001[Music] we are live so as soon as [Music] I call the meeting to order at 7:30 United States America stands naice Allen Mr Gold julana here Mr Jones can I have a motion in a second to approve the minute from the following meeting January 26 2024 that was our Action meeting motion all those in favor oos for the presentation yes we have some presentations for our students here from Eva so guys I'm going to come out here I call your name put on up and get your student of the month certificate right come all right first we have Aliana [Applause] Locker next we have Dominic [Applause] shellenberg next is Joelle [Applause] campesi Walter Hernandez Chase Cronin y Emma [Applause] barza Anthony Baron silly and Michaela har thank you awesome students thank you all student mon
002you're what makes this place as great as it is we're going to take a brief pause here so if any parents want to take their children home I understand it is a school night hopefully the brain lifs up just long enough for you to get through and pull that off of course you're more than welcome to stay if you're so inclined and again thank you very much [Music] so for everyone that I passed out um of Education I have our little one sheet kind of summarizes the AIT quickly so this is for the F year 2023 and as you can see there's a p representation of what our fund balance broke down for the year year 23 engine um you know we have our encumbrances which are the builds liquidated with the year we were
003under AIT budget you're in now our unemployment compensation balance for any unemployment claim to come up uh designated Surplus is the amount that we're using in the budget for 2324 that's the budget that we're currently in uh the green amount shows our exit Surplus this would be the amount that was generated during fiscal year 23 there was a one year delay on when that get used so that actually be the minimum amount required to to offset um that Year's budget so that's 2425 the purple amounts or capital reserve blue amounts are maintenance reserve and the last amount there is on a sign uh that went back to a 2% cap we were at 4% the year before they allow was 2% before that so they only allowed the exemption for one year but the 4%
004scale back back to 2% so that number is slightly down from what it would have been yet last year but it has nothing to do with what the district in in terms is doing um but it's just because it's a percentage of what they're allowing us to do for our calulation PR so if you flip it over um we have a just a brief representation of you know how this the school district fa financially uh it's it's what our budget was what we actually ended up with for the year I will point out that for state aid which is not always typical um we actually outdid our budget by about $455,000 that is all tied to one particular Aid that we received during FIS year 23 that was our maintenance of equity Aid that was
005something that the state put out that if you had a fluctuation in your enrollment over a certain threshold they would do a calculation times those students to try and let's say fill the gap for for the change in change in enrollment because now the state a formula it's back to actually fluctuating and not being flat so they ended up giving us the maintenance Equity a there is no guarantee that we would continue to receive maintenance Equity Aid and I don't know if we will at least we haven't heard anything we would be getting that in subsequent Year's budgets so this will most likely be a onetime event to just keep that in mind um and consequently if you see our gain for the year ended up being $513,000 which primarily is attributable to receiving the
006maintenance of equity a during fisc year 23 so our fund balance you can see end of the year 3.2 million once again there's a breakdown of the the analysis breakdown of that fund balance that ties to what we have on the front side of the page and I have a comparison to what it was the year before uh you can see most of that increase ended up in what is being used in our subsequent year budget so we are actively utilizing the money and putting it to to use within the budget that we are currently under uh and then at the bottom you can see we just kind of an idea of what happened with our Appropriations once again we are very consistent within the district our unassigned fund balance is a percentage of what
007we spend was 4.89% last in 2022 4.91 in 2023 uh and I know you're probably thinking didn't you just say 2% um there you're allowed to keep a little bit more for some exemptions some of them being uh extraordinary Aid Transportation AIDS as many of equity AIDS they allow you to reserve that on the side not as part of what your percentage is not your true percent excess Surplus they do allow you to keep some of that so you can utilize that you know more at your discretion and subsequent your budgets um at the bottom there you see we have one finding recommendation this one should sound familiar um it's the problem of having too much money in our food service um so we have a calculation we do your net cash resources are not
008supposed to exceed your three months average expenditures and we do have that situation now that's been going on for a few years and a lot of that has been driven by the additional Co monies that have been you know given out over over the last few where everybody was free we got a higher rate we started getting p and you know all these other AIDS and as the costs didn't necessarily exactly match the increase in that we started generating more money um and the state did come out and say that it's okay your corrective action which I know we're going to be passing right after this is that we can hold on to it and utilize it appropriately whether we're going to assess what kind of meals we serve whether we're going to be buying
009refrigerators whether we're going to be you know getting new it's for Capital more like more items to make sure new new lunch tables um so it's something that we will eventually be back to dwindling it down uh and just as we've seen in the last couple of years our fund balance increases yeah monies have now ceased um of equity is not going to be a multi-year event so you know and some of these things as we hopefully get full Staffing full PE you know that we have everything you know utilizing we put in our budget I don't know if we're going to be seeing these increases to fund balance as as much as we would like and have seen in the last couple of years um but you know the audit went very well this
010was the only recommendation that we had one that is required by by the Department of Education to um you know we had an unmodified opinion which is the highest level of opinion that we can give our audit so once again you know the T of brow School District's AIT was very well so I'd like to extend my appreciation to everyone here for for having b a company as your auditor my my always appreciation of the finance office it's never fun to have the Auditors come in I know that um but they always you know do their best to accommodate and you know we're always an extra day so um and and their you know their records are always EXA so I would like to thank everyone here and and you know I appreciate it if
011there are any questions please I know you want to extend your meeting but if you have any questions please let me know if there's something you come up with later they read the full a sure yes absolutely from from You Know cover to cover um but if you do have any other questions please get them to Megan she can get them to me uh she can provide you with my phone number cell email address and I can address any question thank you back next to see what your thought any have any questions all right this one we're going to go um into public comments for items not no items appear on the agenda this is agenda items only rather um and Point obviously anybody could comment on the audit presentation or anything else that's within
012the agenda I have a motion second to open the meeting for the public for discussion of agenda items only second all those in favor I opposed orain no comments on no comments then for agenda items only have motion a second to close the meeting to the second all in favor are so then we just need to move to motion a which is the resolution to approve our audit um we must have it as per um njsa 188 23-1 we must have a certified external audit of the district's account and Financial action um the Berlin CH Board of Education did receive the audit performed by Bowman and Company and discussed the audit at our public meeting this evening February 22nd um we need to now accept the audit for the 2223 school year fiscal year ending
013June 20 June 30th 2023 and approve the corrective action plan as follows um again that's all the details that Mr Palmer just talked about and um that has to be in there this has to get uploaded to the um state as t with minutes and things of that nature so can I have a motion and a second motion second any questions Mr James yes Mrs yes Mr juli yes Mr Davis yes yes Mr yes thank you thank you thank you very much question come up please feel free to reach out yes so just real quick um it's been a it's been a great first 10 days for me so far in the district uh very busy 10 days in the district so far um but I have to say and it's I know it's only
014been a short time it's been um it's been so everyone has been so welcome uh from the staff in this building to the teaching staff um to the people you you know to the students um many of whom in the Middle School know my name already I don't know how they know my name I guess say have brothers and sisters that went to the high school um but it's been a it's been a really great experience so far and I'm I'm really excited to to dig in and uh and get to work so and work with you all and [Music] you and I'm going to take over everything else and we're going to roll through this um as you'll see we have some um number change this it should be a get the picture um
015our Safety and Security drills for Kennedy and Eisenhower are listed there so both of them had an active shooter drill and both had a regular fire drill um all of the monthly reports I believe were uploaded to the portal um so you should have had time to review those um we just have the hip report which had um one report at Eisenhower it was not confirmed p and then I believe believe the ones G that we need to affirm are the ones that was presented at our last meeting um so we do need to do a motion in a second um and having no appeals to date affirm that superintendent decisions associated with those H reports from last month um it was December 22nd at Eisenhower and it was not him can I have a
016motion to Second motion second any questions Mr Jones Mrs Helma yes Mr Davis yes Mr Juliano yes M Allen yes and Mr Golden yes 10h number one is just to approve use of use facilities for a few organizations these have all been reviewed by um several of us at the administrative level as well as Mr fluger who kind of checks to make sure that um those spaces are available for these um associations can I have a motion and a second please second any questions Mrs Helma yes Mr Jones yes Mrs Julian yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mr Golden yes I changed uh the second G to I and this is field trips that are scheduled we have um March April and May um two of them are for preschool this is actually the
017first one is actually um our MD program I have a motion in a second any questions Mr Juliano yes Mr Jones Mrs hel yes Mr Davis yes Mr all yes and Mr Golden yes we're going to approve all in one motion um items 9 a through 9 G I'll get a motion a second then I'll just go through them briefly can I have a motion a second for 9 motion second all right 9A is to approve the hiring of Staff um one is they vote for vacancy one is for has been bacon and the other one the special education teacher is a vacancy that was created this year this is a position over at Eisenhower so we're hoping they'll get to start um in the next week or so once we have alls and everything
018else back 9B is just to approve some staff renewals these were approved last month but there were the contracts went out there were a couple discrepancies so it could have been that it was a 15 instead of a 16 or vice versa so these are just revisions so that we reissue those contracts for those staff members C is just to accept regret the resignation of Holly Palmer from the burlin township CARE program she does continue to work at as an instructional assistant in the district of Eisenhower so this is just um working for the before and after school program we need to accept with regret the retirement of Mr Scott Reynolds effective June 30th 2024 Mr Reynolds has been with us since March of 1998 we also need to approve with regret where you know
019I was going to call you um the retirement of Miss Chris beec June 30th december9 two of the most welcoming people over the last 10 she's amazing she had my baby for one year at to approve the um intermittent sick leave it's going to be a combination of paid sick leave and family leave Insurance between May 6 through December 6th the staff member will return on December 9th G is to approve the following s positions these are all contractual positions um so they are approved at the contractual R and that it so does anybody have any questions on those before I do roll all right Mr J Mrs Helma yes Mr Davis yes Mr Juliana yes Mrs all yes Mr Golden yes 10 one is curriculum and instruction I need a motion and a second
020to approve um item one and this is just for the njsla testing security plan it was uploaded to the portal forie does anybody have any questions Mrs Juliana yes Mrs Helmont yes Mr Jones yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes and Mr Golden yes right um need a motion and a second to approve business and finance items 11 a2j we'll do the same thing we'll take our Motion in second and then we will um I'll go through each of them have a motion second all right um 11 a through D is our usual um financial report for the period ending January 2024 um no line item has been overextended sufficient funds are available to meet the district's Financial Obligations for the remainder of the year um the treasurer's report and the secretary's report are in
021agreement for the month of January 2024 there's no changes in anticipated Revenue amounts or sources um e is just to do payment of the bills and Rebecca and Stacy actually reviewed all those and signed off on them in our finance committee meeting f is just to approve the January 2024 listing from source for teachers all the pay rates and the bill rates are listed there G is to approve the cafeteria dispersement for the month of January 2024 in the amount of $291 1682 H is to approve the care dispersements for the month of January 2024 in the amount of 8 , 61441 I is to approve a contract between cross country clinical and Berlin Township School District these are for bilingual speech and language evaluations at $980 an evaluation um J is to approve some
022travel and professional development for staff members um going to a lot of good things here so that's exciting that they're utilizing most of these funds are in our title two Grant so it's good to utilize those that way anybody have any questions Mr Jones Mrs hel Mrs jul yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mr Golden yes all right I don't think we have any old business um new business negotiations we're going to start um meeting with the principal and supervisors Association next next week yeah thank you um finance committee we did have our finance committee meeting we reviewed the budget report um still just keep an eye on some of District question lines taking a look at the legal services they're getting a little bit low so we may have to request to transfer
023through the county office um revenue report we're kind of at that halfway point all of our revenues for tax levies for stated we receiv received half of what we're supposed to receive so we're right on track um our out of District special placements there weren't any changes to to that from last month to this month building our 2425 budget as we speak so I'm hoping to have that all built in my system by Tuesday our stated numbers will come out next Thursday so we'll have a pretty good idea where we stand um the S SO2 that's part of the grants that Grant performance report was due is due March 8th and that's already been submitted approved that was Co honey um we'll have one more to do for the final round next year our school
024bus inspections are March 19th they're currently going through their quarterly inspections to make sure that they're ready to go we are having an administrative review for Food Service um this you get every couple years last year last time the Department of Agriculture came out they did Eisenhower so it's a matter of looking at our paperwork looking at the c training to serve looking at our meals looking at the temperature our meals looking making sure that everything is in compliance um which I'm fairly confident it will be looking at a free reduce La application so they're doing JFK this now um they're probably March 25th to the 22nd so I'll have a state representative with me um and over in the cafeteria on and off and then uh every twice a year we have to submit
025our board secretary and pres report to the county office the December one was to is due March 1 and that's already been submitted on February we've been busy um School boards we do have a board vacancy um Miss Hannah had to um resign for her on the board so we are actually going to um there was um the advertisement for that is actually was going out send it Courier Post and on the website so just have them send me an email letting us know they're interested and I I I think I can't remember the date right now um but then at our next board meeting in March we'll kind of do interest Services Michelle's not here Hill Kim's not here um and then Camy County School boards um we just have the eighth grade dialogue
026participant is actually going to Beary miss this year who's been nominated by Mrs and staff over there family board members and staff have been registered so it should be a nice turn um um I think I probably myself time if anybody else wanted to go from the um board just let me know um at this point we're going to go ahead and um open our public comments this can be for anything you want to re the so as Megan mentioned for non-agenda items the public is reminded that they should attempt to resolve problems Endor complaints through the initial contact with the staff member or members involved therein and the chief School administ prior to petition petitioning the Board of Education complaint should only be brought to the board after the appropriate School staff has had
027a reasonable opportunity to resolve the problem at the employee level statement should be limited to topics to be addressed on the published agenda public participation shall be governed by the following rules as per regulation 9322 all persons wishing to participate in a public board meeting shall register their intent by signing in with the board secretary in advance of the meeting a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of his or her name place of residence and group affiliation if appropriate each statement made by a participant shall be limited to five minutes duration no no participant may speak more than once on the same topic all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no participant May address or question board members individual presiding officer May interrupt warn
028or terminate a participant statement when the statement is too leny abusive obscene or not so this is for the non-agenda so that part wouldn't actually apply uh request any individual to leave the meeting when the person does not observe reasonable decorum request the assistance of law enforcement officers and the removal of a disorderly person when that person's conduct interf with the orderly progress of the meeting call for a recess or an adj adjournment to another time when the lack of public quum so interferes with the L conduct of the meeting as to Warrant such actions and to we these rules when necessary for the protection of privacy or the efficient administration of the board's business can I have motion a second then to open the meeting to the public for discussion of my name is
029Jennifer and I have been a teacher in the district for over 16 years this is the first time during my tenure in burlin Township that I personally addressed the Board of Education tonight I come for you to speak about reiring violent incidents in school every year is part of mandatory training the state and District school violence policies laws and procedures must be reviewed according to the video school violence identifying and dressing provided by Vector training our school training platform the definition School violence with any behavior that violates a school's educational Mission or clate of respect upon reviewing part of the mission of the burlin Township Board of Education it clearly states establishing high standards of excellence for Staffing students communicating openly and frequently within the district and with the community to foster a trusting relationship
030ensuring a safe and orderly environment for our staff and students recognizing that a school district serves as a role model and has the responsibility to encourage high quality character Behavior the video continually re reiterates the accountability of staff to report and document violent and harmful Behavior by students or any person on the school PR as a frequency of violent and thre behavor is exposed in the country we as educators are required to be vigilant and Report Acts or we are held liable despite teachers in the district diligently documenting threatening armful destructive Cent and other inappropriate behaviors for select students these behaviors have continued it is must be noted that each year we see that the recurrent behaviors are negatively affecting the environment of the classrooms and schools student and staff are being negative negatively affected
031daily according to the school shooter profile a threat assessment perspective document resinated by the FBI a threat is an expression of intent to do harm to act out by against someone or something a threat can be spoken written or symbolic for example motioning with one's hands as though shooting another person the paper discusses that a threat maybe a warning signal a reaction to fear punishment or some other anxiety or demand for attention it may be intent to Taun to intimidate to assert power or control to punish to manipulate to coarse to frighten to terrorize to compel someone or some to do something to strike back for an injury Injustice or slight to disrupt someone for some institution's life to test Authority for to protect On's Heth teach teachers are witnessing the behaviors listed above again
032and again teachers are fac with challenge of documenting numerous significant Behavior incidents involving threatening aggressive defant and inappropriate behavior often repeat students the Bo's Behavior poliy involving threat behavior is not even cons follow psychological assessments are conform more than once for a few students and then they return to the classroom with no additional support for the teacher or the student this school year I was threatened by a student and it was reported to the building Administration this incident continues to make me feel unsafe and un hurt in a world where we are constantly hearing about school shoting I strongly believe that more must be done by school administrators Educators do not go to do not go to work to be threatened and to make to feel unsafe we understand that there are students who may
033need additional support systems in place but if our reports go unheard how did these students get the help they need many of the staff members in Berlin Township have expressed concerns and many share the same sentiment that educators are unheard unappreciated and constantly disrespected teachers are doing their D diligence with worry and anxiet daily I have visited the police station three times to document these incidents I have been in several meetings discussing ways to keep the staff the students and myself safe personally I've been stretched in many areas the stress of worrying about the safety of the STA and students has been real and extremely daunting I stand before you to ask you to understand thetive position of myself many staff members in ber Council I can honestly see with more harmful behaviors and possibly
034more significant behaviors of I know that STA and I have done all we can to bring concerns SL that have been repeatedly thank you for your time and your consideration my intention solely was to worry about the safety of Staff the students and as well as sourly troubled students want to take a moment to make sure if there was anybody else wanted to say on that topic on behalf of the board I just want to thank you for sharing that I know it can't have been an easy thing to do uh and I want you to understand that we will take that very seriously um and we're working with our new superintendent to make sure that your concerns are addressed yes and he did sit in a meeting with us and he was very open
035when listening and we do very much appreciate that that's the first time in the long time someone has come to us in that capacity and wanted to understand the situation so do that's what we're about this is J is not relation I'm I'm a parent student in a d school I comp to see if the board has additional information follow up a follow through on some communication students and a staff member at so more so here for open than um an open MTH know better than I we we spoke we spoke on the phone there's nothing more that I can I can share about the situation this time um so then I do have a question so not needing any specifics about the situation that I explained that to when we spoke that that's completely
036regards to is there any movement and for movement the plan for students yes so just just as we spoke about yep thank you sir good evening everybody I know some of you uh my name is Caroline tan from njaa I the field represents your staff here at B Township so I just I just want to um show that we are in support obviously of of our members here and um I had the opportunity to speak to Mr leie for this meeting and so we are communicating and and working things out but we we wanted Jen to know she's definitely supported by us and and we're willing to work we just want to obviously make sure that everybody including you know everybody who works in the district and Community our safe so thank you thank you
037for having us than you I hope there is never a question that everyone in the board and the administration is also fully supporting everything that supports the safety of our staff students Administration uh across the board anyone else and motion second please to close meeting to the all those in favor oppos right we do have the need for an executive session so at this time we're going to go into executive session there will not be any action taken um when we come out we will just HH thank you all for [Music] coming he