001notice that this meeting has been provided as specified in the app proper notice that this meeting was posted on October 8th 2009 said notice was also posted at the entrance of the Board of Education offices m to the nley sun The Star Ledger North Jersey Harold News at the nley journ nailed to the nle Township Clerk this is an official meeting formal action will be taken please stand for a moment silence Dr we also add because today is December 7 everyone United States of America stand Nation God indivisible and justice for all roll Mr BR Cole here Mr cook here R Mr Rogers Mr Russo Mr s Mr [Music] here okay tonight being the first meeting official meeting of the month in keeping with our new policy of the uh board being academic committee as
002a whole we will have a academic report which includes in progress on curricular development so Mr good evening everyone thank you Doctor uh we're very excited about the uh curriculum Renovations that are coming I'd like to thank um Mr clito and Mrs claro heading this up I'd also like to acknowledge and thank all of our administrators and staff for working very hard on this uh very complex project uh which uh will re benefits really for years to come by mapping the entire curriculum throughout the entire District that being said I'd like uh Mr clito Mr clo to make a presentation to everyone this evening thank [Music] you good evening thank you for the opportunity to present what we have done and the committee has done so far this year uh I'm going to just give
003a brief overview and Mrs clerico will uh develop she has developed a PowerPoint presentation so that uh you can be aware of exactly seeing what what's been going on but uh we've had several meetings we have another meeting set for this coming Monday December 14th uh it's an ongoing process and if you see it in action it really is impressive to to see all our staff members uh involved in curriculum development uh Mrs claro and I have had several meetings with the facilitators prior to and then right after uh the curriculum revisions uh we have a meeting set up this Wednesday to review with the facilitators where we're at and where we're going so that there's no wasted time when we uh get into our meetings on Monday the 14th I'm in communication with Mrs
004clerico and I can tell you that she spent a lot of time with all the facilitators making sure that everybody is on the same page and when you see the presentation you'll understand exactly what U I'm leading to um she's given the facilitators many uh examples and templates in which to follow uh the classroom uh the facilitators have been given classroom coverage to meet with other facilitators so to pull this all together and this has been an integral part of what we're doing so that when we go into the CRI revisions on that Monday we can really hit the ground running so that's kind of a a brief overview and uh Mrs clerico will take us through the nuts and bolts of exactly what has gone on in each of the sessions and she has
005some examples so that you can understand exactly what we say with the template and so on and so forth R um I'm going to just turn that on in a second but I just wanted to make mention uh a couple of things uh again again as Mr CIO said we were uh meeting at the high school and this allows us to interact among one group with another so that we can assure vertical and horizontal alignment with the curriculum uh tonight I I'm just I just took one sample of the language arts curriculum which I'll be showing you right now uh keeping in mind also that is it going to come on going to wake up um was in charge of technology for a while I um here it is this is a a sample that
006I I mentioned and I was saying different segments of it the last time we met uh what we're doing is taking the Core Curriculum content standards and uh and that's what you see the very first one when when it talks about reading that standard reaches all the way from kindergarten all the way through to the high school um the next thing we have is the big idea and I mentioned that to you the last time that the big idea is is generally the focus of the theme of what we're talking about and you can see the ability to read a variety of texts requires Independence comprehension and fluency um and then we're using something that has been around for a while and That's essential essential questions so each and every one of uh the curricul
007areas will have the same template with the same components and this is the first time that we're even touching guidance uh you know we do a lot in our district we finally putting it down on paper and really P pulling it all together uh and that's only to name one we have world's languages and I went through many of them the last time um enduring understandings it's pretty much answering the question uh the essential question and then we move on to the cpis now before the cpis the cpis were really referred to as objectives and uh cpis are cumulative project indicators and I'll just give you a quick example the first one this is um 3.1 which refers to the standard fourth grade and uh the CPI that we're working on is E1 use knowledge
008of word meaning language structure and sound symbol relationships to check understanding when reading skills and activities now this is ID it's really an ideal situation we have a new teacher coming in um they'll know exactly skills to cover and uh the multi-disciplinary approach that they're going to be taking as well as technology um also it's going to be as Mr Zar said in our last meeting he's going to put this up on our websites so the parents will really know exactly what the children should be covering um also I'd like to mention that our uh 21st century life to careers those standards will be embedded into each curriculum it's not a separate curriculum uh really imperative that we prepare our students for the 21st century um they're also being known as the digital learner and
009that's why the emphasis is definitely putting on we're putting technology into our curriculum and infusing it throughout all the curriculums um not to quote too many people but there's a gentleman Thomas fredman who said that our children will have anywhere between 10 and 17 careers by the time they're 35 years old and he also goes on to state that the 10 top careers haven't even been thought of yet and that's in the future as well so it's really our job not to just uh pigeon hole our students anymore but to really provide a wide variety of activities for them so again the those standards will be embedded in our curriculum um the teachers have been working very diligently I commend uh the staff for their hard work as Mr Pito told you the facilitators are
010meeting with me some individually we're really working through this um it is a different format but one that's really uh they they've met the challenge and I think it'll really bring all of our curriculum guids together I'm trying to there's anything else I think that's that pretty much says it I I didn't get into curriculum mapping tonight although I have one to show you uh and it's honors calculus uh it was it's not completely finished so I'm taking uh I just don't want you to think this is Elementary this is corrup the uh grade levels and this is calculus honors class uh Mr diola just emailed this to me a couple of days ago he didn't have a chance to put the standards in but as you can see we're going to be doing month
011by month it's going to skills again this would be ideal for a parent to be able to view on the website it'll give you exactly what your your child would have to um I'm sorry my back is TE uh to to cover in their classes whether it's High School classes or Elementary kindergarten and so forth so we'll just be adding the standards and again he went um he did September and we're moving down into you'll see October November so it's um it's a lot but we're hoping to have this accomplished by uh the end of the school year before the end of the school year any questions questions have a question for Mr Zar yes Mr Zar this is obviously a lot of hard work and uh this is the kind of information we need
012to uh get out to the general public uh can we get copies of this uh presentation yes this is uh this presentation is is probably a very minute insight into what's actually uh behind this really very aggressive initiative we are mapping and revi revising our curriculums for every course offer in every Elementary School prek through sixth grade the middle school and the high school it it it's really an all-encompassing uh Endeavor and when it is completed and I have to mention Mrs froso our assistant superintendent of overseas curriculum although she was Ill she is back and she has been in very close contact with Mrs claro throughout this process and actually the plans for this were put together over the summer in anticipation for uh becoming very very actively involved once the school year started
013uh we think this is is wonderful because what we're doing is we're reviewing curriculum we're updating it we're comparing it to the Core Curriculum content standards and we're putting it in an easily understood format that as Mr Co said goals and objectives the big idea all of the related uh skills that we expect students to master so it's it's wonderful and we think this is going to be a model well we we can get copies of that because these are uh answers to questions that we get uh at PTO meetings and it's excellent work and it's good and it's something that the general public should know about curriculum is the most important thing we do Beyond safety safety is certainly the first priority for students and staff but beyond safety curriculum lifeblood of the school
014district and uh we're very excited about the the efforts that are going into it and the results that we're going to see from these efforts I'd like to congratulate and thank uh roow and John and certainly everybody who's taken a part in this every staff member OTS pts speech School nurses guidance every component of the school district is working on this can you email that to us it's a work in progress but we certainly will get whatever we have to okay thank you I think much of this is the result of the state's plan is that true well the state court curriculum content standards what do you think the likelihood is that the scheme will change now that we have new Administration in Trend well we've been in this for a long time that's right
015and we have seen uh so many different schemes and I don't say schemes in a negative way but views or philosophies as how curriculum is to be delivered that's what it comes down to what's your curriculum how are you going to deliver it and uh I think that uh there's always the opportunity for a new Commission of Education to come in and just have different priorities and go in a different direction but I don't think the value of this initiative will be lost no matter what uh we receive regarding uh curriculum from the commissioner of Education or the State Department of Education I think this will have value that it's going to be Standalone value uh simply because it's going to serve our students in our staff in such a very very positive way well
016I certainly hope so because looks like we put a lot of time agree and money uh well we've gotten away from the Saturday curriculum sessions as you know budgetary constraints thank you this CL you mentioned I was happy to hear about integrating the technology into the and I always like it when the end user should drive with the hardware than app software is and so byproduct of this will it be something that the board will have saying here are technology requirements going forward and and how it should be you know so we how it should be refreshed and factored into it's hard budget times but we can't fall behind on techn the the other know this is the engine we can't let the rest of the train behind so it will that be one of
017the by by products that we would get actually each uh committee will be uh making recommendations to the Board of Education uh whether it's different technology that they need software textbook that will all be part of the that will be the outcome of our meetings our articulation meetings and just to make mention um this month we are being reviewed Again by usap so I have all the documentation to show the state that we've been working very diligently on this on these revisions could there be some summary from the technology side just so that can have an idea of what plan from the technology we do have um a group working just on technology but more so that has to to be you know Incorporated the only way technology really works is if it's infused throughout
018every area of the curriculum that's the the end I call it the end user is the academics and then the hardware and the applications have to support that so you need to know what that is the requirements so I just there some kind of sure it definitely will be a company that yes takey backing on Mr K's thoughts on technology I've been doing research on computer applications and when is the ideal time to teach keyboarding to the students I feel we're doing a disservice by making them wait until High School to take Computer Applications I think it's causing a scheduling nightmare I would love to see it down on the grammar school the ideal time most experts say is between Fifth and seventh grade from my two older children they had to have reports typed
019in sixth grade so I don't understand how re them to type if we haven't taught them how to type at that point by the time these kids H high school they're typing with one finger and it's very difficult to get them to learn proper keyboarding techniques at that point so I would like this to seriously look into getting Computer Applications out of the high school I understand it's a district requirement it's not a state requirement we need to figure out a compromise would be moving it into the middle school but ideally it belongs in the grammar schools perhaps integrating it as part of the library media class time and get these kids familiar with this much earlier from a school point of view because they're already on the computer kindergarten is already on the computer
020so we have to seriously give that consideration and I think now that we're doing a revision of the whole curriculum it's vital that we start doing this now if if I may respond if we are going to consider this now is the time we will begin scheduling the high school and the middle school right after the holiday break early January we start building that schedule which is an ongoing process to schedule every student in the middle school and high school and that will be completed somewhere late spring and then tuneups and schedule changes during the summit but we have to look and if I may Dr Cel I think if you're so inclined to uh perhaps have Mrs Russo chair a committee uh and I would work on that with Mr Kito and representatives from
021the technology department and if we're looking into moving it into the elementary schools then I think we need input for the elementary principles uh it's not something that is easily done but I'm not going to say it can't be done or should not be done uh this is something that has been talked about frequently in the last few years uh as you said this is a district and not a state requirement it does fulfill one of the state requirements for uh Vine performing have other classes exactly they are upper level and and the curriculum has expanded greatly in the area of Technology have to say so I think it's something that uh really requires a great deal of thought and planning not over a long period of time but it does require very concentrated effort
022to figure out what our options are where the space would be and how we implement this and what the impact would be on how we Del this curriculum so certainly I think we should probably start meeting tomorrow sounds like a good idea well you know the uh the cost of textbooks is outlandish especially in math and science when do you think we should start looking into the possibility feasibility of using electronic textbooks and and if and if they're any cheaper I mean who knows maybe they're not even cheaper but when when do you think we should start to look into this well I I again I would defer to uh Ian perhaps on the availability of the technology that I we have to have our business administrator look at effectiveness of you but as you
023know the textbooks for anybody who who has children in college now $7 textbooks are now $150 I mean over the years they just keep on growing and as you know at the college level they changed the U the uh issue or the the U the updates are constant so uh and in in in our school district uh as as the curriculum changes the textbooks and in fact the workbooks uh and and even in some places the software have to keep with it's very expensive as you know so I think it's something that that is easily answered once we get some information not certainly we'll have that available at the next meeting but Co you yeah if we can find out if that would be feasible maybe we could do a little experiment with some of
024the uh classes that that might make use of them without abuse you know like the higher level Math and Science CL experiment to see how it works just thinking out loud that the only problem would be the CD would be ideal for children taking those home and working on their home computer but in the classroom we don't computer for every student or a laptop we have access to those textbooks for exercises drills problems so it's something I we have to talk about well they textbook in class and then this goes home may I make a comment we already had someone come in to present at one of our curriculum meetings for social studies and actually the state department is trying to guide us away from textbooks and into uh electronic um CDs and so forth
025and it was amazing to see how current we would have our students St by uh going with the software at I believe it was like $10 a child so it's a big reduction in cost that a Kindle they use a Kindle um no no it wasn't it was actually a CD so uh but it holds so much you know on it on those CDs but it was something that we already looked at what we did talk about a set uh textbooks for the class in the classroom so if there were four Social Studies classes you would need four sets one for each class you know for different teachers teaching in different rooms you would need a set of textbooks for each room but it would be a big saving if they taught s that simultaneously
026correct if they didn't you could just move the textbooks right bookshelf also but we still can say money that's what the presentation was all about good and we can use the te the uh the CDs with our smartboards in the CL room the possibilities are Limitless Dr Cel yes to follow up on what my colleague said in fact Mrs Zar just mentioned a pretty neat term called the possibilities when I worked for Naval intelligence we had what they called futuristic uh directorates and these were think tanks of people who would get together and plan uh operations for the future now here as a school board why don't we think about if we're going to create a committee a committee of uh Educators and uh individuals on the school board and perhaps some people in public
027who will sit down and think 10 15 years into the future uh as to where they want this District when it comes to electronics and Technology uh something we want you know we might want to consider to prepare now j five years five years 10 years from that there's a lot of Technology out there as Mrs Russo suggests that we can use and we ought to think about hold something together to do that okay you move in that direction that's not a problem yes Mr this is for Mr Zara again I understand the time commitment that this is taking this year with a half days but moving forward what are we anticipating to keep this current year toe well once we do this districtwide uh curriculum revision then it would be incumbent upon the curriculum
028area coordinators of high school middle school and the Elementary principles to uh to stay current with with the curriculum as we we receive changes and uh we may be eliminating a class that's no longer useful or irrelevant and we may be add a new one where we would have to do an individual curriculum and not across the board so I think it's something that we we all have to stay on top of well some of the questions I got at PTO meetings were a half days were concer the number of PES which I think this is a massive undertaking for the 10 half days were a lot but moving forward are you anticipating having half of that I would imagine that every year as we've had in years past perhaps two professional development days back
029to where we were but this is something that's really just staring Us in the face and it's begging to be fixed and that's what we're doing else one other thing I may thank you very much thank you uh also as I've announced several times we had everything in place for the H1N1 but the vaccine the vaccine has arrived I I meeting with the health department last Tuesday on Friday uh and it is not mandatory it is is voluntary but every high school student who hasal parental permission will be inoculated with the H1N1 vaccine on Friday morning and Friday uh early morning after that at the middle school um h11 vaccines that evening I believe and again this is SE distinct from the school district I believe at uh parks and recreation building that inoculations for
030those people qualify will be given uh at parks w u I believe that's the location and I believe it's Friday evening but on our end at the at the school level we uh are availing our schools to inoculate our high school and middle school students it's 50% of our student population of 4200 students and uh we feel that's a a wonderful um uh work for for uh preventing the spread of of H1N1 in the schools and we've been stressing every other me uh and again uh that's this Friday and then the elementary students and infants and parents in that highrisk group would be uh uh would have the option of going to the town inoculations that evening on gave thisk before we move on I'd like to once again thank Mrs clerico and Mr coo
031for your time in U in this whole program coming out here tonight to give us a little update and hopefully we'll be back again now feelings won't get hurt if you need to leave because we understand that you're up very early in the morning so I leave that up to you you never know how long we're going to be here okay this time we come to the portion of our meeting where we allow members of the public to address the board in this section we allow questions and comments only to the resolutions addressed in tonight's agenda regulations allow for 20 minutes for these communications each person shall be limited 3 minutes we ask you try to stay within this requirement uh speakers may speak more than once only after everyone else has had an opportunity
032and please be reminded that all comments must go through the chair remember to state your name and address when you at that time anyone who wishes to be heard on resolution items only Joe Rino 48 uh schedule a uh matal Ferrara uh School residency resource and safety officer uh I understand the school residency and safety officer but what's resource that that's a term uh that we use he is a school resource officer he is a resource that our school administrators uh can go to regarding crisis resolution any number of issues that can come up in high SCH school middle school primarily but we have had him involved in in issues at the elementary school as well uh he is is a very busy mans man in great demands to be a part of of all
033that we do also he coordinates with the public safety department he monitors our lockdown drills where we we practice cying like U situations with the public safety department uh he checks on residency yes responsibilities but the residency he's really a school res a resource officer who handles residency and all other safety issues than Mr can I add one one to that one I think very significant accomplishment of Mr Ferrara was that he actually uh before the issue of the police department developing a tactical even surface he actually put together the plans of every single School uh to these lock down and safety drills and when we took our tactical units to coordinate our drills with him we were absolutely surprised how well coordinated the uh schools were or how well coordinated he put this whole
034plant together for the school so so that's a I just don't want that to be overlooked because in this day and age that's probably one of the most important resources that uh any school district uh could have so I'd you know You' like to know that thank you anyone else wish you he resolution items good evening mik Russo 11 Beach Street um unfortunately um when I saw the um the agenda posted on the website on Friday um I noticed that the supporting documents schedule a appendix a and appendix B were not on the website so if you don't mind I'm going to take that opportunity now to read those over so I apologize for silence I do have a question on schedule a yes um the the salaries that are listed for all the FKS
035do they represent a a rise they represent a raise from the previous year that's for the 200920 school year across the board everybody got a raise uh I believe so everyone on this list yes do you know what the percentage was to the s that the staff receiv received generally P PR practices have been um once the unit negotiates and settles the districtwide Personnel who really don't belong to any specific group are uh covered by the same um uh terms of the settlement that we gave to the staff that's been fast practice so roughly 4% it's not 4% but yes you could say roughly 4% but we also have a document for the public to look at that breaks down exactly what the settlement is because with this 4% 12% over 3 years being arbitrarily
036thrown around it is not an accurate depiction of what we're doing I don't did you get this one um it breaks down exactly what the percentages were what the what the different terms were we're actually working on a power point have so want I I it would have been nice I read this over the weekend I don't think you want me this no it would have been nice do you do you want me to take the time to to read this now in front of everybody in front of I I I don't understand why we couldn't have had this on Friday Saturday Sunday why why do we have to continually ask for these of docents I really I don't know what the T do so because I asked that the agenda put up on the
037website okay I I'll move move on I'll move on um there's a uh a salary for Mr David Wilson who's the treasur of school monies can you explain what that position is and how that differs from the business administrator yeah we have to um uh by law you're required to have somebody else reconcile the accounts um the person who signs the check and signs the purchase orders can't be and reconciles they can't can't be the same person so the treasurer of school Mond CM works with the bookep and reconciling the accounts he he goes through all the um the checks and reconciles them uh there's any understanding ones he he keeps track of all those um and he he does his treasury report is based on that is he is he a full-time enloy no
038he he gets it that fee I mean we he he gets paid every every um month every two two times a month just like everybody that all other employees so that that 73 53 represents the entire entire year right he doesn't get any benefits of that's his what he's paid for the whole year okay the other question I have um on this schedule a is regarding the school Physicians uh $27,000 what exactly do they do and who do they report to and are there any reports that document what exactly they do for the $27,000 I can speak to that uh we are required to have a physician we have a school physician Dr barowski and we also have Dr William Von Roth who really is the athletic position I know from Dr Von Roth there's
039a state requirement that a position at every one football game which he is he also uh works with our athletic trainer on diagnosing and Rehabilitation with all of our athletes Dr Browski is our uh again required that we have a school doctor to handle any all issues I told to frequently regarding the H1N1 anytime we have an issue or whatever it is that could impact on the schools he's certainly available and uh also uh they are available for our parents that are in need not for the position they have handled the situations many times so I think he also does training for St and has reviewed some of our policies physical still uh used to now that's changed AB do the weight certifications he does the weight certification for the rest team Dr B he
040used to do all of the sports physicals for the entire school until the statute changed now the statute requires one physical per year and children go to their own doctor in the past they had it one every season and he did those he also does review all the physical cours with the athletic train okay thank you um I also have a question on the uh um board secretary reports of July 31st August 31st September 30th and October 31st append I notice that they all dated um the submission date for each one of them with 11309 is that unusual for those reports all be submitted on the same dat and that late um it's not um usual um I think in the past it was done that way um we did have a problem with our
041uh with our accounting software um there was an error that that read in um one of the months so we until we figured that out work with the software company um that that delayed it and also with the audit once um the a was finished we were able to do some entries that we had a wait for U but from now on every month there'll be December meeting that they'll have nov and then so forth for the rest of the year okay and one last question on append B um report of the treasurer I noticed that um the 731 report was dated November 20th after the 8:31 9:30 and 10:31 reports I'm just questioning the sequence of these reports and the submissions why why would this 31 report come after those were the wrong dates
042um we were doing them we didn't uh must not check those those should actually match um the the reports they were actually done but they weren't dated um we had um double check some of the entries um so knew that's had there so those reports should be dated same as the secretary report okay fair enough lastly Mr D I'd like to assume this is going to be your last meeting yes I wish you the best of luck over in Carney I do have two younger brothers neither one of them Liv in Carney anyone else wish he on resolution it see I want to close that portion of the meeting Mr fr Co would you move superintendent resolutions one and two please yes Mr President super resolutions one and two I so listed so move second
043any discussion I'd like to make discussion on number two Dr said pass practice and answer to Mr Russo's question from the audium I just like like it stated that practice does not automatically equate to Future considerations I want that vocalized verbalized written in the record that business as usual has to change well we've said that several times and as you know we not know I don't recall if you were in the executive session from last meeting we resolved it just simply wasn't fair to have individuals working for us for 5 months and then try to go into negotiations and do something out of the ordinary but we all agre moving forward these these types of issues will be handled in a very different manner so okay so noted anyone else any other discussion Mr Kola
044yes Mr C yes Mr Masa yes Mr Rogers yes m Russo yes Mr s yes Mr spado yes yes Mr Russo would you move superintendent dend item number three please I move superintendent item number three appointment acting high school vice principal be it resolve that the Board of Education approves the appointment of Mr Dennis Williams as acting high school vice principal for the remainder of a 200920 school year at a stien of $6,000 effective December 15 2009 I second second any discussion on this one yes I understand Mr Zar the way that we work this out there's going to be a considerable saving in the district yes I give you the very short version uh we are losing a 12mon vice principle towards uh to retirement that salary is $130,000 Plus benefits that individual will
045be replaced by a guidance counsel with the snipen as a lead guidance counselor we have lost a uh 12- month VI principal to u a principal ship in another school district that salary plus benefits was approximately $115 this individual is replacing that person and also I'd like to remind everybody that our 10- Monon vice principal spot which is at $130,000 Plus benefits position is being uh manned by an interim at approximately $45,000 a year so we are really trying to uh Be Frugal and I I have a a confession to make to the to the public that anybody sitting here thinks that when I recommend the position that the board said no problem go with it that is not the case um I am questioned grilled questioned and grilled maybe over two or three meetings
046before we can get to the point where we are now so it is not an automatic okay for any recommendation I make regarding staing or salaries it is a very very uh detailed investigation of the need and the cost and I have to tell you in the last couple of months that uh investigation and questioning has increased because of the times we live in Mr Z you mentioned need and cost let's talk a moment about the necessity to operate efficiently I think that's important too could you could you share with the public absolutely I spent 27 years of high school and and I know the building well particularly four is the vice principal and five is the principal and uh there are 1400 uh students in that building and any number of uh issues or
047events could come uh to the surface immediately uh we have a principal certainly and then we have a 12- Monon vice principal this is a position that will replace that the 12 month vice principal is the academic position does a great uh deal of evaluations schedules the building builds the schedu starting in January running right through August and running those last 1,400 schedules for the opening of school they deal with a number of issues and also help to oversee Student Activities the 10-month vice principal uh handles Prim the question in the sophomores regarding discipline and all attendance issues all substitutes anything that has to do with tardies absences unexcused absences Cuts uh detention in school detention and then the 12 month VP which is uh in charge of guidance as I said we are eliminating
048that position we have a retirement uh January 1 I believe the date is and we are downsizing that position to a stien for a lead guidance councel so I believe it's very eff School than for the facts on this Mrs thank you comment yes I guess I have to confess that I was the one most interested in pointing an acting vice principal and the reason for that is I want to be sure that we get someone there that can do the job and do it well uh in the past we have hired people uh not in Vice principal's position but other position that we found later didn't do the job that well and it was very disheartening and very costly and I think under these circumstances we'll have a person in there will be able
049to see how well the job is done from now until June and uh I have no uh reservations that he won't do a good job I'm sure that he will but then we can be confident that that will be continued and we can hire him on a full-time basis thank you Mr any other comments or questions on this resolution Mr fra yes Mr C yes Mr M Mr Rogers yes Mr Russo yes Mr serer yes Mr yes yes Mr s would you move business administrator resolutions through six please yes Mr President I Mo business administrator resolutions one through six so move second discussion Mr yes Mr yes Mr Rogers Russo Mr Mr yes Mr cook would you move business administrators resolution number seven item number seven please yes Mr President settlement agreement Shan reconstruction company
050he resolved that the Board of Education accept and memorialize the recommendation of its construction attorney for the sub agreement with sha Marie Construction Company Inc be it further resolved that the nley Board of Education approved said settlement agreement subject to review of closing documents evidencing said settlement agreement by the construction attorney you authorize the business administrator board secretary to sign the agreement and issue the appropriate payment pursuant to the settlement agreement second discussion thought we were to put I thought we were going to mention it but it wasn't be I think we can mention it for the record that it was a mention of a $440,000 amount that was on the record but not being written I'm correct we need to make something perfectly clear this is part of the referendum these are referendum funds
051and it's part of the um closing out of the middle school project okay people see that word settlement get a little Mr President follow when you said we are within it's within budget so we're not going over the referendum and not going to have to touch any other money to complete the pro absolutely want to make that clear thank you yes and I also add that this is for services rendered yes you want to that you sure you talk too much anyone else yes had a question okay know it was from the Middle School referendum but it was part of negotiation regarding cling out the project for the middle school I had Liberty to say that it was for a word it's I'm sorry that's not this is for services provided came out of the
052that we received from in other words why don't we let the public know what we're doing let I know that but this is so frustrating this it may be frustrating but you can't you cannot I'm with why don't we let the public know what we can let them know and the secret let me let me U let me ask a question is there anyone sitting on the board sitting here that would like to add anything to this I mean I thought we covered it in the explanation I thought we just added all the EX just now no it's not a question of adding it it was a question of saying this comes from from what the referend ref from what referendum and litigation if I may the contractors had a certain amount that they thought
053they were due we thought we there was a certain amount that we were due then and both sides negotiated the final amount that's all that's all I want to say is part of litigation that came out it's not litigation it came out of the litigation notation negotiation it is not negoti litigation out of litigation that we negotiated we avoided litigation negate we avoided arbitration you asked if there was any board members that would like anything added to this that's not in here I would like the dollar amount added to this 440,000 I believe on our uh attorney's advice is the reason why there is no power amount being put on to that so if you want to ask that it's okay I think take a PLL I'd have to go with the attorney's advice and
054say no want to around the table yeah yeah I would suggest yeah we do it one one question I have to follow on what Mr what I'm concerned about trying to get straight we're voting on a resolution what appears to be an open dollar amount now I know what the attorney said but it just baffles me as to why we can't put the figures in the resolution if that's the amount of money that we're voting on what if I mean is there a possibility that this figure could change may I point out not this attorney so you're wonder why Mr TCO is not weighing in on this do not say the attorney settlement agreement right what they agreed about why why don't we have it in the in the resolution that we're voting because it
055suggested that we don't do it and if we don't why are we paying we don't take I think that's why we hired him a legal ISS one meeting one discussion you make this any clearer the attorney said that we shouldn't put a Dollar by there because there's other things that that go into the settlement agreement that we're not just going to give them $440,000 and say you know goodbye there's a whole agreement here that's going to be signed by both parties that they have to provide us and make sure that all leans are all um cleaned up and paid off um by this money so the board isn't liable on any of that uh that's all going to be in the settlement and it's going to be signed by by by myself or board secretary
056and and this is the basically we're agreeing agreeing to the terms of settlement as a result of mediation and closing out the middle school project the contractor had certain um change orders that he felt he was entitled to we had a number number that we budgeted for and our accounting system came up with a different number and we mediated and came to a fair resolution which is well beyond well within the budget and satisfactory to everybody so what we're doing tonight as part of the mediation process is an act of good faith that we intend to enter into the settlement no funds can be spent by the district until we vote on it so when we have a rock solid number which is approximately $440,000 when it when we find out it's $442 67 for
057example then this body will vote on it again in order to pay that money so is that any more clear thank you myself that's that's that's uh so having said all that do I uh and having it moved and seconded is there any other discussion and let me just remind my members once we start to vote moving forward from this point it will be no more discussion when I ask for discussion that's when we speak up if you miss the boat you missed the boat call the rooll Mr fola Yes again Mr yes Mr Masa yes Mr Rogers yes Mr Russo yes Mr serer yes Mr SP yes yes Mr SP would you move business administrator number eight please sure approval of partial payment to Bill ly air conditioning and heating be resolved that the
058Board of Education approves dep paral payment to Bill air conditioning and heating in the amount of 100,000 for the Washington School element for the Washington Elementary School and 000 for Lincoln Elementary School as per recommendation of the board construction attorney and mediator we had further resolve that payment be released only after Bill Larry air conditioning and heating supplies the business administrator with as Bill construction drawings for Washington Elementary School Lincoln Elementary School John Walker Franklin Middle School he yet further resolve that this also subject to receipt of appropriate documentation to to cover the outstanding Municipal mechanic claims of Starlight electric second a second okay what this resolution does is gives a partial payment to billary air conditioning and heating as part of the hva heating air conditioning and ventilation services in the referendum in return
059if you notice is it caus in there that says Bill ly will be providing us with as-built construction drawings for Washington Lincoln and Walker Middle School the significance of that is when we have the as built drawings we will be able to compare that to the design which was done by DCM and the reports from our independent Engineers that studied all of these projects so that we can begin to uncover and document what is a design flaw and what may be an installation flaw this is part of the process of recouping some of the funds that were spent on hbac at Lincoln Washington and Walker Middle School having said that any other discussion very well any other discussion questions call the r Mr Fran yes Mr C yes Mr M mrog Mr [Music] R this
060portion of meeing have a hearing of citizens on any school matter uh this portion of the meeting will 20 minutes each person will have three minutes to speak we ask that you try to stay within those confines and direct all comments through the chair if you wish to speak the second time we ask I could just wait until everyone else has had an opportunity to speak so someone would like to um at the last meeting uh there was some discussion about the detention I thought it was over but I read in the nutly Sun that uh you're going to consider community service possibly for pounds now is that anything that's on the table yes it was in the nutly sh you know I only wish I could hold parents responsible for what goes on in
061school not just not I teach it lifted I only wish we could do that I think that was a miscommunication well the not Le son evidently is not doing a very good job um people make mistakes um yeah you know you only wish you'd have the ACLU here or any school faster than you could say ACLU um I have another question um I read I have a a print out here that the board of education is a half million dollars in the red is that true uh that's another story that should have started with Once Upon a Time because it's absolutely not true we had our auditor here we had an account we had an 800,000 plus Surplus as of the close of the books uh so uh how does this information get about I
062mean uh I don't know where this came from it was given to me by somebody and uh well it was I think it was it was on maybe a website or a handed out for for a PTO kind of thing I had a uh I had a discussion me interrupt and you could continue but um that was I believe reported on NJ Hometown okay and I had a discussion with Phil White about it because when I saw it of course okay I saw right because it wasn't true and he told me that in the actually in the the article it said that two board members disclosing confidential information from raled that we were half million doll yeah in the red whatever and I asked him if that was in fact true and he said well
063you know I'm I'm a newspaper man I can't really reveal my sources but it really was only one and I said well who and of course he wouldn't tell me and we had a discussion I've called my board members nobody remembers having that conversation so I again and bottom line is it's not true okay that's all I interested in finding out what's going on thank you thank you anyone else except terryk here sorry uh Terry cour 45 hampon place um president spokesperson not par Network I just have first of all I would like to agree with Mrs Russo I do believe in computer application classes my district does do it from first grade on and I have to tell you one day I had to go in to speak to the to the computer teacher
064and I walked in during a time when the kids were presenting their PowerPoint presentation it was sixth grade and if I tell you how great they were and I am so computer stupid I didn't even know where to begin but um they are when you teach them young they they really do well um I just have two questions one's on recommendations and it's for Mr Zara um I know that this get sticky but if you have your policy on anyone District Personnel whether the administrators or anything about giving recommendations to parents in regards to getting evaluations or what is your policy on that I'm not quite sure follow you is it College recommendation no actually it's not College it's actually like for for a parent to go for tutoring or for their send their child
065for tutoring do you allow or you permit your teachers to make those kinds of recommendations to parents or is it really in my district it's really hands off I would in advice that okay because it's it's always been my understanding that whatever the the district recommends they have to pay for that okay um and the next thing is um what is the board's policy in regards to emergency certifications have that has that come down emergency certification is that is I I just don't know what the story is about that right now are they still in effect there there are uh two somewhat uh along those lines of emergency and and that's uh certainly the alternate route right where people uh do gain a position teaching even though they're not fully certified but they're in a
066program either through the State Department of Education or the colleges or universities where they are mentored and they take classes as they're going through the processes once they successfully complete the courses and have good evaluations then they they can get their Certificate of Eligibility and then their perent certificate the other is uh emergency certification which we really don't use um I mean we have expedited that's the other type where somebody has their paperwork tied up and Trenton we have an opening it's a discipline that you really can't get an awful lot of choice uh we need somebody somebody's available to qualify that's the key we qualify can expedite the paperwork by telling the state we do have a position for them if we can get the paperwork cleared up so alternate route um and uh
067and Expediting but it's emergency certification those are few and far between it wouldn't include education um um positions with no I I think maybe some years ago you might but not now I think there certainly I I think what we're looking at as the job Force right now and certainly even people who have never told people who might have a certification or might uh entertain uh a career change uh that's something that we would look at if they're qualified and uh if they are involved in in an alterate R program just a legitimate established monitored and state approv program okay all right thank you anyone else except somebody wearning y m 11 be Street um regarding the uh the settlement agreement for shry chry um what what are the what were the dates of the
068services rendered and what type of work did they actually do he was the general contractor from the Inception middle school middle school middle school okay and um regarding the settlement with Bill ly um you mentioned recouping funds from somebody from home uh design flaws we would need to deal with the designer installation flaws we' be dealing with the contractor but we're preparing documentation so part of the agreement is uh that he agreed to provide us with documentation that we absolutely need and that that's not a set the with the that's just a partial payment yeah that's not that's not a settlement that's a partial payment and how much money still outstanding today to them there's 77,000 in their contract 77 after the okay and then um I have a question regarding the uh new interim
069B I understand she's she's coming from Carne and I understand Mr is going to Cory um she become available after you accepted the what happened was we gave uh Mike D and two draft picks for the uh now it just as it just worked out I'm sorry uh as it works out in the pool of applicants for our position um she was in there it wasn't that um it's just a strange coincidence it was no plan so can see I mean was she fired from Carne no no there was a there was a VA there actually we we we can't comment on that well we we can't we can't comment on any contractual situation but I I can tell you this uh when we did seek an intern business administrator because very much uh as
070the acting vice principal we this board did not want to jump into a replacement for Mr de they wanted to really uh think the process to what we're looking for um we contacted the association of school business administrators they gave us a list of approximately 40 inters we advertised we received approximately 10 applications we mared those down to three that we thought were promising the woman that eventually was appointed as the inter with the board was one of those three um the first individual uh in the interview said he only wanted to work two days a week that's going to fit the bill the second individual wanted $90 an hour and sometimes we have 15h hour days around here so that didn't F the bill uh what we looked for was somebody that had good
071bit I personally checked references um and uh in and this really was was Ved out in front of the whole board because it's business administrator but also board secretary so all of our employees in this District the business administrator board secretary has the most interacting with the board and everybody at the table was involved in the interview process and everybody at the table really voiced the recommendation and I agree with the recommendation I think right now she is the person that comes to us with the right experience at the right time and uh I don't know what the future holds for her or us but right now she's our inter a business administrator and I think it's more coincidence uh that there is this change if I made this the superintendent said out of the
07240 people that the school administrators Association provided us 80% of them did not want to work in County so was like either Bergen Hudson or whatever County was Li so when he got done with that pool we had about 20% which was about eight people from the pool of 40 and then when the advertisements came in it was a few like Joe said history as far as that so it wasn't as I mean it was extensive we thought not as extensive as we want to go for the fulltime down the road for you know to really look into it it's just like just looking to have out there and as you said when microphone through through email that this is a very very large Enterprise between budget salaries uh facilities not to not to minimize
073our education Ministry because that's a priority but we know we need the business side of the house to be in order so we're taking our time and I and I've said publicly before that I mean the5 was making I think he's he making 127 and I think she was making 123 and the 550 times whatever it is 515 a day comes at 130 something so that that position is is well is worth much much more in my opinion than one life I think we need to take that into consideration yeah I don't want you to walk away the impression that we took her because she was like all we could get no no I want I want to tell you that when she was interviewed I was impressed by her I mean I thought really
074had a a work ethic and she was going to do the job no around i' like second I'd like to second that carne is actually slightly bigger budget is slightly larger than nutley's and she also had experience in Hudson County as the Hudson County VA so besides car count she was the county business administrator by the way want to go on record to saying I had asked at the at the board meeting I think it was November 5th or something like that I had asked about the um the contracts including Mr deas that had expired on June 30th and uh at the time I had you had said well he wasn't complaining about the fact that he didn't get a race I think he gave his resignation the next day just um I have one
075last comment on the H1 I just had to I I I have a question on the H1N1 vaccine um I understand the the Board of Health giving That vaccine I understand that it's convenient to do it in schools my understanding is that the student population is not really a highrisk population it's really geared and I'm questioning why we're doing this in the schools something and and and and one last question regarding the waiver I understand parents are going to have to sign waiver and I'm assuming with C here I'm assuming that that waiver will um take away all the liability for the school district that's correct and those inoculations are being given by Health Department Personnel the school is is only housing the the uh the inoculations and also I had the same question when
076I went to the meeting because I know that the the the middle school and high school age children not in a high-risk group but apparently uh they had a a an abundance of vaccine and they know that in the schools certainly this is an area where it's it's very easy to transmit colds flew and they thought that it would be a good T it was a medical decision and and I can't speak to that other than I was I was surprised also but that was the explanation thank you any else Sten gof s out of court I don't have a question I have a comment about using computers over textbooks I mean I'm leaving this year it doesn't really matter to me but if a kid's computer goes down he can't do anything so I
077just wanted to really make that comment because I mean I know my freshman year I had my mythology notebook I was getting a new computer I no internet nothing like my teacher had be nice and let me extend until I finally got everything up and running so wanted to let you know like it's not always a good thing to be using computers thank you thank you yes all right anyone else you want to close this portion of the meeting uh any any old business open before Mike leaves um one question I've been asking I want to know if we're at any stage now with grant writer and before you leave are we informing our new VA I mean who's doing the search who's looking what's going on with the from our rfps we had two
078people responding um so we we bring them in um assume we want them to have give a presentation to the uh the full board so discuss them to come in um and I guess go from there I know that there were some issues that we uh some questions that arose um I was working on them with Mr um so I'll check with them on where we stand with those and then we can bring them in for for presentations I just want to make sure it doesn't get lost with time also I this is the time to say we wait for new bus to say thank Micha you say nice things about Michael I got nothing nice to say I'm going to make sure wej before that happens but I just want to say for my
079short period of time Mike I just you know wish you good luck and uh nice business old buiness old first new second okay do have an update on our website uh information as to how we're progressing um we have we received um how many five four four proposals um then we have discussed them a little bit um in a Clos session and then um we got another proposal from Ian um to do the work inhouse um then the board hasn't really discussed it since then so want to set up a time for the go back down close that's his proposal tonight Mr presid we we can certainly put that on the agenda for the next meeting have a website presentation from that's not a problem do that any old business new business have a couple
080of new business I think it was Saturday night the some of my colleagues including Mrs Russo attended the Tak rooster Club be Stak when we left the building this is Russo by the way is at 44 Park avation Mrs Russo pointed towards a trailer she says look at antennas and cameras and I had a Wolf Blitzer moment and decided to run towards the uh trailer with Mrs Russo we found something very very pleasant very surprising and very very uh good so so far as the school district is concerned there's an 11th grader named Jason LaVine and I have a list of students names here that are heading up a broad project called Stuff a bus and these youngsters from December 4th to December 11th are sleeping in that bus collecting toys looking to load as
081many buses as they could now I think that's a great thing and I am going to call news12 tomorrow for those who are interested in my media life and I'm going to let them know that these youngsters are doing a fine job I'm hoping that they will cover this story and we have a couple of reporters here I would ask that you also kind of take a visit down there course these kids are really putting a lot of time and effort and work into this project I think it's a great thing M Rell what do you think I I agree I saw the cameras I know that's a switch and I walked over there to see what was going on I had no idea there was a 92.3 buses and camper set up and we
082went over and asked the boy Jason going on he was articulate determined an amazing young man I'm proud that he's in Nutley high school he's making a huge sacrifice it's freezing outside and he's spending 247 aside from his classes sleeping there um to load up he his goal is to hit 10 buses he wants to load them up with toys for TOS so I hope our community comes together and helps him out and he reaches his goal because that that's an amazing young man I think he's going to be a future leader and that was that that was thanks for this job the opportunity to see something like that they say it's a thankless job that was thanks enough to see someone working hard like that and making a difference in the community and I
083have the list of names I'd like to Pastor you Mrs a if we could have them come to some future board meeting and this this youngster by the way this uh Jason line he told us that he wants to go to the Naval Academy that's the type of you know that's the product we're getting out of the school district somebody who's shooting for the Stars he also wants to join Mar after he graduates the Naval Academy so that was a pretty neat moment for all of us he he is a junior and he has already filled up one bus and he is uh his goal is 10 and I believe he will meet that goal and I know that the middle school and the high school are collecting gifts and people have been dropping more
084he is a remarkable young man he's also a uh with our Coral groups and he's an excellent student well Mr Rogers was in the Navy he wants to go to Anapolis I was in the Army and I wanted to go to West so discuss that the we beat you this year though in football uh yes and one other thing Mr President yes I noticed uh I guess over the past few months uh in uh speaking with some of our state representatives in Trenton that there are heck of a lot of uh bills being proposed that are going to impact school districts and some of these uh uh legislative proposals are not going to impact us positively so I suggested to the uh president of this board that we establish a legislative Review Committee which would
085include board members and uh residents of the public that will sit down review these proposals analyze them come up with some sort of a report to the entire School Board in so far as the impact that would have on our district and then take it a step further get a sense from the board as to whether we support a bill or we oppose a bill and let those Senate and assembly committees know what our position is I don't think that we speak loud enough to the legislators in Trenton with regard to the proposals that they have that are going to negatively or in some cases positively impact us so uh I propose that to the president of board as far as I know you're you're in favor of establishing such a committee and when I
086ask that we would do that as soon as possible get these things that we may need to involve um assembly M Clare's office in that as well so he can help us keep impr breast on exactly what's happening um so that's a good idea anyone interested in that can forward a letter to the board office also I've received six letters of interest for the uh steering committee for the permanent um ba and I'll be sending a letter out real soon to everyone on that we want to get some guidelines down as to how we're going to proceed but and I want to emphasize again it's not a race we going take as much time as necessary we're going to look at as many resources as NE necessary to get a good permanent fit any other
087new business i' just like to announce Michael wish Michael the best of luck and working with you two and a half years and and good luck Inc what else Mike uh certainly a pleasure working with you if you need any coverage in in let me know there for you great job really pleasure working with you thank you Mike it was a pleasure working with you we had a lot of fun and remember get that picture signed for arold Palmer Jack Nicholas else yes if I may uh Michael's done a wonderful job he's an outstanding young man uh I I'm calling more and more people young men and young women lately ajing he's an outstanding young man who really has served this District very well I think in many of these positions uh particularly in the
088business administrator the requirements uh the demands of the job are far different than they were a few years ago in in a an era of uh of reduced funding and and greater costs School construction litigation uh so many different issues he's done a very very good job he's very organized very accurate and very methodical in his approach and you're going to miss Micha but of course two weeks from now we say forget what's his name teas Michael good Mission good luck thank you Michael good luck I know you and I have had a lot of discussion a lot of different positions on mental buness was very helpful and very healthy but one thing I've always said to many people I've met that your honesty and your integrity was always out there and I I still
089mean then I think you do a great job for them so good luck good luck M thanks now it's my turn let me tell you something it's always a pleasure to see your smiling face and I mean that seriously because you came in and filled a spot that was uh a very best question and we had a lot of issues we had a lot of unresolved issues we had a lot of questions about construction and um you you Rose to the task you you provided this board with the information we needed we worked very well with our board attorneys plural um anytime time I picked up the phone and had a question if you didn't have the answer you got back to me uh as quickly as possible and U Mr mcaro sums it up
090talks about your character and your honesty is unapproachable and I'm going to miss you I'm going to sit Miss sitting here trying to make you laugh when you have to read something and good luck and Carney and if you ever want to come back forget it it's the WR way anyone else business motion to second second favor