001I call this meeting to order. At 6:00 p.m., 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 meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act. The East Rutherford Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting by having the date, time, and place thereof provided to the record in South Bergenite newspapers to have published and posted in the vestibule of the Burrow Hall and public library. Copies of agendas are available 48 hours prior to said meetings in the board of education office and are posted on the East Rutherford School website, www.erbboe.net. Uh please stand for the flag salute and remain standing for a
002moment of silence in honor of the members of our police department, fire department, first responders, and our armed forces. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. Roll call. >> Miss Caruso >> here. >> Miss Collie >> here. >> Mena is absent. Mr. Sanders >> here. >> Miss Shmley >> here. >> Mr. Banker >> here. >> And Miss Laruso >> here. Um, and can we note that um, Miss Mena has parent teacher conferences tonight and that's why she is not here. Uh, fire exits are located to the front and out to the left or the right depending on where you're sitting. Uh, school business administrators report. >>
003Thank you, Madam President. Good evening, everyone. I want to first start off by saying that the annual reorganization meeting has been changed from January 5th to January 8th, 2026. Uh sunshine notice has been sent out. So the 8th is a Thursday, the 5th was, I believe, a Monday. So we did change that. Uh I'm going to read the buildings and grounds report. As of December 5th, 2025, our custodial operations continue to run smoothly across all district buildings. The team has been staying on top of daily cleaning schedules and making sure classrooms, hallways, offices, and common areas are ready for students and staff each day. Everyone has shown great attention to detail, especially in getting instructional spaces prepared for the school year. Beyond the regular routines, the custodial staff has also been quick to respond to
004any issues that come up and helpful with school events. Their hard work and consistency keep our buildings looking good and running well. The maintenance department continues to keep up a strong pace with work orders, taking care of both preventative and corrective issues across all buildings, even with the ongoing uh I'm sorry. The team has stayed responsive and focused, making sure important building systems keep running smoothly. They've also been on top of identifying new maintenance concerns, working with vendors when needed, and tackling problems quickly to keep things safe and running without interruption. Uh we did have some special projects. There are installation of water coolers, one in this building. The other three uh will be in each school located in the nurs's office. And I want to thank Mr. Abatani and Mr. Dvichi for all their
005help. They saved us a lot of money by actually doing the work themselves. that actually instead of hiring a plumber. Uh so I want to you know publicly thank them for all their hard work in installing these water coolers. >> There's no need anymore for bottled water coming in. So that eliminated that. >> Yes. So no >> so you one one price wasn't even that much. >> So no more ready refresh. It will come at a savings to the district as we're always trying to find ways to how can we save money uh and spend wisely. this was one of those things and uh so I'm glad that we we were able to do this and and again thank you to the both of them because uh really uh their hard work and their dedication
006uh can't thank them enough. Transportation we have completed an initial interview with a p with a prospective bus driver we will be returning for a follow-up interview which they did come yesterday. We are just waiting for a driver's abstract. Uh it would be for a part-time position. Uh so that will actually fill a need that we have in this district. Uh transportation services continue to operate reliably with most routes remaining on time and experiencing minimal delays. Recent improvements in communication have further enhanced coordination among schools drivers and families. Recruitment efforts for additional drivers are ongoing to strengthen route coverage and maintain consistent service across the district. uh for Mashios the food service. So for November 2025, prepaid balances at the end of the month were a little less than $9,000 with negative balances being over
007$1,000. I encourage families and guardians if you do have a negative balance to please reach out to the schools, reach out to my office. Uh we'll work with you to to settle any outstanding uh foods balance you have. On a good note, uh the our net income did go up by a couple of thousand dollars. Right now, our net income is at the end of November 30th is $15,292.19. This is up by around $3,000 from last month. Next week, the board will be approving the monthly facility calendar. Hold on a second. for I was in the wrong one. Sorry about that folks. The monthly facility calendar for January 2026 and PF2 approval of the district use of facilities application. Finance item approval of payroll for November 2025. The bills list will be on tomorrow's agenda.
008Uh F3 and F5, uh the financial reports and the transfer reports for October 2025. F5, approval of Aiden Lou for transportation for the 2526 school year. F6 is the consultant agreement with Brown and Brown. They are our insurance broker of record. They go by calendar year, not school year. And then F7, approval of tuition, extraordinary services, contracts, and agreements for the 2526 school year. On tomorrow's agenda, you'll see F8 and F9. has to do with the fiscal year 25 audit which uh a representative I believe is uh Chris Vincy will be here on behalf of Lurch Vinci Vincy and Bliss to present the fiscal year 25 audit to the board and that concludes my report madam president >> any discussion go ahead >> about F.1 the extraordinary service contract is that Is that like a
009new placement? >> Yes, that is a new student. >> Anybody else? Nope. Okay. Uh, thank you, Mr. Varra. >> You're welcome, Madam President. >> Uh, interim superintendence report. Mr. Scarifield. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, I have a few things to report and then I have some other offag agenda items that I'll bring up. Um so next week we'll be approving the uh fire and emergency drill report. You can see that up on the screen. Um few of them are recent. I think I have one left to satisfy the month. Um we'll be approving the enrollment report. Your enrollment's up about 15 from the summer. So it's been pretty pretty static at this point. Uh next week we'll also be uh approving a uh resolution affirming uh my decision relating to an alleged uh HIV. Um
010there is a need to go into executive tonight, present another one. This way we can do the same and have two next week so they're done. Um we'll also be working with I'm going to go back. That's what happens when I go out of order. Uh then uh curriculum or approval of student field trips and requests for this year. Naturally, personnel items are the Kelly substitute list, any personnel actions that we have, approval of travel expenditures, acceptance of resignation, uh notification, um leave of absis, and I think the resignation we had one of them was, uh we approved the person and then as a um what was she a um supposed to be a replacement, but she accepted a job in another district uh tenure track. So we let her leave. Approval of a leave
011that we have going to roll down and an approval of uh academic intervention programs. Any new people coming on. So since we've met last um I did have scheduled for last Tuesday with the president and the vice president and the BA a meeting to go over next year's agenda uh next year's dates for board meetings. Um, I'm going to I'm going to use my cataract surgery Monday as my excuse for missing the meeting. I was like just Lord forgot. Totally forgot if he texts me and I don't even read text messages. I looked, oh my god. And I really wasn't prepared and I wasn't looking any good. So, I'm going to send out tomorrow if you guys arrive for Monday. We'll do it again and I won't forget. Uh, all right. Also, um I'm looking
012for March when the weather gets a little better for a walk through of Kitty Academy and we'll have a conversation before we'll do it before a board meeting or something like that. I'll try to schedule it so it um it's, you know, convenient, but they're pretty um open to uh having us over. So, that'll be good. Um just so you know, I sent this email out the other day and I'll read it. And I said as uh this went to uh Colstat and Wellington superintendent and I asked them I said as we enter the budget season I believe it would be beneficial for our neighboring districts to engage in a collaborative discussion regarding in district special ed programming. If you're interested I'd like to convene a meeting in early January with the respective special ed
013directors supervisors and superintendents to explore potential flexibility within our current offerings. Our goal would be to determine whether there are opportunities to reduce out of district expenditures by working together whether through the development of new programs, the alignment of sharing of existing services or other collaborative approaches that might help us mitigate the rising costs of out of district uh placements. If you're interested in participating, feel free to reply at your convenience. I'd be happy to host this meeting in East Rutherford in early January. Look forward to hearing from you. I got a interested from Wington and um also from Colstat. So we're going to sit down and see if we can mix and match or if we're duplicating services perhaps, you know, rather than sending a kid somewhere else for a big number, we can
014just work it out amongst ourselves. Could do it a lot of different ways. We could either look at what our costs are, what their costs are, and just pay the difference. We can just send them there. They can send them to us. See how it works out. But I think we have to start exploring those kind of things in order for us to uh you know save the pennies that we have to. And then I'm also going to meet uh the 8th uh which is a uh professional development day. I'm going to meet in the morning with the uh district principles secretaries to kind of devise a plan for re-registration for this year. Um, I got to ask them because they're the ones on the front line and they probably have some good ideas on
015how to do it so we could do it efficiently, effectively, and really put an end date to it and then, you know, we don't have to chase people down. But it's time that we really do a comprehensive uh look to see what we have here. Um, you know, we do have a system in place where we have uh when leases expire expire, the secretaries get a blurb, but you know, we're getting a lot of people that are really pushing back and I'm I'm starting to think that things aren't right. So, I think that's the way to go. Otherwise, that's all I have in my report. If anyone has any questions, >> thank you. >> I do have one question. um I emit because about the resignation >> but you explained that it's um was a
016maternity leave replacement whatever but we had implemented in the past or tried to implement in the past um like an exit interview to find out why people are we still doing those exit interviews >> I believe they're current employees yes but this one >> wasn't right >> right right this one was um knew that there was a possibility because she told us that she was up for a job at a tenure track, but we wanted to fill a position because if it didn't work out, we had her. But then what she told us, we said, "How the heck can't hold her?" But I believe that is happening. >> Okay. Yep. Okay. >> Thank you. Any other discussion? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Scarfield. Um, any old business? Oh, I didn't open to the public. I'm sorry.
017>> Sorry, public. Um, actually, no, that's later. Sorry. Old business, new business. Um, I go ahead. >> I'll do it now. I guess I could have done it next week, but um I went to the um I guess the National Honor Society went and decorated the tree um up at Vanson Park, the winter wonderland. It was a lovely event. I mean, it was a little chilly and windy, but they did a really It was a lot of chilly. They did it was it was very nice. Uh well attended by students and some staff members. So, it was very it was very nice. It was a nice event. That's what I like to hear. They enjoyed it. >> Thank you. >> I had the opportunity last night to attend the um second grade holiday concert >>
018show. Um so kudos to Miss Hernandez and the second grade team. They did an awesome job. We have some really talented kids here in this district, I will say. Um they did a really a really nice job. So >> nice. >> So I mean I couldn't go anywhere. I had parent teacher conferences that night, last night, but I saw like the things were out uh for the crossing and is there a way like I know we've talked about it before, but I didn't know, >> right? I didn't know about >> I only knew about it cuz my daughter's in second grade. >> Right. I know. I know. >> I knew. But >> I don't feel like we get all the >> Yeah. >> from all the schools >> cuz Yeah. I had no idea that
019>> because their shows are really really like this. I went to the spring one last year and it was amaz like it was great. >> Yeah. So >> I'll make sure they can get that come out in the school report from the previous month. >> Yeah. >> Fast, right? >> Yeah, we know about fast. Yes. >> We did. Yes, we got a letter. >> So maybe like I know Mr. and uh Mrs. Schwiker, they always send us an invite. So maybe like the other they can send us >> the music teachers could just send us an like it doesn't even have to be a letter. Like it doesn't have to be a letter. Like it could be just like an email that sends an >> email like that. >> Um >> do we do any
020community blasts at all like through I know we can't do it through Genesis. What are we using now for >> parent square? >> Yes. >> Do they have the option for like community that sign up who's ever in our system like we could do it that way? You put a even an email or a text you can send out. You didn't want to do an actual call, but you can do that and say, "Hey, show up to the thing. Maybe we got to use that more." >> Yeah. >> So everybody gets it. I I wrote I wrote it down. >> Um I also have I was also given some good news. I like to like um a friend of mine in Carlat was on a field trip and one of our bus drivers. Am I
021allowed to because it's a positive thing. Am I allowed to say his name or no? >> Um yeah. Well, we're not going to be discussing it if you're just making a positive statement. >> Yeah, a positive statement. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, so Brian the bus driver showed up and his bus was all decorated and festive and the he had a playlist ready for the kids to listen to on the ride down. Um, I was told how professional he was. They had these big coolers for their lunches and stuff and how helpful he was loading and unloading the bus for everybody. Um it was just very nice to hear something positive um from somebody from another town about their experience with our buses. >> He takes pride because he made sure he showed me pictures and
022then >> took me in the bus >> to see it live. if I saw the lights >> and he said she said there was like the kids made decorations for the bus and it was they she said it was very cute and you know it was very nice. So I just want to give kudos to to Brian. So >> I I just I popped into the uh tree lighting the other night and it it did a nice job. It wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be unless I was dressed right, but I was really impressed. No, it wasn't too bad. Like the wind wasn't really blowing, but I mean they and they they did it actually earlier because I was told that it was like 8 to 8:30. That's when they
023light the tree. But they must have done it about4 to 7. I that's what I was told. But see, maybe they didn't want me there. >> Maybe I thought it was a little past there. I was there for only about 10:15. >> Yes. >> And I had to leave. >> Yeah. They did it around 6:30, 6:45. >> Yeah. About 6:45. Yeah. >> Yeah. But maybe they wanted the people who go to the inside. The inside was packed. I mean, >> yeah. >> Did a nice job with all of that though. It was very nice. >> Very nice. >> Okay. Anybody else? No. Okay. Um, at this time, um, motion. Oh, no. Now I have to open to the hearing of the citizens. Okay. At this time, I'll open to the hearing of the citizens. Anyone
024wishing to speak will be given the opportunity to do so. Anybody? Okay. I will close to the hearing of the citizens. This time we'll adjourn to executive session. Resolve that in accordance with section 8 of the open public meeting act chapter 231, the board has the authority to adjourn to close session to discuss matters pertaining to legal personnel negotiations, attorney client privilege, andor student matters. said matters will be made available upon determination by the board that the disclosure of the minutes will not detrimentally affect any right or interest of the board. The board expects to return to the business portion of the meeting in approximately >> 20 to 30. >> Yeah, >> I got an HIV. He's got one thing. >> All right. >> 20 on the short end. >> There's no action. >> Yeah,
025there's no action. Yeah. >> Okay. 20 minutes. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. See everybody in 20 minutes. I need a motion to return to the regular order of business. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Uh, next board of education meeting will be held on Thursday, December 18th at 6:00 p.m. Motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Meeting adjourned.