001if yes please united states here [Music] so welcome back coming to the meeting forward just trying to get some normalcy as we go forward um thank you so much um [Music] okay is not available [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign any dead specialist of the year for small school [Music] uh and the future of the year for founders is so he's on blue right now no no we could please can we can't hear her out here can you tell her to hold on a second hold on one second [Music] foreign ask her to just say something all right um about um ensuring that local boards and education and administrators hold the respective announcements of the people that they serve and if this [Music] or um a potential impression of the perception that the public trust is
002being violated so it is something that all the boards of education are required to do along with all school trustees as well and it really does provide specific standards behavior um and ensures that there's a disciplinary mechanism to ensure there's uniforms about others um along with filing your annual financial basis so the school ethics act was established [Music] um as well as mandatory training which came later and long after the act that has not been around the entire time so the school ethics commission is composed of nine individuals who are appointed by the governor um there are two school board members two school administrators and five citizens um currently there are student agencies on the school ethics commission there's a board member and two members of the public and i'm hoping [Music] um is um
003and then training specifically on the open public meetings act as well as the open public records act and for those of you who are musical versions that we have acronyms for everything okay um so if i'm using the terms if you don't um is of things that may have changed since you first became a board member so it's important to know that the sec has two different means by which you can adjudicate issues um it will issue an advisory opinion on um and just make the opinion public so that you as a board member will know that it is um although this year and for several years about five or six years ago they hadn't had six members on the advising um connection to the athletics commission and then all of a sudden they got
004six members and they issued about 30 advisories [Music] so you need to know that that means anyone another board member a member of your public a member community members from other communities have to give you some idea of what they occupied themselves with in 2020 um they drafted 21 advisory opinions and only made one public the other 20 went to those 49ers [Music] until um december 21st of that year okay um in terms of school ethics violations there were 24 cases and presented with [Music] so you can um or removed people come from their voice so here is the ethics opinion from this year um a superintendent sister-in-law and brother's wife she was hired for employees that unfortunately for his sister-in-law um she could not be promoted because the public could perceive that as perhaps
005the unwanted privilege of advances or employment um essentially so many people so the superintendent um must also accuse himself of any discussion on his sister-in-law's employment as a budget um so understand that superintendents are not submitted to recommend family members their family members towards your family members as board members family members for employment in the schools if you have a family member and typically they can't be promoted to a different position if he is very suffering houston is able to fill that position okay so the sec has the public to recommend the board member to central by um of a resolution in a public view um and it recommends simply a letter of review from the commissioner so the sec makes recommendations to the commissioner if a board member kills so they do use their
006authority um they don't do it all the time um here's the code itself um the state board of education and all of the course in new jersey so that means you must abide by all um federal and state laws um so if there's a particular part of the curriculum um educational new jersey constitution that says that every school district must provide it means you are a policymaking for your students your staff your community members and to responsibility is policy planning has to do with ensuring that you have a quality educational and co-curricular program in place is the board holds the superintendent accountable for his or her performance and then the superintendent will all [Music] and that's an important piece and should not be leaders in your district who have the expertise individual board members confidentiality
007[Laughter] um you're required to vote to appoint the best qualified personnel after consideration of your superintendent that does not mean you have to vote yet on every single appointment that means you have to um consider all of your teachable administrators recommendations understand that the board cannot um appoint anyone without an affirmative recommendation of the superintendent so if um someone is walking before the board the boy does not support or employment that's okay school personnel from the public performance of your duties um which simply means that your responsibility is to make sure that your staff ability to do their job effectively is supported by the board of education um what you can do is to provide them with access to so you need to remember that and you need to make sure that your superintendent is
008aware of failed to put on their financial disclosure form that they foreign [Music] there was a potential violation of the open public meetings act because discussing um or any sort of business on emails with one another um it is too lazy to name it because clearly this was understanded but it can have negative consequences and exposure to liability that you don't want to do and it also um is likely by membership again you know the essence talks to us regularly um because we are charged with mandatory training and charged with um um in the law and so one of their sec's questions plus is how much can you train um a board member posted the content on the blog on the qualification salary and general employment of a standard teacher um so you have to
009again understand that while you are at freedom of speech once you become a state official with confidential information um there are limitations around not only confidential information but information around staff that you have to um [Music] diminishes the entire board's integrity um [Music] so just very very circumspect about anything that you post and absolutely if you have a concern about a teacher [Music] um this particular decision impacted the board of president [Music] and again the fdc has recommended center um the board member has come off the course of the opportunity when the school ethics commission was very clear um [Music] the day-to-day operations is ability [Music] um okay so when we talk about that is a conflict of interest um if there is a you must immediately confuse yourself and not participate in discussion um
010if you as a school official um [Music] definition of an immediate family member is espoused through the child residency but again for using your positions of employment it extends to others which includes the efforts of policy um definition of a relative and here you see the definition that is applied there and here even so you have to be careful um [Music] and that exception is if you can't find anyone else qualified to do before you can ask the executive superintendent for permission to hire that military um i think the only um if you have a relative already who works in the district um you are conflicted out of and will not take part in any um part of the search selection or hiring of a new school administrator [Music] administrator [Music] any capacity including summer
011world a substitute teacher a teacher an administrator it doesn't matter okay in terms of collective bargaining this is the question we often get asked um we do have a spouse a dependent child um if it is you or your spouse or a dependent child works in another school district the same for a similar statewide union typically that would be an ipa affiliate american federation of teachers we also have some little teasers so they have said you can say before similar to statewide so all of those will be included you cannot participate in negotiations however you may vote once there is involved officer in the district where they're um [Music] um [Music] if you have any questions [Music] um again other possible conflicts um if you're against this [Music] unless the financial contribution is given and
012it's integrated oftentimes uh local unions or even the states will endorse folks running through the board of education prior to this particular advisory opinion for the first year you could not participate in elections it is no longer an absolute caveat that you cannot participate in year one if you've been influenced and interestingly enough what you're beginning to see is that there are several distances implies where um associations are only endorsing um not incumbent in an effort um the incumbents if their hands were in the midst of marketing with the association even that has been useful said on the negotiations so sometimes um the sec changes things and it may have unintended consequences i'm not suggesting that that was the intent of this advisory but numerous incumbents who have not been endorsed who have um not
013gotten reelected as the associations spend a significant amount of money um and just help feed your partners and um it is always destroying board um over that particular issue if you have so many conflicted members that you cannot um negotiate or you cannot hire someone because that requires a whole majority of the work action um conflicts if that happens because the doctrine of necessity simply but you don't need more than one eligible member to negotiate um because it's not a matter that you're going to require um without having others involved in terms of negotiations and certainly research is important to research not even a majority um because they're conflicted out and you cannot [Music] position with your um you do not want to handle any school funds um you know this is relatively recent um
014elementary level i on a regular basis um that would appear to be fresh in the building and so you are no longer able to do that so we are not trying to stop you from volunteering in your schools um you should be able to say well at the end um school often you should be able to say no will it seem to people that are visitors hope that i've worked in the school if that's the case that's a problem um [Music] um including um your foundation your education foundation district council no longer volunteers so we know one time members however in very narrow circumstances to the approval of the superintendent up to two board members um ten participating observations and assessments with the recommendations of the peaceful administrator so on one hand you have very
015limited um participation these um were made at a bunch of different times with the composition of the school athletics commission had changed and evolved so very often um sometimes you can see that there's a disconnect between some of the decisions and others of the decisions but just know that over time you know they may kick in their circumstances and times change and they make different decisions yourself and always remember [Music] um in the board of education i will send you this in a pdf format several people have it as board members all of your decisions um so i would be happy to answer any questions that you might have i know that that's a lot of information but i hope that you found it um [Music] our um with your administration or any members members
016in your district um if you and i are in confidential sessions so questions [Music] if um [Music] um [Music] um i don't think it's working uh [Music] yet hello i'm action president association i just had a question uh regarding 7.4 is it accurate that a ta is taking over for a certificated uh staff position or is there going to be some um i guess some transfers to complete the whole process um you're talking about 734 yeah that person is two certified people in the room uh once our breakfast is coming out right but this ta it says it's replacing a certificated position correct there's two certified by taking one certified teacher out of the room rachel who's going to be the certificated staff member in this room so who's actually taking over for them so
017there is going to be a transfer yeah oh that's what i asked i said is there a transfer to complete the whole process all right um yes [Music] is [Music] yes approval the resolutions is outlined in personnel resolutions under middle and elementary school seven point two seven point questions or comments yes [Music] yes [Music] they compressed all the seasonings down so they could get some seasonings or comments can i get a role [Music] yes questions [Music] yes our next year's uh all right for our budget so can i just just update the board on anything that's as far as money to come into office um [Music] um um we're looking at right now we have four hundred and eighty five thousand dollars in excellent surplus [Music] here um and right now as we all know
018president trump might find the 900 billion [Music] um you know we got 4.9 million you know 5 million i would sit here and tell you guys and i won't be worried about my sweater campaign again for you know trying to get some sort of flexibility with that money um the other thing is um you know you have now what i can tell you so i don't want to move like us you have to practice that money the problem is it sees the pass through and then as there's a password when you get that money there's requirements for the title one money and it doesn't give you the flexibility that you need to cross your entire club the stimulus money they think that we got in december title one and the signal tax they're talking about
019right now the 1.9 trillion ties to taiwan which again it doesn't really help scenario worst case scenario which is going to be in the ballpark now i will do everything i can not be able to yeah i um let's you know want to caution everybody as best as they can you've been in this position before you have to allow me to analyze and do like and do what i do you know i'm pretty good [Music] yes 375 years [Music] for any and all discussions so um dr gallagher you know i posted three questions can you just let me i appreciate again this back and forth your first question was wondering what feedback uh foreign um your last question was um any updates on linkedin and have the questions that i've seen and have any [Music]
020you know that you know also here now is