001foreign good evening everybody I like the open tonight's meeting working together as a community our mission is to Welcome All and provide opportunities for our students in a safe and accepting learning environment to become creative empathetic resilient and who choose to make an impact I'd like to take this opportunity for our translator to come up and introduce ourselves good evening everyone I'm Rosa Muniz I'm the district translator I'm here to help with any questions or comments you may have thank you buenas noches [Music] thank you Miss Muniz the Dover Board of Education acknowledges that the law of the state establishes that members of the public including members of the board have the right to record public board meetings using audio or video recording devices provided that the ACT recording does not interfere with the business
002of this public court meeting while the recordings may be used in preparation of minutes the Do Not substitute for official legally approvements please be advised that audio and our video images will be maintained by the Secretary of to the board of education and will be posted to the district website this meeting which is hereby called to order at 5 35 PM is in compliance with the notice requirements of the law public notice was posted in the office of the Board of Education and communicated to the municipal clerk The Daily Record and the Star Ledger on January 13 2022. if you please join me for the flag salute foreign I like to now go over the results of the November 8th 2022 election Miss acevado with 1095 votes for a three-year term Miss Phillips with 944
003votes for a three-year term Ms Downs with 913 votes for our three-year term at this point I'd like to take a roll call of current board members Miss chrysalis Miss Mendez here Mr Miller here Miss nutting Mr Robles present Dr seaner present uh so at this point we do not have a quorum uh we do anticipate having a quorum shortly foreign 15 minutes and we will reconvene as soon as we have a quorum thank you okay I like to call the meeting uh back into session at 5 44 pm and thank you very much for bearing with us so our next um I will retake uh the Roll Call Miss Mendez here Mr Miller here miss nutting here Mr Robles president Dr Cena present we now have a quorum uh so at this time I
004like to move forward with administering the oath of office to our newly elected members um I will call each member up to the podium right over there and what are listed on the agenda so if Miss Acevedo could please join me at the podium thank you foreign I Deborah Acevedo to solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people I Deborah Acevedo to solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by the law of the office of member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS
0051914-1 nor disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense listed on the njsa 18a colon 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties and the of the office according to the best of my ability thank you [Applause] Ms Phillips if you could please join me at the podium thank you I Kimberly Phillips do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people I Kimberly Phillips do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and
006that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 nor disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a Colon 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability [Applause] Miss Downs if you could please join me at the podium thank you I Sandra Downs do you solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith in allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people I Sandra dance do you solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by the law for
007the office of member of Board of Education and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 to Spotify nor disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a Colon 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and gently perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability congratulations everyone and thank you at this point I'd like to do a roll call to include our newly appointed board members Miss Acevedo president Miss Downs Miss gershalas Miss Mendez here Mr Miller here Miss nutting here miss Phillips here Mr Robles president Dr senior present we have a quorum uh we received a request from Miss Diana Chrysalis to temporarily waive the requirement to notify the board in writing one week uh one meeting
008prior um in order to participate virtually in the board meeting this request is being made to accommodate a health issue at this point I'd like to see if there's any board members that would like to make a resolution to that effect I move that we waive by law zero one one five point one um to allow Ms grisalis to attend a second um thank you for catching the policy number I forgot that at this point uh or open for discussion um I have a comment looking at the the bylaw it said that it should be Amplified for all those in attendance at the meeting to hear his or her participation is there a way to amplify it so everybody can hear it so the technical setup we have would basically there be a tablet right
009here and then I would repeat any comment or or vote by Miss Chrysalis If This Were to pass Mr slam if I may um the policy also States um I just want to add on to what Mr Miller uh just made us aware of in addition the electronic equipment must permit the board president to recognize the board member to make comments ask questions vote and fully participate in the board meeting as if the board member was present at the meeting and the board members comments questions votes and other aspects of his or her participation shall be Amplified for all those in attendance at the in the at the meeting can hear his or her participation um with what you just stated I don't think that we'll be abiding by that um just to set the
010precedent I I will admit that I'm torn um the policy states one month prior um but there is precedent for this um in August 2021 Ms viveros was unable to attend the meeting um and she participated by phone I believe Dr McLaughlin held was the one in contact with her is that correct Dr McLaughlin um using his phone um and at that point Ms viveros was able to participate in the election for um an open seat so um this is the the important part of setting precedent right that it it goes both ways so we have done this in the past um in a way that again it was a previous board but felt was acceptable to allow a absent member to participate I think one of the things that we have to keep in
011mind is that if something like this were to come up again we should be prepared with electronic media to have it Amplified so that it can be like a normal meeting because otherwise it's very difficult to go back and forth and it was difficult to hear Miss vivaros and it kind of the meeting did not flow with you know that methodology Mr slam if I made to add to Mr um Miller's point we may want to task the policy committee with amending this policy to make it a little bit more specific in terms of what constitutes an emergency and how to facilitate uh layout a little bit more guideline into guidelines in terms of how to facilitate this in the future I'm I I definitely agree that that is something the policy committee should look
012into what that doesn't solve our issue for tonight I'm just concerned that we will not be able to respect the public that is here in attendance and also would be chaotic for the board members that are here we're not going to be able to hear her she won't be able to fully participate so I think that is in violation of the policy that we already have currently Mr slam may we have a lot of question can we have the Roll Call sure yes yes uh at this time we're going to take the Aurora roll call on the motion that is on the floor uh Miss Acevedo no uh Miss Downs no uh Miss Mendez no Mr Miller no Miss nutting no Miss Phillips no Mr Robles no Dr senor no motion fails so at this
013point I'd like to move forward um and declare nominations I'd like to nominate Danielle Mendez for president second for the nominations we don't need a second hour we will need a second um once nominations are ready to be closed that's okay thank you Mr Slim I move we close the nominations for president you have a second second uh Voice vote the closest nominations Mr slam I have some questions sure thank you Miss Mendez we haven't closed the nominations close the nominations but we didn't vote on it oh I apologize thank you uh yeah a Voice vote to uh close nominations all in favor aye uh any opposed motion passes uh Dr singer Ms Mendes could you describe the training that you have had to prepare you for the role of president uh thank you um
014Dr saner uh this is not a cross-examination but I will speak a little bit about my experience thank you for the nomination fellow board members I am a mental health and addictions professional I am a certified peer recovery specialist I am a certified Community reinforcement and family trainer I am certified in Mental Health First Aid I oversee the operations of a recovery community center right here in Dover I coordinate all activity within the peer specialist System including Administration recruitment retention training evaluation and celebration I encourage and motivate volunteers while serving to help recovery community centers achieve a positive culture and tone that Fosters recovery in 2022 alone we served almost 2 000 folks with mental health and substance use challenges I currently serve on various task forces and Boards throughout our state such as the
015board of directors of the Mental Health Association where I was elected to collaborate with fellow board members to promote mental health including the integration of physical health care to improve the care and treatment of individuals with mental illness and to remove the stigma associated with emotional and mental disorders I am a founding cabinet member of emerge New Jersey where I serve as a political campaign advisor committed to recruiting training and supporting Democratic women to run for office and win also tasked with the development maintenance and stewardship of the organization's vision mission and goals I am actively involved in state and local governance in fact I attend and speak at most Board of all the meetings right here in our town of Dover I have served on this Sports policy committee negotiations committee Mine Hill ad
016hoc committee and I was the chair of the curriculum committee I have a perfect attendance record at our public session meetings I adhere to our board's commitment to Robert's Rules of Order I have respected our board's culture of no surprises and submit most of my questions beforehand I commit to becoming a master board member I commit to utilizing my experience from all the boards I currently serve on to lead our board meetings and finally I commit to shared leadership and transparency thank you uh at this point I like to ask for a motion to elect Miss Mendes as president of the Board of Education effective immediately and until the organization meeting as prescribed by law oh so moved second a roll call vote Miss Acevedo yes Miss Downs yes Mendez yes Mr Miller yes Miss
017nutting yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Dr Cena yes ocean carries uh Daniel Miss Mendez please take over and uh congratulations [Applause] people if I may take a moment a year and a half ago I stood at that Podium seeking an appointment to the Dover Board of Education to fight for our community our children and because representation matters at a time when Boards of Education are attacking the rights of lgbtq Youth across the country I was denied that appointment a few months later our community placed their trust in me and I became the first openly trans woman elected in New Jersey and here I am today chair of the very board I was told I was unqualified to serve on tonight our board and Community has raised the bar once again for school boards
018across our state and Country so my message to all are you including our lgbtq plus youth be proud of who you are be persistent work hard and always stand up for what you believe in don't be discouraged when you are knocked down or told you can't or you shouldn't stand up tall get an education and chase your dreams thank you for placing your trust in me to lead the board on our journey over the next year I can't promise that our road ahead will not be met with bumps but I can promise that we will work tirelessly to regain the trust of the community we will be responsible with tax dollars we will be as transparent as possible with our actions without violating the law we will ensure the students have all the tools necessary
019to have a healthy school Journey this journey will require healing transparency and collaboration between the board Administration and community it is my hope that our board Administration and Community can collaborate in meaningful ways to ensure High student achievement I invite all members of this board over the next year to share in the leadership of this board it is my hope that most decisions big or small will be made as a collective as I end my remarks our board invites all members of the community to stay engaged all year round and reach out with any questions comments or concerns we invite the town Administration mayor and board of aldermen to come to the table and work with our board to find Common Sense solutions to many of the issues our overcrowded School District faces and finally
020I'll share a quote that speaks to the moment the leader's job isn't to have all the ideas it's to make sure all the ideas are heard and that the best ones win with that I will now accept nominations for the office of Vice President I'd like to make a nomination if I may um I would like to nominate Scott Miller for the office of Vice President I would like to nominate Tia nutting for the office of Vice President may I have a motion to accept and close the nominations for the office of Vice President so moved second we have a motion by Miss Phillips a second by Miss nutting um all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed is there any discussion Miss Mendez if I might I would like to hear the candidates
021uh preparation for this role please okay um I have been on this board for nearly 16 years um I'm fully trained certified board member I have more than enough credits to be a master board member I have participated in every single committee that the board has I'm also involved in the community with the Boy Scout Troop the planning board and uh the Historical Society so I'm very much connected to the community and all of you know that I'm a very hard worker for the children at this District um I am also a certified board member I've this is my fourth year um I do continue to continue to do my training um I've already taken my week off for October for I can have that full week of training to continue my efforts in trying
022to better myself and to connect a lot better with my board members um I do apologize for tonight for making a delay and delaying the community for tonight's service I had family that I had to take care of first just like everyone else understands that um I think we just need to keep the peace and that's what my goal is to do to keep us looking forward to be peaceful and to really connect with our community members more is there any other discussion Mr slant may we have a roll call vote on the motion of Mr Miller for the office of Vice President Miss Acevedo yes Miss Downs yes Miss Mendez yes Mr Miller yes Miss nutting no Miss Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Dr Senor no motion carries Mr Miller would you like to
023say anything um I'm just happy to be here and uh glad to have my laptop back um but I'm looking forward to working with everyone as usual I think we do have to earn the Public's trust from the referendum that we missed the mark and I think that's something that we really need to focus on with the community to figure out where we go to next because we do need space it is a necessity so somehow we have to figure that out and I look forward to working with everyone on this board thank you we're going to move on to public welcome and participation on agenda items only so you want to have a roll call board again yeah Phillips Phillips and nutty agreed on the roll call Gold for Mr Miller for the office
024of Vice President so do you want to have another roll call is that what we're saying okay so you're gonna get double voted on tonight Mr Miller apparently um may I have a motion uh to accept the nomination of Mr Miller for the office of Vice President so moved second we have a motion and a second um Mr Miller may we have I mean Mr slam may we have a roll call please Miss Acevedo yes Miss Downs yes Miss Mendez yes Mr Miller yes Miss nutting yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Dr Senor no motion carries thank you um so now we're gonna move on to the public welcome and participation on agenda items only um can someone let me know did the um Google form open up at 5 30 so the Google
025form opened up at 5 30 and we'll read those comments during the second um public this should be two okay so the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period of three minutes public comments limited to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer please understand that the public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will
026be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation public comment is now open is there anyone any member of the public wishing to speak on agenda items just please state your name hi my name is Maria Chacon 82 East Blackwell Street Dover New Jersey I just wanted to thank Dr saner for the good job that they did during during these
027hard times especially leading the referendum and trying to lead aboard um I just want to remind everybody there is no I in team and everybody voted for the referendum to go through so everybody should equally take the responsibility of of of passing information to the public so even though some people might think that information was not passed through to the public I as a public member did see the transparency did see the information online did see the information even when I asked the superintendent to um to gather some information when I was canvassing he went and he got the information and he uploaded to the to the internet or the internet for the Dover School District I am so thankful for Krista Krista has been a leader for many years here and now Scott congratulations
028for your VP role I hope to see you succeed and Daniela Mendez I hope to see you shine and lead and succeed and move forward all the things that the schools need like uh the bathroom for our transgender children more information more for the disability more uh more tools that are students need so thank you everybody for all you every single one of you board members thank you for working so hard for the community because it's not a paid job you do this with your own free will with your own extra time so thank you for all the work and all the stress that you've gone through to try to help our community thank you thank you Mr Khan is there any other member of the public wishing to speak the next public comment portion
029of the online oh okay thank you good evening everyone I just wanted to say congratulations to the new board members and welcome to the board and congratulations to the new officers as well Mr Miller Miss Mendez congratulations thank you I'm Sorry Miss shower can you state your name for the rest oh I'm sorry Susan shower 346 was Clinton Street in Dover I also wanted to thank the district for the beautiful mural out in the hallway at the lobby it just brightens the whole Lobby and it's absolutely gorgeous I do have a question moving forward though perhaps for the next meeting in reference to the appointments made by the president for the various committees if for the public as the committee members are being chosen could you possibly expand and give a definition of what the
030role of the committee is and their goal and that's it thank you very much everyone happy New Year is there any other member of the public wishing to speak okay uh public comment is now closed this section of public comment is now closed um Miss shower thank you for that suggestion um our committees do have descriptions um so I think that is it is um fair to um read those to the public when we do get to that we are on um agenda item seven appointments uh do we have a motion to approve items a through Q under appointments so second I think there was a motion by Miss Phillips in a second by Mr Miller is there any discussion uh is is there any I know a lot of these are pretty much the
031same are there any differences that we need to point out well uh one it's not a difference but I do want to point out that our January board meeting is the 24th in an effort to try to avoid conflicts with the towns committee uh so that uh would have normally been the 17th and also if you'll see under resolution D um we've tried to follow that theme for the meetings of the Year trying to avoid overlap with the town uh any month where we were able to do so where it didn't interfere with our legal requirements for budget Mr slam I know that you had been working with um the folks over at town hall to get the meeting dates right um but something happened between um when they last sent us dates and what
032they actually put on their agenda and Mr Miller and I have actually been in contact with them and there are some changes that I think um I'm going to propose so right now the current conflicts according to the boa's agenda are January March April September and December um I believe that the boa will be voting on changing their March December and um reorg meetings so uh I will propose that we change our January 24th meeting to the it would either be the 17th or the 31st um are we able to change April I know that's budget season um people would have to remain so we'll keep April um and then we'll and then we would change our September to September 19th um do we is there any discussion on the dates that I propose the
033seventh January 17th or the 31st Miss nutting uh Miss Mendez for September I wouldn't be able to change um I have a prior engagement I have to plan my whole life ahead of time um so that day is no good Mr Miller is it possible to look at do we change our day to like a Wednesday so we don't ever have to worry about scheduling around the town I don't know if that's possible Dr saner Ms Mendez a lot of us have already arranged our lives so that Tuesdays as those are typically our committee and board meetings um have arranged our lives so that we can attend Tuesday meetings and I also wanted to ask when you originally listed the dates that would have to change you listed March but you did not propose a
034a new date for March so the current conflicts include March but the boa is proposing those changes at their meeting currently for March so they ask that we split the difference so we would change January April and September they would change March December and their reorganization meeting thank you I understand that um but miss nutting has a conflict in September uh so I think we just leave the date and just we can't change it so we'll leave September um what are your thoughts on changing the January meeting to the 17th or the 31st Dr saner Miss Mendez I would like to hear the impact of that on our Administration that was our originally planned date and then we moved it to accommodate the town so does moving it back impact um you at all if
035we uh if we move the January date I I would ask that we move it to the later date because we have presentations that we've asked people to put together moving it up a week I think would be uh tough to ask them to change I do want to point out we and it's not I'm sure we can send out revised invites we are honoring our uh educational professionals support professionals and Professionals of the year we sent out an invite for January 24th I I don't think it will be a problem to just send out a revised invite to the to the 31st but I think it would be better moving it back rather than moving it forward can I ask how many people would be affected by that chain how many esps that approx
036approximately that that would affect in terms of the honor the the honorees uh there are five educational Professionals of the year and for educational support Professionals of the year so nine Miss Mendes and if I may could you uh ballpark when those um invitations when I'm just right I I understand we're trying to solve a problem but I hate to cause a problem for people that we're honoring right to ask them to change um their plans I'm sorry Dr McLaughlin that question was for you approximately when did those invitations go on we sent them out right before the holidays but again we had not approved our board meeting date so um if I was thinking ahead there would have been a disclaimer in there but um again I think if we were to move it
037back by week it'd be okay I think moving it up is more problematic Miss Mendez if we can actually all look at our calendars I know we're not supposed to look at our devices as we're sitting here at the portable but it would be probably beneficial for everybody to check their personal calendars at the same time yeah I mean I know that the 17th or the 31st works for me I know for the administration they prefer the 31st I'm totally okay with that um Mr Miller I'm fine with any Tuesday because like Dr sander said I have that I don't have anything else planned on Tuesdays point of uh this discussion is not necessarily to accommodate board members although we have to have a quorum I think it's to respect the public who cannot be
038in two places at one time um so Miss Mendez is fine we have a negotiation pending that night for a meeting for previous the 31st the 31st yes okay so um we will leave it as is we have a motion and a second is there any other discussion well so we're leaving the dates all as they are April we can't because of budget um September Miss nutting has a conflict um and the administration doesn't want us it doesn't think that it's in our best interest to move it to the 17th and prefers the 31st but the 31st we have a negotiations meeting so um it is what it is um so we have emotion and a second uh Mr slam maybe have a roll call to a uh approve items um a through Q Miss
039Acevedo yes Miss Mendez yes Mr Miller yes Miss nutting yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Dr Senor yes motion carries now we're moving on to appointments by the president um and committee assignments by the presidents um I'm going to move um to table items eight and nine um which is appointments by the president and committee assignments by the president until our next public session meeting in January so that all board members have the chance to send um over their preferences preferences to Mr Miller and I um is there a second second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion Mr Miller I'm just wondering if we could add a committee I know that uh two meetings ago I talked about a governance board that I've learned that many uh school boards
040have that and what was mentioned at the time was that the governance board is responsible for helping make the board run better and so some of the things that they do is that they prepare onboarding materials and documentation for new board members so when new board members come that's their job to prep individuals who are coming new onto the board they also prepare the board for evaluations of the superintendent and the board self-evaluation in addition they look at policies specifically for the board so that we can operate in the most efficient manner and things like the the electronic piece would be a policy that that committee would be looking at to see how we actually govern and run our board I do have more materials on that and I believe it's already on the the
041Google drive but I would expect that if we add that now then members of this board could decide whether or not they wanted to be part of the governance board governance committee rather Dr saner Ms Mendes some of those materials already exist Ms grisalis and I created those several years ago but the other goals of that committee would certainly be helpful to the President and Vice President because some of those specifically the CSA evaluation are very time consuming and there's a lot of reminding of board members to complete their responsibilities the second point is we're talking about adding a committee and uh many of us last year served on three committees already and so adding another committee would further um add responsibility to our plates um and so I would ask that we consider uh
042changing some of the Committees that exist I think one that has come up repeatedly is the community relations committee um redefining that or eliminating it and uh pulling out the important responsibilities that that committee did and uh delegating them in a different way perhaps but I'm concerned about just adding another committee and the responsibilities of that to our already full plates thank you Dr singer Mr Miller um we only have five committees other than the Mine Hill ad hoc so I think there's room for that um I know that not each person had the opportunity to chair a committee because there weren't enough committees so um I make a motion to add the governance board governance committee to our committee assignments for a second second we have oh there's a motion on the table okay
043so let's vote on the motion on the table and then we'll vote on the um governance committee so is there any other any other discussion on um tabling items eight and nine which is the current motion on the floor okay Dr singer Ms Mendez I would just like to reiterate and and it doesn't have to happen now it could happen afterwards but a discussion of the community relations committee and its goals and how it looks in the future yeah so one of the things that um I think uh one of my ideas are to kind of merge the community relations committee with a citizen advisory committee um or a community advisory committee and um kind of merge those two committees so yeah I think that is a discussion we can have so maybe we can
044put some material to get together and have more of a description and we can revisit that discussion under um I guess it would be old business or new business at our next meeting um I know Miss shower's suggestion of explaining what each committee is maybe that would be beneficial for our new board members to hear them prior to tabling everything that way they know what they're signing up for prior to okay so let's find the file that has the committee descriptions just got my laptop back so bear with me Miss Mendes the file is called committee description and goals thank you Dr saner can everyone open up that file so we can take turns reading the descriptions please so I can start with the description of the community relations committee so these descriptions were made
045by the um were created by the Committees themselves so the community relations committee is responsible for obtaining data from the school community that is relevant for the school board to make strategic decisions the role of the community relations committee is to promote public interests parent and Community involvement and Encompass all aspects of the relationships between our school district and board and the entire School community would someone take finance and Facilities Ms Mendez I would be happy to do that but I just shared that with Ms Acevedo and Ms down so you should now have access to that if you are able to log into your computer have you been able to log in sorry are you have you been able to log in no what about Miss Acevedo I had to set up my past
046um Dr sander can you read the finance and Facilities the finance and Facilities committee aims to explore discuss Monitor and review Dover Public Schools facility and budgetary needs in order to make recommendations to the full board on how to best meet those needs can someone take curriculum sure I can the curriculum committee aims to discuss course content and proposals including but not limited to course proposals program changes addition and deletion of programs as well as general policies and District decisions that have an impact on instruction and learning thank you Mr Miller so there's no description in here for the policy committee or negotiations I mean those two are pretty straightforward right and policy committee were reviewing policies and recommending policies to the full board for approval negotiations are negotiations right um it's what we have
047is there any other discussion um yeah thank you just to make a note I see on the agenda a list under community relations still the the activities that we have agreed to remove as part of the community relations which is attending those different meetings for different towns or other things so I don't know if that's I don't know that we need to address that now but just to make sure that's not still on there the next time around it's one of the things that came out at our mind Hawk at at our Mine Hill ad hoc meetings was their desire to have a board member from Dover attend and so the uh history of this is that there was a delegate to the Mine Hill Board that went away when we created the community relations
048committee if we are going to modify the community relations committee then perhaps we could reinstate the delegate to the Mine Hill Board of Education as a position that someone may want to fill Mr Miller did we read the community relations description yes okay I just I was looking for it so I wasn't sure if it was red okay because that makes sense of you know that description of what we would need to do with that committee Okay so Mr Robles mentioned the description that's on the agenda I feel like we've visited that before and this should have been um taken off because we've talked about that before have we not so that's something that can be updated um just something that was messed with it okay um and I don't know if we can talk
049about the specifics of what we are in negotiations with as far as the Mine Hill ad hoc committee so I don't want to dive too deep into that um but I think that our new board members have the descriptions at some point we will have a new board member orientation between now and our next meeting so we can get a little bit more in depth um and I think that we can revisit the greater conversation about all of these things at our next meeting the current motion on the table is to um the current motion on the floor is to table items eight and nine and we have a motion and a second if there's no further discussion I think that we're ready for a roll call yes Miss Downs yes Miss Mendes yes Mr
050Miller yes Miss nutting yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Dr singer yes promotion carries Communications um is anyone aware of any whole board Communications Dr saner um Ms Mendez as you know uh the board tasked Ms Ruiz and I with uh sending a letter to the commissioner of Education which you all saw in which we did I did receive a response from our assemblywoman um done today that I will forward to the entire board um but uh basically stating her support for our our petition and if a legislative option is needed her support for that and I will forward that to the entire board thank you Dr saner and let's make sure that the new members are included any other whole board Communications so we're moving along to Old business the code of conduct
051for the Dover Board of Education each board member should have received a copy of the code of conduct in their board packets does everyone have it it has been the practice of previous boards to adopt this code of conduct although we are not legally required to do so um so is there a motion to adopt the code of conduct second we have a motion by Dr saner a second by Mr Miller is there any discussion on the code of conduct um I who has the sign-in sheet so Mr slam so at some point before we leave this evening if we can all touch base with Mr slam to sign the code of conduct if it is approved um with our roll call Mr slam maybe we have a roll call vote to adopt the code
052of conduct for the Dover Board of Education Miss Acevedo yes Miss Downs yes Miss Mendez yes Mr Miller yes Miss nutting yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Lopez yes Dr sandor yes motion carries moving on to code of ethics um all board members should have also received a copy of the code of ethics does everyone have one yes um we are legally required to sign an acknowledgment of receipt and review the code of ethics um are there any questions Miss Mendez previous has been to go around okay um Mr Miller you want to start us off sure I will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Education and court orders pertaining to schools desire changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures missed out I will make
053decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability excuse me ability race Creed sex or social standing I will confine my board action to policy making planning and appraisal and I will help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them I will carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members to see that they are well run I will recognize the authority rests with the Board of Education and will make no personal promises nor take any private actions that may compromise the board I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups
054or to use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which if disclosed would needlessly injure individuals or the schools in all other matters I will provide accurate information and in concert with my fellow board members interpret to the staff the aspirations of the community for its schools I will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer I will support and protect School personnel and proper performance of their duties public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution thank you so if we can sign these and hand them to Mr slam before we leave this evening um we're moving along to new oh we forgot well actually it's right on time because
055we're on new business so Mr Miller made a motion um to create a governance committee there was a second by Miss nutty there was a so a motion by Mr Miller second by Miss nutting um any discussion I know that Dr saner brought up some points about um uh that a lot of us are already stretched in with the current committees that we have are there any other thoughts on that can we um yeah if I if I may uh Miss Mendez can we perhaps table the decision until the next meeting if we could get Mr Miller to elaborate more on how would really be run and how many members would need to be a part of it the frequency of the meeting if it would be obviously we know like preparing documentation for new
056board members perhaps might be a one-time initial there's already some content done so I don't know if it's going to necessarily need to be a recurring monthly meeting or if it might not be such to have all those details ironed out before we decide if we have um all the information is on the Google Drive that Dr saner had set up from the um the conference and so I obtained uh templates from another school district that they provided to show exactly you know how they put it together on their onboarding and there's a PowerPoint presentation that I had elaborated on I would think initially that the governor's committee probably would be meeting monthly until it gets everything established but then once you're kind of in a cycle they could then decide when they need to
057meet depending on the seasonal effects of what's going on Dr saner Miss Mendez from a logistical standpoint I feel that we have to it would be in the best interest of the board to make decisions regarding the community relations and the governance committee tonight because you will be wanting to make appointments and if the for example if we decide not to do the governance committee or to and or to um revamp or get rid of the community relations committee then perhaps the workload would not be Equitable because either you may have to redistribute everyone because you put me on the community relations committee but then we decide to dissolve it then I I have one less committee responsibility than maybe Miss nutting or vice versa right and so I think it makes double work for
058you to have to populate these committees make appointments and then if we change the number of committees then we're changing the we're disrupting the equity of the work I think that Mr Robles made a good point he needs some of us may need more information I know that Mr Miller has already uploaded a lot of that information so I think it's up to Mr Miller if he wants to take back his motion but I think that it would be maybe in our perhaps in our best interest to um have time to re to to study exactly what the governance committee is and make the decision at our next meeting I also see Dr Sanders Point Mr Miller I agree and what what I would volunteer to do is to go back and get that information
059and put something together that you could send out to the whole board and we can make the decision anytime of when they would want to create that so I could take back my motion thank you um I think that I see your point Dr saner um it sounds like it will be more work but I think um The Board needs more time to study exactly what the governance committee is um so uh Mr Miller is going to prepare a bunch of information for everyone and I think what we'll do is we'll have um the assignments ready to go even though we're going to be voting on it on our at our next meeting we'll perhaps already have um an idea of who we would like to assign to those committees at our next meeting um
060is there any other discussion Mr Robles yeah just one more comment then regarding the community community relations I know you mentioned your idea of revamping that or or combining with some other kind of work I'm just curious if that's also us trying to volunteer for some of these or saying our preferences without knowing what that would entail might be good to just I don't know how much we could get done today to Define that or make it some kind of conclusion on that committee well I have a um a draft of the of that particular committee and what I personally envisioned for it obviously it'd be something we all would have to work on together so I can give you um my brief description uh this committee will be made up of members from various
061groups of our community and members of the community relations committee they will meet as little as quarter quarterly or as much as once a month this committee will serve as another way for us to increase engagement with the communities we serve I expect that the chair will report to us on an as needed basis on community questions and concerns um I expect that our community relations committee will work closely with the community advisory committee to ensure they are fully informed on our challenges and successes as the community community advisory committee will also serve as our key communicators so that's kind of a brief Vision that I had for it if that answers your question yes Dr saner I'm sorry I'm confused you started out when you originally proposed the new committee it sounded to me
062so I'm asking for clarification please it sounded to me as if the community relations committee would be a combo with the Outreach committee now it sounds like if you are on the community relations committee would then be required to attend the community outreach committee which is so if I were to ask to be on the community relations committee I would be attending community relations meetings but also these quarterly or monthly bigger Community meetings is am I am I hearing this correctly right so I think the issue is is that this is not fully thought out um which is why I did not present the motion this evening I think that it's actually something that the community relations committee should potentially explore and come back to us with the best way to kind of go about
063it if that makes any sense Mr Robles I'm just thinking so the last statement you made is that the community whoever right now volunteers to be part and eventually gets selected to be put into the community relations they can take that idea and move forward with other recommendations to then decide or propose something for the board to decide on with the community relations but I guess right now what we would start with though is is what we have been doing in the past which is just trying to get out with the community I know we put goals that are tied to the community relations like forums and things like that that I don't know if we're going to continue with those I know a lot of people were focused on those because of the referendum
064but I think there's still value in that to be able to engage with the community that way um so I think you know if that's my correct understanding of what you should you said and I think we should just leave the community relations description as it is now and then touch base again once the people are in it yeah to make some kind of proposal based on what you just said Mr Miller and I think that the first line of the description that's there is relevant to what what Mr Robles is saying the community relations committee is responsible for obtaining data from the school community that is relevant for the school board to make strategic decisions yeah um I think that Mr Miller I mean Mr Robles also brought up a great point about our
065board goals I think that perhaps now that we know that the referendum has failed um and that was one of our top goals I think that we should revisit our board goals um at some point soon because I don't think we actually create them until the summer time right I'm not mistaken so I think that we should perhaps revisit those board goals sooner rather than later um so Mr Miller has taken back his motion on the governance committee we are going to put that on our next agenda um moving on to our second public participation the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing does anyone have access to the online comments Mr Robles I do thank you the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational
066issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period of three minutes public comments not restricted to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer for those who wish to provide public comment remotely a Google form was posted on the district website at 5 30 PM remote comments will be read by a member of the Board of Education the Board of Education will alternate between in-person and online comments please understand that the public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as an up they are offered as opportunities to share your
067thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation public participation is now open is there any member of the public wishing to speak please state your name Lynn Laurie 10 Hillside Avenue Happy New Year to all and I wish you
068all Health this year and congratulations to our the new president vice president to the new board members and um I wanted to discuss discuss about the Committees um I know certain committees do not work all year round um I've been here where I hear that people the question is asked is there any information on the committee and then people will say our committee did not meet that happens periodically and I know everybody is very busy that's part of this job this job is you're going to be out my suggestion is in certain ways that things may help is periodically through the through the year is instead of having the one meeting a month have the two meetings a month because certain things that might be discussed in the committee meetings could be discussed as a
069whole board together and get all the different views and come up with a consensus um and that would be in front of the public so that the public would hear what is happening and I think that's part of what the referendum is there was not enough in the public to digest to make a decision so it might help if periodically you have two meetings if you know there's there's months that you're not going to have a committee meeting why not have two board members why not do it not a lot of discussion altogether so then you know where everybody is coming from that would be my suggestion thank you thank you for your suggestion is there any other member of the public wishing to speak actually I'm sorry we're going to an online comment Mr
070Robles yeah there's one uh so far submitted online and it's actually from Carol Ruiz our previous board member 86 South Moore Street and her post reaches reads as follows congratulations Dr saner for a super super productive 2022 year serving as the Board of Education president your diligence and discipline is exemplary it was my privilege to learn under your tutelage and I'm grateful that the Dover School Community has you in their service congratulations and thank you Kimberly Phillips Deborah Acevedo for stepping up yet again to serve our community the referendum failed to pass in large part because our our community's financial struggles and because Tim Down's newly elected board member Sandra Down's husband managed the partisan political campaign starting in the spring of 2022 that focus on spreading misinformation about the referendum including lawn signs all
071over our community calling it The Carol Ruiz tax increase I pray that the eight members of this board that truly care about our community succeed in getting our school Community the funding we need to build a new school and the addition to the high school Happy New Year thank you Mr robots is there any member of the public in person wishing to speak John caniglio 24 Teleton Road Montville first I'd like to congratulate Miss Acevedo Ms Downes and Miss Phillips for your uh for your appointments on the board of ed and thank you for taking the time to support the students and and staff of Dover Public Schools appreciate that I also like to publicly thank Dr saner for your efforts as Board of Ed president um thank you for all the time you put
072in and for practically being on stage every month and running a very um you know eloquently run meeting and everything was very respectful and uh cordial so I appreciate that and we all do thank you congratulations also to Mr Miller and Miss Mendez and uh thank you both for accepting the nominations and stepping up into these huge roles it's not easy and a lot of people would probably never have the opportunity to do this or the will to do this so we all appreciate it and we thank you for stepping up and taking on these roles it's very much appreciated thank you um I also hope you know I mentioned having a cordial and respectful environment earlier and there was a time not so long ago where we didn't have that on this board and
073uh there was there was friction at some points and bickering and back and forth and things like that and my hope is that we don't return to to those days because I think you know we have had very respectful conversations regardless if we agree or disagree we've all listened to each other very politely and nicely and I just hope that we continue to do that in this in this space because that's what makes us great listening to each other and even though your opinion may be different than somebody else you have the respect and the honor to listen to them and and kind of understand what they're saying so I hope that we can continue to do that on this board um and lastly we as a town here in Dover may not always agree
074with everything that is said or everything that the board does but I will tell you that we do at least I do and I know I could speak for all of our staff here in Dover we do appreciate you and we thank you for volunteering your time and I will have more to say next at the next meeting but I felt it was appropriate tonight for putting yourselves out there for running for these positions putting signs all over town with your name on it because that represents you and not knowing whether you're going to win a spot or lose a spot or what it's going to be and I know a lot of people would not have the courage or the guts to do that myself included I mean that's a very difficult thing to
075do so um and even the shower and Miss Laurie thank you both for your years of service here on this board and I think we all need to take take a step back sometimes and appreciate the hours and hours and efforts that you all put in thank you very much thank you Mr good evening again Susan shower 346 was Clinton Street um it was such a great meeting before that and I keep looking we are Dover all of us every single person that lives in the town of Dover supporters endorsers voters children senior citizens alumni staff everyone we are all Dover do not allow the Vengeance and vendettas of the past to taint the new opportunities that this board has to make commit commitment and connections to the community obviously the community is thirsty for
076that the community didn't deny this school district something this school board failed to prove to the community that it trusted the community so let's put that aside let's work together if we really are all Dover if we are one Dover then let's work together let's stop pointing fingers and let's stop the political invasion of this board there are so many board members that promised they were going to do that in 2016. and it kept going on and it has to stop somewhere because the division isn't working it's not obviously it's not working at all and you are losing more and more trust in the community this is a good community that supports its people it supports everybody when there is a need this community steps up and from The Young to the old they are
077all there for each other get that grasp that I've only been here for 27 years it was just 27 years on December 17th that we moved into 346 West Clinton Street I'm embedded in this community I'm not an enemy I was made out to be an enemy I'm not an enemy because I stood up for the people who were thirsty for information that obviously they did not have we didn't I didn't do this for the hell of it I didn't do this for kicks but if we continue to allow people to use this board of educations as a means of Revenge you're not going to take one step forward it's going to be the same thing Community is not dumb they see so please put it aside it's a new year it's a new board
078it's a new face this beautiful room and that sign we are Dover all of us please I I beg of you please thank you thank you Miss Tower is there any other member of the public wishing to speak Angelo Ramos 326 Washington Avenue around here to make a comment um uh just I want to congratulate the new members of the war meeting as a Mrs um say just just don't forget why you are here don't forget what the chairs are for and beside I mean always just thinking about education and just our community and our children's all our children's okay just I just stopped by to say thank you so much Mr sinner for all her great job being the president and for all the support thank you Mrs thank you is there any other
079member of the public wishing to speak Lynn Lori 10 Hillside we had one of the comments come in and in the public participation it says please be courteous and mindful mindful of the rights of others when providing comments and I believe the comment overstepped its bounds um and I don't know how you control that how you stop it but there was overstepping and a little bit of of abuse um in that statement in my opinion thank you for that okay what I forget this one again Angela Ramos I was listening the um I was listening about the community relationships you are planning to do it just just to keep in mind as well you know we we have parents we already form a group and we are just like on on the side of the
080school we don't work I mean we try to wear us with the school as much as we can sharing our are worries and everything we are Deepak we have a mission already set up too so if there's any way you want to work with us that would be great okay thank you Miss Ramos you say Deepak see z-pack is there any other member of the public wishing to speak seeing no other interest in speaking um the public participation section is now closed um are there any board members wishing to um have any discussion on anything that we just heard from the public I will say that thank you for the suggestions about our committees um uh when it comes to the two meetings a month I think that way before my time this board voted
081to be uh to act on their committees right and not a committee of the whole but certainly if any board member would like to um motion to change that that is a possibility at a future meeting so um thank you I will now entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second uh we have a motion by Mr Miller uh a second by Miss nutting um all in favor aye any opposed thank you everyone