Board Meeting 2-15-23

001I I just wanted to make sure you are right okay you guys are alive let me just check the audio I was doing I was going off probably equipment can somebody say something okay we're good okay you ready good all right we're calling to order oh I don't have my microphone we're calling to order this meeting tonight um we do have a quorum present so we are going to get started and we'll have Gwen presenting shortly first I'm going to read the public meeting statement the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon the provisions of this act and Board of Education

002policy zero one six two the Board of Education of the borough of Bound Brook has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in the board office and at Bound Brook High School and mail to mailed or faxed to The Courier News Bound Brook mayoral clerk southbound Brook Board of Education and any person who has requested individual notice and paid the required fee we please stand for the pledge allegiance of the United States okay we're moving right to swearing in our new board member I believe that is U.S divorci thank you Mr Bell accordion good evening sir as board Secretary of Bound Brook Board of Education it's my privilege to swear you in as a new board member duly elected in the November election so please repeat after me sure I I Donald Vollmer do

003solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or a firm or a firm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey state of New Jersey and I will bear true faith and Allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments and to the governments established in the United States established in the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I I Donald Vollmer you solemnly swear or affirm your solemnly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I've processor qualifications for prescribed

004by law to the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of the Board of Education and that I am not disqualified as a voter and that I'm not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 Persona RS 19 colon 4-1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime nor disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense or offense listed in njs 18a Colon 12-1 listed in njs 18a Colon 12-1 and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties of that office perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my abilities so help me go according to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations thank you [Applause]

005okay and I would also like to note in the minutes that Mr filma has also been provided with the board member code of ethics um which we give to all board members thank you Mr Bell uh you're up again with a roll call please Mr Bell here Mr Dawson here miss Casino yeah Miss Lima here Mr zubko Miss moosen Mr mint house miss high here Mr Balmer here Mr Januzzi Mr uh board vice president you have a quorum president this evening thank you okay we are all yours Miss Norton where would you like us how would you like to well we can't see very well from up there so if you want to come down that's it okay I can do it from there if you don't feel the need to see the size okay

006where you are okay I would like to sit in the caution row uh you are more than welcome to or you could sit over there I mean I've learned you don't sit with caution yes well that was your just to block off traffic and so and I'll be able to see was unpresenting because I'm going to have to try we don't have a clicker so where do you where would you like this you want us here sure whatever's best for you you're here for you know and it's always a party anyway s thank you for having me back congratulations thank you welcome to board service as I said I I think it is a really interesting wonderful piece um for your community for you I've learned a lot as a brand new board member and

007as a long-serving board member so it is a pleasure to see all of you so this is your annual ethics training um we added this claimer because of course we don't provide legal advice that's up to your board attorney we can provide information and that's what this evening is about um and the code of ethics is required to evolve the Board of Education members it's something that I was always very proud of as a board member that at one point we voluntarily ascribed to the code events statutory it actually came out of a delegate assembly of New Jersey school boards Association and was a recommendation of school districts to have board members um ascribe to a code event two are the largest group of volunteer public efficiency to abide by the code of ethics I

008often say I'm waiting for folks under the golden dome to come to that piece but it hasn't happened I'm not hoping my breath after 30 years of being involved in education in New Jersey for that to happen but what's important is not only that you abide by the code but also be aware of the actual letter of the code but also to be aware of the public perception um that you are applied inside the code of ethics it's not merely a behavior that would be perhaps prohibited but it's also giving your public confidence in that word is ensuring that it's remaining truthful and faithful to that it holds the respect and the confidence of the people which as you know is entirely appropriate and important you want to avoid conductivist violation of the code itself

009work it gives the public the justifiable impression that there is a violation of the code okay so who does it apply to it applies to all school officials um and it covers conflicts of interest disclosure statements that you will be required to complete if you're a seated board member by April 30th if you're brand new you have 30 days to complete that it will be sent to you if it has to be sent already and it includes the code of ethics as well as the mandatory training requirements that were added to the law several years back New Jersey school board members are some of the most well-educated board members in the nation you're required to take new board member orientation in the first year of your trainings for brand new folks that's been changed for

010those who were elected after April at the April election this year and moving forward for everybody else middle of next November you will only have 90 days within which to take Newport liberal orientation it's based on the notion that it is important for new board members to be trained early on it remains a yearly requirement for years two and three of your first term and you'll have a year to take Gulf four the four is taken in the first year of any term subsequent to your first term and it really is around legal updates and changes that have been made to the law yes a question a board member who leaves and returns but has already done the training three years there's a break in service that is longer than three years they would have

011to retake new board member orientation it used to be 10 years they've slimmed that down to three um and so yes if you have a breaking service and you come back and we always welcome folks back who haven't shared obviously you're going to have a shorter window that you can have a break before having to retake it and you get to see all of us again exactly what would we work on great so the school ethics act established the school ethics commission the SEC that's not the Securities Exchange Commission I thought that's what it was I used to teach American government from high school level and when somebody said the SEC I said oh the Security's Exchange Commission and then I became a board member in the state of New Jersey and they said no

012no but it's the school ethics Commission it outlines potential conflicts of interest that you must avoid it talks again about them those mandatory training requirements that I just recounted to you um and of course your financial disclosure statements that are required of all school officials I've been filling them out now for 30 years as a staff member on at a SBA we fill those out as well as well as abided by the code of actors okay so who's on that code investment it's a nine-member board um five non-school officials two superintendents and two Board of Education members um they serve for for uh three years or at the pleasure of the governor who sometimes doesn't replace them so they continue to serve after their three-year term um so that is an important piece um they're

013doing much better at having a fuller ethics commission now than they did um several years back okay what is their jurisdiction what is it that they can do they have two primary functions they hear ethics complaints when an Ethics complaint has been filed against a board member and they also will invite issue advisory opinions we commonly call them AOS for sure AOS are sought by board members around prospective Behavior around prospective participation in areas where they might anticipate a potential conflict let me give you an example I have a board member that was elected in a district who is currently employed by a vendor that provides the food service in the district where she works okay and so she just recently sought an AO an advisory opinion to see if it was permissible for her

014to work in the school district where she serves now on the board of education they came back they said nope sorry we have a choice you can either be on the board or you can keep your job in this District they weren't gonna not continue to employer they gave me the option of going to another school district it's a big vendor you know that serves a lot of school districts across the state she said nope it's too far I don't want to travel even though it's in the same county and it's not really far so she resigned from the board but she sought that ahead of participating or boating on anything once she was elected even before she was sworn in the word superintendent the current board president and myself had sat with the new

015folks doing an onboarding and it came up and their attorney advised her to seek his opportunity because it would be a conflict because she would be enmeshed in the building she was in the building every day she had access to staff every day she could be guiding you need direction to students who are taking directions from staff which is violative of the volunteer piece under certain opinions that they've issued around a board members volunteering in the school district so that was an area where she sought it ahead of potentially voting on something and then having it be a problem so they will issue advisories only on prospective Behavior not on Behavior not after I've already voted now you tell me I can't vote only on perspective okay I think they won't they won't issue one

016if there's a pending that in another in another jurisdiction no I mean if there's a board member for school official conduct has now been subject of playing I don't think they're gonna no they won't issue an advisor that's what it well then it wouldn't have been perspective Behavior right it would have been something that a board might remember had already done on an issue or participate in something where they did that there could be a potential conflict so it's very helpful and they will turn it around pretty quickly if you all you have to do is write it doesn't require an attorney you just have to lay out the facts as they exist send it off to the ethics commission and they will get back to the board member now typically speaking most advisory opinions

017are specific only to an individual board my set of circumstances I'm acquiring about if the ethics commission believed that it has been widespread impact potentially they will make an advisory opinion public they will scrub it of all identifying factors the district the person's name make that advisory of public advisory decision and there's an expectation that board members will be aware of public advisory opinions when they're made such meaning if you violate one of the advisories they're going to say you wish us to know what that is we routinely publish all public advisory and recent ethics decision and School Board notes which you should be receiving electronically you should be receiving more information now for example um so there is an expectation that board members will keep up to date with those latest decisions and avoid

018conduct that they've already moved on okay any member of the public can file an Ethics charge against the Board of Education number and so on average they hear about 85 different complaints um and they issue roughly 35 advisory opinions again that's an average we went several years without any public advisories because when there weren't at least six board members on the SEC they could not release any advice or opinion as public and so I think it was 2013. like in January of 2013 or 14 we got 31 public advisory opinions just like and we had this massive you know growth of advisory of things so they will issue them when they have great impact okay so if you happen to have violated the ACT what are the punishments what does the SEC authorize to recommend

019they can recommend a reprimand and a reprimanders is a letter to you that says you shouldn't have done this please do not engage in this conduct again they can issue a requirement you be centered and that requires that the board read at a public meeting the center letter that says you're being punished in by having this read in a public meeting and posted you know um in the district and it's a formal adoption of the resolution of sections they can suspend you they can remove you from a finite period of time 30 days 60 days 90 days they've done that as well and ultimately they have the authority to remove you from the board for the remainder of your term if they so chose choose to do so that has been done as well um

020again the SEC once they hear a case and make a decision they gets turned over to the commissioner who reviews the decision and then issues a final decision from the commissioner of Education if you wish to appeal that decision by the commissioner it goes to the Appellate Division in the state of New Jersey to an appeal school just a curiosity I said I don't anticipate being removed but you said until the end of your term let's say your term expires when you run again can you read around you can now there was a case where a board member was suspended for a period of time but before that suspension went into effect determined it he re-ran and when he re-ran and he won he was sworn in and then he had to sit for his

021suspension I could not be as old active board member until he had served his suspension and I believe it was like 90 days is my recollection so they they do have that authority to do that so it can carry over it could carry over to your next turn I mean I think he took a break of three years before he ran again for three years and 30 and 90 days he was sworn in because he was still re-elected by the public you know it's not a criminal perceiving so it's a little different um and I've already covered this you know it's an 18812-33 um again um just to be aware that one in your first year got two in your second year of three in your third year and go four in the first year

022of any term um even if you're anticipating not continuing your board service please make sure you complete your mandatory training in the year in which it's required because you will lose two set points if you haven't done that and I have fourth members who say well um it's my third year I'm not running for re-election so I'm not going to do it and then they're out of compliance and it shows up with the matter compliance letter for the board and it just generates problems so please please for the sake of your board not for me or maybe not for you it may be like I'm never doing this again you know they said two meetings a month were done quickly no problem they lie um and you may think okay I'm done um please just

023do it what happens though so yeah if the person that left the board and has a solution that is left on bad terms and this the board is out of compliance is there are other complaints to this individual takes that you have to you have to do it by the end of the calendar year and I believe the number of calls I get around December 31st about how do I register I can't get on please help me get on I'm trying to do this and my answer is we will do every you know we do everything we can because I want you to be able to be anything if you refuse mandatory training and you're out of compliance and you're in the middle of a term we'll get to the new penalties for that because

024they have now laid out they just passed new regulations for the school effort submission they reviewed them they updated them all of the professional associations including the church's reports weighed in on the potential new regulations and added comments which is typically what we do as an association but also the superintendents did it as how the business administrators did it everyone weighed in on these new regulations and they finally adopted them by the state board and they just went into effect so I really wrote this you know they were proposed but now I apologize no no I I'm it's always a good question you can ask um always keep in mind too that we offer these trainings in a myriad of in a myriad of ways you can take the in person and if you're a

025brand new board member there's a new board member orientation weekend but 12th um it is a wonderful opportunity there's no cost to the district we have a dead Foundation that helps to underwrite the cost we're finally back in person they can offer the weekends again which is so exciting from our perspective but as new board members it is a wonderful opportunity not only to meet other staff from New Jersey school boards Association learn lots of information but also to network with board members who are also new from all across the state and it's very helpful it gives you greater perspective than you can have by just serving in your District um and that's a benefit of going to a number of different kinds of trainings but the in-person is particularly important we provide what is

026called live virtual which is sort of a hybrid and then we also have a self-paced online course um I of course no surprise um would encourage you to go in person whenever possible I do understand you all are busy or volunteers but there's no one to ask a question that's like you have a question today you want to ask me right here I can answer it there's no one to ask if you're doing the online self-paced course or there's no one to say you know what you misinterpreted that that's not what happened let me correct that let me help you um and so that's why we're so supportive of the in-person trade is there another in person after March there will be I suspect it in May or June um because of this new 90

027day of Regulation around board members the new board members being trained we will have some new folks there are many districts I think less than 12 at this point could have April elections although some boards have moved their elections back from November back to April um there aren't a whole lot of folks that will need it but they're also we only can accommodate 100 Folks at either of our weekends so that's only 200 board members out of the four or 500 roughly in a given year that are elected Accords across the state there are 500 of our pools so you multiply that by three typically sometimes more if there are you know unanticipated vacancies like you had this year um it could be more than that new board members so I'm sure we will be

028offering other in-person opportunities okay this is closure statements I've already talked about this a little bit 30 days you have from today that you were sworn in to fill yours out the rest of you have until April 30th um you shall should get a notification that comes directly from the state to you fill it out online so it's quick um so you don't have to in the old days we used to have to fill it out by paper two copies two original signatures now you can just do it online and send it off um and it's not terribly open it's a question for you yes many of us are Educators by trade so you Deans do a separate disclosure for the initially working and then if you're required to do one for your District yes

029you should do one for the district I don't know that the systems shocking shocking isn't it so what is the penalty process someone was asking that a little earlier um if you fail to do your mandatory training within that first year um and you get a just cause letter from the SEC which is what will happen it says you're out of compliance right um and that happens if you take it before the sqc acts on you're out of compliance you're fine nothing will happen except that you will be centered okay if the SEC reaches the decision finding you out of compliance but before the commissioner finalizes the penalty he will only face suspension so they've laid this out there tightening up okay this year in December we had something like 400 folks out of compliance

030so yeah um if you do nothing they will remove you okay so just just be aware of that you don't want to find yourself in that piece those 400 folks didn't ultimately end up all some of it was they were duplicately entered in two different districts they completed it okay if you want to send receive forward but you have the South Bound Brook so they had done it they filled it out southbound Brook and taken care of it but it didn't register here or vice versa and I'm not picking that you were saying that happens here but that was a lot of it um some of it was Charter School folks they have different deadlines so that was a part of it um and you know the year before we didn't have that many I

031routinely just called up um every one of the va's that I had on a Friday before December 31st and said let's get it registered let's get them done so that no one's out of complaint again so my question was um how do you know you will get a letter um and if you've taken it and you know you've taken it um if you take it online we sent you an email that says you've completed it so that you're aware that you've completed it and this is for every year not just for the new board member year one year two and year three of your first term one office and then for year four if you run for re-election and win and then you're done but the disclosure statements are everything the disclosure statements are annually

032required okay it will not take you a great deal of time to fill those out all right here's the actual code of ethics you're required to uphold and enforce all laws regulations in the State Board the court order okay so again you know you're required to support and if you just turn it tonight um when this gentleman took his oath of office right all of the laws and regulations of the state of New Jersey the constitution of New Jersey the Constitution of the United sometimes Board of Education members may not like all of the rules or the regulations or the State Board of Education decisions but you are required to abide by those and you need to know that as publicly elected you're required to make all decisions in the best interest educational interests of

033all children regardless of who they are okay um regardless of sex gender race ability color religion all of that every child you're responsible for New Jersey's Constitution says You must provide a thorough and efficient education for every child in the state of Interest and finding your board action to policy making planning and appraisal and and Consulting with those people who will be impacted by the policies that are created typically that that consultation is done through your Administration in terms of policies around District items educational pieces and so forth it's not as though we're saying you have to hold a hearing with the public every time you adopt the policy but again you know your job is to see that the district is well run it is not to run the day-to-day operations of the school

034district your responsibilities lie in the area of policy development ensuring that there's a quality educational curriculum put into place communicating with your community as well as providing monitoring and oversight of things like the budget doing the superintendent's annual evaluation in terms of the monitoring piece you have one employee in the school district the support of Education that's the superintendent superintendent holds all other staff accountable for their performance you hold the superintendent accountable for is in delegating to others and ensuring that the district is well done yeah there is that we will carry out your responsibility with your colleagues to see that the schools are well run but do not run which means you're not making the day-to-day operational decisions um that govern the school district recognizing that Authority arrests from the full Board of Education

035the Board of Education operates by majority rule um that means that as an individual you have no authority to direct staff to direct students to direct anyone in the school district to act it also means that as an individual board member you don't have the authority to have the superintendent act either only a majority of the full board of education has the authority to direct the superintendent to act um so just keep in mind what that means is if the nine of you all wanted for example a different report that was in depth you wanted a report on the gifted and talented and you wanted a report on the interpretation of the expansion of the preschool program and you wanted to look at the co-curricular program and how many students are participating and what that

036looks like the superintendent would be doing nothing but pulling around your little red wagons right you're there for all students if a majority of the board decided it was really important to look at what you wanted you would have to make that motion to the board a second would have to be given the board would discuss it in the majority of the board said you know what we need this report we're directing you to do it the superintendent would do that however that being said you have District goals those District goals Drive the work of the school district and every request of the board for things such apart it's separate from those items take time away from focusing around the district goals and make a crowded play even more proudly so just keep in mind

037about that okay all right here's a big one this is one we're seeing a lot of taking you will take no personal action or make promises or take private action that may compromise the Board of Education we're seeing that a lot in terms of social media um that is fun adjudicated unfortunately you have to refuse to surrender your independent judgment to special interest groups or partisan political groups or to use the school for personal gain or the game of your friends um simply put you're required to be objective you're required to make decisions in the best interests of all students even if you're a parent of a football player or the parents of a magical singer or you know anything you have to make decisions that are in the best interests of all students that

038means you need to avoid involving yourself with partisan political groups as well separated apart from having a Personal Agenda you know doing what's good for my childhood you have to do what's good for all children and sometimes when you do that it may think well that's not really that great for my child you have to be able to set aside and take off your parent hat at times and say best for all children and it may not be great for my child but on the other hand [Music] in the district who has an obligation to get holding confidential in all matters that it's needless if we're disclosed with needlessly injured perhaps students or staff or the district things that are discussed in executive session are only those items that are laid out as exceptions to

039the open public meetings law that you can discuss in the tech and they need to be maintained as confidential that means you can't tell your spouse your significant other your child you know maybe you can talk tell your dog or cat they don't talk back my dog knows a lot she can't speak but nonetheless I'm being funny but you really have to remember that but sometimes it can be very difficult sometimes it can be upsetting but at the same time you have to hold confidential students and staff have an absolute right to have their confidentiality maintained unless they themselves or their parents determine to make something public that is a private school matter just seeing that happen in the schools I have ever seen that this book in the school district in the southern part

040of the state kind of sad so you're required to vote to appoint the best possible Personnel after considering the recommendation of your new school officer you are not required to vote Yes on every Personnel appointment that the superintendent recommends to the board however that being said your educational leader is only going to recruit bring you the very best folks because we know from research right that the quality of instruction is the largest single determinant of student achievement so having the very best that you can have in the classroom only benefits the entire School District at every child you can both know as long contributions are not arbitrary and capricious and you should have a sound rationale for your cannot support a recommendation as a courtesy I always suggest to recommend you that your president know

041as well as the superintendent you never want a potential staff member sitting in the audience wanting to be appointed it would be embarrassing to you it's embarrassing you have to support and protect School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties you know even if you sat on the sidelines two days ago um to a basketball game and criticize the basketball coach after you've been sworn in a support member you can't do that okay well sometimes that's a really hard thing for board members to understand and curse says the other team's coach yeah okay as long as you don't well that's what you've seen but yes technically you could um but again that's what we mean by supporting School person if you have a question or a concern the words Roland Personnel is pretty Limited

042in terms of all of your responsibility so if you're hearing something out in the community or you personally know of something that is setting or concerning the best thing you can do is let your superintendent know it goes to the first rule of effective for governance no surprises board does not surprise the superintendent and the superintendent does not surprise you so that is the best thing to do yes so situations like that is at best sometimes I understand the perception of being sometimes uh any singing um I think the importance you are always your child's first and best Advocate always however you need to make it very clear that when you're talking to a staff member it is only about your individual child so it's either your child's teacher or your child's coach um because

043they know you're a board member okay and sometimes someone might be tempted to say well since you're here and we're talking about little Johnny I just need you to know that you know this room that he's in this room just doesn't work as well as it should I I think you had that happen right and so your response needs to be okay well you know what you need to take that up with your principle that's what I say right because you can't again you can't direct staff and staff knows if they have a chain of command that they can follow to get their concerns addressed you know whether it's the principle I mean depending on the issue you know it's the same thing board members always need to know what that chain of command is

044and sometimes teachers just are tempted because maybe they put in a work order and they feel like nobody's got back to them and you need to say you know I'm really sorry but the board has nothing to do with the day-to-day operation of the district you need to speak to your parents and direct them back in that direction and then you've got your superintendent knows because the staff notice that that's not an appropriate thing for them to really be doing it but I am not saying in any way I actually when my children were little up I used to send my husband it was it was just it was easier right I didn't have to say I'm here Shannon's Mom I'm here as Britney's mom right yeah I'm not here as an important education number

045I had one circumstance where a board member and by then they were in high school and we were at um impasse in the ghost associations and in my district you had to make an appointment to the guidance office to speak to the to the teacher and I did that and it was a circumstance was a popular course and I shouldn't say this as an educator but it really matters she was not very good at math and it's development like I didn't pass on a lot of math games to this job she was concerned about College admission and so forth as the teachers had wanted to work to rule which meant they stopped giving extra help and she needed the extra help and the extra credit that was offered prior to them going towards so I

046wanted to have a conversation the guidance counselves okay well it's been fun thank you very much I left my daughter left my daughter of course wouldn't talk to me for about a week over that but I did what I could which was to let the superintendent knows and then I hired it too it was one of those costs unfortunately it was not professional on behalf of a staff member at all here my daughter to talk about Calculus BC contract well I will tell you it'll almost ever occurred once and it never occurred again but it was infuriating and sometimes it could happen it's very rare which is our professional and they care about you this is with someone who was very young and perhaps thought it was necessary to do that I don't know um

047I'm really a lovely person you guys know me I'm not terrifying but but at the same time I could appreciate that so it was easier to send my husband churches some people don't have that option right they isn't available to advocate um and there's no one like a mama bear to Advocate as opposed sorry about that um and so you know it happened but anyways moving on um you're required to refer all complaints to the chief School administrator your job is not to invest right you are not investigators if someone comes to you with a concern or complaint you need to let the superintendent know and it will be taken from there you know I've had board members who have filed rep followed buses around um you know checking on bus stops and that kind

048of thing and coming back and saying you know late that's not your job we're not qualified Administration we do not investigate those kinds of things um are there any questions on any of the um yeah oh okay moving on conflict of interest you should recuse yourself uh again be aware of public perception you're voting to give the soccer association you set the field and you're waiting the cost of a janitorial service to that in the maintenance claim for that and they know you're a soccer parent just don't vote as the queue should be aware of public perception it's not a legal conflict but again just because you can doesn't mean we should um you know you cannot take any kids from favor um anything that would give you financial aid you should avoid um against

049the the rising line is this that you should not have an advantage that would not accrue to any other person thank you sometimes I'm asked I have a fourth grader the fourth grader to take my field trip could I vote on it is your child is not getting a benefit that is greater than every other fourth grader and that's enough to keep in mind am I being in the benefits here that is greater than any other person relationship definitions um okay they are expanding immediate family members to now include this broader definition spouse civil union partner domestic partner dependent child decided in the state household so what they have done is to expand the definitions around relatives because ethics law is written prior to the writings of the um it's a form of legal definition

050right it could take childish induction as a relative I'm not going to read all of these folks who are related almost anybody you know primary Personnel I can't hire a relative of a board member or a relatively you have a relative that's already currently employed in the school district I'm a board member of your grandfather vote on any contract with the motion or anything else in terms of collective bargaining this chart is in there again always check with your board attorneys please um [Music] my only considerations the SEC will try to review miles um yep um you're now a public official and animal um it's not to say that you give up all of your first amendment rights to free speech but it is bounded by um expectations these are some of the commissioner decisions

051again um thank you um right here okay excuse me everybody we have just a couple of more minutes just keep it quiet for a few minutes I'm doing it really quickly I know you're always trust me okay volunteering in school there are certain prohibitions around volunteering in schools if you're a board of education number you mostly have to do get your amount of time to your spending in the district that you cannot direct students or staff and you should not be enough in the building one-time events whether it's food Across America whether it's chaperoning a field trip um all of those kinds of things are permissible but you should not be you know public as always being in the school building who are directing Things They said That's not accept Board of Education remember if

052you have any questions before an attorney can advise you of that um and let you know you should not be handling District funds either no that's on one on the other hand you could be a PTO office because that was a much earlier decision to be a PTO officer but again I would encourage you not to be handling to observe and witness them but not a place they've also issued separate advice people says we discourage word Learners from doing that so sometimes they sort of come down on both sides of an issue they've also said board members may not participate foreign um social media again you don't give up all of your rights but you need to be mindful when the number of reasonable member the public would presume that what you were writing and

053speaking on behalf of the board and so they have recommended and we strongly recommend that anything you posted includes this disclaimer's word for word College statements are made in my capacity as a private citizen and not in my capacity these statements are awesome members and solely represent my own personal experience so if you're going to post anything please include this disclaimer because the SEC has said absent depth disclaimer the public can perceived and myself additionally they have said that even if you have this disclaimer and the content of what you post could lead the public to proceed through a preponderance of what we have said that you're discussing for business in a post the disclaimer doesn't cover you and it can still be a potential ethics violation that is an important piece for you all

054right our content matters because even with that disclaimer violated this um the SEC said the public works variegates in the mission of aborted Edge serve no purpose would be unnecessary hostility and animosity and ultimately have the greatest detrimental impact on the very people have to served institutions so while they acknowledge the sanctity of the First Amendment there are also questions around hosting um so don't tweet about the word business the weather your family your dogs your kids exactly to publicize they're here tonight they will see you conduct history that's where your discussion um not on Facebook Okay um again it doesn't matter what you know what platform you can see wrote a letter to The Courier News this was true when I was a board member the board members used to write a letter between

055editors same thing is true social media that's pretty much it in a lecture I thank you for your attention I didn't mean to go fast but I don't like people with these students if you have any questions yes we'll see you again soon thank you thank you very much foreign thank you all right you are unmuted and you can okay um thank you everyone for waiting um we were just wrapping up the training over there she saw our annual ethics training we are for those of you with the agenda we are all down to item 1.7 which is President's comments I am not the president but I'm going to make comments anyway because I only get to do it about once a year um first I want to thank everybody for coming there it's amazing

056to see this many people here we've had empty roads so this is this is great for us please continue to come out and see you know what business you know we're undertaking here because um we are working for you so so we'd like to see as many people here as possible um this is for no particular reason but it Bears saying every single month I want to thank all of our staff and all of our Administration for the wonderful job that you guys are doing um nothing particular has happened other than you guys work hard every single day I think [Applause] so like thank you definitely for that um and last for the board uh this is not as much for the public other than a warning um we got an announcement that the Dodge

057World Tournament is coming up and I expect a better showing than we had last year we actually have a student member on our borders welcome to join our team he's definitely more athletic than some of us so to all of you who beat us last year which was a lot of you um maybe we'll have a little better showing this year I hope um and that's about all I have for Christmas comments and over to you sir okay good evening everyone you can do better than that good evening everyone I'm very happy to have you here tonight in our February meeting we are so excited to recognize a bunch of students uh our esteemed teachers of the year and colleagues uh well we're happy to have you and we hope tonight we show you the

058Titan attention and type of recognition that you deserve every day because we really appreciate everything that you do so the agenda says that we would start with our teachers of the year however a teacher of the year stopped me today and said Dr Freeman I think we should start with uh with the people that are the reason we're here and that is the students of the month so I would like to call yes [Music] [Applause] so I'd like to call up doctor that's why I Lemont students of the month yeah good evening congratulations to Emma Perez Emma currently attends Lemont school she's in the pre-k program her teacher is Mrs Kilgore Emma has an older sister named Chloe Emma's favorite thing is her letters and the letter sounds Emma loves to dance she would like

059to become a teacher when she grows up congratulations Emma [Applause] congratulations to Samantha Valverde currently in kindergarten and Mrs Lewis class Samantha has one sister named Grace Samantha's favorite subject in school is math Samantha likes playing with her friends and helping them she also enjoys drawing doing puzzles and going to school with Samantha grows up she wants to be a doctor a police officer congratulations Samantha thank you um towards this nice picture of it say cheese for the camera and then I thank you congratulations [Music] okay next up we have Lafayette [Music] hello everyone the first student of the month from Lafayette is Dylan Lozano and Dylan's siblings are Jaden and Misa and his favorite subject is Matt I was a math teacher yeah Dylan's favorite hobbies are playing video games and when you grow

060up you want to be a scientist excellent job [Applause] our next student of the month from Lafayette is Annelise lensich and annelise's teacher is Miss Nelson annalisa's siblings are Houston and Vivian and her favorite subjects are math and writing anneliese's favorite hobbies are gymnastics and karate and when Annelise grows up she wants to be and this is a first for me a contortionist foreign [Music] [Applause] our first student of the month is Julie truce jaylie Cruz is in third grade and in Mrs petrovsky's class Mrs petrovsky says that she really wishes that she could have been here today because she is actually excited that you guys do the other month she has two brothers Gianni and Jaden her favorite school subjects are science because you get to do a lot of activities that's why everybody

061loves science favorite hobbies are fast soccer and gymnastics and her career plans that daily would like to be either a meteorologist or an actress congratulations Haley foreign [Applause] yes Emily and Isabella his favorite school subject is Jim his hobbies are soccer football and playing outside and well if he's good enough he wants to be a professional soccer player [Applause] Freddie Reyes he is in this mids tennis shoes and Miss Hellman's class he has two sisters one is younger and one is older his favorite stuff is English language arts and he likes to play with his toys like his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and he also wants to be a professional soccer player when he grows up and win the World Cup pretty Reyes please and then our sixth grade student is farida and she is

062in Mrs Orsi's and Miss Esposito's class she has two sisters again one's younger and one is older her favorite subject is math she likes to play video games and her favorite game is Roblox and she wants to be a video game designer or a lawyer when she grows up for Rita a week ago thank you and next up on Community School Dr Center hello again I'm only in one school I promise [Music] so our first representative student of the month from the Community Middle School and let me see there it is Omar Flores Omar where are you Miss Ganda and has two older siblings named Oscar and Amelia uh P favorite subject I don't blame you that was mine as well uh and favorite hobbies they're watching movies playing with the dog fluffy PS5 Oculus

063which I wish I knew that what that was and VR headset there we go and a member of the middle school band which I think is awesome and Omar when grows up wants to be mechanic or scientist a few words just from Miss Ganda Omar was chosen for student of the month due to his leadership in the classroom and that is something to be very proud of is engaged in answering questions helping peers when needed and participates in discussions and always can be counted on to share his views and his answers Omar has shown tremendous progress since the beginning of the school year and is a pleasure to have in class he's a highly participating member and helps his peers each day Omar congratulations [Applause] foreign [Applause] of the month for the Community Middle School

064is Julian Stella naranjo Julian was recommended by his teacher Mr thine Julian has two siblings Diana and Daniel and his favorite subject is language arts math and gym Julian enjoys reading playing video games and playing with his Shih Tzu I imagine this not here tonight I think I've seen it come to school quite often right and career plans are to be an interior designer or a book illustrator Mr Stein also wrote a couple nice words and said Julian is an incredibly polite student who always tries his best during class he genuinely cares about education and classmates displaying his thorough love for Education through his actions even when struggling Julian does not give up or complain and asks his teachers for assistance he's an exemplary student and serves as a role model to his peers congratulations

065foreign [Applause] [Laughter] all right good evening I would like to take a moment to congratulate our Crusader citizens of the month uh for those of you that do not know this award is a recognition of students demonstrating positive Crusaders citizenship traits such as responsibility respect kindness Integrity cooperation tolerance and or perseverance our first recipient is Tiffany Brown okay Tiffany has four siblings two older brothers a little brother and a little sister her favorite subject is geometry her favorite hobbies include going out with friends watching Netflix and reading After High School she would like to go to college or university to further her education she's undecided what she would like to do for her [Applause] foreign next recipient could not be with us this evening as well oh Tiffany is here [Applause] okay our next recipient

066is Jenna Cabral um Jenna has one sister Maria Angelou Cabral her favorite subject is math AP Calculus in particular which gives me anxiety um her favorite hobbies include playing volleyball and she would like to take electrical engineering at a four-year University in the future [Applause] our next recipient Jessica Garcia Jessica has two siblings uh Melissa and Shirley Garcia your favorite subjects are math and English favorite hobbies include cleaning singing bike riding and photography Jessica hopes to become a software engineer hoping to attend MIT and working at Google [Applause] thank you congratulations [Applause] but certainly not least we have our final recipient Carrie napartita uh Kerry has uh one sibling Rosie now partida and his favorite subjects include mathematics and lunch favorite hobbies include reading playing uh badminton and playing video games Harry hopes to further

067his education in hopes of becoming a psychologist in the future exactly [Applause] because [Applause] we're going to go with our support staff of the month Davis congratulations to Mrs brimage Mrs brimage regularly goes above and beyond to staff students and parents she's always does it with his smile the effort Mrs brimmage puts in to help our families doesn't go unnoticed she helps families navigate The Genesis Parent Portal when needed and is always available to answer questions about lunch the calendar registration Etc she's even taken a course to learn basic Spanish words so she can better communicate with us with our families Mrs brimage always goes out of her way to check in with staff make sure they have everything they need to succeed she assists with arrival dismissal bus Duty Etc she's excellent at multitasking

068and helps ensure the building is running as smooth as possible this is vermint is a true team player in Array of sunshine we are lucky to have her part of her team congratulations [Music] good morning I think all right next up our educator out of one educational specialist of the one from Lafayette schools this American Landing Madelia [Applause] yes you can be here with us this evening okay at this time we have very special guests those esteemed teachers of the Year from each School around [Music] [Applause] yeah to represent their school as teachers of the year so we will begin with Lamont Annex teacher of the year kindergarten teacher is Christina Perkins [Applause] absolutely congratulations to Mrs Clementine Mrs Pemberton grew up in Bound Brook she attended Somali school and graduated from Brown Brook House

069High School Mrs Pemberton is currently teaching kindergarten and uses her Dynamic personality to make a massive impact on the students staff and families she interacts with she's always going above and beyond to make sure her students have all of the tools they need to be successful if a student needs a coat or some school supplies Mrs Summerton tested so all of her school resources to provide the needed items she actively collaborates with families to sure they've kept up to date with their child's progress and are informed of what's happening in the class she also has an open door policy so parents can ask questions or schedule meetings regarding their children as needed Mrs Pemberton is a natural leader and a team player at school she plays a key role in helping the kindergarten team put

070together events such as a Thanksgiving celebration the moving up celebration and more classes inventor to new staff and provides him with support as needed Mrs Pemberton is natural at her job and her passion for early childhood education shines through in her work she's an exceptional and talented teacher and we are very lucky to have her part of our team congratulations foreign [Music] [Applause] questions and next up our educational suspectives of the Year from the line and it's this Christian Martinez [Applause] Martinez as a speech therapist Mrs Martinez takes a very Hands-On collaborative approach to her work and level of care Mrs Martinez goes above and beyond to assist the needs of its students and communicates effectively with students staff and families to ensure the best possible outcomes this is Martinez uses her years of expertise

071in the field to access assess students needs and create structure plans for families and staff to implement she regularly attends meetings and provides suggestions to help students going as far as breaking down the therapy she provides to students to help staff and parents understand the process she works closely with our party so that the therapy she provides her carry over to the student's classroom or home she also sends home daily communication logs so the parents are aware what skills their child is working on in therapy Mrs Martinez Mrs Martinez is a true team player Bianca role is a speech therapist she's always going to house with any tasks needed in the building we are lucky to have her as part of our team congratulations thank you [Applause] coming up [Music] over the course of our

07223 years in education Mrs Amy zarama has not only shaped the lives of the children she encounters on a daily basis but has created a learning environment where her students can flourish while having a sense of belonging a bunch of Elementary education with a specific emphasis on language acquisition has allowed her to support her students in a way that ensures they are afforded the best opportunities to master skills necessary to be successful individuals both inside and outside the classroom Mrs arama's support and understanding of her families who are new to this country is a key component to the relationships we build to aim at our community Mrs arama has served as a mentor to many new teachers providing the absolute best support as they navigate their new role in education passing on her strong belief

073in supporting her students and families by any means necessary this is seen by her peers as she was stated in a narrative given by a fellow employee who nominated Mrs zarama for governor educator of the Year quote she not only creates strong relationships with her students but she's consistently advocating for their needs Mrs arama continues to build strong relationships with families of her students to better support their needs Mrs Rama congratulations [Music] next up from Smalling school we have Mrs Maryland [Applause] has been a teaching Bound Brook School District for over 10 years but we were always supposed to be together we were always supposed to work together because Mrs Mallard actually worked at my elementary school and I missed having her as my third grade teacher that she was on maternity leave so we

074were always destined to work together but I am so thankful to have you at Smalley school she has started in the district as an academic support instruction teacher or an ASI teacher in the fifth grade at Lafayette school and it's currently part of the sixth grade as an ASI teacher at Smalley School Mrs Mallard primarily works with helping students become better readers during her 10 years in Bound Brook this development actively been a member of a number of school committees including the k-6 curriculum committee school-wide Title One committee and language arts Review Committee she has worked with student teachers Mentor teachers new to the district and has been an instructor for both our extended learning academy and our summer school programs Mrs Mallon has developed curriculum and works with the Middle Earth program after school

075and during the summer she has said that each day she hope she can positively influence her students to become better readers and love learning she's able to do what she loves everything with the love and support of her colleagues the ASI team the sixth grade team members of Smalley staff and her wonderful family Mike Richard Jacqueline and Alexandra congratulations [Applause] hello and from our Community Middle School [Music] [Applause] so ladies and gentlemen I'm going to let you in on a little something from this week at our principal's meeting my colleagues were quick to point out how I could be long-winded at times no no so I've cut this down about 25 minutes so everyone the community the Community Middle School is proud to recognize seventh grade social studies teacher Mr Andy Heiser as it's 22.

076thank you for years Mr Heiser has been inspiring students capturing their imagination engaging their minds and challenging their intellect most students leave middle school with stories about their favorite teacher and at the center of their experience is the notion about how much Mr Heiser cares about them as individuals over the years Mr Heiser has coached High School football and basketball chaperone the seventh grade trip the Rutgers day trip the rvcc Holocaust trip the eighth grade trip to Washington DC and many others he's worked on multiple building-based initiatives I probably added you to something today initiatives and basically anything that comes to the table including serving as a mentor each year for new teachers in the district Mr Heiser is the heart and soul of the middle school and is an excellent role model for all

077in the teaching profession thank you yeah okay congratulations [Music] [Applause] y'all kind of stole my uh stick here because uh you know like a long version and the bridge version so I'm going to make a comment about you know how I feel about Mr casperson as a professional and a friend um there's not enough words for me to even describe it but I'll do my best in a short little paragraph of a role model and an advocate of children is a rapturous love for America and its ideals and an infectious enthusiasm for teaching social studies he effectively engages students by treating teaching and learning as a collaborative process by showing his students that their thoughts and opinions are valued he is fully committed to creating a learning environment that is safe and secure cultivated by

078a culture of trust and collaboration essentially Mr casperson demonstrates High ethical standards which is apparent through his relationships within the school community due to his hard-working nature and flexible attitude he makes Bound Brook High School a more effective and efficient environment to work learn and grow his dedication and passion in making Bound Brook High School a better place has been commendable in conjunction with his work ethic and professionalism moreover Mr casperson enthusiastically contributes to extracurricular activities and demonstrates leadership in these activities as well for example his role as the assistant boys soccer coach and spring track coach co-advisor of the National Honor Society facilitator of the summer college readiness now program and an avid elective teacher all of which are important components of the entire educational program since they are necessary for successful learning outside

079of the classroom and are as are as the same as other learning experiences please join me congratulating Mr casperson for being named the recipient of the Bound Brook High School teacher of the year award a recognition that he is most deserving [Applause] thank you okay all of our teachers of the year one last round [Applause] okay we can have all of the teachers up in here come on stage they're going to do a big shot on stage I see some faces that you don't want to come but tonight you have no choice you might be recognize thank you okay foreign yeah there's a lot of pictures in these meetings foreign [Applause] okay where are we looking I'm gonna do with my hands all right okay I'm good all right congratulations [Applause] foreign together um [Music]

080thank you my son take your time [Music] bro [Applause] there you go do whatever [Laughter] foreign notifications thank you foreign thank you all right you're unmuted okay we're gonna get back to the meeting with a presentation for Mr Mormon when you're ready sir board members didn't see from there yes welcome to come down if you can this is also on your agenda if you want to look there there's a digital copy so I'm only gonna highlight about uh about five or so slides um you guys have this presentation we'll also put it on the um on the website tomorrow for for you to look for you to look at um this presentation is on our results from the start strong Administration which was in October of 2022. foreign strong assessment is uh this is the

081best live um it produce information um that eventually will be used by our teachers in the classrooms to to evaluate each student they were administered quickly some as short as 45 minutes and provide immediate results uh but be careful not to compare start strong to the njsla because they measured different things okay the main item on this slide says that the start strong um reports on prior year uh academic standards okay so the start strong in October tests on the year of pride thank you as I said um 45 to 60 minutes okay the next four slides just demonstrate that that each specific start strong assessment measures prior year standards in all areas Ela math and science again the state wants us to warn against comparing start strong with njsla data they're two different assets

082nor are the start Strong's predictors of performance on the njso okay start strong provides data points in these areas District level curriculum planning and revisiting prerequisite Concepts and skills evaluating scoped sequence providing professional learning supports and using each student's individual student reports for conversations between parents and Educators on where the child may need support in the upcoming school year start from uh assessment is one part of a portfolio of data which should which should be used to analyze student performance okay and that takes us to bound Brooks results so in ela we tested grades four through ten uh unlike the the results from the njsla and even the NJ GPA which were much more uh concise and specific start strong just has three areas um more support needed some support needed and less support needed

083so the students who perform the best fell into the less support category on down to more support me to those those students need the most report most support so here in ela the great that performed the best according to this is ours is our grade six who had the highest percentage of less support needed moving on to math [Music] so math is a little different when you get to the high school there's no great uh assessment for math it's broken down by you offer algebra geometry and algebra two foreign so the area where the where the where the the best area of less support needed actually was at the high school in geometry only three grades test in science and start strong grade 6 9 and 12. and there are the results as I mentioned

084start strong the state didn't give us nearly as much data as the previous two presentations these are the subgroups for ELA as compared to District totals math and then finally in science okay this takes us to our strategies for intervention what are we doing to help our students across the district in each subject area tested Math Science and Ela our supervisors administrators and teachers are reviewing the results to identify patterns of need and to modify uh pacing to bet to better support students there's different professional development ongoing there's collaboration to share strategies to support our English Learners and math and we're using a universal screener key three in grades five through eight to monitor student progress and to provide adequate interventions okay Ela there's professional development on Gordon Gillingham for teachers in pre-k through five

085this focuses on phonemic and morphemic awareness of Words Their roots and affixes and again we're looking at specific subfoot populations what their needs are and we're collaborating to provide better instruction includes a small one-to-one instruction where needed okay in science we're focusing on English Learners how we could help support their vocabulary development all teachers will be sheltered English instruction certified in the area science we're going to implement we are implementing more project-based learning opportunities that reflect real world problems and connected better online with testing performance expectations and we're doing these things to better prepare for uh the upcoming njsla in men okay overall all subjects what are we doing we have an upcoming summer program we're going to have these new schedules new bell schedules at the middle school and the high school our response

086to an intervention program for the three tiers district-wide students will be at are identified Elementary teachers will push in and get support from educational specialists they'll be a Wilson Reading Program for tier three students in the Elementary grades as well as a mentoring program for a middle and high school students so the district is doing a great job of looking at student data sharing that information learned with the teachers so we could specifically look at the needs of individual students some students are close they need a little bump we're we're going over with the teachers how to provide that bump to help the students move up okay the students that are doing well we're discussing what are we going to do to keep students at that level so we're trying to break it down more

087uh individually um the administrators and I enjoyed a good uh session with our with our link it um advisor who not only shared results but shared ways that we could help individual students that's it thank you everybody [Music] on the scheduling for the middle school and high school how how does that affect it like the changing schedule um why is that and what are we changing the two to help improvements okay I don't know how much they want me to get into what the change is going to be what [Music] one way is additional uh instructional time the way um the way the schedule is being changed I know at the high school specifically is there's going to be less passing time it's going to be a more efficient schedule so over the course of

088the year we're going to have close to 10 percent more actual instructional time with our students that that's the that's the big way you'll see we're going to have two support teachers who are going into remediation based on so students who are certain level will receive basically another class of extra help in that particular area I have a question I don't know if you'll have the answer I'm just curious I believe this is the second year starts from yes right and from what I was told this was was initially because we wanted to see kind of even though everyone hates the term learning loss due to covid it do you know if there are plans to continue this test Beyond this year everything we hear is that it's it's here to stay yeah I do

089love more testing okay one quick question um you know this is all through you know the state because I do this uh can you see how life districts perform and how you know things like that data that we don't get it's I think it's it's going to be we're going to put it ours is public right now you know it's on our it's on our board agenda so I I think it's possible to do that um but probably a better way is just to look at uh the state report cards that that the state provides for each that's going to give you a more um comprehensive view rather than the quick snapshot that start strong gives you yeah and five years ago 10 years ago how these numbers reflect what we did five years ago

090six seven ten years well that's the issue start Strong's only in its second year so we only have data for two years and the state wants to make it clear that you can't compare the start strong assessment with any other it's a very unique assessment another another assessment sure sixth grade what they do in math five years ago versus what they've done this past year on on start strong that didn't that didn't exist five years ago five years ago sixth graders were at 42 percent and now they're 43 I mean is there any way that we can engage whether we're making progress not this test not with this particular assessment assessments have changed since five or six years ago but when we'll show you data which shows how students have progressed at a committed a

091common committee meeting in terms of how they've progressed over the last couple of years that we've had this same test yeah foreign all right thanks everybody thank you thank you Mr chairman correct an agenda Mission I recommend to amend the board agenda to get item 2.6 which is the presentation of the June 30 2022 annual comprehensive financial report Auditor's management report and the corrective action plan by Ms Valerie Dolan CTA from Mississippi company CPAs absolutely do we need to emotions can I get a motion thank you second thank you Miss High all in favor all right can you post thank you well it's my pleasure to introduce Miss Valerie from this podcast thank you questions I want to present to you I can I can usually hear me and hopefully everyone can hear me um

092once again thank you for moving me up a little bit on the agenda I appreciate that um just to give you a little bit of information um we've completed our audit I know it's a much later time frame than you've normally seen on audit um the state has delayed us some information fortunately that information did not be was not received until the end of January with a deadline of an audit being December 5th obviously that data really did hold us up but as soon as we got through the information that was received from the state we tried to expedite this report to get it to you as early as we could in February because there is critical information that you need for your budget that you're building um just to give you a little bit

093of a refresher there are two audit documents that you have been given the first one is our annual um comprehensive report that is the larger bigger audit that is actually made up of four sections it is an introductory section a financial section a statistical section question and a single audit section the introductory section just really gives you an overview of the district the financial section really walks you through all the financials finances the district the various receives expenditures things of that nature statistical section is the J section that's actually a very informative section it's 10 years comparative data it's 10 years comparative data on Bound Brook itself it's on County of Somerset and on the state so there's a lot of data for you to look in there and then there's the single audit section

094which is your compliance with grants and on the assorted Grant funds that being said it's a lot and then there's additionally a small management report which is my report to the board there is a when we go through this whole report it's a very large report I really do Focus everybody on One Financial that's the most important in this book which is the audit schedule C1 if you have if you want it what it does is it walks you through your budget and it takes you from all of your budgets it shows you all of where the revenues came in it walks you through all of your expenses where the transfers and gives you how did we land at the end of the year at the end of the day because that's the most important

095thing um the district ended their year with a little over 11.3 million dollars in what we call fund balance that fund balance is then broken into various buckets of funding um a large portion of that is 5.7 million dollars which is in your capital reserve that is money you've set aside from various sources that have will be used to support future Capital that needs to be done you have an additional just under a million dollars at 950 000 in a maintenance Reserve that money will be used to fund any type of Maintenance costs that overrun from your budget or need to be brought into your budget um you have 250 000 which is in an emergency Reserve that money is the sitting there in case there was an emergency similar to the pandemic we were

096you were districts were allowed to utilize those funds if need be um there's about 300 000 in unemployment compensation there is six about 600 conferences what those encumberences are is that money makes uh purchases that were incurred by the district but not completed by my audit date therefore they're still carried and then lastly it leaves you with the two big numbers the first one is an unassigned fund balance which is at a little over 1.8 million dollars that is representing as of June 30th um four percent of your budget expense and that's the state mandate and amount that you're allowed to hold starting with the audits dated June 30th of 23 that money reverts back to the two percent that the state used to only allow you they bump gave you a two-year bump due

097to the pandemic and they're bringing you back down and then that's leaving you what we refer to as the true excess as we would call surplus of the district that money is actually 1.5 ninety that is the money that will be required to be you recycled into your budget for you which is why I really wanted to get here that's your critical piece of information you will need to use that number within your budget to help support operations um of another couple of few financial highlights the district actually received and expended a little state and local grants um there was a large influx of federal funds due to the pandemic the Esser funds the sr-2s sr3s they've seen a lot of money flow through the districts Additionally you have a surplus so um you have

098fun balance of a little over 1.2 million dollars in your lunch program that's actually direct result of a federal program called SSO and that was too fun to every lunch so they were funding the federal government was funding your lunch program for the last two years that program ended and is now back to the old formula program so we expect to see fund balances in the lunch programs and this is common across every District coming back down again to where they've been normally looking at the management report I do have two I have three recommendations that will require corrective action um the first one is on the area of preschool education there's a small transfer form most of these are all tiny housekeeping items first of all is a transfer form that was not filled

099out properly needs to be filled out corrective action is we're going to fill out the form um Student Activities this one catches a lot of districts here to purchasing and um following the guidelines the biggest thing comes in most of the time we see this in that the school the advisors are trying to do what's right in in their heads they're thinking I'm going to hold on to the money and I'm gonna keep it until I have every student's funds and then I'm going to bring it over it really needs to come over quickly and all purchase orders need to have all the proper support and documentation just to make sure that things are getting done in the same Student Activities that's all the same rules as the school district and then lastly is in

100the area of fixed assets um the fixed asset report has not been updated by The District in a few years um I think it's time to have on have a new appraisal done just to make sure that you have every asset to report um lastly my my report also gives you some suggestions to management these are nothing that the board has to take action on they're just more of informational purposes for board and the district first one is obviously as I said there was a large influx of federal funding coming into the district when there's money the Money Follows Auditors Auditors will be could be potentially in District issue when they come is not only in some say once they're in they can look at everything in your federal grants or in the last couple

101years especially with these asker funds we've seen them just selected they because obviously there are so much in every work they can't be everywhere to audit everybody's funds so it's just to be aware that they can be out um Additionally the other area is a state comptroller's office has been consistently coming out and looking at what we call compensated absences which is your accrued liability for time off the sick leave time that occurs please make sure you check with labor and make sure that your policies and your procedures are in accordance with the rules and the regulations the State Comptroller loves to come and look at things currently they are focused on the municipal side when they're finished with the municipals we're kind of thinking they're going to start coming towards the schools they were

102in the schools initially and then lastly um special Revenue funds one all of those grants are all drawdown after you expend the funds so we just want districts to stay diligent drawing down as much money as you can when you can do it um you can draw them down the moment you've spent when you've spent those funds so if you were to ask one of the federal otters who might come in they'll tell you you should be drawing down anyone who works in a business office to tell you that's going to take me forever so we're suggesting at least due quarterly drawdowns just to make sure that you're not funding your own funds and then having large receivables from the federal government at the end of the year and like I said it was a

103pleasure to work with the just transition to your new business administrator May audit go very smoothly so I just like to take opportunity to say thank you thank you thank you thank you if anyone has any questions I'd be glad to answer I wonder thank you have a great evening everyone thank you for the stolen's funded presentation that there's a new Administration that started with Dr Freeman and in July and myself in September and last year if my memory serves me we had six audit recommendations this year we improved the three our goal is to eradicate all recommendations next year to come in at zero I call all of the items that you mentioned in the correct production plan are already under implementation and we would like to thank you Miss Dolan and your team

104for all of your hard work thank you very much thank you okay and with that we are open to the public for agenda items only Tom you're gonna have to tell us we have anyone online do you want to do the committee reports oh I'm sorry yes we didn't you know we got thrown off but we did not well while Tom's there you can tell us but we do have to do committee reports foreign tool we use in math and language arts to figure out how the kids are doing throughout the year The District's administrators and teachers have been doing a lot of work looking at that data trying to measure uh in many areas we're going in the right direction and seeing a lot of growth of kids thanks to you know good work

105from our school leaders and our teachers in other areas we are still trying to figure out you know what the best next steps are a couple notable things about this assessment is for the first time many of the students who primarily speak Spanish as primary language were tested in Spanish which is a a good development to let us know how that is progressing and really the district's engaged in a lot of work to try to make the best use of the data to drive instructional decisions so we had a good conversation about that data and that segued into us getting a little bit of an update about some curricular work that's going on just looking at a new language arts program essentially for the fall and evaluating different options and uh you never want to

106you know look at the results of one assessment and make a decision off of that there's a lot of different considerations and needs that the district teachers and administration are considering to try to choose curricular models professional development future planning based on what our kids are showing right now and what we think they might benefit from so it's a good discussion and that's education any questions for education okay we'll move on to governance next meet um pretty short this month actually we had a bunch of policies that we had to review many of them are mandatory changes that we have no say over there were a few that we did have a small amount to decide one of which was I believe voting for President and Vice President of the board that you now have

107a choice whether we want to continue with our verbal roll call or do it by paper ballot we decided to stay with her because it's more transparent for the public to see it we've heard things in other districts don't go so well when they do it on paper and anything or not it just doesn't look as good for the for the public um another thing was on that same policy we could choose between a majority of board members 10 or a majority of board members present and we're recommending that we stay the way we are now which is board members present which clearly will just make it easier to pass things through um next we had oh not that we think this will ever happen in our district but there is a policy now that

108that we it's offered to us that we're recommending that the superintendent can now call a board meeting a special meaning if the board fails to meet in two months I don't see that that would happen but if that ever happens Dr Freeman now has the right to call a meaning and lastly and this one did happen once last year we were not able to use it so it's a change that could happen again we are able to waive the 48-hour requirement to alert the public in the case of an emergency which happened for some of us may remember it happened fairly recently and we wanted to have a meeting and we weren't able to because of the 48-hour um their requirements so we are able to waive that now so those are the policy changes

109there's also one about lice but that was the doctor's recommendation officially the board stands on that is it's gross okay um also the most exciting part of that meeting was that we talked a little bit about our path towards board certification and I have been speaking to Gwen a little bit about that as obviously she was here training us tonight and I asked her to find out for us exactly what we needed to become certified the requirement is 16 hours over a four year period the fourth year prior drops off each year so you have to keep it current but to our surprise we have actually before tonight accrued 12 and a half hours so we are now at 13 and a half hours meaning we only need anybody two and a half more there

110you go um we next month we'll have one back for a training on self I'm not sure which one we're doing or if we're doing them together but we definitely are being trained on board evaluation self-evaluation as well as superintendent evaluation most of us on the board haven't been here for process so it's a really good thing to have before the school year ends and we actually have to go through those processes um let's see and the other thing that Gwen did touch on to stay or to become certified is that all of our members have to make sure they complete both very first four-year trainings so if you're in your first four years make sure you're on top of that if you need any help with that where to find it let Rich or

111myself know or when if you have her contact information if not I can get it to you and we can show you exactly where to find that it's actually right there on the njsba website you can find it there and let me see um and we oh there were some other minor requirements uh NJ SBA wants to see some things like our contract with um the union and some other things and we've already been in contact with them to make sure they have or what will have when they wanted all the documents that they need so we are very much on track to become a fully certified board and get our plan or document or whatever it is that we get so we can proudly display it very soon and that is governance any questions

112I have a question the 48 hours notification does it are you Limited so how many you do in the year I don't believe that was in the policy I don't think so but it does say only in case of an emergency and in our I've been here now five years and there's totally come up one time so I would not imagine us abusing that in any way I wouldn't think it's gonna it's gonna come up often if at all and the 16 hours as a board so they only count if we have seven members president we have to have seven out of 10 of us there for the hours yes any other questions okay so next would be human resources Miss Musson isn't here is anyone hear from Human Resources able to talk about what

113was discussed or should be laid on that until next month I don't see anyone raising their hand I'm excited to talk about it um I'm on the I'm on the human resources but um um I will have to do next month okay not a problem yeah I know that that was kind of throw I don't want to put anybody on the spot and I know you don't have your notes ready just just you know just in case someone's ready operations we did know earlier in the day that Mr Suffolk wasn't coming so I believe Mr gorski's going to give that report yes sir thank you yeah unless there's no's behalf I would just like to introduce the operations committee report which occurred on Monday February 7th from 5 30 to 6 p.m the first agenda

114item for the operations community meeting was the demographic report presentation from Dr Ross Haber from Ross Haber and Associates I introduced to the committee Mr paper from Ross Haber Associates who was approved by the Bound Brook Board of Education your demographic study to predict student enrollment growth over the next five to ten years compare the enrollment growth to current facilities and recommend improved School building utilization Dr Haber presented to the committee via zone is updated demographic report dated February 2023. Dr haber's projections showed steady enrollment growth with the effect of new housing and separately uh with the effect of just the organic growth of the population without the effect of new housing report also presented a possible grade reconfiguration that could uh remove as much as 100 to 150 students from one of the most

115crowded schools and and best balance the load of student enrollment without having to add costly classroom additions that report is on my agenda tonight for uh consideration and hopefully approval from the Board of Education also at the operations committee meeting was the presentation of the annual comprehensive financial report the auditor's management report from Miss Valerie Nolan which you heard the presentation earlier so I'll save those comments there's a resolution also on my agenda tonight for approval of the acfr the AMR and the corrective action plan that's required the next item is the 2324 budget update Rod Grant update including recent visit from post architect and engineer and I introduced the topic of the 23-24 budget where I indicated to the committee that all revenues for the 2324 budget all Appropriations have been updated many light

116items still require the use of estimates as we are waiting for information from third parties one of the largest one is is the line item for health benefit expense health benefit premiums through the district very labor intensive organization and we and we looked at each month's loss ratios and claim utilization to negotiate the premiums here with the health insurance carrier that will continue for the next month I indicated to the committee that the 23 24 budget is is currently over cab it's a manageable figure and administration is working hard to refine the appropriation to get the revenues and Appropriations and balance also included in the 23 24 tenant full improvements uh to continue to maintain the Investments that this community has made in your schools right now the state of New Jersey is offering a

117unique Rod grant program it's called a regular operating District grant program where the state reimburses school districts up to 40 percent of eligible costs for Capital facility upgrades so we introduced a architect by the name of Richard aldoriso from di group and he brought an engineering to the schools and also on my report tonight is a proposal from the dni group architecture for the compilation of 14 broad Grant applications to the state of New Jersey some of these topics are boiler systems to be replaced at the high school Lafayette Elementary School Lemont Elementary School Smalling Elementary School also some of the group toilet facilities in the schools we were identified as needing to be replaced those include the high school Community Middle School Lafayette element on Annex and small e-school we're also considering adding school

118vestibules to three schools that do not have them yet and that's a Community Middle School a lot of Elementary School Beaumont annexed and the other projects are Roof System replacement at the district grandstand field house and concession stands just because we're applying for those 14 Grand seniors they were all approved it doesn't mean we can still get the 60 into the budget that's yet to be determined by the members of the Board of Education which are the priorities that we do this year and the final item that was discussed at the committee level was a change order from the contractor working on the Lafayette cafeteria project many years ago there was an underground fuel tank that was removed but what was unidentified at the time of the project estimate was that there was a large

119concrete slab remaining buried underground that had to be removed in the section where we're adding new footings so there is a change order tonight on my agenda to approve the change order from the contractor to remove this unknown large slap so that it could house the proper footage for the school and that concludes the operations any questions I think I have a couple questions um first did I hear something about a great reconfiguration at one of the schools I did read at least one of the reports I didn't see that in there but I mean it was pretty dense report so I may have missed it what are we discussing or was that just a recommendation if it's a recommendation made by the architect and also the demographer they both have an independently to the

120same conclusion and you know if the board would like me to introduce those now I could I'd like to hear I mean if you could do it briefly yes it's certainly considered but one of the considerations that the two gentlemen came up with was uh to remove third grade from small League school to free up classroom space which will remove about 100 to 150 students Smalling school is one of our most congested right now and this would be a non-quastly adjustment to moving those students Lafayette school would then become serving rates two and three and LaMont Annex would serve K and one uh the report Illustrated that the simple grade reconfiguration would balance the student enrollment currently and in the future without costly classroom visions I guess my only question is Pre-K where where do

121they end up at that point okay okay so I'm sure that's something we'll be talking about right now I know it's only talking about at the next committee once it has become more secure this is just a recommendation at this point one of the things that I want to do is I want to have our staff go out and actually make sure that the since it's an information that was given are accurate or by counting classrooms counting students this way we can make a recommendation to the board and tell us what we're going to do great and my other question I think I know the answer but we talked about adding vestibules that's for safety reasons right we want to have that two-door system yes yes many of our schools most of them have vestibules

122which which creates a what's called a man trap yep to prevent someone entering the school just to be able to have quick access to go wherever they want they're secured in a location they have to furnish identification through the lobby guard system go through a background check here to uh to conduct your business in the school right okay anyone else okay so that brings us I believe to the community engagement yes mine's going to be a lot shorter okay I was unfortunately not able to attend the last community meeting but I had gotten some um members in attendance that they went smoothly however we did invite uh libero management manager to attend and unfortunately she was unable to do that so um month we're staying in communication with the Alumni Association I know they're working

123on some award programs now and they do have on top of work with Dr Freeman on projects like the trophy cases and things once they get somebody delegated on their side to get that up and running so we'll just keep keep in contact with them um the PTO is an excitement to announce designer bag Bingo and the proceeds from that are going to go to university mom so I'm excited about that um now that we have the PTO supporting High School level I think it's going to be a great event um and I think I know Daddy in super Brooklyn that's kind of a side note the Alumni Association um just they were so excited about the scholarship programs and they just recently got another scholarship so they mail up to four yes which is

124really nice they're very excited about work absolutely great and I think we're just going to keep the momentum going and social and how we're reaching out to the community that way Dr Freeman's doing an amazing job with a social as well as his own um Crusader superintendent uh account so it's exciting to see all of that interaction and it's exciting to see him in the classrooms and interacting with all of our students so um oh yeah I was in the room listening to the PTO meeting and I would just like to say kudos to you because they were very excited to have you on the call and have us be a part of our organization and partner with them so there's a lot of good energy for sure yeah okay Miss hi that brings us

125to you in Somerset County [Music] and yeah it was you know they did a presentation they had their um start stronger presentation there they were talking about you know just the makeup of the student body um Etc I also attended their uh they had their teacher of the year award there was the night that I went um they discussed their budget and it was interesting that they do not they get very little or no tax dollars are allocated so it's all funding and it goes to uh Somerset County it's presented to them they vote they decide how to move forward and the thing that I was really interested in is what was our role as a participant and our role is you know being it's a board of directors it's not a Board of Education

126um it should be there for business and uh discussions and decision making attempt they had meetings every other month they they don't have monthly it's every other month and just to promote to the Board of Education what is going on you know with them and their services they have a career center an integrated program which was wonderful it was construction electrical employment and in the last year or so they brought that all together they used to have separate but now they actually build rooms and they have the plumbing and you know all the electric Roofing everything it's really it's it's extensive is really interesting they also have a small engines but they also work on cars um teachers bring their cars there for oil changes um you know automotive automotive also lawn mowers you know

127any all of those engines that need to prepare they also have a small chakra set up right there so they have the eyes just as they are on the ShopRite you know in Bound Brook they have the prices there's a truck that comes from loading dock the the students unload they put everything they stock it they price it um and they get they entry into a mastered program in that the students who work there if they then want to go to a ShopRite that they have a certificate that they've actually completed their training so it was fair it just was very interesting they also had um a program called New Dawn which is for students anxiety anxiety School phobia um it just dealt with a lot of things suicidal ideations and it works with the

128behavior records behavioral uh growth program there's a member on staff there they have a beautiful new gym they're just silly it's really it's six years old and six maybe ten yeah but it's not that old the gym was so beautiful and they said prior to the pandemic they were meant to get out five days a week and their goal is to have it 24 7. not sure how that's going to come about but they wanted us to know that the options were there um they also were very um great dealing with Transportation associate County the president would have 306 groups they work with 44 districts and 55 bus contractors they monitor the vendors they they add the person out they do get a five percent administrative fee which is what sustains them and keeps them

129going they have who coordinate all of this and they also have a surplus of buses so we want to buy a bus that seems to be the place to go um again it was it was an informative meeting the people there are very dedicated to their students very dedicated to their staff it just was very very possible hey any questions before we close out committee reports okay this time we really are open for agenda item is home I don't think anyone put anything new on their top but let's check just in case nope okay and anyone in the in the room seeing no one moving okay we will move on to item 5.1 approval at the minutes the minutes for the following meetings regular and executive meeting events of January 18th 2023 and then you

130get a motion it was high and a second seconds thank you Mr Dawson any questions comments or concerns okay voting on the minutes Mr Bell yes Mr Dawson yes yes Miss hi yes Mr Vollmer yes okay moving on to Personnel resolutions District the years up superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions as outlined in District Personnel resolutions that is 6.2 all the way down to 6 20 27. uh can I have a motion and a second thank you Ms Casino any questions um I just want to point out just say that it's really awesome to be able to see so many people requesting to attend different conferences I noticed the same thing this month yeah it's it's really awesome to see that that people take it for management anyone else [Music] yes just the exception of

131the items that are thank you Mr minhas yes hi Mr Palmer abstained motion passes oh sure um I've just been told we have a new celebrity in the back our new director of ESL and World Language is here miss kleisterman thank you and welcome to the district okay we are on to 7.1 education resolution's District be it resolved about Brook Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in District education resolutions at least 7.2 through 7.15 I can have emotions emotionally thank you Mr Dawson and a second thank you miss high do we have any questions any comments uh again just yes saying so many trips and events coming up it's so good to have them back after years without anything anyone else okay can I have a roll call please Mr Bell yes Mr

132Dawson yes Miss Casino yes Miss Lima yes with the exception of the items that are in the double abstain motion pests okay moving on to uh items item 8.1 we resolved The Foundry Board of Education that approves the resolution of this outline in board action resolutions that is 8.2 down to 8.27 can I have a motion please question Anderson thank you Miss High comments questions see none can I have a roll call please Mr Bell yes Mr Dawson yes this casino yes Lima yes I don't think there are otherwise so yes thank you Mrs yes it's high yes homer I'm saying thank you motion passes okay this brings us to other matters to come for the board a new business does anyone have any in your business they'd like to bring forth at this time

133again yes Miss Casino wants to mention dodgeball again and I think we right I think we need to build a better team than we have last year for sure if you are invited to the other team you are welcome to on the team and we would love you to be able there's no pressure here it works like we throw a bullet another team in China uh that I I don't know I'll do more than 23 . it's at night hopefully we stay a very long time because we win and stayed last time we were out quite quickly so we didn't have to stay long at all [Music] those things yeah [Music] uh our student representative you do have a report this month uh you can go ahead and get that down then even better okay

134so in the past two weeks um yeah um we've also granted by Mr survey that will be sent out the English departments um we've also bring some method to improve the attendance rates and we are hoping to conduct an interview with the principles of the other buildings hopefully sometime during the morning thank you sounds like you're you're off and running excellent nice job right anything else to come before the board okay then I think we are open to the public for discussion for anything do we have anything online talk go look one more time looking anyone in the room nope nothing in my mind we've really hammered that one I think we're good on that okay then at this time we are going into executive session I don't know the number so I'm gonna have

135to ask for that result foreign for the purpose of anybody have numbers for us it's my gift it usually is putting it together they're putting it together for numbers one and three okay can I have a motion motion thank you Mr Dawson in a second second second I think we just saw this one say all in favor right we do a roll call on going through executive usually we do okay then let's roll so we can roll College okay that executive session Mr Bell yes that's awesome yes yes Lima yes it's been us okay foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you you're unmuted 13. okay we're back to 13.1 the result number Bound Brook Board of Education the

136improve of the resolutions that's outlined and approval of hip cases under high school 13.2 13.3 can I have a motion promotion thank you Mr Dawson second thank you Mr Casino any comics okay okay Rocco just about yes yes Miss Lima yes Mr red house yes Miss hi yes Mr Vollmer yes okay item 14.1 Theresa Alabama Board of Education the approval of the resolutions as outlined in approval of hip cases under middle and elementary schools items 14.2 and 14.3 and I have a motion motion thank you Miss High and a second U.S Casino um comments okay uh can I have a roll call please Mr Bell yes Mr Dawson yes Miss Casino yes Lima yes it's hard yes Mr Palmer yes motion passes okay then what we've all been waiting for I know 15.1 can I

137have a motion to adjourn all right