001Order. I have a roll call, please. Mr. Fallon, >> here. >> Mrs. Milano, >> here. >> Mr. Neves, >> present. >> Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening everyone. This is an the annual reorganization meeting of the Woodridge Board of Education that is in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act chapter 231 public laws of 1975 also known as the Sunshine Law. This meeting has been approved by resolution adopted at the reorganization meeting held on January 6, 2025. Notification has been sent to the record. Notification has been uh posted in the Woodridge Borrow Hall, the Woodbridgeidge Memorial Library. tap into.net and
002the Woodbridge Board of Education's website. Please be advised that all or a portion of this meeting is being livereamed in real time and will be recorded for rebroadcasting at a future date. I will now present to you the official results of the annual school board election held on Tuesday, November 4th, 2025 for two three-year terms. Election results were as follows. Christopher Garvin 1,992 votes. Joseph Biamonte 2,144 votes and personal choice 25 votes. With these results in, we will now administer the oath of office to Mr. Garvin and to Mr. Biamonte. Mr. Biamonte is unfortunately not here this evening. So we will administer his oath at the next regularly scheduled board of education meeting at which time he will take his place as an active member. Mr. Garvin. Right back here >> as far as I
003can. Raise your hand. >> I state your name. >> I Christopher United States >> do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution [clears throat] of the State of New Jersey. >> I will bear true. >> And I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. and to the governments established in the United States and the city. >> And to the governments established in the United States and to this state. >> Under the authority of the people, so help me God. >> under the authority of the people. So help me God. >> I state your name. >> I, Christopher Garvin, >> do solemnly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the board of education. do
004solemnly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education >> that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 194-1 [laughter] sorry that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS194-1 >> nor disqualified D conviction of a crime or offense listed at NJS18A12-1 >> disqualified due conviction of a crime or an offense listed in NJS18A12-1. >> And that I will faithful >> that I will faithfully and partially justly perform all the duties of that office >> according to the best of my ability. So help me God. >> according to the best of my ability. So help me God. Congratulations. At this time, I would like to read a statement of board composition for the Woodbridge Board of Education for
0052025. Mr. Richard Fallon, Mr. Christopher Garvin, Mrs. Michelle Milano and Mr. Albert Neves. Also note that the Munaki representative has not been announced yet. That meeting is scheduled for tomorrow evening. >> Roll call, please. Mr. Fallon, >> yes. >> Mr. Garvin, >> here. >> Mrs. Milano, >> here. >> Mr. Neves, >> present. I would like to now seek a motion to open to the public for items on the agenda only. May I have a motion? Mr. Garvin and a second. >> Second, >> Mr. Neves. All in favor? >> Okay. We have any questions from the audience? Looks like we got nothing and we have nothing online. At this time, I'd like to now seek a motion to close to the public for items on the agenda. May I have a motion? Mr. Garvin again and
006a second. Mrs. Milano. All in favor? >> Okay. This time I would like to now seek a motion to open for vote on election of officers, appointments, and settings of board procedures. May I have a first? Mr. Garbin's the man tonight. And a second. >> Second, >> Mr. Nevice. All in favor? >> I will now accept nominations for board president for a one-year term. Do we have a nomination? >> Mr. Lisa, I'd like to nominate my friend and the current board president, Mr. Albert Neves, to continue his role as board president. >> Thank you, Mr. Garvin. Are there any other nominations? Seeing none, hearing none. At this time, we'll have a roll call for nomination for Mr. Neves as president. Mr. Fallon. >> Yes. >> Mr. Garvin. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Milano. >> Yes. >>
007Mr. Neves. >> Yes. >> At this time, I'd like to congratulate Mr. Nebas for election unanimously as our board president. Congratulations. >> And I'd like [clears throat] to turn this over to Mr. Jas who much does a much finer job than I do. >> Much quicker job. [laughter] >> All right. Uh first of all, thank you trustees for your support. Um to all of you people out there, happy new year. Um 25 [clears throat] went went pretty quick. Hopefully uh 26 does not. Um uh next up, board operations 2. We have election of the board vice president for 2026. Um can I take a nomination? >> U Mr. President, I'd like to nominate my friend and the current vice president, Joseph Biamonte, to continue as vice president of this board. >> Thank you, sir. Any
008other nominations? None. None. None. All right. Move our on to a roll call. >> Mr. Lisa. >> Mr. Fallon. >> Sorry. Mr. Fallon. >> Yes. >> Mr. Garvin. >> Yes. >> Mr. Milano. >> Yes. and Mr. NeAs. >> Yes. >> All right. So, now on to the more interesting parts of of our agenda. So, uh most years, um we'll go through our code of ethics. Um we'll go through it's covered under board operations. Um as well as a few other, you know, items and then we'll open it up to the public. We also do have um one question uh that was submitted online which I do not see that person here. uh makes sense since they submitted online, but Mr. Lisa will read through it um to make sure that it's written into the agenda.
009Um and there was already a response that was sent. So, under uh board operations, you'll see uh board operations three on page four is our code of ethics uh pursuant to 18A12-24 uh.1. Um there you'll see a number of of resol um resolutions or be it resolved um that we have to abide by uh certain you know code of ethics as schoolboard members. I'm not going to go through it in detail. It is the same that it has been for the past few years. Um but you'll see you know a couple of things that should resonate. I'll uphold and enforce all the laws, rules and regulations. Uh make decisions in terms of educational welfare for our children. um confine your board action to policym, planning and appraisal. Um and there's a number of other things
010out there about recognition and our responsibilities. Um and but something that's also very important is holding confidential matters pertaining to um the schools which if disclosed would needlessly injure individuals or the school and our district itself about voting to appoint the best qualified personnel um which has a lot to do with um a lot of our activities throughout the year. um supporting and protecting the school personnel uh and proper performance. Right? So, it's our responsibility not to run the district but to make sure that we have a well-run district. Um all complaints um should go to our chief administrative officer sitting to my left here. Um on to board operations 4. Um we have um I will say designations of delegates and alternates. Um for Bergen County School Boards Association which without um any surprise
011is Mr. Fallon. Um the alternate is Mrs. Milano and for the school boards association it is also Mr. Fallon and Mrs. Milano. On to board operations five. Um what you hear me say a lot at the beginning of every meeting is our open public meeting act. Um so that is what typically I read through. Um you will see here it talks a little bit about the actual language. Um what is the purpose of our regular meetings um the board of education and how we designate you know certain roles say for the Bergen record you know our official newspaper. Uh it talks to um also you know where we're going to post which you hear about that's actually the fourth one down and we have one of the representatives here tonight. Um not much more on
012that but what you will see on page six um is our actual board of education schedule um our meetings for 2026. I think it says 20 25 up there um but it is actually for 25 26. Um we have our reorganization meeting which is not published there but then we'll go into our regular public session starting on the 26th. Uh we are intentional with the number of meetings we have. Um sometimes there might be a requirement depending on an event of some sort where we'll have another meeting. Um there are some times where um a meeting might be moved due to either a piece of feedback uh that we're looking for um something that we are anticipating that might come in late um or just generally yeah for the reasons of the board not being
013um what I'd like to say cohesive in the fact that we'll have all members here. We might have to move. But we tried to stick to the schedule and I think this past year we we were really good with that. But always want to throw that out there. And then our next organization meeting uh will be January 4th of next year. Uh board operation six, which is to establish the length of our board meetings. Uh really we don't go past 10:00. We can go back into closed. We'll let you know if there's action to be taken. You can stay if for some reason in the middle of the meeting we need to go into closed. Um but we can extend um by approval. Um but we will end no later than 10 o'clock. Haven't seen
014that in a very long time. maybe only once but it is something we have to have uh board operation seven which is a designation of our regular business meeting day. So this is about you know how we're going to start. So we commence at 7 o'clock for the public. We do get together earlier to have our close and executive. There's public meetings, special meetings um and then committees as a whole um which the board president can call. The order of business is board operations 8. That's what you see here at all times. We call to order public uh meeting statement roll call and then we go through the agenda for those of you who attend. You'll you're used to that. Um then on to board operations 9. Um you'll actually see our committees. Our committees
015are are have been really solid. Um I will say that you know finance Mr. Garvin as you heard in our last meeting at the uh audit findings or audit report our buildings and grounds Mr. Bonte as well as personnel um curriculum instruction is Mrs. Milano and policy is Mr. Fallon and by de facto I usually I'm involved or the co-chair for that um for each one of those uh five committees on to board operations 10 um you'll see the whole of the regular meetings um these are liaison positions um these these positions are really to the public so it's mayor and council PTA u the PD municipal drug alliance um we've always done a a great deal of making sure that we have alignment based on our skills as well as our relationships um on
016these, but you could find that on page eight. And then on to page nine. Um there's a there's a litany from starting with board operations 11 takes us all the way through 14. These are things of our official media. Um there'll be uh parliamentary uh procedures. Uh there'll be board policies and regulations and then doctrine of necessity. So I always, you know, cover this one. Um, but this is really, you know, something that, you know, we we need to have. Um, so if there's any questions on that, uh, I'll take them during our, um, hearing of the citizens. On to page 10, we have our travel and related expense reimbursement, um, which is the same as it has been as far as language uh, for years past, but this one reads for 2627. And then
017on to our last two pages, we have 17, which is report on authorized permitted pupil records. Um, that is important. Um, and actually that is it from a board operation standpoint. Uh, trustees, I know that was a lot to go through. I I I typically don't go into the detail, but it is our reorganization meeting. Um, any comments, questions, concerns? We're good there. [clears throat] All right. I will open it up to the hearing of citizens on these resolutions only. I'll make it official. Hearing none. Seeing none, I will close the hearing of citizens. Trustees looking for your support for board operations one through 17. >> Mr. Garvin second. Mrs. Milano. Discussion. Roll call. >> Mr. Fallon. >> Yes. >> Mr. Garvin. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Milano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Neves. >> Yes. >>
018All right. Before I opening up to hearing of citizens on anything they'd like to talk about, do we have anything for new or unfinished business? >> All right. Open it up to the hearing of citizens on anything you like to talk about. >> Okay. Nobody in the audience. >> Yeah. No, we're going to do that. Um hearing none. Seeing none, I'll close the hearing of citizens for those in the audience here. Uh Mr. Lisa, we did have one question that was sent to us online. Could you please read that for the record? >> Okay, this is from Bonnie Taylor, 64 Woodriidge Street. Happy New Year, Woodri Board of Education. I'm writing to bring to your attention a recently announced funding opportunity from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, DCA. The Division of Local Government
019Services, DLGS, is currently accepting applications for the School Regionalization Efficiency Program, SR, which provides funding to support K to2 regionalization and countywide school district consolidation feasibility studies. I respectfully encourage the board to consider whether pursuing this study opportunity may be beneficial for our community. Participation in a feasibility study does not obligate the district to proceed with consolidation or shared services, but it may provide valuable data to inform future planning and decision-making. Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter. I appreciate the board's continued efforts to explore options that support the long-term sustainability and success of our school district. Respectfully, Bonnie Taylor. And I believe Miss Lisa, it was a response that you provided. Uh, Mrs. Taylor, >> I I responded back that it was received and it would be read aloud at at
020this meeting. >> Okay. Uh, Miss Alro, nothing you want to add at this point? >> The only thing in response is that um, in doing some research on the matter, in the last fiscal year, there were five districts that took advantage of this grant incentive. uh they had budgeted a million dollars in total and the five awarded districts received on average about $120,000 each. Uh it remains to be seen of course how much the actual feasibility study costs but they do get the grant from the state. That's the incentive of it and then the districts involved would have to pick up the rest of the bill. And of course when doing a feasibility study looking at the possibility of regionalization it takes two to tango or three or four. So the board can direct me
021to send feelers out. Um right now I can tell you from our end of the county there hasn't been a great deal of discussion on it. The deadline for this particular grant is in midappril. So if we were to consider it we'd have to do that on a certain timeline and it's rather involved as well. And I don't I don't see this going away. I see it's something recurring year to year as long as the budget supports it. >> Mr. Robert, I would also just like to make a correction on that that it's not something that's new in the grant. It's a grant that's been out there since 2022 and it's been offered every year since. >> He said he just said it's been out there since 2022. >> Not new. >> It's not new.
022No, they they award it last year. It might have changed. The agency that awarded it might have changed, but it's been out there before. >> All right. I will close the hearing of citizens. Um, trustees, any other comments, questions, or concerns either on that topic or or anything else? All right. Our next uh scheduled meeting will will be Monday, January 26th. Um, there we will have a uh full board, right? >> I hope to be here. >> Okay. [laughter] Um, we all hope to be here. We hope you're here, too. Um and there we will um there might be a few topics um of discussion as well as the squaring in of of Mr. Biamonte who uh is unfortunately not here and ill today. So can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Mr. Garvin,
023>> Mr. Fallon discussion. Roll call. >> No kidding. [laughter] >> I just want to see it off >> but he was actually going to do it. >> [laughter] >> All in favor? >> All opposed. Close tonight's hearing. [laughter]