001Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice. >> Please be seated. So she's object one tax. >> Um we will uh first begin with the superintendent report. >> Nobody knows what day it is. We're not used to having a board meeting on a Wednesday night. So, I'd like to begin especially for your busy schedules as uh students, as members of the public for coming here tonight on a Wednesday and for being so gracious with us as we made movements through this rough week of winter weather. I'd like to also thank the uh buildings and grounds and maintenance team for doing an unbelievable job cleaning us out and getting us
002ready to start school. Monday evening's board meeting was supposed to be the time that we uh honored our governor's educator of the year. We're going to move that to the March 16th meeting because we were considering that we were moving to a different date on a weddednesday and with the short turnaround time, we didn't feel as though guests might be able to come. I would uh like to thank Susan Walsh who is the municipal clerk for the township of Morris as well as the Morris municip Morris Township municipal body. We received some wonderful news today. Elections have been approved to move to the Fairchild Fire uh house and out of Freeling Heisen Middle School for districts 20 and 23. and postcards will be sent out to residents so that those living in districts 20 and
00323 will know that their voting location is the Fairchild Firehouse. So, we are incredibly grateful to Susan Walsh, to the township of Morris, the Morris County, uh the municipal clerk's office, and um the mayor and council who supported this effort in Morris Township. and we are pleased that FMS will no longer be a voting location. Um, so all of that crazy weather did not put a damper on uh Marstown on stage. We had a beautiful evening last night. We're grateful to the Ed Foundation um for their support of all of the initiatives. And there are many um moments of pride that we have um as members of the board, as as students at Morristown High School, but we all know that Morristown on stage certainly tops that list. And it wasn't just the talent on
004the stage. And even we got to give a shout out to our own Adam here who we got to see a great new dimension of last night. It was a wonderful performance um showcasing all of the talent but also our students who were behind the scenes who were MC's who uh were doing interviews for the station. The level of involvement of all of our students along with members of the community surely was a source of tremendous pride for the entire community. So, we thank you to the education foundation for providing us with the venue and the continual generous support of our schools. And of course, we just couldn't be more proud of all of our performers and students. We thank our high school students for their patience tonight. And uh if we could let them
005give their updates first, maybe that would be great, too. >> Please do. >> Good evening, everyone. I hope you're all doing well with the winter storms we've been having, I'm certainly looking forward to some warmer weather myself. My name is Garrett Greger and along with my fellow board liaison Daisy Zang, we'll be delivering this month's student report. Winter sports are wrapping up uh with some sports heading into their postseasons. The boys hockey team won their first round of states 13 to8 against Madison, progressing on to round two, where they'll be facing the number four seated Northern Highlands this Thursday. The boys basketball team won their NJAC national divisional bracket, bringing home a boys sports title for the first time in four years. The girls basketball team fell just short of a county title, finishing the
006regular season 19-7. They'll be looking to go for a run in the state tournament with their first game against Memorial High School on Thursday. Music is a busy month or music is busy in the months of February and March um for many of the high school's music uh students. As I'm sure you're all aware and as the superintendent mentioned, Morristown stage took place last night. Besides raising over $20,000 in funds for the MEF, the night was an opportunity for students and citizens of Morristown, Morris Township, and the Morris Plains area to show off their talents. Student winners included Newark Academy freshman Ali Eaton, who won the 18 and under award, and Morstone High School senior Sallaya Cella Raphael, who took home the rising star award. The high school jazz band, who performed as a house
007band at Morristown Stage for the fourth year in a row, is taking their talents to state prelims in hopes of qualifying for state finals a fourth year in a row. Meanwhile, the theater program's production of Fiddler on the Roof is approaching its final weeks. Next week, actors and musicians will rehearse together for the first time as they approach the show dates of March 12th through March 15th. The Heritage Club is actively involved in several community and school projects led by subcommittees in the club. The parks committee has finished its research on foster fields as part of their project with local leaders to document the history of Morristown and Morris County for America's 250th anniversary. The archives and tech committee are continuing research for the teachers corner, a hockey history project and band history updates. The
008Veterans Committee is organizing an event for US history students to hear directly from Vietnam veterans as they study the Vietnam War in class. Planning is underway for the Apollo ceremony on March 27th. The Apollo is a chance for students at the high school to show off their talents to the student body in an encouraging and fun environment before spring break. The club is also preparing a St. Patrick's Day celebration around March 17th. The Interact Club is currently hosting the Red Cross Change for Change during the week of the 23rd, inviting students to bring in spare change to provide life-saving aid for our community. Simultaneously, the National Honor Society is conducting its neighbors helping neighbors food drive through March 6th. This initiative supports NJ, Nourish NJ, which distributes groceries directly to vulnerable families affected by displacement,
009financial hardship, and local crisis. SGO is back with another pickle ball tournament this year, this time with Chick-fil-A on the line for the winning team. The tournament runs through March 16th to 27th at lunch, and funds will go toward future SGO events. Spring week is also coming up and in addition to the traditional planning surrounding the spring pep rally outside on the fields, we are considering a new proposal where we do a summer spirit countdown, which is essentially a series of 10 consecutive spirit Fridays between spring break and the end of the school year. Rather than one large event, this would be like a deconstructed pep rally. Each Friday would include two components, a dressup theme and an event in the aux gym at lunch involving classic games from past pep rallies as well as
010sports available in the gym such as knockout. Each of these events will provide the winning grade points resulting in an inschool field trip or field day. With the recent flurry of snow days and delayed openings, students are balancing the joy of having no school with the oncoming doom of potentially missing spring break. Project Fashion, a student led fashion show at the Madison Hotel, is rapidly approaching on March 5th. The money raised from this annual event featuring student models, local styles, and raffles will go toward the allnight party for graduating seniors held on June 18th. Lastly, the Life Design Lab will host their exhibition night on Wednesday, March 4th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Over 150 students are representing their classes, projects, activities, and clubs to the public at Mortown High School, including projects still in
011progress to showcase their abilities. That concludes the report. Thank you. >> We still have one snow day left for anything that's uh goes sideways. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you guys. if you need to leave. I know it's the school day tomorrow. >> Yes. >> Full. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Um I just like to um >> use this moment to recognize uh four uh staff members who will be if the board approves retiring uh tonight. Uh one of them is Tracy Bandonhson uh 21 years of service. Stephanie Wagner 19 years. Osaldo Parardia 26 years and Paula Win 25 years. Congratulations. And my a couple of words I just want to say is that trustworthy wars foster a culture of inquiry where members feel safe sharing diverse even unpopular views leading to better more
012thoughtful decision making. The Morris School Board encourages open communication and works with the superintendent and administration allowing proactive solutions. and I am very proud to serve on this board and so are all of us. Uh next I believe we have a presentation tonight by the New Jersey School Boards Association and um maybe some of us may need to uh move so that we can see. Thank you for coming tonight. Okay. Good evening. Thanks for having me back. This is on, right? >> Yes. >> It's good to see you all again. >> Good. >> Okay. I have a bigish mouth, but I've been We'll see. I've been talking a lot today. Um, so I'm here to talk a little bit about ethics. You've probably had this training maybe annually or frequently every other year or so.
013Um, my predecessor Charlene would have presented it to you. Doing it again serves two good purposes. Uh, one is there are new cases. So there's more fun uh things that we could examine that school board members, you know, made oopses about and and um had to hear from the ethics commission. And also uh it's just always a good refresh. So um the new cases also give nuance to the importance of the different ethics tenants which we'll go over too. So I'll move through it as you know relatively quickly. There's a lot of slides, a lot of cases. It it's not necessary for us to go through all of the cases. Uh we would be here quite long. That would be more like a full retreat on ethics. Uh but I will invite you to ask
014some questions along the way if you would if you choose to. Um and uh yeah, let's get started. So, first the obligatory disclaimer. I am not an attorney. And even if I were a New Jersey School Board's Association attorney, I would say to you that uh this is just advisement. It's not official legal um counsel. So, um if there ever is a question about uh legality of something that you really need an answer for, the best place to go is to your own board attorney. But that being said, you can always call me and I can put you in touch with we have an attorney of the day if you're just trying to get a little perspective. There's always somebody on call that can answer questions for you. Okay. So, the school ethics act is
015from 1991. There's two major aspects of it there foundationally speaking. Uh one is that it's essential the conduct of the members of of a board uh continue to hold the respect and faith and confidence of the people. the people have voted for you to be here and uh it's important for them to continue to have faith in you. So that that's an important responsibility. It's also a big responsibility uh for board members and uh also um board members and administrators must avoid conduct which is the violation of their public trust or which this is important creates a justifiable impression that perhaps um tr that trust is being violated. So appearances uh it's often you know if it appears to be something that's that's an issue too. You it comes back down to again the you
016know faith and trust of the community. So if there's something going on that that might impinge that or or damage that uh you you want to avoid it. Um example of what something might look might not look good. I'll use uh somebody from my past who wasn't even a board member but um I worked with a b I was in education for 31 years. So, a bunch of guys uh and ladies would play basketball once a week, you know, from staff. So, it was like staff basketball. And the AD would uh sometimes hand out uh t-shirts that were overruns. So, we had a vendor who would make t-shirts for the players, the girls and boys basketball players, you know, for practicing. So, they weren't jerseys, they were just t-shirts. And if there was an overrun,
017he would give them to us and we would wear them. The business administrator, though, where's Anthony? He would not. So, one of us was a business man administrator. He would not wear the t-shirt. He would not take it. I was like, "What's the problem?" So, being savvy, he said, "It's possible. It's not happening probably, but it's possible that um a vendor could overrun on purpose as sort of like a, you know, a kickback." So, that didn't look good. And the the BA wasn't all that thrilled with that. So, was he doing that or not? I don't think so. He said he wasn't, but the bottom line is it didn't look good. in our BA was savvy enough not to do that. I still have my t-shirt though. All right. So, the the um the state
018ethics commission is a body of nine. There are two schoolboard members, five non-school officials, and two school administrators. There's actually a couple seats. I think they filled one of the school board member seats. So, it's really a committee of eight, which is problematic if if you need a majority sometimes. Um but they're trying to fill I think it's that last seat. But that's the body that um you can either ask questions of them before an issue comes up or that you're anticipating or unfortunately uh sometimes there are filings for ethics and they have to deal with those and they they make decisions on those excuse me. So the act also um is an act of accountability. So on the left side board members or and trustees who are also board members in different settings uh
019mandatory training. So you'll see a slide on that in the next slide. uh what that means. But so there are certain governance trainings that all school board members must do and if they don't that's actually a violation of ethics. Um they also must observe the code of ethics. I believe in January at your reorg meeting uh you might have reviewed those and even signed the ethics pledge. Um I brought those but Anthony had already taken care of that at reorg and you all had taken care of that. So um we don't have to do that again. Um disclosure statements. This applies to all school officials including administrators that um there's a financial disclosure statement. So that comes up in another slide so I won't be redundant. And then uh you'll see tonight some list of
020prohibited acts. So things that would get you in trouble and there's examples of them. Okay. So here's that mandatory training again. In the first 90 days for a brand new schoolboard member, there's a foundational program called Governance One. And um there are a lot of ways to to get that training through New Jersey school boards. Uh we actually did the new new school board member orientation weekend this weekend. Um we got through Friday and Saturday before everybody got spooked about snow on Sunday. So that part was was postponed. Um but um all those new board members were uh trained in basic knowledge and skills but also QAC um which is the it's the state's auditing system for school districts. Uh HIB very important harassment, intimidation and bullying. uh how to evaluate the superintendent because that's
021a whole board um annual whole board responsibility. Uh open public meetings act and code of ethics of course. So that's the mandatory training there. And then the others each year that you're a board member in three terms you have another uh focus for training finance student achievement in year two then policy and labor relations in year three. If you are a board member who was then uh reelected, you don't start over with governance one or anything. There are legal updates. So governance 4 is a series of legal updates. The state um New Jersey school boards association is the organization that is approved by the state uh for that training. So all of our trainings have been um approved or at least we've been approved to do these trainings. So it's get it gets done through
022school boards. Uh that's the financial and personal the disclosure statement I mentioned. So if you're new, you have 30 days uh after being sworn in. That has already passed. So I won't ask if there's anybody new here who who did that or not. And then returning school officials have to do it by April 30th. That's every year. I even do it as a New Jersey school board's member uh association uh employee. So um those are not asking for uh numbers. It's not about um how much income anybody makes. it's about where the income comes from. So, that's one way to monitor conflicts of interest. Um, this is just one case highlighting that a board member inaccurately completed the 24 2024 disclosure statement and uh was reprimanded. We're going to see the different kinds of uh
023reprimands or the four ways that uh schoolboard members are held accountable if there's a breach in ethics. Um but you'd be surprised how many people are either late in filing or or don't file it accurately and those bubble up and they can get um reprimanded for that. So that was a case where someone did that. Okay. So these are the tenants that you all recommitted to in January. I'll go through them quickly. Um and just for the record, the standard stuff on the bottom there, what that means is so A is the tenant. So there's going to be A through J, whatever number that is. And then um I won't go through the standards, but that's the evidence that someone filing a complaint would need to collect to have a successful complaint on someone. So
024it just shows you um you know the uh the the pieces of um a complaint that that would have to be proven, let's say. So a uh I will uphold and enforce all laws, rules, and regulations. So that one is of course you'll follow the law when it comes to applying it in the school environment. And at the same time, if you did have a change that you wanted to see, you wouldn't breach you wouldn't break a law or regulation um to do so. Um so you you can you know use imagination for some scenarios of where you might say I feel so strongly of this but I don't know if the rest of the board's going to go along with it. Therefore I will do something on my own. Now you know board members
025don't do that. Um but that's what A is really speaking about. B. I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children to meet the uh individual needs of all children regardless of their uh ability, race, creed, sex or social standing. Um that's why we're here. We're here for the students and that's why uh people have entrusted us as board members to serve on the board and meet their needs. So the decisions are for all students. That's the key for B. Um C. I will confine my board action to policym, planning, and appraisal. Those are the foundational you know like the pillars of what board members are um you know the purpose uh focus for board members policym of course there are dozens hundreds of policies that uh you are all charged with
026u making sure are up to date and are mostly and most importantly that they're being adhered to. Planning can include uh long-term planning. It can include um strategic planning. So uh board goals. So that's a big part of uh you know board members adhering to C that's the intent behind it and an appraisal just means um the evaluation of the superintendent each year. So the board has uh one employee really so to speak uh that they supervise but of course that that employee uh is in charge of all of the employees. So it's important um to work closely with the superintendent when it comes to policy and planning and expectations and evaluation of that superintendent as well. Okay. D. I'll carry out my responsibility not to administer administer the schools but together with my fellow
027board members to see that they are well-run. So that's pretty much called the stay in your lane tenant. And while you know uh all board members have uh passionate uh you know they're passionate about certain um certain issues or or things that go on in schools. Uh they still have to remember that they're part of one body. So you know each individual board member is here for their individual uh you know thoughts but when it comes to making decisions um the decisions are based as a whole board and further the superintendent is here for the the how. So the board members are the what like what do we you know even going back to that so policy planning appraisal that that tends to lean towards what but the superintendent ultimately is the one who um
028administers the schools that's all the hows. So, um that's just a good reminder ethically speaking that um the board's purpose isn't necessarily involved in the schools directly obviously um and with employees etc. Uh E will recognize that the authority rests with the board of education will make no personal promises nor take any private action. So I was kind of referring that in in in the last one. Um but so personal promises, private action, things that uh aren't as part of the whole board, um that's not okay. F I'll refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interests or partisan pol uh political groups. So yes, you're you're here to vote your mind um and as an individual as part of a board, not uh bring special interests or partisan politics to you know to the
029to your board or to make commitments to anybody outside. Gee, I will hold confidential. So this is the confidentiality one. Uh it is to me one of the most challenging things for a board member or anyone really because you you you can't help but know a lot and even fun things or great things that you'd love to share um really can't. So that to me is a real tricky um uh code of ethics one to stick to, but it's so important. so much of um the the work that you're doing and the information that you're you know exposed to uh is confidential and um that can harm folks um if if the confidentiality isn't maintained. Code of ethics uh age I will hold to uh I will vote to appoint the best qualified personnel available
030after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer that's the superintendent. So, uh, boards don't technically hire anyone directly except the superintendent. The superintendent offers recommendations. Boards, of course, ask questions and they get to vote, um, on the recommendation, but the uh, the recommendation of the chief administrative officer, the superintendent, that that's um, that's the uh, the focus point of it. And then the board deals with the recommendation as opposed to, you know, either lobbying or or suggesting for hire supporting and protecting school personnel. Protecting school personnel sounds a little odd, like as if you're going to be sentinels out there making sure everybody's physically protected, but it really means um one example of what it might mean is just policy. So if there are policies that are written on behalf of staff, then
031it's important for those policies to be adhered to. Um, so you know that could be personnel. Uh, so protecting means that um, everyone's treated fairly and according to policy for the most part. Um, there are examples in the cases when we get to those in a second that uh, illustrate what protect means I think a little bit more. Um, and then the last one, refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer, the superintendent um, and will act on the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution. So that's the um, chain of command. Uh, and yeah, chain of command one. I think chain of command is one of the most powerful things that a board member can remind the public of to keep your sanity, if I can go that far. So,
032if you're pulled over, you know, by a well-meaning parent or community member in the grocery store and they say, "Hey, I just want you to know about X, Y, or Z. Maybe you can look into that." Um, a powerful thing for board members to do is to say, "You know what?" Figuring, "Well, where is the issue for this person?" If it's at a school, you'd say, "Have you talked to the principal yet?" That's the best way to deflect that away from you because um you don't want to take that on. Uh have you talked to the the principal yet? And then it would go up the chain that way all the way up to the superintendent. So your first response doesn't even have to be talk to the superintendent. It can be oh talk to
033the teacher, talk to the uh you know, talk to the principal. Um it's only after if if policy allows appeals in a district. So, if your uh schoolboard policies allow parents to appeal it uh appeal a superintendent's decision, that's when um the that's when the board would get involved if there was some kind of appeal at that level. But it really comes back down to policy. So, ethics complaints are filed. Uh anyone can file it. It doesn't have to be um necessarily someone within the district. I think it could be even outside of your district. Um so, there's a 180day window from the date of occurrence. Uh that's a long stretch. So, um, if you're not over it after 179 days, maybe you should file it. I don't know. Uh, and it has to be
034based on factual evidence and citing a section of what we just looked at. Um, that's important. And I I love that there's a a fine up to $500 if it's frivolous because the commission, you all, a lot of people don't have real time to keep chasing uh, you know, people who who maybe are upset about something, but does it come to the point where you should be filing an ethics complaint? So um there is some accountability as far as filing those uh you know a little bit too freely. So here are the four ways that board members are held accountable by the commission. First is a reprimand. So the commission decides based on the complaint that um that uh it was violated but it's it's at a level where um and then the commissioner approves
035their recommendation that someone get a reprimand. So for the most part that's a direct you know the board president is informed and the board member is informed that you know what what was done was not okay and and and it ends there but censure is that but a step further. So if it's a little more um egregious as far as the a violation is concerned then the the reprimand is is a resolution. It's adopted as a resolution at a board meeting. I've actually seen that once. It's awkward. So, um the board president then has to read a resolution um saying that the commissioner of education has reprimanded the board member. So, that's no fun. Um suspension is even more signific. Um and then finally, the removal. If a board member is has violated uh one
036of the ethics laws seriously, they can actually be removed. um there's a defense that people can use if there's a ethics violation filed against them and they could say well I I talked to the attorney and I I took my action based on what the board attorney suggested that works if those four things are in place. So if you if you invoke the advice of council defense four things have to be true that the approval and advice was received prior to the action. So um that goes without saying that's self-explanatory. Two, the individual who offered the advice or approval relied upon possessed authority or responsibility. So it has to be somebody who has uh some legal counseling legal counsel responsibility in the district. Typically board attorney let's say all pertinent facts and circumstances were fully
037disclosed. If you give your board of attorney uh you know half the information and they advise you then they've advised you based on a different circumstance really than what you're talking about. So that would also have to be true that you gave all the pertinent facts if you're going to invoke the advice of council defense and then the individual complied with the advice that was received. So that does mean those are four things that really have to be um you know provable actually for someone to you know sort of get off the hook if you know get out of jail free kind of thing uh with the advice of council defense. I think there's a case about that later too. Yep. Um okay. So now we're going to be bouncing back and forth a little
038bit with some cases. Here's one where a board member told the public that the board was prepared to reduce instructional time by 40 minutes per day after the superintendent had explicitly told her numerous times that revealing that information would hurt the board's position in union negotiations. So, while that might say sound like it's it's secret stuff and it deserved to be there should be transparency, negotiations are negotiations. So if the board is having a conversation and the superintendent is involved because the board can say well what would it look like if we were to change the school day for example you have the right to ask that without it being immediate you know being shared out in public because maybe you're not going to do it uh or it's just not the time. It's it's
039it's information that you want to uh make part of your negotiations with with the union. So, um, that action was outside the scope of the duties as a board member and there was censure involved there. So, that's that public reprimand um that you know that shouldn't have been done. And then the other one on the bottom there, this one's tricky because I feel like it could happen to anyone at any day, but a board member sent an email about uh attending a CPAC meeting. So, that's special education parent association of some kind. and um it came from their board email account uh to a member of CPAG and uh theoretically uh it creates a justifiable impression that objectivity or independence has been impaired. Another way to say it is just um someone receiving that might
040think somebody is in you know suggesting that as a board member you know you should be doing this or whatever. So, it has to come from your personal email if you're acting as an individual, you know, parent or community member as opposed to a board member. So, something like that can get sticky. That was a reprimand. I think I mean, how many times do you go to send an email, you have three different accounts and it self and it populates automatically. So, I guess you want to be careful about that. To me, that's that's sort of a whoops. That's not malicious. Um, couple other. So, here's a case where a board member read another board member's text message aloud at a public meeting, but what made it that's still not a great idea anyway, but
041what made it worse is it was about another school. It was about a school official. So, you've just had a conversation about a staff member who probably wasn't racist. Uh, which means they have to be notified they're going to be discussed at a board meeting. Um, so there was a reprimand for that. uh this one 15-year board member. So, somebody with a lot of experience um sort of, you know, went astray and took it upon themselves to so the superintendent wanted to reprimand a staff member and the board was aware of that. And so, a board member wanted to advocate on behalf or even intervene and picked up a letter of, you know, I guess in self-defense. So, the employee wrote a letter uh in self-defense. the board member picked it up, shared it with
042other board members and the BA and told the BA, don't share this with the superintendent. I mean, there's a whole lot of um, you know, involvement there that shouldn't be and uh, undermining. So, instead of accusing herself from the matter as well, she had a person because she had a personal interest, she got personally involved. Um, so yeah, that was a suspension and that's a lot of and after 15 years, this I always think like what what happened to you? How did you have that lapse? But um hopefully there's not a long line of it, but for 15 years to be a board member, but that's where um yeah, see I is I in there somewhere? That might be one of those ones where you consider the superintendent was undermined, therefore not protected. Uh recusal
043versus abstension. um abstension is intended to be um if you don't have enough all the information something as simple as maybe you weren't there for a meeting and you you aren't aware of the minutes how can you approve the minutes if you didn't have an opportunity to be part of a meeting or even read the minutes. So there there might be you know that's a a very elementary example but so if you don't have enough information you might abstain you might abstain from it. Recusal though that's when ethically you should not be voting. So, um, there are so many examples of that that we'll get to a little later on, but that could be if there's family involved. You know, you have a family member in the district, you're a board member, you certainly can't
044vote on things that impact a family member. So, that's just one example. We'll see a few more later. Um, relationship definitions. So, that led right into that immediate family member, their list up there, spouse, civil, union, domestic partner, or dependent child residing in the same household. Those are simple in the sense that if you have an immediate family member and somehow your actions as a board member could impact that, you have to recuse from that. Gets a little stickier with relative. Um so at that little thing at the bottom there, um although term relative does not appear in the in the act itself, it's still important to avoid any kind of conflict of interest. So even relative should be taken into consideration when in doubt. Um actually that chart is amazing. 8 11 to 23.
045So if you feel you might have some family member and it's not immediate because then that's a no-brainer. Um that chart lists like 20 different ways of being related to somebody and what you know what the uh you know what the appropriate action would be for that. Um this will be sent to you tomorrow and it will be a PDF and you can click on that advisory opinions. So we talked about cases uh where people were you know held accountable you can ask for an advisory opinion from the SEC as well the uh eth the ethics commission and um sometimes so it's a good question and maybe six members of the nine say you know that was a really good question that so and so asked from Morris let's let's share that publicly because everybody
046should know that that was a good question and there's this and here's our response we want more people to know about it so advisories are very useful as Well, they're not about um reprimanding or anything. They're just about people asking questions to make sure that they're doing the right things. Um and then we have our little resident uh police officer image there. The idea there is if you have an advisory opinion, it's like if a police officer uh told you certain actions would get you in trouble and result in arrest, you wouldn't then do it. Um so if the advisory says to you, here's our answer to your question, you would want to follow the advisor's guidance. you we wouldn't want to say, "Okay, thanks for telling me that, but I'm going to do it
047anyway." Um, we know people like that, but we don't want to be them. Uh, okay. So, here are a couple advisory opinions um that I will not go through all of them, but I can pick one or two of my favorites perhaps. Um, can board members volunteer for businesses who donate to the district? So, the important language for stuff like that is um benefit. So, later on you'll see that a little bit too. So, is there a benefit? Um, can the board members volunteer for businesses? They can who donate to the district, but they have to avoid anything that could be considered a benefit to themselves for participating or being involved. Um, so there's another case down the road that gives a little bit more information on that. So, we don't want to stop people
048who are um, you know, board members tend to be volunteers by nature. That's how they board being a board member is a volunteer position. So, we don't want to stop board members from volunteering, but they have to avoid anything that could be considered a conflict. Maybe avoid um you know, money, uh that kind of thing. And um I think there's one other one there that I like. Oh, so the bottom one, A13 to 25, can a board member hire a district teacher to tutor their child? I mean, that makes perfect sense, and I think lots of folks do that because you have a relationship with the uh the teacher. Maybe they were one of your kids' favorite teachers and down the line you want them to tutor because you can't do it at the same
049time obviously. Um so the answer to that is while the advisory so the commission said um if you are actively paying the child's te uh paying the teacher to be the tutor then you wouldn't want to vote or be involved in any kind of conversation that directly impacts that teacher. So, uh, example, the teacher is recommended for a stipened and you're going to vote on that. If your child is being tutored by that teacher, there's going to probably be a bias there. So, that's when you would recuse. All right. So, how about this one? Um, yeah. So, a the second one down, A1 to 25. Does a board member who supported the local union have a conflict related to negotiations? Um, that one surprised me a little bit to be honest, but that it comes
050back down to again if you're acting as an individual, you have every right to support someone, but you just simply can't be sharing board information with um somebody that could help the negotiations. Um, you can uh you cheer them on. You can wear a t-shirt that says you love the you know the u the association, but it's important not to um allow them to have any benefit from you as a board member. So, you wouldn't share any kind of information about negotiations or anything, but you do have the right to support. Um, okay. I think yeah. Uh, okay. So, benefits. You've heard me say that a couple times. The ethics regulations um def defines a benefit as a direct or indirect advantage, profit, privilege, or gain, whether it's personal, financial, or otherwise. So, and the
051perception once again is important. So it doesn't come down to a board member defending his or herself saying, "Well, that's not what I meant or that's not what I intended." If it looks bad, sometimes that's enough to to get you recom uh a reprimand. So, um they do give a case example there. Board member spoke during the board meeting about he how he was running for general general assembly. So, if you announced at a board meeting, hey, I'm running for local office, um that's a benefit that others wouldn't have. So, you're using your, you know, you have access to the community, uh, you're a board member and you're using that venue, uh, to to promote yourself and so that's not a benefit other people would have. So, we'd want to avoid that. It was reprimanded.
052Okay. So, um, these are prohibited acts and this isn't and so this is like an excerpt from it just to give you a sense of it. So, I'll kind of read through them quickly, but again, recuse yourself if there is a benefit to you. There's that word again. um or your immediate family due to a a business interest or professional professional activity that's in conflict. Uh using a position to secure unwarranted privileges, advantages or employment. Uh financial involvement that may impair objectivity, service or employment that may prejudice independent judgment, gift, favor, etc. offered with the intent to influence or financial gain. And then other considerations could be that shall not it shall not represent any person party other than the board district matter before the board and it should not be a conflict if uh
053it it's not a conflict if it's not acrewing a greater gain than any others. So again it goes back to the fact that are you in a position uh of benefit where others aren't because of your position on the board. More cases a board member has a director indirect financial interest with votes on or about the law firm that provided her with free representation. So I think this is the one where um it was provided. Yeah. Okay. So there's there's two with lawyers there. The respondent received legal defense without incurring costs um in defense of her p person uh personal ethics matter, but the respondent voted then to approve the payment of the law firm. So, um, if you received legal representation and then voted for them, that could be considered quidd proquoish, I suppose.
054Um, okay. And then there's another one there. Respondent's child is a relative under the act. Respondent lacked objectivity or independence when he participated in labor negotiations with the union of the administrator who supervised his child. Um, respondent used his position as superintendent when he participated in the labor negotiations with the union of the administrator. So, superintendents don't always participate or often even participate in labor negotiations, but by doing so um when your own kid is is uh employed by the district is problematic and there was censure recommended there. Um oh, okay. This is the an AD. So, this one's a little bit bizarre, though. So there they weren't looking to um change a coach, but um an AD to the AD. No. So a board member was trying to persuade or advocate for two other
055people to take the role of that coach. I think it was a wrestling coach. So the idea was okay board member comes and says, hey, you know what everybody, these two are great. I think our wrestling program would be so much better if we hired this person and then hired these two as coach and and co- coach or whatever. So that, you know, that's that's out there. So that's that goes back to the superintendent makes the recommendations that the board votes on. Uh board members don't come in and do those kinds of things. That was a reprimand. I would see that potentially as being maybe a censure, but um uh okay. I I feel like I don't want to take up your whole agenda, so I'm going to go through a couple. I'll just do
056the ones that are real fun. How's that with conflicted uh board? Those aren't fun. All right. Hiring personnel if the relative already works in the district. So you you may not hire the relative of a board member or chief school administrator. So, the board can't hire or approve, let's say, um a chief's the relative that already works in the they can't hire, right, somebody um to work in the district, but if the relative already works in the district, there are some aspects to that. Administrator may not exercise direct or indirect authority over their relative. So, that can be tricky if it's the superintendent, but so, um there's that. And then a board member may not take part in employment matters concerning uh the superintendent because the superintendent is the supervisor of all staff. So if
057a board member has a fam you know family that works in the district um then and the superintendent supervises them then then the board member can't take part in uh employment matters that concern the superintendent. And then lastly, a board member may not take part in the search, selection, or vote to hire a new superintendent and post hire and and hire, you know, after the fact evaluations and contract discussions. Okay. And uh committee, so I'll just do this one in like sort of one paraphrase. Um where the whole uh family thing and and relatives gets a little tricky could be even in something uh like committee assignments. So if you're if you want to be assigned to a committee but that committee touches on something that a board that a relative is involved with like
058one example is the spouse works in the technology department. So then that board member should not be involved in any and all matters including service on committees that touch upon or directly relate to the employment uh including without limitation the personnel negotiations andor finance committees. So those committees would be tricky if someone had a spouse that's working in the technology department for example. And then there was a case below that mentions the board member's domestic partner is transportation specialist. Therefore um that board member would want to not serve on the transportation committee if you have one of those. Um, okay. So, this is I want to change this chart, but I'm not allowed to touch the eth only only the attorneys can touch the ethics presentation. But the way it reads, let's start from the
059right and just say when can you participate in negotiations, you know, so that's negotiations for the collective bargaining agreement. So, when can you participate? That's second from the right. And then when can you vote to ratify the contract? So, the things to the left of that are like conditions. So if you have a family member, immediate family member that works in the district, you can't do anything. Um you can't participate in negotiations, you can't vote to ratify, and it doesn't matter if um their current because they are a member of a of a union. It just happens to be in your own district. So then there's this scenario where u the relative doesn't work in the district, but they are part of a statewide public teachers union. So even then this is a little surprising
060to me uh they you can't the board member should not participate in negotiations but they can ratify the contract. Then the last one is just if you don't have anybody that works the district then yes yes you can do both you can participate in negotiations vote to ratify the contract. Does that make sense? Okay. And then campaigns and collective bargaining. Board members who receive union endorsements may be conflicted from collective bargaining if negotiations begin within a year of the election. uh endorsement of candidate by local andor national statewide union doesn't create a per se future conflict unless a financial contribution is given with the intent to influence. So money is important there um in that regard. Volunteering, volunteerism again, as I said, that's just in your blood. Board members just are volunteers by nature and
061by definition in this case. So um I'll give you like the the the rule of thumb is simply if your involvement is periodic not frequent and it's doesn't involve directing anybody or having some kind of leadership uh in a role um then you're okay. But if somehow the activity so if you're going to go read on Dr. Seuss day that's fine. Even if you're going to go on like a field trip that's fine but don't handle the money. You just want to avoid those kinds of things. But if it seems like you start to become embedded in the school, like if your your if your role is connected your volunteer role is connected to the school on a regular basis and you're spending a lot of time there, uh it could start to seem like
062you're a staff member in some way like uh you know desour uh or or you know it might seem like you're a staff member. So um you would want to avoid those. Okay. Visiting a school uh it's a good idea to uh let alert the superintendent before you visit a school. Um, of course, if it's an ongoing thing, like you're the liaison and the superintendent's aware of that and so is the building principal and all that, that could be an exception, but it's just a good idea to keep in mind. It's good to let the superintendent know when you're going to be in a school. If it's parents night, maybe you don't have to. It's, you know, it could be um, you know, it's it's a given. Um, but it helps because, you know, sometimes
063when board members walk into schools, you know, people are like, "Oh my god." And they there's like an alert that goes out and people's it shouldn't be that way. You're just humans and community members. But um sometimes that you know that happens. So you know and then the the the principal always appreciates and the main office staff when you kind of wave and say hey I'm just stopping by to X Y or Z. Um that's just polite. It it's a good practice. Social media. Okay. So we do have a whole presentation on social media but I'll try to just plow through this pretty quickly because um I think we're going a little longer than you might have expected. So when a board member makes a statement um the so the commission says you have to
064consider the content, the substance and the context. Of course the the less involved the the less emotionally involved you are in any kind of social media posting or or anything is is a good idea. um even though you're you have first amendment rights, you have the right to be a person uh an individual and and still participate in, you know, family who posts things and liking things and all. Um but just keeping it very um non-emotional helps and never using the word we if you're talking about school district or board. So um this the commission also suggests that you use this disclaimer. Again, I'll send this to you um so that it can be, you know, you can all have it. Um it suggests the disclaimer and to use both parts of it, but it's
065important to recognize that it you then can't just violate ethics. It doesn't it's not a get out of jail free card to use that term again. So, here are some of the things to keep in mind. Um C74 members comments not only had the potential to compromise the board, but did compromise the board. staff members expressed concerns about what was going to happen to the material they were teaching in their classroom. So, this is the one where some there was a a a separate page where discussion of books and and which one's so banning really uh shouldn't be there and I think it was maybe a new school board member who said give me you know I agree 100% give me six weeks or something like that. So you might have said me or I
066but the bottom line is you're suggesting that in your role on the board you will get certain books banned. So that's a bad idea. Um and then just in general the bottom one there C75 is avoiding the term we because that tends to start to feel like you're talking on behalf of the board. So that's an important thing too. Your your independent voice should be an I. Um, and when you say we, people are going to just assume you're talking about uh the the board and the thinking of the board as a whole. Um, couple important things to keep in mind. Texting from the board table could result in filing an Oprah. I've actually seen somebody threaten to do that once. It was during COVID and you know, people are all on the computer. You
067see the little Brady Box faces in in the screen and somebody was texting when a community member was uh upset about something and they threatened to Oprah the text while somebody was home texting. Um so that was interesting. Uh ethics complaint will need to show a nexus, you know, connection between the action or information sharing um and your role as a board member. Your you you are your child's advocate first and foremost. When meeting with staff as the parent of your child, don't state that you're a board member. In fact, you can even flip that. I doubt many board members would walk in to see a teacher and say, "I'm a board member." More likely, the teacher says, "Hey, you're a board member." And then a really good reply is, "Yes, but I'm here as
068a parent today." So, that's a good way to, you know, keep a little bit of safe distance from somebody uh connecting you being in a board function when you're, you know, as a functioning as a board member when you're not. um refrain from using your campaign social media pages because your platform you ran on could be viewed as a position of the board. So you had as a person campaigning it's actually the right thing to do as far as uh speaking about what's important to you and what you'd like to see happen if you were to get on the board knowing that once you're on the board you unilaterally can't make all of that happen. You you could have be part of conversations. Um but uh in that case you you would um right so
069you would kind of you could hide it and then when you run in a couple more years, three years, you could dust it off and do it again, but in those cases you really want to be careful and do some research perhaps on what's appropriate or not uh when you're campaigning. We have resources on that. So you could always call me. Um, if you administer a social media page and you are perfectly appropriate at all times and yet somebody posts something that's not appropriate on the page that you're the administrator on, that could get you in trouble too. So, you have to be careful about that. Um, another thing though as a board, if you have a social media, you know, account page and it is actually meant to be on behalf of the board,
070you can't shut down public comment because all of a sudden you're shutting, you know, it's almost like you're having a board meeting and you don't let people comment. So, if you did have a a a board page of a sort, social media, you'd have to allow the comments, I guess, is what I'm saying. And that could get sticky. So, I think most avoid that. Here are some resources. Again, I'll send you the PDF so that you have it and you can click on any of these. Those are all really good resources to do further research. And I do want to thank you once again for the work that you do. It's a very hard job. Um, it all those ethics things, that's a lot to keep in mind. So, I I applaud you for all
071the professional learning that you do, for inviting me and before me, Charlene, in uh just to keep you up to speed on on all the best practices to be the best board members that you can. Are there any questions? Okay. All right. Great. >> Thank you, Paul. >> Thank you. >> Oh, go ahead. was so we're going to table that motion. So we'll discuss the curriculum but that's how you do education matters just saying Monday table. >> Thank you very much. And now we'll uh continue with committee reports. Uh Meredith for curriculum. >> Um the curriculum committee met on February 10th. No. Here second. >> Vivian, can you call the next committee? I I don't want to make >> Linda. Can you do finance? Uh, sure. Thank you. Boy, that went fast. Um, so as
072usual, finance had a a healthy discussion about a number of matters. Um, I'm going to start with transportation. Um, uh, and, uh, offer some continuing supply chain saga here. Um, we've talked before about the supply chain issues of getting new buses. Uh and we as a regular matter replace three to six of our buses every year. Um after we brought the transportation inhouse from our contracted resources that was in uh I think 2018 or 2019. Um we had two new 29 passenger buses delivered on February 5th. Um the bad news was those were placed in October uh the end of October 2024 and with an original estimated delivery date of July 25 and we actually received them in February of 26. So it continues to be a struggle for us to um get new buses
073on time. Uh however, our transportation department has adjusted their ordering process in such a way so that we try to mitigate that to the best of our ability. That said, um continues to be a struggle. Um the other thing I want to talk about is the the cold weather response. I think uh and you alluded a little bit to that earlier. We have teams of drivers now uh during the cold weather who are assigned to go to each bus lot to start buses when temperatures um reach freezing. and they get there at 5:30 in the morning. Uh, which provides mechanics an opportunity to have the time to jump start buses if that's required and helps to ensure that none of our bus routes are delayed. So, kudos to our drivers and mechanics and everyone who's
074involved in keeping those buses rolling. Um, Greg uh gave us an update on the January in district trip summaries and we do have some joint share agreements with other schools. These are just um in district trips associated with uh band sports day trips um you know etc. So we had uh in January 499 um trips excuse me January was 119 and total for 2026 was $4.99 that included sports bands day trip CBI for Filling Heis and Morristown some K5 trips and so on. We also had um a series of trips for January for PC school and Mars Plains. Um the total revenue associated with those trips uh for 26 was a little over $60,000 in the month of January was almost 16,000. So that continues to um be something that um we do and we
075do well and uh I think we're our service is appreciated by those whom we're serving. The um next thing I want to talk about is we had a preliminary budget discussion in the finance committee. Um I I want folks to understand that this is a work in progress. Um and one of the things that's challenging us is that we um have received information there's going to be a delay in the release of the state aid numbers. So we actually cannot complete the budget until we get that information from the state. Um, we do have a preliminary budget uh uh review again at the next board meeting on the 16th of March. That's still uh scheduled. Uh, we have a very short turnaround time to get the budget approved by this board to the county superintendent
076who has to do an approval as well. Assuming that goes well, we'll be advertising the budget in the daily record pending county approval by April 20th. We have the final formal approval uh hearing here in the public meeting on April 27th. And then by the end of April, April 29th, we'll have the budget posted on our district web page. So, just so you know, it's it's never as easy as it looks and as complex to begin with. So, thank you Anthony and crew for all the hard work you do in making sure that we stay on track with our budgeting process. Always does an exemplary job. Um, so we reviewed that budget and uh everything else is kind of on track. As soon as we get the state numbers, we're going to turn things around
077as quickly as possible. Um, under finance also we have under business matters motion 11 um a motion for some prescriptive lighting at Woodland School. This is a utility sponsored incentive program for replacing our older lighting with high efficiency options like LEDs. Uh the work was actually done over the summer, but the bank working for JCPNL requires a board motion to authorize online bill payment. So that's what that motion is about. Um we also have um some donations that we want to thank um Morris Arts for. They are donations coming from the FM Kirby uh foundation. These are motions um six, seven, and eight. Um, under business matters, um, the Kirby Foundation gave $700 each to Sussex and, uh, Alfred Bale. And there were two artist residency grants, both value, both valued over $6,000, one at
0786,300, one at 6,500. Um, and these are, um, as I said, motion 6, seven, and eight. They give a description of those. I just can't say enough about our partnership with Morris Arts. they they are um steadfast as is MEF and working with us and um we appreciate their generosity and that of their donors. Um we talked about our grants um our uh uh SEA excuse me ESA and IDA I can't even say this EA and IDA grants have to be amended both for carryover funds. Um so you have some motions motions three and four for the EA and then there are motions um associated with the IDA grant as well which is under pupil services motions two and three. So they're kind of spread out throughout our agenda but um these are just procedural
079um items. We're taking the uh carryover and then we're approving uh resubmitting the corrections. The Perkins grant has been amended to reallocate funds among budget lines. That's also a grant requirement. That's motion uh education matters motion two. Um and we're very proud to announce we have a AP expansion grant that we're going to um apply for. It's a competitive grant for up to $75,000. Uh the funds, assuming that it's awarded to us, will be used to train 16 teachers to expand the tra teaching capability. um do a summer boot camp and write curriculum for a new P AP class. So, we've done an extraordinary job in the last year with our um AP um instruction and this is just an attempt to continue that very positive path. Uh we had one um item of surplus
080under business manage motion 9. It was a cargo ban. And on a facility update standpoint, um we we've had a few challenges with our heating systems, but one of the reasons that we're talking about doing a referendum. Uh and during this extreme cold, custodians and maintenance staff have been brought in to check the ability to ensure all heating systems are operational and address any issues before they create major damage. We did have a couple of fairly significant problems in the last few months, one at the middle school and one at one of our elementary schools. So it's the aging infrastructure is an ongoing problem for us. Uh Glenn and um Al have worked with Ela Bro to prepare a um city facilities presentation and I'll I'll talk a little bit more about that in just
081a second. From the food services standpoint, we have one open position at Alfred Bale and the head chef at uh the high school is being recognized as the top chef for Pmptonian, our food service provider companywide. So we can be very proud that we have that person working for us. Um we reviewed as normal the uh monthly school counts and the case section uh counts uh as of the end of January and our next finance meeting is going to be March 13th. We delayed that from our normal schedule so that we could hopefully have the state aid numbers in hand and um as I said we'll be talking about that on the 16th. So that is finance. Uh can I beg for a little bit more time here? I'd like to uh continue this discussion
082with some comments on our newly formed ad hoc referendum uh committee. So I just want to um make a point here that uh the work that we're doing on the referendum has been uh grounded in community um input uh going all the way back to our strategic planning effort in October of 24. Um and from that effort came a goal uh communitydriven to build optimal environments for learning. That then was translated into a series of related objectives and action plans and um and then we sought some additional community input through surveys and a series of focus groups um in 2025 and utilized the community feedback we got from those to prioritize specific projects into three different categories. So related to infrastructure, related to our student experience and related to instructional um improvements. We are now
083at the point where we have submitted all of these projects to the state and are um seeking to get feedback from the state regarding the level of financial state aid that will be associated with that. Um and um so not only are we awaiting the state aid numbers, but we're awaiting the numbers for the bond referendum that tell us how much financial aid we'll get associated with that. So there's those are two missing pieces of information that are very critical to our financial planning. In the meantime, I mentioned earlier that we have a um hybrid presentation coming up. It's going to be delivered by our buildings and grounds director Glenn Miller. It's scheduled um on March 9th at 7 o'clock. It's going to be in this building in this room. Um and everyone is encouraged
084to either come in person or you may dial in via Zoom. Uh I think it's going to be very informative because you're going to see firsthand why we believe uh referendum is important for some of our facilities. Um, the before the the before is sometimes very shocking to see. Even though I'm going to say we have well-maintained buildings, we've been we've been spending money on a regular basis to keep our buildings up to date. It's right now the need is outstretching our ability to fund. So, that's kind of where we're at. Also, beginning in March, this is something that everyone will want to hear about. We're going to have volunteer uh board of education members and district administrators who will be available at various events that are uh planned over the month of March um
085who want to obtain more information about the referendum. So, uh the folks who volunteer are going to be recognizable because they're going to wear a button that says ask me about the referendum. There's going to be a table set up. There'll be some information available to um to hand out. And we also have business cards that contain a QR code that will take you right to our referendum website to tell you everything that we know so far. Um, I would recommend if you do attend uh one of these events and pick up a business card, keep it handy because we will have frequent updates. You can use that QR code to to update yourself on a periodic basis as as uh more information becomes available. So anyway, once we hear from the state uh in
086the I'm going to say late spring, early summer time frame regarding the um uh the amount of uh help we're going to get on the bond referendum. Um we will then have a fullfledged campaign uh outlining the investment that we need to make, why we need to make it, the prioritized projects, and what needs we're fulfilling with this work. Um, and not to forget, we're going to have to vote uh on September 15th of 2026. So, that's my referendum report. I was also going to mention something about MEF and >> Okay, I'm to break it up a little bit. >> Can I just say I was going to mention MEF, but it's already been addressed by our superintendent and by >> or you could seed your time >> by Garrett or I could seed my
087time to Debbie. Um, in any case, I'm going to say it was an awesome night. I loved the fact that we were we were alternating uh presenters. Everyone was the presenter the um participants were all outstanding and it was just fabulous. So, >> now I'm done. Thank you for helping. >> U Thank you, Lyn. Uh, Linda Mar. >> Okay. Uh, thank you. >> Thank you. Uh the curriculum committee met on February 10th, performed our monthly approvals of K12 field trips 16 overall. And you'll see these reflected in Ed Matters motion number five. We approve the spring courses being offered at our community adult school, including spring lifeguard training class for students who'd like to be certified um and for students who would like to be reertified. You'll see these reflected in Ed Matters motions 7,
088six, and seven. We also approved an honors pre-alggebra uh class at FMS. Uh students at Freeling Heisen currently have two options for a math course, either pre-alggebra or algebra 1. Um and there is a a fairly large gap between the content covered in the two courses. So this new course uh provides an opportunity for students who may fall in between. Um and it we are creating a more rigorous uh opportunity here with the pre-alggebra honors course. Um the course would cover eighth grade math. Um, in addition to a preview of algebra 1, it'll be an opportunity for students who do not quite meet the requirements for algebra 1, but could benefit again from the rigor and experience of an honors math course. You'll see this item reflected in Ed Matters motion number eight. Uh, the
089committee also had the opportunity to discuss various topics that don't require your vote tonight. Um the first topic regarded uh more school district preschool program professional development. And this um here we talked about providing teacher not teachers but teacher assistants with webinar training on understanding how to engage students with various uh math concepts uh throughout the preschool day. Uh the next topic we discussed was uh world languages at Morristown High School and the committee agreed with Dr. Mucci's recommendation to add an honors track for levels three and four of world language in the 2026 27 school year. Again, this is not on the agenda tonight, but revisions of the programs of studies will are upcoming and will be um presented for your approval at a later date. Um last the board members review the committee
090list of scheduled presentations for the year. Some of which include a midyear student assessment data review happening at our next curriculum meeting and other topics like special education, bilingual program status and intervention updates. Um la uh last but not least, we had a short discussion about these presentations and provided feedback for um what uh individual members would like to learn more about uh throughout the year at upcoming meetings. Uh members are encouraged to reach out to me with any further ideas and our next meeting is on March March 4th at 100 p.m. >> Yeah, next week already. I know. I know it goes fast. Next, I'll present on HR. The HR committee met on Wednesday, February 18th. HR continues on board uh to on board certified and non-certified staff. Mr. Maresy shared a presentation on
091the state of Fley Heisen Middle School and his plan to continue to nurture an environment that is student centered. As you can see on the agenda, motion 8 is recommending Mr. Vincent Maresy, this the current principal grade six to assume the position of principal grades 6 to8. We are excited for Mr. Maresy and the future of FMS. The next HR committee meeting is Tuesday, March 10th. Next, we have Beth for policy. Okay. So, we had our first meeting on February 13th. I'd like to welcome Satie and Tina to the policy committee. Thank you guys for joining us. Um, under uh discussion, I am happy to report that we have finally finished review attorney consultation, discussion, and revisions to policy 0145, board member resignation and removal, and the same has been approved for first read on
092tonight's agenda. Um, also for discussion, we had a uh we discussed policy 5111 and added language to reflect the in ineligibility of non-resident children of staff to participate in the Normandy Park lottery. The same was approved for first read on tonight's agenda. Um then we had seven a group here of seven policies and regulations that were reviewed and revised back in December that we decided to hold back for first read until our until our new policy committee was in place. Um new policy committee is in place. We reviewed all revisions that had been made and uh the same were approved for first read on tonight's agenda. Um then we had some updates from Strauss Esme. Um, apparently the entire chapter uh entitled fiscal accountability, efficiency and budgeting procedures was recently revised and adopted by the
093state board of education which affected many of our policies and regulations and as a result there is a hand there were a handful of policies and regulations um that needed to be updated updated and those are all listed um within the policy agenda uh and minutes that you can review and each one of them has also been approved for first read on this evening's agenda. Um, as a result of that, we then had several policies and regulations that needed to um be abolished and so those are also listed below and approved for abolishment on tonight's agenda. As normal, we um reviewed our district and individual school counts reports as of January 30th, 2026 as well of our as our K5 section counts. Um and then we just had a brief discussion on a strauss update.
094Um essentially, Governor Murphy before he um left his term, he signed a new law which mandates um he enacted a new law with mandates that are being handed down to the school districts. regarding student use of internet enabled devices. Um, and Dr. Mushi shared with us and discussed the sentiment among several districts regarding um the restrictiveness of this policy and what's possibly to come. This is all still a work in progress. I do want to say, however, that as we know as a board and as I'm sure our community knows as well, we are way ahead of the curve with our own cell phone policy that's been in place for quite some time, policy 5516. So, more to come on that, but just an item that's on our radar. Um, and our next meeting is
095actually uh March 6th. Thanks. >> Thank you, Ben. Melissa on negotiations. >> Sure. Uh, negotiations had its first meeting on February 17th and things are in progress. And that's all I'm going to say about that. >> Um, governance hasn't met. Their next meeting is March 6. Next, Tina Omar is playing. >> Uh yeah, we met last night. Uh we honored uh two student groups. Uh our steam tank group that had won states before and our boys basketball team that won counties. Um another that was routine business. >> And I saw it got on the patch, too. >> Oh, it was actually was the first thing on my news feed this morning. Great pictures and it looks like a nice meeting. Uh, next we go into public comments. Before we open the meeting to public comment,
096we wish to remind you that our meeting is now video recorded and publicly aired. While the board welcomes and encourages public comment, we ask that you be respectful, including any comments you might make about staff. The board does not endorse any comments made by speaker by speaker nor will the board be held liable for any comments made by members of the public. The law prevents the board from speaking about specific students and about personnel matters. For this reason, the board will not answer any questions on these subjects. Finally, the board's policy limits each speaker to three minutes. We ask that you respect this policy and the time of your fellow community members by concluding your comments once you reach 3 minutes. Public comment is open for an hour or until public comments are complete, whichever
097comes first. Uh we are now open to the board. Hi, I'm Debbie Sant 17 Carbury Way Mars Township. I'm here tonight as chair of the Marsed Foundation. And you know, we uh I'll be fast. Uh the MEF is here obviously to raise resources and bring resources into the district, but I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the incredible support of the district and our team to help us do what we do. last night was an example of that and uh the MOS and I just wanted to acknowledge some of the teachers and staff that really helped us. We had amazing presenters as you've all mentioned and I appreciate everyone's positive comments about the show. Uh Lisa Fishman, the Hillcrest principal, David Gallagher, the MHS band director, Mark Manning, the MHS principal, Mr. Mack
098from Sussex, and of course Dr. Amucci, our superintendent. All great presenters last night. They did a wonderful job and we were so proud to see them up there. and the teachers Mars have on stage. There's so many school groups that get behind us and support us and whether it's on stage, whether the students are on stage or um behind a camera or a microphone like our broadcasting students. We're really excited to share the talent and the knowledge of our student body and so incredible teachers that support us. Lance Armstrong, our MHS broadcasting teacher. Um there was the radio kids there at WJSC, Colonial Corner, MHS broadcasting. Tim Beetle, the M FMS band teacher who directed the Spectrum Jazz Ensemble and Stephanie Rubin who was with the spring uh production. And then just and also I
099just would be remiss if I didn't mention of course Adam and um that was awesome and um and Amelia Demanowski who's a French teacher at the high school who were in the show themselves and then a special thank you out there were so many students who participated not only those in the show but the presenters uh Naomi Cohen Zeon Pearson and Sanjave MHS broadcasting kids colonial corner WJSV the jazz ensemble kids and the theater kids just incredible day, night, so many great participation from this district and we are grateful the MEF to have you as partners. You inspire us. So, I just wanted to say thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, um we move anybody else for from the public. I'm sorry. Does anybody else from the public wishes to come up? If none
100of them then we shall close the public uh portion of the of the comments. Uh and now uh we're uh going into business matters. Tina, could you please statement? As the appointed representative of the sending Morris Plain School District to the Morris School District Board of Education, I would like to clarify that my votes on tonight's business agenda items will relate only to those items that are identified as applicable district-wide to grades preK to 12 or to the high school grades 9 to 12. I am abstaining from voting on any agenda items pertaining solely to the elementary and middle schools grades preK to 8. Okay. Thank you. Uh we're now moving to motions and >> Okay. So I'll move minutes motions one and two. >> Second. >> Melissa gave a second. >> Any discussion? All
101those in favor? >> I take a roll. >> You have to roll. Sorry. >> Mrs. Davidson. >> Yes. >> Miss Per. >> Abstain. >> Miss Piper. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fod. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Wall. >> Yes. >> Miss Murphy. Yes, >> Dr. Rodriguez. >> Yes. >> Moving policy motions one and two. >> A second. >> Any discussion? >> If none, call the role. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Miss Perry, >> yes. >> Miss Pipcha, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fiona, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wall, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. Moving educational matters motions one through eight. We're tableabling motion nine. >> Second. >> Any discussion? If not, call the role. >> Miss Davidson, >> yes. >> Miss Perry, >> yes. >> Miss Pipchuk, >> yes. >> Mrs.
102Fota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Maul, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Moving pupil services motions one through three. >> Second. Any discussion? If not, uh, please, uh, call the role. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Miss Perry, >> yes. >> Miss Pipchuk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wall, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. Moving human resources motions 1 through 20. A second. Any discussion? If not, call the role. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. Miss Perry, >> yes. >> Miss Pipchuk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wall, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Moving business matters motions of 1 through 14. >> A second. Any discussion? If not, please
103call the vote. >> Miss Davidson, >> yes. >> Miss Perry, >> yes. >> Miss Kchuk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Steota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wald, >> yes. Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Think we're done? >> Yep, we're done. >> Okay. Any new business today? >> Thanks. >> I will make a motion to adjurnn. >> I say thank um motion to adjurnn. Sec. Any second? >> I'll second. >> Second by Bev. All in favor? I >> thank you and good