001today is January 4th 2020 should I start over no today is January 4th 2023 and it is 7 pm uh public notice pursuant to the open public meetings ACT public notice of this meeting has been given by the board secretary in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the Voorhees Township Public Schools administrative building on July 6 2022. sending written notice to The Courier Post on July 6 2022 filing written notice with the clerk of Voorhees Township on July 6 2022 posting on the Voorhees Township website on July 6 2022 please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the fact of and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I will now read the summary of
002the election results at the general election held on November 8 2022 the legal voters of the township of Voorhees School District elected three members for a full three-year for a full three-year terms and one member for on for an unexpired two-year term as shown below which I will read off the results Julie kedover received 4825 votes for an unexpired two-term to your term Jacob Rosner received 4098 votes for a three-year term Maureen Rutter received 4 288 votes for a three-year term Julianne birdie received 4496 votes for a three-year term we will now swear in the new members Frank Cavallo will do the swearing-in we just want to go um down here each of you should have your swearing-in form your oath of office in front of you you get to do one at a time
003can you do one at a time we're going to do yeah one at a time so that you guys can be with your family there you go [Music] you can come oh I don't want to be in the background just in time okay please raise your right hand and repeat after me I State your full name uh Jacob Rosner do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the shame and that I will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and
004to the governments established in the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I State your full name I Jacob Rosner do solemnly swear you solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law described by law for the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of a board of education and not disqualified as a voter I'm not disqualified fight as a voter pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 I am not disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense I am not disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a Colon 12-1 listed
005in njsa 18a colon 12-1 and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best in liability so helping God congratulations foreign [Music] Rutter you solemnly swear do you solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution in the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey institution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the government established in the United States and to the government established in the United States
006and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I State your full name hi morning Rudder do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications that I test the college prescribed by law prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of Board of Education and not disqualified as a voter I'm not as qualified as a voter pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 persimmon to RS 19 colon 4-1 and not disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense I'm not disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a Colon 12 test one listed in njsa 18 a colon 12-1 and that I
007will faithfully and that I will Faithfully impartial impartially and justly perform and justly performed all the duties of that office all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability congratulations [Laughter] I State your full name hi Julianne Verdi you solemnly swear do you solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey in the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that I will bear true faith Legions to this and to the government's established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the
008so help me God I State your full name I Julianne Curry do solemnly swear we solemnly swear that I possessed that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law qualifications prescribed by law for the office of members of a Board of Education [Music] and not disqualified as a voter I'm not disqualified as a supporter pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 and not disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense I'm not I'm not qualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a Colon 12-1 let's listen JSA and that I will faithfully and then I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of that office all the time according to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations thank you yes you look perfect
009please raise your right hand and repeat after me I State your full name bye Julie head over do solemnly swear do you solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and this state and the state under the authority of the people under the the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I State your full name I Julie kenover
010do song swear do you solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the board of education for the office of member of a board of education and not disqualified as a voter and not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 19.4-1 pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 and not disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense and not disqualified due to condition of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a Colon 12-1 listed in njsa 18a colon 12-1 and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of that office all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best
011of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations if everyone could sign their oath and send it to send it down to quickvalo he will also sign it all right I will now call the roll Jason Bryce Kelly casenza Julie ketover here Dr Marissa Levy I'm here Jacob Rosner here Maureen Rutter here Randy stubler here Julian birdie here Monica Watson Karen the next item is election of president oh I'm sorry I missed something the next item is code of ethics for board members um I believe each of you should have your code of ethics you'll need to read that sign it and also send that down to uh down to me or Mr Cavallo thank you if you want to give it to us at the end that's fine too all right
012now we will move on to nominations for work president so I would like to open up the floor for nominations for board president any other nominations foreign to close the nominations for board president is everyone has everyone successfully logged into board Docs [Music] okay I think it'll pop up when I when I open it up so let's give it a try all right so could I have could I have a nomination I'm sorry if I have a motion to close the nominations for president please don't move second this is I'm opening online voting hopefully that shows up on your screen oh Helena hit the button by accident do you want a yes yeah I'm sorry that's okay I hit the at the shift or something it's okay oh it keeps me sorry about that some
013reason it keeps my back um Mrs Rutter nothing came up on me you want me to put something you can just tell me verbally and I'll put it in oh yeah yes okay all right so everyone votes yeah so we're going to Market unanimous I'm closing online oh um wait a second I can't seem to change Mrs stubler's uh Mrs Milady when you do the minutes do you mind changing Mrs stubler's vote from abstain to yes because I can't go in and fix it at this point thank you that's okay that's all right all right so now we will vote for the poor president I will call the roll and uh you'll just say yes or no Mr Bryce oh this is a this is a nomination sorry this is voting for Mrs Watson as
014board president Mr Bryce yes Miss cat over yes Dr Levy yes Mr Rosner yes Mrs Rudder yes Mrs stubler yes Mrs Verdi yes Mrs Watson yes promotion unanimously passes congratulations Mrs president and you may now take over the moon okay um nominations we're going to now open for um board vice president can I get nominations yes I nominate um Dr Marissa Levy for board vice president we don't need to oh I'm sorry yeah I said that before but okay you're right we don't need a second I nominate myself for vice president I feel like I am very active in the community I attend every event in the community and the schools um and I'm very supportive so find myself out there we vote in the order of the nomination so yeah can I get a
015motion to close the nominations second was that Mrs supler yes okay thank you all right online voting is now open and this is to close the nominations foreign [Music] foreign okay I did not close would you like me to enter something for this one and then we try for the next one the next time [Music] okay thank you say motion unanimously passes to close the nominations and I will close the voting and I'm going to save it so now we will go so the first row will be for uh Dr Marissa Levy for board vice president Mr Bryce yes Miss cat over yes Dr Levy yeah yeah Mr Rosner yes Mrs Rudder yes Mrs stubler no Miss Verdi yes Mrs Watson yes motion passes seven yes one no congratulations to Dr Levy thanks so quickly
016thank umer for all of her work in the community and um for her efforts in um putting forward a good effort this year for the board to come together as one of all of our new members thank you our boards will be in great hands with you um because you have the children as your priority as well so thank you anyone wishing to address the board please approach the podium and write your name and address on the login sheet if you are attending via Zoom please use the raise your hand feature to be acknowledged while the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving Personnel litigation negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will now hear comments from the public comments are limited to three minutes the board will
017not take action this evening you will be notified at some later time by letter electronic mail telephone or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take foreign yes please but I don't know thank you hi my name is Marlene Kaplan and um first of all I want to come congratulate the four new um wonderful members of the Voorhees Board of Education I'm thrilled to um see you up there and I would like to welcome the other um three four um of you back and I'm I'm very excited about this coming school year and I look forward to wonderful things thank you thank you oh God yeah this is limited to just the junk items right now yes did I not say that um I'm sorry you want to
018know it it's not yeah I was like I don't remember saying that yeah oh yeah let's see I'm just say my name in the dress I guess uh you don't have to if you don't want to that's fine I'm Jamie Austin congratulations I'm very happy for all of you frankly coming here with a personal issue for my daughter and I wouldn't um unless I was desperate and I'm airing out some very personal stuff for my daughter and I need your help and I wouldn't care if I hadn't gone so far for the past six months I'm trying to get her what she needs so I beg you to please listen to me and I thank everyone who's worked with her who's met with me she needs more my daughter Grace she was classified private school
019system is having learning disability last winter I took her for private testing with Dr selzman at Cooper and he died in the stores having dyslexia she also met with Dr Karen Kelly who's a renowned neuropsychologist in the area people know her love her she's kind of like the golden standard they both told me Grace needs to receive the Wilson Reading system or another intensive program like it this program is very different it's it's specific to kids with learning disabilities but it's really specific because with dyslexia many children in the public schools in New Jersey have access to this program and to a welcome certified instructor as such I've been requesting this we'll see a reading system with a certified instructor my daughter since this past summer single Hills providing Grace a less intensive program it's
020called foundations and it's intended for children k-3 general education and at-risk students not for children with significant known disabilities I have been trying to get the Wilson Reading System Incorporated into braces education to compel without success I spent a ton of money and hired an advocate hoping that that would help bring this to my daughter and that could not I have letters from her renowned possessions in the field stating that she should absolutely have reading Wilson system or another intensive program I've had numerous conversations in person and by email Dr alacria and Dr Hackett who have been told that they will not provide Grace with this program and instruction unless she isn't making progress or doesn't meet her goals price is making progress partially due to the fact that she receives private tutoring for three
021to four and a half hours per week even though she is making progress I know that she could make more progress should she have the Wilson Reading system more importantly Grace is working so hard outside of school she wakes up every morning to read for at least 30 minutes she then goes into her encoding with me she goes to school she comes home she tutors for three to four and a half hours a week I am asking that the school provide her with a fair and Equitable education so that she can have more time to be a child when she when she I'm asking the multi-school system to look at the bigger picture invest in a more intensive program now and the children can then move to the general education room down the road this
022would benefit both the school system and the children research shows that children that don't get out of special ed reading by the end of third grade usually don't look at a later date Grace is also in a special education classroom for math she's supposed to receive six units of math instruction today just like every other child Grace's math class unfortunately is a combined group of first and second graders the teacher teaches the first grade students for the first half an hour and then she moves to the second grade students for the second half an hour they do independent work while the other group of students is receiving instruction in addition to being a combined career level math class which is not optimal and her teachers have voiced many concerns about this her small group from
023up is a group of nine children in total the state forces you guys to split them should one more child enter this room why are we waiting Grace is not receiving the 60 Minutes of math instruction the second grade teachers have voiced their concerns about this math class to the administration to no avail there are the loss they don't understand why this class is not to be split Dr Hackett and Dr Alegria did observe its class and proved to be an environment that was not optimal they have a plan to come back but that has been delayed and reevaluate that classroom I moved to Voorhees I want to be in Portuguese I want my children to be in this community I love this community I'm not looking to sue a school I am not looking
024to have my daughter go to a private school I want her to have her education that's going to help her move forward and be you know a normal child not coming home and working so hard I was so happy for my daughter who's in fifth grade she's in general education I have to tell you I think the world of what we do for general education employees but I find that there's a significant discrepancy with regard to special education met many more things that I can't touch on right here you have the ability to enact a policy that doesn't allow for two separate rights to be taught in the same room and time you also have the ability to look into the resources such as more intensive reading programs for children with learning disabilities and ensure
025they are offered to our children I am relying on all of you to help my child it is absolutely heartbreaking to watch my daughter go through this my family and I understand inordinate amounts of time and money trying to help her get what she needs and we need your help and support please help me thank you for your time and congratulations thank you I'm I I know I'm breaking rules but thank you Miss lustino for being so open and honest and sharing your story um I know you know that we do not take these things lightly and that additional research will be done into this into this situation um we want all children to thrive um and we want Grace to thrive just as much as as all the other children in the district thank
026you um I did it's word comments right now I did want to congratulate all of the um the new board members I'm looking forward to serving uh beside all of you I'm excited about the diverse perspectives and ideas that all of you will bring to the table I'm excited about the many discussions and debates I'm sure we will have I think you all bring such unique experiences to the board and I think the community and the district will only Thrive with you guys all at the helm um you you um men and women um I also want to thank um and Echo uh Dr Levy's words Miss stupler um for being incredibly active um you attend every single event um you ensure that you represent the board as as often as you possibly can um
027you have been incredibly diligent and really asked some fantastic questions to ensure that we're making really strong informed decisions um I think you are an incredibly valued member of the board and I look forward to seeing you continue um adding a tremendous amount of value any other board comments can I can I go yes um first of all thank you Ms Watson for those very kind comments um I do enjoy everything that I attend and being a part of this amazing Community I do also want to Echo Mrs Watson's comments about um Mrs ostino getting up there and speaking from her heart um so it really touches with me as I do have I had two kids in the special education at Vorhees and I only have one left so it is a constant struggle
028and I totally feel your pain and I personally cried many tears but still kind many tears for my child so I do know the pain that you're going through um so it is heard I can tell you that you know I felt a lot of emotion um from people sitting next to me so I do appreciate you putting yourself out there tonight I know it's not easy to get up and really speak from your heart in front of a bunch of strangers um so I appreciate on that and I hope more people you know have that Comfort to share their thoughts and their experiences because I think it is so important for all of us to hear from our community um and I do look forward to working with all the new board members um
029I should add some new and fresh perspective which is always great and some great discussion congratulations to Mrs Watson and Dr Lee date I know our board will be in great hands with you as our leaders and I do have one question about an agenda an attachment to an agenda item can I ask that now or later or you can ask it now I wasn't sure if there's a policy it was under Personnel um no disrespect to Dr Young I know she's dedicated her time um and given our district so much but is there a policy as I know she's retiring and well-deserved retirement but I know she's doing some personal development is that is there a policy I'm just looking out for a fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers um I wasn't sure if there's
030a policy for that against that or whatever I was just redoing all the attachments today um could you could yeah could you be more specific as to which item you're it was under the personal staff development whatever not not um sorry it was under it's under professional development thank you for professional not personal Professional Day request yes thank you thank you yes responsibility question no disrespect of Dr Young um I'm a big fan so thank you yes okay um thank you Miss dupla for that question um so that professional development is to go to text ball and it's quite a few staff members uh attending including myself yeah yes so um Dr Young is definitely leaving us unfortunately uh she'll be here until June 30th um but up until that point my expectations that Dr
031Young will continue to help us to make sure our curriculum meets all the state department needs and about to do that she will continue to have to learn and grow um so I'm not aware of any policy that would prevent someone's retired to go to a workshop but I want to continue her knowledge base so she can do all the work that is necessary to leave us in great standing as far as our curriculum is concerned okay it was just a curiosity that's okay thank you thank you thank you I'm done thank you any other board comments I would like to just say that I'd like to um personally congratulate each and every one of the new board members um it's definitely going to be an honor to get to know you guys and to
032experience your greatness as we work together on the board so I just look forward to that and uh please pardon me that I didn't do that earlier so I just want to take the opportunity to do it right now and happy New Year to those thanks okay seeing no additional comments we will move to interview interviews for board solicitor and labor Council yes please I just wanted to give a little introduction on the RFP process RFP stands for request for proposal um an email went out to the current board members and then in each person's seat we left uh the back the backup documents that we had emailed out it gives the background on the process and some other documentation that you can see how the scoring works for Professional Services they can only be
033the contract can only be awarded for one year at a time unlike a bid that could be longer so Professional Services every year either has to go out for an RFP or a comparative process is done where you contact other districts to see what they're paying for the services or how the services are going and then you can just renew it not renew you can award another contract for a year so um at this District we've been sending out rfps every year for legal and the methodology for all rfps is the scoring criteria is technical management and cost and they're weighted so you can wait it any way that you want but the the general recommendation is 30 30 points technical 30 points management 40 points cost so we use that criteria and there there
034is also the option of interviewing but that's not not a required option um so again a word for one year three criteria we advertise we receive proposals the sealed proposal the proposals are all sealed they were opened on December 15th and then they're evaluated by a committee um because I'm the business administrator I'm always on the committee so I'm one of the three um so there were three people scoring each of our rfps and then it's independent we don't know what each other is doing and we rate them based on those criteria and then we submit that to Tricia Milady who then puts it on a summary schedule and comes up with the average score and the highest average score typically would get the recommendation to the board but again in The Proposal itself it
035clearly states that the board May at its option require respondents of its choice to attend interviews and make presentations to school officials as to clarification regarding their submission this Pro process may only take place after proposals have been opened and reviewed and prior to completion of the evaluation so that's where we stand with this sometimes the interviews are internal sometimes they're in public last year the board had requested that we do that we interview all respondents of legal meaning board solicitor and labor Council and so that's what we're doing we invited all the people that have responded here tonight for a very brief presentation five minutes and uh every board member has received the RFP that was submitted the new members just received them tonight but otherwise you'll get to see a representative from each
036of the firms we have three respondents for board solicitor and three respondents for labor Council will call up each firm in alphabetical order and several of the firms have responded to both so first will be Cape Barn scattered second would be malamut third would be Parker McKay and that's all for work solicitor but for late if they can adjust their labor Council as well that would be good because did not submit for labor Council but Brown and Connery did so if I could have brown and Connery come last that would be great but Parker okay uh but k-par and stature can go first thank you part of scattered we'll be talking about board solicitor and labor Council good evening everyone my name is can I interrupt you and have you guys come over to the
037podium that way you're on the screen thank you sorry about that yeah [Music] so you have a proposal obviously we'd have a short time and you're busy and we're not going to take a lot of your time up but uh we're here and we submitted our proposals because we think we could provide quality and legal services to this great District we could provide value to you in doing that we we have in our school law practice uh five full-time attorneys that are practicing school and we are a collaborative lunch and we bring a lot of new expertise to bear um we are an extremely responsive uh group of attorneys uh when you call us yes and we understand that you can't wait for the answer you needed as soon as possible and if for some
038reason you can't get us on at that particular moment we we get back to you as quickly as we possibly can which is the same days and morning human and slave confusion um we have debt we have a lot of debt uh so if for some reason you should call one of us if you don't get us you're gonna get a job or you're going to get Sanu or Lauren Tedesco and all of us have the qualifications and the experience to provide quality legal advice too we one of the things we like to do is we like to educate our clients on various aspects that come up whether it be special education or discipline or what other what other other areas they require uh us to provide some knowledge student about and I think all
039all of us if asked about a particular topic could immediately chime in and combine that kind of education and it helps us it helps you because it helps avoid problems that you might run into and that really strengthens our cases and our ability to provide representation to you and uh achieve successful outcomes so that's that's our philosophy providing quality legal services to you also informing you of the Practical side of things because sometimes that oftentimes it comes into play when you're making educated decisions about what to do about a particular case in a particular matter it could be a public relations base or business piece that comes combined with illegal aspects decision-making um yeah sure uh with uh with Rob Omni a co-chair of the School Law Department uh I've been doing this uh this
040gig for almost 40 years I'm not going to pretend that I know everything in school all that'd be kind of a opposite me but we have seen and I've seen a lot of things and what we've seen is that the week we think we can provide not only sound legal advice but also go from that experience that we've had that we we can we've had a lot of different issues particularly in the last three or four years very difficult issues that you as board members are facing at meetings with the superintendent and dealing with with various issues that we've seen on TV and so forth what we think we bring to you that experience in the common sense of of what we what we have had and you can you can hire somebody to go
041look up what the case law is and what this particular statute says but I think what we provide is uh just Good Counsel of directing you in in different places uh giving you the risks involved and what your choices are defending you um like um uh as best we can if you have to go to litigation and also trying to uh advise you so you avoid litigation uh as much as possible so that's what I think and we practice in all areas of school uh General School law matters we do special education uh law of course and we both negotiate collective bargaining agreements um so yeah if you want us to talk about our labor because we did put in for for labor as well Rob and I have both been at the table in
042negotiations for a number of years we've negotiated all kinds of contracts we've been in situations where the contract is settled within a couple of meetings we've been in situations where there's there's all kinds of of of of people out there with uh you know with signs and everything like that so uh what we what I think we bring to to the negotiations table as well as advise you before is we respect the collective bargaining process uh we respect the position of the association we try to get the best uh contract that we can for you we listen to you before we do anything as to what your goals and objectives are we try to achieve that at the bargaining table with respect uh again I can be I can be a a very fierce negotiator
043I can also be a very uh a negotiator that gets you a contract depending upon what that situation is but we both have that that ability and we wanted to get you a fair contract we can give you that as labor negotiation there's labor negotiator as well so we're always looking for opportunities uh where we can we can get both parties to to find a deal so we're looking for that we're always keeping our ear to the this ground because the chain objectives change the board's objectives change over time we're aware of that um so we're always listening [Music] interest but that child's interesting is the board's interests and and so we always have that uh in fact any questions yes I I have a question um so you slightly touched on it um about
044your demeanor um you've seen the atmosphere and environment significantly shift when it comes to board meetings in particular they can get very um vitriolic for it to be kind um they get incredibly heated and you have lots of people who can be very angry um how do you lead um as the solicitor when you're helping to advise us throughout those those situations I get a a good example how how I approach that particular issue uh we all know that there was a mass mandate for board meetings I'm not sure what happened here but in other districts there was a concern that people would come to the board meeting without a mask even though we thought that the executive order said you'd have to have a mask on even that board meeting it's not just in
045school so we had a lot of meetings with the board president with the superintendent about how to approach that when you had a a someone from the audience several people from the audience were coming in picking a fight to say you know you're not going to tell me to put my mask on Russ I want to be on on video I'm going to be on Fox News and so forth so what we would what we decided to do is we're just not want to urge people to wear their masks we're going to or to begin to wear a mask but if they didn't wear the mask we weren't going to take the beat we weren't going to allow them to become viral so we just kind of just let it pass for that particular time
046that took away a lot of the of the emotion a lot of the a lot of the adversariveness of the people who didn't want to wear masks and I think that's one that's a practical approach we could have we couldn't enforce that we could tell the police department to remove them but that wasn't in the best interest of the board in the long term so we had that we had a lot of discussions beforehand we had a lot of planning with this and that and we decided to take that route and it ended up we didn't we didn't have any problems no that's one of the things that we said another example is if there's a process that's happening in public and we are shepherding that process we prepare the public to know what to
047expect in the process and that that will oftentimes helps and uh it reduces tensions so I mean those are some of the strategies we use and a lot a lot of strategy are with you as the word president because you're in charge of the media and you have to draw that fine line between allowing everyone to express their opinion sometimes very passionate sometimes very personal but you just can't get down and dirty with those particular responses you can defend yourself you can defend your administrators you can defend your teachers and so forth but you really have to respect the people's right to come up here the First Amendment they can express their opinions most of people unfortunately do come up and have some kind of concern we have to show them that you're listening and
048you care you may disagree but we have to disagree disability there was an issue here about the vice president of the immediately after that vote there was civility that was expressed by the board members that's the kind of of an example I think you need to send to the audience as well and that's something sometimes something will come up it'll be controversial and Ford would like to respond to that we helped the board structure on that response statement something along those side so those are the kinds of things we we refer to bear thank you thank you very much malamut and Associates do we have a representative from malama okay I guess we'll move on to the next one um Parker Mckay please thank you all um for having me um foreign Law Firm that's
049been around over 100 years um the school Law Department is one of the main departments within the infirm um and uh we're a team we team up with not only the folks in our department but the folks that are in the other departments makes us unique amongst um anybody you're going to talk to tonight is the fact that we can handle with expertise every single issue I'm a school attorney I represent school districts um I do labor negotiations I do Board of Education uh meetings but I have somebody a partner of mine recon who handles all the construction related matters I can do that I've done it before I've been doing this for over 30 years but he's got that expertise that I can rely on and I know that Mrs Haley and her staff
050can rely on when it comes to special education match I've represented school districts in special education management um but I have a partner Brett Gorman who has developed a particular niche in representing school districts in special education matters um you know I I agree with the philosophy of my colleagues in terms of you know we represent the school district but we also care about the kid and we have to come to agreements that are beneficial to the child that we always have to can't lose sight of that um and Brett and his team of people that work for him were very Adept at that when there's an Oprah issue I I can do that but I have I have a colleague and partner George Morris who lectures throughout the state on Oprah issues so I
051I feel the district has way better hands with with uh with George um I know we uh HIV issues um I can handle those but I have Alicia dianella who's come to some of your meetings who wanted to be here tonight actually and apologizes for not um she had another meeting but Alicia has developed an expertise in that area along with what else she does for our clients so I think that's something that's unique about Parker look at um I've enjoyed the past two years of working with you all we've been through some um difficult times with the public and board meetings um I'm hoping that we've weathered those knock on wood and and they don't they don't come back um but uh you know in terms of the labor negotiations I've done three rounds
052of Barbie Here My Philosophy on labor negotiations is relationships so you you have to have a relationship with the other side when I leave you may want me to be mean nasty go after those go after those people but when I leave you're going to be with them so we can't we can't have that kind of relationship this is one of the places where the relationship between the board the administration and the teaching staff is wonderful um labor negotiations are not pleasant because I don't think they ever pleasant but they're they're professional um they are um we um go back and forth in a respectful manner with each other um and it has been an enjoyable um process I'm not sure what else you need to know what else you want me to say but
053um like I said I've enjoyed representing a district and I hope to continue to do so any questions thank you next would be uh Brown and Connery LLP and this is for labor Council thank you good evening everyone good evening first of all I have to tell you my name is Lewis Lesson by the way I am the individual who signed the proposal for you as well as uh I'm actually responsible for all the rfps that come out of our office uh I'm also the one to begin with directly and for the new board members I want to personally welcome you um yesterday I was actually up in North Jersey where I grew up and one of my oldest friends flipped a Town Council in North Caldwell it had never been Democratic he won his
054Democratic mayor and as a democratic Council and one of our other friends who plays bagpipers outside to make a formal events so hopefully some of that formal um formality sort of uh followed you down here because I thought it was great to watch everybody with all their families kids um getting sworn in you know from my perspective uh there's a lot that I can say that you've heard from the other firms uh I think the most important thing that I can share with you is the fact that my colleagues and I spend the time when we're talking about Labor issues it's in essence two different things are we talking about contractual negotiations or are we talking about the day-to-day you see at the end of the day what everybody cares about my kids sometimes that's
055lost it's lost because you have that errant teacher and sometimes some of us end up getting a little bit jaded because what ends up happening is we see the unfortunate size now I heard that you have a wonderful relationship and there are certainly several districts Associated where that has been includes and generally what happens for myself is that we'll get together and decide what is it that we want in your second party periods well what are the impressive issues so we sit down and try and work that out but perhaps the best way to explain the other side the items that deal with the day-to-day is to share with you a brief story my mother trusted memory was a middle school principal my grandmother busted memory she and the two of them ran the foreign
056language department at East Orange High School back in the day and my mother called me up one day and was rather he didn't and had that principal voice you know the one that you can sort of hear down the hallway and she called me up and said I have a problem and I didn't really know exactly how to take that and she said I'm here in the district I've got 200 staff 1900 kids and a Rancher I'm a closer School Great Adventure we have block dance because Tigers get out because people are coming into the building and they just filed this lawsuit by a particular teacher against the district for racial discrimination and name me as the building principal and she went on for about five minutes and I finally stopped her I said Mom
057you have to understand the distinction here you are an educator that's what you do you have just stepped into my world relax and I took her through the process of trying to make sure she understood what the complaint meant what she needed to achieve and how to avoid an additional claim for retaliation later all of that actually ended up being very successful because she ended up out of the case and at a certain point I actually had a thing I could go through all the stuff that's in my materials but frankly I don't want to take your time because I know you have other things to do all I will tell you is that at the end of the day what is most concerning to me are the kids in the district and how to
058best serve them on your behalf any questions I'd like to ask the same question that I that I asked um The k-part Firm obviously I didn't ask the Parker McKay because he serves as our current Bridge listener but how would you handle again the kind of heightened environment at board meetings how would you help Shepherd us through that process when there is um some animosity some anger some you know heated discussions um that happen at the board meetings he's actually labor Council though that's going to happen it's going to be because ninja yay has read t-shirts outside ticketing or perhaps yes or when we're negotiating same thing yes right a lot of this and so much of it ends up being an issue of as was mentioned before relationships and how do you address the
059other side one can disagree and still move forward the advantage of having a labor negotiator that doesn't work here is that you can't ever be the bad guy because you work with everybody whether it be volunteer or on staff the advantage of my role is I can be that bad Gap so oftentimes what I'll ask you to do is take a breath let me deal with it don't say anything or try to be as come as possible sometimes that means if there's a compared statement in advance but oftentimes it's trying to find the best way in the moment to breathe a bit of relief and it becomes one of those things where it's very in the momentum I have certainly had situations where I've walked past um security because there have been issues in various
060districts over the years I will say that while it's not in our materials there are additional districts that we've represented and they've done contractors as well as investigations that we've had to do for when we have other folks in other districts as well and at the end of the day yeah it's a function of reading the people understanding what they need and trying to keep things as calm as possible um I do have one more question um you if I'm corrected from your RFP you represent Cherry Hill Cherry Hill yes um do you foresee any obviously Voorhees is very we're you know next to each other there's a lot of interconnectivity there's a lot of back and forth um I you know I I will fully admit I have a sister who works in the
061Cherry Hill district I know that those negotiations have been incredibly heated do you think that you um that that presents any type of a conflict or an issue um from your opinion so two things one we don't represent the Cherry Hill School District and two I am not the individual that does so I don't perceive any issue obviously if there was I would certainly bring that to you uh but generally speaking to the concept we're talking about it probably won't come up perfect that was it anybody else thank you I'll take motion to go all right give me a second to log back in can I get a motion to uh go to Executive session online voting is open and this is to go into executive session just because this shouldn't be more than half
062an hour be it resolved that oh sorry let me wait till the wedding's finished it's not popping up for me but if you want to just put it okay motion anonymously passes thank you no no be it resolved that pursuant to the open Publix meeting act the public shall be excluded from that portion of the meeting involving discussion of employment contracts for further resolve of the discussion of such matter and executive session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the board takes formal action further resolve that the board may be an executive session at we don't we do not think we will be in for more than 30 minutes um but action will be taken when we return from public thanks okay thank you thank you okay and then the average of
063all of these makes sense yeah actually I was interested in what makes it I have to open something okay can I get a motion to return to public session you got it okay online voting is open weird that you're getting folks oh now yeah that's cool yeah that's like thinking you may have timed out okay do you have to usually after yeah there you go okay motion passes um I just I just want to make a couple of comments um we want to thank all of the uh Council that has come out this evening um it it I know it's a lot of work it's a lot of time and energy and we appreciate you both submitting an RFP doing a presentation attending the board meeting um we appreciate all of the energy and time
064that that goes into that process um with that being said um we're gonna do it a little bit differently this time um only because we had a lot of discussion around how we wanted um our legal counsel to look and and the new makeup of the board and the Dynamics of the board so we're actually going to be very specific in our um in our motion um and you'll understand in a second um so I am going to make a motion to a point Alicia danello as board solicitor and Frank Cavallo as labor counsel can I get a both from Parker McKay we're going to do each one separately So Okay let's listen to me first so we'll do the board solicitor again we are specifically asking for an individual from Parker McKay um I'm
065happy to speak offline with you for for various different reasons but we would like um Alicia danello to serve as our board solicitor from Parker McKay moving forward first let me get a motion online voting is open [Music] Mrs stoopler abstains the rest of the seven votes are yes motion carries can I can I get a motion to appoint Frank Cavallo as labor from Parker McKay as labor Council [Music] online voting is open [Music] the motion unanimously passes so I'm closing the voting foreign be it resolved that Parker McKay will be appointed as board solicitor and labor Council for the Voorhees Township Board of Education for the period of January 4th 2023 through the January 2024 board reorganization meeting further resolved that this contract is awarded through a request for proposals for Professional Services with
066procedures designed to provide a fair and open process in awarding contracts for Professional Services based on qualifications Merit and cost Effectiveness through accessible advertising as shown on the attachment okay can I get a motion to appoint um frytec vites Hopkins Duffy PC fhvt as architect of record second online voting is open motion unanimously passes closing online voting be it resolved at the form of frytack vites Hopkins Duffy PC The fhvd Architects planners we are appointed architect of record for the Voorhees Township Board of Education for the period from January 4th 2023 through the January 20 2024 board reorganization meeting um there is an error on the public comments so that should reach you to 2024. uh further resolve that this contract is awarded through a request for proposals for Professional Services with procedures designed to
067provide a fair and open process in awarding contracts for Professional Services based on qualifications Merit and cost Effectiveness through accessible advertising as shown on the attachment can I get a motion to approve Todd Saylor of Bowman and Company LLP as the Voorhees Board of Education auditor second online voting is open foreign motion unanimously passes closing the voting be it resolved that Todd Saylor of Bowen and Company LLP will be appointed auditor for the Voorhees Township Board of Education for the period of January 4th 2023 through the January 2024 board ordinance reorganization meeting for the result that this contract is awarded through a request for proposals for Professional Services with procedures designed to provide a a fair and open process in awarding contracts for Professional Services based on qualifications Merit and cost Effectiveness through accessible advertising
068disappointment is made in accordance with njac 23-2.2 sub I requiring the Board of Education to review the peer report of Bowman and Company LLP as shown on the attachments yeah can I get a motion to approve the following appointments Jacob Rosner as a representative to the Camden County boards Association executive committee Kelly Cosenza as a delegate to the New Jersey school boards Association Julie ketover as an alternate delegate to the New Jersey school boards Association Julianne Verdi as a legislative representative to the New Jersey school boards Association and Randy stubler as a representative to the Camden County Educational Services Commission still moved with enthusiasm and gratitude for all of your service exactly online voting is open motion unanimously carries closing voting board secretary report okay I would like to let everyone know about this nice
069award that we received um on November 30th we attended the annual Jif dinner and that's our joint Insurance Fund uh the dinner was held at the mansion in Voorhees and we were honored to receive the safety District of the Year award for 21-22 and that's for the Lord in the large District category um it was a real honor to get that and included with that we received eight thousand dollars and that's to be used towards safety equipment and so forth um the eight thousand dollars is made up of several Awards there's a safety incentive program and Mark mcnone oversees that it's there's a there's like a checklist and you have to attend every meeting or you have you have to hold Safety Committee training uh safety training and all types of things so we we
070hit a lot of those targets so we received the top award there called Elite two so we got three thousand dollars for that and then there's awards for claims management and that really is a combination of people reporting something that happened like say they got hurt at work they report it right away and Mrs Milady reports that into our the qualinks it's called for workers comp and sometimes we have the property damage then we report that too so the awards for claims management maintaining a loss ratio below 50 for 2122 we received a thousand dollars for maintaining a five-year average below fifty percent another thousand dollars awards for claim processing between one to three days reporting 500 dollars and twenty five hundred dollars for the safety of safety District of the year so I I
071would like to publicly recognize several people uh one being mark mcnone another Clark Mathis all of our building Foreman who carry out these safety protocols in each of the schools the custodians the School nurses because when a student gets hurt or an employee gets hurt they are the first ones to see them and Report the information to us uh Trisha Milady Danielle tricano and Bruce Taylor and I should add and they always get embarrassed when I add this but we're still proud about this um Bruce Taylor receives the Cyber safety superstar in November 2011 and we're very proud of that and he instituted multi-factor authentication here very early so even our County business administrator group recognized that they want him to do a presentation at our next meeting so we were very excited about that
072and then Mark mcnone received the safety star of the Year award um for 2020-2021. so we're really proud of these Awards we didn't expect to get anything this year and when we got safety District of the award we were elated um so that's that um the other thing that I have on my list is something that Danielle was very much involved with and Daniel works very hard for us to get every Grant Danielle is my assistant business administrator she's over there in the green um she works very hard to apply for every grant that comes our way to maximize the amount of money that we get we've been successful every time which is amazing um Mark McMillan works with her too from the procurement standpoint so between the two of them they've gotten us a
073lot of money this one in particular and Clark's evolved in this one too this one in particular we're trying to get money for a new playground over at Osage and it's for what 432 thousand dollars okay yeah so that's on the agenda a little bit later and that's to approve us to submit the grant for an award we have other grants that are up and coming so at some point I'll give a report on all the grants from this year because I'm very uh very impressed with it so thank you for all your hard work on this and I I'm pretty confident that we'll do well thank you I want to reiterate congratulations to all of the uh Award winners um you you make us all very very proud you included Bruce um superintendent's report
074okay thank you so very much good evening Voorhees Township community members and happy New Year and I just also while we're just embarrassing Mr Taylor right now I'll just continue with the trend um and say my one of my first encounters with Mr Taylor I'm presenting to my administrators in that two-step authentication process really uh did me in but absolutely a wonderful very safe feature so congratulations for all of your work so I just don't embarrass you a little bit more um I like to begin this evening by honoring the memory and Legacy of Mr James catino who was a building Foreman at E.T Hamilton Elementary School Mr catino passed away on December 27th Mr catino served as a building Foreman at E.T Hamilton for three and a half years and worked in our district
075for almost five years Mr catino was known for his great personality and his ability to brighten one's day I was privileged to have a few Brief Encounters with Mr catino and in those moments he encouraged me through his words and his smiles I like to read a few excerpts of a message that Mr Moskowitz the principal of E.T Hamilton wrote to his family this was a second career for Mr catino who spent many years as a technology person at IBM his family called Voorhees home and his sons went through our Public School Systems Mr James as he was called was a consummate professional he was positive helpful and kind Mr Neen godson who is one of our basic skills teacher and also supervises the kindergarten and first grade lunches at E.T Hamilton said the following
076about Mr Catina he was an amazing person and I know that students especially our kindergarten first graders are going to miss him opening up their lunch boxes and collecting their bags to recycle every day the students are going to miss him following them around with his broom and dustpan making sure the lunchroom was always in Tip-Top shape I was truly humbled by these beautiful message that Mr moscowitz wrote to his families about Mr catino please keep Mr coutino's wife and his two sons in your thoughts and as a district we are honoring Mr patino's memory and Legacy through the placement of Memorial bunting outside of E.T Hamilton and that bunting signifies that we are in mourning but we're also celebrating his life so at this time if we could just have a very brief moment
077of silence foreign so at this time I'd like to respond to uh there was one question presented at the November board meeting and as I'd like to respond to that question now uh that was about a re-vote on the library book so the response is there will not be a re-vote on the VMS library book The Perks of Being a Wallflower which was board approved um on October 19th to remove from the library at VMS as a result of the book being designated as an interest level for grades 9 to 12. when the vote was taken it was taken under the current policy 9130 which is public complaints and grievances so that vote was taken under the current policy there will be a resolution on the January 23rd agenda and that resolution will be for
078first reading of a revised policy 9130 in addition we will be bringing forth for the first reading a new policy 2530 which is entitled resource material so we'll be revising 9130 and we will be bringing a new policy 2530 for consideration for first reading at the next board meeting okay I also want to update on uh the sound system and I'm pleased to say that it is 90 installed we have all of the um speakers in the in the ceiling we're just waiting which is uh taking a long time to come in but we're just waiting for the actual microphones once they come in the sound system for the board meetings will be installed so I thank everyone for their patience it's just it's uh that supply chain is causing some still causing some problems
079but we're 90 there so at this time I like to present my um January report um the first uh topic is uh the conversation about Diwali as a district holiday for school closure and my response is the diversity of our community is what makes Voorhees so very special our family members celebrate numerous holidays and observances just recently I met with representatives from the Muslim Community in regard to their request to add two Muslim holidays to our district count as a school district we are unable to close schools to recognize all of the various holidays that are celebrated among our diverse families therefore my recommendation to the board of education at this time is not to add any additional School closure unless there is a state or federal mandate however to support the education of our
080district family in regard to various holidays and observances we are planning to create a district diversity and Equity diversity equity and inclusion committee this committee will be made up of one person from each School administrators community members and possibly board members this committee will work on developing programs and activities to educate all of our students on all of the various cultural holidays and observances so we will make sure that we put that Community together and to provide the education so that we're all aware we're sitting next to someone who celebrates something everyone should understand and know what that student celebrates and why okay the an ESL needs assessment is on the agenda tonight and that's our English as a second language program our population of ESL students and older students whose English is the second
081language has increased by 29 When comparing October 2021 to October 2022. so we want to ensure that we are using best practices for our ESL students and that we are preparing for any future increases in enrollment to this end a resolution is listed on tonight's agendas for the board to consider a two-day ESL needs assessment to take place on January 25th and 26th this analysis if approved will be performed by up the bar achievement and it will consist of day one of the bar visiting E.T Hamilton and Crescent Elementary School conducting interviews of Administrators ESL teachers and some select general education teachers and discussing with our director of special services the process of how ESL students are referred to special education then day two will consist of a visit to the Middle School reviewing schedules
082assessment results placement and exit procedures curriculum materials and then there will be a debriefing and a written feedback so that we are well prepared to move forward with our ESL students I want to announce that we have two parent virtual workshops for this month on January 10th Mr Moscow is our principal of E.T Hamilton will be presenting the impact of teaching inspirational stories and that's at six o'clock on January 10th and it is a zoom workshop and all of those links are on the website on January 25th Mr Robert Kramer from Osage Elementary School and Miss Mary tadley also Osage elementary school will be presenting a workshop strategies for addressing challenging behaviors and that's on January 25th at six o'clock once again the link to that virtual Workshop can be found on our website I
083like to welcome our new board members and I am enthusiastic and excited to work with each and every one of you and I'd just like to conclude this evening by stressing my commitment and the commitment of District administrators but I hold myself to a much higher standard to make sure that we provided qual education for each and every child in an environment that is optimal for their learning experience and as Leaders when we are making decisions we look at multiple data points we look at assessment data we look at interviews observations and we make a decision that decision is fluid though because as we deal with the progress of students your decision should be fluid based on how students are performing then we go back and we look at more data and we do more
084observations and we do more interviews and then if we have to make changes to those decisions we do but the most important thing is that is that communication is transparent and ongoing and that's very important so I just want to stress that my commitment to that thank you very much [Applause] thank you can I get a motion to approve all of the items under transportation online voting is open also for our new board members this would be the time if you do have questions about a particular agenda item you can raise it now before we actually vote I just wanted to stress that we hadn't in the past foreign passes they get a motion to approve all of the items under personnel so moved second online voting is open foreign motion unanimously passes you get
085a motion to approve all the items under new business um Ed Hamilton and Signal Hill not Crescent clarify which which schools they're going to my apologies um when the board resolution was created it was Signal Hill we just made the change uh today that it approved it would be uh Crescent so my podcast should have been updated on the agenda no problem thank you you're welcome thank you I'll be waiting for someone up through the motion do you need someone to make a motion Oh I thought I did uh um can I make a motion to approve all of the items under new business show me or I'll say it online voting is open the motion unanimously passes our next meeting will be a regular meeting held here on January 23rd 2023 at 7 pm
086can I get a motion to approve all the items under Finance second online voting is open motion unanimously passes foreign all those in favor thank you all for coming