Board of Education Meeting 10/26/15

001Good evening everybody. Like to call the meeting to order at 7:36. Welcome to the West Milford Township Board of Education regular meeting. It's Monday, October 26, 2015. Please silence or turn off your cell phones and note the exits and locations of the emergency exits. We could just have a meeting, a moment of silence for those staff members and school community members and families that may have lost a loved one recently. We could please stand for the flag salute. I pledge algiance 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. [Music] In accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act, public notice of this meeting has been sent to board members, all district schools, the

002Herald news, the trends, the record, AI West Milford, the messenger, West Milford town hall, the county superintendent's office, the board attorney and cable vision of Warwick and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all district schools. Roll call, please. Mrs. Francisco, Mr. Babbot, Mr. Bailey, Mr. De here, Mr. Drew, here. Mr. Foody, present. Mrs. Key here, Miss O'Brien. Mr. Robbins, Mrs. Schultz here. You have a quum. Thank you. Resolve that the board go into executive session at 9:00 p.m. for approximately 60 minutes for the purpose of discussing personnel negotiations and matters of attorney privilege. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege of confidentiality is no longer applicable. Move that, please. Motion to

003move with a second. Second. All in favor? I any opposed? Thank you. Superintendent report, Mr. Rashika. Okay. So, before I start talking a lot, I'm going to throw it over to our student representative, uh, Matthew Ventrella. You want to give us some information? Good evening, Madam President, members of the board, Mr. Rashida. It's my pleasure this evening to deliver a report of student life for the month of October. As the school year is beginning to pick up into its full swing, I'm pleased to report that student life at the high school is marked by the passion and involvement so characteristic of West Milford. We the students continue to embrace and exemplify the virtues of Highlander pride on a daily basis. The month began with great attendance at back to school night and the evening was

004run by the administration faculty and students as part of the peers as leaders organization volunteered their time to assist parents who were at times lost in the labyrinth hallways. The high school was also proud to unveil a series of new banners which illustrate the theme of Highlander Pride and are and now line the halls of the high school. A central theme of the month of October was activism. The high school collectively participated in the weeks for peace and respect and in school safety week. Peace week featured spirited themes such as purple day and peace themed songs that were played over the announcements. Many school organizations such as PALS, the GSA, sources of strength, and the student council participated in these weeks through unique activities like peace chalk messages, spontaneous compliment post-it notes, rainbow ribbons, and

005the distribution of cards that read, "I respect you. I admire you. Thank you for making a difference in my life." Students then pass these cards onto a person of their choosing. These weeks were then capped off by a moving presentation by guest speaker Dr. Fallon, who spoke about anti-bullying, but in a new light. He was extremely charismatic and told the stories about bullying through the eyes of multiple personas. He's honestly the best anti-bullying presenter that I've experienced in my time at the high school. With October continued the strong Highlander tradition of homecoming. The game was played against Bergenfield. And although we lost the game, the halftime show featured the crowning of seniors Anthony Santiago and Aaron McCarthy as the homecoming king and queen along with six underassmen chosen as the rest of the homecoming court.

006The marching band had a characteristic successful month. They won best band overall at the Yamaha Cup at Metlife Stadium. They took every award at the Randolph competition, including best overall band. And they also won best overall band at the West Orange competition and won the mayor's trophy. They then went to University of Delaware and experienced a and and competed in a larger circuit, which was a great experience. This past weekend, they got first in their division and second overall Mount Olive. The junior and senior classes are dually involved in planning for a volleyball tournament fundraiser to take place on November 19th. The other class councils also recently held successful fundraisers. Student council had very active month. We ran a t-shirt fundraiser that brought together local businesses within the Highlander community. Sponsors included the Highlander Delhi,

007Karen Weaveman of Remax Realtors, TJ Pizza, RGS Tree Service, and Joeax Telecom. We um I would like to thank Don Ray Printing out of Barcipany who helped helped provide us with the shirts and gave us a huge discount. Um we are continuing continuing to research a local cause to donate some of the money to as we look towards November events such as the band tattoo parent teacher conferences and the high school blood drive will take place. This concludes my report for October. Have a great evening everybody. Thank you Matthew. Thank you. So, I just want to piggyback a little bit on all that information that Matt shared with us for uh violence awaren awareness week and the uh week of respect. All of our schools participated in various activities. Uh some of them from wearing

008different colors to uh having tie-dye shirts for peace, which I could relate to. Uh and all these other activities that were very very positive and that was throughout the entire school district. Uh one of the pieces that Matt referenced uh with Dr. Fallon who came in is someone that I fortunately had the experience of working with about three times over the past uh seven years and he was here now at West Milford. And just so you get an understanding what this is, this is not a presentation of somebody with a doctorate in psychology coming up and preaching or lecturing all about bullying. It's not that at all. He actually goes into uh at least six or seven characters. He sets up chairs on the stage and he will go from anybody from a football player

009on the football team who's being bullied for obvious reasons uh or not not so obvious reasons but dealing with some of his own conflict to a student who is is even being bullied at home perhaps his parents are under some type of addiction and then he comes to school and he has to face all the the types of uh things that happen during the course of a stu school day from his peers and his teachers and so on. So that is a very moving program and I was very happy that he was able to join us. I have to say too that uh one one Monday afternoon I was stopping by the high school to do our rep council meeting which is held after school and upon coming up the front steps of the school

010I saw all this colored chalk writing like you know what would look like you you know if you have young children who used to do those kinds of things in the driveway and I was a little upset. I said what the heck is going on until I stopped and I read the messages which were quite moving. there were very good uh messages about respect the bullying and all different quotes that were on the sidewalk on each step and also on the top. So really it's been a wonderful experience all across the board uh and we continue to move in that direction. And I know that currently at Makipin School um they're doing Red Ribbon Week, excuse me. Uh which is I believe with the Drug Alliance group um to to spread the word about the

011bad things that happen with drugs. Uh that's also the Red Ribbons is a door decorating con uh contest that's going on currently. Yes. Right. So we may There we go. Oh, okay. So there you can see some of the uh the artwork that the students are doing to support this cause and uh and it's really been a a very very positive experience going in the building and seeing the uh from again from kindergarten on up to high school grade 12 where all of these things are taking place. So very happy to see that. Uh to attach to that I also have to say that uh Mr. and I have been working and he's the uh specialist for uh anti-bullying and we've been working with our staff members and updating some training reaching out to some

012other people for professional development and truly focusing in on making the process uh equal across the board. I think one of the things you know when I came in here that I noticed right away is that the way certain things were being handled initially were different at each one of the schools. So, uh, the goal, the objective right now is to get everybody to do things the same way and to do things the same way that are proper and correct based on all the standards for for bullying. So, I think we're off in a good direction. Um, also I have to share this information. We are going through the uh QAC process. We will be going through the process that's the quality single accountability consortium and uh continuum I should say. And then what happens

013with that is they come into the school after we do the following things. Yearly we have to report on a statement of assurance uh from multiple topics uh across the district which is time consuming. Um and it goes anywhere from your buildings and grounds. We're very thorough talking about how many sockets are in each room to it could be to transportation and it goes all across the board. Um but that being said, the other piece of this is the QTAC piece which we call or the paperwork for that is called DPRS uh district performance review and that's in five areas. Um so initially we thought we were only going to be um observed in one area but the state has decided that if they're coming in they want to review all the areas. So the

014areas just so you know are instruction and program uh operations I write them down because I can't always remember fiscal management uh governance and personnel. So within each one of these categories there could be you know anywhere from 18 to 22 or so questions that you need to not only answer but have the documentation. So Mr. Novak has been busy collecting the documentation for some of the pieces. I've been doing others uh Miss Francisco and other areas. So, we're putting this all together and it will be completed for uh a submission for November 15th. Once the state gets that information from us, they will then set up a time to visit the district and they will go through those DPRs uh and they will come probably sit in the board of education office and they

015will request to see random items such as uh lesson plans for English one uh your kindergarten K through2 reading program, what are you using? They want to see examples of assessments that you're using in the classrooms. They want to see scheduling and then they like to tour the town as well. So they'll go around, they will visit uh a couple of schools, a couple of different classrooms, see what's going on in the school. So it's a very thorough process and this is in addition to um the accreditation for growth which we did for the high school specifically uh just last spring. So we are you know monitoring everything trying to do the best that we can but it is uh pretty labor intensive and certainly once we have the results of that uh we will

016be able to share that with you we'll put it up on the website however again at this point I don't know when they're actually coming in to do that but again so will be going on so at this point uh I do have more to say but I want to give Mr. Novak an opportunity to uh do his piece and then I'll just follow up. I wanted to go back and connect um Yeah, I think so. Tom. Yeah, Tom. I want to connect back to what Mr. Rashika was talking about with um Red Ribbon Week and our week of respect. The for the first time uh all West Milford schools are going to be participating tomorrow and what's called Mix It Up at lunch day. It is um it's a nationally recognized holiday if we

017can if we can call it that. It's something that the Mackman schools been doing for three, four years. Five years. Okay. Um another um component of Mackman being named National School of Character uh was was one of these structures that was placed in their application. So we have uh with help of uh Mr. Weedman and the graphic arts department, we were able to create some uh posters to distri distribute to all the schools and over the last two weeks our social workers and teachers and staff have been coming together coming up with some great ideas on how to celebrate this day. And uh initially what what turned out to be a u I guess a good idea just to kind of get kids go into the lunchroom and and sit with somebody else. It turned

018into a great teaching moment for everyone involved. And you know we we've been reaching out and getting some feedback from from the buildings about the things that they've been the things they've been training the students for. And we've got everything from um processes when students enter the enter the cafeteria to, you know, how they get assigned to a specific table, how are they going to be sitting with um a peer that they haven't sat with before, right down to the um discussion cards that are going to be at the table to to prompt those discussions going further. Um so, you know, really really elaborate plan. A lot of a lot of hard work has gone into it and you know, we'll be visiting schools tomorrow just to just to see it in action. I'll be

019uh putting some stuff up on Twitter. So, I'm going to plug my own Twitter uh daniel_novvac_w. You knew I was going to do that, right? Um to try and get um some more people seeing the things that are going on and active in our schools every day. I have a brief video about a minute and 40 seconds just to give you a little highlight of the of the program. Hi everyone, my name Hi everyone. My name is Manita Bell and I am the coordinator of Mix It Up at lunch day here at Teaching Tolerance. I'm very excited to be with you today. Thanks for tuning in. We're going to spend just a minute talking about Mix It Up and all the many, many reasons why it has such a positive impact in so many schools.

020First of all, students have told us there are a few key areas in school where segregation and bullying are the worst. And unfortunately, the cafeteria is one of them. So, Mix can help the cafeteria be a safer and more inclusive place, which hopefully can spread to other parts of the school as well. Also, the teaching tolerance community tells us socioeconomic status, appearance, and race are the biggest social dividers in their schools. And we know from behavioral research that positive interactions can help reduce these types of prejudices. So we know mixing it up works from our research and from the feedback we get from schools. So it's worth the effort. It really is. And finally, mix it up is just fun. And the fun factor has no limit. We hear about schoolwide flash mobs and block

021parties and DJs and parades. And I think that's why we had over 6,000 schools and three million students participate last year. That's a lot of awesome conversations and friendships being made and a lot of fun being had. Next week, we'll talk more about getting the most out of your Mix event. But in the meantime, we hope you'll register at mixitup.org. And be sure to keep us posted on your planning via Twitter and Facebook so we can share your great ideas, too. Until next time, thanks for watching. So, as you can see, our our students are going to be involved in the national program. Uh it's getting bigger and more popular each year. Uh another component going on in our schools, uh connected a little bit with lunch recess time. A number of schools have something

022in place called buddy benches. And uh one of the goals that we're going to have with our social workers is to put the buddy bench um process in place throughout the district and all our elementary schools. And really the I guess the idea has been around for a while but when I was at a um I was at a assembly at Mackaben first or second first week of school uh their speaker who was was talking about character and building character and tolerance and he um you know sort of connected to the idea that um students should have that mentality of nobody no one plays alone in our school and and that's really the uh the premise behind adding things like mix it up at lunch day and and buddy benches is that if someone's feeling

023left out, they can go to that spot and students are going to be trained and taught um how to handle if a student's feeling left out and and um is goes able to goes over to use the buddy bench. Shifting gears a little bit and I don't know how I'm going to be able to pull it off effectively, so I'm just going to do it and I want to talk about park now. Um so from so from buddy bench to to park. Um Mr. Mr. Rashik and I uh visited with um we saw Barry Erlicson a few weeks ago who was from the state department of education and she gave us uh a little snapshot of what these score reports are going to look like. I'm just providing a brief update tonight. We don't have

024a lot of information to share this evening. U I just want to give you some updates in regard to some overall specifics that have changed in regard to the testing and a very general time frame of of the expectation of results. Uh as you know it's an assessment new assessment. I don't need to go in all that. Um the most important part on this slide is about the changes this year. Uh the test is going to be shorter overall by about 90 minutes. Uh we have one consolidated testing window which I think is is one of the biggest changes that they've made to the made to the testing is that now as you can see in the last bullet it comes after 90% of the school year has been completed which is um which is

025great in comparison to even NJS. We always had it a little bit earlier in the school year. One of the um things that we have heard about throughout the uh you know looking at park and and hearing some feedback is that students didn't get a chance to cover um cover some of the material that they that they were able to see. This gives us a little bit more time to to uh get those students prepared for the uh for the assessment. So shorter shorter amount of testing, shorter window of time, shorter uh less impact on the school day. And I think that's that's important. you know, a room like this would end up being, you know, literally shut down for park testing because the students will be over there on the computer. So, now we

026have a bigger window of of teaching time than we did with last year's assessment. Yes. Um, it's just shorter by 90 minutes overall. How much time was spent on the park test? And I and I take that 90 minutes overall is for both language arts and mathematics. Yeah, it's just about the last statement. So, uh um how many hours were they last year? What do we expect timewise to be this year? Well, so the average there's three um there's three parts to the test and the average range of each component is about any between 85 to 110 minutes. Um so the the total of that four four and a half hours roughly. Um and again the average Was that last year for this year? That's this year over the course of that week that the

027students will be testing. We were about six hours last year total. So that's where that 90 minutes comes in. One more question. Have um the tests when they say 90 minutes have they stopped testing on things the kids haven't been taught yet or well I I or I I'm going just be I don't I don't know what's going to be on the on the test. One of the things I'm going to share at the end is a new res resource um for parents about understanding your scores and that that'll give you a little bit of uh you know little foresight into what what could be on the test. I think with anything even with NJS you know I administered NJS as a teacher for 10 years and it changed you know over it evolved um

028I would imagine with the um the impact that park had around the state and some of the um percentage of refusal rates etc that they're probably looking at the test very closely and I think Barry Elixen shared that with us at the meeting that there there will be revisions and the test will test will evolve. Okay, thank you. The next slide is just again a brief overview of um just some deadlines. We we did have I don't if you saw on the cover of the paper um that the statewide scores were released and that doesn't give us any specific data for you know our district, our schools, our factor group, anything like that. It was a um general release of state scores at at this point in time. Uh what we can expect is that

029in um early November we are going to have our district scores released to us and um following from that in December is really where we're going to be able to share that um that uh information out. So expect at a December board meeting to have myself and the the newly hired uh district uh testing coordinator, Dr. Pritchette, be here to present our scores at the December meeting. And then at that time, we'll also be able to send home the um student student score records through the mail. Uh the other I have the parent resource. I'm just going to pull that up real quick. [Music] All right. So, understanding thecore.org. It's a um it is released by park. Um so, if you know, take it take it for what it's worth. Um but what you can

030see on it is this this very important part about understanding the score. You can get a picture of what a sample score is going to look like. It's going to give you information in regard to your students, um, ranking in the school, district, um, state, and nation. Uh, as well as a student growth percentile for that student to show how they, um, progress from one year to the next. This year, obviously, first year of park students aren't going to have that growth percentile. That'll be on their report for uh, for next year. Also to note um every student whether they participated in the assessment or not is going to receive one of these reports. Um the ones that are the uh students who didn't participate are going to receive a mock template so that parents

031can see this is the information that you would have had access to had your students participated in the in the assessment. Um one part I wanted to highlight this section here, be a learning hero, skilluer. This gives you the opportunity to um coming back to your question, Mr. foodie about what um what could possibly be on it. This allows you to pull up samples. Um so I'm just going to put in some basic local information. So by typing in um grade content and um subject and state, you're able to pull up information about, you know, samples for that that particular strand or that content that you you could be looking for. This will help you get an idea of what could be on it. This could give you an idea of how if you want

032to have somebody um practice for some of these things. The thing I found interesting going through this website is so many um samples especially in mathematics relate back to what the district is already using in our program that we've spoken spoken a lot about as far as preparing. So a lot of the samples that come out of it come out of a structure that we've already been using for for a few years. So um I was I was excited to see that. Uh this website is already um it's already on a banner on our website so people will have access to it once Dr. Pritchette is in place. Starting tomorrow, we're going to be working on um getting a lot more of our information posted. So, if anyone has any questions, they can go to

033our parent resources page. They can contact us. They can get all the all the information that they need in regard to um the test as far as we know it. That's it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Novak. Um just a little piece with the uh park. Barry Ericson actually is the assistant commissioner of education in New Jersey. So, she's been very involved with this. uh she's a master of uh data and collecting lots of information and getting it out there. But um we have noticed over the past few weeks that there's an abundance of information that's coming out not only for educators but for parents as well. Uh one one of the things I find a little surprising is when we were looking on your left there was scores at the top. Well, the numbers have

034changed a little bit, but there's not only uh we used to look at the areas of uh doesn't reach or doesn't meet proficiency uh has reached proficiency or exceeds. Uh they now have two levels for exceeds proficiency. I'm not quite sure what the difference in the scores are. Uh but that's something new. I I you know, I don't know if we really got Yeah. on that website will explain that to you. Uh so there are some new things that we have to look at. Um, and again, you know, those parents who I believe even if the student took uh one part of the test, the first part and not the second test, and I think you would get a mockup for both areas because um once you refuse to take the second part after taking

035the first part, it was kind of eliminated. Uh they didn't they took it and just moved it out of the uh I call it the bucket. Sometimes they refer to it in the bucket, but it wasn't in there. So, um that's just to be aware of. Moving on in a different direction, I have two more things that I'd like to well actually three more things. First of all, we did hear Mr. Novak reference uh the National School of Character again and uh congratulations again to Miss Reinhold her along with Mr. Novak and Mr. Citro from Makipin School went to Atlanta, Georgia to be recognized. Was it two weekends ago or last weekend? Just last weekend. And um so they were there for the entire weekend. It was a wonderful program for recognition and also coming

036back with uh some new information. So, thanks again. We appreciate that. Okay. And um I could say also that um I saw that Mr. Polaro from the high school is also now heading up a group with the high school teachers and faculty that are interested in working in the same direction. Uh so there is um lots of discussion going on at the high school and actually reviewing the application and going through the completion process to see where that leads us. So that's good stuff. Also at the high school I did meet with uh Mr. Gorski um our miss um our sack coordinator Miss Garish and also with a couple of other people who are interested in the area of um drug and alcohol and our testing. One of the things I really want to get

037clarification on is many people think that um when we talk about random drug testing that it's on a voluntary basis. It's not voluntary. Okay, voluntary I can explain to you that voluntary basis would mean that a parent would call the school up and say, "Listen, I have some concern about my son and my daughter. Can you help me?" And then we would go through a process with the student and the parent for a voluntary test. That's to help them out. That's fine. Uh the random piece is for those students who belong to athletics, belong to clubs, parking on school grounds, and so forth. Uh it's generated by computer. the students are called down and and that's how the the test takes place. And then there is the suspicion based where if somebody notices that someone

038looks like they might be under the influence of anything, uh they would be tested as well. And that's off school grounds that takes place at uh their own doctor's office if they like or we can send them to some place that we do recommend and uh and then we move ahead from there. With that in mind, um you know, we do know that New Jersey seems to be the big gateway to drugs and uh it's a concern for everybody and you know, it's a concern for us here in West Milford. It's a concern for anybody in Ringwood, every place. But right now, we got to be concerned about our own community and certainly we want to know what's happening. Uh the you pick up the newspaper every day, you read about somebody dying from a

039heroin overdose. And it used to be that it was people, young adults, late 20s, early 30s. We're seeing it with 15 and 16 year olds now. And it can be in some of the most affluent communities and in, you know, other places that you would, you know, just wouldn't believe that this is going on. It's happening. So we have to be real about it. So with that in mind, in order to help our students, um one of the plans where we are working on currently is working closer with uh new beginnings. Um what we've had is a number of students who have gone through testing twice, three times just not receiving help and they need help. This is not something you can fight on your own. It's an addiction. Uh so we decided that we're

040go what we're going to try to do is um work closely with New Beginnings. They will volunteer some work for those students who cannot afford it. There are some parents who can't afford it. We also deal with parents who don't want to admit that there's a problem. And then you have parents who are just too tired to take their child to uh counseling sessions to help them. So New Life Recovery will will help us with that. As you know, New Life is uh based out of our Hillrest building. So, it's close and in some some cases uh what we will do is student will go there for the um counseling component and also part of the educational component that's blended into it and then come back to the high school or they can leave the

041high school actually to go there. So, we're really trying to help these kids and and make that work. Uh second piece of this is that uh based on this um random policy we do want to utilize what we have in the school. So my suggestion is that um you know looking at the number of obligations that school nurses have today along with concussion testing and everything else that's happening is that we bring in a nurse once a month from a service to take care of the students in the school and our school nurse can spend a day just doing uh going straight through the random process and try to identify students who have problems. This is not meant to be punitive. This is a method for us to try to help those students who have

042issues. Again, this is a problem that's all around us. The way to combat is to find out who has the problem, fix the problem. We we're not we're not the authorities. We don't, you know, we're not with the police department. We can't arrest anybody. So, we need to help these kids. Um and so, we need to address what's going on in the community, in the schools, and we need to support the parents and the students that are having these problems. So hopefully hopefully that will work and certainly help in in giving these kids the the help that they need. We we know firsthand that we dealt with a student last year that uh this is the kind of thing that we did for him and he ended up graduating and that's what we want to

043see. We want to see them graduate and have a future. And last but not least, I had spoken about in the past at least once is I did want to have in September or October some type of forum for us to sit down and talk uh and so I get an idea to listen to some parents and their concerns about what's going on in the school. So the last two months have been extremely busy uh between roofs leaking and negotiation meetings and all kinds of things that are happening. But certainly uh I do want to move ahead. So, I'm looking in November, what I'd like to do is I'll call it a superintendence forum. I'm going to invite the first group will be parents from the middle school and high school in a formal but

044informal uh kind of relaxed atmosphere. Will not be a board meeting. It'll be a meeting with maybe one or two board members can join us and Mr. Novak and some other people on a panel and we could sit down and listen to some of the concerns from parents. We can share with you uh what we're trying to do to address some of the issues and hopefully have an open dialogue. so that that we can work together. That's the bottom line. I'm not going to be here for a lot longer. I think I'll be done in June. So, but it is something I'd like to put in place so that my predecessor perhaps can continue along that way. But that is one of the things that I see uh in this community that needs to happen.

045There seems to be too many uh references to negative things. We want to build upon the positive and anything that is a problem we want to fix. So, again, I'm looking at the two dates of November 18th and 19th. There will be, I promise, a Honeywell invitation at least two weeks in advance. And uh we'll post something on the website as well. And I'm sure uh was that Liz bringing snacks. Liz is bringing snacks. That's the only way I'm going to show up. You have to feed me. All right. So So keep your eyes open for that. We'll make an announcement then. Okay. And that's enough from me and I think from Mr. Novak. So let's continue now. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. We'll move on to special reports and correspondence. Mrs. Francisco, uh yes,

046we have uh revised minutes from the um meeting of June 23rd. We also um found another revision that needed to be made. I just put that correction in front of all the board members and it's highlighted on the second page. Um under um item 36, there was an additional no vote by Mrs. Schultz. So that revision um should be also included uh going forward. And we also have the minutes from September 15th and September 21st for your review and consideration. Thank you. So I need a motion to approve the following minutes with the revisions listed. I make a motion to approve the five minutes as listed in special reports. I'll second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Legal report. No report. Thank you. I would just like to mention that a special celebration

047of excellence lunchon and awards program will be taking place on November 6 at the Atlantic City Convention Center to honor the innovation and creativity of this year's HIPP grant recipients. Please join me in congratulating these exceptional educators. Colleen Weiss, Magisik, Steven Bey, Ryan Hershap, Mary Kennedy, Leonard Van Wingard, Wingarden, and Ian White for the project boxes for birds, bats, and bees. So, that will take place at the teachers convention down in Atlantic City. And now I'd like to move on to petitions and requests. Petitioners have who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting. Other petitions and requests limited to 5 minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute period transpires. Petitioners speaking during

048petitions and requests are asked to address topics listed for special action in the agenda. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. Would anybody like to come up and speak? Yes, sir. Please excuse me if I don't have enough copies for everyone. Can you please state your name, spell your last name? My name is Edwin Gonzalez, Hillside Lane, West Belfford. Thank you. I will use this one. So, as you can tell, I just passed in um as you can tell, I just passed in a copy of the regular workshop meeting for July 26, 2005. I have done some additional research regarding this board and is alarming to discover that this board does not uphold

049its own policies. Furthermore, this adds to the issue of being able to trust this board. Yeah. In a board resolution dated July 26, 2005, this board adopted the following. Mr. Gonzalez, yes. The first part of petitions and requests have some need to uh deal with the agenda that's in front of us this evening. So if you would like to speak about this, you would have to do so in the second portion of petitions and requests where it doesn't relate to this agenda tonight. All right. I would gladly do that. Okay. Thank you very much. Would anybody else like to come up and speak? Yes. Doris Arinson, 19 Barefoot Road. Um, I want to say a couple of things with regard to the superintendence uh report that he just gave. Um over the last uh few

050months I have attended uh state meetings along with two members of the township uh council who are also members of the township health advisory board. Um these meetings were on uh drugs and what the various towns in the state of New Jersey have been doing. Um, and what was striking was that West Milford's not doing anything much, although we have a serious drug problem. Um, when the health advisory board has had meetings over the last few months, uh, the drug problem, particularly heroin coming into our town, uh, has been at the top of the, uh, list of problems. So, um I'd be interested in knowing what plans the school board and the schools might have, particularly uh shockingly the middle school. Um we did a survey uh a year ago and saw from parents and

051students that the kids are into hard drugs um starting even at age 10, 12. Um, we really should be doing something as a township, the school board, the council. Um, both you guys and the council might want to interact to think about uh what we might be doing as a township to reduce a very serious uh drug problem, particularly heroin that we have in this town. um at uh as a recently retired member of the uh psychology and neuroscience uh faculties at NYU. Um we know you guys know that uh in terms of psychology and neuroscience, it's a serious problem for the development of teenagers brains. Um we don't want to see problems here in this township. So, I hope that you guys will uh have a continuing discussion and perhaps uh appoint a couple

052of people on your board to meet with the township uh council, particularly Ada Eric and uh Marilyn Likenberg who are both on the council and on the township health advisory board have been going with me to these state meetings and we're both very disappointed to see that no members of the school board ever attend these meetings. Although um there are always members from school boards throughout the state. So I hope uh that you guys can be a little more active proactive in dealing with the drug problems in our township. Thank you. Thank you. That's one of the uh things that I have discussed is trying to identify those and I you know I strongly believe based again on my past experience that uh there should be an alliance between some schoolboard members doesn't have to

053be many um you can have some faculty involved uh council members but and also the police department I know in my past working with Ringwood and Wiku the Aware uh council for drug alcohol use was very very strong but they did meet Yes. Yes. So, um, that would be nice to see something like that happen here, but I think people have to spend the time to sit down and talk to each other, which is hopefully someplace we can get to in the near future. Thank you. You're welcome. I'd like to mention that on November 10th, the Mawa Municipal Alliance is having a town meeting at the Sheridan Crossroads and the discussion is on the rising epidemic in Bergen County on prescription drug and heroin use. And um I think that it is open to the

054public and you can go on their website mawaalliance.org and register for that very informative meeting meeting and until West Milford has an alliance like that I don't think it's it hurts to go to any of these other type of workshops or meetings um with regard to these discussions. Would anybody Mr. you know that I just want to um talk a little bit about what we've been doing with character education and I and I've seen that as um you know recently I spoke with a um a reporter who was asking us about bullying in the schools and my answer to the bullying question in the same um in the same vein with the the drug problem is um how do we build character from an early age so that students are strong in themselves self-confidence able

055to stand up to those pressures as as they Uh, one of the things that I that I did in in Atlanta when we were at the school national forum for Character Education, every workshop I attended was geared toward uh, high schools, national high schools of character. And one of the common um themes of of many of those schools who who began to pursue national rec recognition or a character building process was that they were a very similar town to West Milford. and and Mary and I we spoke a lot about I mean these there was these kids from prior Oklahoma who were who were amazing and I'll keep talking about them anywhere I go it was a very similar dynamic to um to what we have here in West Milford rural town big town smaller

056population um a lot of that don't know what to do on the weekend kind of discussion from the kids the um underlying drug current discussion was was something that these these kids talked about and they began and their their character process about 5 years ago. This year was the first time they received that national recognition and they had graph after graph of how uh drug arrests, random drug testing, all of those things that we're talking about declined. They saw a decline in those types of things. They also saw an increase in academic achievement. Uh there's a lot of research that that connects um character education to academic achievement. uh as well as the you know that again that building of self-confidence and and helping grow grow students and individuals in in that way. Um so

057I I think that you know your your comments are um are valid. Um but we are on that on that track and and how we're really pursuing character education throughout our schools is is you know what I see as a necessity to put a backdrop you know in our kids to to really you know foster their growth and and give them that self-confidence to stand up to that pressure as they go and you know working with other organizations I just came from prior to this I'm part of the um community advisory panel with Marilyn Lenberg at the Highlands Family Success Center and you know bringing that organ organization in and and connecting what we do in the schools to to a centrally um central organization like that in our town I think can only help

058those those things grow. So in that panel tonight we we spoke about you know everything from transportation in town to to drugs to you know things that are really important to um us as as West Milford citizens and I think that was you know the power of that that group in that meeting. So you know coming back to what Mr. Rashika said about about getting ourselves involved in those those town organizations that that's only going to help. Thank you. I was at that meeting. Would anybody else like to come up and speak? See none to close. Okay. I just like to say that there's uh I be remiss if I didn't share these photos that Mr. McCory Mc brought us from Marshall Hill. Just if you want to take a look at them later before

059we break. Again, it's with New Jersey State Elks Association, Drug Awareness, and Peer Leadership working with elementary school students. So, these are here to share. I need a second. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. I need a motion to adopt the agenda as presented with the carry hand carries that were attached. I would like to make a motion to adopt the agenda as proposed along with the second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Mrs. Keepy, would you mind moving education, please? Okay. Under education, we have 11 items. Like to move numbers 1 through 11. Need a second. Second. Second. discussion. Mr. Booty um number four are those Barbara, Mr. Rashik, are those students coming into our district? Yes, that's the wish we're collecting from uh whether it's a shelter or from other

060towns that are sending students here and are some of it the state is paying? Yes. Some of it Patterson, Jersey City, Hackinack. But we're really looking at the numbers of what it costs us to educate a child. We're falling a little short with these numbers. You know, it's it's driven by state numbers and you know, that's unfortunately where it's at. But it is it is still revenues and I don't know what else we could, you know, do that. I don't think we can come up with a number and say it has to be exactly basically the the budget kind of drives what the tuition is. So you have two different things that you're looking at. U your annual budget plus you have your certified tuitions from a prior year because the state certifies your tuitions

061after your audit. So we try to come up with a number that's reasonable. Uh some of these students might only be here for a 30 or 60 day period. They might not be here for an entire year. Um, and if you once you have a certified tuition, if it turns out that after our next audit, the tuition that we charge was not this what was certified, then we have to either collect additional tuitions or we have to refund to additional money if we charge too much. So, we try to to bring it in line with the prior year's tuition so that we know where we're going. Okay, any other questions? Okay. Roll call, please. Mr. Deber, one. Yeah. For a quick question, Mr. Foody. Um, I don't want to get myself in trouble. Um, number

062three for the uh ban trip. And I guess Mr. Green, you're going to have to answer this question. Um, my daughter's going on that trip. Should I abstain from this vote? No, you don't have to. I because we're paying for her costs. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Roll call, please. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. At the advice of council. Mrs. Kappy. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Item number 12, we'll come back to after executive session. And if we could go to personnel student affairs as Mrs. O'Brien is ill this evening. Mr. Dever, would you mind moving those items? Sure. Thank you. Um, I'd like to move items under personnel student affairs items 1 through 3, 5 through 32. Just a reminder, four is now the hand carry and we're I

063pulled number six. So, we take number six out of that. Okay. Again, I'd like to move to items 1 through three. Items five and items 7 through 32. Need a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. [Music] Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Deber. Yes. Mrs. Key. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. I'd like to move item number four under personnel student affairs. The hand carried one. Yeah. Hand carry. Sorry. The yellow hand carry. Need a second. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Drew. [Music] Yes. Mr. De. Yes. M Mrs. Keppy. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Thank you, Mr. De. Budget and Finance. Mr. Drew, would you mind moving those items? [Music] Let's start with one. Wait a second. [Music] Second proposal for mic, please. Any discussion? Silly

064question. Go ahead. Go ahead. You go first, James. Go ahead. We're talking about $42,500. We have a break out of that money. Um, everyone should have a copy of that. Um, I have an issue with that because I believe that we're going to be spending a tremendous amount of money on something we're not going to get back on. I don't know. Get this money back. We're not even sure we're going to get this money back. We're going to spend $42,000 on an analysis and then after the analysis, we're going to make a decision on whether we want to put solar panels on the roof. Um other other people have told me that they're confident that we'll get this money back. If we're so confident, then let the uh let's leverage the um architect and let

065them put that money out first and we'll pay them back. But we're right now what we're doing is we're going to put out a lot of money to make a decision. And I just uh I feel the $42,000 used elsewhere in our budget. Mr. foodie. I would actually um after reading this I'm I'm I'm glad that Miss Francisco was able to get the breakdown for us, but I um before we go ahead with electrical analysis and propose schematic layout and design, um I think that we should be really voting tonight to do a roof load structural analysis because if The structural analysis turns out that we can't do anything near what we would like to do or maybe not even at all. Spending money on an electrical analysis and propose proposed schematic layout design. It's

066a mute point. So what I'd like to do is amend this um to the amount of $20,000 to prepare a structural analysis. Um and then if that structural analysis is feasible and we can move forward with a solar project, I would like to then move forward with a solar project. So if anybody's in agreement with me, okay, I have a a concern, two concerns. That's a motion to amend. Yes. about um I don't know how you could put a limit on what you would want to pay for the structural analysis and it's my understanding that the structural analysis is part of this based upon the uh drawings the plans of the buildings that are going to be reviewed and their own um firsthand um look at at the structures. So the structural analysis is part

067of this also, but I would I would suggest that I have to go back to Mr. Cenbrino to see if a $20,000 figure could in fact give you what you're looking for. So perhaps you'd want to table this resolution until the next board meeting. We can get more information. We can share it at the budget and finance committee in November and then we could bring it back on November 16th for the board to reconsider it. Yeah. Excuse me. One minute. I just I I agree. I think we should table this. I feel like I don't have enough information on it yet. I feel like I haven't absorbed everything on it yet and that everything is not there and I would like that information um before we move forward with this and before we assume that

06820,000 can be just put down as opposed to the whole thing. So I I would really like to table this. Mr. Going by the list, right? I can't the itemized list here. That's where you got that figure from. Yes, cuz on his itemized list, he I mean, he already gave us the breakdown of what each thing is going to cost. And that's why I made that motion to amend to $20,000 just for structural analysis because if we we go he gets through the structural analysis and turns out we can't do it, everything else is it's a it's foregone conclusion. At that point, we're not going to be able to do it. So there's um a motion to amend and a second on the floor now, which is what we're discussing. Okay. I guess my recommendation

069would be if we were to pass this amendment that basically we go back to Senator Bino and say that we've authorized 20,000 for the roof analysis and find out is you know can he do it for that and if if we you know if he says yes and the 20,000 covers that and we pass then we come back and we we do the remainder. We're going to do it in two pieces where we don't just why if he can't do that then when are we going to discuss this again? That's what I'm saying. So why don't we next meeting? [Music] I think would be better just to table it and then ask him what if if that number two is something that we can do separately and then just move it ahead that way. Oh,

070good. instead of going with an amendment, you know, instead of amending it and table it, get the information, have a discussion or approve the 20,000 and see if he'll take it. If he doesn't, then we have the discussion. Anyhow, discussion for well have to be you can if you make a motion to table then be seconded to vote on that. That's not there was a motion. Okay, so we're on the amended motion. is okay and second. I'd like to make a motion to table one. Second. Okay. And with that further discussion um at our next meeting at the next meeting when we have when we have our question answer regarding Okay. We're going to discuss this motion or not. Yes. Any discussion on this motion, Mr. endeavor. I'm going to go as far as to

071say it's a great idea, Mr. Foody had about the $20,000 divided up by I'm going to bet donuts that the architect is not going to go for that. He's going to want the full $42,000 for his money and time. We'll see. Which is why I kind of like saying this is what we've authorized. [Music] We didn't authorize the point of discussion, but [Music] Mr. Foody, he he's broken this down. Marilyn, if you've looked at it, he's broken it down to the electrical analysis and schematic. He's got it down to structural analysis, um, roof review, courtesy planning board submitt, um, meetings with the solar PPA companies. I mean, he he's broken it down step by step by step. So, um, the only thing, and I don't think it's an issue at this point, I could be

072mistaken for that $20,000 looking at this proposal, we have to give all the structural plans of those four buildings. The when I was up on the roofs with um our supervisor of operations, Mr. Sanvi, he had all but the drawings at McAP and he was getting them put together. So, are you questioning if they were found? No, I'm not questioning if they're found. I I'm I'm pretty sure if he was able to find all the other ones, I and he didn't think it was going to be an issue either. But if we don't have plans, then it goes on um rates, correct? So, you know, we know that it could be a little more given, right, a visual inspection at Makipin if that's the case because we have all the the plans for Westbrook, we

073have it for Marshall Hill, we have for the high school. So, I mean, I think the numbers, he was the one who came up with them. So, okay, Mrs. What I'm hearing is I think the numbers I'm not sure if we have questions like that. We're just asking for one more meeting simply just to have those answers before we even authorize $20,000. So, I think we should do our due diligence and speak to him and just simply do this next meeting. What are we really hurting by putting it off in getting our questions answered? That's what we're supposed to be doing. Thank you, Mr. De. I just wanted one more comment. Sure. Want to commend Mr. food for his fiscal responsibility. But in the breakdown at the bottom, it says the fix for the scope

074of work as listed above is 42,500. Mhm. The guy once is 425, which will be reimbursed to the school district by the successful PPA contractor upon PPA contract execution. Is that a guarantee or no? That's another question, right? Again, tons of questions. I think we just need a little more time to get the answers so we're all very clear on it. We all just got this. So, Mr. Booty. Um, Barbara, we would have to have an answer relatively quickly in order for this to be done in a manner which makes it feasible for the PPA company to make this a doable because the solar credits are so far being phased out next year, right? And and the other concern is that um if you do have a spat of bad weather early on in December,

075it's going to be harder for them to get up on the roof to assess things. But um we do have a meeting in 2 and 1/2 weeks. So um fingers crossed we won't have any problems and you know if the board chooses to go ahead with it then you know my sorry Mr. My only thought is that that these are his numbers. Mhm. You know, we can try it. If he says no, we're still and whether we do it or not, we still get our questions answered. Um and so we can always come back and look at this as a whole. Um but it g it frankly gives you more authority and and leverage to talk to him. This is authorized. We can do this right now. And uh uh but we also want these

076questions answered and then frankly that'll be one of the questions that's answered at the next meeting. Will he take this in two parts? I think it should be two parts. Well, it should be together. We don't know whether we will. My question is would the board be apprised to the information? If we if we approve 20,000, when are we going to find out whether he accepts that or not? We authorize 20,000. All right. to go back to him and you're going to have to ask him, "Hey, we're going to approve 20 out of the 42. Would you still like the job?" And he's going to either say yes or no. Well, Mhm. Mr. Foody, you could say 20,000 to provide the structural analysis because, you know, and explain to explain to him why. I would

077I would guess that you guys, Mr. Ke, Mrs. Key, you're talking about two weeks. Let's just get our answers in two weeks. I I don't understand why. What's wrong with waiting for two weeks? There's no problem with negotiating by get your answers. Get your answers before you move on. This will be my this will be my my my final comment on this matter. Um I think we should move forward with the 20,000. Farber, I'm sure, will get an answer tomorrow um if she calls them whether that's okay or not. And the process can be started instead of us waiting 2 weeks. If we have to wait 2 weeks till our next meeting, we're going to wait till 2 weeks for the next meeting till we can discuss this. But if we vote on it tonight

078and say they've agreed to give $20,000 to do the structural analysis and the rest of the money will be coming if everything else if the structural analysis falls in line, then we're we're not delaying ourselves two weeks. But don't we have questions in addition to spending that $20,000? I have questions. Call the question on the table. on the motion to take. Technically, it's actually a motion to postpone to the next meeting just for the record. Okay. But it was the table. So, but you're right. That's the essence of what the Okay. So, we're going to This is the vote is on the motion to postpone to the next meeting. [Music] Roll call, please. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Deber, can you can you come back to me last? Mr. Drew, no. Mr. Foody, no. Mrs. Kempy?

079Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Let's postpone. Okay. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Okay. Motion carries. So, we postpone to the 16th. [Music] Uh I maybe what we could do is let's get our questions together. That one of which being the first 20,000 along with others and maybe we could email them to Barbara or email them to me. I'll email them to Barbara so that he can answer them. Unless you want them here. Yeah. I mean, my only question is the 20,000. That's I mean, that's it. But my the other thing I'd like to point out, this has been on in our possession since February and we're just discussing it now. The breakdown now the proposal and we should have probably discussed this a long time ago. So these questions should have been discussed a number of times over

080the last few months but but not into the not with this in front of us because it was discussed with the intent of preparing for a roof referendum and that was something that we needed to find out if the board was in favor of. So it was discussed a couple of times. Oh, in committee. I remember in committee at a board meeting when he was here. Yep. But we don't have this. I agree. Mr. Deborah, can Barbara still propose to the company? I mean, this has been shot down at this point, but she could still approach him and say, "Sure, this is how the board feels. Let's Let's do that." Mhm. Sure, she can. So, we're done with item one on the budget. Yeah. Finance. Yes. I'd like to move items two and three. You

081need a second. Second, Mrs. Keepy and Mr. Booty. Um, discussion. [Music] Roll call, please. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mr. Deber, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Key, yes. Mrs. Schultz, yes. I'd like to move item four, budget and finance. Second discussion regarding comprehensive maintenance plan. Um, yes, Mr. Yeah, I'm concerned that this is the maintenance plan that has been in place uh for the last several years and that it doesn't really seem to be comprehensive enough to have uh uh identified some of the problems that we had with the roofs with the boilers. It has nothing to do with capital. It's only maintenance. There's two different things. The roof replacement, the boilers, that's a that's a capital outlay. That's not included in your maintenance plan. This is required by law. Your long range facility

082plan includes your capital projects. But this is annual maintenance to keep your plant going. Your alarm systems, your HBAC systems, your windows, your doors, uh whatever inspections need to be done. That's what this addresses and it's required by the state because we have to spend x number of dollars on our facilities, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the capital outlay projects that we have. So I know not with the project but but so the maintenance would not include inspections of roofs and boilers and anything that was a capital expenditure. Sure. Yeah. If you had a maintenance plan on on your roofs, like we would have uh maintenance done on the roofs after the the replaced, you would have an annual maintenance done, but this identifies all of the monies that we spend annually

083on the required maintenance areas as outlined by the state. So the the form that describes the different building systems is state approved. That's where it is. I can't add or delete anything because that's the way the state that's the format that the state wants it in. Okay. Thank you for answering my question. It just seemed to me that somehow we didn't identify facilities problems that that we now know we have and the major budget given that this is something that we have to do as is with the state that you've answered my question right this is recorded every year in the annual budget I mean in the annual audit and um it as I said earlier the long range facility plan which at this point Um hope we we update that as we go along.

084Every time we have a project, our learn rate facility plan is updated. But that basically identifies the 5-year 10year capital projects that need to be addressed so that um we can get the bigger items done. So, do we have a separate There's a separate There's a separate long range facility plan that um is going to have to be um updated, but the state hasn't provided us with the the software or the format as of yet. So, we're still looking at the one that was approved in 2005 and the items that were addressed at that point. Any other Mr. Booty? Well, I I understand what I what Steve's getting at and and um knowing that if we had I mean this is a comprehensive it tells us what we're going to do, but it it's it's

085the same as the last three-year plan we submitted and It's the form that's required by the state. I understand that. But I think that we should have our own comprehensive maintenance plan besides what we do to the state. So that you know for an example um we had the roofs patched at the auditorium June July somewhere around there Over the summer and in that short amount of time when I was back up on the roofs last week looking at them I found more damage. So, it seems to me that there should be a comprehensive maintenance plan for each building where whether it's the head custodian or a maintenance guy will come and walk up on a roof, see if there's anything visually happening that needs to be repaired before it becomes a major issue. Those

086are the types of things that I, if I'm not mistaken, Steve, I think that's what you're trying to get at. Um, and it and I mean it might have been something that we would have caught this deck that wraps around the back of Westbrook a little sooner. Those I think that's what it that's what he's getting at. And I I I tend to agree that if you don't see it, you're going to it's going to be too late. By the time it happens, it's going to cost us a lot more money. Dr. Oberer, when when Dr. was principal here. She had um you know her concerns about the the balcony and we had a structural analysis done at that time and they said it's absolutely fine and now it's not a structural issue. The structure

087at this point is fine. It's it's a cosmetic thing and we're also hoping to preserve the integrity of of the railings by taking care of the cosmetic aspects. So, um, it it's been a process. In the 5 years that I've been here, there have been a lot of things that needed to be addressed. You can't do everything at once. And what I've been attempting to do is a little out of time. So, we're at the point now where we see that this needs to be taken care of to eliminate any future deterioration. So, um, I like to try to be proactive. Sometimes you can't always be proactive, but I think we're at the point now where if we wait any longer to address that, we're going to be reactive. Yeah. where we're still trying to

088be proactive and we're trying to to budget it so that we can do part of it now to to to get it taken care of before the winter and part of it in the spring when this when there's nobody in the building with the sand blasting and painting. So there's a lot of um thing this building is is used a lot especially during the summer. So, we have a short window. August is basically our window for doing any major maintenance in this building. So, I'm trying to balance everything as best I could. And that's the reason why, you know, sometimes comprehensive maintenance doesn't it looks different from your eyes than it does from my eyes because there's a lot of other things that I have to consider also. So, Mr. I'm not saying anything against

089you, Barbara. No, I'm not. I'm not saying. But what what I'm I think what Steve's getting at is that if we're very proactive, then we we'll never have to be reactive. Well, except in an instance with the roofs, you something like that. But if we're on if we're on top of things a little bit better, um I think that in the long run, we'll I think that we've been trying to do that over the last few years. And there's um when the rod grants came up a few years ago, I was proactive about getting the architect and the engineer on board and saying, "Let's grab these things. They're the most obvious areas. we know that we have to replace the boilers because we're trying to be more energy efficient. Let's get the grants in because

090we only had a 4-week window. There wasn't a lot of time to sit around and say, "hm, what can we do to get some um state money?" So, I think that we've tried to address a number of things and that's one of the reasons why um we're trying to do the referendum for the roots because that does provide us with some debt service aid so that the taxpayers don't have to pick up the entire amount of money on their own. We will get some some monies back from the state. So, we're trying to be cognizant of the many things that need to be addressed without impacting the educational dollars and and trying to make things as as good as possible. Um, you know, for everybody concerned. And I I didn't mean to make a long

091thing about this, but I that's fine. You know, it seems like we're about to catch up on on maintenance and repair that should have been done. And there's always going to be other things that we don't think of that that are going to show up. Sometimes when you do preventative mainten your oil, it costs an awful lot less when you're replacing your engine. That's for sure. And sometimes when you change the oil and you take really good care of things, they still break down, which is what we have to deal with in our in our bus depot. So, you know, we try to be proactive, but sometimes even the best intentions Yeah. I I think I think we're looking at what we're looking at here is basically this is this is what's the document is

092that we're voting on. I think we need to look at our own internal audit as to what's going on. I think there's two separate issues. But you have to understand that this is something that's in place that we that we need to move on. But again, let's take our own, you know, we go through statement of assurance that I was talking about before. That is an opportunity to go through all the buildings and you do a report on those. So I think that's the best way to handle it. Good. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mr. Deber, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Key, yes. Mrs. Schultz, yes. Let me just move all the items. I don't have any questions that would be 5 6 8 and 11. Five through

09311. Five, six, eight, 8, 9, and 11. Need a second. Well, no, wait a minute. You can move five, six, and eight. And then 11 is a separate. Nine is a separate already. So, you can move five, six, and eight, Steve. Okay. A separate role. The others are very separate. Where are we going? Five, six, and eight. Mhm. And and you did you second? Second. So we're holding seven. Is that what you're doing? Yeah. [Music] Discussion, Mr. Um when when we do these school bus um evacuation drills, um statute requires that we do it at the the next board meeting. and Highlander Academy in Westbrook. We had a meeting on the 20th, the evening of the 20th 19. So, Highlander and Westbrook, we should have already approved those those drills. All the others fall after

094that date and would that be done at um at this meeting. So, I know I've brought this up several times in the past, but um we met on the 19th, didn't we? Was it last Monday? No, last Tuesday which was the 20th. But I didn't have I don't have the written report back from I can't report on something I don't have. That's you have to wait for them to No. Uh under understood but if if they're doing a report I mean god it does they're done in the morning. The drill is done but the actual written report is not done that day. We don't receive it. Yeah you know we don't get it that fast. Any other discussion? Roll call please. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Keppy,

095yes. Mrs. Schultz, yes. I'd like to move item number seven. Second. Discussion. Uh, disposition of obsolete technical equipment. Mr. Foody. Um, I know I brought this up in in the past and and actually had a discussion with with Steve about this. Um, and I think you also had a discussion bar who told you what he does with the um tech technology equipment. Yep. Where? We we we spoke briefly. We didn't go in any long discussions, but we did speak about this and I know that we um we don't see any value and these that's where our our recommendation deemed to be of no value to the district and there was a list there was probably a dozen or so laptops. There was a bunch of printers and so on so forth. Um, and in the

096past I've said that we should see if we can give this to a student, needy student in the district doesn't have a computer at home. I got to believe that there there are a few of them out there that don't have it. But and I think the idea would be not to give it to a student but let the student use it um for whatever IL math at home any of the things that need to be done online as far as homework goes and by by keeping it I mean if it if it breaks so what but I don't want to give the kid a computer and then he goes Patterson and sells it for 20 bucks or something like that, you know. I think I think what some of the problems with that is

097the you have to watch because the operating system probably is not compatible with some of the software. So, you'd be giving out something that they can't use. And I know one of the other things that we discussed uh was giving some of these computers to um what's the same with the organization you were just at the high and family success because they're running a tutoring program. So we thought perhaps we can just share some of the not share but actually give it to them so they can use it if they just needed to get online for some kind of support for students with that. So did you have a question? No, I was just going to say this is obsolete technology. It clearly states it there and last time we discussed this this was we're

098talking about DOSs machines and older majorly older technology and I thought it was agreed upon and the last time that we spoke that this what would is usable was donated and considering it says obsolete I think it's pretty straightforward. Can Mr. Ela answer this? Do you mind if we put you on the spot Mr. Ela? It's quite all right. Thank you. I go to this thing. Thank you very much. Hello. Okay. Um Okay. So, um prior to my coming here, we had a turnaround of computers uh which was about one school per year. What that meant was um at any given time the oldest uh computers in the district were about eight years old or more. Um, and that's kind of what we're looking at with the equipment that we're getting rid of. We're every

099year we're trying to we've switched since I've been here to uh two schools of computers per year to move to the state um recommended turnaround time for computers of four to 5 years. Um, but we're talking about computers that are anywhere from 7 to 10 years old. A lot of these computers are scrapped for parts. So the parts, you know, the computers that are not fully complete, um, we've pulled things uh out of these computers to be reused for other computers that could possibly break down. Um, and then in in the cases where there are potentially whole computers, they are either um so antiquated that it's not even worth pulling the parts out of. Um or uh the uh the amount of time it would be required for us to go through a cleaning process

100and making them so that they are functional and available to the students would be um kind of time prohibitive prohibitive for the number of technicians that we have to service the entire district. So we have four technicians that are managing about eight schools and we've in the past five years almost tripled the amount of devices that we have in the district. Um with the computers that we're getting rid of uh you know every time you release a computer to the the public you have to ensure that any and all information that was on that computer is cleared off. Um there's also concerns of course that if we are releasing uh computers that have Windows XP, we are technically releasing devices that are insecure to students that you know their use could be of a potential

101um danger to them because of the uh lack of um support that XP now receives. None of these computers would be successful at running Windows 7. And that's kind of the barometer that we've been using um for our disposal. Now what we are doing with the computers or what the recommendation what u I forward it is there is a company called computers for kids um it's uh or it's it's either managed by or owned by uh upcycled which um recycles computers uh across the uh state of New Jersey. They also refurbish and donate parts um uh you know so the things like the printers and projectors and stuff that would be cost prohibitive for us to fix they can fix um in bulk. So um they either um fix and repair those items and provide

102them to other schools in need or the salvage that they make from it goes towards the charity of providing for equipment that they have for schools. um it's one of the options that I've put forward for for what we would do. So we're not just disposing of them. So they are going to children somewhere to an extent but um I don't think that they would be um very salvageable for West Milford students. That being said, um, moving forward, as we get into a period where I am finally reaching that four to five year turnaround on computers, then we can potentially see uh an area where we're relieving ourselves of a 5-year-old computer or a four-year-old, you know, or just expiring four-year-old computer. And at that time, we might have the potential of releasing those computers

103out to the populace, but until then, it would probably be a bad idea. So, so these are compact laptops with XP. That's what we're getting rid of. Um, there's I don't have the list in front of me, but a majority some of the the the items that are on this list were the list were the items that were already approved for disposal. We just had to consolidate all of them into one location. A majority of them are either desktops or laptops that are absolutely very archaic. They um, you know, nothing. I mean, if at the very most I would say some have like Windows Vista on it, but probably not running those. Well, um, and even Windows Vista doesn't support uh the device set up for Windows Vista doesn't necessarily support Windista. Thank you, Mr.

104Alte. Mr. Drew. Uh, I don't want to get into a long. Do you have any questions for Mr. Alte? U, no. I think I kind of understand there are a lot of laptops and computers. Obsolete to us doesn't necessarily mean obsolete. I've got customers you major bank names you would recognize who are running this kind of crap completely uh successfully and and not replacing it. Uh I am certain that an XP Pro machine there is still being used by corporations and machines even older than that. Um you know worst case you can put Linux on the thing it formats the drive. you don't have any ambient etc etc etc. I would like to at least offer them for free to any student in the district who is reduced price lunch um you know as we

105continue to uh adopt uh technology in the district. We want kids to be able to use computers in the home and access the internet and that's going to be a problem for us. But some families don't have those and this might be a a solution to that. It's not worth anything to us. But but I know it could be worth something to somebody. So we at least offer it. They don't want it. They they don't get it. Anybody else we sell them for, I don't know, 40 bucks or something. What about cleaning it and all the other time consuming issues that you just discussed and explained to us? Um, you know how to install Linux on a machine, right? You can install Linux on a machine, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the person that

106we provide the computer to will be able to operate Linux. Um, right. Also there I mean knowing how to install Linux and ensuring that a computer that has potentially been scrapped for parts or put aside just because it was malfunctioning. Um the overhead on time that it takes to go through that process of clearing them out, installing Linux and things like that, it's kind of it it does it does there is a lot of overhead which is feasible. It's something that we could potentially do, but in order to do so that we would have to expand our technological offerings in order to provide time for technicians to be able to work on something like of that of that nature. I'm sort of proposing to say say it's available and see if anybody wants them. You

107know, if you only get one or two or none, then okay, we're done with that. If we get, you know, 30 families who want one, might be worth it to us instead of finding some other way for them to Mr. Deborah, can we call a vote for number seven? You're calling a question? No, I just want to vote on it. Yeah, sorry. Question. Thank you, Mr. L. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Deber, yes. Mr. Drew, no. Mr. Foody? No. Mrs. Key? Yes. Mrs. Schultz? Yes. 42 does. It doesn't need a majority, does it? Simple majority. Majority of those voting. Mr. Deber, I'd like to make a motion to extend executive session till 9:30. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you, Mr. De. Can I move items eight and nine or do you have questions

108about either of those? You already did eight. So, okay. You want to just do nine now? Yeah. I need a second. Discussion. [Music] Roll call, please. Mr. Deborah. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Keepy. Yes. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mr. Foody, no. Mrs. Schultz, yes. Like to move item 10. Second. Discussion. Mr. Foody. Um, I see that we're one of the many transfers this this month. Um, is for a laptop for our director of education and I saw the price tag on it at $1,700 and kind of got a little sticker shock, so to speak. What kind of laptop is it that you did there? No, I do. It's a It's a MacBook. Um, okay. I I'm engaged. One of the projects I'm working on now is a um pride video for the town of West Milford.

109Um, highlighting a lot of our programs, a lot of our sports teams, uh, students in the classroom, AP AP programs, that sort of thing. Uh, one of the things we see at board meetings and and out the community is we don't necessarily always have that, um, positive view of our town. Um, say no more. I just when when I saw it, and I'll plug I'll plug Mac. I can't do it on I can't do it on Google. It's iMovie and and that's what I make it on. And if you can you can follow me on Twitter and you can see my previous work in my videos and good stuff. Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Discussion. I have a question about the uh $321,000 for um wireless wireless and and I guess my

110you know I know we are trying to do greater technology adoption in the district. I think that's great as one and my only question is was this was this budgeted or not? Let let me explain. During the budget process, Mr. El Taib had received um proposals and our discussion was we would put it in the budget and if we receive the - funding to offset the cost of the wireless upgrade then we would proceed with the project. We have received the W the level two funding and that was outlined in the in the description but we have to pay for it. We have to do the purchase order for the entire amount and then we get rebates from the federal government to offset the costs and that will get added back in to other account.

111Yes. All right. On the accounts that we're taking it from. Mr. What's those what are those amounts, Barb? Do you have any idea? Is it is it a percentage like we do with the with the bonding issue for example? We're well federal federal funds and we're eligible for 50%. But they've also capped each individual school. So there might be some areas in the individual school where they said that, you know, we're not going to get funding, but it's such a minuscule amount. I think it came to about what 20some th,000 that we're not eligible for. Much less. Yeah. So the bulk of it about $430,000 we're eligible for up to 50% funding. So um it's a no question we need that surprise, but it was really good. And uh as a matter of fact, last

112week I I saw somebody uh that deals with -ray funding and they said that there's more to come. So nice. Good. It's it it's a good way of upgrading our wireless because 4 years ago we didn't have any. Yeah. We had no wireless and now we're we're expanding it. So it'll bring us a little bit closer to having that onetoone environment that you're trying to achieve. Again, a little bit at a time. It's got to be incremental because you just don't have the money to put out and things have to be prioritized. We needed the Chromebooks for park so we couldn't do other things. So now it seems like it's all coming to fruition. No, there's a great thing to do. Any other discussion on this? Roll call, please. Um, Mrs. Key, yes. Mr. De,

113yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mr. Foody, abstain. Mrs. Schultz, yes. Um, well, I need to ask Mr. Green. How many? Five and one abstain. [Applause] Technically problem. Mike, please. Here we go. We done I don't think I Can you please your vote if we don't I can't call for a revote on that, right? It has to be one. You could also offer to ask the secretary to change your vote. Okay. Okay. I'll I'll do it this time. What? Change my vote to an affirmative. Well, yes. Yeah. Yeah. not to know to yes. We don't want to delay implementation. Thank you. No, I know that's motion. I thought we had more people. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Drew. Would you like to move items 11 or 12? Uh, I move item 11,

114please. Need a second. Second. Discussion. Seeing none, roll call. The water. Sorry, we just said 11, right? Yes. Why don't we um Mr. Babbot? Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. Mrs. Key? Yes. Mrs. Schulz? Yes. I'd like to move item 12. And we answered my question about I need a second. Second. Discussion. Mr. Foody. Barbara. in in reading through the um the board secretar's report um we have stuff that money that we have in capital reserve we have money in maintenance reserve but there was a a line item that I saw it said emergency reserve zero right we don't have any money in emergency reserve okay my my my question my question being would Do you consider the money that we're the budgeted fund balance that we're allowed to keep um

115that 1% that we're allowed to have as a or 2%? It's 2%. That's right. You're right. 2%. Excuse me. We're allowed to keep 2%. 2% as a bud budgeted funge balance above what we have is a surplus. Excess. Yes. Could we take that budgeted fund balance and put it into emergency reserve? No. The budgeted fund balance has to you're required by law to keep up to 2%. Okay. You could take some of the excess sum fund balance and you could put it into emergency and some of the bigger districts do have that. I was speaking to one district over the weekend and they actually have about $10 million in the emergency fund. Okay. Well, I wasn't thinking about putting that much in, but was wondering it take us a while to do that. Was Yeah.

116No, I I understand. But I what I was wondering is could we put in that budgeted that 2% budgeted reserve? No, you can't. Into that emergency account and then not tax it the following year. No, that's something that we can't do. She just said we can't do that. No, I'm just I'm making perfectly clear. And then you also have to understand that when you have those kind of accounts, they're restricted on the with withdrawals are restricted. Okay. What is that? It would have to be I I don't know off the top of my head, but it's it's definitely in the statute and code as to what would be an emergency where you can actually do the withdrawal. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. You know, the the one thing about your 2% fund balance is it's

117it's liquid. So, if you do have some kind of a problem during the school year, um, and you have to transfer money in order to cover it, um, and then you get to the end of the school year and you don't have enough money to cover your budgeted expenses, you can then transfer money from your your fund balance with into those with commission with with the approval of the county. Correct. so that you can cover and you don't run into a deficit. So there's a reason why they have all of these different funds available to you. Thank you, Mrs. Francisco. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mrs. Key, yes. Mr. Rabbit. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Okay. That ends budget and finance. Thank you, Mr. Drew. We

118could move on to special committees liaison reports. Uh Mr. Robbins is not here, so we'll move on to safety. Mr. Foody, no report. Superintendent's round table. Mrs. Keepy. Um yeah, we we met uh last week. Um there's a lot discussed. That was a long meeting. It was a very long meeting. So, but I'm going to take some just three highlights here. They um questioned the parents questioned Westbrook school and why the roof was taking so long. And Mr. Rashiko is very nice in explaining that it wasn't way past due, that it was only a few days um extra. And um we actually saved money by not completing the roof in the summer. Um and I think that was important to get out to parents and let them know. Um is they had questions about um

119sorry let me signage we needed signage for the fields um any away team that comes up there's very much confusion about where the fields are and there was wondering if they could um put signs up and the other thing was we discussed kindergarten that we no longer have um kindergarten screening and um the parents were looking to because now what's happening is they feel that we are now putting some children in kindergarten that really aren't ready for it because we have disbanded the kindergarten screening program and there was a question of whether that could be reinstated and then transition program too was and a transition program which was connected to that as well um so there is an interest in into looking into that and figuring out if we can implement that again. Okay, that's

120all I have. Thank you, Mrs. Key. Mr. Foody, New Jersey school boards. Nothing. Mr. Drew, legislative. Uh, there's not a lot that bubbled up as being um noteworthy to that I noticed. Uh, okay. As an aside, I was uh asked by Jafari Anderson to participate in the Bay County Education Legislative Committee. And I have no idea whether that I don't know what that means. Um, but we'll we'll see what happens. I may have some opportunity to request the park results and maybe even influence that process, but I have no idea at this point. You're going to contact him then? Well, we've been in contact. He asked me to. He brought that up at that last meeting we had at the Brownstone that he was going to reach out. Yeah. Good. Thank you. uh technology oversight.

121Mrs. Kppy, I have nothing to report. We have a meeting next month scheduled though. Thank you. Uh West Milford Education Foundation, Mrs. O'Brien is not here. Um can I just say something quickly on that? The grant process um ends tonight. So, and we've gotten quite a number of grants in which is very exciting at this time and we have a meeting tomorrow night. Great. Thank you. Uh Township Board of Ed joint committee. Nothing to report. the trophy. Actually, uh, based on the comments that we heard tonight with, um, some of the drug issues we have, I'm going to try and reach out to some of the, uh, some of the people on the township side and see if we could bring something together on that. So, other than that, nothing else to report. Okay. Thank

122you. Anybody have any old business, Mr. Foody? um the roofs at Westbrook. Um walking up this evening, I still see that we're 6 to 8 weeks away from getting the the flashing capping. Um the latest report is that the the metal should be in this week. They're talking about possibly doing that this weekend. This weekend. So they may have Okay. So they might finish it cuz I remember the last thing for you was 6 to8 weeks. Yeah, but that we got a surprise. Okay. Nice surprise. Any other old business? Yeah, another question. What um why didn't we do this start this in the month of August and what money did we save by doing it later? Okay. I Well, one of the problems we had was that we're still running some of the ESY programs

123and the other programs here at this school. So, it really wasn't safe to do it uh financially. Barbara can give you a better idea. You know, when we did the Marshall Hill roof um last year, we had requested a September start date also. And um the first time we went out to bid, it was over $200,000, maybe $300,000 more than what we had anticipated. So we went out to bid a second time and we put alternates in dates. Alternate alternates are part of the bid process so that you have a scope of work but you put alternates in and if it Thank you. If the base bid comes in low enough then you could add to the scope of work. Thank you. And um the second time around um the prices were still high. So

124after two times, you can negotiate with the contractors to see if you can get a better price. And we were basically stuck at I think we had to to add about $150,000 to what our original budget was because we could not get the roof done for the price that we thought we were going to be able to and that was in September. So, if we had gone out in prime season, which would have been the end of June, beginning of July, it would have been substantially more. We did end up adding money to the budget. I think it was about $150,000 that the board had to approve over and above what we had originally budgeted for Marshall Hill roof. Who who per who originally gave us the estimate for that? We were using the square

125footage from uh reports that we had gotten back in 2011 and um it it turned out to be a deficient number. So that what now we know that the roofs are actually bigger than than what they that was included in that original report. Okay. Any other but it is less expensive. Um, so we with the roof referendum though, if we're successful in December, we plan on doing the roofs in the summer because that's going to be a very attractive project. Yep. Especially the two because of the size and the two buildings are are next to each other. So, the staging is going to be easy and um we should be very successful if we're successful with the referendum. It should be very successful with the bid and and coming within our our our budgeted amount.

126So, but you know, we're we ended up spending more money though than we budgeted for the Westbrook roof. No, no, that was Marshall Hill. Marshall Hill. See, everybody wants to get the work done during the summer. How much How much did we save on a Westbrook roof? Um I Let me see if I could I mean, you don't have to give me an exact number, but let me see. Somewhere close, I I find. I'm looking. Okay, let me see if I can give you a number. Um, I do a session motion later. I'd like to make a motion to uh have executive session at 9:45. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you. Oh, any opposed? Just be on the safe side. No, it's slumped together. I thought I could pull it out of the board

127secretaries report, but the uh it's not itemized. Okay. So, um could you, if you could find out, maybe send me a quick note? Sure. I'll send that out to the board. [Music] Any other old business? Anybody have new business? Mr. together. Tonight we uh we discussed a lot about park testing. Um we talked about the revisions that are coming to the test, the test time, testing scores. We talked about the web workshops that are for parents, but um it's curious how this district, and I don't want to use the word discriminate, but we have no guidance in place for the families who don't want their kids or want their kids to opt out of test. I'm hoping tonight during executive session, we could probably come up with some type of guidance for the parents who

128want their kids to be opted out of that test. Anybody else with new business? Mr. Drew? Uh, I would like to propose that we try to hold something like a uh public forum maybe at the high school or one of our facilities uh with a large room to answer any potential questions regarding the referendum with Thanksgiving between now and the election. Uh, I think if we don't do it here, we may not have that opportunity, but I really think it'd be good to have You're right. Um, we have available a date certain that we can give to the newspaper so that anybody who might have questions about it can get we planned on on doing that. So, I guess I'd like to make a motion to that regard and somebody to follow up on it.

129Second discussion. Not the night before Thanksgiving. Do we have any dates? Tentative dates? Not at this point. We have to look at the calendar because Mr. Re Mr. Rashik is also including his uh superintendent council round table, you know, for the U. Well, that's we can do it, you know. Well, here's the thing. I mean, if I do mine early enough, we may be able to piggyback it. I mean, that's that's a possibility. Go to the PTA PTO meetings. I'll be happy to attend that. Yeah. Okay, just a thought, but figured it for night. Okay, so who's going to follow up? Well, Barbara and I think we'll we'll sit down and look. We just want to look at the uh cuz we have November two is uh parents teacher conferences and things like that. So,

130we just got to be careful, but we we'll make it work. Okay. And then we need to communicate that to the and the board members if they want to attend. Any other new business? Do you need to do you need a vote on that? This is a point of You want to vote on the ref the Excuse me. I don't think we had a second on that. Mr. Foody did. Okay. Oh, we got a vote on it. Yeah. So, is it It doesn't need to be a um It could be a voice vote. Is everyone for um coming up with a tentative date for the referendum discussion with the community? All in favor? I I Any oppose? Thank you. Sorry, Mr. Joe. You were No, that's fine. We needed to finish. Thank you. Thank you,

131Miss Francisco. I should have raised this point of parliamentary order at the time. But I guess now I'm going to make it a question. I believe that we should adopt a the agenda before the petitions and requests if we're going to tell people that their petition doesn't pertain to the agenda. If there is no adopted agenda, the agenda is presented in the format. Uh the items are listed on the agenda. I I will say this, most boards of education, many do adopt, but most do not adopt the agenda technically. The agenda of the public. So the agenda that goes out to the public is technically notice to the public of of the agenda item. Um so technically you don't have to adopt it. I mean you rais a good point because if you're adopting the

132agenda what's the point of of having that resolution but uh the bottom line is the agenda that's put out there although not technically official until adopted is the notice to the public of what will be acted on. So certainly acts to restrict those items um on the notice as it goes. It's not technically necessary. [Music] I'm done. Thank you. Thank you. Any other new business? Korea Day next Tuesday at the high school uh sponsored by Rotary. So, November 3rd. Uh there are a number of uh programs going on. So, and Mr. Riket, if you don't mind, I just want to mention that we also have our um first special education parent advisory committee meeting tomorrow night, which is the 28th. I'm sorry. It's on Wednesday the 28th at 700 p.m. to 8:30 here at Westbrook

133School. So, and all special education parents are welcome. Seek. Yes, CPAC. Thank you. Thanks. I need a motion to close um sorry, I'll move on to sorry petitions and requests. Petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting. Other petitions and requests limited to five minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30-inut period transpires. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. Would somebody like to come up and speak? Yes. [Music] Ed Gonzalez 17 Hillside Lane. I also would like to mention that the following opinions represent my personal opinions and I am not

134representing any township committees. I have done some additional research regarding this board as followup to some of my comments last week. It is alarming to discover that this board does not uphold its own policies. Furthermore, this adds to the issue of being able to trust this board. In a board resolution dated July 26, 2005, this board adopted the following rules reviewed from the original copy which a copy of it was provided to you this evening. And I quote, page 17 and page 18. I'm specifically going to emphasize paragraph 3 and forward. Now therefore be it resolved that the effective immediately whenever the board excludes this public from its meetings in accord in accordance with NJSA. The resolution required by NJSA shall describe the topics discussed during the non-public portion of the meeting in as much

135detail as possible. You guys are doing that. Congratulations. However, from this point forward, I don't see this items being done. be resolved immediately effective immediately whenever the board excludes the public from its meetings in accordance in accordance with NJSA 10 col4-12B. It shall make public versions of the minutes of those closed meetings redacted only to the extent necessary to protect the public interest available to the public no later than 6 weeks thereafter absence extingent circumstances and is further resolved that between 3 months from the effective date of this resolution the board shall prepare for each closed meeting held since January 1, 2000 public versions of the minutes of those meetings redacted only to the extent necessary to protect public interest as permitted by law. And is further resolved that for each element redacted, the public

136version of the closed meetings minute shall include a statement setting forth as specifically as possible. the reason for the reduction. It is further resolved that the board shall at least annually or more frequently at the discretion of board secretary or at the request of a public citizen determine whether and to the extent to which the public versions of outstanding close session minutes due to the passage of time or intervening events can be updated to disclose previously redacted material. the outcome of such reviews being recorded in the board's public meeting minutes and as further resolved that these public versions properly updated as necessary of close meeting minutes shall be maintained in a book form along with the board open session minutes in the board secretar's office in the West Milford public library where they shall be

137readily made available for inspections by any person and is further resolved that the instant resolution B and hereby is adopted as board policy and to be maintained to the board policies manual. Based on my research on this item, I I found that the last time any of the executive meeting minutes that were published in accordance to this resolution was February 2011, which is the very last page of of the copy I gave you. I also found that during the previous years it hasn't been done consistently. Moreover, find that this policy is not listed under the current policies of the board as stated in the resolution. So that you change your policy and if so what is the current policy as per your current policies and bylaws that you post online does not show it. So

138are you giving lip service to the public? [Music] Earlier this year in March, during the board of education budget discussion, a board member made a statement regarding the tax increase and suggested that the capital improvement budget be left to the public in a vote in which another member stated, "We cannot trust the voters with regards to have a bond proof." I could not believe my ears when I heard these comments from a board member. Trust is something that people earn over time. Trust is earned by meeting and even exceeding the expectations of those given their trust to you. We have given our trust to this board by electing you. However, this board has been secretive and misleading to the public in the past and has shown time after time not to be trustworthy. In order

139for the people of this town to trust this board again, this board has to become more transparent and forthcoming. Mr. Gonzalez, sorry your 5 minutes is up, so thank you for your comments. Please sit down. I am I'm almost done. You only have 5 minutes and the 5 minutes is up. Thank you. Anybody? Would anybody else like to come up and speak? See, I need a motion to close. Actually, the person speak. We got up to 30 minutes reserved for this for the public portion. So, I guess that automatically I get the the times from the other people donated to me. Five minutes. You're five minutes up, sir. There's 30 minutes reser that reserved for this portion. Therefore, and we're wasting time by arguing about this. We have a board attorney here. I will defer

140that to our attorney. Five minutes is officer. Sure. When those comments are Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez. Would anybody else like to come up and speak during petitions and requests at this time? Seeing none, I need a motion to close, please. Move to close. Second. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. [Music] Mr. De, would you like to read the uh executive session resolution, please? at 9:30 p.m. I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel negotiations and matters of attorney client privilege. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? What are the items? specified personnel negotiations and matters of attorney client privilege. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or confidentiality is no longer applicable. Okay. Need a motion to

141come out of executive session, please. I'd like to make a motion to come out of executive session and second. 10:50 p.m. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, this is Keepy. Would you mind going to um under education? I'd like to move item 12, which are the reports. Do I have to read the incident number on these? No. Okay. As both were unsubstantiated. I need a second. Second. Any discussion? Voice vote. Mrs. Kebie. Yes. Mr. Bab. Yes. Mr. Deber. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Okay. It's 10:51 p.m. I need a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. Yeah. All in favor? I Any opposed? Meeting is adjourned at 10:51.