001Statement is hereby made that adequate notice of this meeting was given by the prominent posting of said notice in all district schools and other public places, the mailing and or hand delivery of said notice to the designated newspapers, the Asbury Park Press, and the Menalepin Patch, and filing with the clerk of Menalepin Township and the clerk of English Town Borough. Just please call the roll. Mrs. Campo? Here. Mr. Capric? Here. Mrs. Her? Here. Mr. Cain? Here. Mrs. Peris? Here. Mrs. Parisi? Here. Mr. Singer? Here. And Mr. Tosetti? Here. We have a quorum. I just want to note that Mr. Ferber is absent this evening. Okay. Would you all please rise for the flag salute? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Okay. We're going to reopen for public comment. For
002anyone who wants to speak, three minutes. Seeing no one, we will close public comments, and we're going to executive, right, Ronnie? We are going to go into executive for two purposes. One, for the HIV executive summaries. If anyone has any questions on those that you can ask and have those questions answered. And a personnel matter involving employee number 4538. Can I please have a motion and a second? Marissa and Jamie? And all in favor? Are we good? We are in closed session as of, we're going to say 7.49 p.m. We do have a read-in for this evening. We are going to read in personnel item, what's the number? Can I go? Reading in item, personnel item K13 to read. Recommend the board approve the following resolution for the 26-27 school year resolved upon the superintendent's
003recommendation pursuant to NJSA 18A colon 29-14 that the board hereby withholds the increment of employee ID number 4538 for the 26-27 school year and be it further resolved that the employee's increment will not be restored in future years unless and until formal action is taken by the board and be it finally resolved that within 10 days the superintendent shall notify the employee of this action and the reason for same. Okay, so that's item K13. And that's all I have for additions and revisions. No other changes or revisions? No. Okay. Everything's been emailed to the board. Thank you. So we'll move to F for the board's information. Does anyone have any questions about these three items? The enrollment, the self-assessment, or the secretary's certification? Okay. We'll move to G, action items reorganization. Can we have a
004motion and a second for G1 through? 40. G40. Yes. Question. Christine Parisi and Jamie Herr. Do we have any questions? No questions. I have a question. Item number six, authorized signatures. I see some of the signatures that are required require two people to sign, but some are single signatures. Yes. Just looking for some clarification why we have that like that and why we don't have two signatures for each. I have to look into the attachment. Hold on. See which ones are which. Wow. Our general direct deposit, all of the following. That's a secure signature font. So that's established and not an issue. Same thing with cafeterias, any of the two. It really is more just the main checking accounts from what I can tell. And because they have signature stamps and there's a lot more
005activity in those, a lot of these accounts have virtually little or no activity, and most of it comes out of the business office anyway. So it's not as if a principal or anybody else is signing. It's someone within the business office, either myself or the assistant business administrator. Okay. I have a question. I'll follow up on one thing. From what I can see, the only people that don't require two signatures is Mike and me. And in 10 years, I've never used petty cash. Well, no, there's a lot that only require one of the following. Oh, it says any one of the following. Okay, sorry. There's actually a lot. I just think there should be two on all, but that's my opinion. My next question is there's number 25 for change orders. When I reviewed that,
006it basically gives authority to the business administrator to change directives up to and including $100,000 while the board is not in session. My question is, if you look at that one, which is number 25, and you look at number 16, 16 allows the I think the business administrator or the purchasing agent to I am the purchasing agent. Right. I'm aware of that. Thank you. Allows you to award purchasing the person may award that do not exceed the aggregate and contract bid threshold currently $53,000. And then obviously goes into provides all contracts that are aggregate less than 15% bid threshold, which are currently 7950. So I guess my question is, is we're setting standards there as far as what the purchasing agent or the business administrator can spend. But I have questions about or reservations about
007allowing to spend up to $100,000 when the board is not in session. Because to me, they both contradict each other. One time we're allowing her to spend up to $100,000 without board when the board is not in session. And if you look back to 16, it's basically up to that threshold, which is set by statute. So I just I don't agree with it. Okay. What happened? The bid threshold is the bid threshold. The change order and change directive permissions only apply to basically construction bids that have been awarded by the threshold as a bid threshold. That states that state that state. Yes, that's the state. And there are two, but there's different thresholds, whether you are or aren't a certified purchasing agent. If you are, you have a higher threshold than if you aren't. So
008I have the higher threshold, which is beneficial to us because it saves us from having to bid for a lot of things. Change order directive. So a change order basically is a an adjustment to the bid award amount for a construction project. It's limited to 20 percent of the award. We had discussion about this last year when we started the referendum. I had asked the board and the architect that also asked the board for an increase in my authority. I've always had an authority. We settled on this amount. I only asked for 100,000. I think others on the board were willing to go higher at that point. And what this allows me to do is to not hold up construction contracts between board meetings. If something arises and there's an issue, we can move the
009project forward. It's always well within the dollars available in the contract. It's within the 20 percent maximum per the law. And it's not just me saying I want to spend money. It's something that comes from the contractor to the architect and the construction managers. It's all reviewed and approved and signed off on at that level before it comes to me. This is really just procedural to keep the projects moving along. Again, we did increase my authority last year when the referendum project started. So to move back would be counterproductive. We really haven't had to use it yet. So it was just there as a sort of a fail safe. Right now, everything that we've adjusted has come out of allowances within the projects that have been part of the bid process. So it's really just
010there to keep things moving forward and be efficient and not have to stall a project. Thank you for the explanation. Thirty five facilities use fees. So two things. Number one, I just want to make sure with our schedule that we have for profits and nonprofits that we're covering our costs. We have when we have and I'm not looking to to bang anybody over the head. Obviously, a nonprofit is is that for a reason as a profit is. But for example, we're charging twenty dollars for a classroom that probably doesn't even cover the expense of us having staff in the building. So and I don't know what the parameters how that's set up. But that's one of my questions. Number one, my second question is when people are using our gyms or or in mems, I
011think we should carve out something that allows them to provide a deposit to utilize our scoreboards. You know, as a former member of the Menal and Baseball Association, we had seven scoreboards that are at the rec center. Each remote is worth about a thousand dollars, eleven hundred dollars. We've never had them broken. They've been more of an issue inside the device than the actual controllers. So I think we really need to carve something out, especially with the rec department. They're spending an exorbitant amount of money to use our facilities. They should be able to use our our scoreboard. So I'd like to see something carved out there if it doesn't have to be done right now. But something carved out that people can provide a deposit to be able to use our scoreboards. I know
012that when they have the the wrestling matches, I believe they use scoreboard, Jesse. OK, but I just think that having the rec department bringing their own scoreboards is is is 1990s when we have scoreboards there. I don't think people will be breaking those. I think I just would like something carved out with that. I believe there is a provision in the policy or the regulation that provides for deposits of some equipment. I know in the past we used to allow outside parties to use the sound and light board in the mems auditorium. But due to even with a deposit, things getting broken and things not being available when we needed to use them for our own because it was broken and it wasn't repaired in time for something we needed it for. We eliminated their
013use of that. But I believe there is a provision in the policy for deposits. No one's ever really asked. OK, so OK, because I've been told that we don't give the scoreboards. But I guess I guess we'll move on from that. But we don't. We've chosen not to allow recreation to use the scoreboards because the season of basketball is the same time of our season of basketball. So if something doesn't get broke, does get broke, then it's not available for our students. And really, our priority is making sure our students have access to the things we have at school. And we are we're not going to take away from that for an organization that isn't us. As far as the twenty dollars, if anything is happening on the weekend, they also have to pay the
014cost of the custodian. OK, so that is separate as far as that's concerned. But I will ask Eric, this is sometimes why I ask for you to ask at least let us know the questions ahead of time. Because right now, Ronnie and I are speaking off the cuff and we're not as prepared as we'd want to be. And I understand. But whatever is on camera is for the public to see. So Ronnie and I want to make sure that every information that we're giving is accurate and you're not giving us the chance to do that right now. Understandable. And you have to understand when I receive this stuff on a Friday afternoon and, you know, as a volunteer, you know, to have this stuff on a Friday afternoon and then have to take my weekend
015to look at some of this stuff. I actually don't look at it until Monday because I spend time with my family. I'm not a paid. I'm not a paid volunteer. So so I take I take exception to that. But the point is, is we should be allowing the recreation department. It's our residents. We all represent the taxpayers. We should allow them to use the scoreboards. And that's all I'll say. And then my last question is reference to the the contract, the agreement with the the Menal and Education Association. That I don't know what number that is. That's on the other part of the agenda. It's on the business office section, not the not the reward. OK, I'll save that for them. Those are all my questions. Again, I appreciate your answering the questions. I know
016it's off the cuff, but, you know, sometimes things don't get, you know, brought to us right away for whatever reason. But I have questions as a representative of the taxpayer. I'm going to ask the questions. If I can ask them prior to a meeting, I always try my best. But again, you know, receiving a lot of this stuff a Friday before and I've heard it's gotten a lot better than it was in previous administrations and previous boards. So I do compliment you on that. But having this stuff a week before would be more beneficial for someone like me. I'm sure other board members would probably feel the same way. I understand everybody's busy. Everybody stretched to the to the to the max. But having and this is a very extremely busy agenda. So like to
017sit on a Monday to look at this, you know, and I do have a full time job as well. So, you know, if we can get this earlier, that would be better. So thank you. And I believe we did review the facility use fees and increase them. I believe last year we did up that we did. We did increase, as it says, because there used to be a part from an open wreck and they get paid in for installments of just over seven thousand dollars. All right. I'm not going to use this because it's got. But I tend to agree with Eric. Like we want to have the equipment for our students. But then if we're charging people to use facilities, they should have full usage of those facilities, especially if we're going to have
018a basketball tournament or something on the weekend where the cost of a nonprofit like the wrestling to be able to use the gym. They can't afford that because it's time and a half for a custodian for a wrestling tournament at 12 hours. You're looking at almost twenty six hundred bucks on top of the two hundred dollar fee right there. So, I mean, it's kind of different, but not. And it doesn't paint a full picture because we don't have the custodian rate in there. And that's one of the biggest holdups is you've got the space to use it to profit. Because, you know, when we started discussing this a couple of years ago, when I said everything had gone up, the wreck hadn't gone up since 2001. And I kept pointing out that even Arizona ice
019tea had gone up over the last 20 something years. So I think that Eric makes a valid point with being able to use the scoreboard if they're paying for it. I know that most of us that have kids that participate in the facilities are there. I mean, Eric and David both coach in the wreck. They use the gymnasiums. And it'd be kind of nice to be able to use the facilities all the way instead of like a little paper flip. When you've got some little kid trying to flip the score number and you've got parents in the stands because everybody thinks their kid's going Division I in fifth grade wreck basketball. I just think that if we're going to charge that fee to certain people, they should be able to use the scoreboard. And I
020don't have the price on how much a replacement will be for it, but you've got these nice things. And it's pretty nice when you have wrestling tournaments for the school when it gets scoreboard lit up. I kind of tend to agree with Eric that we're going to charge a facility fee and they're going to pay custodians all the weekend that they get to use the scoreboard. So if I can just say, I think a number of people on the board probably agree with that notion, but I'm not sure this motion is the opportunity for this discussion. So I would suggest that we table this and maybe we bring it back. I think either at a workshop or another day, but I think we should talk to Dave who can talk to Nicole about an appropriate
021time for that conversation. We should probably move forward with the motion. As I as I said in the in the I think when I responded to Janay her questions, the because the township Recreation Department operates on a calendar year basis. We typically have looked over the summertime, taken a workshop time and spent an evening discussing how we want to assess those fees and any change we want to make to the fee structure, because it gives them time for us to implement a change in the fall that they then have available to them for their budget purposes in January. So that was the anticipated procedure. We were going to revisit this this summer to review the fee structure and anything else. If you you know, I'm fine. I don't have a problem with it. We just
022have to be able to someone has to to check the equipment that is working before they take use of it that they have to check after they are finished using it that it's still working and functioning properly. And then we've done deposits before. It's not something we haven't done. We stopped doing it because the equipment kept getting broken and then it wasn't available for our own use. So that's I mean, that's just the fact I have no problem with going back to something like that. But I think we just need to have a discussion for purposes right now. This is what's in place. All we're doing really on this reorganization agenda is readopting a lot of the things that are already in place. In fact, we readopted this back in January when we readopted all
023the policies and all the regulations at that reward. So this really is just reiterating where we're at. I would ask that you approve it this way, because right now we are renting the facilities. So we need to continue to use this. Technically, I guess it would still be in play if you don't if you don't approve it tonight. That's when we can't change it in the future. OK, are there any other questions from anybody? OK, Mrs. Campo. I'm going to abstain from G-15 and yes to everything else. Mr. Capric. Yes. Mrs. Her. Yes. Mr. Kane. Yes. Mrs. Lucas. Yes. Mrs. Parisi. Yes. Mr. Singer. No on one. No on six. No on 25. Yes on everything else. Mr. Tessetti. Motion passes. OK, can we have a motion and a second on H-1 administration, please? Any
024questions, anybody? Mr. Capric. Yes. Mrs. Her. Yes. Mr. Kane. Yes. Mrs. Lucas. Yes. Mrs. Parisi. Yes. Mr. Singer. Yes. Mr. Tessetti. Yes. Mrs. Campo. Yes. Motion passes. OK, can we have a motion and a second on I-1 through 27 under business, please? Does anyone have any questions? Jessie. Is this the one that Christine said they want to keep possibly for the use by the physical plant maintenance department? I'm not sure. I think there was two. OK. I'm not 100% sure. This is why we asked for the questions ahead of time. I know that it's what she says is the end of use. It's 22 years old. It's 22 years old. I'm just trying to see if we're going to... Oh, we always take whatever parts we can off of it and we take it down
025for scrap value, always. We would never not scrap it. I was just asking for clarification. Do you want to put a bid on it, Jessie? No, not cars for kids. No, we're not putting it out for ball. Any other questions? All right. Mrs. Herr? Yes. Mr. Kane? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? I am abstaining from 6, 7, and 10, and yes to everything else. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Singer? Yes. Mr. Tosetti? Yes. Mrs. Campo? Yes. And Mr. Capric? Yes. Motion passes. OK. All right. Can we have a motion and a second on J1 through J7 under curriculum, please? Christine? Second. Somebody second? Jamie? Any questions? Fire away. Mr. Kane? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Singer? Yes. Mr. Tosetti? Yes. Mrs. Campo? Yes. Mr. Capric? Yes. And Mrs. Herr? Yes. Motion passes. Motion and a
026second on K2 through K13 under personnel, please? Jamie? Jessie? Do we have any questions? I have a question. I have no questions. I couldn't see it on my. Those are the best questions, Eric. I appreciate it. Anybody else? Mrs. Lucas? I'm sorry. One question. OK. For K7? K7, yeah. We have to create lesson plans for this school year, the remainder of the year? Yes. We have a substitute in the class right now, so someone has to create lesson plans for the substitute. OK. I don't even remember where I left off, but Mrs. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Singer? Yes on everything, no on 13. Mr. Tosetti? Mrs. Campo? No on 13, yes on everything else. Mr. Capric? Yes. Mrs. Her? Yes. And Mr. Cain? Yes. Motion passes. OK. So that is the agenda. All
027right. So we are on to new and old. Eric? I'm going to start with me. I like this. I'll be honest. I thought about it, but we haven't heard your voice enough. Thankfully, I was elected to ask the covered questions, so it's a good thing. First of all, the night was wonderful to be part of this night of excellence, evening of excellence. Kudos to everybody who took part in it. It's hard being the first, isn't it? Right, Jamie? You take everybody else's thunder. But anyway, just great job by everybody, especially the one individual who had to pronounce the most difficult names. She did a phenomenal job. I was thoroughly impressed. But kudos to the kids, their parents, having the families here. Everybody did a wonderful job, so I appreciate that. Other than that, I just
028want to figure out, and not for now to debate, but I guess I have to come up with a better, like, understand the method of how to get things on the agenda and what that process is. And maybe we'll talk offline so that I could better understand that, because there's some items that I want to see on the agenda that aren't on the agenda that I asked to be on the agenda that just seem to go by the wind. And so maybe I'll talk offline on that instead of holding up everybody's chance to go see the next play. Other than that, everybody have a good night, and thank you. Just wanted to echo the sentiments. Congratulations to all the students who received an award today at the evening of excellence. Again, really adorable to see
029them all come up here, well-deserved, well-earned. And I'm sure it's phenomenal for the parents to see their children recognized as well. So a real special night tonight. And I was really happy and glad to be a part of it. Nothing again for tonight, but maybe this touches a little bit on what Eric had shared a little bit earlier. I know that earlier this week, sorry, earlier this year, we were working on committees or at least having early conversations on committees. We were working through board goals. I know Mr. Ferber obviously cannot be here with us tonight, but perhaps on the next agenda we can maybe get an update in terms of where those stand and how we push those forward, because I think that does help in terms of more clarity in terms of the
030agenda. How do we work together as a board on specific items? And again, those were conversations we started earlier this year. Would love to see how we bring those to fruition. And that's it for me. Thank you. As far as getting items on the agenda, so it's my agenda in consultation with the board president. I only add things to the agenda when someone, what would happen was, Eric, you'd have to say, I would like this on an agenda, and then you take a straw poll, and if the majority of the board agrees that it gets placed on agenda. But we can't, we never post, we never put on the agenda what just one person asked for. It has to be something that the majority of the board has decided that they wanted to discuss. That's
031always been passed procedure, and I believe that's part of Robert's rules. And that discussion really has to happen in new and old, in public, not in private, obviously. So you'd have to do it, you'd raise it here, essentially in this context, get people to agree, and then on the next agenda, or the next really proper agenda, it would be available. So I'm trying to walk very legally on these questions right now. If the topic is something that was for executive, then yes, you can take the straw poll in executive. I asked for it. Today? Yeah. Again, I don't want to discuss it in public. That's why I'm walking very, I'm trying to find out the clarification, like, is this way? Is that way? Is this? Is that? Sometimes it can be confusing, and we don't,
032like Eric said, sometimes we don't catch anything. Like, I reviewed this agenda, it didn't catch the Dodge Durango. So because I didn't catch it over the weekend, I can't ask the question. When I'm having a discussion in executive, and I want something to happen, and it doesn't, then we come out here, but I can't talk about it because it was an agenda item. Like, I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm trying to figure out, like, because obviously there was room for more discussion in executive by the way the vote went, and it did happen. Okay. So I, again, David, if you want to respond, you can. I'm happy to respond. Yes. In public. So I, again. In public. We've done it before. We've done it before. Have we not in executive, what I'm talking about
033is the proper thing to do to help me discuss. All right. So just let me respond, right? So in general, to Eric's question with respect to getting new items on the agenda, that is brought up in new business at the previous board meeting as Nicole and David just described just to provide clarity to Eric's question. So speaking in, again, matters that were on the public agenda, Jesse, and then I'll get to executive session, the question about the Durango. I don't think the directive was that you can't ask questions. I think that what the administration was getting at, which I think is, you know, we can also discuss that as a group in order to be prepared for that question. They were asking it for being fit to be asked in advance, not that you can't
034ask the question. Now we'll get to executive, which I'm going to talk about generally. I'm not going to discuss what we discussed in executive tonight. If there is a personnel item on the agenda for executive session, let's say it had to do with student discipline, personnel discipline, et cetera. The superintendent is proposing action in executive session. As we did here tonight in the public vote, you can either vote yes or no on the recommendation. Now you can discuss in executive session your thoughts on the matter, how you would like it to go, et cetera, but we don't change what is on the agenda based what is discussed in exec. So I just wanted to provide clarity to that whole conversation, but I'm also happy to answer any other questions. The board member wants that recommendation
035that the entire personnel act and adjustments of the recommendation have come from those discussions. And it's been in the past because there's been times where the recommendation has been altered before it's made open and unlocked in the agenda. How would a board member want it? You see what I'm saying? Like, if it's a straw poll, right? Right. Because those things can be adjusted. That's why they're locked to the public. But we asked for feedback. The only thing I heard was yours. I'm sorry. Either one of you said it. That was it. Only this is it. So I'm sorry. I had three things. I said three. It was, but it was not in private. Am I saying this in front of everybody? Well, it sounded like it was a new option. It wasn't even. It wasn't
036even open. It wasn't. It wasn't. I asked for a conversation. Like, we do every other executive thing. Let's move on. Yes. I think. I'll come back to it. We can't do that. Excuse me. Come on. You know, I'm not showing any doubt. We'll have an ambition. This is not the place to put it. I'm not. I'm not trying to make it. I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to understand, because I made it a practice to ask notorious questions. I asked one today because I didn't catch any time to ask. Now I'm feeling like that I'm being chastised because I didn't give proper advice. I went into this whole zone with you. to dispose of you. And I asked the procedure because we've been said hey do this, do that. I'm simply asking for verification. I
037think that I have done a very good job at communicating and not by assigning anybody. And I feel that it's gone a long way and I don't know what happened if it was a hiccup or this or that whatever but it doesn't feel it feels like boom you're in the corner stay there be quiet don't question that. That's how it feels tonight. Jesse I'm sorry you feel that way and that's not the intention. For me it's always that we are on camera. So when someone asks me a question I want to be able to have an accurate response and I want to be able to have a thorough response. So when things like what's going to happen to the pieces of a 23 year old truck come up I don't hold that off the top
038of my head I run the whole district. Okay that's not at my level. But I also don't like to be in public saying I don't know when I could have easily known that I asked. So you can ask any question you want. What I'm just asking for it helps me make sure that I get a thorough answer too. I don't expect you to understand what's happening with a 22 year old vehicle. I get the response the way we go and this and that. I'm not looking for a gotcha. Hey you look like a clown on tv. I'm not trying to do that right but it seems like other board members are being chastised because they've asked these questions and to me it feels the same way. I felt the same way earlier in the evening
039and it was a very close margin on that boat. We're not going to talk about that but it was it it felt like don't do this and I come out here and he's like hey you gotta ask these questions ahead of time. That's what I'm saying. Like I think that we all here like came over and over and community members think that people aren't fucking listening to that. I think that I expect everybody to ask the questions to be prepared to have these things and yes some questions they're a little wild you know. We have a funding thing and we're conservative with our constituents of money. We've got a 22 year old vehicle. We're going to take it for parts okay. We're not just going to donate it. What kind of cash money are we
040getting back from that because at this level when we're trying to look at ways to save money every penny every dollar we have to be stewards of the taxpayers money okay. I apologize I didn't catch that to ask you and Ronnie yesterday Sunday when I looked at these because like Eric said give them on Friday. I understand it's very difficult to give them to us further advance time. You know it is what it is but you've got to do that and sometimes there's going to be areas where the little questions slip on. I apologize for that but like just the whole tone and the way things have gone and the other actions and open and executive and the way it's gone it just feels like I'm being told sit in front of the camera go
041along with it don't ask nothing. This is what happens not up for debate. This is what it is. That's how I feel this evening. Okay we appreciate it Jesse. Were you done? Did you go yet? All right thank you. I too would like to congratulate all of the students that were here tonight. I would also like to take a minute to thank Mr. Roosen for his work with the Pinebrook band and the Clark Mills band. They performed last Thursday at the opening of the Google Class game. I believe there was about 80 students there. It was a really great night. I know all the families enjoyed it so it was really nice to see. In regards to this conversation that we're having um I would like to say I feel as if it almost comes
042off a bit like political theater and no one up here you know is in the seat because we are politicians. We are all doing this voluntarily. We do get the agenda on Fridays. We are all very busy and I appreciate everyone's time that they put in here um but in that same sense it is Tuesday night and we are often here for three to four hours which is also there's times things we could be doing. I missed my son's lacrosse tournament tonight because I'm here so I get it that everyone is very busy over the weekend but I do also feel like more recently there are a lot of questions that are coming out of meetings that I may myself have already asked in email so I feel like that can be done and it
043almost seems as if it is being done for the camera um and I don't think anyone here signs up for this to do that but I do feel like sometimes it gives that perception and it also in turn gives a perception to people that maybe the rest of us aren't asking those questions which I sometimes feel a little unfair like Eric said you went first today so now you've asked a bunch of questions but these may be questions that the rest of us have asked in an email or we're now not going to ask because you asked them but now on camera it gives the perception to the public that you are more interested in something than maybe the rest of us are and I don't think that that's your intent but I feel like
044on camera that is the perception should I just comment on that real quick you can but let's just make sure it's yeah we're just going to be cool of course I just my my you know a lot of people send emails to the administration asking questions when they have questions the problem that I have is that person a asks a question that I may not that may have the same question I don't know if they asked it so the problem that that that this creates with you sending an email or whomever sent an email I don't know I've sent emails I mean you can see my emails but the problem is is the cohesiveness doesn't exist when several people on the board send emails asking probably the same question without knowing what it's already been
045asked you may have sent seven emails asking questions about the agenda they may have answered all my questions but I'm unaware of and that's part of the that's the issue that exists when you allow people to or ask people to send emails for preparation purposes I totally understand why why that's being done but I miss out as a board member so does everybody else if those questions aren't shared with us and I know that we can't make any decisions via email but it'd be nice for awareness purposes the following questions came up here are the answers because otherwise I have no idea and again in this particular large this is a very large agenda at least from from my perspective I don't know you know this is a very large right yeah so so because
046of that I have a lot of questions and quite frankly I didn't have time to send the email and to bombard Ronnie or or Dr. Sartora on a Monday when they just came off the weekend it's like a lot when people have asked the questions on Friday so my point is very simple if we could somehow know what other brain else is asking it may reduce the amount of questions that we get if if that makes any sense okay we could talk about that I think we have to figure out with the attorney what you know what's allowed to be shared and where we cross the line with thank you and just to clarify I've always said if you email me ask the question of public I know I've told most of the board members
047here I want you to ask the question of public I want the public to hear it but I just want to make sure that the answer we're giving is accurate and this is a large agenda and I recognize that but a lot of these things we don't I think we're an organization right and everything's moving so a lot of the stuff I can't add a week ahead of time because it doesn't exist a week ahead of time if it existed a week ahead of time I would put it on the last agenda you know we're keeping up with information as it comes you know we need on Thursdays to solidify the agenda and sometimes we're pulling to have everything done on that Thursday in order to get it to the board president who reviews it
048on Thursday and then gives their final approval for us to send out on Friday but I do get what you're saying and I do get that it's a lot and there's a lot of questions as far as repeating questions we have no issue with that because if Kelly asked me a question and then Janay asked me the same question I copy paste and that's not a problem the other thing I will tell you is usually if I get two people that ask the same question I will send out an email to the whole board and I will say this question's come up a few times you may have questions about this here's the information and then you can always call me and I and I you're always about and I do read time on Mondays
049and Tuesdays to allow this you know to be prepared and to have time to answer your questions before a board meeting I always try to keep my Tuesdays a little lightly afternoon because I understand that your time is valuable and you don't have time so I leave like time Tuesday afternoon where if something comes up I'm around and I can answer those questions and I know Ronnie does the same so don't ever hesitate you know I'm not a fan of five o'clock you always answer my questions and Ronnie you know everybody always answers my questions my point is just very simple we have to come up with a better solution to be able to share so like when I sent an email for example I said this is not for discussion this is for awareness
050purposes as long as there's some type of disclosure on there so that nobody chimes in and replies so that we're not making any decisions I think we should we should come into some there has to be some mechanism in place for everybody to understand what people ask because quite honestly what I may ask may trigger someone across the room to say oh you know what I was thinking about that too but I didn't ask that because I knew everyone was going to ask it or someone else was so I think not for now but we can have a discussion in another time how we can make it better so everybody's aware of what people are asking because unless we have those committees we don't have that that awareness and that's what I think I'm lacking
051I think other board members are lacking so understood and we can circle back to that for sure also you know you can forward if you get if you ask a question and get an answer you can share with others too so feel free I mean maybe as you're saying something you asked might trigger somebody else feel free to get forwarded to others I think you were done Christine yes I just want to again congratulate all of our students and winners for the evening of excellence it's always wonderful to see every year the students accomplishments and I know they're going to move on to do bigger and better things and it's just exciting to see just a small part of appreciation that our district does for our students and I know for our staff is coming
052up as well and that's going to be another exciting evening so congratulations to all I want to echo the sentiment it was great seeing all the kids dressed up with bow ties there's a wedge wedge sand little son it's always a fun night and it always and I know I bring this up every year but it makes me think of the year my daughter should have been here but it was you know covid had to go wreck everything and it was virtual so it's always fun to live vicariously through other parents and their experiences so kudos to everybody I wanted to give an update regarding the spring forum for seedhead we did have a small handful of parents but if I'm being honest it was a little disappointing there was maybe about 12 parents in
053the audience out of you know 700 or so families and since then I've either got myself or seen asked you know publicly like hey who knows who the new director is going to be and like all these kind of questions and you know she was there so I feel like if more I know we posted on you know I think jody paid posted it but I know it was posted on our web you know the facebook page I know it went out backpack but at another time maybe collectively we can come up with maybe a better way to make sure the parent the families are actually seeing it because it would have been a great opportunity so many people were curious to see who it was and looking forward to see what they you know
054are going to do and they could have met mrs guff that night if they had been out so there was that and dr hallen was there as well from real regional and to be honest with you I was so impressed with her and I think for any parents with kids that will be going into the high school it was really informative I mean my kids were already there and I was like wow like I'm impressed and I was didn't need to be impressed but I feel like she was really informative and you know it was they missed out on a great opportunity just seeing what she had to say so um hopefully we'll we'll get a little bit more participation maybe we can work on how we can you know I know we're trying our
055hardest to advertise and get it out but um that would be my suggestion I also just want to add kelly I do agree with you and this is no offense to anybody because I don't think your intent is to make anybody look that way but it it does sometimes come across like that maybe the rest of us don't care and I know that's not your intent because you and I have had conversations offline um so I do think coming up with a collective way to do that because we do all send emails some of us work in the industry so we don't really have the same questions maybe someone who's not in education I don't have to ask a lot of the questions because I live it every day so I feel like we you
056know could work on that because I think we have a really cohesive board and I think that everybody individually you know brings their own you know flair to the board and I think it's important for those checks and balances so that's great but I do think um it does maybe come off if you were in the audience or looking like we're not and I I'd hate for people to think that because I do think we work really well together and again I don't think it's anyone's intent because I do think this is a great board so um we can discuss that another time but um that's great and everyone have a great night. Jamie I just have a question with CPAC um with the meetings I know have you ever sent out questionnaires asking the
057parents um what would be the best way for them to attend or perhaps streaming it or recording it so they can have access to it because I know it's hard for some parents with um children yes to get out of the house. So there was a survey sent out to the families over the summer and the spring of last year and I think there were like 12 responses it was like a very low response I don't even think we had like 30 responses um and some of them were from like the people who run CPAC were like two of the like 15 we got we didn't even get a lot of responses with that um so it makes it difficult to see what because we even thought one of the questions I asked at that
058meeting was like can we offer babysitting because you know if you have children at home that are nor is it urgent or maybe just it's you you are a single parent or your husband works nights and you can't you have nowhere to you know what are you going to do or maybe your kid's in bed and you can't leave because you don't want to disrupt their schedule we tried coming up with different things and again it would be great if we can get the feedback from the families specifically but we didn't get a lot of response with the survey so it's hard to really lead to that and I have some ideas like my phone meeting in the future yeah so I know that you you normally take um well with some of the things
059happen on zoom so we had the last two yeah well you had trouble getting on but even with those we had 30 people so and the sibling one I missed because I was sick but there was not a great turnout for that and I think that was one that a lot of the families requested because having siblings of the children that have you know disabilities it takes a toll on all families so being able to have some kind of awareness that would have really been a great workshop and it was not well attended as well so I would love to be able to um you know get together with Liz Murray and Janine again and maybe Nicole and see what we can't do to try to maybe like fun activities meet and greet first well
060I think it's more just being able to make sure the families are getting it and seeing it I've had I had someone email me once and go and text me and say oh or I said oh are you coming so whatever it's like oh I saw that email I wasn't sure if it was like legit well it came from the school of course it's legit like of course you should come you know so I don't know if there's a way to have some I know we don't like doing paper on their paper list and stuff but maybe in some cases or maybe having the case managers directly reach out to their parents that maybe a parent would be more apt to respond to something from the case manager that they think it's specific to their
061child as opposed to a backpack announcement so I think we really need to come together to kind of figure out a way that we can get more participation because I think if we have a strong CPET it will really help both the families and the community come together to support one of our most vulnerable populations so yes because I do feel a lot of the families are I don't want to say suffering in silence but struggling in silence and not having the resources and the outreach and maybe afraid to ask or not even know what to ask and I think that's that's a big part of the problem so I mean you're doing a great job a phenomenal job hopefully you could figure out how to reach them if anybody has ideas please I could
062just mention you know maybe some of our partners they're like been out based by the challenger program they can get that information out or like Jamie Bruno with SOAR even though there may be some high school students but that may be some avenue maybe we collectively get those community partners involved now I know like they've come to some some of those programs they've not I don't think like the challenger baseball they haven't had a representative at the meeting but there was flyers for it and it's talked about but maybe getting like you said the flip side getting them but I mean I feel like that would help but we should be able to like it would be sad if the challenger program can get our parents to come and we can't like I feel like
063we gotta we gotta do something but I think you're right like trying to get and use every resource that we can to try to get that attendance that's a good idea so you know we see this with a lot of our events of attendance we even saw this year with parent university a lower turnout and you know our neighborhood districts are seeing the same I will say for cp the most attendance is always at the first meeting when they meet their caseworker because what parents want to do is see the person that they're going to be communicating with the whole year and I think when something like that they definitely come out to so even if we talk about how to make it more about their daily impact it may but we can talk about
064live as you guys did great job great job walking up here you know it takes a lot of confidence to walk up in front of a room full of people and all your principals and your superintendent and all your neighbors so great job everybody did really good really proud of you all um the only other thing I wanted to bring up is that the manalaman environmental commission is holding a nature fest and fight sale on sunday may 31st from 9 to june at the rec center um so there'll be some free activities for the kids uh there'll be like a fox rehab person there a wildlife photographer youtuber and you know just yeah I know it's all good sorry we have just gardening tips and fun stuff there'll be a rain date also I believe
065if there's a weather I don't know but I just wanted to let everybody know that that was uh just yeah no congratulations to all the kids no because it's five I don't need his mic oh you don't okay sorry uh how are we fixed it congratulations to all the winners especially my little guy I think it was one of uh dr series fourth graders that kept uh dabbing me up when the other kids would walk by uh that kid was awesome I would say the name but I don't think I can so dr serious who was also just wanted to say congratulations to coach kangelosi and the seventh grade men's baseball team they played ball today in the championship they unfortunately did not win they lost three or nothing to wall but uh they made
066it to the championship game so great job to coach kangelosi and those seventh graders that yes and that's all just wanted to we don't have to go over this tonight but in terms of adding to the agenda it is on the new board member orientation manual but it doesn't necessarily say when we can raise something to be added to the agenda or how we would actually go about it is it an informal struggle or is it an informal is it a formal motion so if we can maybe communicate out uh sometime between now and the next meeting what that process is and when you do it in the agenda I think that would just add a lot of clarity to the especially the new board members on how to get things formally added to the
067agenda I would recommend a straw poll because it's still going to have the same effect if it's a formal motion then we have to type it all up we have to word it the correct way add it to the agenda it's a lot of steps on the floor where a straw poll everyone agrees and we move forward and that's what we've always done in the past right christine yeah christine's been here the longest yes yes we have done a lot of straw polls we bring it up in discussion and new and old and then we take a short poll and then we would place it on the next agenda and have that discussion okay i'm sorry dave can i just add one other thing real quick that just made me think of it anyone wants
068to hear from me i'm sorry i want to save the best for last so i don't want i don't want to leave you for that oh well sorry maybe you should be so all right forget it anyway well all i wanted to say was um that with the agenda with going out earlier like i i do see the benefit but i think from the other side of it not only is there a lot of stuff the earlier you put the agenda out the more changes and additions go on and it becomes like a nightmare especially when you're hiring in certain times of year so i think that as much as we would all love to have it a week in advance i don't think it's realistic so i didn't want to throw that in there
069i'd like it i don't know maybe we can discuss like an extra day or something but i think anything beyond that's just going to cause further chaos and i heart you nicole i'm sorry okay thank you um i want to echo all the sentiments about the students congratulate them awesome night congratulations to their families great job and thank you to all the staff for putting this evening together it is always very well done it's a phenomenal night and i'm very happy to be part of it i do have a substantive question actually that came up while i was sitting here so i did not ask this one in advance um i noticed that the evening of excellence is very very heavily weighted toward science and math with the spelling bee aspect do we think about
070and is there anything that we can add that's more ele oriented or social sciences oriented at all so they used to do the geography in defeat that no longer exists in the former manner in which it did so that used to be on there we do have national history day but we had no winners and we do spelling bee for ele that's consistent um lindsey does recognize through facebook and through the announcement she makes which nicole forwards to you the enrichment honestly i mean it's something you can discuss there's so many participants for that it would be depending how long you want the ceremony today but i i don't you know we most of our companies about our competitions are actual competitions that we participated well they are meaning like the scripts national spelling bee
071for outside organizations that's consistent to how we're doing yes i don't know how many they have for ele like that may be something we have to look into are their actual well we think there's organization why it would be typically anything reading or writing based that's why it's typically spelling but the other things when it comes to enrichment because they're so widespread they are recognized differently so there are things like the math winners that you see some of us through sd math some of it's less objective because it's through um like they're not organizations running them so we would lose the consistency that we get with something like continental math league because there's roles there's actual rules and procedures for each of these competitions and how they're graded so it's a consistent delivery district wide
072and that's how we are able to handle it district wide as opposed to lafayette mills doing one contest milford brooke doing another contest can we have lindsay look into it of course and mrs marsala does send out other essays in collaboration with mrs singer like the law day sometimes we don't have the winners in time that's another reason why they may not be recognized law day we start to get the winners may sometimes april depending on when they have the contest and the other issue at law day is they don't email us the winners they email the parents so it's the parents self-reporting back to us that they're trying to look and you lose that consistency whereas we know the winners if we don't get told we don't always know and that's some similar to
073the other enrichment contest because it's here is an essay contest you're welcome to do and it's not all printed and consistent manner spelling bee all the students take the spelling bee it starts in the class so it's filtering through some of those contests are optional okay let me say if there's anything that could be added that would be nice but i don't think that's possible can i can i figure that out yes i just want to say but just don't i want to not get forgotten that's all go ahead because i just want oh sorry um were you ever in a sports yes um i just want to talk about like the the timing of the agenda two days two business days is pretty much average for most school districts i know people that have
074board meetings on monday send their agendas home on thursday they discount the weekend it's usually two days um just as an example of the activity that we have on the business portion we open bids for two projects on tuesday in the afternoon those bids went back were reviewed by the architect sent to the attorney the attorney got me letters of award after some questions were asked and answered on friday so i mean having to i would have to add that as a read-in anyway because the the timing of it is obvious since we want to get these projects going for the summer and we are cutting it close as it was so it's things like that um that really require us like to have to have the agenda out like that where we only giving
075you two days to review it two days was the weekend um we did work up until the very last minute on it so i just wanted to use that as an example of of how some of the timing and the impacts of things that we can't always control um i just want to say that just as an example i have what i have to say what i like to every tuesday we get an email that says changes have revisions there's no reason that we wouldn't have to do a write-in if there was a change in revision from yesterday because we still get that email every day that we have to look at on tuesdays awesome so that argument of you have to add it in would have just gone into the changes and revisions piece
076if i think what ronnie's trying to say but it would be a long list of it would be again it would be a much longer list i understand that i understand that most of this are not this long no just reorganize it's our financial rear for the year it's it's if you look back it's it's when we renew all of our contracts for the coming school year every district has one it's just a matter of timing some people do it later in june we've always done it around the middle of end of may okay i have brought up a while ago about recognizing sports i i think that we need to have a workshop and a discussion on how we can recognize other students as a board with us rob also this additive agenda as
077a workshop so that way we recognize teams like the seventh grade baseball team like lucca de janeiro like chase anyway like hunter tosen you've got one awards for the school just like a spelling bee i know the sports but it can be ela it could be these things here these kids have to go to school they do work the majority of these kids are honor roll students performers all these things i think they need to get that recognition too as a student athlete as somebody who's not in that so i i think that what we're supposed to do is take a stronghold who would like to have a workshop in the future on the agenda because i brought it up before so i guess i want to do it this way so we can have
078a stronghold so that it gets added to the agenda can i add we can discuss can i have some background information so this presentation our district-wide events members hold three award ceremonies a year that the board is invited to that the parents are invited to and where all these students are honored if we were going to do that then we would probably eliminate that we're not going to have parents come out to see get the same award twice so it would be really changing the men's practice of of recognizing the children at the award ceremony and now bringing them to a board of education meeting that being said i'm not against it jesse and i'm still talking that being said i'm not against it what jesse what i got interrupted twice by ronnie in the
079four minutes i didn't even say anything until we were still talking so i'm not doing this with the address i'm trying to give mutual respect across the board you don't want me to be interrupted i don't want to be interrupted but i just kind of interrupted and nothing was said that's my fault twice i didn't even say anything they said that she's gonna talk i don't think you need to do a motion on that first of all i'm a big advocate for workshops i think we should have more i mean i co-author a report recently where we said we should have a nice quarterly workshop sessions i think we don't have enough of them um i would love to go back to that as part of the discussion the merced raised about the committees i
080don't think you need to do that we just have to make it happen and i'll i think dave will watch this meeting and i will also tell the other thing i would suggest was we could also make our board meeting because i don't think any of the board members have been at the last award ceremony oh yes um but maybe we and i recognize it's because everyone has a lot of nights out so maybe we actually do it the same day as the board meeting and maybe our board meetings at mems so the award ceremony happens about an hour long we do the award ceremony at mems jen can be there and then we go into our board meeting and then this way we're not asking you to be out for another night and so
081long for an hour right but at the same time we are also not taking away from the tradition that the children do thoroughly enjoy me you know that jesse and the teachers thoroughly enjoyed it runs very smoothly and it's well liked so i i think maybe the answer would be to combine the two because i'm going to be honest with you jesse and i was going to go over the things that we have that are happening this year um we have our junior second board meeting which you know is a big board meeting and the next day is the award ceremony so we could combine those two into one night i'm in for myself as well i was just i was going to send you an email and ask because i had one down one
082you guys haven't even got that i had it tonight so i will i was going to mention it tonight and that monday is also junior honor society so i'm out three nights in a row so if you want to start combining some of these events i'm in if i could just comment on what jesse said i think the the you know the background the history of them recognizing the students at men's i've been to those is great it's wonderful they're amongst their peers but when you have a team that you know wins a championship for monoth county for example seventh grade girls soccer team at men's those type of situations when you have a wrestler who makes all division i think in those situations they can be recognized at men's amongst their peers because they're
083also teams that don't do too well but we still recognize them because obviously there's a lot that goes into it there's a lot of teamwork team building and we all know what it is but i think recognizing those who have received awards would maybe behoove us to have at the meeting so for this month we bring in the you know the eighth grade team let's say they won the championship we bring them in here even though they're going to be recognized with them because all of our sports that we have in those in men's they all don't win everything which is which is okay it's okay with me it's okay with everybody here but i think if we just like when people go to a township committee meeting they're recognized the youth football or the
084cheerleaders maybe we take specifically the ones that excel within their their divisions maybe we would bring those to the board meeting and not do away with or not combine anything you know with men's just an idea why don't we put this on the july for a workshop does that make sense okay so we're all in agreement do i work tough on this yes okay i think also mandatorily dr sirius to come to that one too she's okay okay so um one is so to follow up on what jesse was saying june 1st members is having their junior honor society meeting june 2nd is our evening of appreciation which is an amazing event and we love that and then june 3rd is the spring sports awards love that for us so um they're all three in
085a row um they're all phenomenal events you don't want to miss any of them then the following week june 11th is the multilingual multilingual learners family night um the multilingual learners family night years ago used to be called at esl family night um i used to go it's a phenomenal event parents students come there's arts and crafts there's a ton of things to do and then back then we used to do food but we don't do that anymore and then then once covid happened it kind of stopped it kind of did stop so this is the first year we're bringing it back so we're really excited for that um i even talked to that foundation they're going to come and represent as well so um that's will be great and then moving up ceremonies there's
086going to be a ton of that um you're more than welcome to attend well none so you know they're during the day so it's hard i will tell you that when you come it is it is jam-packed um if you want to park somewhere go get there early and it's really nice to see and each school really has its own unique culture when it comes to the moving up ceremonies and as you visit the different schools you'll see the different cultures and the different things they do um i know one of the schools always has the pictures of the children when they're in kindergarten and the pictures of the children when they're in fifth grade and i cry um i don't do that a lot so if you want to see me cry you come
087to that one um but it is it is very um it's very nice the parents won't cry too everyone cries um but each one and other ones are really upbeat and you know it's just really nice to do the other thing i wanted to bring up to you and i will be sending an email and i don't think i'm sending you a rationale to add back in a nighttime custodial supervisor so and more of the rationale for certain reasons will be in the actual um letter than what i want to talk about public but in 2023 the we had a nighttime custodial supervisor that was just at mems and we eliminated that position um for various reasons which are outlined in the letter we we went this long without a nighttime supervisor and we start
088to see the effects and you may have too there's been nights that we were at mems or there was something happening at mems and we can't figure out how to get things to work where then you know mr farley was always there mr farley got things working um but would really hit home for us recently and this position would be different it wouldn't be mental we would be district wide right now each district has nighttime custodians who are working and there's no one here that supervises them and when we had the flood at mems it was lucky during the school day right so the school day it happened everyone responded immediately however if that happened at night we would have had no one in district to really take charge and ownership of what was going
089on um the other thing is is we want to make sure that new employees coming on are trained appropriately and if you're working the night shift then you're not having supervisor train you watch what you're doing you know feedback's basically on what things look like in the morning versus while it's happening there um so we really do feel that adding this position would be beneficial um again the rationale will be coming um jodie will also be creating a new job description for that position when we were looking at that we noticed that the custodial supervisor position updated in a very long time so she's also going to be updating that um so i'll send you out the email about that and then we plan on posting our hope is to post sooner rather than later
090because what we'd like to do is having successful candidate in the summer all of our custodial staff work the same so what we would like to do is bring in a person in the summer so that they can shadow each building and each custodial supervisor to see how the building runs where key information is like where the water turnoff is um and also see how that building operates and where they need to focus because just like our moving up ceremonies each of our buildings has its own i don't want to say personality or its own culture right it has its own culture and how things things work so we feel that this position would really be able to ensure that everything's getting done that we want to get done at night and ensure that there's
091appropriate staff to respond to emergencies and also appropriate staff to support custodians when you're new to a job you should have someone that guide you on how to do the position and um we think that that would be a good additive to the position again i will send you an email that outlines um rationale like like eric said um you know there's a lot of i'm getting multiple questions or something seems unclear um sometimes and i will say this eric like sometimes somebody will send me a question and it's maybe like you're saying i'm a new board member i don't have the answer and then i'll you know just respond to you but sometimes i get a question i'm like you know what that's a great question and it really isn't clear and then i
092will send it out to everyone okay okay and moving up ceremonies night time supervisor and again just um to congratulate all the children that were here tonight they did a phenomenal job and their families it is a truly nice event for our community to come together like i said it's one of my favorite events of the year jody anybody else that did you guys hear that so that's actually good information for everyone to know all the board members are invited to graduation i believe most board members do attend graduation you get to sit on stage you get to hand out the diplomas thank you shake hands it's it's a really it's a great experience um so you will be getting an invitation soon to invite you to graduation with an rsvp we ask that you
093rsvp just so we don't have many seats to have up there because everything is specifically organized to flow smoothly but um it's a great day for those of you that are don't unaware it is at brookdale college um it's been at brookdale college for years and it it's a nice experience for our students and it runs really smoothly anybody else all right well since i have the microphone i'm going to do something out of character and i'm going to get on soapbox for 30 seconds here and say that we obviously had some disagreements tonight in front of the camera amongst each other but i've been here for six and a half years christine's got me beat by double this board has always worked together well we have always come together honestly and solve problems and
094i think we all recognize that it's not about us it's about something much larger and more important than any of us so i feel very strongly that we need to do that so we need to continue to work together as one uh yeah any disagreements we have are left here and we move on i think we're all good so hopefully everyone's in alignment with that and unless there's anything else i think we can do a motion to adjourn okay motion to adjourn at 9 47 pm all in favor