01-20-26 Manalapan-Englishtown Board Of Education Meeting

001I just have a few housekeeping things to do so we can start our board meeting which will follow the performance. Today in this year by May the Attic of Notice of the meeting was given by the prominent post who said notice in all district schools and other public places. The mailing and delivery of the notice was sent over to the designated newspapers, the Jasper Park Press, and the Mountain Patch. And finally with the Clerk of the Mountain Patch and the Board of the English Town of Dartmouth. I'm going to call the roll. Mrs. Campa? Here. Mr. Campa? Here. Mr. Berber? Here. Mrs. Her? Here. Mr. King? Here. Mrs. Lucas? Here. Mrs. Crazy? Here. Mr. Singer? Here. And Mr. Tostetti, I don't believe it's here just yet so we'll mark it up and then we'll be

002right back. I'd like to say that everyone rise with a flag, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Okay, so we're going to resume the meeting after our wonderful performance. To start out the evening tonight, we're going to have a brief presentation on the audit report, which is called the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the year ended, which is our fiscal year, June 30th, 2025. I'd like to present Kathy. She's from our audit firm, Kathy Perry. Before Kathy starts, can I just take a minute and introduce? Yeah, sure. Valerie Casal is here. She is on the agenda to be the Assistant Transportation Coordinator. So I just want to take a second to introduce her in case she has other plans. Okay. Kathy Perry, take it away. Good evening. Can

003you hear me? Yeah. All right, very good. All right, I'm here just to talk about the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report that was for the year ended June 30th, 2025. This year, yours was due on 1-15-2026. It's normally 12-5, but there was a delay because the federal government wasn't releasing data. It was due on 1-15. It was filed. I also believe your data collection form was filed. That was due. And also the AMR, which is the skinnier report that, you know, as part of the audit, there are things that we have to do that I do because of the standards that say, here's what I need to do to perform an audit. But then New Jersey also throws in some fun stuff that we have to do just because New Jersey has very specific rules. You

004guys know, you live them every board meeting, all the things you have to review and approve. A lot of that is from New Jersey. So the small AMR that didn't have any findings, the things we test in regards to bids and pension and payroll and student activities and transportation and your student count and cafeteria, there are many intricacies, which I'm sure the board's aware of, with the state of New Jersey that we have to do specific testing of. We had no findings on those. Then when we move over to the larger report, the ACFR, that has in it your financial statements where we have to also calculate your, you know, your fund balances and your reserves. But also, there's a lot of items in there that have to be tested because you receive federal funding

005and state funding. So we have to make a review of the federal grants you receive, your internal control processes, the state grants and how they would like them to be tested. We had no issues with any of the spending on any of your grants or any of your state funding, no issues with any of our testing and our review of your internal controls. Internal controls being the things that you do to make sure that there is no issues or problems that could be created because there is a lack of internal controls. Who is signing off what and does it go to the right person, gets signed off by the right person, so we review those things. You know, if the POs are supposed to be signed off by X person, then they go to the

006next person. We have, we pull a variety of them. The board office loves that. When we come in and just pull, pull, pull invoices, it's part of what we have to do. And making sure everything's approved properly and goes to the right line item. Your bond didn't come through until 2020, 7, 15, 25, so it's really the next fiscal year if you're wondering why the bond isn't in here. You did start with your project, a big project. So I think by the end of the year you had about, spent about $12 million on your project. We haven't covered that much, yeah. So we have about $12 million that we could see being spent on your big project. So it'll be a big year for everybody getting all that done. Lots of projects going on right

007now. Yes. So again, it was all reported. Everything was filed timely. And no issues. And thank the board office. It's a lot of fun. I think we already came out and started doing the student count. Did we come out this year so far? Yeah. So the student count is a very, that's how you get funding. Yeah, we don't know if that's really how it works. But you're required to count your students. So we come out and just do a check early just to make sure that we don't, won't have any findings. Yeah, actually, not every firm does that. But because the ASSA, our state report of students' attendance is what they say drives the funding formula, whether it does or doesn't, as Kathy says, is to be debatable. It's looking at a little bit of

008smoke and mirrors. But regardless, we have to do that. And it's got to be audited. So they come out after the initial report period. And before the final report period, they do all the testing that they're aware of. Obviously, there may be some additional testing that's implemented, you know, in next year's audit program. But they'll come out and they'll do that at that time. But for right now, everything we know that we've submitted is clean. It's good. Our DRTRS, which is our transportation report, is good. Our ASSA is good. Our free and reduced lunch applications are part of that testing. So that's also looked at. Yeah. That's a lot. Usually it's statistical sampling. But this New Jersey statistical sampling and some of this stuff is 84 percent that we have to look at, which is

009a lot, which is a lot of reports, a lot of IEPs and things like that. So but we have no issues. So and you don't really want to have issues because you don't want the state coming in because they'll also show up and review your ASSA at some point in time. They circle around to everybody. Right. And you don't want to have any issues with that because then they'll say that if they overfunded you or something like that, we don't want that. So Jody's very good at her documentation. Very good document. Very not OK. Very good. Yes. Yeah. A lot of boards. It's very hard to get the documentation. It sounds like it shouldn't be, but it's very hard. It's like a piece of paper that they use and they just I don't know where

010it went. Yeah. And we have to come in and audit it. So I need that piece of paper. And it ties into not just not just kids on roll, but it's IEPs, it's out of district placements, it's special ed students because they count them a little bit differently. LEP language, you know, students are counted. Charter school. Free and reduced lunches is our impoverished population is counted as well and all of that. So yes, we appreciate that. And whenever you ask Jody for a question, she's like, let me go back and double check. She will pull her numbers all the time. Having files. Like I said, we have to review a lot of stuff, a lot of purchase orders, a lot of items to make sure that everything's done properly. But we even look at travel

011vouchers and sometimes they're $13. But that state and Jersey requirement. So because people did bad things. So does anybody have any questions? I mean, the audit report was attached to the agenda. If anyone had any questions, feel free to ask. Eric? First and foremost, thank you. I read through this report. It's extensive and the letter and everything company. My question is, is reference to the the cap, the corrective action plan. Yes. Regarding the lunch moneys. Just so I have a better understanding of how that works and what that is. If someone could explain to me that. And obviously I read the correction action plan, but I'm just not certain how that happens and why it happens. Prior to COVID, we had we would have a little bit of extra money here and there because we

012have we have a good food service program and it generally operates at a nice profit. But the state also dictates what we can charge or what we must charge a minimum like lunch, like fee for lunch. There's a there's a PLE calculator that we have to do that determines what our lunch program needs to be charged at. But we have we have a good program during COVID, however, a lot. There was a lot of COVID money from the state. They make free for all every every student ate for free. Well, when a student eats for free, every time that happens, we get a federal subsidy and a state subsidy. In addition to like if it's a reduced lunch, we might get 40 cents generally, but we also get a subsidy from the state free. We

013also get a larger subsidy from the state and federal government. So during COVID, there was so many different opportunities that the money just came. But I don't feel just because we have this surplus of money that I should just go and waste it on something. There's a very limited what we can spend it on. We can't spend it outside the cafeteria. It can't be used for operating funds, you know, operating purposes outside of kitchen salaries, pontonian food service salaries and operating expenses. We can do equipment upgrades, but there is a list that's approved. We really can't do improvements outside of the main kitchen area. Like we can't paint the cafeteria part of the serving area because that's not permitted. So rather than just wastefully go out and spend a couple hundred thousand dollars on equipment

014really don't need, I take the more fiscally responsible standpoint in that. And we are spending it down by paying our lunch aid salaries down each year with that to the point where I feel comfortable. I don't want to generate a huge negative operating loss for the cafeteria. That's the other thing. If I go too far, I have an operating loss. You can't really transfer. You're not supposed to transfer from the operating fund. They want the cafeteria to operate like a business, but they don't want you to have to make too much money. So then you can't really leave much money in there. But if you need it, you think about all the schools you have. And if something large had to be replaced, you'd have to literally have the operating fund paid for it because

015you wouldn't have enough money based on their calculation. So it's one of those things where you're trying to operate like a business, which is what they want you to be. Technically it's an enterprise fund. They call it an enterprise fund. Yeah, because you're a business. For me, in my world, that looks like a business. You look like a business. It's more of a profit motive, yes. It's more of a break-even motive. But they don't really want you. But if you don't save money in there, like every business should be able to have some sort of money to pay for future repairs or future replacements, they're not really allowing you to. And then, right, a lot of districts have that right now. And then you just have to explain what you're going to spend the money

016on. And then the next year you explain what you're going to spend the money on. Yeah, we've had that for several years, since basically COVID. But we've been spending down. The balance was much higher. And we've been spending it down in it, like I said, a reasonably, financially, fiscally responsible way without just throwing money at stuff. I don't need to go buy a brand new oven if one I have works perfectly well. So I can't see wasting funds like that. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Any other questions? Yes. Just a quick question. You mentioned, and I recall we've had this corrective action plan for a few years. Is there any like risk or negative thing that can happen from it? Or is it literally just we get a plan and that's all it is? Like

017if it repeats year after year, is there any concern? Well, as Cathy said, we're not alone in this. Many districts are in the same position that we are because during COVID, that's what they were. Everyone was eating for free and subsidy money was just coming in and we were all making profits that well above what we would normally make. And like right now, I got the operating statement for December. I think we're at like a $40,000 profit where during the height of COVID, we were making $800,000 a year. So it's hard to spend $800,000 on stuff, you know. So again, we're all in the same boat on that. And they that's one of the they don't look at it as in the same vein as they would as if we'd had purchasing violations or other

018areas of violation. That is just a New Jersey issue. So if I move over to my my federal grants or state grants and how you're operating as a district, it's not it's a New Jersey issue. It's not your audited financials. That's why you only see it in just in your AMR, the skinnier report, because that's just New Jersey stuff. For your regular audited financial statement, it's a non-issue for me because I'm concerned with how much money you have left over in that fund, if that makes sense. There's rules and I have to deal with it with your operating fund and the reserves. But that's a New Jersey rule. So then most of my schools, then I guess food calls you and tells you what are you doing? And then you tell me what you're doing.

019And then the next year, food calls you. Well, we send them we send that we have to we have to file that with agriculture anyway. And they just say, thank you. Received, you know. So it'll eventually go away and not be an issue anymore. And then they'll be sitting around the conversation how we're going to pay for stuff in the cafeteria because you have to get it from operating. So it'll just turn and be another. And even in the in the main part of the audit report, the front part of the audit, the exhibits are more of a gap based reporting where we operate daily on a budgetary basis. So there's a conversion. There's a lot of things in the front part of the report that we don't even expense on our operating budget. Because

020the state pension contribution is factored into part of what we should be expending. And it's reflected there. But it doesn't really impact us on a day to day budgetary basis. So that's why the audit, it's a little complicated doing the transition from budgetary to gap basis. Yeah. When you look at the A1, the A's and the B's, they try to make you look like a business. You don't operate like that. So if you want to know how you're doing, you really have to go all the way after the financials and go to your C1. That's where that is your operating. Because the other funds, grant funds, they give you five dollars. You spend five dollars. There's really no nothing going on with when you receive grant money. But the C1, which is your operating fund,

021if you look at the bottom of your B1 and what your fund balances are, they're not even the right. They're different because the state has us do different stuff because the last two state aid payments. Right. We got this revenue. Yeah. The last two state aid payments, we get them on our payment schedule, but they don't pay us until July. I can't pick it up as a receivable. Right. So I have to reflect it on one part of my book says received. And then on the front part of the audit report, they're not received. So you can have an operating deficit based on that fact. If you're a smaller district that's running tight margins. So it looks like you have no funds, but you do. It's just the last two state aid payments. Mathematically, you're

022fine. Not on the financials. New Jersey has its own set of rules, basically. Yes. Anything else? Basically, what you're saying, Ronnie, is the math for New Jersey is just similar to the bus where we have to run at 103, 110 percent bus. Right. The math doesn't math. Exactly. We have our efficiency. Yes. Our transportation efficiency has to be over 120. OK. I don't know. Yes. I don't know that. Yes. Yes. Very good. So just so everybody knows, every Board of Ed financial statement is on the DOE website. If you ever wanted to go look at other Board of Eds, just so you know, none of you look alike. No. If you ever tried. If you think you have a district that's similar in size or pupils, it's not. So just so you know. But if

023you want to just look at other financials, they're all out there. In the repository. In the repository. Just every year or so you could look at. And back in the J's of your financial shows all the years, has 10 years. So you could see what has changed in taxing, taxation, grants, whatever you want to see. It's all one in the back of the J's. That's all inaudited, though. Well, theoretically, it says inaudited because, yeah. It's more informational. It's information, but you could see the last 10 years. That was good information. But then again, I think it still doesn't include the last two state aid payments. No, it doesn't. So it's not really real. But it's close enough to real. That's a state thing. That was a way of them giving us aid but not recording

024it on their books until the following year. They kind of did a shift of expense from one budget year to another. And we have to pick it up for accounting purposes, but we don't get the cash. They don't pick it up for accounting purposes and give us the cash the following year. It's kind of crazy, but that's what we have to do. So lots of rules. Yes, if anybody else, if you have any questions, yeah. It's good reading. Kathy, thank you. Curiosity, how about how much time do you spend doing this audit each year? Well, yeah. So an audit has a lot of pieces. So we do the ASSA. So now we're here. Let's say we're here in, I think, November or December. So that's time in the office that no one sees. So in

025the office getting everything prepped, we're doing a bunch of- We get billed by the hour? No, we have a flat fee. So you're a flat fee. So there's a lot of time in, there's time in November, doing the ASSA. That's probably three days, one staff, two staff. It depends on how many come out here, sometimes three. Then we start again in May because now we have to put all the new audit programs in there and do a whole bunch of hour stuff, which is, an audit has a lot of information in it. So then we come out for field work, for preliminary field work. We come out for final field work. The financial takes a lot of time because I'm converting budgetary to gap. And that takes a lot of time, figuring out what your

026gap entries are. What are your gap entries? What are we depreciating? What are we doing with the prepaid interest if there's any? You know, we have new bonds. Compensated absences. Right. Just different stuff. In your world, bond revenue is revenue. It's revenue. No, it's not. It's a liability. So when you get up to the front, I've got to book it as a liability. So there's a lot of work involved. So I would say, 300 hours maybe? Yeah. You're a lot of time. I would imagine. These audits are a lot of time. The Board of Ed audits, even if you're small, even small districts, I'm like, you're still a lot of time. So I'm still converting. Right. And they're testing all of our, you know, all of the purchasing requirements, the bid requirements, quoting requirements, documentation

027on the vendor side of things. Payroll. Payroll. Payroll. Travel. You know, I'm going to have every quarter TPA from PERS report to make sure if you're paying someone X, that's what you're reporting is X, and the four quarters add up to their salary. And if it doesn't add up to their salary, that you paid them maybe because they had stipends. I've got to figure out why. So just the testing involved with New Jersey. Like I said, we're looking at, you know, you're doing a big construction project. So sometimes I'm testing a year ago. Oh, you'll be testing a lot of construction this year. But sometimes I'm testing a year ago for stuff that's this year. And so there's a lot involved in cafeteria. And what you're giving me is what you use, but it doesn't

028really, I have to make it into this financial. Yeah. Like I said, translate it from our day-to-day budgetary type basis into the gap basis that they expect to see in the audit report. And then there's more gap. There's the first gap, which is B, and then there's super gap. Yeah. And just something else I wanted to highlight, because it really stands out to me, is our spending and something that I think our district has done a very good job at year after year. It's not nothing new, but just on average, we spend just a little over $17,000 per student, per school year, which is about $3,000 below. So 15% below the average for similar districts in the state of New Jersey. So I think that speaks volumes to Ronnie and her department and just our

029administrative team and how they run the district and being very budget conscious and being very responsible with our finances. So compliment to everybody on that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And no other questions, and Kathy is going to head out. Okay. Anyone else before she leaves? No? Good. Okay. Thank you, Kathy. Okay. Turn it over to you. So our next presentation is going to be by Danielle Panisi, our board attorney. As some of you may have remembered, that when the policy was initially changed on 5-7-5-6, we received, my lawyer words may not be right, but a lawsuit from the attorney general's office as well as the Office of Civil Rights. We recently reached a settlement on both of those. The settlement was on the December 16th agenda. So if you're interested in reviewing that, you

030have the right to go back, look at the agenda, and review it. I'm not going to hash out all the details. But as part of that settlement, within 60 days of the effective date, we had to hold a training for the district administrators as well as the school board on NJLAD, which is the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. So Danielle is here to do that presentation. Good evening, everybody. I know there's some new faces on the board that may not have done a training with me before. So just before we start, we're going to make the training as quick and painless as possible tonight. It's really just an overview of the NJLAD. Again, as Dr. Santorum mentioned pursuant to the settlement agreement, we were tasked with not only doing a presentation for the Board of

031Education, but I've been in district. We had two presentations last week via Zoom with respect to key administrators in the buildings who have decision making processes with respect to students and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. And this is just our favorite disclaimer. Obviously, I'm in direct contact with either Dr. Santorum or Mr. Ferber on somewhat of a daily basis with all of the issues that we deal with together in the district. But as always, this presentation is just for informational purposes, especially to those members of the public that may view it. If any specific questions may arise from members of the public, you are directed to reach out to administration or Dr. Santorum directly. And of course, if any board members have questions, contact Dave and we can hash things out further. So again,

032this is discrimination law in the public sphere, right? So I'm not going to belabor you all with the definitions, but we're really dealing with the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. That's NJLAD. New Jersey is certainly one of the more progressive states when it comes to state specific discrimination law. So you'll see that there's a host of protected classes in the public education sphere. Certainly, we talk about that as a group with respect to students and HIV. I would say as a group, one of the topics we talk about most are the top category race, creed, color, national origin. Of course, when we make the employment decisions within the district with respect to certain staff members and whether conduct is discriminatory or not, we make assessments with respect to age, sex, marital status, disability, a host

033of protected classes. So the statute is codified there, guys. It has a comprehensive list. Two federal laws that we deal with in the public sphere, Title VII of the Federal Civil Rights Act, makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an individual because of an individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. So you'll see that those are obviously all included in the NJLAD. That is just the federal overview. Finally, we have Title IX. In district, we have a Title IX coordinator who is in charge of fielding sexual harassment complaints. We are charged by the New Jersey Department of Education to make sure that that individual's name is readily listed on our website. And we have a host of procedures that we go through in district with respect to sexual harassment claims for students.

034It's also addressed through HIV. We'll cover that a bit later. But for staff members, there's a whole Title IX investigatory process as well. Again, we have the protected classes listed out in the NJLAD here, types of discrimination that's covered under LAD. Discrimination occurs when a student or employee is subject to disparate treatment or treated differently, aka disparate impact. We hear that a lot as a group, differently from similarly situated students or employees in a public school setting because of his or her membership in a protected class. Again, a lot of this probably sounds really familiar because we assess these issues all the time in executive session when it comes to HIV, which is directly derived from the NJLAD. Again, this is just where it's codified. I bolded most of the issues that we deal with

035in a public school district sphere with respect to the protected classes in LAD. And as we all know, the suit that I am focusing the presentation on and why I needed to present today, it arose with questions of sex or gender identity with our policy. HIV, which was directly derived from the NJLAD, as I mentioned before. Again, we know HIV, we discuss it as a whole quite often. We know that it protects student on student conduct as well as staff on student conduct. HIV is at its root an anti-discrimination law. So again, you'll see that the protected classes in the LAD are also listed out in the HIV law. We know that it arises from written or verbal acts that occur on school property or have a nexus to the school environment. It falls within

036one of these protected classes and substantially disrupts the school day or school for students. That substantial disruption is supposed to mirror the hostile work environment in the NJLAD. Again, it just echoes the protections of LAD, but from a bullying perspective in schools. We go through these prongs together quite often, guys. It's the reasonable person standard for HIV, and it must have the effect of insulting or demeaning any student or group of students or creates a hostile educational environment. Keyword that hostile environment for the student by interfering with a student's education or severely or pervasively causing physical or emotional harm to the student. So both HIV and LAD are designed to limit with respect to the protections they afford to either the employee or the student. You want to limit that recurring conduct. We also want

037to have a paper trail, whether it comes to staff members or students of all of the measures that the district takes to protect these protected classes. We have a robust system in place in district for both of those scenarios. HIV, the reason why the timeline is so short is because we want to have a pretty quick timeline showing that we address the conduct in real time. So the family does not have an argument that that conduct was severe, pervasive or ongoing. It's the same thing with NJLAD and an employee. Again, this presentation was for administration as well. So just bear with me, guys. I know we talk about personnel and executive session, but just common issues that we deal with with respect to employment disputes and protections for the NJLAD. Just an example that I

038know that we talk of quite often is hiring or firing decisions, non-renewal decisions. We all know our non-renewal timeline comes up in May. Not only do we look at a teacher's evaluations as a staff member, but we also do a comprehensive analysis if it comes to whether assessing a teacher should not be not renewed or not. We go through a pretty robust analysis. OK, what do we need to do with respect to this employee? Are they a member of a protected class? Did they have a disability? Was there a recent maternity leave? We go through all of these issues together as administration, making sure at the end of the day we have that balance between administrative prerogative and also the employee's protections pursuant to the NJLAD. Also important that I just wanted to point out

039with respect to prevention strategies. Again, with our robust system that's in district, we have a host of policies that are readily available on the district website. With respect to all of the laws that we must follow and the procedures and practices in place in district that we implement with respect to the law. These are just some case law that highlights principles of the NJLAD, Title VII, and the Civil Rights Act. Again, the presentation was to focus on NJLAD and discrimination law in the public sphere. These are landmark cases that apply that law to real time and legal situations. Probably most relevant to school is that the employers must have preventative and remedial measures for harassment, which we of course have in place with our policies. Student discipline is also an area that one might not

040think that discrimination law applies to, but it happens quite often. For example, special education students are members of a protected class in district. There is a reason why if a special education student is disciplined over a certain amount of days, the child study team must convene an IEP meeting to determine whether that student's behavior was a result of their disability. They are a member of a protected class. If the behavior, if the team determines that the behavior arose from the student's disability, we're required to reconvene and come up with a behavior plan for that student. I also have a host of districts. The DCR has chosen to randomly audit some districts with respect to its discipline procedures. So I had to pull discipline records for some district that stemmed back two to three years, and

041the state actually breaks down was that student a member of a protected class with respect to race, with respect to disability. Again, our paperwork system in the district is quite robust, but they look from start to finish. Did we follow all of the procedural requirements with respect to these students if they were a member of a protected class? And they also assess our discipline matrix to see if the discipline matrix was equally applied to all students, regardless of race, disability, or protected class. Title IX, we touched upon before it. I know that we've dealt with a few Title IX issues together in district. It's rare, but it does happen. Again, it's sexual harassment, either of students or staff members. Those are the situations that we often see. We have a comprehensive HR department that Ms.

042Barth spearheads. Employees are encouraged to report any incidents of sexual harassment, and it is investigated immediately. Like I said, we have a Title IX coordinator. Also, just to expand on that, our Title IX coordinator is actually Andrew Perez, the special ed supervisor. So this way, when there's a Title IX issue, he joins the investigation with HR to make sure that everything is clients-wise as a double check. That's great. And I think just to Dr. Santora's point, really what we have in district that I think is great, it's multiple layers of checks and balances. There's a lot of admin that's in charge of these things. So we do everything that we can to address complaints, whether it be HIV, NJLAD, Title IX. It's investigated almost instantly. And that is it. So I appreciate your time and

043patience tonight. I'm happy to answer any questions, but that was the overview of NJLAD in the public sphere. And thank you for your time. Thank you, Danielle. Of course. Changes and revisions. I don't think there's anything, right? All right. Are we going into closed session? No, I don't think we needed to. There's nothing, right? Closed. We are at the public comment portion of the meeting. If anyone in the audience would like to speak, now's your opportunity. You have three minutes at the microphone to speak on anything you would like. All right. It does not appear we have any speakers tonight. We are going to close public comments. Thank you. For the board's information, do we have any questions about anything from the board? All right. Moving on to our action items. Can I have a

044motion and a second on administration items H1 through H2, please? Mrs. Herr and Mr. Cain. Any questions? I have a question. Where it says number of confirmed incidents, some founded. What is the difference between that and founded? Sometimes there's more than one offender named. Some founded means that some of the offenders were founded, but some of the offenders were not founded. If someone accused Dave and I of doing something, I'm going to make Dave the bad guy. I was founded for Dave, but obviously unfounded for me. Right. So we wouldn't just calculate that in our findings of incidents founded? We separate it? We figure it's kind of a little bit of both, because it's unfounded for one and founded for the other, so we just separate it out. I know, but when you have an

045HIV incident report, you're not calculating the amount of people involved. It's the incident that you're investigating, correct? So if you have one incident you're investigating, you're not doing it by, okay, while there are five people involved in this incident, two were founded, three are not. It's one incident. Was there HIV founded in that incident? I don't recall seeing this column where it says some founded. It might have been just because this one was like this. I can look and see if it's state statute that requires that, or if it's just something we decided to do. Right, because we've had many incidents where some have been, some haven't in that one particular incident. But I'm just thinking if it's HIV is founded, regardless of how many students involved, it should be a founded report. You're right,

046but ultimately it is. I think when you actually look at the executive summaries, the tally is 12 total confirmed. It puts them both together, I'm pretty sure. I remember seeing that and kind of, I was a little confused myself. I saw 11 on here and then in the summaries it was actually 12. So I think that's why. So we would just count it, like if we were reporting it to the state it would count as 12. We can go back to the old way. No, I don't care. I just want clarification. You could do it any way you want. But like if we're reporting it to the state, it's 12 founded incidents of HIV. When they report it, I think they separate it out. They separate it by like students? I'll double check with Lisa

047and Andrew. They are the ones who filed the report. Thank you. Any other questions or we're good? Okay. Mrs. Campo? Yes. Mr. Capric? Yes. Mr. Ferber? Yes. Mrs. Her? Yes. Mr. Kane? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? I'm going to abstain from H1, yes to H2. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Singer? Yes. And Mr. DeCetti? Yes. Motion passes. Okay. Can I have a motion and a second on H1 through H17? Resent? Aye. Aye. Aye one. Oh, sorry. Aye. H is H on here. I know. I changed it on the thing. And then second was, who was the second? A Ferber? Okay. Thank you. Any questions? No. No questions? Okay. Mr. Capric? Mr. Ferber? Yes. Mrs. Her? Yes. Mr. Kane? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? I am abstaining from I-13, yes to everything else. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Singer? I just want

048to make sure I'm on the right section here. This is in reference to the minutes, correct? Business. We're business. I went through I-17. My question is in reference to the A, B, I have to abstain from everything else as a yes. You never have to abstain from minutes. I don't want to. I wasn't here for those meetings, and I haven't reviewed those minutes, so I'll abstain from A and B, but everything else is a yes. Mr. DeCetti? I'm going to abstain from 1A and B, and yes on everything else. Mrs. Campo? I'm also going to abstain from 1A and B, and yes to everything else. Motion passes. Can we have a motion and a second on curriculum items J-1 through J-4, please? Motion. Mrs. Parisi? Mr. DeCetti? No questions? No questions. Mr. Ferber? Yes. Mrs.

049Her? Yes. Mr. Kane? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Singer? Yes. Mr. DeCetti? Yes. Mrs. Campo? Yes. Mr. Capric? Motion passes. Thank you. Can we have a motion and a second on personnel items K-1 through 18, please? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. And Mr. Kane? Any questions? Anyone? No? Maybe? You look like on the fence there. Okay. Mrs. Her? Yes. Mr. Kane? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Singer? Yes. Mr. DeCetti? Yes. Mrs. Campo? Yes. Mr. Capric? Yes. And Mr. Ferber? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. All right. We are going to move into new and old. I'm going to start with Mr. Singer. If you have anything you would like to bring up tonight. I do. Thank you. I just wanted to bring up something that came to my attention during my

050campaign in reference to special education. And I wanted to feel out the board's input in reference to a specific policy. Not looking for anything to be done tonight, but I just wanted to bring it to everybody's attention to digest and possibly think about. And quite frankly, I'd love to hear everybody's opinion on it. The district policy for special education, I'm sorry, 2460, section 18. I'm just going to read it so that everybody understands it if they're unaware of it. The school district will not accept the use of electronic mail from the parents to submit requests to a school official regarding referral, identification, evaluation, classification, and the provision of a free, appropriate public education. So why do I bring that up? I bring it up because people brought that to my attention as I was campaigning

051for the seat. And even when I won and I was sworn in, people brought it up to me. And I don't subscribe to pupil personnel services. My family doesn't. But that doesn't matter to me. And what I want everybody to think about is the ability for a family member who has someone who has a special education IEP or what have you, to have the ability to request a meeting with the district through an email. And not having that ability is really antiquated. And I did have an email correspondence with the superintendent asking for some clarification as to about this, and I do appreciate that input. But it's 2026. Parents have enough to deal with when they have a child who needs an IEP or a child who has special education. And I just feel in

052today's day, we need to correct this antiquated process and allow parents to send an email to the district requesting a meeting for an IEP. And I'll just expand a little bit on that. So right now, the policy, the way I understand it and the explanation I received from the superintendent was you have to send a letter to the district, U.S. Postal Service or what have you, or you could hand deliver a letter. No disrespect to the postal service, but things don't usually come when we want them to. I can file a court brief electronically. I can make an Oprah request electronically. I know these things have specific statutes and days and requirements of when things need to be answered. I'm well aware of that. But I think if we work with our council and we

053craft a policy that allows people to send an email to request a meeting to discuss their child who is so very important to them, I just think that we really need to consider changing the policy to allow people to do that. I understand there's a 20 day rule. I understand people may be not here, whether it be vacation, sick time and such. But with the advent of distribution lists and ensuring that people all receive that particular email, I think if we carve something appropriate, for example, if somebody sends an email at 9 o'clock tonight wishing to have a meeting, that should not start the 20 day period. I would defer to council if that does, but I think what we need to do is we need to carve out something. And again, I'm looking for

054input from the board members. I just think it's antiquated and it appears and though it may not be and I'm told it's not and I believe it's not, it appears as a roadblock for parents to get a meeting with the district. And that's what's the feedback I received. And I just want everybody to think about this. I'm not asking for a decision to be made tonight. I'm not making any motions to change it. But I really would love to hear input from everybody. This setup doesn't allow us to sit and converse. And that's, you know, to Dave's point, last meeting discussing about having committee meetings, standing committee meetings, committee meetings, that would really help something like this move along. Because quite frankly, when I send an email to the superintendent asking a question, Dave, Jamie,

055other people may have that same question, but I'm not permitted to email all for various reasons. So if we had those standing committees, we'd be able to discuss something like this. But I'm curious, being that I'm bringing this up right now. And again, I do appreciate the the reasonings behind not doing it, regardless of other districts do it or don't do it. My answer is we can lead the way and do it. That's my opinion. But I'm looking really for feedback from the other board members. Again, we don't have a collaboration. We don't sit at the diner and meet at least I don't meet with anybody to discuss these issues. So it's really I know this is like a working meeting, and that's the reason why we have it. But I'm really looking for some

056feedback as far as why we can't change this policy to make it easier for parents to request a meeting for their child. You know, again, I don't subscribe to pupil personnel. I'll repeat that over and over because it's not about me. Any decisions I make is not about me. I just want us to really think about this, digest it. Maybe next meeting, we discuss it. Maybe we have a conference call about it, you know, myself and the president. I don't know how it works, but I really would like to seek some input from everybody on this board as far as what they think about this policy. And if we can move this forward for that very reason, I stated I was just going to ask before I just want to ask Dr. Sartora to maybe

057shed a little more light on this before anybody jumps in just so everyone has maybe a clear understanding of the policy and the reasoning that the district operates the way it does. And then we can certainly have any further discussion. So this is a pretty standard policy in most districts to require paper. I had looked at this came up in the summer with the board and I had looked into neighboring districts and they all have the same policy. One of the reasons why this is in place is as Mr. Singer said is because once we get the paperwork, that 20 day timeline starts and Danielle is not our special ed attorney. We would have to consult with our special ed attorney for what you're asking, but she is a law group and they're great. I

058collaborate with them often, so I took some notes and I'm dead well. And Danielle's a special ed attorney, so she can speak to some of this as well. But the 20 day window starts no matter who they email in the district, correct? I would like to pull the code just to confirm, but it is my understanding it doesn't matter. Microphone. Jan usually reminds me, Ryan, I would like to check the code with respect to the start of the 20 day timeline, but my understanding again not having it in front of me is it doesn't have to be administration, could be a teaching staff member, any staff member of the district that starts the timeline. So one of the concerns is a parent emails someone who's maybe not here, a custodian, an instructional assistant that doesn't

059understand the law. That 20 day window starts. If we do not follow the 20 days, it would have a significant financial impact on the district. So one of the ways we do this is to be fiscally responsible to our taxpayers and not be in a situation where the district's liable because we missed the 20 day window because the email went to someone that it shouldn't have went to to begin with. Can I? Let me speak. So in another example, and I think I shared this with you, I mean, there's one parent where I have 107 email chains, not including emails within the emails. So over six months, I have 107 chains with that person. And what sometimes parents do is in one email, they'll ask one thing and then the next email they'll say, I

060want to modify it. We get that with Oprah requests as well. Can I have this? Oh, wait, no. Now I want it this way. Wait, no. Now I want it this way. There's a very good chance for us to not know exactly which way they want it when we begin the paperwork. This makes sure that we are following the law, that we are making sure that we're doing everything on our end to do what's right for the student, to know that the parent reached out to someone who wants to hold the meeting. As you said that, and I don't know, I'd have to consult for different opportunities, perhaps a Google Form would be a good middle ground, right? Because a Google Form is electronic. It can make sure it reaches the right person, but it

061also doesn't mean the paper is necessary. So that is something that I would look into as kind of like a middle ground, just not a random email because that can go to anyone and that has an impact on the district. However, Google Form would make sure it gets the right people. It may actually be easier to avoid the whole mail situation that you were talking. And I appreciate the information you gave me and your response. Somebody sends, and I just want to, and I know, Jesse, you want to speak, just because I brought up, I just, you know, someone sends a letter, and I stated this earlier, unfortunately the Postal Service isn't always the greatest when it comes to receiving that letter. If that letter is mailed to the district and it ends up on

062Ms. Wolf's desk and she doesn't know what it is, it's the same thing as if the email goes to the wrong person. I just feel, you know, that is a middle ground that is something that we can look at. I think if we have our council, you know, look into what we can do, there has to be a way we can craft where we set up emails must be directed to on our policy to special education at MERS. I'm just using an example, and that distribution list goes to 12 of you, and everybody received a type. I think we could set that up. I think when people, you know, when parents are looking for an IEP or a meeting with the district, you know, they're not going to email the custodian, or they're not going

063to email the bus aide or someone along those lines, you know, and no disrespect to that suggestion, but I just feel, I'll say it three times. You'd be surprised who gets emails on what topics. You really would. Understood, but I think if our attorney can, you know, if we could research this, and I don't know how it works, but if we could research it and find out what parameters we can set to accept electronic receipt of it. Listen, that may be the right answer, but we need to offer something other than a mail letter or a, you know, someone who mails a letter doesn't know if we get it, right, or it goes to the right department, or if you hand deliver it, you know, a lot of times people are hand delivering it by

064putting it in their student's backpack and giving it to the teacher. Okay. Right, so the parent that works from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. who can't get to the school is like, I can't hand deliver it. Dave, can you hand deliver it for me? That's what I'm trying to avoid, and I just think that we can make it a better opportunity for people, and the Google form may be the answer, but I defer to legal if we can do an email, or maybe we agree a happy ground Google form, but I'm just curious everybody else's opinion as well. I think that Eric brings up a lot of valid points. I'd be concerned if an IEP 504 parent emailed the custodian. I thought that's what I heard, I'm glad I wasn't the only one. I think

065that this highlights something, Mr. President, that we've been discussing as a board for a long time, right, and that is to get away from a board of the whole and go to committees because there's several policies, and I think that one of, you know, some of the ones that we've looked at, one-offs, we're 15, 20 years old. To Eric's point, they're antiquated, it's 2026, and I think there is a way that we can service our population of parents that have jobs that, you know, I mean, we've all had mail get lost. I know, I'm sure that the odds of mail getting lost is higher than a custodian getting an email from a parent trying to set up an IEP meeting, so, I mean... I was being a little facetious. No, I know, I'm not, though.

066Mail gets lost all the time. There's other things. I understand that, but, I mean, it just seems like there's a better way to do it, and if we break up into smaller groups, I think we definitely should have a workshop about this policy, about going to committees and reporting, I mean, it saves us a lot of time and energy, and also, it makes every individual be responsible for something, also, you know? I don't want to speak for everybody, but I know that in the past, there was board members that didn't even read the agenda before they showed up when I was on the board. They're no longer on this board, okay? But, you know... I just want to say that we have discussed it in the past, and we have brought it up, and, you

067know, reasons were given by the director, but what we can do, we can put something in place where you have a link, you want to request an IEP or whatever, you have a special link, fill out this form, it was received at such and such a date, so, with technology, it certainly can be done where we have protections as to that time limit, as long as we have a specific link to request this specific item, and it goes to whoever you want it to go to, I think it can be done. And I'd like... Ms. Furt. I had a follow-up. Go ahead. Okay. I did want to add, I know we did talk about this in the summer, and although my children aren't in MERS, they were, and I did have a child with an

068IEP who I did have to rush to, you know, the ELC, where pupil personnel is, to hand deliver that because I couldn't email it. It is a big inconvenience. I'm a teacher. So, how do I take off from work, and I don't want to put it in the mail because putting in the mail delays my thing by three or four days until you get it, and, you know, to give a timetable, when I had requested my son be reevaluated, I requested it in, like, October, November time frame. He didn't get his IEP until April. He lost the entire year. So literally every day is multiple days in the timeline of an IEP. So I do think having an opportunity to allow parents to get that not snail mail and not in person, because it does

069put, you know, that stress on a full-time working parent who can't bring it in. You either have to take time off from work, go to work late, or just rely on the snail mail and lose additional days, which turns into weeks, which turns into months. So I do think there has to be a better way. I agree. I think that's a great suggestion. As far as the workshops and committees, I don't know how much I'm feeling that. I think that, I don't know if this is the right time for that conversation. I see benefits to it, but I don't know if it's that I'm, like, type A and I like to, like, really know what's going on and relying on two or three people to get the information. It's not that I don't trust you,

070but, you know, I like to be there. So... Can I share my feelings? I think there's a plus and a negative to both. What's nice about Committee of the Whole, and I think our Committee of the Wholes have changed where we make a lot of agenda meetings. Our next meeting, we're trying to keep it as just a Committee of the Whole so we can have those conversations, but there's no reason why you need a small committee to have the conversation because the public is, you know, we try to be transparent as possible, so anything that we're having conversation-wise in a small group, we can have in front of the camera as well. That's kind of how Committee of the Whole always worked. So I think the positive Committee of the Whole is for what Jamie's

071saying. The positive is that everybody on the board is hearing the same message, right? For example, when I sent out the email last week about changing the transportation positions, that went to the whole board. If we had committees, that would no longer go to the whole board. It would just go to the Human Resources or the Personnel Committee. What tends to happen is that people go, well, I don't know about this. I know when I was in a district, we did like an hour-long curriculum presentation for the committee. We thought it was fabulous, and then the board turned keys at the rest of the board, and they're like, we heard a curriculum presentation. The district's doing really well. And a lot of the information that we shared was now shared for the public. It was

072also not shared for the rest of the board, so they didn't hear all the wonderful things we were doing. On the flip side, I think what's positive about committees is, for what Jesse said, is that a small group of people become experts, right, and become very knowledgeable. So instead of things, I'll use the same example, the email about transportation that I had to share out to everybody, and then everyone's asking me questions, now we have a group that kind of specializes in personnel that kind of knows what they're saying, and then when they get to the board, they say yes. So I think what it comes down to a lot is the trust of the board to trust a small group and just vote based on what they're telling you versus everyone hearing the same

073message. Like I said, I can make positives and negatives for both. It's really up to you how you guys want to be governed. I also have a question regarding that. Yes. So if you were to do committees, and I think ad hoc committees as needed, like with the referendum like that, I think is important. But if we were to do standing regular committees, when do they meet in comparison? Do we only have one whole board meeting? And then that requires people to maybe be available. Now we have a different board now. There's a lot of new members, but we've had issues with people not being here for the two that we have now. So now how are we going to run these committees? There's one board meeting a month, and then the board decides how

074they want to do committee meetings with the district because district employees have to be part of them. So in some districts, they meet an hour, half an hour before the board meeting. That has a positive because you're going over the agenda with the committee, but you're literally going over the agenda for that night and half an hour before. And I know in other neighboring districts, they meet during the day, a certain day of the week, during the day. But usually the committee meets once and then the board as a whole meets once. And usually I would feel that the committee meeting would have to be very close to the board meeting because our agenda is not complete sometimes the morning of. So if we're going to be going over items that are on the agenda.

075And then would they have to be for personnel, for MERS personnel to be available? Would they be able to be in the evenings or would it have to be during their contractual hours? It depends on what committees you're looking for, right? If you're looking for you'd have to decide, like if you're looking for a finance committee, a personnel committee, a curriculum committee, an operations committee, then they could be right before the board meeting because Ronnie's, Shannon, Jody, sorry, Jody, myself, we could each take one meeting. But if it's for personnel that's not required to be here, then that would change the availability of when the committee can meet. That would that be correct? So then that would limit who on the board can be on those committees if those people work. Possibly like the referendum

076committee reached me during the day. Yeah, it really depends on the committees. In some cases, some committees won't even meet monthly, you know, and some board members could potentially be on more than one committee, right? Having to meet multiple times a month or again, depending on that second committee that might only meet every other month. And then also how we would distribute to make sure everyone's on an equitable amount of committees. So I know I wouldn't want to be on one that barely meets and someone's on three a month. That's a great point. And that, you know, that that word, I just want everybody to know I didn't want to discuss this tonight. I was just. Right. But so to that point, and that's and that's part of the reason of why I brought it

077up. And the standing committees basically holds board members accountable. It gives you more of a direct responsibility towards a specific category, let's say. And as opposed to, you know, committee of the whole, you know, having been on the board now for for a few years, you know, and I think it's been a great working team for the most part. But there's definitely been board members in this times when clearly some people are just coasting and, you know, not necessarily doing their fair share if you're trying to make it equitable, right? So standing committees will kind of hold you more accountable to that. So I think that's a benefit as well as really being able to get more accomplished. My and as Dr. Santoro said, you know, you can make good arguments for both. My understanding

078from speaking to a lot of boards throughout the state, most of which are standing committee boards. And the consensus seems to be that they would move to a committee of the whole if they felt they had a board that did not work well together, right? When you don't have that trust, well, then you want to be there and make sure you're hearing and seeing what's being said, because you don't necessarily have faith in, you know, those other people you're working with and that, you know, but when you do have a working board that where there is cohesion and you do have that trust among each other, the standing committee seems to be a way to get a lot more accomplished. But yeah, go ahead. So would there be a requirement then for those committees within

079a certain time frame to inform the rest of the board what they discussed during the committee? Yeah, which would generally happen at the board at the upcoming board meeting, which we would still meet altogether, but not no time prior where someone could digest the information. Not necessarily. I think it would really depend. That's the point of the committee is you're trusting whatever they tell you and you're voting based on what they tell you. Wouldn't there be agendas and minutes taken from those meetings that would be distributed to the board members prior to a meeting? There's definitely minutes taken at committee meetings, to short. I think that I still want to stick with my one question because I haven't heard from a board member if they feel like chime in. Can I just – I'll answer

080part of that. I did email our special ed attorney. I forwarded him your and I email correspondence and then asked him if a Google form would be possible as another form. Does anybody – before we move on to – I know we're on this committee idea, but does anybody else have any input as far as the electronic format for parents to make a request for their – I was looking for clarification. When we say 20 days, do we mean 20 calendar days or is it 20 school days? I believe it's 20 calendar days. It is 20 calendar days. And in the summer – That's what I thought. I just wanted to – I know. I think it's 20 – Holidays are not included. I think it's 20 school days. I had emailed this to you.

081I believe it's 20 school days during the school year and 20 calendar days in the summer. Oh, that may be. It's always calendar? Okay. Yeah. Sorry. We have an expert in the room. I was trying not to point, but – It's excluding school holidays. Excluding holidays. It's excluded for the summer. It's still – Right. I knew it was something crazy like that. I'll answer your question. I'm ambivalent. Honestly, I don't see it as that important. Six years here, one person has ever boarded up to the board. Everybody – almost everybody, maybe not you guys, knows who that is. Nobody else has ever had. So if they want to make a Google form, I'm fine with that. Otherwise, no one has ever said a word about it in six years besides that one person. So I

082don't care either way. I'm fine. Thank you. Thank you. I'll chime in on that. Thank you for bringing it up, Eric. And yeah, I'm definitely open to seeing if there is a possibility to make things more convenient for parents. Absolutely. I'll support that all day long on pretty much any topic. If there's a way to do that, that's efficient, it's effective, and obviously doesn't put the district in any kind of awkward or position of liability, you know, that is risky. So, you know, we've got to juggle that. But I think the right move is to consult with legal and, you know, get their opinion and see what options we have. But I'm absolutely open to it, and I think it's a good topic, and I'm glad you brought it up. I just wanted to add,

083with respect to Eric's feedback, once Dr. Santora speaks with Special Ed Council, just from the policy side, I'm happy to say if there are other districts that use a Google Form type method, which I'm sure there are, we can revise our policy if that's the direction we decide to go with respect to similar language and what has worked in other districts, if that's the route we choose. Anyone else on this specific? I just also want to add, just to kind of piggyback on the timeframe, in all the times I've ever had to hand deliver a letter to people, personnel, I have never received a receipt that it was dropped off. So at least when I, so I just actually believe I have an email from 2020 on my phone, but I just kind of searched

084it right now. I followed it up with an email saying, I just dropped this off to Ms. Petillo and Ms., you know, Samino, and I'm following this up with a soft copy because I wanted some kind of proof that it was dropped off on that day because it's not like anyone gives you a receipt. So we're standing, but I don't get that copy. So for all I know, they could say, oh, we didn't get it or we got it the next day. So if we don't revise that, maybe we can revise, you know, look at being able to give some kind of I really like the idea of a Google Form. I think it solves all the problems if we can do it or another type of form, because I think it timestamps it when

085it was received. So now it's timestamped. It definitely goes to the right people. You don't have to worry about someone else getting it. You don't have to worry about getting lost in the mall, in the mall, in the mail, visualizing. My concern is just the legal ramifications as far as if somebody fills out a Google Form at 9 p.m. tonight, that should not start the 20-day clock, in my opinion, but that's where, you know, legal But that's the same thing with the email. Right. Yeah. No, no. That's just it. But I'm sure it could be written into a policy. Yeah. I mean, that's why I think if we get some legal guidance on it, I think that'd be best. Yeah. So I will follow up after I hear from Mr. Sevestro. I appreciate that. And

086Dave, for the record, David, I had three constituents approach me with this particular topic. That's why I brought it up. Look at that. Six years. You already beat me. That's great. Thank you, Mr. Singer. Mrs. Campo, anything? I just, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I apologize. I do. It's okay. I know I'm new, but I was happy to see the governor sign legislation requiring, starting next year, I believe, cursive writing. So that brings me to the point of it's specifically for grades three through five, if I read the law correctly. Do we have cursive writing in third grade as part of our curriculum? Right. My problem is for any student who has not received it, i.e., my daughter in seventh grade has never received cursive writing. She should have received it in third grade.

087It was part of our curriculum. She wasn't here in third grade. So my question is, basically, if we're going to be instituting this policy because it's a law, what can we do for those students who don't know how to read or write cursive presently in the district? In other words, the law goes into effect next year. Is there a way for us to institute something to help those children who are in sixth grade, eighth grade, put together something, some curriculum that teaches them how to read and write? I mean, when my daughter receives a letter, a card from my mother, from her grandmother, she asks me to read it to her, which is, you know, it's troubling. But my question really is, is there a way we can look into some curriculum that could help

088those students who don't have or haven't had it? Because those in seventh and eighth grade will be lost moving forward into high school and they're going to have to sign their name for their permit, their driver's license, and such. Dave, I don't know if your daughter had cursive at MEMS or, yeah. Not at MEMS. Yeah. I mean, in elementary. Yeah. David, I'm sorry. I apologize. I think she did. I mean, I don't know what they retained, but I believe they did. Jody, do you want to talk about our curriculum? Sure. So it is a requirement. It has been for at least 15 to 16 years, as far back as when Dr. Monroe was here, that all students in third grade receive cursive instruction. Our buildings do purchase for third grade all the Zanerbloser books. That

089is part of what they're required to do. And a pre-assessment and post-assessment are given each year. I believe one of the pre-assessments is around March and the other is in June, of course, as opposed. Mr. Abel also built into our pacing guides for not necessarily script, but handwriting which is part of what they have to learn to do to encode for grades K, 1, and 2. What's lovely is now that this is law, that will be a moot point because everybody moving forward would have had to have had that regardless because it's state statute. Are there things we can do? Yes. Do I want to commit to something right now without looking at what the law actually entails? We're waiting for guidance from the NJDOE. Any time a statute is passed, we get guidance. It's

090not hard to implement this. Mr. Abel and I already discussed today adding it to the fourth and fifth grade curriculum guides which are being revised. What would I say is likely? Something we could probably do is during their win periods, all sixth, seventh, and eighth grades students do have a win period. If they're not receiving some sort of RTI or ESL instruction, it's an easy practice for them to do, even if it's simply writing their name. So there are things we can do. Am I committing to something? Now I won't do that. We haven't had time to discuss. I believe that was just signed two days ago. Okay. So give us some time. I just wanted to bring it up. Oh no, sorry. Go ahead. The other thing is all parents receive a letter home

091after the post assessment, after the pre-assessment. Pre or post? Yes. After the pre-assessment explaining that we taught cursive, telling them to continue working at home and that there will be a post assessment. Thank you. That's all I have. It's part of the third grade curriculum, but then is it used after that? Are they writing in cursive in fourth and fifth or is it taught in third and then we don't know? It's taught in third and the goal is ultimately that they can review and write their signature, which is a real life skill, and to be able to read documents. Now part of what we do require in social studies and part of something that is required through QSAC audits is making sure that students are exposed to primary sources. As you know, many historical primary

092sources were written in script back in the day. So that is something they are being exposed to. I have to see what the law entails. So for me to say will they be required to write everything in script, I can't speak to that without seeing what the law is requiring. Well they're typing. They're typing. And they're typing and on the NJSLA that is electronic. The skills are that they are typing. Remember we're giving 21st century skills. We're kind of at a crossroads, right? We want to go back to skills that were deemed necessary at one point. We don't want to lose that so children have the opportunity to be exposed to resources and primary sources that are dated quite some time. And again with Revolution 250, I think it's important that we are giving those

093skills back. However, we also have to think and have a compromise because some children do have writing issues. They have IEPs for that. So what's most encouraged is children write in a manner in which they are most comfortable. So there's a fine line that we have to really sit through. I don't want to give many details without seeing what the law is requiring. To say every child for 3th grade has to write in script, I'm not sure if that's reasonable. Especially knowing some of the handwriting concepts and children who need OT. There's a lot and we have somebody here with special ed who could probably give some details about that as well. But there's a lot that's to be considered. So I do want to see what the law entails but I also think we

094have to look at what's best for each individual child as well. To piggyback on the new law, because you mentioned typing, have we gotten any clarification yet with the whole no phones, no smartwatches, and no internet-based devices? Because as we all know, these little Chromebooks in front of us are internet-based devices and when I reviewed that, I didn't find anything that said, oh yeah, Chromebooks are acceptable. They said anything for educational purposes I believe was okay, is what I had read. How are you going to police the internet exploring on that, right? It's just the device. Any device used for educational purposes was supposed to be a fine in the classroom but the New Jersey Department of Ed is supposed to release guidance. They have not yet. I don't see much of what we're doing

095changing because we do have the off and away policy. So I don't see a lot changing with that. I promise, I'll make it quick. So in a few weeks, we are going to be meeting and I was saving this update so I don't want to give too much of an update because I want Mr. Abel to meet with our pilot teachers who are piloting Arts and Letters from grades K through 6 and Savvis by Perspectives in 6 through 8. As you know, we're looking for new programs and resources to implement with the standards for ELA. We are having great success with the resources and I will be working with Mr. Abel and those teachers to inform you of our final decision middle of February. It's looking good for one of the programs in particular. We

096likely will be moving forward with Arts and Letters as well as my perspectives at at least 7 and 8. We're deciding on which is best for grade 6. So that's still up to be determined. But with that said, it comes with consumables and actual books. The goal is to get books back in our children's hands. I know that there's a lot of commentary out there on social media and elsewhere in the world about children having too much screen time. But no, our goal is to get those books back in hands. We do that, but we don't want them to rely heavily and solely just on a Chromebook. Please recognize that as a district goal. Thank you. All right. Mr. Singer. All done. All right. Mrs. Campo, anything? I would just want to give gudos to

097the administration. Circling back to the audit report, I know it's a lot of work to go through an audit with zero findings and it seems to be that's a trend. Just wanted to compliment you all on your work on that. I was the district's former auditor for 10 years prior to, so I think like even though it's 30 years later, I still think like an auditor and I understand the concept of transaction testing. It's random sampling. So a $2 transaction, it weighs as much as a, you know, an infraction of the purchasing law as a $100,000 purchase order. I always have that in mind. My staff is very, very well experienced in that too, but thank you. And thank you for your thoroughness in response to my questions. You're welcome. Mr. Capric. Yeah, I want

098to echo Ms. Campo's thoughts as well. I want to commend the administration for their stewardship of the budget. Notice that there are a number of operational cost savings that were also identified, but still doesn't impact in terms of our overall school performance and the way that we educate our children. So again, kudos to the administration. Just wanted to also share with Mr. Singer that I'm certainly supportive of anything that we could do to modernize ways that we could reduce friction between parents and the administration. So if a Google form is going to allow us to do that in terms of submitting or requesting a review of an IEP, certainly supportive of that as well. Also wanted to commend the Milford Brook band and orchestra that we saw earlier today. They did a phenomenal job. I

099have my daughter in the fourth grade orchestra, so now I'm looking forward even more so to her performance. So they did a phenomenal job as well. And for the foundation from MERS, I mentioned this in the last board meeting, but also want to mention again, February 1st is a sneaker ball, aka the fun with your son dance. If you haven't gotten a ticket yet, there's still limited tickets available. It's a great event and all the proceeds come back to the district by way of grants from the foundation for MERS back to the MERS school district. I'm going to I'm also going to I'm not sure if we want to get into standing committee conversation today, so I'm going to withhold any kind of comments on my end until we can maybe more thoughtfully meet together

100on it like February 1st is a true committee of the whole. We could add that as a discussion. Yeah. Okay. Definitely do that. It's definitely going to be an ongoing conversation and something that I think, you know, we should really, you know, put thought into and everyone should really, you know, have a good understanding so they can make a sound decision and we could figure out, you know, how we want to move forward. So yeah, definitely don't feel pressured to have to get it all out tonight. All right. Great. That's all I have. I'm willing to yield the rest of my time to Mr. Singer if he has anything else he wants to share. No, I'm sorry. It's tonight. You know, but on that, I'm sorry, before we jump to Mrs. Lucas, regarding the sneaker

101ball, is that something that we can highlight on our website? Can we put like a link or something, you know, since it's such a short time leading between now and then to maybe get help it on? There is. I was thinking on the website, but maybe also even social media. Sure. We did sign something out to all parents through backpack, but if you want to put on Facebook, I think we could do that. Mursad, if you want to send something to Jody. Absolutely. Yeah. I think there's a separation between the district and the Foundation for Murs. I know you guys have backpacked it, I think maybe once or twice already, which drives quite a bit of ticket sales, but I'll reach out to you, Jody. Sounds good. We'll do. Thank you. Mrs. Lucas, anything? Oh,

102wait. Mursad, do you want to talk about this Saturday? Because I know the board was invited. Testing, testing. This Saturday is the annual retreat for the Foundation for Murs. The board has been invited to that. Some folks will be able to attend. If you haven't seen an email on it, feel free to reach out to me, I'll send over the details. It is at Wemrock Brook from 9 to 4. It is our annual retreat, being able to share what we've accomplished over the last year, talk a little bit about what our focus areas will be for the following year, talk a bit about the events we'll hold. So it's a worthwhile event to attend if you can. So, yes, if you have any questions, just feel free to reach out to me. So the keynote

103speaker, I believe, is just in the morning. And then you guys go on to your foundation business, correct? Correct. So I will be attending in the morning and then at lunchtime I will leave as well so they can do their foundation business. The other thing is just to make sure that we don't wind up with a quorum. Okay. Okay, if people are interested, I was thinking about that. I would think for something like that, exceptions are made. Oh, sorry guys. I know. If it's a public event, we still do have to worry about quorum issues, but there are some ways around it, Dave. So if we end up in the situation where there may be a quorum, just let me know, Dr. Santora or Dave, and we will find an exception. If it is a

104public event? Yes. So this is technically not a public event, it's invite only? Anything that's outside of a regular board meeting, I should say. A lot of it comes down to public perception. If the public can perceive that as part of this event, you're gathered in a way where the quorum of the board is there and can discuss and conduct board business outside of an open public, you know, advertised meeting, that's really what the concern comes down to. It's more about public perception. Yep. Right. You know, like, I guess an example, and please don't, my example is always extreme, okay, Jesse? I would say there was six members there and they said, you know, at the retreat we thought it was great and we really wanted to bring this presenter to our board, then someone

105would say, well, what other decisions were they making as a quorum? It could lead to questions. Sure. You know, it's something as harmless as we like the presenter and we want them to come in. Yeah, but I think it has to be, you know, reasonable to draw any kind of, you know, far out conclusions. Anyway, we'll see if that's even something that is a concern. But I would encourage every board member to try to attend. And I've went in the past, their keynote speakers are very, very good. Who is the keynote speaker? Anyone? Me too. I do. I knew, he is, he, I believe he does something very big with nonprofit and he had attended Franklin Marshall. Okay. Yes. Got it. All right. And finally, Mrs. Lucas, anything you would like to bring up? Keynote

106speaker is Art Taylor. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Way to go, Kelly. Thank you, Ricardo. I cannot attend Saturday because I won't be here. So you can count me out of the quorum. I have a question regarding the redistricting of last year, the Taylor Mills students to Lafayette. Some parents that now had siblings left over that were grandfathered in are wondering if information will be going out in the near future regarding now the siblings being moved over to Lafayette. Yes. And how that will work. I believe there were six or seven students total. Mr. Duffy and I had talked about that the other day and he will probably be reaching out about the transition. Okay. They're just, I think they're more looking like for a timeline. Are they hearing soon or are they not hearing

107until like May, June just to have an idea? They're going. Oh, they know they're going. They're going. I guess with the schedule change times and things, they don't know if they're finding out in May and June or they're finding out sooner so they just want to have their ducks in a row. I know it's only a few of them. Okay. And they can always just contact Mr. Duffy directly as well and ask him. Is that it? Yes. All right. Thank you. Mrs. Herr. I would like to thank the Milford Brook band and orchestra for an amazing concert. I always look forward to our musical performances. So they did a great job. I also would like to thank the administration for an amazing audit. You guys always do an amazing job and it makes our life

108much easier. So thank you. The only other thing I'd like to add is that I did find out that we may have a new board member coming on CPEG. I know they're going to be meeting with somebody at the end of the month and the current board did let me know when that meeting is and asked me if I wanted to come sit in on it if I'm available. So I told them I will check my calendar. I'm going to try to be there. It is during the workday, but I think I might be able to swing that. So I think it will be interesting to see another member because right now we're at a two member board and I think one of them will be leaving at the end of the year. So getting

109another person on and seeing that move will be nice. So I will keep you updated at the next meeting. And that's all I got. Thank you, Jamie. Do you know if do they have their first meeting of the year scheduled yet? They already had the full forum. I think that they are trying to plan and I don't want to advertise anything on their behalf beforehand, but I do think they are trying to hold a joint meeting with Menalpen High School sometime early spring, I guess, maybe in March for this blue envelope program that they do. So they're going to do that in conjunction with Menalpen High School. Do you know if that's something we've done in the past? They did it last year. I didn't get to attend. It's really more for high school kids

110that are getting their driver's license, but I think if you are a middle school parent, I can attest to the fact my son just turned 17. Your daughter is probably there too, right? They go from eighth grade to driving overnight. So I think being able to attend that while still in MERS in conjunction with Menalpen High School is a nice resource to have. I knew I had never heard of the program. So when Janine Metroni had told me about it when we met over the summer, I was like, let me write down all that information because it can be really helpful for me in my situation, and I was not aware of it. So if I had known about it a few years ago, I would have been more prepared for when my son got

111his license. Well, he doesn't take his test until next month. I think they also go with how to register your child at any age with the police. So the identification card is there and that is, I believe, part of the session as well. I will say that CPEG, I'm sorry to interrupt you, I like this topic because I think it's very helpful for parents and I think there's so many programs out there that parents just aren't always aware of and are meant to be really helpful to our children and to our parents. But I think Kelly's at the meeting, CPEG has been attending the PTO PTA meetings, they've been giving a lot of input to the PTO and PTA about becoming more inclusive and what they could do. And actually when they brought up that

112program, the PTA gave them suggestions about a number of our students don't go to Menalpen High School. They go to Freehold Township High School. And how could we make sure that those parents were able to be included as well? And I think they came up with a solution to that in one of the last meetings. Yes, because I could say like none of my children go to Menalpen High School. So and my son does not go to Freehold. So I feel like they're everywhere because there's the magnet programs and not all of them are necessarily like academic, you know, hardcore nature. There's you know, you have at Pack at Howell, you have the culinary program, they're scattered throughout the Freehold Regional District. So I do think, you know, letting it's only being held at Menalpen

113High School, but it is being offered to the MERS parents. So I feel like for our parents that have middle schoolers, it doesn't really make a difference where they're going to go. They're still going to get that information on the program. So there's that. And to answer your question, Dave, too, I believe they should be having at least one additional meeting. They usually do like a spring forum. I think according to according to the minimum requirements, they have two a year. So whether or not they're going to have any additional, I'll speak with them on the 28th to see if they have any other ones planned. And I don't know of a date for the spring forum. If they have one set, I don't know about it yet. So I will find out about that

114as well. Right. OK. Thank you. Ronna, yet. Yeah, I just want to make sure that Melissa in my office sent out all the personal financial disclosure forms. So those do have a timeline. Please just try to get to that. If you need any help with that, she's very versed in it. And often I find it's helpful to go back if you're here and you've had submitted it prior. It's very easy to locate your form from last year on the Ethics Commission website and then just basically verify what's changed. And you can kind of fill your current form out with information if nothing's changed very simply. So just please keep that in mind because we don't like having to yell at people. And we get yelled at when they're not done on time. So OK, just

115keep that in mind. Thank you. And Ronnie, I just want to let you know, Melissa is my lifesaver. She is. If you don't know how to do that forum, just call my friend Melissa. She will help you because she is very good. She will do practically the form for you if you just tell her. So she's great. I love her. Yes. Great. Thank you, Mr. Tissetti. Yeah. So really, nothing I agree with, Eric, with the Google form. Would love for the next meeting to have the more in-depth discussion. Tomorrow, the middle school wrestles against Borough. And Thursday at the middle school, again, they wrestle against Eaton Town. The season is wrapping up quickly. Their league tournament is next Saturday at MEMS. And if any of the kids win there, then they go wrestle Monday night

116against Middlesex County. And then if they win there, then they go and wrestle in the tri-county. We've got some decent wrestlers that could do very well in these county things. In fact, at MEMS, we've got two eighth graders that are already state qualifiers for the youth tournament that's held in March in Trenton. And that's Noah Ziabro and Luca DiGenerro. We've got some elementary school kids, but I don't have the full list of those elementary school kids that have qualified. So it's coming to an end. Also, the youth wrestling program for Monalapan, they have a home Jersey Shore match at 9 o'clock at the high school against, I want to say it's not Thomas River, because we just wrestled Thomas River. But yeah, so there's some good quality kids that are doing well in the school

117over there. And so I won't be there on Saturday, buddy. Thank you, Jesse. Mrs. Parisi. I just want to congratulate the band and orchestra for a wonderful performance. It's always so nice to see our young musicians. And hopefully, they progress on to middle school. They really are phenomenal at learning those instruments. It's challenging, and they did a wonderful job. I also want to thank our admin team and auditors for, once again, phenomenal job, the amount of work that goes into it. Ronnie and her team are just absolutely phenomenal. And our audit is wonderful. And they really keep us, you know, running smoothly and in order. So I just want to thank you. And I did a, oh, is the foundation, the Maersk Foundation, do we have a link for them on our district website? Yes,

118there is. OK, because I don't recall seeing it. So I was wondering what our new website, if it was there. OK, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Cain. Just want to reiterate, great job by the performers tonight. It's awesome year after year to see the band and how well they do. So it's cool and great for us to be invited. Just one other thing I wanted to note, it might be a Ronnie thing. I'm not sure. I took a look at the website, the board members portion of it. I know the three new board members still have their pictures to be done. But I think there's some mistakes on there that have to be corrected. It says, well, it says Merced is elected and appointed to the board. I think it says Janay is

119elected to the board. Oh, I thought they said that. So I think it just needs to be. I'll double check that. Yeah, it just needs to be double checked. It's not a rush, but I just wanted to point it out. That's all I have. I had to mention to that, because we don't do that. It gets done by IT. And we had said that they needed to be appointed as opposed to elected. Yeah, it's doubled up for him. So I figured somebody accidentally put in both. So I'm just pointing it out here. You failed Mr. Kane's audit. Yes, you don't make it. Done, yes. But good job on the other audit. Yes. And I want to say, too, I mean, I do appreciate the fact that you appreciate the effort that goes into it. But

120I can't do what I do in my department without the help of all the other departments. I mean, Jodi, her department, the principals in the schools, everyone really plays a part in it, the secretaries in doing requisitions and following the requirements and having the attachments that they need. It really is a group effort that it takes a village kind of thing. So thank you to everybody. All right. One more time, again, yes, thank you to our district administrative teams and our school buildings for doing what you do and doing it efficiently and really, again, keeping our being fiscally responsible when it comes to our district funds. So we all appreciate that. The band and orchestra, thank you. Thank you for hosting us tonight for the performance. And great job by everybody, all students, as well

121as the teachers. Great job by everybody. I wanted to say thank you to our new board members mainly who already I've seen a lot of activity from. And it's just really great to see and encouraging and makes me feel like great choices were made either by the ones that were appointed or as well who was elected. I see everybody, whether it's emailing Dr. Centoro, some very thoughtful and good questions and trying to gather information and clearly already thinking of ways of how to be productive and make this district better. So that's great to see. And I'm really happy to see it. So thank you guys for that. And that is all I got. So thank you very much, Dr. Centoro. Yes, at the last meeting, I said some events that were coming up. I'm going

122to repeat them, because why not? They haven't happened yet. So tomorrow night is Nurtured Heart, January 21, 6 to 7 30 at Wembroke Brook School. Again, this is a great training for parents. And it is done by Ms. Jill Legato, who is absolutely phenomenal. On February 4th from 6 to 7 at Pinebrook, we have Ryan's story with John Halligan to discuss bullying and suicide amongst children. Again, I really urge you to go. It's a very powerful assembly. And I will say no one ever thinks they need this assembly until they need it. And unfortunately, that always seems to be the case. And we do not always get a lot of parents there, which is unfortunate. Just a reminder, Revolution New Jersey, the traveling museum, is coming April 10th through the 24th. And New Jersey school

123boards is having their eighth grade dialogue on Tuesday, March 10th at 6 PM at Wolf Elementary School in Oceanport. And we should have a representative there. One other item, as you may have seen today, the phone system was out. There are currently two fiber breaks on the road that they're trying, that Lightspeed is trying to, Light Path, I'm sorry. Light Path is trying to troubleshoot. The last email, Mr. Vaccarino sent to them at 8.05, asking for an update. They've included me on it. We still have not received a response from them. Our all call system still works, because our all call system is not through the phones. So we can still make all calls. I suppose Mr. Vaccarino, if it's not up tomorrow morning to do another all call to parents, I'm not going to

124do a phone call, because I feel like when people get phone calls, they think there's something wrong with their children and they get nervous. It'll probably be like it was today, an email as well as a text message, just letting them know that the phones are still out. This is unfortunate, but again, it's on roadside. So there's not much we could have done to prevent it. And we just kind of have to let them do their work. What do you mean? We had, I thought that too. There is a very small number of characters that you can actually do, because I tried to do a text message to one day, I think with one of the delayed openings or the storms, I was like, oh, I'll send a text message too. The number of characters

125was like 80 characters and I couldn't really get it out. I will ask him to maybe say MERS in it. But in my newsletter, I did send that phone number to everyone and ask that they save it in their phone as MERS, so when it comes up, it'll say MERS. I will tell you, I didn't do it in my phone either. And when I got it, I was like, what's this? And I was like, oh, I did tell everyone to save it in their phone. I should have saved it in my phone too. But sometimes you get those, you should do this and you're like, yeah, sure, I'll get around to that. It came up as MAR. I thought it was spam, so I didn't even know what it was. Yeah. What's the protocol? Ironically,

126I got a call from the school right before they went out that my daughter needed to be picked up. So what's the protocol when the phones are out? People are probably going to have to use the app, unfortunately. I know I have the WebEx app on my phone, so my work phone rings on my cell phone. So I was like, oh, maybe that's a good way to bypass it, but that was out too. Everything goes through MEMS, so once something breaks on the MEMS side, it takes out the whole district. But Mike is still up working on it and he'll be on it tomorrow morning, and we're just hoping. Anything else? Oh, that's all, it's still my turn. Yes. No, I don't. I want to, like everyone else here did, I would like to thank

127our Milford Brook Orchestra and band for their performance. They did a phenomenal job. It's amazing to see how much they learned in a short year, and then we see them again in sixth grade and then seventh grade and then eighth grade, and the progression is absolutely phenomenal. Our instrumental music teachers are very good at being instrumental music teachers, so it's always great to see their progression over the years. And that's all I have now. I'm done. All right. That will conclude our meeting. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Mr. Tassetti and Mrs. Herr. Have a good night, everyone. Thank you.