001for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Yes. I had um I had discussed with Marilyn at our last meeting that when we do our moment of silence that we would recognize people from the district who've lost loved ones or or staff members who've lost lost loved ones. And we had um a couple of emails this past week from Debbie Costella with regards to that. Um and I I didn't have that discussion with you, but she was going to do it at the next possible time. So I I would just like to, you know, have a if I could um have a moment of silence for the staff members who've lost loved ones. Thank you. In accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act of public notice
002of this meeting has been sent to board members all district schools. The Herald News, the trends, the record, AI. West Milford, a me the messenger, West Milford town hall, county superintendent's office, board attorney, cable vision of Warwick, and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township library, and all district schools. Um, I'm going to take a roll call. Mr. Babbot, here. Mr. Bailey, here. Mr. De. Mr. Drew here. Mr. Foody present. Mrs. Keppy here. Miss O'Brien here. Mrs. Mr. Robbins here. Mrs. Schultz. Okay. Um, Mr. Deber and Mrs. Schultz are not here tonight. So, I need um a motion from the floor for someone to become the presiding officer for this meeting. Mr. Bailey. I move that um Inga Lighting Office serve
003this evening based on her previous experience in that chair. I'll second that. Uh anyone other names from the floor? Okay. Everyone in favor? I All right, Mrs. Keepy. [Applause] [Music] Okay. Well, good evening everybody. Um, let's see. We are going into session. Executive session. Um, I need a motion to go into Mrs. O'Brien, please. I make a motion to approve the following resolution. resolved that the board go into executive session 9:00 p.m. for approximately 9 minutes for the purpose of conducting a student hearing discussing negotiations, student matters, personnel, fibs, agrievance, the director of education search and matters of attorney client privilege. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or confidentiality is no longer applicable. Second. Thank you, Mr. Okay. Um, super all in favor. I rusty opposed. Okay.
004Superintendent report. Mr. Rashid. Okay. All right. So, it's been a busy month. Uh, month of May. We've had uh over at the high school uh accreditation for growth which is part of middle states actually came in and uh spent three days reviewing programs interviewing students and parents and staff members. Um the the bottom line is that uh we have met the criteria on the middle states. They will be giving us a full report probably within the next month a full written report. Uh the verbal report that they give at the end is kind of general. uh state some of the areas of concerns and basically at the high school one of the areas of concern um actually was with the building itself. They they walked into the auditorium and because of the situation we have
005with the roof there are one section of the auditorium that is uh blocked off with yellow tape. Looks like a crime scene unfortunately. Uh but that is for safety sake. So that is one of the things we're trying to fix is get that uh roof fixed. They were very happy with many of the programs that uh we have. They met with some of the board members, myself, Miss Francisco, and u again we looked at the AP uh courses that are offered, the programs we offer for special education and everybody else in between. So uh fortunately that went very well and I will have once that report comes back, I would like to invite Mr. Matlo back here since he was the head of the committee uh to report on that. Uh moving on, uh we
006had our unannounced visit from the state of uh New Jersey. Um that would be under the um safety committee. Uh it's very very important. And what they did was they actually came to my office. We sat there for a while. I think in total with our local police department, we there was 11 of us as a team. And uh we went through some of our standards. I shared our manual with them so they could see the protocol that we have in place. From there we did move to the high school as the first place to visit. We did the active shooter lockdown drill um which was a surprise to everybody and uh they are monitoring and took notes based on various things that they see. The overall protocol itself was excellent um and what we
007did with the drills. Everything was fine. Again, they're here to help. As they said, we're not here to critique or truly monitor. We're here to help to see where the weaknesses are. So, they will come up with a full report. Once the drill was completed, they actually spent another hour sitting down debriefing with uh m multiple people including staff uh and teachers and anybody that was uh not in a classroom. They they were able to sit down and speak to everybody and share what they saw and hear the concerns of the people in the building itself. From there, after we finished that, we moved over to Maple Road School at the elementary level. And again, um, they did a fine job. There are things that we need to tighten up. There are certain locations that
008need to be changed. And, and this is what this is all about. It's actually for them to come in and see that we have our signals prepared, ready, the students and staff know how to respond to these things and move quickly. So, that was very, very important. So, again, I'm looking for the uh, full report to come back from them as well. Uh and we also spent approximately 45 minutes to an hour debriefing at that school as well. Um we have all the testing test and more test. Uh just to give you an update NJ ask uh May 27th. Um and then we have fourth and the eighth grade science uh coming up the 26th or the 29th. Makeup testing will be the 28th and 29th. I am happy to report that all the uh
009park testing is now completed. Uh and we have AP exams. We're going on from May 4th until uh the 20th of this month, which is tomorrow. So the all the AP exams will be over. Um looking at programs and ceremonies, uh last night at the high school, they did the distinguished scholars awards programs, which was very, very nice. Uh the top 15 students from each class was recognized for their accomplishments. Uh each department supervisor did an excellent job presenting to one student from each one of those departments uh based on their outstanding work whether it was something to do with music whether it was something to do with history right across the board and that was very nice. Plus there were some other recognitions from some colleges and other awards that uh Miss Arensson the
010guidance uh supervisor gave out as well. So it was a pleasant evening. Good stuff. Uh, also yesterday we had uh for the first time I believe there was a Memorial Day service at the high school. The entire student body came out to the parking lot that was well organized. We had several members from the uh veterans come over. They sat there and joined in the uh ceremony. Several students from student council made speeches. Some staff members made speeches as well. And it was again very successful. The students were very respectful and we were happy that that all worked out very nicely in the uh final uh closing of the ceremonies with them actually bringing the wreath over to the flag pole while we had our two trumpet players playing taps in the background. So it's
011very moving and very appropriate. Um May 29th we will be going that's next Friday some of us will be going down to Ryder University to celebrate uh upper Greenwood Lake School and Makipin School for being character education schools in the state of New Jersey. And I did put out a blast yesterday to recognize that Makipin is also a national school of uh character which we are very proud of. Miss Reinhold congratulations and everybody there uh just a wonderful job. uh very proud of all of them. So I believe that would be a ceremony next October in Georgia. Atlanta in Atlanta. Okay. So so there you go. So we have lots of things going on there. Um also this week, tomorrow night there is the honor society for mathematics at the high school. Next week will
012be uh world language honor society and on Thursday the 28th will be national honor society at the high school as well. Um I was fortunate enough to go to the spring conference for superintendent for a few days. Uh I spent most of my time in programs dealing with school law tenure uh looking at various courses dealing with testing and also uh some components of character education and building better programs for all of us uh the rest of the schools. We certainly want to see them get on board and I know everyone's trying. So so that's good. So that's pretty much all I have I think at this time. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Special reports and correspondent. Mrs. Francisco, the minutes from the April meetings, April 21st and April 28th will be available at
013the next meeting on Tuesday uh the 26th for your review and consideration. Thank you. Any legal report? Thank you session. Perfect. Uh, president's report. I don't have anything to report at this time. Um, I do wish Marilyn well tonight. Um, she's at an event for her daughter who's graduating college and which is very proud of her. So, I just would like to say that to her. Uh, 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 petitioners and requests limited to five minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minutes uh period transpires. Petitioners speaking during petitions and requests are asked to address topics listed in special action in the agenda.
014All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. Is there anybody who'd like to speak? Seeing none, move to close petitions requests. Second. Okay. All in favor? I. Okay. I need a motion to adopt the agenda. Mrs. O'Brien like to make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented this evening. Second. discussion. Are we not supposed to have and I was just looking uh I'm going to look it up. Aren't we supposed to have old business and new business even in a workshop meeting and that's not printed on the agenda? usually is it usually is on. It's usually I'm pretty sure that it's policy. Yeah, absolutely. Double check. So you can amend that. The agenda
015has amended. You can do I'm pretty sure it's in here. Okay. So, we'll adopt the um agenda with amendments to um add new business and old business. All right. I'll take I'll take off the table um to adopt the agenda as presented and have an amendment to add old and new business to the business. You could do that or we can just pass the the motion as amended as amended to include that. But then we have to amend it. No. Well, not yet because if we pass the agenda as amended, the resolution would be to change it to include those two items and the board president gets to set the agenda as with, you know, in consultation with the uh superintendent. So, I'm assuming there's consultation. Everybody's okay. We want to do all business on,
016right? So, we'll leave it as it is. Okay. And you may be right, Jim, but we'll check that. But I'm pretty sure it's always on. Maybe just lift off. I think it was just left off, but it usually is it is another meeting. Okay. So, all in favor? I oppose. Okay. Education. Mrs. O'Brien here. I'll fill in for Mr. Schultz. I'd like to make to present to the board this evening the following four items for to be voted on discussion. Second, can we separate item two, please? [Applause] Okay. So, discussion three. Any discussion on one, three, and four? Roll call. M. Bryant. Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. Mrs. Key? Yes, Mr. Babbot. Yes, Mr. Bailey. Yes. Okay. Number two, discussion. We need a motion. A second. Second. Need a motion
017and a second. Need a motion. A second. Oh, it was second. Okay. Want me to make a motion to move it to privilege? Second. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Discussion. My understanding is that with one of the Spanish textbooks, and I don't remember which one, maybe you do, that we are not buying enough of them for every student, and we're expecting them to share. Can you talk through your microphone? My understanding is that for one of the Spanish textbooks, I'm not sure which one. You may recall that we're not buying enough for every anticipated student. Instead, we're only buying enough for every other student. And uh that seems like a relatively low amount and that makes it difficult to learn. Hold on. In the wrong area. Wait, we're in the wrong area. We're the number two
018that you pulled is recommendation superintendent approved new self-contained preschool. Okay. Very sorry. Okay. It's in the education section. In the education. Oh my. Page three. That's yeah. Okay. It happens and that's for that will be as a discussion, right? It's not being voted on. Okay. Any questions on number two? Okay. Mr. Babbot on number two. Any questions on Okay. I'm going to call a roll. Roll call. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes, Mr. Drew. Yes, Mr. Foody. Yes, Mrs. Key. Yes, Mrs. O'Brien. Yes, Mr. Robbins. Yes, except [Applause] the next part. Executive session. Never mind. Okay. Personnel and student affairs. Mrs. O'Brien. Okay, now I know what I'm ging about here. Okay, I have three items presented this this evening to the board for special action to be approved by second. Any discussion? Roll Miss
019O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. Mrs. Key. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Okay. Uh, budget and finance. Mr. Mrs. O'Brien. Watch this. What? Watch this. Watch it. I'd like to move items number one through four under budget and finance. Please. I can handle this, but I'll second it. That's how you do that. Okay. Discussion. Um, Mr. I'd like to pull for a vote after we come out of executive session to have the votes on number two and three after executive session because I'm not quite sure what that's about. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. That's okay. We'll do that. I'm sure we've talked about it, but I just want to refresh refresh my memory. No problem. We will do that. Um so so it's just one and four. So one
020and four two and three should be in executive session at this point. Okay. So again we'll um although two and three are just pulled to um a second vote but one and four are still up. Okay. Is there any more discussion? Um on number one Barbara who was the architect on the uh roof replacement project at Marshall Hill. Uh, Senino Associates. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. Roll call. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mrs. O'Brien. This is for one correct. One and four only. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mrs. Key. Yes. Mr. Babbett. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Okay. Um, education and Mr. Drew. Now, these are to be moved at the next meeting and all we're doing is discussing these now. Do we discuss them all at once or individual? You have questions on it. Yes,
021you can bring it up as a discussion. Um, all right. Then I have some concern about item two. Um, and again, I don't remember which one, but one of the Spanish textbooks, we're only buying enough textbooks for half of the anticipated. It's Spanish, too. So, if we were to buy enough textbooks for all of the students, it would be $7,400 instead of $3,700. Um yeah, I believe that that was or would be an additional 147 147, right? My own experience with learning languages that having a book in hand is is pretty difficult to learn without the book. Even though much of the learning is person to person, not having a book just makes it very difficult. Do you mind what the discussion was on that one? Because that was I do. Um the discussion was
022uh Mrs. Mrs. Slugwood came in to explain to everyone um her selection of books. And as an outcome of that, she explained that uh with the budget being cut that she had to cut back on the number of Spanish 2 books that she had and that she would be bringing the next um part of that in the next school year. But there were pe uh members of the board who wanted to have a discussion about um being able to cover all of the books so each child would have a book in hand. Mr. Bailey, clarification. We're talking about the course Spanish, too. Correct. Correct. Yeah. And the concern is that we're buying $160 of these at $88.50. Correct. Which is half of them. Yes. So, actually, the area supervisor requested 320 books at 88.50. 50.
023Correct. Checking. He's talking to the mic. Why? You can't hear me. Thank you. Please talk to the mic. Young man, take those earphones off so you can hear me. I'll speak however I want. You can pick up my voice. It's never been a problem with Mr. Bailey. Don't talk to me that way. You ask me, please. Thank you. Now I'll turn up the volume. Where was I? Oh, we really want 320 books. Yes, that was the original request at the I don't think it was because I only have 180 in the budget. The budget. So that's what she requested originally. So she requested 180 and we're going next week to approve this item for60. 160. Correct. That's what it says. It says 180. Yeah, it says 180. Mhm. But importantly, it says of the 160
024that we're buying as opposed to the 180 due to budget cuts, hard copy and electronic version. So that means we're getting 160 books and electronic version. Correct. Correct. Okay. No further questions. So for clarification it you're implying that we are going to have the electronic versions right you more people will be short I I think we will be able to manage with this based on the fact that you have the electronic electronic version is basically the the disc form of the book. So the intent would probably be that if the books were going to go home at night for some reason that some would have the textbooks and others would have to use it on their computers. So the information they would have would be the same. Any other questions? Mr. Wouldn't the board have
025the ability to increase that number for? Well, the original request for the 1516 budget was reduced by $10,000 because of the reductions that needed to be accomplished. So, we haven't even gotten to the July 1, 2015 budget yet. And the reduction is based upon, you know, what we felt could be trimmed from the budget. So, could we increase the appropriation? We would have to wait until sometime this summer to see. um if some of our um overhead costs come in a little lower than we anticipated, we have a little bit of flexibility that we could add a few thousand to the textbooks for the Spanish program, but I think um tonight it's a little premature to make that adjustment in a budget that hasn't even begun to, you know, although we're doing purchase orders now,
026we still don't really know where that's showing and and we did cut it because of the the the tax levy. So I guess I'd like to suggest then when we know actual enrollment if it turns out to be more than this I'm sure the book company will sell us additional copies of books. I understand the point about the electronic version except for the fact that of course we have students who don't have computers. Well, whenever we would do something like that, uh we would have to know if those students do have computers. So, uh we actually poll staff, we poll parents and and students to see if there are people without computers because a lot of our notices are done by computer as well. So, we we kind of identify those people uh beforehand. And
027certainly uh some students, you know, some students actually like still having a textbook, so they would have the option if that would be the case. But certainly if uh based on the enrollments and looking at where we are financially if we can pick up more textbooks then we certainly would explore that. Okay. So we'll defer perhaps ordering more until we have them. I know personally even though I have a computer if we're going to say well you have a computer you don't get a book um that I learn better with a book in my hand. I don't want to disadvantage the kids who have No. Absolutely not. So So let's look into it. Really what I'd like to get is a little bit more uh definition from uh the supervisor uh based on the enrollment
028I think which you mentioned and seeing what the actual needs are. So we'll have that Friday. Yeah. It was also my understanding in the education meeting that these books were not going to be a uh needed until December. Isn't that correct? Yes. So we had time to figure out some ways to All right. So that Thank you. I'm sorry to take so much time over this, but okay. Any other discussion under education? All right. Budget and finance. Mr. Bailey. Under budget and finance. At our next meeting, there will be 16 items for our review and approval and maybe a couple of hand carriers if we're lucky. Correct. since it's a busy time of the year and that any discussion Mr. Um, I requested a copy of the Pmputonian food services contract and Barbara, you said
029you were going to hand it out, email it to the board. I believe it's on the board members web page. I'll look it up. I I asked that it be posted to the web page. So, okay. I would have to check. I thought we were going to get a All right. Any other discussion under budget finance? Okay, let's move on to personnel. Mrs. O'Brien, there are 29 items listed here that will be presented for anticipated approval at the regular meeting of May 26, 2015. Any discussion? All righty. Okay. Um, okay. Petitions and requests. Petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes for each petitioner for the period of 30 minutes and then time permitting. Other petitioners and requests limited to five minutes per petitioner will be allowed
030until the 30 minute period transpires. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during the petitions and requests. Would anybody like to speak? Seeing none, move to close petitions and requests. Second. All in favor? Okay. New business. Is there any new business? See announcement business. All business second. Sorry. Second. All in favor? Uh post. Old business. Uh I would like to just inform everyone that the uh cable thon uh was held this past Sunday for project graduation. Uh, and I believe that the PayPal uh, site is still on the district website. So, if you would like to make a donation for the project graduation, uh, I invite you to do that or you can write a check and
031bring it over to the high school to the, uh, PTSO for any amount that you would like. Again, this is for the, uh, drug and alcohol-f free celebration for graduation after the actual graduation ceremony. Uh, some parents are working very hard to make that happen for our students. So, that would be important. Um, also I know there's been some discussion and I've uh spoken to some parents in regards to uh concerns on class sizes. I can tell you that my objective, my goal is for those students um in the lower grades is to try to keep those as small as possible and I am uh looking at one or two possible ways of making that happen. So I don't want people to be under the impression that uh you know we're locked into a specific
032number. So I just want to make that uh open and clear. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else for old business? Seeing none, move to close business. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Executive session. Um I need a motion. I'd like to make a motion that at 8:05 p.m. um that we go into executive session for the purpose of conducting a student hearing discuss discussing negoti negotiation student matters personnel grievance the director of education sir and matters of attorney client privilege second okay all in favor we'll be going into executive session action will be taken and action will be taken when we come [Music] Okay. Okay. I need a motion to come out of executive session. I'd like to make a motion to come out of executive session at 947ish. Thank you. Okay. All righty. Uh Mrs.
033O'Brien, would you um move? Sure. Thank you. [Applause] Now I read the whole thing. Correct. I don't think so. No. Okay. I I'd like to make a motion to approve the following agenda items. Number five under education. Um with the we had eight hips, three substantiated and the remaining five unsubstantiated. Second. Thank you. Discussion. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mrs. Kempy. Yes. Okay. Um, under budget and finance. Um, two and three. To do two and three. Mr. By, would you like to move those, please? Yeah. I'd like to move items number two and three under budget and finance. I'd like to second that. Okay. Do you have any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. Mrs. Key? Yes. Mrs. O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Motion carries.
034Great. Thank you, Shane. Can I have one motion? I guess we could put it at number four under personnel and student affairs. Oh, thanks. Uh, and whereas a student hearing was held before the board this evening in executive session for student TF and whereas the board finds the disciplinary charges against the student are hereby substantiated. Therefore, be it resolved that the student suspension shall end effective May 20th, 2015, and the student shall be enrolled in and tend to the new life recovery program through the end of the current school year. Motion second. Need a motion first. I motion to move the resolution as stated and I like to second it, please. Discussion. Roll call. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mrs. Key. Yes. Miss O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Okay. We are finished. We have
035a motion. I'd like to mo make a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:51 p.m. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. We are done at 9:51 p.m. Thank you. Good