to do when I come is to deal with the actions of the board and express my displeasure if if I am unhappy with it and the reasons why aside from that I believe that President Fabiano your efforts and demeanor are a slam dunk thank you not slamming thank you I appreciate that when I address my Ed uh my elected official it is not to criticize in a demeaning or derogatory manner it is not personal I limit my comments to the actions and the decisions of the board I don't slam and I do not demean board members I have institutional history and knowledge of past encounters and experience with other government officials and

154community members I hope to share these experience es for information p uh for informational purpose only and not to demean anyone or to diminish their efforts or their actions or votes each board member brings something to the table representing a variety of the public opinions you are elected to represent Mr Tano and I have worked for ye together for years often disagreeing but when ideas have Merit those ideas should be considered regardless of who makes the suggestions the educational system needs practical and useful ideas and support we as a community and you as board members owe the District staff and students of Monroe a concerted effort to work together for the enhancement and achievement of our school and District of our students and as anyone who chooses to misrepresent the facts that other people talk

155speak and uh statements they make in this room we cannot be silent for fear of Bad actors exploiting those facts so personal vindictive and my last comment which is again a little bit off up personal vindictiveness is harmful to our mission as Educators and is an unkind Pursuit thank you thank you thank you m araniel are there any other members of the public wishing to speak looking at some of the members here and and just State your just State your KY Court Monroe thank you um I got an electric bill like everybody else sticker shock it's 67 degrees in here why thank you we're we're wasting money I I I know what it cost to keep my house at a reasonable temperature and it wasn't 67 uh so F let's find a way uh maybe

156someone was expecting 400 people to fill in here t tonight but I've been to enough board me meetings to know that we don't need to bring it down you know to prepare for that because they're not coming thank you thank you thank you anybody else wishing to speak okay seeing none we're going to close the public forum um the next item on our agenda is a close session resolution for a second close session which we are going to enter into um so I'll read the resolution whereas Senator Byron M Bear open public meetings Act njsa 10 col 4-6 provides that the monor Township Board of Education May hold an executive session from which the public is excluded to discuss matters that are confidential or are one of the nine subject matters listed section 12b of

157the act and whereas the board hereby declares that its discussion of the following subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure now therefore be it resolved by the Monro town Township Board of Education that the board shall go into executive session to discuss the following items additional items may be determined and announced as needed um should I just there's only one issue if I'm not mistaken that's going to be addressed in public in private session pardon me and that's a continued discussion of the armeno versus Monroe Township Board of Education matter um about which the board will ask and I will provide legal advice motion hold on my on this last one too be it there be

158a further resolve that this said discussion may be disclose to the public when reasons for discussing and acting upon it in close session no longer exists action may be taken on any of the items stated above is there a motion motion motion second um we should be in close session for about an hour 30 minutes 30 minutes 30 minutes 30 minutes and and just for the for the benefit of the public we are not going to be taking any formal action in an executive session if there is any formal action that will be taken it will be done out here in front of the public in the sunshine um we will be returning to this room after executive session for the purpose of adjourning the meeting but all are welcome to remain in this room

159should you wish to hang out thank you okay we've return from executive session there is no action to be taken um at this time we are going to adjourn the me meeting can I have a motion motion second any extensions all those in favor I no exensions me too time to go