001I guess you hurry up and wait. I don't know what that is. We don't have to talk so >> good evening everyone. >> Welcome to the reorganization of the Wells Milford Board of Education for the year 2020. Um, would you everyone like to join me for the flag salute? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. In accordance with provisions of the open public meeting that public notice of this meeting has been sent to board members, all district schools, the Herald News, the trends, the record, the messenger, West Milford Township Hall, uh the county superintendent's office, board attorney, and cable vision of Warwick and posted in the administration building. Copies of
002the board meeting calendar resolutions were pro provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all district schools. At this time, I would like to uh read the results of the election um board election which took place on November the 5th. Uh Jason Stillman, 24,3 votes. Michael Conklin Jr. 1,799 votes. Courtney Stevenson 1,657 votes. Robert Woodier 1,645 votes. William Sidowitz, 1520 votes. Steven Drew, 1465 votes. Writings, we had 31. The oath of office will now be administered by the board attorney, Mr. Andrew Brown. >> We're going to do that up front. >> You could either do it everybody together. >> I think we agreed to do it everybody together. So, why don't we all get out front so you can get your pictures taken out? >> Oh, yeah. That's a good spot. [Music] >>
003The camera's over there. >> Go in the center. >> Sorry. This is my first time doing this here, too. So, this will be exciting for all of us. >> You need to stand in front of me. in front of them so they're speaking. >> Repeat after me. I >> I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States. do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and that I will bear true faith in the in 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
004the United States and this state >> and to the government established in the United States and this state >> under the authority of the people under the people. Let's see if we can do the next one. >> Don't forget to say your name this time. I >> I Stevenson >> do solemnly affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law >> that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law >> for the office of member of a board of education >> for the office of member of >> and that I'm not disqualified as a voter >> I'm not disqualified as a voter >> pursue to RS194-1 One of >> you are disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense. >> Listed in NJSA18A12-1 NJSA 18A12-1 >> and that I will faithfully and partially and justly
005perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability. faithfully and justly perform office. >> Congratulations. [Applause] Good job. >> At this time, I would like if any of the new board members would like to enter anything. >> I'd just like to thank my wife and my kids for their support and thank everybody for the votes. >> Mr. Pa, thank my wife Jill and my son Sean for all the continued love and support through this. Thank the community for uh giving me the opportunity to work on this board and uh looking forward to it. It's good. >> Thank you. >> Well, I have something prepared. >> Um I'd like to thank my family as well, my husband for supporting me and my children. Um I'd also like to really thank Rob
006Woodier. He could not be more gracious and more gentlemanly like towards me. Um and I'd like to encourage him to run again. I think his insights and knowledge would very much benefit our board. I'm also very appreciative toward the West Milford voters. Uh this election really showed that every vote counted. It's so important um to vote and to get out and vote to become educated and to talk to one another and more importantly to listen to one another. I appreciate everyone who did vote and who took the time to fill out absentee ballots. Um, and I hope to meet all the voters expectations and look forward to working professionally and respectfully with this board. >> Welcome. Um, at this time I'm going to call the role. >> Mr. Stillman >> here. >> Mr. Conlin >>
007here. >> Mrs. Stevenson >> here. >> Mrs. Dwer >> here. >> Mr. Oshinsky >> here. >> Mrs. Romeo >> here. >> Mrs. Fritz >> here. >> Mr. Mrs. Van Dyke here. Okay. Now, um I would like to take nominations for the office of board president. Does anyone have a nomination? Mrs. >> I would like to nominate Linda Van Dyk as board president. I'll second up. >> Any other nominations from the floor? [Music] >> Seeing none, do we need a vote? You should or someone make a motion to apply application. We have a motion to close nominations and then a vote. >> To close nominations. >> Move to close nominations for board president. >> Second. >> I vote on that. >> Vote on uh the close of nominations. >> I. >> All in favor? >> Any
008opposed? >> Any abstensions? uh for um Mrs. Van Dyke. Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mr. Conlin, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mr. Oshinsky, >> yes. >> And I will gladly turn over the G [Applause] Thank you. Thank you. I'd just like to thank everybody. I look forward to working with the new board. Um, I look forward to developing a good relationship and that we can uh work together on a many new projects that are ahead of us. Makipin one of them. I think I think this board is pretty much on the same page educationally and that we all want the same thing. We want to move West Milford forward educationally. So,
009I thank you. At this time, um, I'm opening the floor up for nominations for vice president. Nicole, >> I would like to nominate Terry Der. >> I'll second that. >> Any other nominations for vice president? >> If not, I need a motion to close nominations. I'll make a motion to close nomination. >> Perfect. President. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? Um, roll call. Mrs. uh, >> uh, Mrs. Romeo? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwer? >> Yes. >> Mr. Conklin? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Djk? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz? >> Yes. >> Mr. Silman? >> Yes. >> Mr. Oshinsky? Yeah, that's >> congratulations. >> Oh, thank you. [Applause] >> In transit, I want the good chair. [Music] Well, thank you and I look forward again to working
010with Mrs. Van Djk as president and I look forward to working with all the board members. We have some challenges to face this year. Um but we will face them strongly and we will persevere. So onward West Milford board. [Applause] All right. I do have one quick amendment to the uh agenda before we move on. On page 23, we have a typo. On page 23, education number one, uh the board determination for incident report N2 is going to be unsubstantiated, not substantiated. And we could do that in executive session. >> Okay. Uh I need a motion uh to adopt the agenda as laid out before you. >> I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda as is with the one change of the hair being unsubstantiated. up. >> All those in favor? >> I >>
011Any opposed? >> Um before we move forward into the into the agenda itself. Uh I would I was uh wanted to put it out to the board if you'd like to view this as a consent agenda. We can move all the mo all the resolutions at one time. If anybody has any questions on any of the resolutions, otherwise we can move each instead of going individually, we can move them all forward. No discussion. >> I think it'll save a lot of time. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's it's really like a housekeeping. Everything has basically stayed the same. The only change that really is part of the reorganization is the time change where it's going to 7:00 instead of 7:30. So, just call for >> Do you want public comment on that too? Since you're going
012to move the way it >> would anybody from the public like to comment on the resolutions. >> Okay, then you would move. >> So I I need a I need a I need a motion to move the the whole agenda. >> I'll uh make a motion to adopt the resolution. >> And we need a second. >> Second. [Music] >> Any discussion? If not, Mrs. Francisco, >> are there any questions? >> No, there were no questions. >> Okay. Could you after the >> Yeah, I did. >> Everybody's good. >> Yeah, I did ask. >> And this is just on the reorganization. >> All the It's all the resolutions. >> It's one through it's number 13, I assume. It's 15 personalities. >> You know what? I'll read I'll read it. I'll read it out. It's going to
013be resolutions 1 through 14. 13, >> right? 13. >> Actually, it's 1 through 12. >> 1 through 12. I'm sorry. >> On number 13 on the agenda. >> Number 13 on the agenda. [Applause] >> Okay. U Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes. Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwer, >> yes. >> Mr. Conklin, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mr. Oshinsky, >> yes. >> Okay. Now, one thing here, uh, the team charter has to be signed. We just passed it under the resolution. So, I'll pass it around and everyone can sign in their spot where they need to sign. Go in page 20. So, we're going to uh item one under education is going to be um we need executive session for that. >>
014So, let's move on to the ethics presentation. >> Personal student. >> Oh, I need to do public comment. I'm inexperienced here. So that public comment. This portion of the meeting is open to members of the public for the purpose of addressing resolutions on this agenda only. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. Each speaker will be given five minutes for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other public comment limited to five minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. All members of the public speaking during this public comment period are asked to address topics listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to sign the register provided and give their full name, spell their
015last name, group affiliation if appropriate, and provide their address. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered, and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged. The board and the administration will not respond to them. Students and employees have specific students and employees uh have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board is not responsible and is not liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected
016and identified in their comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Anyone wishing to speak under public comment? >> I'll make a motion to close public comment. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> personnel uh Mrs. Fritz. >> I would like to move items one through three under personnel. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I see I see George W. Been with us a long time. >> Yeah, he will be missed. He's a real um everybody knows him and I hate I wish him well. Okay. Any other discussion? If not, roll call. Mrs. Francis. >> Mrs. Fritz? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Oshinsky? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo? >> Yes. >> Mr. Stillman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwer? >> Yes.
017>> Mr. Conklin? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke? >> Yes. >> Operations and finance. >> Did you want to do that one, Dave? >> Yes. Uh I like to make a motion to move items one and two >> two. >> One and two. >> Any discussion? These are all the solar projects. This is up on the easel. >> Yes, they have to be submitted to the Department of Education. >> Any other discussion? If not, [Applause] >> Mrs. Stevenson. Yes, >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes, >> Mr. Conklin. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Van Dyk. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes, >> Mr. Stillman. >> Yes, >> Mr. Oshinsky. >> Yes. >> And um and her education >> that will move um after executive session. >> Now, Mrs. Halawa for our ethics
018presentation. Thank you very much. Welcome. Thank you so much. It's great to be back here. Congratulations to the board members. I have some material for everyone else. Thank you. >> Take that one. >> It's video. Thank you very much. >> Sure. It can't hurt. >> If you have enough, >> you can have it back up. You can see >> we're going to be on TV. Um, you might be okay. >> Now, I have been to West Milford before as your field service representative, which I'm very happy I am. U, my name is Kathleen Hela and I work for the New Jersey School Boards Association, which is a uh you're all members. All schoolboard members in the state of New Jersey are members of our association. And we are not we don't have any authority. We
019are a support organization. We exist to help you do your job better and to make sure that you get the mandatory re training that the law requires. Um, so I am a resource for you. I'm pleased to help you whenever you have a question about governance or boardsmanship. Give me a call. Um, and part of my job is I get to come into West Milford and deliver some really nice uh, you know, sessions and discussions with the board. And this one may seem a little bit dry, but I am very conversational. So if you have questions, by all means interrupt me talk. I want to make sure that you all understand this. But if something kind of you miss something or you need a little clarification, give me a call tomorrow anytime. I'm happy to
020help. Um, in your folder, if you open this up, we are streamlining the packets. Um, so it's a little thinner than than than you may have seen before, but we do have a full copy of the PowerPoint, which is very useful. And on the left side, this acknowledgement of you can sign that, get it on over to Barbara. She will have a record that the board um took its, you know, annual discussion. And on the back of that is the uh is the tool which is also on your agendas I saw and we'll also be going through it very closely through our presentation. All right. So we'll start. The Ethics Act is a piece of legislation, right, that um was enacted back in April 1992. Um and it's really all all that it's about honestly
021at the bottom line is to make sure that you maintain the trust and the confidence of the people who put you your stakeholders, right? Um and it's the same set of rules for every school district in New Jersey. It is the law from Hondu to Kate May and everything in between. So we're all on the same level playing field. Um which is a good thing. Uh you would hope that the word ethics would be very black and white, but it is kind of gray in some areas. You know, um new board members, I gave you a copy of the full ethics act. I know our experienced board members have seen this many times before and it's there in all its legal ease, but we'll go through it and we'll kind of, you know, just kind
022of flesh out what that actually really means because it's important that you understand it. not only make sure that you're not in violation of the act itself, but that if you look on the bottom of that slide, um those last two words that are in red, you have to make sure that you do not create a justifiable impression to the public that their trust is being violated. And if it is proven that you have created that justifiable impression, then you know technically you are in violation of the school ethics act regardless of your intention. Um there was actually a case very recently where a board member felt he was acting in good faith. Um, and you know, he he I'm sure he was, but uh, you know, he created that justifiable impression that he was
023acting outside of the parameters of the school ethics act and he got an ethics violation. So, we don't want that for anybody and that's why I I am grateful for the invitation. Thank you very much for having me. >> Well, thank you for coming. That's a good >> Oh, good, good, good. So, in any case, um, whom does the school ethics act apply to? all school board members in the state. Um, it also applies to charter school trustees and to certain certificated administrators, not the code of ethics, but the ethics act itself. The code of ethics is for school board members only. And that's what you just signed and passed on over to work. Um but basically it's some specific standards that you have to adhere to and also um what the penalties are for
024violating that the mechanism that you use for violating which we'll talk about. Um it's also worth noting that compliance with the ethics act is part of your act right your um the instrument by which you are uh deemed to be an effective school district or not by the state of New Jersey. There's a whole bunch of indicators. You'll become more familiar with this as new board members as you gain your and the board is responsible for that. So, um what you need to make sure is that you do your training um that the board has its annual discussion of the code of ethics um and is demonstrated in the board meeting uh meeting minutes which it will be after tonight. And also um if one member is found in violation of the of the ethics
025act, you get a violation. Um then it hurts you on your cusack. Believe it or not, you're not going to go down some points. So which is interesting because the code of ethics and the ethics act does not apply to boards of education to the actual body. It applies to each individual. I find it very interesting that if one individual misbehaves then the whole team has to take it. >> It's not exactly fair. And it's not just the whole team, it's the whole district because and I see your superintendent rightly not for one person to bring it down. Um, and I don't I'm sure that that won't happen, but that's just part of my my spiel when I deliver this train. Talk about a little bit more what conflicts are and also um the fact
026that board members have to fill out disclosure statements. Um, I see some nods that came to you from Trenton electronically. Make sure you fill that in if you haven't already. Um, and also what your training requirements are as board members because in New Jersey, school board members are required to take the same mandated training as you go through your years of service. It's not every year. Um, but newly elected board members do need to take new board member orientation um, in year one of your first term. It does behoove you to take that as quickly as possible because some of the things that are covered in there will actually namely um the process by which you review your chief school administrator needs to be done within six months of you taking office. If you do
027not then the board takes again and it's like six point six or seven points that's a big that's a big chunk. So, you know, look into taking your NJSBA. Um, and there are two methods by which you can do it. You can do it in person or you can do it online. If you take the online training, do it in person. That's perfectly fine and absolutely encouraged. There's a new board member orientation weekend, very immersive. We have one in February. We have one in March. Free of charge to you in the district. And you get everything cruise. It's a great envelope as a new board member and I was thrilled by it. Um and look where it got me. So, um, but if you can't afford the whole weekend, we do have one day trainings
028and we have, you know, different opportunities throughout the year for you in person, but you definitely need to do that um before 6 months of having taken office. And if you don't take it before the end of the year, you will get paid by the ethics commission. We'll talk about that a little later. Um, but in your you'll also take some mandated governance training. it'll be shorter. Um, in governance two, we focus on uh budgeting and and school district finance. Um, in year three, we focus on student achievement and those need to be taken by the 31st of the year. Um, again, you can do the inperson, you can do the online, we don't have a whole weekend for that though. Um, but the final module of uh required training that you need to know
029about is what we call governance. um which is taken each year that you are reelected. So if you serve a first years one, two and three of your first term, you decide you love this and you are reelected, you take go four that next year and then you have two years off. If you are reelected, you take go four again by the 31st of December and then you are good. Um, also, um, you do need to understand the harassment, intimidation, and bullying policies of your school district and the procedures for that. Um, and that's really only required once. So, the initial training is in governance one, and we follow up with governance for if there's any kind of updates, which you'll see in your school notes. Any questions about that stuff? Okay. If you do,
030just let us know. We're happy to help. Um, school ethics commission is the body that was established by the ethics act that holds you account members to making sure that you follow the act itself. It is an all volunteer body. It meets once a month in Trenton when they can get a quorum. Um, and the members are appointed by the governor. These are the people that decide whether or not your behavior is in line with the code of ethics and the and the ethics act. Um, and the membership comprises when it's fully staffed, when the governor has appointed as many people to serve. It does that doesn't always happen. You have two people who are active school board members serving on the ethics commission. Two people who are active school administrators, superintendent, that sort of
031thing. and five people who do not have anything to do with serving on a board or working in a school. Five non school officials. So, right away you can kind of tell that when the commission is going to be looking at whether you or not you violated the ethics act. They're not members eyes, right? they'll be looking at it and the majority of the of the membership will be looking at it through members of you know John Q public socks that sort of thing. So that's kind of something interesting to know. Um it's not always fully staffed. As a matter of fact, right now we have a vacancy in the um school board member slot. So if you want to serve um let me know and I'll pass word on to our executive director and
032it is next conversation with the governor. You never know what might happen, right? Um so how do they do their job? Well, they do that by means of two uh methods. Uh they issue advisory opinions and they hear eth ethics complaints. Two ve two very different animals. Um and we'll start with the advisory opinions. The advisory opinions are behavior that you're considering as an individual or a fellow board member or school official considering or something that you're engaged in currently and you're just not sure because like I said that word ethics it's kind of gray sometimes you're really not sure whether you're conflicted or whether line with the ethics act then you can write for an advisory meeting and it's nothing fancy it's not any kind of form for ethics commission before their monthly meeting.
033And you explain the activity and you you explain why you're questioning that it might not be a good idea for you to continue or for your fellow board member to continue and ask for an advisory opinion. And at their next meeting, they will hear it. They'll make a decision and they will send you that decision. Um, and it's on the Department of Education's website. had the instructions in the address on how to do that. Um, but you can only ask for an advisor opinion about either yourself or someone that you're serving with on this board. So, if you um, you know, if you're if you your friend is or someone you know is serving on the I don't know, West Orange board of education or the you know, Cedar Grove Board of Education, this or
034that, you cannot ask for an advisory opinion about that person. But you can ask for an advisory opinion, work with on your own board of education. You just have to let the commission know and prove that you've, you know, notified that person that you're asking everything's fine or no, you really need to change your ways. That's not uh that's not good. And and the reason why it's not good and there's never anything punitive about it. There's never any kind of penalty. Um it's just a yes, keep doing it or no, stop doing it and the commission trusts that you will cease. Um and interestingly enough, these opinions are often published on the Department of Education's website. The school ethics commission has its own section and they publish certain advisory opinions. They need to vote on
035it. Six people on the commission need to say yes, this is okay. this is something that would be of use for other school board members to know about. Um, and then when they put it on the website, you'll see it's all scrubbed up. You don't know what district is asking or what person. They kind of sanitize it so you don't really know. Um, but it's a good source source of advice. And when board members call us and ask, you know, is this something I could do or not, we often rely on those should become familiar with their website. Actually, it's pretty interesting because also on that website are the ethics complaints that the commission hears. Um, and they are a very different animal because ethics complaints are about activities that have occurred already. Okay? When
036the horse has left the barn, as I always say, and it's made someone pretty angry, um, that's when they start filing the ethics complaints. And they certainly can do that. An ethics complaint can be filed by anyone. Doesn't have to be a school official or a board member. Doesn't have to be someone from West Milford. Doesn't even have to be someone from New Jersey. Could be someone who's just reading the papers from out of state and thinks that's awful and they would like to file an ethics complaint against you. That is absolutely allowed. Um so yeah, it could be anybody. So we really these are these are ones that you really really want to avoid. and these things um if you are um well we'll talk a little bit later about the penalties but let
037me address this slide first only one advisory opinion came out in 2019. So, uh, and we worked it into our presentation for this year. And this has to do with a board member who was elected, but their job was to, you know, to drive the school bus for a private contractor that did work in the district. Um, which was, you know, Yeah. Right. You can see why someone would ask for an advisory opinion on that because this school board member or school board member elect would be driving around district children, right? They may need to write a discipline report. They'll be interacting with parents. They'll be interacting with staff to a certain degree, but and and that's not something that a school that's within a school board member's um purview. However, it is their livelihood.
038They don't work for the district. They work for a private company. It's so it's gray, right? It's gray. And the SEC concluded that it was okay for the member to continue doing such a thing. Um because after reading what their duties were and what would be expected of them as a bus driver even of a school route um for that particular district, it would just be you know temporary contact with students um authority um so they can stay on it. But the opinion, I believe, did say, you know what, if you have an opportunity to get another route, you probably want to do that. In different words, that's what they said. Um, and the member needed to abstain from any kind of vote that had to deal deal with with the busing and the bus
039company, any kind of discussions like that. So, but otherwise, he could stay on. That's interesting, right, Linda? I mean, you probably would have thought that that would be a conflict, right? So, it's it's worth writing the for these. They're never they don't cost you anything. They're never punitive. They're kind of interesting and you just want to make sure that you, God forbid, it turns into an ethics complaint later, right? So, when you have those ethics complaints, I mentioned that they do have some penalties that come with them. And here they are in this in ascending order of importance, right? A reprimand is uh where you've done something wrong and you just pretty much get a letter from the commissioner of education saying that was bad. So, it's kind of between you and me. Um, essenti
040is a step up. That's where there's a resol notice that needs to be read at the board table by the board president that act and a suspension is even worse. Of course, the uh SEC can recommend that a school board member be kicked off the board for a certain amount of time. um the commissioner decides whether or not that is um you know is is is appropriate and that's also formal resolution and trust me a lot of newspaper articles about you um and removal is the most extreme if you have a very severe violation you can be kicked off the school board so we don't like that if there's any appeals they're they're held by the commission so um with all that being said I know I've been talking a lot any questions about any
041of That stuff is kind of caught dry. The emphasis on dry. Um so let's go through the code of ethics. Right. So within the school ethics act is a special portion just for school board members and this actually came out of work that the uh new quite some time ago going back to the 70s I believe. It was kind of um optional but uh advocacy made it mandatory. So, I know it's a little I know it's a little drippy, but um I am really getting tired of hearing my own voice. If you wouldn't mind reading subsection AP, so we have it on you can't read it there. All you need to do is read this guy a right here. I will I will uphold and enforce all laws, rules and regulations of the state board
042of education and court orders pertaining to the schools. Desired changes shall be bought out only through legal and ethical uh procedures. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. Well done. >> Well done. Nice loud voice and we can hear that and understand this one's this one's pretty easy. You know, basically if it's in if it's the law, you have to follow it. you know, as a student remember to what our legislature instructs us to do, what the uh state board of education instructs us to do. Um any kind of court order um you know, but what's also kind of interesting there is that second sentence, desired changes shall be brought about only through legal. Um the bottom part of all of these slides I'm not going to read, but if you wanted to prove that someone
043was in violation of these particular tenants, that's what you'd have to do. Um I should note that the ethics commission is not an investigatory body. You're not going to be able to file a complaint that says I heard this or it is understood that or there is a report that you need to prove the violation occurred and they will determine whether or not that's a valid proof and whether or not that is a violation or not. So you're not they're not going to be sending investigators or this or that. um as it goes through the courts, you you know, each party will need to get a lawyer and there may be, you know, um testimony taken, but they're not going to investigate these things the way, you know, let's say the police will if someone
044breaks into your house. Um so, subsection B is is one of my very favorites. David, would you mind reading that one? >> I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children. public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability, race, creed, sex, or social standard. >> Perfect. Thank you. And and the reason why this one is my favorite is because this is really what being a board member is all about, right? It's as simple and as difficult as that. Most important word in this one is one of the smallest word all. Right? You're working for all children. Now, to be found in violation of B, it's actually kind of difficult because you would have to prove that a decision was willfully made contrary to the educational welfare
045of children. That's a little hard. Um, but you know, just as a touchstone, right, just as a baseline, you have to keep that threeletter word all in mind and let it inform every decision that you make. And a lot of times um people are put on their board um their school board for everyone as a desire to history of advocating for a certain segment of the school community, right? whether it's for um gifted and talented children or special needs children or um you know any kind of you know or even your own kids school or your own child's class and that's very good work and is not to be disparaged but as a board member your role is very very different and you need to kind of check that at the door because you're looking
046at the welfare of every kid in the when their needs one one kid's needs don't it's not more important than another child's needs whether you know them or not whether they're in your family or not whether they're your kids friend or not you're talking about football so that one's a big one I that one no one ever asked me what my favorite is but that is [Music] I will confine my board action to policy making planning and appraisal and I will help to frame policies and plans only after will be affected by them. >> Right? And for such a short sentence, there's a lot to that. I mean, part of it is that last part that always catches every will be affected by them, right? That's what public commentary is for. That's why you have
047a chance for people to comment on agenda items before you vote on them. Right? So, that takes care of that. That's pretty good. Um but the other thing too that I want you to keep in mind is that you need to confine your board actions policym planning and appraisal. Okay that's the role of a school board member that and communication. There's four functions to it. The one that the school ethics commission is most concerned about is policym planning and appraisal. Getting outside of that is beyond the scope of your responsibilities and you may be in violation of the of the ethics act. uh policym as a body that's probably the most important thing that you all do. Um so as long as you keep it if if the things that are before you if you
048say is this policym is this planning is this appraisal is this communication then you're good. Um and D is a real important one. If you don't mind reading this out loud it's not going to be the last time you say it. I guarantee you >> I will carry out my responsibility not to admin but together with my fellow board members to see that they will run. >> That is exactly right. It dovetales so beautifully with C. I'm telling you and it is really a very important one. You'll hear this all the time if you go to New Jersey School Board Association programs and I hope you do. Um we have employed as schoolboard members the chief educational officer of the community. That's the person that we pay to run the schools, make sure that everything
049is going well. If they lets the board know if things are going particularly well, we're just a little lets the board know, informs you with data, keeps you a breast on what kind of progress the district is making on the district goals annually. Um, so you can appraise that, but it's not for us to go into the schools to check up on that firsthand, investigate that sort of thing, um, initiate something new. That's outside of your curve. That is something for the superintendent for his administrator. This one and they're very passionate about education in general and their district in particular, right? So, they want to help to move the ball forward. That's doesn't make you a bad person. That's pretty good. But it's not your role as a board member to try to run the
050schools. And sometimes we need a little check to say, "Oh, was I really trying to run the schools?" And maybe someone like a third party like me or your board attorney or your, you know, maybe your board president or superintendent can help you see whether or not that is running the schools or not. Um, and that's a big one. There's a lot of people who are slapped with a violation of D. So, that's something that you need to kind of keep out. Other word that's a key phrase key one in here is the word together because no board member has any authority when they step away from mistakes. You only have authority. It only exists when you are around the table and you are voting on agenda items. That is it. Other than that, you
051don't have any more authority than than me or than you know the person that you see when you're stopped at the traffic light. The power of the board members comes from the actions that they take together with their fellow board members. Now, that being said, most of, if not all, of your constituents do not understand that. they're not sure of what your role is or, you know, or they're misinformed. Sometimes they know. Um, but oftentimes you'll be approached and you'll be asked to weigh in on something, to solve something, to this or that. And that's I'm seeing a nice smile. That's good because that indicates you get it. Um, yeah, you can't you can't solve these problems, right? Most of the time, and we'll talk about the change in a little bit uh later, most
052of the times it's not even your the board's perview to solve these problems, but certainly if there is something that the board can advance or do, they need to do it together. It's not just one member. Um, good old E as an eagle, another often violated tenant of the code of ethics. Linda, do you mind reading that? I will recognize of the board of education and will make no personal promises nor take any private action that may compromise the board. Right? So if you represent yourself as the West Milford Board of Education anywhere, that's not good. Okay? If you write a letter um to the newspaper and don't identify yourself as a board member who is speaking for herself only and not for the board, you're likely in violation of E. In fact, you're surely
053in violation of E. Um if you go to a constituent group and say, I will make sure that the board does X or Y, that's a violation of E. It's really problematic. Again, it goes back to that whole thing. When does your authority exist? Only when you're voting on particular items. And no one here among this board or any other board has any kind of um her vote counts just as much as anyone else's vote here. Right. And and I know that you get it here, which is really good because sometimes that's a anyway that's an awkward violation. Um, Terry, do you mind reading F for me? F. I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interests or partisan political groups or use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of
054friends. >> I don't think I have to waste any time, but thank you. >> Kate, how's about G? Do you mind reading G for us? I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to schools which if disclosed needlessly injure individuals or the schools and all other matters I will provide accurate information and in concert with my fellow board members and to staff the aspirations of the community for its school. >> Thank you. The most important part of this can be summed up in two words. No leaks. No leaks of confidential information. If something is discussed in an executive session, that's where it needs to stay until the need for always exists. Um, if your superintendent passes you a memo or sends you an email that says confidential, you need to keep that conf. The details of
055HIV investigations, they need to stay confidential. Personnel matters need to stay confidential. It is very that information kind of gets out. That's the kind of thing that really does damage individuals. So, as human beings, we like to avoid that in any case, but as school officials, it's really important. Um, oh, I'll read H. Um, I will vote to appoint the best qualified personnel available after the consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer. So, this is about personnel territory, which are on your agenda often, if not all uh most of the time. Um, and I know that board members kind of get a little nervous about um about those types of motions, but the good news is that you don't have to do because you absolutely have to have the recommendation of your superintendent
056in order to hire somebody. Um, and your superintendent is the educational leader of your district. So, who better to do that, right? Um, and the reason why this is kind of in there is because let's just imagine that your superintendent's recommendations and someone says, "You know, my nephew just got out of my cousin's nephew just got out of a, you know, garden teacher." And everyone says, "That sounds great." You know, can you imagine? Can't do that because of age, right? Can't do that because of common sense, too. But we have it in there for age just in case anyone. And I is the chain of command. Well, actually I is a little bit different from that. J is the chain of command, but this kind of plays into it. I is my second favorite. Okay.
057I will support and protect school personnel in proper performance of their duties. And one of the reasons why it's my second favorite is because as board members, you all have a big invisible to you B O E M tattooed on your forehead that means I'm a board member and people will try to bring you into conversations about their child's coach, their child's teacher, their child's principal, this administrator, X and Y and Z and try to give you all on them and want you to do something about it. And you can excuse yourself and move to another spot of the cocktail party and say, "I am with you. I am not allowed to have this conversation with you and you will be very happy for that." Now, that being said, it does require a little bit
058of finesse um to kind of disengage yourself from those conversations, especially when we're talking with constituents who have elected you with your their sign on their lawn um you know, who's very enthusiastic to have their friend at the table, their neighbor at the table, and they don't quite understand what you do. So, that dubtales beautifully into our last subsection, which is J. And this is the chain of command. I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and I will act on the compl on complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution. What this means is that if someone has and you'll hear stories that you won't like, trust me, um but they're not yours to solve like I mentioned earlier. child's teacher. You explain, well, there's a thing called the
059chain of command, and the board of education, not just me, the whole board or no. If it's a yes, then okay, then you advance to the principal. If the if the if the solution isn't good after that if the solution is not to the complainant's liking then you go up a level maybe to the director of curriculum maybe to you know depending on what the situation is could be I don't know transportation director it depends on the situation and then you work your way up towards the penultimate level which is a superintendent right more than 90% of the time these sorts of things are solved at that level if not before then and you will not have to deal with it which is a good thing because we really don't run the schools. We don't
060know about running the schools. We are lay people. Um but if there is a failure of an administrative solution, no not you know not an auto yes but if there is no administrative solution then the person who is so effective can come before the board and uh and ask you put on an agenda because you are the what we call the best resort. You're the last stop in the chain of command. But when I say you understand I mean the board you okay are there any question? After training, it came through New Jersey school boards where they tell you to tell people, you don't want to tell me because if it gets to me, you want me to be able to be informed and make a good judgment in this instance. So that's why you
061need to use the chain of command. And a lot of times people even though they want to tell you their story, they understand that you would we would have to you you would have to say then I would have to say I can't participate in this discussion. So >> that's a great point. >> You know, sometimes it makes them feel a little >> more at ease that you know you you're not just blowing them off like well you know I don't care but that that they understand why we do what we do, >> right? You can't in other words you can't get involved at the wrong level because the more involvement you have at the wrong level is the greater chance that you will need to recuse yourself from any kind of discuss. >> Thanks
062for reiterating that. >> Um yeah that's that's really okay. Uh ethics violations that relate to what we're talking about here that are always it's always fun to get these stories, right? Um as long as we're not living them. Uh we had a member who um took information about a student discipline incident and emailed his immediate family, excuse me, bless you about it because it was interesting. >> And this this this language is from the decision. And the immediate family then took that and shared it with countless others, email, social media, you can imagine. So that member was guilty of an ethics violation and that person was censured. Even though the person said, "I'm sorry. I know I did wrong." They were very apologetic. They saw that that was just not the right thing to do
063and I'm so glad I'm nowhere near their kitchen table when this news broke broke out. but they leaped right over the reprimand and gave that person a censure. So that just kind of shows how serious that is. Was kind of fun. This district is popping up in a number of bullet points um where a member approached a subordinate employee of the superintendent. You ever see yourself as being a superintendent someday here? Do you think that that would be a good fit? We think that would be a good fit for you. What do you think? you know, the super line, her contract's not up for anything. So, that was that was an issue. Um, and that person was found guilty of subsections E and I, and they were issued just a reprimand, even though I think
064that that's pretty bad, and they violated two tenants, but they just got a reprimand. Um, I'm not sure if it was the same district, but this was um an interesting one. um again the member who wasn't too happy with their superintendent and went to a union meeting um and told the teachers, "Look, just be patient. We hate the superintendent, too. We're doing our best to get rid of her. Just hang on. We're trying everything. Just be patient. We support you." and believe as having violated the ethics act. And yes, he was found guilty of two tenants, D and E. Wanted him off the board for a year. But the commissioner said that's a little excessive. never kick people off for a year and we're not going to start with this guy but we'll kick him
065off for 60 days. So he missed two meetings for that and you know there's a lot of newspaper articles about and this one you may remember because it was televised all over where a board member was stopped by an un by a traffic um officer because she was speeding and um he didn't know that she was a school board member and she let him know um it was captured by a dashboard camera and it went all over the news. So now everyone in New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area knows that she's a school board member and uh she used inappropriate language and um that turned out to be a violation of the ethics act. She received a 30day suspension. >> Okay. And the inappropriate language, as problematic as it was, it's not really
066a violation of the e ethics act. Even though I'm in car, I'm not at the deis and I'm not sure what traffic has to do with school business. Um, that's where she got. >> I don't know why. >> I I mean, yeah, I wish people gave us some credit, you know. Yeah, but they don't. And that's okay. And that's okay. Really doesn't have anything to do with drugs. So, um, and lastly, this was from this was from the same district where the guy was going to the Union meeting. This is, I think, a different guy. In fact, it is. Um, anyway, so he had an auto repair shop, I think, around the corner from the school where his wife was a teacher. He was a board member and he used to just, you know, waltz
067into the school whenever he wanted to say hello to everybody and this and that. And as evidenced by the fellow board member who went to the union meeting, he didn't like the school superintendent too much either. Um, so he was meeting with the school secretary and asking him over and over to please just, you know, tell everybody you're being blackmailed by the administration because of this this very this weird incident. um you know don't you and so this person really is just a very just a paragon of awful behavior and he was found B D E I and J. So when you read, if you become familiar with the ethics commission website, you'll see like when people file an ethics complaint, they just throw everything to the wall and they see what sticks and a
068lot of times things don't stick. But this one walls were very sticky. Um so he was given a centure because by the time that this winded its way through the entire appeals process and all of that, um he was ultimately wound up with the century. He was off the board. He was not reelected. So kind of interesting stuff. Um, any questions about any of that stuff? Conflicts of interest, pretty pretty obvious. Um, if you if there's any kind of business interest that you have, um, that's before the board. Um, if there's any kind of personal involvement that may seem to create a benefit, um, any of these things that are laid out in in the ethics um, act, uh, you just need to completely refuse yourself and vote from the discussion. We don't need need
069necessarily to resign from the board as was evidenced by that participate in any aspects of the voter discussion. And what we need to think about when we're talking about conflicts, right, are the definitions of family members, different types. So in that gold bar there, we talk about the immediate family. This is important terminology. It's a spouse or dependent child who resides in the same household as you. That's an immediate family member. But there's a larger definition, a relative. And when we're talking about conflicts, your immediate family member is not your relative. They are two distinct people. We talked about immediate family member. Relative is this big wide neck. All of these parties, whether they are related to you by blood, marriage, okay? So any of your spouse's relatives this way or by adoption any of
070these people qualify as one of your relatives. Now notice interestingly enough um even though we have things like step and half brother and this and that the aunt uncle niece nephew cousins is not on there which is kind of interesting. What does that mean? Well, when hiring duties are before the board, you cannot hire a relative of a school board member or your chief school administrator unless you get a waiver from the executive county superintendent because sometimes in remote districts, they really just can't find any positions and they are sort of forced to make that higher and they will get a waiver. Um, now if somebody already belonged to you works in the district, they've been hired and you were elected, then that's fine. You can stay on the board, but you can't take part
071in any kind of um, you know, participation in the in evaluating the superintendent or his contract um, or hiring a a superintendent, any kind of matters that employ that concern the superintendent or supervisors that are in the chain of command of. If there's a question you ask to the schoolboard attorney to weigh in on it, you can also call us. We're happy to let you know what we think. Um talking about collective bargaining with the unions. This is where those definitions come into play as well. This chart veryvisory opinion the school ethics commission made it up themselves. Um, if you have an immediate family member who works in the district, you cannot participate in negotiations with that immediate family members union at all. You can't vote, you can't discuss it. When the board convenes an
072executive session, you leave. Um, if you or a member of your immediate family works out of district in the union, they're a teacher in um, Montikue, right? You cannot participate in negotiations until the final um uh memorandum of agreement is reached, your salary brides, all your compensation packages. Once that's all ready to go, you can cast that final vote, yes or no. But not until then. If you have a relative then you can participate in the entire process absent another conflict. See that little asterk there? That mean there may be some kind of special circumstance with your with your relative that may preclude you from having these discussions with the West Milk report. And typically that means like heightened union involvement is the most common one that we see. So if your sister-in-law is the
073president of her local chapter of the NJA, then you're likely out of negotiations, right? And that sort of thing. Um, doctrine of necessity is kind of interesting because if you have a board where most of the members are conflicted, right? And you can't, you know, garner enough votes to pass the contract, then the board would vote. It would invoke what's called the doctrine of necessity where, you know, everyone can vote again. Um, and I don't think that's anywhere near the case in in West Milford, is it? So, >> all right. No, we're good. >> No, we're okay right now. Right. >> Right now, I'm okay. Yeah. >> Okay, good. Well, you know what? You might not be okay along the lines if you have kids that are graduating from school and looking for, you know,
074employment elsewhere. Um, if you do need to invoke the doctor statement that's made to the public about who's conflicted and why, and then the board needs to invoke what's called the doctrine of necessity in order to get its work done. And that and when I say work done, I mean vote. I mean vote. I don't mean forming a negotiations committee. And one of the very interesting things about this advisory opinion a 1917 there was a board where one member only one member was not conflicted and they were looking to invoke the doctrine of necessity to form their negotiations committee and the ethics commission said no you can't do that because a committee does not make decisions for the board. the committee does not. Isn't that interesting? Right? Because we know they do a lot of
075leg work, right? And in that poor unfortunate person's experience, they had to be a one. >> Yeah. Um, another point that I should make too is that if your super conflicted um then they cannot or your business administrator, then they can't help you with negotiations either. If they kind of fall on this can only serve as a resource for you. They can't participate in your discussions when you're negotiating. Um, so let's do, you know, true false. Um, is a relative an immediate family member? >> Yes. >> No, no. But in in everyday life, they are, but a relative means that big definition. An immediate family member is something different. So when you're when you're looking at this chart, right, you can determine, right? Um, so can you employ a relative of yourselves or your superintendent?
076>> No, you're not supposed to. That statement is mostly true. However, you can get a waiver from the executive council. Um, if the majority of the board members, can the doctrine of necessity be invoked to form the negotiations committee? >> Okay, your attention spans are pretty good. Um, uh, a board member whose wife's aunt is a power professional. Listen closely. A board member whose wife's aunt is a power evaluating the chief school administrator. Would you say that is a true statement or a false statement? >> True. >> Say true. Very nice. That's exactly right. Related by blood, marriage, or adoption in this. >> Okay. So, how's about this one? A board member is a teacher. They themselves a teacher in a neighboring district. So that board member, is this true or false? Can participate in
077the negotiations process for the teachers contract, but they under my own contract. >> That is nice. Thank you. That's confusing people. And it is kind of confusing because it's completely flipped around. Exactly. And uh this one's kind the assistant superintendent may not evaluate the principal in the building where her son is a teacher. Is that true or false? >> That is true. >> All right. Volunteers. Okay. This isn't always a talking point now because a few years ago um you know it used to be there were no parameters at all and a lot of people got on the school board because this or that, but then someone misbehaved and we can't have nice things anymore. So, the ethics commission came up with a bunch of really interesting decisions, but the more we get used to
078them, the more we see the wisdom um that went into actually issuing those mandates and really think about it. Um, so you're not banned from volunteering in the schools, but you do have to think about what kind of volunteer service you're going to be performing and if it conflicts with your role as a board member. Generally, for one-time things, you go into, you know, ReadAcross America Day or your chaperon on a field trip, that's okay because it's a one-time thing. You're not really giving directions or anything like that. You're doing something that everybody kind of does. But if you are going to say direct the school play where you're really working intensely with a group of students and with staff and making decisions and this and that that's too close to subsection D that's too
079close to running the schools and not seeing that they are wellrun. So the ethics commission has determined also means that if you're going to be a club advisor right for West Milford, right, West Milford wanted to establish a you know archaeology club and your degree is in archaeology and you also have a teaching background be the perfect fit. That's not um that's not going to make the ethics commission happy. they're going to ask you to choose. So, um, so in your packets on this slide, here's just a list of questions that you can ask yourself right before you go in to do your well, not right before, but sometimes before you go into volunteers. And if all these answers match up, then you're probably good to go. If not, then you are probably not. Um,
080there's a link there to the ethics advisory opinions that you'll want to become familiar with. Um, but in any case, when you're planning on volunteering in the schools, let your superintendent know beforehand. Um, and if ne and I know that that's a lot of information and for a lot of people that's unexpected. I'm wondering if there's any questions on that. Okay. Um, and we're coming to the end here. We just want to make these points with boards. I don't think you guys do that. This Um board members are very interested in who's um being hired especially for the higher level positions but sitting on an interview committee is discouraged for the reasons that we talked about before. Um you know your superintendent is the best qualified person to make those decisions. However, the superintendent is
081in charge of the hiring process. He or she calls the shots. So, if your superintendent really did want to have a board member on an interview committee, which is few and far between, believe me, um they would be expected to follow the guidelines that are in um the ethics commission's advisory committee 04-12. And it's kind of like you can only have one or two people. You can't ask questions. You just have to listen. You can't even I mean, it's like I don't even know why. Um but in but a lot of verb was was wasted on that. Well maybe not wasted expended on that. Um but interestingly enough when the commission was asked about whether a board member could participate in an exit interview it was a really quick decisive no. It's really something right.
082No no no no. So somewhere between 2010 2015 they got variables. Um and that's pretty much an overview of the ethics act but you know there are developments there are court decisions. There are ethics commission decisions. There are you know in some cases there's new legislation. Anything that you need to know to do your job and stay in line with the ethics act will be published in schoolboard notes which you'll be getting regularly as school board members. You'll get an electronic copy and a paper copy in the mail. Um, and basically, you know, before you act, think really hard. Ask for the opinion of your superintendent, your board president, your friendly field service rep, and for an iron an airtight decision, ironcl your board attorney's opinion, okay? Um, and we are all here to help
083you in your role because you know when everybody does their role to the best of their ability in the roles that are predetermined that work that work. We are the finest state in the nation for public education. We all do our parts properly and our kids move forward. And any questions? >> Yeah. Going back to the um the one that you raised the point on around responding to individuals that you get out, what have you seen that's successful in other districts about how to get that word out to the community? Because I do think a lot of us face that and then public gets mad that you know I reached out to everyone and nobody responded and we're like we really can't do that. Is it a standard response that we all adopt that like
084whenever you know we all respond to somebody clarifying that? Do we continue to do nothing? Is there something publicly that can be shared? >> That's a great question. That's a great question. First of all, you should all be able to kind of respond to that and explain, you know, the role of a board member, right? which doesn't work when people are angry and yelling at you sometimes. Um but also um I have seen did boards of education put the um like information on going to but at least you can point them in that direction. And there is standardized information out there. We actually do have a really great document. Um, not only one that's just very formal, but we have like a real friendly one called 13 things board members wish that the public knew
085about them. And we that's actually archived on our website. You can read it yourself. And I'm happy to send a copy along. Quite a few of my districts have put that article on their website and tweeted it out. It's kind of interesting, right? And it's very friendly, you know, like, "No, we don't have keys to the school, right? No, we can't call snow days. Guess what? We don't get paid." You know, all of those things, you know, so it's a it's a pretty good uh thing to have. The other thing, too, is that, you know, um you should become familiar, which I'm sure you already are, with your bylaws on how the board communicates with the public. Typically, your board president is the spokesperson. And there's a reason for that because the president will carry
086a singular message, the board's message to the press, to the community, especially, you know, in those real um, you know, dicey situations, you know, the real confrontational situations. Um, know you're doing things right with your public commentary language that you read beforehand. That's excellent. I wish more boards would do that. um you know and you're assuring your public that we are listening to you but we're not don't expect an answer from the deis it's not generally the right time for that especially with a complex question um so I think that that's wonderful and you can even mine that language yourself to you know use that to respond to people who are going to approach you they're not bad people they just don't know what you do so you know I've been putting I I've been
087putting like if I get an email. Now, rather than not responding at all, I'm sending it back. I'm forwarding it on to to the superintendent >> or whoever should get it. And then what I normally do is I I just put a a a comment on there to them. Thank you for sending this. However, I'm passing it on to the superintendent who is the chief who deals with this issue that it is not a board. >> That's perfect. And I will tell you, you know, >> that I've worked with who's not on the board anymore. He had an auto refine that's do that >> and it would just know. Wasn't that brilliant? Right. Bounce right back. It doesn't hurt anybody's feelings either cuz you do work with you do deal with people's feelings. And I
088don't know if you all have um business cards. I know some districts do. I don't know what you would use them for. But um on the flip side, it has the gene of command, you know, which is really kind of cool. Um so those are are different strategies that you can adopt to um >> I love the website idea. >> Yeah. And you know what and and to get that kind of out on something once you put on the website, just send out a tweet, you know, just so that it doesn't just live in that >> sterile part of your of your website. And you know what? It's not a bad time because January is board member appreciation month where we all feel really appreciated for our services. So, um it's just it's just good
089to know and and actually quite frankly board members even ones who have been on for a while find that article informative. So, you know, like I said, it's not instinctive. We have the best trained board members in the country, but there's always something new to know. And there out there and I commend you all for taking on this role and for doing it well and for working together because you're serving kids. That is so important. So good for you and thanks for your attention to this long boring thing. The next time I see you, it'll be more exciting. I promise. But um thank you. >> Thanks. Thank you very much. a little bit or strawberries. Strawberries. >> Okay. Where was the strawberries? >> Thank you again, Kathy. We really have saved your >> Yes. Careful.
090>> Okay. The next The next item is old business. Does anybody have any old business? [Applause] >> If not, I'm I'm not that I'm not that good at picking up on things. So, if >> I'd like to close second, >> all those in favor? I >> new business. Dr. >> Uh, good evening everybody. Welcome to our newest members. I look forward to working with you all. Um members of the public, that's you, Mrs. Fritz, and uh whoever else is watching on TV. Uh we have a brief little update tonight. Obviously, you know, in December, the board uh voted to move the sixth grade to Macaban school beginning in September of 2020. So, I'll be providing the community with some updates periodically throughout the spring as we get closer to uh as we get closer to
091September. So we did meet last Friday with the principles of the elementary schools and MACbin as well as the central office staff. We do have a few updates now and there'll be some more uh forthcoming. Um with regard to the transition issues with the now sixth and fifth grade classes moving up, uh we are going to have a set of four meetings in the spring. Um there'll be one meeting for six at night for sixth grade parents, current sixth grade parents, and another meeting at night for current sixth grade students. And there'll be the same setup for fifth grade parents and fifth grade students. So there'll be four different night meetings. Uh they'll be a little bit different in nature. The parent the curriculum, what to expect with their assessments, uh the day-to-day operations of
092the school. For the student evenings, they're going to take them around the building, show them how to use a locker, where is the gym, where is the lunchroom, so on and so forth, and finish the night off with a uh an activity night for just that grade of students. So, our Macupen activity nights now are 78 for the whole school. We're going to do an activity night for the sixth graders and a separate one for the fifth graders where they can get used to. This is what you can expect at Makipin next year and obviously starting in September, they'll start doing them again uh one one per month uh using a Friday. Um also for the board members, we have committee meetings a week from tonight. So, I'll be providing the personnel committee with an
093update as far as staffing issues that we've been looking into for Macken. And I know Mr. Novak will be discussing some education issues, curriculum writing, um, committees, things of that nature in the education committee on, uh, on Tuesday night. So, we'll we'll keep working towards that. Right. Any board members have any questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any uh other new business? >> If not, >> second. All those in favor? Okay. Public comment. This portion of the meeting is open to the members of the public having a legitimate interest in the actions of the board for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and and or directly related to the operations of the West Milford Public School District. Members of the public who have requested to speak to speak prior
094to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. Each speaker will be given five minutes for a period of 30 minutes. Then time permitting other public comment limited to 5 minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. All speakers are asked to sign the register provided and give their full name, spell their last name, group affiliation if appropriate, and provide their address. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered, and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that the members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and the board and the
095administration will not respond to them. Students and the employees that and employees have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board is not responsible and is not liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Would anybody like to speak? >> Oh, I didn't see you sitting there, Pat. Hi, Trisha Keller from the Messenger and I have a request that just before you go into executive session, can I get a picture of all the board members together? And I didn't want you to have to read that whole thing for nothing.
096>> Oh, thank you. >> Need a motion to close public comment. >> Motion post. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Now we need a motion for executive session. Um I'll make a motion at 87 [Music] um to move into executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel, student matters, current litigation matters, special education matters, kids and matters of attorney client privilege. >> And we will be returning for action after [Music] second. All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. So, we'll be back. We'll take our picture and then come back. >> Well, the wording changed here. >> Romeo here. Mr. Ojinski >> here. >> Mr. Mrs. Stevenson >> here. >> Mrs. Dwire >> here. >> Mr. Stillman >> here. >> Mr. Conley >> here. >> Mrs. Fritz >> here. >>
097Mrs. And >> here. Okay. Um, >> Mrs. Dwyer. >> Okay. Be be it resolved that the West Milford Board of Education approve issuance of written decisions affirming, rejecting, or modifying the superintendent's determination in the following HIV investigation. Incident number 2020 M-2 unsubstantiated. Do we need a second on that? >> Second. >> And that's a roll. Is there any discussion? >> No. >> Roll call. >> Then you're affirming this, right? Yes. >> All right. So, we're not rejecting or modifying it. >> Okay. >> Mrs. Dwer, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Conlin, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Oinsky, >> yes. >> Okay, we need a motion um to adjourn the meeting. >> Motion
098to second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Good night. Did we change the wording on that? >> What's the What's the