001there we are live Mr Bing so whenever you want to go 7:30 when 7:30 HS [Music] so we're at 7:30 so I'll call the meeting to order start with the pledge Alle United States America stands Nation God indivisible liy and justice for all Mr Davis here Mrs Reed here Mrs hilock here Mr Allen here Mr Golden here Mr Juliano here Mr Jones Mrs orian here thank you all right I'm going to do a motion in a second please to approve the Action meeting minutes from the March 18th 2024 meeting motion all those in favor opposed or obain we don't have a need for an executive session right now so I'll turn it over to Mr Lee for presentations okay great fun stuff how's everybody doing tonight great good thank you all for coming we are
002going to begin our you pict look at that we're gonna I'm gonna I think do it over on the side we're going to um present our student of the month awards for the month of March and these are for our outstanding students for any number of reasons um but we're we're always really excited to have you all come so thank you all for showing up together this evening we are going to start with JFK our first student of the month award goes to selan churn say that right next Everett [Applause] Brown Sophia Kella there must be like a draft and a Sixers game on Alesia Ward Ella Nelson Jack slowski there we got one congratulations just stay right here for me can you hang out here for me awesome Jude molski congratulations great job right
003over here H Fernanda Tes sorcia Kaylee kums zoei tierno Chloe Lee oh hang out up here Chloe Quenton Allen congratulations can you guys go over can I put them over there and yeah you shoot this way come over here with me guys wor good job thank you guys all right next we have our students from Eisenhower first student the month award from Eisenhower is Lincoln Bender Helen guier Max Gul Tracy Tes sorcia Bobby fields Rex Bannon Kayla [Applause] Rivera and Benjamin harra come on over here guys you gotta get a picture sorry everybody look happy guys thank you so much everyone for coming for the awards um please feel free to get up and leave now you do not have to stay Thank You job students than are you hot no it's all right I'll
004never hot I didn't turn this up though J probably turned it up so you was just saying that she loves the 90 degree weather not not um at this point we're going to open the meeting to the public for um comments on agenda items only can I have a motion and a second motion second hopefully can I have a motion in a second to close the meeting to the public motion second all those in favor oppos orain all right um superintendent report you're thank you all right so first two things on the report here are the district commission statement and also our goals which uh need to be updated I I mentioned to the board that we would be um proceeding with strategic planning uh process I actually have a phone call tomorrow um with
005school boards to start the process of setting that up so we can develop our goals we're going to look to start that in September um just to you know clean sleep and that will be a pretty large effort for us because we're going to invite in teachers students board members community members and try to get everyone's input uh in there for the Strategic plan um I know that many of you have gone through it before um I've gone through it before as as a principal and I think it's an awesome process because it really gets us to align everything um and then our school goals align with the Strategic plan um and then teachers goals align and so it's just a it's a great thing to have and we're we're past still so it's it's
006time to get that rolling um next on the agenda here is item C which is our Safety and Security drills fire and safety both at JFK uh and DD uh also monthly reports up you all have access to the monthly reports for special services building and grounds technology coordinator prcum instruction and principles at each one of our schools next we have item F which is our harassment intimidation and bullying report we did have one report at JFK this past reporting period and it was a confirmed hit item G is um just us affirming the reports um that we that the board was given um last month so there were two reports both found not to be hid so we need to vote toir can I have a motion a second please motion second any questions
007Mrs orente yes Mr Jones yes Mrs Helma yes Mr Juliano yes Mr Davis yes M alen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes all right item 11a is to recommend that the Board of Education approve the district calendar for the 2024 2025 school year I started working on this as soon as I showed up basically uh worked closely with the Pine Hill superintendent and the clemon superintendent uh we have two common professional development days with Pine Hill so we'll be able to share some Services there it also helps for transportation and things of the like um Item B there is to acknowledge the following names that were certified as school volunteers um just this month so there are four uh School volunteers that we have to approve we have a motion and a second to
008approve discussion items uh 11a to 11b motion second any questions Mr Jones yes Mrs Helma yes Mr Davis yes Mr oranti yes M Juliano yes M Allen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes uh item 12 is field trips uh 12a we have four field trips it's that time of the year it's field trip season um so we have uh YMCA Johnson's farm mory's pier and Cedar Run Wildlife can I have a motion a second to approve field trips in 12 a second any questions Mrs Helma yes Mrs orente yes Mr Jones yes Mr Juliano yes Mr Davis yes Miss Allen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes all right number 13's Personnel um item a is is for our we we were somehow we're able to get a substitute school nurse um just just
009wrapped up the process of of hiring her today um and she will be available for days where our nurses are out or uh trips and and the like so we always always always someone tells me we need a substitute school nurse I'm like bring them in if you're interested come on in uh Item B is unfortunately to accept the resignation of two of our staff members item C is to approve uh sick leave for three staff members item D there is a student who is coming from Kim to County College who is going to be uh Shadow sh shadowing our occupational therapist item a is a long list of names and and salaries um this is to approve our staff salaries for the upcoming school year so can I have a motion a second to
010approve personel items 13 a to 13 e motion any questions M Juliana yes Mr Jones yes Mrs Helma yes Mrs orente yes Mr Davis yes Miss Allen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes item 14a is our new ESL three-year plan so we have to put out a three-year plan um for our students who have English as second language um that population is increasing every year and so we've I've been much more involved in that over the last couple weeks um working with the um supervisor of curriculum to not only plan for three years but also look ahead and see how we're you know what are what resources are we going to put in place for those students can I have a motion a second to approve curriculum instruction item 14 I motion second any
011questions m Mr Jones yes Mrs Helma yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Juliano yes Mrs oranti yes Miss Allen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes well it looks like you can continue to do your section because you did in a very timely and efficient that was the only I said I'll take over mine so you have to be fiss um all right so I'm gonna move along to business and finance if I can start with a motion to approve um business and finance items 158 15 q and then I'll go through each one all right A through D is just our usual um financial report for the month of March 2024 there are sufficient funds to meet the financial obligations for the remainer of the year no line item has been overe expended the treasur
012report and the secretary's report are in agreement and there are no changes in anticipated Revenue amounts or sources e is our bills list which um Miss Juliano and miss Allen reviewed and signed off on all of them this evening um f is just our March 2024 source for teachers listing with the associated pay rates on there that are within our contract G is to approve the cafeteria dispersements for the month month of March 2024 in the amount of $1 19,6 6456 H is to approve the care dispersements for the month of March 2024 in the amount of $1 16,640 10 cents uh I is for some travel and professional development for some of our staff um as you'll see some have zero cost some of them are online trainings or through the state and then
013others have some costs associated with them um Jay is to approve the memorandum of agreement between the Berlin Township principes and supervisor Association and the Berlin Township Board of Education for the term of July 1 2024 through June 30 2029 um our negotiations committee for that really works really hard I mean we're done in two meetings um it was a really great um professional working relationship yeah it was it was great it was it was seamless um K is to approve the SR ARP homeless Grant Amendment this was just to change some of the Appropriations um nothing changed as far as the bottom line just moving the Appropriations for a contracted service L is to approve the contract with learnwell for homebound instruction services for a student placed in a medical facility it's $55 per
014hour m is to approve the 2425 addendum to extend the agreement with ESS Northeast that's source for was formerly source for teachers and the pricing plan they were uploaded to the portal for your review and is to approve the Professional Services with Burlington County Special Services school district for the 2425 school year we prove this every year there are some services like evaluation services and things like that that they offer to us um should we need them if we can't get our own to do them um o is to approve the agreement with with the Camy County Educational Services Commission this is for the services of Early Childhood preschool consultation and stamping services this is a requirement by the preschool expansion Aid um grant that we funding that we receive so this is new and
015we're able to contract with ed services which um I got that recommendation from H Hill they're also using the same um service um p is to approve did I miss anything no p is to approve the agreement with positive behavior supports Corporation to provide bcba and RBT services that was also uploaded and then Q is to approve the following budget transfers the first one is just to move it into some home instruction Services as you saw the one above there was someone in for um medical we just needed to transfer some additional funds to cover a few home instruction contracted services for this year uh the second one is to cover those legal costs this was sent to the county office for approval because it's an an administrative line um so that's to cover legal
016services and then the next one is to cover child site te related Services we've had a some large increases in these just due to some needs with some of our students um so we are monitoring that it has been increased for next year um and I just talked about this in finance committee they're going to look to see if there's ways to restructure some programs or or see how we can um work through this but those numbers are are really up right now for the related Services um and that's all I have does anybody have any questions Mrs oriente yes Mrs Juliano yes Mrs Helma yes Mr Jones yes Mr Davis yes Miss Allen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes all right thank you all right so next we have old business which I
017don't think we had any old business um committee updates for negotiations obviously the btea has been um resolved all those retro pays were processed um and BT PSA now we have a um a memorandum agreement for them so Joe Bentley will move forward on you know putting those items from the memorandum of agreement into the actual contract and then you know moving forward but we'll be set to go with that for July 1 when that starts um oh yeah Mr Murphy was there too it was a seamless process right yeah um finance committee uh we met they signed off on all the bills in record time um all our revenues are coming in on time um our state aid our tax levy um some miscellaneous Vue we don't have any changes to special ed placements
018there is a student on home instruction that we're looking to um for an outside placement but it's hard to find those placements in May almost um so their child team is exploring a lot of different options to see um how quickly and efficiently we can find the right placement uh funding information or concerns we don't really have any other than we supposed to have our public hearing tonight but because the county office got our budget approved so late we're just going to have that on May 1st now so I'll see all next week um we're just watching those tuition Transportation related Services legal service costs at this point this is a time of year where things start to implode a little bit um so we're just looking at all that um the Esser American Rescue
019plan amendment was submitted and approved These funds still have to be spent on Co they're Co related so health and safety So within that Grant we're getting two new buses that are close to being due to needs to be replaced um Chromebooks and bright LS a floor scrubber upgraded air condition in the it office and a new serving line in the cafeteria at Eisen hour that's all been approved we've already started to extend those funds um they need to be all spent by um September 30th we'll have a probably a summer virtual program um for some of the kids we'll have some I believe Mr Lee put in his notice about that care Solace um so we'll have them kind of do some there's a mental health component to the grant um so we'll have
020that as well so that is pretty much all we talked about in finance so moving on to to the next um School boards I haven't seen anything come through for school boards I know Mr Lea he's talking to them about um setting the district goals and things of that nature so they'll be more to come from them and services anything Michelle they did have a meeting in April the next meeting is next Wednesday okay that's the that's our I'll go that and then come to this I'm multitask there is really all day go there there is pretty there are pretty quick though you remember they're really fast uh Kim Pine Hill well I had my meeting last night um we went over the budget and it was actually a really quick meeting with the exception
021of our executive session um but other than that it was basic our next meeting is May 14th okay perfect um Camy County School boards I haven't seen anything um from there so now at this point I believe we have both of all um board School Board candidates for our vacancy so Mr Golden if you want to kind of take the floor at this uh so we have two individuals uh interviewing for the school board position so what we'll do is we'll do one after the other um I'll open first to ask the board do you think that it would be valuable to have one of the whoever is not being interviewed step out or it is it's the same set of questions or do you think it doesn't really matter uh I know done it
022before with both people in the same room but it was suggested so I wanted to throw it up there see if that's a concern anybody has think the same thing then then we'll go with that process uh so it's going to be a couple of questions we'll ask again the same questions to both sides uh near the end of our meeting we'll have an executive session we'll come back and confer to decide who we think would be the best choice uh and then after that we'll come out and and make that announcement um and then there'll be some coordination for that individual with our business administrator for background checks and things like that that are requirements as well so we'll start we'll just go alphabetical order I guess is the way to go so that
023would be Stefania mislinski I'm gonna move up some more [Music] talking thank you for coming out and one more time how the name masinski but staff that'll be a much easier one uh so as I said there's seven questions here and we'll sort of work our way around the room so each of the board members gets an opportunity to to ask if so inclined um and feel free to to speak as much or as little as you feel you need on any of these particular topics uh so the first one I guess would be uh why do you want to be a board member um so I I've seen like vacancies recently several times and I kept thinking like I should put in for that I probably have a good set of skills to assist
024with that um and then this last time I said you know I'm going to do it but I also just kind of feel like there's there's two reasons one is that I I do feel like as members of a community we're all kind of responsible for working toward the betterment of that and I the school board I think has a unique position in that it interacts probably more so with our community members than any other kind of facet that we have I mean maybe public works or something like that but really um I think most people in the neighborhoods the one way that they have any sort of community involvement is through the school system um what's specific skills would you bring to the board um so I am a public servant with the Department
025of Human Services for over 25 years um and in that capacity I've worked in various things I've worked um with children with adults with developmental disabilities with mental health I've worked as a hospital administrator um I've worked as a social worker I currently am a quality Insurance Specialist um with the division of Developmental Disabilities but I think I have a really long history of um knowing how to work within systems uh to I I I have a I'm a professional I understand um kind of the parameters of what guides a lot of our policies and stuff like that administratively in the state of New Jersey um I also um have a ability to kind of like problem solve and troubleshoot being the social work background like I um right now like for instance will look
026for like when somebody's having um an issue I know how to look for Grants or different ways that we can fund them to support them um and write those kind of proposals for them so sorry please give specific examples of the abilities and skills in working with teams or committies I think you kind of touched on that yeah so I so currently um a lot of what I do is um assist um nonprofit agencies with coming into compliance with Medicaid standards um and doing that I have to call in like all the office of Licensing the Department of Mental Health so I collaborate with a lot of different teams to make sure that people are reaching that end goal um I also am in charge of running the Statewide um human rights committee I'm the
027chair of it so I uh have to make sure we operate on consensus not majority rules so I have to direct all of our decision-making toward a consensus vote in order for us to be productive so um so in those ways I work in like a collaboration with a lot of different [Music] teams what do you see as a role of a Schoolboard member um I mean I think they're basically as I mentioned probably like a kind of conduit between the community and the school system I also think that they're here to kind of um work in conjunction with the superintendent to help you know move along the budget and to help review and approve that sort of thing the administrative policies and practices I think you touched on some of this but please describe
028your previous Community or nonprofit experiences so I haven't had any for-profit experience I don't think um I've only worked nonprofit um uh yeah on top of so 25 plus years of service in the to the um state of New Jersey and the public sector for Department of Human Service services but also I mean I've done other little things I I work I'm on sit on the school climate committee right now um my son's going to graduate 8th grade though so I'm guessing that I'm going to be not sitting on that committee any longer um you know other things like the Wares animal orage and stuff for them fostered animals there but that's probably my nonprofit experience is mostly through my job gotcha thank you what areas would you like to strengthen in our district um
029I mean would love to see us build up a little bit of our extracurricular stuff for the students um I see when I go to you know um after school activities and games that the teachers are there I I think they have the motivation to be supportive of the students outside of typical school hours I see them involved a lot um it's impressive and I so I think the desire is there and I think if we could build upon that it would be fantastic for our students thank you are you aware of the time training commitments and ethics law disclosures required for school board membership um I am because I booked it up I don't know I can't say that I'm aware of how many hours like training is but I did see that you're
030required to have training every year and the um I with my job I have to do ethics and fingerprinting and stuff like that so that's not a and that's not an issue I guess okay thanks uh so it's not on here but I'll just tack this one on as is there anything else that you feel the board should be made aware of before you know anything you wanted to touch on that didn't already get covered um I don't think so there's nothing I think no there's not anything specific um was there any any concerns or any other questions that anybody had for me no okay been with DDD most of your career um I started off working at um Anora uh and so I worked there for like maybe eight years and then I moved
031to the division um and I've been there since but uh I actually this I grew up on the grounds of Anor my parents my mother was a special education teacher there and my father was a social worker I kind of joke that we were like a government breeding experiment because my brother my brother is now a director in the division of mental health services and and I do clavia tance with the DDD so w yeah so it worked out well for the state they they had a good plan thank you very much who was first that was no no no who who was the first one that not sure was it her Hello thank you for joining [Music] [Laughter] us so basic format of this we have seven questions and we'll work our way across
032the room so every board member gets an opportunity to ask if they're so inclined sure uh feel free to take as much or as little time as you feel is needed to answer any of the questions uh and the first one we have would be uh why do you want to be a board member the dreaded question no um so I have thought about this since I've seen this posting um I have a son who's in JK now and then a little one will be there next year as well I love to be involved with my kids I'm like a helicopter Mom it's kind of bad um and I like to I think that it would be good to get involved with the school I want the best for my kids I feel like every
033parent does and if there's something I can do I feel like this would be the best thing to do if I can make a change with a good team of people um while also making sure that my kids are getting good education it's a good community that we have it's a great school that they're in so if I could be part of that I think that would be really rewarding and fulfilling as a parent thank you thank you what specific skills would you bring for the board so hard to talk about yourself yeah it really is well I mean I'm creative so I would like to maybe have some creative input if that is something that the board does um I'm really not too familiar with with things that the board does that's why I
034wanted to come to the meeting to kind of see what it was about um so I feel like I could bring some Creative Energy in some positive good energy in um thank you okay um please give some examples of your abilities and skills um in working with um Community groups or as a team member that I've done yes uh um I haven't done much in the community I mean I go to community events with my kids we do go to a karate facility in town um I'm at all of the school functions a lot of the the town community events that we do have we always attend I have volunteered for a couple of things over at the lukea park that that we go to that my kids go to but I'm usually with my
035kids most of the time um so I kind of like to be with them but I do try to get in when I can to volunteer what do you see your role as a Schoolboard member just helping make good decisions for the school board and that would it to make sure that things are good and question uh please describe your previous Community or nonprofit experiences so I haven't like I said I haven't been on any committees um besides what my kids are involved in I did years ago I volunteered at marlson hospital Virtua um I worked side by side on the ICU unit there because I went to school for a unit secetary so I volunteered there for a year just to get some experience um in that field much for the volunteerism part okay
036thank you welcome um what areas would you like to strengthen in our district I'm new to the district like I said my son's in preschool um I have met with the child study team which I think is fantastic for my little son I think from what I've seen as a parent so far everything seems pretty well like I love the school that my like I love the teachers I love the atmosphere everything um I was I about the school and his teachers because I'm literally um so I think it's great on being series I really think it's a great school that they're in so just to keep things moving forward as it is I think is perfect are you aware of the time training commitment and ethics law disclosures required for Schoolboard membership I did
037some research on that um and yes I am and then to wrap it up is there any specific areas that uh you would like to elaborate on or that you feel I wish they had asked that question that you want to close out with thank you thank you very much thank you all for your time I'm going to pull our other kind we're going to open the meeting to public and we're going to go into executive and then they would make their decision either once we go on Executive we'll probably just go in the other room you no problem you forget how hard it is to interview when you're having interviewed in I've been in my job for 12 years I haven't had to interview in quite a while I get it it's the and
038it's very like intimidating when you don't do it all the time one there's like to spread your ways a little bit right yeah all right so at this point then we will open the meeting to the public for um any comment agenda or otherwise you have a motion in a second motion second all those in favor right hearing no public comment we're going to motion a second to close the meeting to the public motion second all those in favor iOS all right so at this point we're going to go into executive session so I guess we can um go in into the back meeting room if that's good since we still have people here so we'll we'll discuss this part come back make that announcement and then cover the rest of our executive is yeah
039if you'd like to do that we can certainly do that so that way we don't keep them waiting more we need to y yeah absolutely I mean we can St back in the room it's easier so you all have to um do you want to do that do you wanna because I have huh are we I'll have um Jacob we'll just make sure that the new microphone is actually all right so yeah so if you guys want to go sit out there is that good then we'll come back out and get you come back into public we'll make a motion to to move forward on Mr Murphy you're fre to go all right I think they're talking fine all right have a good night thank you a second did you leave us the M Jody
040did I'm not but everybody everybody walked in thinking that's what it was being set next month mouthwash if there's toothbrushes here next time yeah I I have my toothbrush in my office I brushed mine before after IE my's gonna do that e e e like six months and then it had to be on the ballot to cover the unexpired term which was also a year and then I had to go again um I don't 26 think so yeah I'm gonna double check but I don't think because right because it's a that person was just appointed so is it for the remainder of the term or it's just until the election we'll double check with you we'll double check that always gets a little dicey we'll double we'll double check worst case scenarios go on the
041ball but it's a vacancy right now anyway so the likelihood that's usually people go and it's like one two three go do my research right there you too that's good I look him up on Facebook yeah Facebook Facebook check them all right so I think we are good I think we are good to go so at this point we're going to do a motion in a second to approve Sarah rote thank you Sarah row to fill the school board vacancy pending that criminal history clearance can I have a motion a second motion second thought I thought so so we're going to go with um Mrs orente yes Mr Juliano yes Mrs helmo yes Mr Jones yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mrs Reed yes and Mr Golden yes all right so you are approved
042for the first step we just have to get that finger thank you guyscome apprciate all of you thank you for your time and my all right so at this point I'm going to tell um Jacob that he can shut down our stream because we're going to go into executive one more time for the superintendent evaluation but that is not going to result in any action when we come out so um you can have your discussions and then we can uh close and adjourn so once he shuts us down we're good to go into the second executive to discuss