001all right meeting starts at 606 pm the New Jersey open Public's meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies in which any business affecting their interest is discussed are acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the ACT East Rutherford board of education has caused the notice of this meeting by having the date time and place thereof provided to the record in South bargain newspapers and to have published and post it in the vestibule of the Borough Hall and Public Library copies of agendas are available 48 hours prior to send meetings in the board of education office and are posted for on the east Rutherford school website now if you could please stand to salute the flag of a
002moment of silence for our police armed forces and firefighters thank you roll call I can do it uh Mr Banker here um here Russo here I'm the schemley here bartan yeah president segalini here uh fire exits behind me to the audience is right my left and then straight through to the audience left my right all right uh you're gonna take care of the superintendent report and the school business administrator report cool hey you're good all right okay thank you president signaling so just on behalf of the school business admission administrator uh currently right now all buildings and grounds are getting ready for the welcome of our students and staff currently we are working with topco which is finalizing all of our punch list items that we have we have a meeting planned for the latter
003part of next week Mr Coleman will be present there along with topco to finalize anything that's still outstanding we were able to take a huge chunk off of the listing our punch list items so that we're getting closer and closer to a closure uh we're hoping at this meeting that we can close everything out um so that we are done with construction that's where we are with that um currently right now our supervisor of abilities and grounds our new buildings and ground supervisors doing a really really nice job acclimating himself to the to the uh District working with our custodial team and maintenance team doing a really really nice job um as the board had uh charged me to do is to make sure that we protect our 35 million dollar investment here so that
004we no longer have to see a referendum that High um uh in the in the future So currently right now I've been working along with the business administrator um I know business adistry has been working along with me and um our supervisor of buildings and grounds and we're looking at maintenance plans um that will come out so currently right now we're looking at DNB Service Group the maintenance program a proposal that we have out there they are a national Co-op and they would be handling all of our mechanical repairs and they will do all of our controls they'll work with our controls so that's one and they'll handle all of our HVAC uh for our all of our buildings and our service plan and we have to look at a number of the amount of
005money that we have to look at has to stay within the threshold otherwise we're going to have to go out to bid on that but they are a national Co-op so we would have to follow the national Co-op bidding laws that are there so that's one thing DNB so you'll see that very shortly um the other thing is a maintenance program through JC JSC and that handles all of the control piece of it the mechanisms in that control all of the maintenance programs uh like all of our boilers our stand-up units all those things approximately about seven thousand dollars is what we're looking at um the more that's like a six month program if we extend the six-month program to a 12 month or a two year the number goes down um so I will
006have those figures for you or uh Mr varache will have those figures finger figures for you at the next board meeting one of the things just wanted to bring up to the board uh that the buildings and ground supervisor had if you remember can't remember what board member it was that was concerned about dumpsters that were put outside of foul School the look of it right so we're trying to make beautify it a little bit I think we were they were there for years right but that was really the only place that we had um So currently right now we're looking at a 10 by 10 or 10 by 20. um nicer unit because right now we're having a lot of our snow blowers our lawn mowers all the things are just out and have
007they're blanketed with like a tarp it's just not a good way to save on our investments you know to look at so we're looking at a place to place it um that would be one and try to move it um later on this evening with advice of council regarding possible land acquisition I want to talk to you about possibility of planting some these these um storage areas or containers containers in another area of East Rutherford so I'll Enlighten all of the board members about that when we go into executive session um just to get some information from uh legal on those matters um currently right now we have our buildings and grounds uh supervisor just received certificate certification um that I know the board members were looking at which was the office of school facilities
008and planning which we now have that was a concern of the board um it's been it's really been a a great couple of months here the last two months have been really wonderful we've been getting a lot of positive feedback from our custodial team um as well as our maintenance team um we're looking currently right now at supplies that have been ordered in the past making sure that we're not overspending on over utilizing some of these materials that we have we found a stockpile of stuff that we have to go through before we order anything else one of the things that we're also looking at is any kind of supplies that are coming into the district instead of one Hub like foul school and then all the schools coming in and grabbing we're able to
009look at it and now each of the schools will be receiving their own supplies it's evil it's easier for us to see you know we can control what's being ordered that way and what's being utilized then in just one place and everybody pulling one of the other things that we're looking to do is that instead of going out I know the board's concern was always going out to fix things right going out going out going out spending money to fix things now we're looking as we're purchasing items and tools and supplies that we have here so that we have almost like a little Home Depot almost Lowe's here within the district that are our maintenance team can go to instead of leaving the district going to get stuff or having outside vendors coming in to
010fix things so again we could only fix things that were legally able to fix because if we don't have a plumbing license or electrical license we cannot touch any of those things but the things the day-to-day things that we can do now we're going to be building a stockpile of stuff that we can now utilize so it's really been great it's been a breath of fresh air so that's all I have for the business administrators report can I just make a comment sure um Mr G I appreciate the abilities and grounds supervisor uh attaching a report every month yes that was something I had asked because if you remember the board wanted that so that you know what's going on specifically from month to month so if anything has to be tweaked we have it
011yes I really appreciate that no you're more than welcome flip-flop all right yeah change that okay all right so McKenzie school we are steady at 362 students up one foul School 224 were up for students in Lincoln we are down one uh so it's a total of 736 students up five students all together um our fire drills and security drills we did not have to do because we had no students in the building uh for the month of August but we did finalize that for the month of July there are no HIV investigations of course referendum I just reported out that we're on our final stages um superintendent presentation piece of it is back to school are welcome back for our teachers is going to be on Tuesday September 5th all um I want to
012publicly thank our um our heads of associations for the Teachers Association as well as the administrative Association as well as the custodial Association to getting it for getting a jump start on the safe School Vector program training because when student when teachers come back they only have three weeks to do all of these mandated um trainings so I launched it back in July with the approval of the association presidents they were all happy about it I can proudly say that we're done about 80 percent are done so we only have about 20 of the teachers that have to just finalize the last couple of things so we're done because you know we are under Cusack um and one of the things is making sure that we have everything done by September 30th of the current
013school year that we're in so that's really good uh building a master schedule they are all done I did send out my communication to all parents um in the district which I'm sure if you all received if you're on Genesis um with a little piece that says that the building principles will be sending out all of their schedules next week um once parents fulfilled their obligation of signing off on all the stuff they will get their children's um schedule uh we're really adamant about that making sure they're filling out all of the necessary paperwork um it's really important that we have all those things for free and reduced lunch applications are all filled out um we're currently that's huge it's big it's a lot yeah yes well here's the thing the reason why imagine no
014no you're you're I'm glad you said it because you beat me to it I was going to say it um the reason why we did that was because we found about 30 to 40 parents that were eligible for free and reduced lunch that didn't fill it out and checked opt out so to protect our parents and that they didn't know about it and I think you know about it because you're an educator so you get it um so sometimes what happens is a lot of the parents didn't know about it and you know we do as you know we do have high costs with our mastios bills not being paid parents not you know fulfilling their obligation of paying for their children's lunch and our and our and our skyrocketing costs of you know uh
015Food Services through the roof and it's very hard to collect from students especially if they're 8th graders now ninth graders now the parents have left the district and have outstanding debt um so we're trying to minimize that but also give the parents what they deserve they need to know that hey look I am eligible for free and reduced lunch you know but so what we did was we had about a handful of parents just recently about five parents um we wrote a script that all the secretarial staff could read parents were very appreciative of like oh my goodness I thought that we'd have to put that down if we weren't like you said eligible for our check zero right check that we didn't want it uh parents were putting down zero just zero and they
016didn't realize that they had to do that so that's what we're doing for this year we're trying to tighten ship up tighten the ship up a little bit because again like we said we had a lot of parents that you know couldn't afford it could not afford it and we wanted to make sure that they if they were eligible that they can you know to reap the benefits of a free and reduced program uh uh a couple Pages it's not that but it's a couple things should take you about five minutes it should take you about five minutes to complete um Master schedules I said cue stack preparations we started Cusack preparations at the end of the school year last year in June uh we're working on this right now each of us have a
017different component um to make sure that we are passing Cusack we were high performing we are very hopeful that we will continue to be high performing and pass um one of the big components is instruction and programming that's one of the big things um we are partners with our county office they have been great uh keeping us informed of what we need to do if there's something in the district that we are unsure of all the administration knows that they just pick up that phone they call the county office and they will school us on what we need to do so that when we are in a situation such as Cusack we pass it with flying colors so that's to come um November I have to submit to the county office the declaration page which
018has all of our dprs and all the five areas that we are evaluated in then at that point Accounting Office will then give us a date but when they come most likely anywhere from January to March is when they can come um me uh Miss King Dobson uh Mr varachi and buildings and grounds will be and Mrs zelinski will be attending a training uh on on Wednesday the 29th at the County office uh all school districts that are going to be cusacked uh or go for a training to making sure that we when they come here they're ready to go I'm all I I'm ahead of it I already set up electronic folders all I have to do is just give the county office acceptance so they can go in they can start looking even
019before they come just like I do with my evaluation I give the board heads up you can go in earlier to start looking and it's nice because if there's something that we have to do or we fell short they can just get Hey listen you didn't upload this or you didn't do that so it gives us a nice little uh an opportunity to communicate with the county office uh long range facility plan So currently right now long range facility plan is is is being looked at with the Cara Rubino we put everything in there we looked at the rod grants that we can get monies we are eligible for funding which is great uh which is great parents to know that we have some funding that we could get um also with some potential land
020Building acquisition which we'll talk about in exec uh this evening which will be a brief time uh let's see foul School uh we took care of foul School McKenzie school handbooks and code of conduct were all approved for the 23-24 school year which all the board members did receive code of conduct I want to thank Mrs barely for working with her staff on our um our restorative justice uh that we're working on we're launching that at the middle school and trickle down to the elementary level so they're working hard on that um we had a successful esy summer academic enrichment Camp uh this school year which is trying to close the achievement Gap um boy trustee Larusso you brought to me I brought me up to par on just what she had seen regarding um
021science literacy and science as well as grant opportunities that are out there the State Department of Education is uh putting about 52 million dollars into grants which we're trying to take advantage of again to try to do some tutoring they're starting to look at the four or five building which you remember you're headed to cutting it you're cutting edge here remember we never had a four or five intermediate true intermediate so that's what they're looking at is the preschool three four five intermediate and then middle school so we are Cutting Edge so which is really really nice technology uh we're finalizing all of our technology at the board office as well as foul School Lincoln and McKenzie so right now I was hopeful that we have our technology up here I think we're gonna have
022technology tonight uh they're working with the board offices tomorrow so we'll be virtual tomorrow um not for students just for staff so that we can get that up Saturday will be a spillover um so they will be here um to finalize anything here at Faust Lincoln School and the board offices to make sure that we're up and running if we remember the Aruba is called the Aruba technology pieces zero you're in yours it's the switches thank you I just want to make sure you got Aruba is to correct we had a makeshift kind of thing like a temporary one because we didn't have it but we wanted to open schools up on time last year so we had to put temporary ones in until the final ones came in they're in they're installing them as
023well as 800 Chromebooks uh which are being done so that we can have them for the first day of school so I want to thank Ciro lukash Peter velardi um and we also are having a temp come in a intern coming in to assist us next week um so I want to thank Bergen tech for assisting us we're trying to get all this launched before the first day of school I think I'm almost done Mr President sorry here sorry so it's it's we do a lot of work in the summer it's crazy um had buildings and grounds um yes the other piece is part of my report so all new cleaning protocol for the Board of Education offices have been done Boiler Room replacement project is ongoing and which will be running until October emergency
024lighting replacement is being done painting of 12 classrooms and four bathrooms at McKenzie school is being taken care of the uh the placement of um stickers in certain Pro regression areas are being put in air all of the gym floors have been resurfaced at McKenzie school Lincoln School and here at Faust School keep saying here next door about school uh are being done um special education business so total of 127 students special education down one student uh in District 114 down two students and out of District Seven were up two we're up two students um but there are two students that were looking to bring back to District again uh curriculum that's it that's all I have all right sorry about that lengthy oh you're good you're good uh any questions for Mr Gene Castro
025gee I'm just thinking on the one oh one thing we I was looking at what are Serenity stickers or maybe mental health Wellness is that what that is yeah yeah I'm I'm asking that's it because I I saw it in there I saw it in the report I guess in the August report Serenity stickers okay very good one I think I'm sorry sorry we said it was gonna be a quick warming right now I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I know I know I just saw just the board is approving just so you know what you're approving oh real quick is I know that you all wanted this so I worked hard with the um with the supervisor of buildings and grounds so we now have first ever custodial manual you're approving this
026this is something that you wanted um this will definitely be part of my value you should the end of the year that you wanted but it's here as well as the maintenance manual so now we have something so that it doesn't matter whoever sits in your seats whoever sits in this seat whoever sits to the supervisor seats will have as a Bible right so something that's very reflective practice so you just got to give us some time it's little baby steps for the custodial team and maintenance team to get a handle on and understand but we're working with them professional development will be given to them it will all be set so I can assure you of that but so it's it's done for you who owns the Board of Education no no who's responsibility
027centered they're updated every year every single will be the buildings and ground supervisor will then give it to Alex and then overall I sign off on it and then you'll be approving them yearly annually if there's any changes yeah yeah exactly I'm just pointing out that they're done they're here we also wait 15 more years for the updates they're done thank you Mr Gene Castro right now I'll open the hearing to the hearing of citizens for agenda items only I'm opening public comments on any agenda item please address the board president each person wishing despite speak will have five minutes each anyone wish to speak we'll be given the opportunity to do so state your name and sign in foreign seeing none I closed the hearing on the agenda items only correspondence uh the email
028for Mr Drummond with regret resigning from the board the Board of Education we thank you for his time in the service for the board and wish him the best in his future endeavors so thank you Mr Drummond okay adoption of Prior board meeting minutes yeah we need a motion in a second I'll move it okay uh yes uh Miss Caruso yes um Mr Larusso yes uh Miss schemley all right okay I'm on both meetings okay uh Mr Vartan yes yes I'll abstain from both as well both okay I had I had a thing all right motion carries all right superintendent resolutions can I get a motion on S1 and S2 second hold on one second uh moved by Aaron and seconded by Gina second okay uh Mr Banker yes uh Miss Caruso Russo yes Miss
029schemley Mr Vartan Mr segaline yes curriculum committee machinley okay upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motion C1 through C10 C1 approval of the board goals for the 2023 and 2024 school year C2 approval of the East Rutherford school district mission statement and District goals for the 2023-2024 school year C3 approval of the school Improvement panel committees uh for the 2023-2024 school year approval of the district evaluation advisory committee for the 2023-2024 school year C5 approval of the affirmative action team to conduct a needs assessment and development of comprehensive Equity plan C6 approval of Transportation requests for students C7 approval of the school-based behavioral threat assessment management team for the 2023-2024 school year C8 approval of the East Rutherford professional development plan statement of assurance and East Rutherford school mentoring plan statement
030of assurance for the 2023-2024 school year C9 approval of the transportation request from the boroughs of East Rutherford and Carlstadt and C10 approval of the revised curricula for the 2023-2024 school year as before you can get a second second any comment I just want to just need a clarification for the board before you vote you know exactly what you're voting on so you're going to see it on the curriculum and you're also going to see it under CR CR community relations this is a new uh policy that's set by the Department of Education called school threat assessment team so just so you know the purpose of this threat team is to provide School teachers administrators and other staff with assistance in identifying students uh of concern assessing student risk for engaging in violence or other
031harmful activities delivering invest in interventions strategies to manage their risk and to ensure safe and and secure protocols for those students during any type of learning experience so it's very similar to our other teams that we have but this is a very specific team and this is the first time that this board will be approving this type of policy as well as team just so you know okay um question who sits on this team it's on the agenda the only person that's absent of that is me because it has if there's a situation it has to be elevated to me so I can make a final decision so building principles just give it building principles as a school nurse it's the child study team with the psychologists social workers get this t-shirt yep uh well
032there's a teacher hold on I don't have it in front of me yep the police department correct real quick uh there was not because the recommendation was that there was not a teacher on there I can check it out and I will get back to you uh I'll make it back to you on that but I don't believe that the teacher was one of the titles that needed to be on the team but I'll go check it out for you and I'll get back to you this Aaron schemley even if there's not should there be a benefit I think so because I could put I could put the president yeah I could put the president of the association as the overall one and see if he would want to do it so it's an overall
033one for the old teachers yeah yeah just so that there's a yeah sure not a problem um and we I know he's going to say yes can I embed that as a walk-on put this person's name on their set promotion or we can amend this smoke which would be a motion to amend ment I know he will I know 100 because he's done it for our crisis team so it's not it's not a it's a no-brainer really it's just how you want to proceed with it whichever you want it can I get a motion to amend at uh Corey yeah Corey selson yeah second is it all in favor uh yeah uh Aaron and uh Gina one second okay yeah this is just on the amendment thank you no opposed you have a question on
034C10 uh the revised curriculum that's only on these bulleted items correct there's no no other revisions no there's gonna just right now just so you know the state is looking to revise the reading probably our teachers know this reading and math and they're looking to do this on the same time which is just a lot oh you said it not me but it's just it's just a lot it's a lot but we haven't received anything yet but we're hearing that it's math and language because again one is leveraging literacy which just came out which I'm sure you saw this and the other one is science of reading the redefine redefining reading so I will let you know it's called New Jersey can v-a-n well now well there's some massive emphasis on the literacy because yep
035yep yes yes yes not yep yes any other questions on Purdue comments concerned all right so now we need to do a vote on C1 through C10 with C5 as amended C7 as amended okay Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes uh Ms Larusso yes Miss schemley yes yes thank you thank you miss Emily Personnel committee Miss Caruso thank you Mr President upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves P1 approved Kelly's education substitute list P2 approval of travel expenditures P3 Personnel actions P4 approval of Faculty manual for the 2023-2024 school year P5 acceptance of resignation notification of Anthony with regret P6 approval of job description for the school supervisor of instruction can I ask that yes remember one of the questions I'm not sure if it was you Maria or not it was
036the evaluations of Supervisors of instruction so in order for us to fully evaluate we need a job description right so that we're we're evaluating on the elements of their description right the job description so for the existing people the existing people I had to say no no no no no no no yeah oh I think I know what you think you're thinking that we're going to go out and look yes no no no yes yeah I thought and the reason why is because it gives us a little bit more leverage because again it's just like we want to hold people accountable but we don't want to surprise them right so what we want to do is we're saying here's your job description here's what you're held accountable for and then how we're going to evaluate
037so we just want to make sure it's fair across the board for all three yeah yep so once your board approves this that because really technically the the job description is the superintendent the Ba's right but we we have since I've been here the board approves all job descriptions which is great so you guys are aware of it so this will allow me to then evaluate accordingly with those three individuals correct and they'll have a copy of this job description as of tomorrow and uh p7 acceptance of retirement notification for Alfonso afraida with much much better we just publicly I'd like to wish him well he will definitely be missed the children will miss him he's uh diamond in the rough so God bless him and his family and I wish him well all right
038exactly the motion any other comments a person who moves in second I'm sorry we didn't no no no well Maria is the motion I'm yeah second okay all right so excited to ask questions any other comments on that I just do have one other thing to take care of two birds with one stone here um just before you so this has to do with personality so you understand um there is a policy 1642.01 which is going to be before you this evening this is brand new you probably heard about the sick leave but they're able to use sick leave right yeah so it's good stuff um just so what you're approving just so I can just spend a couple of seconds if you don't mind Mr President I know so I just want to make
039sure that I want the board to be very clear on what you're saying yes to okay so what I did was as a safeguard which I will always do is follow the statutory regulation and that's much with to policies as Strauss Esme puts them together I always like to align if they give us options I always like to go with the option that's closest to the regulation and the closest bathroom I just feel like there's a safeguard there for me you know and I feel that and after I reviewed it with the business administrator and the administrator Administration the second emotion right so the first option is foreseeable leave so if the staff member sees this coming if an employee needs to use sick leave as defined under the title 18a above is foreseeable the
040board may require advance notice not to exceed seven calendar days okay seven calendar days prior to the date of the leave is to begin or the intention to use the leave and its expected duration that the employee shall make a reasonable effort to schedule the use of sick leave in a manner that does not disrupt the education of the students and I have to tell you all of our staff members do that they're fantastic they will always try to work with the administration on when they can take off when it's foreseeable okay when it's foreseeable so that's the first part that's going to be C 0.2.1 it's option one okay the next one is lead that is not foreseeable it's an emergent situation so that again for the reason for the leave is not foreseeable
041the Board of Education again may require an employee to give notice of the intention as soon as practical practicable practical right provided the board of education has been no has notified the employee of this requirement that's just human nature to do the right thing right the next piece is um in case now the C1 C4 and C5 so all of them are under the regulation not the policies the regulation so in case of sick leave claim due to personal illness or injury the Board of Education may require a physician certificate just like you do now right same exact thing uh which will be filed with the secretary which will be Alex board secretary C4 states that the board May prohibit any employee for using unforeseeable sick leave on certain dates and require reasonable documentation if
042sick that is not foreseeable is during any of those lost dates so so for instance if if somebody if a staff member is using unforeseeable sick and then all of a sudden changes it right that's what it's saying right seeing it but they need to have it's got to have reasonable documentation so in all three of these as long as the board at any time can ask for a physician certificate or some kind of reasonable documentation that's what we're going to ask for across the board um and same thing with uh this the last piece is C5 in case sick leave claim for three or more consecutive days the board may ask for reasonable documentation just like if you're sick three days in a row the administration can say I need a sick note okay
043I think that was it yes yep that's it so that's what you're going to be approving as CR uh two okay you said could you ask for a sick note may may ask and what is the policy that we actually do we do it on three no I mean it says May so I mean I mean what what will you do going forward we'll always do we'll require it for three days we'll keep it consistent with everything else because if we do three here and in five years it'll be the same three yep okay yep absolutely okay no we got a vote on it still okay uh this is on P1 through p7 all right and we had the motion in a second Mr Banker yes uh Miss Caruso yes Ms Larusso yes Miss shemley
044Mr Vartan Mr segaline yes and that ends my report Mr President thank you Miss Caruso physical facilities committee Mr Vartan [Music] bus routes District bus stops 23 24 20th three F3 approval of distribution of facilities applications team F4 approval of industry for school districts maintenance manual for this one against hiring course leader we have that yet um yeah and get the physical population hey you know as soon as possible yeah oh absolutely they're going to know exactly and if you know if you notice pf1 has the reasons why we're officially because remember we're courtesy buses we do not have to happen except for you know Monarch further one or special education right because they're close proximity um but the bus stops have all been approved and they're they're good and all also remember the situation
045that we have when we were in St Mary's um situation in St Mary's that they will be on the buses there will be the the stop the color just like we did for Mr Barrow's building and the number for Lincoln School and McKenzie but yes parents will know their bus stops uh right now we're currently looking for bus drivers we are again so everybody knows we're utilizing some of our maintenance people to use that until we can find somebody that will do bussing because remember busing is part time not full-time so active negotiations yes I wish it could be more promising but second any questions comments yeah there has to be a change we could just make a as pf5 should be approval of East Rutherford school district custodial and maintenance manual oh also there's
046it's the maintenance manual on that yeah oh sorry my fault yeah my apologies yeah yep okay custodian or custodial custodial or custodian custodian any other questions comments all right roll call all right Mr Banco yes Miss Caruso Ms Larusso yes Miss shamley yes Mr Vartan yes Mr segolini yes that is very important thank you Mr Vartan committee Relations Committee Mr Russo thank you on the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motion's cr1 to cr3 cr1 accept the resignation of East Rutherford board mem Board of Education member again with regret CR2 approval of authorized post for the vacancy of the East Rutherford Board of Education member seat um I'm just going to read that one so that yeah yeah the information is out there a motion to approve authorized post notice on the east
047Rutherford Board of Education School website and in East Rutherford Borough Hall the vacancy of the board of education for residents from the borough of East Rutherford to submit in writing their letter of interest by September 8th 2023 at 12 pm to Alessandro varachi board secretary in filling the unexpired term through January 3rd 2025 of resigned Board of Ed member Orville Drummond as stated in policy zero one four three and cr3 waiving the requirements for two readings and approving new policy and regulation number 1642.01 sick leave a new policy number 2419 and regulation number 2419 school threat assessment teams on a single reading okay a second and I will once again State September 8th 12 p.m September 8th 12 p.m uh email it says a letter email works yes so anybody that wants to see it
048September 8th 12 p.m deadline to have your letter of interest in it is a approval so you'll have an interview with the board and then we would approve one of those member one of those people who interviews to come and join us it's not an elected uh seat um any other questions the term it serves for one full year yeah sorry more it goes through the expiration system yeah expiration is term of one year yeah exactly because yeah because his resignation was after the um the petition date therefore right it would fall on next year but that would be already his extra right so and the board understands cr3 the reason why you were waving too you're going to approve it so it automatically becomes policy and regulation as of tomorrow yes okay make sense
049okay anyone have any other questions comments September 8th 12 P.M 1201 no 12 p.m all right roll call all right Mr Banco yes Miss Caruso yes Miss Larusso yes Miss schemley yes yes thank you Mr Russo finance committee Mr Banker thank you Mr President uh upon the recommendation the superintendent the board hereby approves motions F1 through F12 F1 approval of bills list F2 approval of payroll for July 2023 F3 approval of East Rutherford purchasing manual for 2023-2024 school year F4 approval of the East Rutherford standard operation operating process manual for the 2023-2024 school year F5 approval of rethink Ed program for the 2023-2024 school year F6 approval or Workshop conference attendance and reimbursements a related travel expenses for the 2023-2024 school year F7 approval of submission to the school's security Grant f8 approval of added
050District tuition contract extraordinary services for the 2023-2024 school year F9 approval of revised Professional Services agreement with Preferred Home Care and nursing services F10 Award of extraordinary unspecifiable Services f11 approval of preliminary Financial reports for June 2023 of 12 approval of preliminary transfer report for June 2023 a second any questions or comments seeing non-roll call Mr Bank of yes Ms Caruso yes Miss Larusso yes schemley yes savartan yes segolini yes okay I'm gonna need a motion for the two addendum items p2a approval travel expenditures and p3a personal actions so moved a second seconded and this is PF p2a p3a into a p three a any questions or comments seeing none roll call okay Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes uh Miss Larusso yes Miss shemley yes Mr Vartan Mr segolini yes any old business old
051business yes um just a follow-up to um Miss Breen who is here at the last meeting when she was asking about the um user-friendly budget I did some research and it wasn't necessarily their presentation she was looking at what she sees every month is their published bills list so the mayor and Council uh publish their bills list so she can see that they purchased the hose at Home Depot for thirty dollars she can see that they purchased paper for 25 you know I don't is that something that we'd be interested in doing or we we make it yeah I as part of the minutes have it have it as a PDF right we have we can't make it part of the agenda because we have to approve it but as part of the minutes I
052believe we can if it's possible technically we don't have to we what we're doing currently is what's mandated that we do it's up to the board that would have to make that decision I can't make that decision right yeah he just yeah he just he just makes it runs by me again so sorry yeah the bills list on the agenda obviously we approve the building I believe we make it accessible in the board office if anyone wants to come correct um but we don't publish it as part as a PDS indeed minutes right that Borough publishes it as a PDF in the in there actually it's part of like if you look at the thing it's actually part of the agenda you see yeah it's just the whole thing can be put up I just
053want to make sure there's no like no no account numbers or anything like that on there oh okay oh yeah we may need to that's fair we made I suspect it's probably something we can just publish yeah no but just like I said for clarification it wasn't necessarily their presentation that she because she came to criticize our presentation it wasn't our presentation if that they're publishing their actual bills list every month and that's what she was inquiring about yeah someone opens it they're going to get it yeah as long as there's no you know like I said I don't ever is if we sanitize it make sure it's sanitized and then okay we can we can see what the effort would be at least yeah let's investigate what the effort would be yeah and then
054if it's minimal effort to you know to make it happen yeah yeah exactly no 100 yeah right ideally if if we can use the same PDF or he can click two buttons and get up or someone can click and get a PDF and put up it makes sense for transparency to have those lists up there good okay thank you that's all thank you any other old business any new business nope okay uh now I'm going to open to the public on uh on anything on any agenda or non-agenda item please address the board president each person with each person wishing to speak will have five minutes each anyone wishing to speak will be given the opportunity to do so please state your name and sign in if you haven't already signed it and thank you
055for appreciate the waiting I think we did do that yeah oh wait no this was not this is a walk-on Tom this is the walk-on one oh I thought PF oh I'm sorry this is yeah so what so okay yeah we could do it yeah yeah you've waited long enough say your name Doreen Kirchoff I live at 13 Grant Street um I want to first of all like I did last time say thank you to the board members that voted no to go back to the drawing board on the new curriculum we're continuously hearing words from the board and the whole District about transparency and accountability I want to know who on the board was okay with the banner of sexuality being displayed in our schools as parents and residents we need to know because
056we're the ones that are voting for these board members because you guys weren't transparent you did it behind our backs we found out about it through loopholes if you were transparent we would have been aware of it prior to it being in our hallway for our young children I have nothing against the lgbtq community period end of story I have friends I have family that I love dearly that are part of that Community my problem is my seven-year-old doesn't need to know about sexuality so I want to know who was okay with that so I'm aware when I'm voting in the future um at the last meeting I request a compromise for you to do your jobs as adults considering that's what we're cheat we're teaching our children at home and again we are not
057okay not everybody in the community is okay with you robbing our children of their innocence and exposing them to sexuality I said last time there's a time and a place elementary school simply just not it um I also want a copy of the lessons when they're going to be taught so if you're not going to compromise with us then we know that we need to have a further discussion with our Childs on that specific day on what they were taught so I want the lessons and I want to know when it is being taught to hold you to your transparency and accountability but I really would like to know what you have come up with in reference with that Banner because clearly it wasn't a big hit there are a lot of other parents that
058I know would love to be here but it is the end of the summer they're on vacation they have sport obligations other family obligations I am only here to speak for myself and other parents that I know that are unable to be here I'm keeping it simple not a five minute thing but I want transparency and accountability uh thank you for your comment first I'm just going to dress head on votes are not taking an executive session there are no votes in executive session all votes all decisions must be made in public right so I I want to address ahead on beyond beyond that beyond that uh I I'm gonna fall back on our our comments our our letter that we sent to I Believe Miss maina and a bunch of other residents right we're
059we're standing we're standing firm on the comments that we made furthermore the New Jersey Department of Education and the Attorney General of New Jersey have taken a public stance on this right and they begin they've begun to take action against districts right based on these based on these items that having said that right I'm leaving the comment as well we had said previously okay be um you had you had asked about curriculum and and classes and sure you can jump in Miss Kershaw right okay so real quick so were you at the we had a um meeting of parents a parental meeting about the curriculum that was being taught over a year ago did you attend at me oh okay well by Mr velardi by Mr velardi that he did okay so he was very
060specific on what was being taught at each grade level sexuality gender everything was in that everything was in that and what I'm looking to do and what I might do is maybe bring that meeting back up again so parents can actually see because he was very clear on some of the statements that have been made right but but we're very specific with what was being taught where it was contributions of the lgbtq plus and then gender identity and all of those things they were all specific and they are grade level bands because just as you there were so many parents I agree with you 100 there were a lot of parents that were upset like oh my goodness what are they going to be teaching at a kindergarten or a first grader or a second
061grader which I think that this board shares that feeling of you know a parent's right to be what's being taught to their children so I don't think anyone there there is specific curriculum that we have that's on our district website which is under Rubicon Atlas Rubicon um which I could see give me one you know I can what I can do is I can look at that and I can give you access to that I mean there's access you can look at Rubicon and look up comprehensive PE um at each one of the grade level bands that are very specific because we teach right from the standards so that's in there and the only reason why I know is because I attended that meeting as well and I know that the PE teachers and Mr
062velardi was very specific on what was being taught and there were a lot of questions that were asked that day of parents such as yourself that was very concerned which I feel for 100 so I am not standing in the way of parent our parents feelings because I I understand it's a very sensitive topic and parents have the right to feel the way they do regarding their children hands down but we were very specific so I just want to make sure for the record that this board was very transparent and the administration was very transparent way before we even started teaching it and before it went in about the specifics of what was being taught at each grade level band um I just hope that was more pants and I could try to pull it
063back up but there was only a handful and if you remember Miss Carter I don't know if there's a lot of people at that meeting it's probably maybe 20 parents it was it was it was done no no it was no it was actually in the full it was um no it was no no no no yeah there was one no there was yeah there was one but there was yes but there was a parent Academy too because um it was a the comprehensive PE because parents were concerned about um was it the lack of better words the words that their parents had used was sex education um versus the contributions of the lgbtq community um and that's what there was a specific Parent Academy on that which went over the comprehensive PE that was
064in there but the one that you said too yes there was one that was it but again it was very comprehensive and I just felt bad because we we did do our due diligence to let it no we just didn't pull all over parents like saying hey we're gonna try to teach your child stuff and we don't want parents to know we were we were trying to be cutting edge and trying to be ahead but we didn't get the the and we had we sent out Genesis we sent out Genesis it wasn't just like a stick in the backpack and if your child didn't bring it home by mistake all the parents didn't get to see it it was a Genesis preparing academies and it was it was there yeah no I know you oh
065no you're always at those you're always at them I know yes yeah yes and what the lesson was so that we can speak our child further but you also you also have the Ops out you understand that there's an opt out exactly yeah right it banners and that Banner stands for sexuality it stands for nothing else nothing else so the parents that did off their children out in fact ended up having it smacked in their kid's face when they had clear Communications they did not want it exposed to their children that's why I was asking who okayed and was behind and supportive of this in our hallway so the residents and the parents are well aware and educated who they are lonely I I've answered that multiple times I've said I I know I know
066no I I I listen I I I'm just oh no it's fine I know yeah I I mean I I said I said multiple times that I don't believe in cancer culture I don't believe in right I've told you I've said multiple times that the buck stops with me one of these is yeah the buck stops at me right everyone keeps asking everyone I I told you I'd take you accountability for everyone 100 I said I am the President I am it's all right I'm not I'm not gonna offer back and you made the comment I'm addressing the comment about a cancel culture I'm addressing the comment that I am the board president I am the board President right decisions okay if you want to call it blame I I I have all I've said
067since the first meeting I said since it's the first meeting that the buck stops with me every decision it makes I signed up for this right no one it wasn't no one held a gun to my head and told me to not raise my hand right no one listen you guys everyone's looking here for cancer culture and trying to point out people's names it is you're saying and I'm I'm telling you who's accountable I get it a hundred percent find them Unity yeah I I I let me can I I just sure can I interject can I interject for one second the letter you saw the letter that my officer wrote on this right it got distributed out to everybody on those email chains uh dealing with this issue which which addressed a lot of
068these issues okay we can uh July yeah it was sent in July what what you should do is in that letter is a link okay to a position that the Attorney General's office and the Department of Education took on these flag issues okay we may not all agree with that okay people no no no can I I'll finish let me finish and then we can leave it at that and agree to disagree okay if look at that link look at that article from the Attorney General's office that directly addressed these flags and said if you take them down it's a violation of the lad okay I've advised this board on what to do on this okay to avoid liability we may not all like it okay but our personal views are different than what the
069law requires so take a look at that commentary that was issued by both the AG's office and the acting Commissioner of Education and take a look at that and you'll see that they've taken a very hard line even on Flex okay and the board the board and they said if you take these flags down you if you read that we're just asking for liability if we take a certain flag down okay so it's all it's all part of the all the different curriculums and things like that okay no it's not a yes or no can I can I just let me read my letter read the commentary okay and listen you know we have to advise the board on what to do to avoid liability I don't know if the taxpayers want this board to
070invoke like a hundred thousand dollars of legal fees trying to defend something that the AG's office said is indefensible no that's not correct okay read the article okay read the press release and see what you think okay it says address sure absolutely you're welcome so the Attorney General's going after every school district that's not explained the big one is I'm not sure whether they're going after everyone I think their resources by necessity have to focus on some of the ones that they view is more egregious okay so I'm not sure they're going after every circumstance um but check it out I mean the you know what what they're saying here is we're just begging for a problem okay and don't blame these people you know we live in a circumstance where they're directed as to
071what they need to be doing on this stuff we may not all like it and just because we're following yeah been required okay I I'm not sure if that's the case but you know I'm not sure if that's the case so yeah literally the only one I know there's 564 boards throughout the state so I'm not yeah okay the parents that opted out like myself our child out of this to basically in the face with what we opted them out of and that's not fair these are our children our children they go to you to learn the ABCs and the one two threes and about Real History not for you to throw things out then that they don't even understand and I think the board made an accommodation and when you read that commentary at
072some risk okay of taking the acronym off the flag next year okay I understand okay you want to you want to sign in and do the comment yeah so we all asked that we just want copies of the lesson that takes place so whether it's kindergarten through third grade and we also requested that when we did come to it I believe was the beginning of September when we came into McKenzie we were staying in the gym and we were discussing the new encouragement pretty sure that's commercial close it was right before she even started before it was the end of words that's what I remember and they said that it would take place sometime in June so that's what we remember it's not like it was an ongoing process so we didn't hear anything about
073it up until we found out there's an opt-out option which we handed to Mr Barrow but right now I want to know what's going on in the classroom just like all the other parents want to know as well because when I do pull up a curriculum on the board of ed it's not really clear you guys are copying up these things as golden standards and then on the bottom it says how you're going to be inclusive like how is theirs how is their inclusion for Bennett mentions gays bisexual and then it just like shows you everything that's involved I want to know like is my child going to know like what it needs to be a transsexual does it's my travel insurance Town it needs to be a bisexual like I need to know exactly
074what's going on and I thought okay so like it says LGBT and toes and then it specifically says a board of education shall include instruction on the political economic and social contributions of persons with disabilities and lesbian gay bisexual and transgender uh people in an appropriate place in the curriculum of middle school and high school so that's the only thing I have now it doesn't say anything about elementary school so you don't understand what's going on in the classroom I can see what comes in for math I see what comes in for you science or history I even see what comes in if my child's being called out for an extracurricular activity but I never see anything else about this you do know that all of that stuff you could opt out of the only
075thing you cannot opt out of is that contributions of that's it so all this stuff you're against you could opt out right right I'm just trying to I'm with you I'm trying right I mean letters this is an emerging reader that's reading every single time right understood he does see the pride flag out and about like to me oh it's just a flag like I don't have to really go into that correct but if there's an acronym just BS my child because he's going he's going to see it somewhere right that's right that's fair ly celebrating right so I was able to read each other at first celebrant right but like he's trying to figure out I just don't know what's going on in the building so we just want transparency and what is my
076next so that's for your second grader going to be learning and incoming kindergartners what are they learning what about the first grade and the third grade and so on when it comes to middle school that's a different story but we're just worried about these little kids you guys read this read the letter it's a lot of the it's right uh commentary from the AJ is quoted in there so I mean it's it's yeah right to us because if I'm opting out the back of my life I thought okay I opted out the health teacher in McKenzie and called me and let me know for sure I just want to make sure that you brought my letter you should reassured me that my child was not going to be extending a lesson when I said what
077did you do that day I got to play games on the phone book but that wasn't our plan we were told that they're going to be doing something instructional during that time right I don't want my child playing on a poem I can do that at home during Springtime then I asked several parents what is what is your child doing during that blog period of 40 minutes we got to play games on part four of us I could do that at home during their getting straight done so there has to be another less than any ways to accommodate these children they're not going to be attending this is that lesson that's amazing as well I'll check into that okay thank you um yeah yeah 100 honestly and I will once again I will once again
078state that the NJ doe Bergen County right uh superintendent schools please there are levels above us and when you talk about our hands being tied we're tied by the levels above us right and the only way as right dude you come here you come to meetings we appreciate you coming to meetings it kind of validates what we're trying to do but when we have our hands tied by people above us and and organizations above us we have to go to those those and see right it's the only way okay all right because that's the opportunity as well I I know but we'll we'll Mr Cobin be upset that you said something from the bottom of your heart well well I get see see I I know but he won't be upset with you he'll be
079upset with me and I'll get it will these two be a okay okay then then go yeah then as long as it's not your personal feelings clarify whether it's your personal view or as a board member oh no is it your personal feel Mr V Mr V Mr B right listen is it your like personal view or is your view as officially as a board member I would just try and clarify that at times that answers the question you know the the issue yeah no the issue all right I appreciate that the issue is that we how do I say this delicately when we're here we we have to be act as board members under the New Jersey standards right we have to put personal aside that's why I tell you right it's me as
080board as board president because at the end of the day we all are board members governed by the New Jersey standards and if anyone applies September 8th right I think a lot of us in our personal lives had the ability to say things that as board members who are not no longer able to say and there are we are not a town official right we're not governed by the town even we're governed by the New Jersey state right and there's a bunch of ethics and there's a a ton of governing roles about everything that like you talk about hands tied not that whatever States our hands are tied uh lovely state of New Jersey but right there are a ton of restrictions when we're here and that's why it's as a Boardman versus as personal
081right because it muddies the water so rich with that being said sure to back you up 40 years ago we convention cities yeah and we were not hurting anybody telling you know our hands weren't hot today yeah you voted for or didn't vote for I are trying everybody to say yeah and we're not allowed to say anything but it's not coming from this war it's not coming from these individuals it's coming from the people who really wrong people no and and just to act to carry or add to what he had said a lot of these things right that we make we make decisions and we vote on right A lot of these are governed by state statutes that are because we are a public school in the state of New Jersey right it's almost
082I will say it is a ceremonial vote for a lot of this right it is I I don't want to speak for anyone else but it the state of New Jersey says do this right and that's it and we are governed by a bunch of regulations again that i i i that that tire hands in a way where when I answer you right and I tell you the box up it's not to create a an adversarial relationship it is just because at the end of the day right you're looking for personal beliefs of people and I respect that and I understand that but when we have the board it's we are we are told to remove those right so although you're looking for a list of people right they're they're the roles and their decisions
083as board members may be contrarian to their beliefs as people maybe right but may but are as required by the state of New Jersey right and our and we are following the statutes and the regulations of the state of New Jersey right so I and I respect I I respect you you asking those questions I respect it right but all I can give you is my name right all I can give you is is me right not as a head on a stake but as we again I'm the president of this board we are deciding as board members not as personal beliefs right and to end it I'm 88 years old and I don't understand I don't even know what those people were going to see stand for I'm serious yeah and you want to
084tell me something I don't want it thank you rich uh any other public comment that went along apologize seeing none and hearing none I move to close the hearing of public citizens now we need to vote on that walk-on agenda yes right can I get a motion yeah yeah for PF 3.4 a chain of motion in a second all right roll call all in favor aye aye thank you okay no opposed all right we already did all business and new business now we're going to adjourn it to Executive session for legal advice yes illegal advice yeah I think it's potential contract negotiations correct and contractors time uh uh 15 minutes for me I just got to know which way the board wants me to go a couple followers say 30 minutes 30 minutes 30 minutes
085so to return let's say seven fifth between 7 55 and 8pm perfect all right so we need a uh be a resolved that in accordance with Section 8 of open public meetings act the board has authority to adjourn to close sessions discuss matters pertaining to Legal personal Personnel negotiations attorney con privilege Etc um all matters uh will be made available Upon A determination by the board the disclosure of the minutes will not detrimentally affect the right or interests of the board we expect to return within 30 minutes and I need a motion to approve going into executive session emotion contract second all all favor all right who made the motion Mr Bank promotions second was over here somewhere I'll give it to you know my wife is only 57. level one um you want to
086come you have literally nothing else to do it yes oh and um the contract did uh Gina and Maria yeah um I know no you told me that's why when he I was like thank you I want my first words blizzards all right can I get a motion to uh but oh leave exactly right leave except regular reward yeah motion to return the return to regular meeting all in favor aye there's no other business confirmed does anyone have the date of our next meeting September should be on here September 21st Thursday September 21st at 6 PM all right perfect so our next all right so our next Board of Education meeting is is our work session Thursday September 21st at 6 pm at the Board of Education offices the next general meeting would be the
087following week September 28th defer our work session is September 21st the the general meeting which most people want to come to is September 28th okay yeah can I get a motion to adjourn I have a question oh no go ahead I'm sorry oh you're good um when we get the letters of intent and by September 8th when are we interviewing those candidates yes right so we have them so we have 60 day time is there a certain story deadline that I thought we have to keep it open no it's not 14 days like we do with teachers okay so once we have them then the board can make a decision to do the interviews at the board meeting on the 20th of the 28th of September or they can wait until October you have 60
088days to do it Tom my understanding is that it needs to be done in public the interview questions and then they go into executive sessions to make a decision on what they're gonna do then they come out and discuss so does anyone have a preference if we do it uh it'd be good to announce it actually yeah we are able yeah you are able to do the interviews in private but there's additional requirements on the point yeah so I would recommend it yeah yeah and we asked the other candidates to just kind of step out of the meeting while we're interviewing one is a court to see the other candidates yeah I remember that well and you could do it and you could do it at a work session and then if the board meeting
089you could appoint yeah I mean I mean it also could be that we can do it at a work session yeah and and it's September apply by September 8th at noon 12 P.M not 1201. just I I know there's always there's always confusion the the only thing about asking anybody to step out if we're doing our meetings are they are live live stream so there's really no point in asking anything and the last yeah last go-around once you were able to watch the interviews because it was Zoom if they're serious candidates they would honor the request yeah yeah uh you know so they don't get a leg up or have time to you know think about the questions that the other candidate did throw their phones in a in a basket and and ask that
090they sit in the office like that if we want to go that District or we can just ask them hey please we'll sit them in the in the conference room and then they could come out right that should work all right so the work session do I do the work session on the 21st so we have a seated board member for the net for next meeting right it'll be at the you'll have a senior at the October board meeting a couple work system you're gonna make it you're gonna take it you're gonna take action on the 28th or the 21st same nights 21st I imagine if we want to right yes by the eighth well no one applicants that we don't act on it all right okay all right well let's we can plan on
091doing interviews on first on the 21st okay all right so if you apply on the 8th please be here on the 21st for your interview and apply by September 8th at 12 P.M we could or forget nobody we all hang out correct sure that's a good point yeah do it the earlier one so that we can always fall over there I like that idea Okay so any other questions any other comments yeah can I get a motion to adjourn Al second all in favor hi