Board of Education Meeting 6/23/15

001How you doing? You're welcome. Sure. Thank you very much. Put on your microphones, guys. Good evening, everybody. We're going to reconvene this meeting. We had an executive session earlier starting at 6. I apologize for the delay. I know it was hot in the hallway. Uh it was something that couldn't be avoided. So, thank you for your patience. And um at this point in time, we're going to continue our meeting at uh the superintendent's report, Mr. Yep. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Uh just uh so you're aware of it. I'm sure you are already, but we do have a moving up ceremony tomorrow evening at McAppin School at 7:00 p.m. where our eighth graders will be uh recognized for their accomplishments and moving on up to the high school. Uh so we invite you to join

002us there uh if you're available. And then uh the high school graduation will take place on Thursday evening. That is at 6:45 on the field. And uh weather permitting, that's where it will stay. So hopefully that's where that will be. Uh final exams are almost over. Uh unfortunately, you probably received a call from myself and maybe one of two of the other principles involved here um in regards to a a bomb scare that took place today at the high school, which uh certainly did disrupt the testing schedule. So, they're behind one exam. So, we're going to give that tomorrow uh and then we'll be all in place and everybody should be fine. Um so, that's what's going to happen. Uh we look forward to the end of the school year. uh we have lots of

003things planned to uh incorporate during the summer uh within the district. So, we're going to take care of that. And um you know, that's that's where we are. But I do I'm going to move over to the other the other microphone and stand there for a minute because there's someone I'd like to acknowledge. So we were recently made aware of the fact that uh you know we spoke about teacher of the year and we had all kinds of recognitions and things that we did even last week we had a major recognition over at uh Makapin school. So actually it was this school downstairs and uh so this goes out to Miss Jacqueline Becker and this is I'm going to read it to you. Congratulations. You are the 2015 New Jersey History Teacher of the Year.

004The Gilda Leman Institute of American History is honored to celebrate the outstanding work that you do in the classroom. A panel of teachers, administrators, and scholars from your state selected you for use of primary documentations in the classroom. The level of inspiration you provide to your students and the career achievements in your education. We thank you for engaging students with dedication and creativity. Jacqueline, please come up here and accept this award. Wait right there because Mr. Matt Los is never at a loss for words and I'm sure he'd like to share some information as well. So, Thank you so much for coming everybody tonight. Um, in regards to the department of history and social sciences, we are so proud of Miss Becker and also uh being of course on the New Jersey Council for History

005Education, I was informed today uh that Miss Becker actually will be recognized at Princeton University on December the 4th, 2015 uh in front of nationally recognized historians, teachers from just across the state, across the country that come to this conference. Uh so yes, West Wolf will be receiving some some PR from Miss Becker and of course we do appreciate it. She is a fantastic teacher. Uh, so of course I do have to applaud her again. Post for pictures. That's it. I just want to say thank you because obviously um I don't like to talk very much in front of big groups unless you're 10 years old. So, um, it's just really important for me to thank, uh, people in my life because this is not something that you do on your own. My mom was

006a West Milford teacher for 30 years. 30 years. Yes. And, um, thank you. You know, as a kid, my parents always took me to Civil War reenactments. So, history's been a part of my life, and I specifically chose to be an elementary education major with history. And I um, I feel very fortunate. I just want to thank my mentor who came Masavoy and Mr. Matt Lewis and Mrs. Prima and my other colleagues who came because I'm definitely only as good as the people I work with. So I feel very fortunate. So thank you. So that is all I have to report tonight and again congratulations Jacqueline. Thank you Mr. special reports and correspondence. Mrs. Francisco, I have the minute uh from May 19th and May 26th. Um I apologize for not getting into yesterday. It's

007been a little hectic in the office the last uh couple of weeks, but um they are there. If you have any questions, um please feel free to ask. like to make a motion to approve the following meeting minutes for child social action meeting of May 19th, 2015, executive session of May 19th, 2015, regular meeting of May 26, 2015, and executive session of May 26th, 2015. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Me. On all minutes, Mr. Yes. I am I am abstaining from workshop um special action meeting as well as executive session meeting both of May 19th 2015 as I was not present thank you president's report um please note in your packets that the New Jersey school boards association workshop dates are actually um set already. And if you don't know if you're going

008to go this year or not, um I would advise that you review the packet and look through it. It's very informative. You learn a lot. There's a lot of workshops to attend. Uh you can learn as much as you want. You can attend as much as you want. Um it's a good networking opportunity. So, please take note of that. That's in your packet. And speaking of New Jersey school boards, uh we as a West Milford Board of Education will not be filling out or um doing the survey monkey as far as the superintendence evaluation goes since we do have an interim at this point in time. It's not necessary for Mr. Rashika to fill out his portion as he only started in December and so it's twofold. It wouldn't be necessary for us to complete

009that as well. So, I just wanted to let you know about that. That concludes my report. With that, we need to move on to um approving the agenda as presented. I need a motion. I take make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. Need a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, thank you. 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 minute period transpires. Petitioners speaking during petitions and requests are asked to address topics listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name,

010and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. Would anybody like to come up and speak? Seeing none, move to close. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? I would just like to note, I had mentioned this earlier, um, but we weren't televised and we did not have anybody from the public here, but, uh, Mr. Bailey is actually at a retirement dinner for Coach Poppy. Unfortunately, his retirement dinner was scheduled the same night as a board of ed meeting, but uh, that's because a lot of things kind of get crazy at the end of the school year, as many of you know. And since he is considered a keynote speaker this evening, he is going to plan on doing his job there at the Brownstone in honor of

011Coach Poppy. And then his plan was to come right up here afterwards. So I just wanted noted that he had a conflict of interest and it was out of his control that was late. So we're going to move on to education. Mrs. Kempy, would you mind moving? Sure. Um under education I'd like to approve um item number one which are the HIP reports which is incident 2015E3 is un unsubstantiated and 2015/E14 as substantiated. Second any discussion Mrs. Francisco roll call please. Mr. Batt. Yes, Mr. Robbins. Yes, Mrs. Steppy. Yes, Miss O'Brien. Yes, Mr. De. Yes, Mr. Foody. Yes, Mr. Drew. Yes, Mr. Schultz. Yes. Um, under education, I'd like to approve items. Make a motion to approve items number two through 11. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none. Roll call. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes.

012Mrs. Kempy. Yes. Mr. Babbett. Yes. Miss O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Dever. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Okay. Under education, I'd like to move um to approve item number 12. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Miss O'Brien, yes. Mr. Robins, yes. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Key, yes. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mrs. Schultz, yes. [Applause] That would conclude education. That's it for education. Sorry. Thank you, Mrs. Kebie. Okay. Um, guess we could move on to budget and finance. Before we do that, um, there's one correction I'd like the board to be aware of. Uh, number 38 under budget and finance. Uh, it's weather bug outdoor lightning alert system, not lighting alert. What number again, please? Number 38. Page 18. Page 18. Yes. At the bottom, it should say weatherbug outdoor

013lightning alert system. You can change the minutes. That's awful expensive. Bug zapper. [Applause] Mr. Drew, would you mind uh moving the items under budget and finance, please, including the hand carries which are on the green sheet? Um, sure. I'd like to move items one to five. uh as written. Second. I' discussion. I'd like to have number one as I guess we could do we could do this as a discussion, I guess. Um on on number one, we are I guess rehiring, reappointing our special ed and negotiations attorney um in in light of um allegations that were bought brought forth from a parent regarding um this firm. I uh I can't support reappointing that firm. Um, and those allegations were serious, I think, in nature, and I think they were taken way too lightly by this

014board. Just want to make sure we don't go too far into that. I know. That's why I'm keeping it the way I'm saying it, Joe. Though, don't worry. Um, wouldn't you say that? I'm also I say you're right on the line. Well, I'm right on the line. I know and I'm not going any further. Um, but I can't support and I would I would hope that the uh the board wouldn't support that as well. Um, and in voting on this, Joe, I can vote yes on the other appointments and pull them out separately. You could just say which ones you're voting yes or no for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Any other discussion? So, we're pulling out item one as No, that was just a comment that was made. The motion is one through

015five. Y and if you're voting no on any part of anything, you can except that you can just mention five. So, that was for items number one to five. Uh, Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foody. Um, yes. With the exception on number one of uh I want a no vote on Schwarz, Simon, Edstein, and Selza. Mrs. Key. Yes, Mr. O'Brien. Yes, Mr. Robbins. Um, I'll stayain on number one and yes on 234. Mr. Schultz. Yes. Motion carries. I'd like to move item six uh for consideration by the board. Number of signatures required under various accounts. Why aren't you going through them all? Why aren't you? Because I want to amend this. Okay. Yes. Six only. Any discussion? I would like to amend item six. Um this is exactly what I

016do as a professional is help banks and companies determine uh how to authorize uh these kinds of things. The largest account that we uh transfer pay funds out of is payroll and I would like to make two signatures required on payroll payroll agency and payroll medical. So you want to make a motion to so I'm making a motion to amend item six to make two signatures required for payroll payroll agency payroll agency medical second. Any discussion? Can I just say for a point of order in the future, if we want to amend a motion like this, we should do it before we approve the agenda as a as a as presented because then we don't have to have a separate motion to amend. We can discuss it and then approve it as amended. It's just

017easier that way. So that's just for the future. Okay. Just to point well. Is there any discussion on this? Actually, I just want to um make sure with Barbara that two signatures is allowable. I'm not sure how her checks are written or it's been that way since I've been here. You know, one signature. This is exactly how fraud is committed and you find out later you should have done it. I just want to right I agree. I I just want to make sure that's possible that we can get that change. I would have to check with the bank. I I don't problem. We just have to have one of the signature second line. Yeah. Can we approve this now and amend it later for second signatures after we find out uh the legalities of making

018it two signatures? There's already a motion on the table that's been um brought up and second. Well, there's a motion to amend it to change payroll payroll agency and medical to one to two signatures one. So that's what that's the motion is just to amend this. So right now we're discussing the amendment. I didn't want to take a lot of time. Not two to one, but one to one, right? I thought you said the other way around. Can I call the question? If there's no other discussion. Okay. So, we're voting on the amendment. The amendment. Uh, no. Mr. De, I abstain from it because I don't have all the information to satisfy myself. Mr. Drew. Yes, Mr. Booty. Yes, Mrs. Key. Abstains. M O'Brien. No, Mr. Robinson. Yes, Mrs. Schultz. Yes. If we're able to

019do that according to the Yes. Wait, wait, wait. I'm confused. Yes. Is voting on the amendment to require two signatures. That's what I'm That's what I want. I apologize. You said yes. Bless you. Yes. Yes. Not. No. Yes. So you got five. So there's only four. So now now we vote on the original issue as amended to change and and it's already changes to two. Y including the two signatures. The amendment carries. So the motion of vote right now is number six. We have two signatures on everything. Okay. So, that would be for two signatures. Mr. Babbot. No, Mr. De. Again, I'm going to abstain from it because I don't have all the information you need to be satisfied. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mrs. Kappy. I'm going to abstain because I think this

020should have been brought up and discussed and work through first and I don't like the process so I'm going to abstain but it's a good idea but like to know more about it. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. Schultz. Yes. I do agree with Mrs. Keepy though it should have been brought up ahead of time. U like to move item seven. Uh yeah, second. Any discussion? I'd like to point out in the final sentence of item seven that uh it allows us to authorize the bank to move funds, disperse funds, so on and so forth acting alone. And that should be removed those words. So I am recommending we remove the words acting alone from the final sentence in the now therefore. So I'm making a motion to do that. Second discussion. This is

021another motion to amend amends. Yeah. And it's to be consistent with you. You you don't want to have the ability to for one person to give an electronic authorization to a bank to move a million dollars. That's how fraud occurs. So it's going to take two. So you want the words acting alone to be removed. Yes. The amendment is to delete acting alone. from authorizations to the bank. Any other discussion on this? Seeing none, roll call and we're voting on the motion amended. I second. Great. Mr. Babbett, no. Mr. Bailey, no. Mr. De, I'm going to abstain again. It would be consistent with the first one we changed. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Scppy, abstain. Miss O'Brien, Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mrs. Schulz. Um, according to our attorney, doesn't see a problem with it.

022Again, I would have preferred this being discussed prior, but I'm going to say yes. again. Correct. So now we vote on the original motion. The original motion already unless there's discussion. I will say that the motion if there's later discussion we could always Yeah. On the original motion. Yes. I was the second and I would just seriously recommend not authorizing the bank to so you disperse or move funds. Thank you. Y Mrs. O'Reilly, I just want to clarify. Can we readress this at a later time? Yes. Okay. Thank you. So, it's as originally right now. Do you see a problem with it, Mr. Attorney? The way it's written out? No, because it's officer or signatory of the board acting alone. So, it's not the bank that that we're giving the approval to do this. It's

023somebody from the board. And when you say officer of the board, it means the board president or vice president and the board president's absence. So, I'm assuming this is how the motion has always been written. I don't see we're authorizing the bank to do anything with our money without our authorization, the board, I should say. Um, but we could always come back to this if there's an issue or some further investigation. Thank you very much. Any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. De? Yes. Because we can come back to this at a later time. Mr. Drew, no. Mr. Foody, no. Mrs. Kempy? Yes. Mrs. O'Brien? Yes. because we can go back to this at a later time and readress it if necessary. Mr. Robbins, no. Mr. Schulz, now

024that Mr. Roselli explained it and it's not um the bank making electronic withdrawals acting alone, I vote yes. [Applause] Um Mr. Drew, thank you very much. Would you mind if I just send it over to the chair of budget and finance? Absolutely. Thank you very much. Oh, thank you. Good evening, Mr. Bailey. Good evening. Uh, first, in tonight's episode, I'm generally late, but tonight I actually have a good reason. I was speeding up from Patterson, as for some reason, there was the retirement dinner for Coach Pompy scheduled tonight, the same time as the board meeting. It's a busy time of the year for everybody. As you can imagine, Mr. Bailey is one of the featured speakers and I made sure that I relayed greetings from this assembled body honoring one of our, you know, longtime

025iconic employees, Coach Poppy. It's up to you and those that follow you to replace these guys. How you do it, I do not know because he's a a true West Milford person. So, uh, that's where I was tonight. I'm sorry. I'm here now. What am I doing? Moving like nine through whatever. Are we going over these individually? We're starting on number eight. Mr. Bailey, proceed. So, we can go like Mr. Bailey would like to move items number eight through 47 under budget and finance appropriate, right? Second. Okay, good. I'm in. That's what I move. I'm sorry. What was that? 8 through 47. So, if I want to discuss one of these separately, there's a hand up over here. Sorry, Mr. Foody. Um, I would like to pull for a second vote. Um, 9 11 10

02647. Can you repeat those again? I 911 25 uh 911 40 and 47 cuz we were doing um 9 through 47 M did you have something to discuss? Um, no. Minister Food's asked for one of the items I wanted to discuss separately. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Any items to discuss? Um, we're going to pull those for separate votes and we'll discuss those separately. Okay. All right. I'm good. No, just to clarify now, this motion is for number 8 10 12 to 24. 8. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. 10. Yep. 12 to 24. 26 to 39 and 41 to 46. Yeah. 41 to 47. You can make another motion. Hang on a second. Mr. Bailey, just a point of order. If I make the motion to move 8 through 47 respectfully, if my colleagues want to

027pull them for a separate vote, doesn't the person who makes the motion have to give any permission or I'm just cast to the shoulder? No. In in the request a separate vote for any Okay. Even though the motion's been made. Even though the agenda's been approved. Thank you, pardon. I couldn't hear that over the cross talk. I'm sorry. And even though the agenda has already been approved. I got you. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for the clarification. Okay. Any other discussion? Good luck. Roll call. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mrs. Key. Yes. M. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Bell. Proceed. Yeah. I'd like to move item number 47, please. Mr. We um approved this agenda as presented. Um I would like to

028start and go through the n the ones we just skipped before we moved on forward. You mean the ones for a separate vote that we pulled? Correct. I'd like to try to keep it in order. You just 47. 47. No, I would like to. Yeah. Yeah. We stopped at 47. We pulled. I'd like to start with nine before we get jumping ahead of ourselves to try and keep this. Okay, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Um, yes, Mrs. President, because you're a good president, I like you. If you're about to request Mr. Bailey to go in chronological order, I would seriously consider that. Is that what you want? I'm requesting a second for item number 47 that you suggested to move. Oh, sorry. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Second. Second. Any discussion on item number 47?

029Mr. Foody, this this resolution is to accept the donation of um supplemental entertainment lighting valued at over $6,000 um for the West Milford High School Auditorium. Um, I think it's great that we can get this from the um, West Milford High School PTSO, but I would request that nothing be done until we're sure that that roof does not leak. Okay. Julie noted. So, I would like to to amend that to to read after the um roof has been repaired. Do I have a second? You make a motion to amend it. Yeah, that's I I just Can I ask a question? I just I'm concerned. I think the intention on this is for it to be a wall-mounted unit. So, I don't know if that makes any difference to you. It's not something coming from the

030ceiling. You've seen that ceiling to Oh, I know. I'm just saying just is there a second? Hi. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Would you want to say something, Mr. I was going to I'm just not sure what the PTSO's schedule for this is now, maybe not later or something. I just would hate to put in piece of equipment you're donating and because of that roof leaks has considerable leaks. I would hate to throw away $6,400 that the PTSO is is has uh has given us. Thank you. And Mr. Bailey. Thank you, Mr. President. to think I was going to stay in Patterson, enjoy a retirement dinner, find food and what have you and miss this. I'm so glad I sped up Hamburg Turnpike to Mockapin Road with hands on my various Well, never mind. And praying

031I didn't get a speeding ticket because I'm just so glad I'm here because I love this stuff and I wouldn't miss it. And let me tell you how I'm going to vote no because it's an age-old prophecy probably embedded in maybe the first or second grade level books that adorn the shelves of this fine thing, the library, about looking a gift horse in the mouth. And here we are as a board considering voting no against something that comes from one of the many organizations and probably not enough attention paid to the numerous types of situations that come across our desk here. So in other words, in tonight's episode, we're actually considering voting against a donation. I really can't fathom that. I can't wrap my arms around it. And I'm going to vote no. And I

032hope that the people that are behind this don't feel disrespected in any way, shape, or form. But it just doesn't get any better. So, I'll be voting no against this. And I think to think that somebody would donate something and to think that we would install this item or use these funds in a way that would lead them to be damaged or in some type of a substandard situation. Absolutely. I can't fathom. So, emphatically, when we get to the vote, I'll be voting no cuz I don't believe in that. I'd rather vote yes and thank them to death for making a $6,400 donation. It's I'll leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Mrs. O'Brien, I am ex uh the president of the PTSO is a very dear friend of mine. I've known her for

033at least 20 years. She is the most meticulous person I have ever met. and she would not take a donation and jeopardize it and she would do it in the best interest of the school and aware of the surroundings as well. So I will be voting no as well to the amendment. Okay. because she is aware of it and she would not do anything to jeopardize that. Thank you, Mrs. O'Brien. Mr. Booty, you know, I'm not saying no to this donation. I don't I don't know what you people are thinking. I It's amendment to delay the donation until the roof is repaired. I accept the donation. I think it's great if if you people would listen to what I'm saying. There's there's so much hatred towards me on this board. I'm getting a little bit

034sick of it, but I I'm not saying no to this donation. They're amending it. I'm I just want to amend it so that we take the donation after that roof is repaired. We're going to vote tonight on spending I think we already did to spend uh $17,000 I believe it was Barbara or $10,000 to repair that roof at the auditorium. I just want to ensure that that donation is is kept safe by us amending the resolution just to say we'll take it after the roof is repaired. I'm not saying no to the to the amendment. as the to the donation. I mean, thank you. Anybody else? Mrs. O'Brien. Okay. I want to play point counterpoint. I like watching that on Saturday Night Live. I don't want to be part of it in real life. Um,

035Mr. Foody, I am not disagreeing with you. You're talking to the board and everybody else. I'm not disagreeing with those with the concern that you know we're jeopardizing the it says we're accepting a donation. It doesn't say it's already in school. It's not already in its place. We don't know that. We're assuming that and assuming is not a very good thing. I'm voting that we accept the donation. whether it's where it is in the scheme of things, whether it's going to be installed now, whether it's been installed, whether it's going to be installed down the road. That's, you know, that's something we don't I'm not going to worry about. Thank you, Mrs. O'Brien. Anybody else? Motion's on the amendment. Yes. So, there's a motion for the amendment for to accept the donation with the added

036words after the roof is replaced. So, that's what we're going to be voting on first. After the roof is repaired. Repaired. Right. Mr. Babbot, no. Mr. Bailey, no. Mr. De. Uh, I'm going to vote no on because I trust that the people will utilize the money in the proper manner as pointed out. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mrs. Kempy. No. Ms. O'Brien. No. Mr. Robbins. I'm going to vote no trusting that there will be a a delay in installing this device. Mrs. Schultz, I'm voting no on the amendment because I believe that the PTSO and the people at the high school that would be installing this would know to install it. Not where it would be leaking. Common sense. Now there's a motion to accept 47 as right. We have a first and a

037second. Is there any more discussion on item 47 as it stands on the agenda the way it's printed? Seeing none, can we please have a roll call? Mr. Babbot? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes, Mr. Foody. Yes, Mrs. Kempy. Yes, Mrs. O'Brien. Yes, Mr. Robbins. Yes, Mrs. Schulz. Yes, and I thank the PTSO. That's a very generous donation. I'd like to move item number 11 under budget and finance, please. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Oh, excuse me, Mr. Booty. Um we had the same transfer authorization you want to call it resolution um last June and I just want to read some sorry whereas general compliance with this rule has been a consistent practice of the township of West Milford Board of Education and whereas despite this frequent attention some

038transfers have taken place after the account shows a deficit balance. Um, if if I'm reading this right, we want to have these transfers done before there's a deficit balance. And last year we we did this in June. In July, we transferred a couple hundred,000 because of line item deficits. Um, I hope that doesn't occur again this year. And that's all I have to say. Any other discussion? Quick question. Mr. Does this allow us to go into the deficit prior to transferring? No. All this All this motion says is that all transfers are going to be in compliance with law. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Have a roll call, please. On item agenda number 11, please. Mr. Babbett, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Kempy, yes.

039Mr. O'Brien, yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Like to move item number nine. Nine under budget and finance. Please. Second discussion. Mr. Booty. Um Joe, I'm going to ask this question of you. Um it deals with unauthorized purchases. Uh it says unauthorized purchases are a violation of state law and and for the audience um anything over 36,000 that's our bid threshold without you know approval I guess would be a violation of state law. What are the penalties for that violation of state law? You know what this paragraph says is that for any board employee ordering anything without the approval process. Yeah. Um which means you know administration approval, purchase orders and then eventually board approval. So the penalties for something that happens under under that could be um any disciplinary action from reprimand all

040the way up to termination depending on what it is. And the board would also have problems with audits and things like that. Okay. It says unauthorized purchases and the violation of state law. And I was just wondering are there any penalties for violating state civil penalties or anything? Yeah. I mean does the state step in and say you know no we would be hit on the audit. We be hit on QAC. Um that for the board itself that kind of thing. The penalties here are addition or disciplinary actions against okay employees who do this. If I can clarify, it also means confirming purchase orders where somebody calls a vendor and orders stuff without putting in a purchase order. Yeah. No, I'm I'm just I was just curious what that meant. Oh, I'm sure once in

041a while, not often. Although, I will say a number of unauthorized purchases could involve a state investigation if there was anything like that. And then they would require us to reimburse the state and the exact amount of money that. So, there could be some financial penalties maybe a year or so down the road. But the audit would uncover that and then we hope to address it before that got to that point. But as far as I know, this is not an issue. It's just to put it in here. How would our audit our audit just really checks what comes in? It hasn't come up on any of our audits. The audit reviews every No, they check everything. Yes, they do. They check to make sure that the purchase order is prior to the invoice. They

042they test everything. Yes, it's very low. Yes, we do know that. Any other questions? Peg, can we please vote on this question? Mr. Babett, yes. Item, Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Key, yes. Mrs. O'Brien, yes. Mr. Robbins, yes. Mrs. Schulz, yes. To move item number 40, under budgeted finance, please. Second. Discussion. Mr. Drew. This is a very substantial amount of money, 3/4 of a million dollars that we are moving into um excess current revenue. Uh which I take to mean it was not budgeted and that is almost the entire amount of the tax increase for last year. And to me that's saying we didn't need that tax increase. I am very concerned about a process that leads us to have this kind of money left over to

043where we say oops. Now, I agree in principle that we ought to be putting money into a capital reserve account. uh we should plan for that in advance and um I'm very concerned that we wind up with with those kinds of excesses after we have assessed the taxpayers that kind of money. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Deber. Do we know how much is in capital reserve at this time? Um we have appropriated money in the 1516 budget. We appropriated $862,642 and uh after that appropriation, our balance would be $776,429. If you recall, I've talked often of the remediation down at transportation. Um once we have a a a program that's approved by the Department of Environmental Protection, we're going to have to do a remediation down there. it's going to definitely cost us more than $776,000

044in order to get that done. So, basically what I'm attempting to do is transfer up to $750,000 because we really don't know what our excess is going to be at this point. Um, and so that'll just bolster that account so that we won't have to cut other areas programs when we finally have to do that remediation at transportation. You also um have uh roofing projects that hopefully will have a successful referendum. If there's not a successful referendum, then our our repairs or replacements, if we're going to if we'd have to do it in sections, it's going to have to come from the capital reserve account. So, Mr. Bailey, Mr. President, may I direct a question to our business administrator about item 40? at the risk of putting everybody in this room to sleep because this

045is accounting 101 which you're good at. We make these statements about connecting the tax increase which by the way is one of the lowest in the area if you read the Bergen record cover to cover like I do every day. and we try to make this we jump from a tax increase to what I perceive to be boilerplate business administration maneuvering uh looking into the future to make sure that what you think needs to be done whether it's remediation of uh polluted soil whether it's leaks in the roof whatever it may be that you don't even know about but your job is to make sure that when these things come up and you know they're going to come up because you're experienced at this and you're running the West Milford School District, the business side

046of it. So, this is something you want to do to make sure that you're able to make the appropriate move so that we can continue in September, open up the place and have another successful school year. Correct? This isn't anything about cir not circumventing um moving funds around to reduce the tax bite that we have to pay here in West Milford, which everybody wants to do in their right mind. Nobody wants to pay higher taxes. So to hear the connection made between tax increase and something you're doing, could you give me 30 seconds to put my mind at ease to show me and the public and anybody else who cares that they're not necessarily connected? Go ahead. Um the only other opportunity that the board would have in order to make a deposit to capital

047reserve would be during the budget process which basically takes place in March. So we would have to have a better idea in March that we are going to have significant am or or money in order to transfer the capital reserve. The the law also gives us the opportunity to do it in the month of June because at that point you have a better idea of what your surpluses are going to be based upon the fact that most of your purchasing uh all of your purchasing is just about completed. And so this the state law gives us that opportunity to uh make transfers to capital reserve, maintenance reserve, and emergency reserve in the month of June. Thank you, Mr. De. Um just so I'm clear, we have about 800,000 in capital reserve at this time and

048then we're going to add another 750,000, right? Up to 750,000. It depends on what the audited amount um of surplus is. Sure. And that's above the 2% that we can also retain 2% of the total budget, right? And we've been using the capital reserve accounts to do the boiler replacements and some of the um other repairs that we've done in the district over the last few years. So, if this gets passed, it'll be over 1.4 million, right? Yes, Mr. Joe. I have a quick question. So, we're not allowed to change that after the auditors who come in and we know the actual amounts that we have? No, it has to. We can. It's up to the resolution says up to $750,000. If the audited surplus is only $500,000, you can't put $750 in. So, basically,

049it goes by the audited surplus. But if we don't know whether we're going to have a surplus or not until the auditors have looked at the whole thing, we can't come back at that time and and no, the only time you could authorize the the deposit would be this this board meeting not knowing the amount or at the budget or during the budget. Somebody else have a question, Mr. Booty. Um, transfer authorizations require us to show where that money is coming from and what account it's going to. So, I know that it's going to go to Capital Reserve, but I don't know what account it's going to be pulled from. Um, and that's part of the the 23A13.1.2 and.3. Um, well, I I just I I got a problem with this. You know, we we

050raised the taxes. We're pulling money out. We'll have over one and a half million by up to 750. So, um, well, if we have to do a$1.5 million or $2 billion remediation and we only have 776,000, we're going to have to raise taxes for that or cut program. I um I beg to differ with that um with that, Barbara, but that's conversation for another time. Um, when we did our our turf field, we had approximately 2,000 tons of soil removed from the turf field. And at that time, the estimate um for purchasing um fill for the transportation garage was about $76,000 of clean fill. Um, and we needed approximately 2,000 tons. I got a copy of the insurance report that was sent to you. If if you need me to What's your point? Give it

051back. You know, we're we gave away $100,000 worth of clean fill. What does that have to do with the It has It has a lot to do with it because we're we keep Please make your point. I'm trying to make my point, but I keep getting interrupted. Isn't that strange how that happens? Taking side roads. Get to the point. No, I'm not taking side roads. You're talking about the the transportation garage and money that it's going to cost us and we gave away almost $100,000 of clean fill that we were told had no value to us. But there was a report in our hands that said that there was a value to that. Mr. Mr. Putin, where was I going to store it for four years? What about what about the field up behind I

052mean we had we had spots that's over is somewhere and you couldn't put it up there. How do you put it up there? Who who's going to bring it up there? I just you know All right. Can we please say on topic right now? We're talking about item 40. Is there any other discussion? I think it's time to vote on it. Please motion a second. I don't even have anything written down here. There is a motion in a second. I made the motion and I second. Thank you, Debbie. Yes. Mr. O'Brien and Debbie. Okay. 40. Roll call, please. Mr. Bobbit. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. De. Uh, I'm voting no because I believe we retain a 2% of our total budget plus we already have $800,000 in capital reserve. So, I'm going to vote no.

053Mr. Mr. Drew, no. Mr. Foody, no. Mrs. Key, yes. M. O'Brien, yes. Mr. Robbins, no. Mrs. Schulz, because it says up to $750,000. I'm going to vote yes. Motion fails. It does not carry. It has to be a two-thirds vote for a transfer. Two3. That means six votes. Congratulations. I believe we went through this last year. Absolutely. So I think maybe I'm wrong. If we need the extra money put in there, is there there a way that that amount can be reduced or should we move on? Anybody can make a motion to adjust the uh to adjust the amount or it would be a whole motion which basically reads the same with a different amount. There's no issue with that. Just not sure what amount would be acceptable. Bailey would like to say something. Oh,

054I'm sorry, Mr. Bailey. No, I'd like to make a revised motion because um let me make that motion and I'll come back for discussion. Okay. So, I would like to move item number 40 with a revised amount of $749,000 to 749,00. Absolutely. Point of parliamentary order. Motion was introduced, seconded, failed. Can't reintroduce it at the same meeting. Can't reintroduce the same motion, but All right. Got it. That's right. Just like we've been doing all night. That's fine. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? This is for 749. Up to 700. Up to 749. Roll call. Mr. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Deber. No. Mr. Drew. No. Mr. Foody. No. Mrs. Kempy. Yes. Mrs. O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Robbins? No. Mrs. Schulz? Yes. Mr. Bailey. Gathering my thoughts. so many comments I can make, but

055I would like to make a motion or I'd like to move item number 40 and I would like the amount to be 725K, not to assign not to exceed 725K. Second, wouldn't that be new business at the point of parliamentary order? Wouldn't that be new business at this point? Generally, that would be new business. Um, and I will say there does come a time where these motions are dilatory. three motions does not that point but you know going forward if if we go down by 5,000 each time or whatever it is there there should come a time where the motions are dilatory under parliamentary procedure so if you want to wait till new business to make although the motion has already been made and seconded so that motion is for but anything further should be

056in new business Mr. Bailey, couple of quick points. Counselor, I won't be here for new business. I got to go to work on Wednesday, so I I'll be at work. Sorry, I digress. Next, I've been through this before. I think it's one of our worst hours as a board because first and foremost, we're supposed to be here as trustees, as stewards, as custodians, fill in the blank, as people who are elected to do a serious job. And job one is to support the students, the staff, their parents, their caregivers, the employees, anybody else connected with this great thing that we put a lot of time and effort into as elected servants the West Milford Township Public School System. I've been through this before. I've seen it before. And it saddens me to think that we're

057here tonight. Hijacking, derailing, holding up, about to enter into great word. What did you say? Delet dilatory. Dilatory bill over something like this saddens me. So, I'll stop. But I'm saddened because what we've effectively done now, and by the way, we only need one more vote because that'll make it seven to two, which is the twothirds majority required. What we've effectively done was tied the hands of our business administrator and we have stopped her from doing her job, which is ultimately to provide the best for students, staff, employees, etc. in the district. So, I don't get that. And if you really want to get dramatic, you could almost draw this conclusion that by taking this maneuver and stopping this woman from doing her job, which is what we pay her a lot of money to

058do, why don't we get right to the point where we're bringing up a vote of no confidence, if you will. That's where we could go with all of this. And we're far from that, or I know I am. So, I'll stop. I don't know what's going to happen in new business. The good news is I won't be here because it'll be Wednesday morning. I got to go to work. So that means you won't need as many votes to carry it. Is it twothirds of assembled or two? You would need six votes. Although right now for 725 it has enough. But my my point is Marilyn, I I've seen this before almost with the same cast of characters and it saddens me and I think it's one of our worst moments and I've been through it

059before and I hope it works out. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Deber, this board has passed the budget. This board has 2% retained from the budget and we also have over 3/4 of a million dollars sitting in capital reserve. Um, in my opinion, and I'm not a accountant, we are flushed with money. Mr. Robins, you know, my big concern that I'm listening here tonight is that there's some people on this board that gets interrupted and some do not. That's my point. Thank you, Mr. Robbins. My concern is Mr. Deborah, can you hold that please? Is we have workshops these and we have committee meetings and yes, these are all great questions and we all have comments to make about it, but this really should have been discussed prior to this meeting. There's so

060many other things that are on this agenda that we should have done our due diligence and asked these questions prior to tonight and this is how many times Mr. Foody this is the second time on this question. I would like to point out this we're going on third time but I would like to point out Marilyn that we had committee meetings. This was not brought up. We only talked about roof repairs and there was no workshop um this month. We had an awards and in lie of a workshop. We had an awards ceremony. So it could have been brought up any time before. Okay. But you could have called or emailed with just like you have other emails that go out. It could have been discussed prior the purpose of of us here you make

061the motion and what are the next words that come out of your mouth? Discussion. This is where we discuss it. Thank you. Okay. You know, okay. When we don't have a workshop and we don't have it this told to us at a committee meeting, where else do we discuss it? Because we're discussing this as a board. Okay. Anybody else? Mr. Joe, I'll try to be very quick. I think my responsibilities are to the students, parents, education first, next to the taxpayers. Um then the employees of the system and the taxpayers are included in that. Um, I believe I could be wrong, but I believe there's money in an account. We don't know where it is until we're audited. The money would still be there. And at that time, when we know what it is and

062where it's coming from, we can probably move it to where we need it. So, we can't do a transfer later. Capital reserve. No, not to capital reserve. It wouldn't go to capital reserve. It would go to where we spend it if we need to spend that money. No, you can't do it. it would be from surplus and you can't spend that money once it's designated as surplus. It just goes into the next year's budget. It gets rolled. Um you could do a transfer from the 2% of your your your surplus. The problem with that is that you can only do it after April of any budget year. You could the county superintendent would not allow they have to authorize any transfers from fund balance. Mrs. Keb, did you have a question? No. I mean, Mrs.

063Francisco is our business administrator. I have the feeling that certain board members feel like they know more about numbers, more about money, more about the rules when we should be relying on what she's saying. If she has concerns that there are major costs coming up that we're going to have to deal with, she's trying to prepare for that. She doesn't have a crystal ball. We can't look into it. What's going to what's going to happen if this doesn't go through? Students are going to get hurt. And that's really the bottom line, you know, and you know, you got to think about who's giving the orders and who's listening. You know, you you know, you're not you're not respecting her and it's it's disheartening. Mr. Bailey, I'll go quick. Another thing too why we do this

064now and why the calendar is set up this way everybody understands in this room that a lot of these types of projects are take place are scheduled and completed during the summertime when the staff and students are here correct okay so in other words even I know that there's always a way to do something at a future meeting that's the way the system works I get all of that respectfully but the fact of the matter is our next board meeting is in July and in a two-month recess. Basically, we're halfway through. So, in other words, we're all this is laid out to do at this June meeting. It's very important to do tonight. And failure to do it is going to tie our hands and maybe not give us the maneuverability needed to complete some

065of these projects in the summer. True or false? Well, our projects that are scheduled for this summer are funded. So, that's part of the budget process. However, um we will not have this opportunity again to transfer any money into capital reserve until next year's budget process or next June um of 2016. Those are the only opportunities they have. Mr. De, I'll be quick. Um everybody here is concerned about the district and the kids. Nobody's going to take money away from them. This is above and beyond the budget. We have budgeted money. We have 2% that's held back from that budget. And you have $800,000 in capital reserve. Now, we want to put more to make it 1.4 million. I think we have enough money where we're at. That's actually the um motion is for $725,000.

066I'm sorry, I corrected myself. 725. So, it still be 1.525 million. Any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Mr. Babbett, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. De, no. Mr. Drew, no. Mr. Foody, no. Mrs. Key, yes. Miss O'Brien, yes. Mr. Robbins, no. Mrs. Schulz, yes. Like to move item number 48 under budget and finance, please. Excuse me. 4 what? Eight. Thank you. Need a second. Second. discussion. Mr. Foody. Um, I I saw two line items in the um in the bill list for deductions of state aid and the amount of $8,000. Could you explain that? Sure, I could. Let me take a look at it. Okay. I know I had it was in this sheet two that you sent us and I think it is more towards the back when there there are certain items that

067um get paid out and instead of doing a check to back to the state of New Jersey they reduce our state aid. Um my guess is it's usually tuition for the blind and our tuition for our um residential placements. So those are normally the two areas where we have a state aid reduction. Um debt service assessment is another one. um that is an amount of money that um the state takes back from us for giving us um funding. So that's another um assessment and and I found one that was for 275. I think that's stating assessment debt service SDA. Yeah, that's the one I just addressed. What page is that on? Page 27 of 31. That's the assessment for there were quite a few and I was just threw me for a loop when I

068when I saw it saying if it's tuition it would be in the front. Let me see state facilities $64,612. Yep. And what what's that one for? State facilities is a residential placement of a student. Okay. Okay. And um Commission for the Blind 17,200. Okay. So, it was almost 100. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other discussion? Item number 48. There were no legal bills. You doing this for free, Joe? No, I don't know where that There were no legal bills. I figured maybe you were doing it for free for us. So, anybody else? Roll call, please. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. Deber, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, no. Mrs. Key, yes. Miss O'Brien, yes. Mr. Robbins, yes. Mrs. Schulz, yes. Um, Mr. Dr. Budin just pointed out that we never addressed number

06925 and that was separated out. We haven't get there. I haven't We just didn't get there yet. Okay. Thank you. Hey, Mr. Bailey. Continue, please. 25. Uh, anyone you want to move? Okay, Stewart. Maybe we're not going to do 25. You know, I didn't fall asleep. Mind your own business. We're not going back to 25. I'd like to move item number 49, please, under budget and finance. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Mrs. Kempy. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Robins? Yes. Miss O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes, Mr. De. Yes, Mr. Babbot. Yes, Mr. Schultz. Yes. Like to move item number 25 under budgeting finance, please. Second discussion, Mr. Booty. Um, yeah, I don't know the legalities on this. Um, but and and looking at this list, um, there were about 20 um, laptops on

070on this list. Um, I personally, I know I've brought it up in the past, but I would like to give the uh kids of this district who might not have a computer a a shot at getting one for their home use, especially when we we're increasingly using technology. Um and and I I just don't know what the the process would be. Is it is it something possible that we could do? People is that um would you know if that's because of the operating system changes that maybe we can't use them anymore? Take a look at the uh the surplus items directly. All right. In the meantime, I'll just address that. Yes, that is something we could do. We would have to like here designate it as no longer necessary for school purposes and then direct

071the administration to dispose of it in that way. That's all. Okay. Because I if if it's something that might be a need for even if it's, you know, five kids, if we can give five kids a laptop for them to use at their home um for schoolwork or for compact computers. Yes. I don't think that they It sounds like DOS 1.0. Yeah. I mean, anything that has Windows XP, we'd almost be uh Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We wouldn't Yeah. No, that's no longer supported as of April of last year. Correct. and any any uh any um merchandise that we do get rid of u that we do dispose of we would typically uh um when it's a computer equipment I actually reach out to a company called computers for kids and they go through the process

072of refurbishment um okay and erasing of you know data and stuff like that. um going through that process on our end, you know, if if we tried to do that on our end, it would require investment. Oh, yeah. Well, understood. But if it's something though, my point is if it's something that we can give to a child in the district and and and they get the use of, I mean, that's a good thing. Absolutely. But if if you're reaching out and I mean, we got to dispose of this through uh uh um through bidding. Um but if we can give it to a child that just in the future if we can I think it would be a good thing. Anything that we determine that it would be um successfully viable to a student in

073the district we probably wouldn't mind. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Roll call. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Deborah. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. And I hope that in the future that uh we'll look into possibly giving it to some children if if if there's a need. Mrs. Keeping. Yes. M O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. [Applause] Okay. I'd like to move item number 50 under budget and finance, please. Second discussion. Roll call. Mrs. Kempy? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Miss O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Foody? No. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Babbot? Yes. Mrs. Schulz? Yes. Before I make my final move this evening, I need clarification on the I mean there's a typo. So that should be 5152. So the appropriate move to be made as

074we close out fiscal year 2015 from the budget and finance committee will be the following to move 51 and item 50. There's another one two and 53. Can it go now too? Change that one to 53. That's what he said. So I said 51. I'd like to move 51, 52, and 53. Thank you, Mr. M. You're welcome. And 53 is continued on the back. I need a second. Second discussion. Excuse me. Doesn't that require a separate vote? You can look on the back. Or is that something you can't You could put it in. Just checking. I saw that. Thank you. Roll call. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Foody. Uh, yes. Mrs. Key. Yes. Mr. Babbett. Yes. Mr. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Bailey.

075Can we move on to um personnel? Mrs. O'Brien. Thank you. I have uh items 142 presented to you this evening for your I just want to make one correction if I can under uh number 41. There's a misspelling. Um, if we look at the PI Christy Kerpel, it should be Ker, not K A R on page 52. Page 30. I'm on page 30 under the employees names. Yeah. Pipe co-instructor Christy Kerpel. Ker. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Clarification. That was 1 to 42. Correct. Thank you. And that was seconded. And I'd like to if you um six pull for separate vote six seven and 36. [Applause] Okay. everything with those. No, it's just one with the exception of those four. Okay. Does everybody have those four? No. What are they? Six. Six. Seven. 18 and

07636. 36. Yeah. 36. Any discussion? Roll call. Oh, one quick. I'm sorry. Sorry. Um, I just want to uh congratulate uh Mr. Matlo in in getting his doctorate degree. Um, it shows not only um a commitment to his job, but a commitment to the kids in this district and I want to thank him for that. Thank you, Mr. Anybody else? All right. Roll call, please. Mr. Babett, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mr. Robbins, yes. M. O'Brien, yes. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mrs. Key, yes. Mrs. Schulz, yes. I'd like to move item six under personnel. Second. Any discussion, Mr. Booty? Um, this appointment is now from July 1st through October 2nd of 2015. Um, and I' I'd like to, if it's okay with um, Miss O'Brien and I believe Mr. D'Vor who

077seconded it to have six and seven voted on together because they this the reason I pulled it for separate. I wasn't quite sure. I I I know that um Miss Mcuade is going on maternity leave and I can congratulate her on being a new mom. She's in she's in for a little bit of a workout for a while with a young one. But um Dr. Birudin is going to stay on as interimm director of special services through October and then as a supervisor of special education from October through April 30th and I I just would like to know why we would need him after McQuade has come back. Uh the re the reason for that is that do we currently have a director and a supervisor? Y uh both positions. So that's when Dr. McCrau

078comes back, she will be coming back as you noted as a director and we still need a supervisor. So um we did do an interview process for a supervisor and were not successful in finding somebody at this point. Uh so Dr. Burden having experience here uh will stay with us till April in that capacity. So the the income or the salary would fluctuate with the difference in the job position, but we're not adding any any positions. We're just shifting. Okay. Okay. It's that hard to get uh I mean because I know like with superintendent search, there's a certain time of the years. That's that's goes true with with the director special services. Well, you could talk about the interview process you had. Um originally Dr. McCrae was going to become the director July 1 before

079Craig. Yes. We went through a intensive interview search. We had two rounds of interviews and it decided that neither of the two finalists were appropriate for the job. They didn't have experience. We had a very limited pool of applicants with any kind of experience and the appropriate certification. So we had some people apply who were very eager and willing but did not have the supervisors or the principal certification and the and the supervisor I'm sorry the supervisor certification to be a supervisor. So I approached uh the administration and said I would like to stay on and flip flip you know until April 30th when my two-year interim ends okay at a sales. So that was the thinking at the time and then we would repost during the winter for another super another you know tenure

080track supervisor. Okay. And that was the thinking at the time. So if in fact you know they find somebody sooner it's I mean I'm always negotiating that whole thing. So that was the thinking. All right. I I Yes. I'd like to amend the motion on the floor um to vote on um item number six, seven, and 18. We already have a motion for six. Sorry. Already there's a motion and a second for six. Yes. And I want to amend that to include seven and eight because everything that we have to you wouldn't amend that. All right. There was just no discussion on it. Okay. No problem. Right now it's only number six. Trying to trying to move. You want to change that? Yes, I would like to change that. But eight was never pulled. No.

081So would you want to withdraw that motion and instead move six, seven, and 18? I'd like to withdraw my motion for number six. I'd like to make it six and seven and 18. Second. Okay, there you go. Um, all in favor of that? No, it you don't even need to do that. The motion is there. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Yes. But you now you would discuss discussion 18. I'm sorry. Very quickly. Yes. Given the high percentage of special needs kids that we have in this district, I think stability and and familiarity and experience are extremely important. So, anything we can do to avoid turnover is I'm sure helps. Thank you. Anybody else? Roll call. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. Mrs.

082Kempy? Yes. Miss O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mrs. Schulz? Yes. Okay. Item 36. I would like to present for the voting privilege. Second. discussion roll call. Oh, sorry. That's okay. Sorry. Um, last year about this time, I think this this came up um for a vote as well. Um, I just think that's an awful lot of money for [Applause] a 5h hour workday at the uh Highlander Academy. Um, it's got to be something that we can do that it's better than this. Mr. Dber, um, is this a reasonable and fair amount? Is this what the industry normally pays somebody? Are we in the average of that number? It's a yes or no. We had a group in here prior year that was um over two times as as much and um we found this other

083firm and we and it's also same rate as the current. Yeah. And I can I want to add to that too. Um, and I mentioned this the other day at one of my meetings with the administrators. Um, with this person in place in this building, um, I've only had two phone calls come to my office for any type of situation that could uh, you know, be uh, of of concern and my understanding is that when the we were paying much more for the other service to be here, uh, it was almost daily. So, uh, it seems to be working uh, in the separate building under the direction of this person. So, Any other discussion? Roll call. Mr. Babbett. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? No. Mrs. Kempy? Yes. M

084O'Brien? I voted no last year. I'm voting yes this year. Mr. Robins. Yes, Mrs. Schulz. I know he's doing a great job, but I'm sorry. And I know it's through a agency, but for 5 hours a day at $550, I'm sorry. I don't know. I'd like to move items number 43. need a second. Second discussion three. Yeah, Mr. Bailey. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Um, I would like to quickly make the following statement related to item number 43. Oh, yes. There it is. Mr. Reika, I'll be voting yes. I wish you well. You have all my support. As I said last year when you came here, I was skeptical because of your Lakeland background, but you've proven me wrong. You're doing a great job and whatever you need from the chairman of your budget and finance

085committee, I'm available at all hours, day and night, as you well know. So, hope you have a great summer. I hope you have a wonderful week, by the way, with all the festive things that are going on. Well, and you should be proud of a job well done and uh continued success and um good luck. You're doing a great job steering this bus here that is, as previously stated, not only a large school district, but by far the largest employer in this town, which basically is saying in the region. So, you're not only a superintendent, you're a CFO, you're a CEO, you're a chief, you're a good guy, and uh congratulations. All right. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. I'm glad I convinced you of that. And uh and as you notice, I'm not wearing any red

086and gray as I promised. Okay. So, thank you. I appreciate that. Any other comments or discussion? And a master educator. That's right. Willprit. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Foody. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Robbins. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Miss O'Brien. Without a doubt. Absolutely. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mrs. Pepe? Yes. Mrs. Schulz? Yes. Okay. I have a blue hand carry. I'd like to move it number 44 to 56, please. I need a second. Excuse me. Yes. May I request that 45 and 46 be pulled for separate votes? Yes. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. 46. I'm sorry. Who seconded the motion? Kevin. So, uh, Mrs. O'Brien, did you want to amend that? Okay. I'm going to amend what I first presented to you. I would like to move items number 44, 47 through 56.

087Um, you might want to include 51 as part of the separate for 45 and 46 because it corresponds with both those you don't even need to amend it. Now the motion is for 447 52. Roll call. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Booty. Yes, Miss Steppy. Yes, Mr. Babbot. Yes, Mr. D. Yes, Mr. Schultz. Yes. Like to move items number All right. Um 45, sorry. Just 45. Okay. I'm moving items number 40. Number 45. Any second? Second, Mr. De. Uh discussion, Mr. Denver. Well, I'll be voting yes on 45. I'm proud to see a local West Milford resident and also uh someone who's in our district being promoted within the district to take over um these important positions. Thank you, Mr. De. Mr. Bailey, I would also like

088to congratulate Mr. Novak on his ascension into a very important position in this uh district, director of education. Uh, I piggyback on Jaime's comments. Novak is a West Milford person. Uh, educator here in West Milford. Uh, I can remember, uh, officiating Novak as like a JV basketball player years ago. Not that that means anything, only just musing, if you will. Why not? So, um, this is good stuff. Just another example of, you know, the many, many success stories that are produced here in West Milford. In Novak is example 1A that we get to publicize because we're actually approving, you know, the next step in his career. He's under overcome some tremendous obstacles. He's done a great job at UGL. What you're going to do, can we place him up there? That's your job. So, uh,

089this this is good stuff. And these are the kind of things that we never hear about, but we should hear about them. And as long as I'm on this board, I'm going to bang the drum and I'm going to cheerlead for a lot of stories, but every once in a while, one comes across my desk like a Novak that really is a tremendous success story. So, I congratulate him. I don't know what the future holds for him, but I've known people that have been in that corner office that have moved right into his seat right there. I'm not saying that's the case. We have other fine candidates and there's other people out there. But it's it's it's a big step and a tremendous choice. We're going to miss what's her name? Miss Iris. We have

090a capable replacement. Congratulations. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. And I'm happy to recommend Mr. Novak. Um I did a presentation earlier. I just don't know if this is going to work with uh Mr. the Novak and myself sitting at this little table. So, we may have to rearrange this, but we'll make it work. Any other discussion or comments? Mr. Booty, it's an important position and that I don't uh take lightly and I and I and I'm not doubting Mr. Novak's qualifications for the job. But I I think it's important as a board that we get to be part of the process because I'm sure there's questions that I would have liked to have asked them and I can think of several right now um that I would have liked to have asked them in an interview

091just as this is as far as I'm concerned the second most important position in the district. Um, and for that reason, I'm going to abstain just because I would have liked to have been included as a board member more more in this process. Um, I don't doubt his qualifications. I don't doubt that he's going to do a good job. I don't doubt that, but I just would have liked to have been part of this and been able to ask questions. Like I said, it's one of the most important positions in our district. It's duly noted, but there was board representation on the committees. Uh, I'm sorry. Sorry, Mr. Foody, that it wasn't you. And I understand what you're saying that it is one of the second most important things the board would be voting on.

092So, I understand where you're coming from where maybe all the board members um could have had an opportunity to speak with the candidate prior to the appointment. So, it's duly noted. Thank you. Anybody else? Roll call. Mr. Bab, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. Deber, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, abstain. Mrs. Key, yes. Miss O'Brien. Absolutely. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Oh, sorry. I'd like to Items 40 item number 46 under personnel student affairs. Need a second. Second discussion. Seeing none. Roll call. Mr. Bab. Yes. Mr. Bailey. No. Mr. Deber. I'm going to abstain. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foodyain. Mrs. Keappy. Yes. M. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Robins. Also, uh, abstain. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Motion carries. And now. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. I'd like to make a motion to approve item number 51 under

093first amendment. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. Mrs. Key? Yes. Mr. O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes, that concludes personnel for this. Congratulations, Mr. Novak. [Applause] Okay. Special committees and liaison reports, parks and rep. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Uh last Thursday I was at the uh recreation meeting. Uh two highlights. Uh first of all the senior Olympics. Um those people went out and become uh and they become first go to win the first uh place position out of 16 teams. So congrats to the senior Olympics. Um, and then the only other thing as a highlight is Bubbling Springs uh in uh day camp is still underway. So for those parents out there, don't hesitate to uh get your kid signed up.

094That's all. Thank you, Mr. Robbins. Safety, Mr. Foody. Uh nothing to report at this time. Thank you, Mrs. Keepy. Superintendent's round table. Um I have nothing to report right now. Thank you. Mrs. O'Brien, state county school boards. Um, no meetings as of now. I think the first meeting will be in September. Thank you. Mr. Foody, New Jersey school boards. Um, real quick, I the New Jersey school board's uh web page. Um there was a report by the state controller um regarding legal costs and I would like to visit this in in policy with Mr. Abbit. It says uh policy state education regulations require boards of education. We've got policies containing specific strategies to save on council fees. And we do have I don't I think they're in our policy manual, but I think they might

095be in our procedure manual on that. Um I would like to get this into our policy manual. It says similarly the controllers report urges all local government units to establish internal policies and procedures and we have the procedures I don't know if we have the policies regarding the procurement use and management of both in-house salaried attorneys that's a new one but uh outside legal counsel I will forward this link to all board members um so they can read it if they want to and you'd like to bring it up in policy in policy to just review what we have um in place as far as policies and procedures and if there's anything that we can do to amend that and Mr. Bett review that as the chair and then all right y is there anything

096else Mr. That was it thank you uh legislative Mr. Jim, uh given the late hour, I'm not going to dissemble about this at great length, but uh a couple of things. uh state of New Jersey had m sorry state of New Jersey had mandated that we evaluate teachers and those evaluations are in uh 97% of New Jersey teachers have been rated as effective or higher which I think is an outstanding uh performance and reflects uh the quality of education in uh in New Jersey. So I think the teacher should be congratulated for that. Good job. Um, we already know there's been a removal of the superintendent salary cap. So, I'm sorry, Tony, you were slightly too late to get that uh in a little earlier. Uh, a couple of things under consideration. The Senate has

097passed a bill, I think I mentioned this, that would uh require textbooks for all students registered for a class. Uh, interestingly, there's been a lot of uh, push back uh, in Trenton and discussion regarding common core and park testing. The Senate passed a bill to prohibit testing of students uh, in grades K through two. And of course, we don't know whether that'll go through the other side of the legislature or not. And um the governor of the great state of New Jersey has announced that he is opposed to common core but supports park test fusing to me and I think the only thing we can really conclude is that he's running for office. Thank you Mr. Drew. Technology oversight Mrs. Keppy. I have nothing to report. Thank you. West Milford Education Foundation. Mrs. O'Brien. Um

098unfortunately I was not at the last meeting. Mrs. Keepy, do you have a few things to mention about the last meeting? Um, yeah. Thank you, Mrs. O'Brien. We're working on a fundraiser, but we have to have another meeting this Monday. So, we will have another report at the next meeting on what's happening. Thank you. Um, Township Board of Education Joint Committee, Mr. De. Uh, nothing new to report. Uh, last, uh, meeting I didn't get a chance to thank everybody for this whole meeting. I know you did, but I didn't want to come out and say thanks for participation. Thank you, Mr. De. I can say that was a lot of fun beating the town. Where's our trophy? Who has the Oh, you got it. Where's it? I guess. Oh, so Mr. Rich still has it,

099though. Very nice. But that was fun. Thank you for putting that together. Okay. It's for a good cause. Thank you very much. Old business. Anybody have old business? Mr. Booty. Um, tonight we board voted on um approving the following meeting minutes. They were the meeting minutes of May 19th um both workshop and special action and executive and then the regular meeting of May 26th and also the executive session and the May 26 meeting minutes. um they need to be uh corrected. It shows um that uh Mr. Bailey arrived uh late and it does not say that he left early. Um he left at 8:40 during our executive session and I would like those minutes to be amended to to fix that. I make a motion to amend this. A I make a motion to amend

100amendments. Correct. And then Barbara, it's I mean it's just for May 26th. Just for the May 26 U regular meeting, not the executive session, but the regular meeting. I need a second. It says that Mr. Billy left at 807. I saw in my minutes when I looked at it earlier that was that. Yeah, because it was 8:40 on that. I just want them corrected. So on the executive session minutes, executive session minutes say 8:40, right? But on the regular front page of our regular minutes, it doesn't say that he left early. It just says that he arrived late. It should say that he left early. This kind of should have been brought up during the approval of those minutes. I know you can bring it up during all business as you have, but it probably

101would have been better had you brought it up earlier. I couldn't find my note on that. That's why I brought it up now. Okay. Is there a second? Second. It should be accurate. Discussion be accurate. You know, I do want to say something heavy. You know, the the minutes should be accurate. I don't disagree with that, but I think that this is a witch hunt at this point, and it's very unfortunate. Thank you. Any other comments to vote on the amendment now? There's no amendment now. It's just Well, it's a motion to amend the actual motion. So yes, you have to and roll call. I mean, I can't pull the minutes up. So, you want to see them? You You're saying it reflects that or it's on the executive session. On the executive session minutes,

102he left executive session at 8:40. So then, okay. Oh, so it's on Mr. It's on the exact Mr. Bailey. Mr. Mr. Foody wants it reflected on the front page of the minutes here. The regular minutes for the regular meeting. The regular meeting minutes and these are the executive session minutes. That's fine. So, is that the way we would normally do that? It should note when board members left on the executive session. It's fine to put it on. It should be on the Okay. So, I think we need a roll call. Marilyn. Yes. I'm sorry, Mr. Bailey. I don't see you there. Do I have the option to declare myself absent from the entire meeting of May 26th? No, because you were present. I was part of it. Okay. Left executive session at 8:40. Okay. Thank

103you. Like I said, we should take a vote on it, but it should be reflected in the minutes for the public. I second it. Mr. Mr. Babett, yes. Mr. Bailey, no. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Key, no. Miss O'Brien, since it was recommended by council, I will I will vote yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mrs. Schultz? Yes. Since it was recommended by council. Any other old business? Seeing none, move to close all business. I need a second. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Will we move on to new business? Mr. Bailey, before I make my motion, which will be returning to the infamous number 25 under budget and finance, I believe. Is that the right number? Josh Stewart. Yeah. 40 25 not 25 25 had to do with the

104surplus. No, you know the one I want. I'll give you 40. Okay. Before I get back to number 40, I just want the record to note this that as Mr. Bailey is close on the verge of becoming the longest serving school board member in the history of West Milford, which doesn't really mean anything other than I'm good and I enjoy doing it. But I have to tell you now I've become somewhat of a call celeb because that's the first time in some 19 and a half years where I've ever actually heard of a situation whereby the minutes were corrected to call out a board member and name a board member for you know time left and um time arrived. So guilty as charged, but I will not be changing my rap, my routine. I'm an

105involved person. We're all busy. You're all right. I should be here, but sometimes you just got to, you know, rearrange your schedule. So, on one hand, it's fascinating to me, but I've never heard of such a thing. But I'm going to I'm an optimistic person. So, I appreciate the positive publicity with the election season fast approaching us. And uh it's good to know that I've got people charting my every move almost like they're stalking me to the minute. That's that's interesting for me. Having said that, I would like to return to motion number fill in the blank, please. 40 and appropriately move item number 40 filling in the amount of 748,000 as detailed in the rest of the motion. Councelor, it's an appropriate time to go through this dog and pony show. We're in new

106business. You're raising a new motion. Yes, sir. Thank you. We need a second. Second. Okay. Discussion. Roll call. Mr. Babbett. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. De? No. Mr. Drew? No. Mr. Foody? No. Mrs. Skppy? Yes. Ms. O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Robins? No. Mrs. Schulz? Yes. Still does not pass. motion is defeated. Mr. Bailey, councelor, some clarification because if we count backwards from 750,000, we're going to be here a long time. So, having said that, is there a limit as to before I enter? There's no official five times for a motion to be raised. Okay. It's a board decision. So, how Okay, I got you. Then let the the rest of my board know. I'm going to put an end to this. I'm going to do it two more times because I'm an optimistic person. I think

107it's the right thing to do. Before I move it again, I have a number in mind. Perhaps it would be appropriate for the president to go around the board uh the room and see if there might be some common ground that we could all get to so that we could get this thing taken care of and move forward. Can I defer that to Mrs. Francisco who might be able to give us a ballpark figure less than $750,000? Amen. I would actually think that, you know, the board the board should determine what what if any number they're comfortable with. Um, anything up to $750,000 would certainly help um, you know, uh, solidify the capital reserve fund for in case of um, you know, in case the uh, remediation gets started a little bit quicker than we

108think. Um, but you know, it's up to the board to determine what they're comfortable with if they're comfortable with any number. So, I really can't suggest anything. It could be 250, could be 500,000, but if no one's com comfortable, I my recommendation is not going to matter. Do you have Barbara, do you have any idea what the cost would be for the remediation? So far just the monitoring has been over a quarter of a million dollars. How long are we going to monitor it for? We have to monitor it for the next quarter of a million. Nine to about nine months. We have about nine more months left. And just and just that was over a quarter million. So with the Yeah. Is there any insurance that would cover the cost of this? We've submitted

109to the insurance carrier. They are reviewing everything. They have a consultant that's working with Land Associates who is the LSRP. And we may get up to 10% back because that's all that this carrier will be liable for since they weren't really the initial carrier when the situation happened, which was back in the '9s. So, they're trying to minimize their exposure. Yeah. They're willing to mitigate to a point, but they're also creating um a lot of paperwork in order for, you know, for them to even consider anything. Mr. Joe, it's a different question. We don't have a motion on the table, but yes, sometimes at the end of the month or the end of the year or the end of the quarter, I have some kind of idea of where the numbers are going to come

110in. Do you have any feel for where the numbers are going to come in for current fiscal year? I have no idea what the actual remediation plan is going to be. No, not remediation. I mean on the year how much money we have excess at this point. Anybody else? Mr. Bailey. Well, I'm going to make a motion. It'll be my next to final one. And I'm going to move item number 40 in the amount of I'm going to go to my favorite numbers now. This was my high school football number. 686,000. Second discussion. Roll call. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Deor, no. Mr. Drew, no. Mr. Foody, no. Mrs. Key, yes. Mr. O'Brien, yes. Mr. Robbins, no. Mrs. Schul, yes. Motion still, you know. Can Mrs. officials, you know, since you are the

111ones that are uh blocking this, can you guys please come up with a number that's acceptable then and discuss it instead of letting Mr. Bailey throw out numbers randomly? It's not random. I'm giving us four. I know you the budget 76 million about correct 72 million. I don't have it off the top of my head. What's 2% of $72 million? million. Okay, so we have 1.4 million that we're allowed to keep by law and we have our budgeted amount which is the amount we need to run the system to run our district and we have 800,000 currently in the capital reserve which we can use for various projects. The reason I'm voting no on this stuff is because I believe that we've asked the taxpayers for enough. We've budgeted the amount of money that we

112are going to utilize for that. And I understand the principles of it of saying yes, it's nice to have the savings, something that in case something comes up, you can utilize the money without going into debt. I understand it. I personally think along with a lot of other people I've discussed this with that we have asked enough of the people of West Milford. We've budgeted this amount. That's what we need. We have 2% another million and a half in case something goes wrong. We have 800,000 in case something in case something goes wrong. So, I'm still going to vote no. Um, we're not asking tax extra money. This is money that after the audit is completed. It's it's become surplus. Correct. And we're just moving it into the capital reserve account in order to have

113a fund that we can use for future needs. Is surplus extra or surplus part of the budget? It has to be moved to the account because it's surplus money. It's extra money that's beyond what we utilize in our budget. We don't use any well the surplus that we use in our budget is used is audited. So there is an amount of money that we're required to use in our future budgets. That's the excess in over the 2%. That money is going to be turned into our next year's the following year's budget that'll be moved in and hopefully that'll reduce the amount that we'll have to ask for in next year's vote. What it will do is sustain some of the programs that you have in place so that you don't have to cut programs. That's

114what it will do. That's what we're here for. Make sure programs are sustained. Mr. I I heard that um this evening we've got a another nine months of monitoring. Um about yes about um and it'll be probably another 3 or 4 months before they even come up with a remediation plan. It at the bare airbones minimum three to four months. It'll probably be six months. Um, so this moves us this where we might need this money. We're 14 months from now. Um and and I don't see us doing any of this remediation because that in in reading the report that Zurich and and some of the environmentalists had done um before land got involved. They're going to be making a hole that we're not going to be able to use that transportation yard for anything

115but storing vehicles. I mean, they're going to make a hole that you think of 2,000 tons of dirt and that's what it was, you know, three years ago. that that plume I'm sure has spread since then because there's an area on the on the mechanum up there where there's there's no mechanum there's no concrete so water is just going into the ground and it's and it's just going to spread that and that's probably why we're calling on such a long time of monitoring what's happening there. Um, from from my understanding that plume is halfway down from the pumps down to the the bottom of the hill. Um, that's going to be a tremendous hole. We're not going to be doing that during a school year. We'd be probably doing it two years from now, any

116remediation work. So, I think we got more than plenty of time to in the future come up with something in the budget. And I I'm still going to vote no. Okay. So, where does that leave us right now? There's nothing no motion. There's no motion on the table. So, we're still in new business. Mr. Bailey, quick question. A quick clarification, Miss Barbara. If what happens to the money if we don't earmark it as you're recommending it drops into surplus and then it would be used in the 1617 budget. Okay. to offset uh cost hypothetical tax increase etc. whatever. But in your opinion, the reason why you're moving it is, you know, we keep targeting this remediation of the uh bus depot, but but in fact, we could fill in any other situation that might arise.

117We don't, in other words, we don't have to approve uh moving this money tonight and earmarking it specifically for remediation of uh polluted soil. In fact, it gives you the ability to uh address any concerns. And just to clarify one more time, um it's after the audit. It's what we have left over. And what we're doing here has happened many, many times in the past. It's been held up here before, but it's basically the same type of uh, you know, discussion and this long drawn out procedure we're going through tonight with uh, my colleagues derailing this train is something that's taken place in neighboring districts uh, probably in the blink of an eye. Fair statement most likely. Thank you. So in other words, then to wrap it up, and I made the statement a million

118times, it's good in Vernon, Rockaway, Ringwood, all the districts that butt up to West Milford, but yet in West Milford, it it's not the right thing. That's the part I just can't get by. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yes, of course. As a superintendent, I work closely with Barbara. um her insight as to what the needs are for the district is excellent. Um and I and I commend her because I've worked with many uh BAS over the course of my career. Um I think we're focusing on this as Greg said, the remediation more so than we need to. Uh we're all aware of, you know, the the struggle that we have with fixing roofs. We're all aware of the fact that the high school needs some major work just looking at the auditorium. Um uh there

119are other places looking at Paradise N School and I've sent pictures of barrels in the main entrance of the school and um I really think that my suggestion would really be for you to reconsider and look at the other the other scope or the full scope of what this means. Um the remediation's important and and I agree with Jim on the sense that it may not be 14 months from now. But the point is 14 months from now we may need the money but prior to that there are other things in this district with nine schools plus the academy that we're paying rent for uh that need help that really do need help. And it's a it's a I don't want to say it's a crime, but it's a shame that we have to have

120students and parents go into some of these buildings on days when they're just they're embarrassing, you know, and it's just something that I would like to see as superintendent us focus in on and really fix these places up because I think they've been neglected for too long. Uh and again, I respect Barbara's experience over the past few years and her experience here. So, I I'm just going to call, you know, to ask for your support and just looking at all the other things that this district needs for the sake of the kids. I'm not even talking programs. I'm just talking about the buildings. We've spoken multiple times about replacing entrance doors in different buildings that haven't been done. Some have been done and then we end up with a a curb or a sidewalk in

121front of the door that's tilted toward the doorway, so the water's coming in. Anyway, it just seems it's baffling to me that, you know, being involved in many projects that we do things but we can never complete what we start and that's frustrating. I mean, we we've done some big jobs that have been completed with the boilers and some of the roofs, but there are these day in day out things that we look at. It's have you driven through the parking lots of the elementary schools? I mean, you really, if you're going in there with a decent car, you can kiss the front end goodbye. uh to say nothing of the the travesty if the kids are running around and they jump off a school bus or something and fall into one of these holes.

122I mean, I was over at Marshall Hill the other day. I'm looking at a driveway where a school bus actually pulls up and lets kids out. And I'm astonished that we we even let this happen, that we don't even address it. Um that's my two cents. And you know, as the the leader of the district here, um I appreciate your support, but I would like you to think in in terms of that as well. Yes, sir. I'm sorry, Mr. De. If we're painting a picture that there's things that need to be done in this district like playgrounds or parking lots or any of these other things, we should probably consider budgeting for that next year. Not not utilizing our surplus to fix things that need to be fixed. By all means, let's if we have

123things that need to be fixed, let's talk about it and let's get it fixed. Good point. But um let's not do that with hopefully we have surplus money. Let's fix it then. I'm not I'm not I'm I'll support Barbara on that. I have no problem with fixing things. Thank you, Mr. De. Mr. Bailey, I would renew my request from the minority three to maybe give us a number where we we where we could reach common ground because now I've had the business administrator and the leader of the district tell me what we're going to do with these funds. And you know, now my head is beginning to spin a little bit and I'm thinking about the discussions we've had in my budget and finance committee concerning possible upgrade of the high school bleachers, which by

124the way, it's a festive night and a great night and everybody's up there in a good mood. But everybody who attends the festivities of the 25th is going to see exactly what kind of a shape they're in. They're safe. Everything's ready to go. That's not my message, but we could have better and perhaps this type of money could be used to make those repairs. So, that's another example as we begin to wander off into the myriad of possible actions that could be taken using this money. One other thing I want to put out publicly cuz I love this part and I've already done it and you know what I'm going to say and the offer still stands. The board buys me the asphalt, I'll supply the labor and material to fix the holes in the

125district in like 30 seconds. It's what I do and I've done it before and you all know it. So, I don't want to hear about that. You just get board approval to buy me some of the hot mix asphalt, the material I need, and get out of the way and I'll do it again cuz I love that and so does my family. Next, Mr. Foody. Um, I'm sorry. I I listened to what was just said and we're talking about possible things that we could fix and Mr. Bailey brings up a a a point that I wasn't going to bring up, but um in that budget and finance meeting, we were told about those bleachers and that you the several hundred,000 dollars is there to fix it if we want to do it for next year

126in next year's budget. So, I don't want to hear this that we're we're we don't have the money. We we we're going to hurt the kids. We're doing everything that we can. We're we've got a lot of cash. I looked at three line items in that board secretaries report and I found a million dollars in four line items. and four line items. I know that there's there's and that's not adding up the hundreds of others that are in there. There's plenty of money. There's plenty of money. Mr. Deber, one more thing. I just wanted to say uh I do recognize the commitment you made, Craig, to this district. There's no question about that. You put in more than anybody else in the area. And like you said, the manpower at all costs money. You've devoted

127quite a bit of time and money to this district and we appreciate that. Mrs. Kempy. Yeah. My one other concern um is the referendum. If the referendum doesn't pass, we're going to have an $8 million bill to fix the roofs. So, where is that money going to come from, you guys? You know, you It's another question. I'm just throwing it out there. But where is it going to come from? Anybody else? Mr. Bailey. Well, I'm going to take my final swing. You know, again, I'm almost pleading and I can't stand that part, especially given the people I'm pleading to for guidance. So, now I'm going to have to not randomly. I'm giving it some thought. You know, I want to go with the defeated numbers because that's what my BA is telling me. She knows

128that's what she's asking for. So, I guess we're just going to follow the same silly tactic that's been going on here for two hours. So, failing, I'm giving everybody one last chance to put a number in front of me before I make the motion. Or they can make the motion. And wait a minute. My new friend, Mr. Deborah, who thank you for the kind words, but your actions would speak louder if you go back to that motion about Mr. Bailey came at 8:40 or whatever and vote no on Mr. Bailey. That would be a lot more action than words. But let's hear what you have to say. Excuse me. To the chair. Go ahead. I would go with $200,000 transferred to make an even $1 million in surplus. Yes, that's what I would do. 200,000

129transferred into the account. So, we have a million dollar in not the 2% but of our surplus surplus. I'm making a motion. Motion for $200,000 transfer. Is there a second? So, nobody wants discussion. So, nobody wants to move on that. There is a second on the floor. Okay. So, there's a motion on the floor. Item number 40, budget and finance. 200,000. 200,000. We have an even million dollars. Sydney Sydney. Is there any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. B? Yes. Mr. Bailey? No. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? No. Mrs. Key? Yes. Mrs. O'Brien? Sorry. Can you get back to me in a minute, please? Mr. Robins, no. Mrs. Schulz, yes. Mr. O'Brien, yes. Motion carry. That was a compromise. Thank you. Um, okay. Excuse me. I don't Is there any more new businesses,

130Mr. Foody? over the uh I guess it was our last meeting in May um that that this occurred but um I realize that we all have differences of opinions here. Is this new business? What's that? Is this new business? Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I would like to work together with all board members to to get things done, but when the microphone because I'm asking questions picks up other board members call me an a-hole and other board members then covering the microphone so that they're not caught. Uh, doesn't sit well with me. I've never called any other board member here any any by any other name than theirs. I don't think this is new business. This is new business and we need to is this new business? I don't know. I don't know what we're looking

131at. What what we need to do as a board, what we need to do as a board is work together. Even if we have differences of opinions, we got to stop. We just got to we got to work together. I don't know if we all signed this, but there is a charter that we all received. Oh, yeah. I signed on to it. Did everybody sign it? Oh, yeah. Everybody signed on to it. And and it was to treat others with with respect. And I've tried to do that. And but I'm at every turn by people over talking over me, the microphone catching, people calling me, you know, names that don't need to occur quite frankly. And it needs to stop. You have you have we have a difference of opinion. We have a difference of

132opinion but the name calling and all that other that crazy it's got to stop. Thank you Mr. Cody. Mrs. KBY. If that's got to stop then it's got to stop in executive session where the entire board was called an extreme curse word. and when uh we didn't agree on a superintendent search and the entire board including the attorney was in the room and we were cursed out. So let it go both ways. I think that's the kind of I'll say team building that really could be addressed as something like a retreat. Irish serious many boards do this at the retreats. Um, this is not the only board that that argues and doesn't always get along. And that that really is the kind of presentation or discussion that should take place at a meeting retreat. Get

133school boards or anybody else to come in and kind of facilitate that kind of discussion, sign on, talk about the charter and those kinds of things. That might be something. Thanks, Joe. Anybody else? Seeing none, move to close new business. Well, can I can I just make an offer to uh I'm sorry. I'm I am very sorry. First of all, I want to make make sure that I invite everyone. I know you were invited already, but uh to please uh if you can join us on uh well, tomorrow night or on Thursday at the high school graduation. Uh just if you're coming to the high school graduation, if you could be there around 6:30. And uh business attire, I guess, is fine because we'll be sitting in the front area someplace. Uh, so I'd love

134to see everybody there. So if you can join us, I would really appreciate that. Uh, and I'm talking to everyone, but specifically to the board of ed. Um, and also I think maybe Mr. Novak would like to if we can give him a moment to say one or two words to the board. I think that would be appropriate at this time. Put your helmet on. I just I just wanted to take a moment just to say thank you to to Mr. Rashika and to the board of education. Um it's been a while since I was putting all my thoughts together, but you know, it's been a long night. Um I'm I'm I'm honored and and humbled by uh by this opportunity. Uh when I began at the Upper Greenwood Lake School, we uh we implemented

135the the idea of a slogan, keep moving forward. And uh it really guided everything we did. We never rested on our accomplishments. We always look to improve. And I, you know, I'm really looking forward to working with to this the the stakeholders in this district to u bring that same enthusiasm and and level of expectation to the district as a whole uh for all of our schools and departments. Um it's a bittersweet uh moment. I'm I'm leaving behind a school that I love. Uh the upper Green Lake school has been the greatest professional moment of my or professional experience of my career. And I just want to let um I see some members of the upper grooming community here that I you know continue to carry the torch of UGL pride with me as I

136move into my my next position. So thank you. Thank you for the kind words. I really really appreciate that. And that's it. Thank you. I'm done. Thank you. Petitions and requests. I thought we did. No, we I kind of I ruined it on you. Oh, well, there was a uh Debbie and Eningga first and second. Yeah. We'll keep it that way. We won't change it. Um I need a voice vote. All in favor of uh closing your business. I I Thank you. Petitions or requests. petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will 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 minute period transpires. All speakers are asked

137to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the name of students during petitions and requests. Would anybody like to speak? Yes, Mrs. D'Angelo. Hi. Hi. Uh, Natalie D'Angelo D apostrophe capital A N G E L O 9 Avalon Road. Is that all I have to Okay. All right. I hate to keep everybody here any longer. Um, it's been a long night, but it's been also very entertaining. Um, I didn't come prepared with a speech and then upon my arrival, I'm kind of glad I didn't come with a speech because a lot of things that I thought were are not since I came here with him. I can say his name right. Mr. Novak being appointed the new district director director director of education. Um that is

138very um I'm getting really nervous. Sorry. Um, I'm very proud. I'm very happy and I've saw you from the beginning to where you are now and I think you're going to be amazing and the district is very lucky to have him. That's great. But you need to direct your Sorry. To the board. Sorry. Um, the main reason why I'm here tonight is um I did want to talk about this past year. Um, but like I said, a lot of things since I got here tonight have changed. We now have a director of education. We now have a principal that's going to be coming back. Mr. Rashika has said he would stay for another year. Um, and I I don't want to like harp on the past, you know, and, you know, complain, but as a

139senior parent, um, I just wanted to make people aware that things for the seniors this year definitely weren't um, what has been in the past. And I feel like in a lot of situations they were kind of cheated. Um, and I do understand, you know, there was a lot of new personnel, but at the same time I don't feel like that that should be an excuse. And I also feel that you know there there was a lot of traditions that we've had um that you know many of them are over 20 years old and several of them were done away with this past year without really any you know I don't know like from parents from students from te like I guess what I'm trying to say is I I don't feel that an interim

140principal should or interim administrator or what should be able to make such radical changes without you know it first being spoken to other you know discussed more at length you know and more people's opinions and things like that um and one of my my biggest things and like I said I don't want to harp on on the past but um being, you know, a parent of a of a senior and watching ceremonies go on for, you know, since 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, and then when you get to that moment and your child isn't recognized the way they have been in the past, you know, I just want to, you know, say that, you know, it was very disheartening and, you know, this year is over and we can only go forward.

141But I had to speak and say something because that's what I've always taught my children is to stand up and if something you know you feel is not right then you know you should speak about it. I definitely don't speak as eloquently as my daughter. So but um like I said the whole game kind of changed when you know we came in and I saw that you know several changes have been made. Um I just look forward to next year and you know hope you know things will go forward in a better direction. That's it. Thank you very much. Yes sir. William Satovich, CYT O W ICZ, 694 Lakeshore Drive. Several questions. I'm just curious if the superintendent interview process is inclusive or uh conclusive of the entire uh board. The other questions deal with

142the surplus. It's been reported that there's been a lack of funding for school books and my question is how could there be such a surplus when that's been reported? I was wondering if that could be clarified. How many years in a row has there been a surplus? Is there a specific intention besides the one mentioned tonight for the surplus? as in is there a sync fund for each school to deal with the problems that were mentioned with the by the superintendent? And it seems that the the problems that are arising in terms of the infrastructure are a result of not having these sync funds and I was wondering if there is a budget as uh Mr. Deborah had been mentioning for each school to assess these problems and to deal with these problems without having

143to dip into a surplus. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak? Yes, sir. Hi. Good evening. My name is Jim Augustineelli. A G O S T I N E L L I. I live at 47 Sherborg Drive, West Milford. And I want to follow up on what Natalie was saying before on some of the events this past year that has taken place with the seniors. The first thing I'd like to say on a very positive note, I have three kids in the school district and 30 exper 30 years experience in the school district as a parent. And I'm very happy to say that I have never once received a complaint about a single teacher. Okay? And I think that's excellent. And I think there's I know there's been a lot of changes tonight

144or I heard of changes tonight. There are many very good teachers in this school, okay? And I want to credit you folks in the board event and the teachers. But following what Natalie said, again, I haven't heard a complaint in 30 years, my experience. But these seniors have been robbed these years these years. And I'll give you some specifics, okay? In terms of celebrations and in terms of their ability to brag, their right to brag as to what they accomplished. The May newsletter was sent out by Ms. Lambert. Oh, sorry, I should say names, but the main newsletter was sent out in June. Okay, in the May newsletter was a list of colleges. Now, if you look at all those list of colleges, we have this this school districts have put kids into Ivy League

145schools, Patriot League schools, state schools, community colleges, okay? And we have put people into the workforce in terms of trades which I know because I'm not the best hands out guy in the world that I need people coming to my house and fixing my things. This school district has produced that. Okay, here's some examples. I understand that throughout the year there are 30 there are three 30 minute recognition assemblies which under this past interim principle has done has been done away with. Okay. for reasons I don't know. Another example, distinguished honors awards. In the past at Distinguished Honors Award, it has always been where siblings have always been announced during distinguished honors. That was not the case this year. Okay, there are five families in the school district, okay, who did not get did not

146get that privilege. Okay, let's talk about uh how about uh senior choice awards. You may or may not know this. This is a chance senior choice awards. Kids are up there. They're voted in by their peers, okay? Best hair, whatever, best looking, whatever the case may be. Now, people may or may not know that videos were accidentally deleted off the servers. And if anybody went to this to Senior Choice Awards, they had a dancing Highlander for Oh, and here's a candidate. I don't have a video of this candidate, so they put a dancing Highlander out there. That's embarrassing. And that's a that's that's uh appalling to me. You can't tell me that we don't have the educated people in this school district who doesn't know how to use a computer. That's a rhetorical question. Let

147me go on. Okay. Not only distinguished honors, uh how about uh Cablethon? Cable was pathetic. And I'll be honest with you, there was clearly no organization whatsoever. And again, rhetorical question. Did anybody here watch it? Yes. Okay. In my opinion, and if anybody disagrees with me, if it was well done, you can say that. I don't think it was well done. All right. To to uh cable, there was not a Honeywell sent out advertising cable. Okay. Nobody knew about it. I had my first I heard the first cable thon the evening of National Honor Society or the first Honeywell the evening of National Honor Society. That was a few weeks after. Okay, that's terrible planning, right? Another thing in national honor societies uh what happens is juniors are introduced into the national honor society. Excellent.

148That part was well done. Juniors were appreciated last year and years prior to that. Seniors who have already been in National Honor Society were able to speak and state what colleges they are going to. That was not done this year. Those seniors were stifled and kids were hurt and parents were upset. The reason why that was done because I was told that certain kids were quote uncomfortable stating what schools they were going to go to. My question back, which is also rhetorical, what about those kids who are overachievers, those kids who volunteered, who studied, who played athletics, who were president of NHS and everything else? Why didn't they get to voice what colleges and brag what colleges they were going to go to? Okay, let me see. Did I give you enough examples? I probably

149have a couple more, but I'll spare it. Okay, my final statement is I think the seniors poor planning needs an apology. That's my opinion. And as I was told, the responsible party for this is the finding my notes here is the West Milford High School administrative team and the leadership of that. Right? That's all I want to say. And I hope moving forward, Mr. Rashika and others, I hope this celebration of seniors can move forward as it has been in the past because I think underassman sitting there looking at them saying, I could go to Cornell. I could go to Princeton. I could go to Nor Eastern. I could do all this. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come up and speak? Seeing none. No, no. Yes. If nobody else that has not spoken

150yet wants to speak. Okay. I can't see. Yes. Natalie D'Angelo D apostrophe capital A N G E L O 9 Avalon Road, New Jersey. Thank you. Okay, there was just I was really nervous the first time, so I forgot a couple things. Um and he touched on all the events that I was referring to before, but um these are just two two other things and they're unrelated. And one is in regards to math. And now neither of these things um affected my children, but I've been made aware by my children like on a few occasions about it. Um you know, when everybody comes to Makipin, you know, in seventh grade, everyone's coming from a different elementary school and you don't know where everybody's at and whatnot. So, they're all on the same level. But then

151in eighth grade, you're allowed to, you know, they base, you know, what your academics on on, you know, what you've done for the year and recommendations from the teachers. But if you do not take honors in 8th grade for math, when you get to the high school, then you cannot, and I have my freshman write this down for me. Um, if you don't take honors algebra in eighth grade, then you cannot take honors geometry in ninth grade, which would be the next, you know, level in in the progression. So, you would either have to take algebra over the summer or you would have to double up in ninth grade. So, I just wanted I I don't know. I just kind of wanted to put that out there only because I think like a lot of

152students are caught off guard and if they were told this in seventh grade then you know they would or maybe not make a conscious effort you know to do better in math and you know so that they could be in honors because most of them like I said to my you know knowledge have found out when it's too late you know and then are stuck where they are um and the other thing is and I don't really like bragging about this either. Um but one of my daughters I won't name got to super detention this year and that in itself is you know but she came home and told me that the day that it happened and in what circumstance it was for but my complaint is I never got a phone call. I never

153got an email. I never was contacted in any way to be told that this even happened. The incident itself and the fact that she had to serve this detention which I was fine with because you do the crime, you do the time. So, but my point is just for other like I just assumed it would be policy that I would be notified in some way and I think parents should be notified if their child gets super detention. Not just detention, super detention. All right, that was it. Thanks. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come up and speak? Yes. Stephanie Markbard, 45 setting Sun Trail here in West Milford. I just feel compelled to get up and say thank you to Mr. Hustler. It has been a tough year. Um, as an employee in the

154high school, I can and being in the main office, I can totally understand. Changes are never easy for anybody. Um, but I do feel compelled to say that it's a tough job with somewhat near 1,200 students. It's impossible to make everybody happy, but there has been a lot of positive in the school this year. Um, and I just think that he should be recognized for it. There's always good and bad, but he has done positive things. And I just want in front of all of you to thank him for what he's done for us this year. He did not act like an interm. He acted like a principal with a vested interest in our school and I truly appreciate that. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come up and speak? None. Second. All in

155favor? Does I need a motion? All in favor? Oh, sorry. All in favor? I. Any oppose? Motion to adjurnn. Second. uh 10:45. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you everybody for coming out this evening and with being very patient. Uh, this meeting is officially adjourned at 10:45 p.m. I don't feel good. Can I describe this? You call that one? I don't think so. I know. your microphones, guys. Good evening, everybody. We're going to reconvene this meeting. We had an executive session earlier starting at 6. I apologize for the delay. I know it was hot in the hallway. Uh it was something that couldn't be avoided. So, thank you for your patience.