Secaucus Board of Education Board Meeting February 26th 2026

001Gentlemen, I'd like to welcome everyone here this evening. I'd like to turn it over to Christina Dearry to read the Open Public Meeting Act statement. In accordance with the provision of the open public meetings act, the board secretary has forwarded notice of this meeting for advertising by having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the caucus town hall on the bulletin board located in the hallway of the board of education administrative building as well as the district website. Flag salute. Roll call. >> Mr. Bartletta. >> Miss Deietta >> here. >> Mr. Barry >> here. >> Mr. Deumbre >> here. >> Miss Eckles >> here. >> Miss Geller >> here. >> Mr. Lewis >> present. >> Mr. Lions >> here. >> Thank you. Okay. At this time, I'd like to give an update on the

002superintendent search. So, the board of education is reviewing an extension of Dr. Tobach's contract through July of 2027. This decision ensures stability and experienced leadership for our district over the next two years. Our timeline calls for a new permanent superintendent to begin in July of 2027. To support this important transition, the board has decided to engage a professional search firm. Once a search firm is selected, we will collaborate closely with them to design and implement a comprehensive search process. This will include a stakeholder and community survey, an information night facilitated by the search firm, a dedicated web page created by the firm to provide updates and information throughout the process. Transparency and communication will be our top priorities. We will provide monthly updates as we move forward. We believe this is the right time and

003approach for our district. Two additional years of study steady leadership from a seasoned professional will allow us to maintain stability, address outstanding matters, and thoughtfully prepare our next permanent superintendent. During this time, Dr. Tobach will focus on strengthening district operations and positioning us for a smooth transition. The board will conduct a comprehensive external search and Dr. Dr. Tobach will also help identify any qualified internal candidates who may be interested in the role. We are confident that this structured and deliberate approach will position our district for continued success. Thank you. Approval of the reorg minutes from January 5th, 2026 meeting and regular meeting minutes from January 22nd, 2026. Motion >> second discussion call the roll. >> Mr. Bartletta, >> yes. >> Miss Diazetta, >> yes. >> Mr. Barry, >> yes. >> Mr. Dumbre, >> yes. >>

004Miss Eckles, >> yes. >> Miss Geller, >> yes. >> Mr. Lewis, >> yes. >> Mr. Lions, >> yes. >> At this time, I'd like to welcome up the prek team to do their presentation. Oh, are they I'm sorry, Dr. Tobac, are you doing it? I'm sorry. I just assumed. Okay. Yes, you're welcome. Thank you for coming, PreK. So we we are very excited. This is a team effort. And so joining me tonight for this presentation, we have Mr. Valente who serves as the principal of the early childhood program. And we also have Sheila Rivera and Anna Leppen. There are two teachers in the program and they also will take part in the presentation and talk about various aspects of the early childhood program. So this has been months worth of work. This is one of

005our district goals. It's something that we have been working on diligently pretty much every week since beginning of my time working here. We've also spent quite a bit of time working with the staff. So we've had a number of meetings with the staff members at the Millidge School. We've done a facility review. We looked at all the different things that we would need to move our early child early childhood program forward. So um this is the presentation that parents would see and we want to start having some parent nights next week. So we are very excited to share this with the community. First of all um the expanded program and you could read it provides a really amazing environment for our youngest learners. Rich opportunities for play exploration hands-on learning. I've been able to see

006the classes in action. I've been able to visit the program and I'm excited about the curriculum. and all the ways that the program will expand for next year. So there is no shortage of re research demonstrating that preschool lays the groundwork for future academic success. The bottom line for us is we always want to move ahead as a district and one way to do that and I think that's recognized throughout New Jersey is to establish an outstanding early childhood program. So, at this point, what I'd like to do is ask Mrs. Rivera to come forward and talk about the curricular approach. >> Hello. First of all, I'd like to say I'm much better speaking to people about this talk. Um, I wanted to um also say that we are more than halfway through with the

00735th year that Caucus has had a pre kindergarten program of which I am extremely proud as I've been here for many of them. I would also like to say having said that that I know that things need to change. We need to enhance the programming even more and I believe under Dr. Tobach's guidance we're headed in the right direction. We have always followed the New Jersey Department of Education's preschool teaching and learning standards. The visual and performing arts components, mathematics, world language, technology, science, social studies, physical health and development, language arts and literacy are approaches to learning through play and exploration. And the most important area is the social and emotional development of all of these youngest learners of our district. Um, we try and force their independence, help them separate from their parents, build

008confidence, learn how to interact with others, take turns, and the list goes on and on. We have an integrated curriculum using different areas from several programs that we've um learned from and brought them together to build the best possible program that we think we have, but are always looking for ways to improve it. The one um program is the creative curriculum. We use the center time that they have by having learning centers and play centers where the teachers will instruct of course during the learning centers and the children might be guided or given instructions on what to do or just given like some manipulatives or different toys and things like that and they create the center themselves. We have the rolling reading program which is a wonderful program that we've been using for years that

009um it's like a multimodal approach to reading and literacy and it also incorporates so many other areas by motor development uh math listening skills things that you wouldn't normally think would be in a reading program but it has everything. We um myself and Mrs. Lap and were both trained in Orton Gillingham which is a very structured multi-ensory approach to reading, writing, and spelling. We use some of the tools that they taught us in helping to introduce the tricky words, which is how it's referred to in our kindergarten programs. Other people might refer to it as a red word or a site word. giving the children like a heads up in when they get to kindergarten, they were already introduced to some of these words and the approaches that they use to help them learn how

010to read them. We are also uh lastly I should say always in contact with our kindergarten teachers. We keep up on their programs and we are always open to any suggestions that they have in assisting our students because our main goal is to make our students the most successful kindergarteners that they can be. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, so um this is a very important slide because I think it really gets to the core of what happens in early childhood education, right? The most effective early childhood programs are ultimately built on play. That's what keeps children engaged. That's the thing that really makes it exciting for them. And so structured and unstructured play is a big part of what we do in the early childhood program. we look to build on what we already

011have in place. So, Chile already spoke about this the objectives of the program, the core learning areas. So, you can see basically all the different subjects that are incorporated in a day, the early childhood program. And now with a full day program, we can incorporate even more. So another important element of the program is supporting diverse learners, especially at the early stages of their development in school. Um this is a very important part. And so one of the advantages of having an early childhood program is ultimately the ability to mainstream students. And so every effort would be made to mainstream students into the program. And that's like I said a very very important part of what we would do. One of the benefits of having this full-time program. Okay. So the next question, what does

012a typical day of prek look like? And so Miss Lein is going to talk about that. Our full-day prek schedule that we work together to create is intentionally designed to build strong academic foundations while supporting the whole child. From the moment the students arrive, instruction is structured to develop early literacy, math skills, language development, and critical thinking, all aligned to kindergarten readiness and expectations. Each block of the day balances rigorous academic instruction with purposeful movement, social emotional learning, and opportunities for independence. The result is a comprehensive program that prepares our youngest learners to not just enter kindergarten, but to enter confidently and ready to succeed. I'm going to go through the schedule. Our arrival and academic exploration is the first block. We begin each day with a structured and purposeful arrival. As students enter, they

013immediately engage in academic exploration activities such as namew writing, letter practice, counting games, puzzles, or fine motor activities. This time builds independence, reinforces foundational literacy and math skills, and sets a calm, focused tone for the day. Our morning meeting builds classroom community while reinforcing academic piece, academic skills. We review the calendar, practice number patterns, discuss the weather, and engage in letter sounds and siteword practice. Students also develop speaking and listening skills through structured discussion. This block strengthens both emotional development and kindergarten readiness. Now, for our literacy block, it literacy is a major focus of our day. During this block, students rotate through teacher-led small groups and literacy centers. Instruction includes phonics, letter recognition, sound blending, handwriting, vocabulary development, and comprehension activities. Small group instruction allows for differentiation so we can support, challenge, and meet the

014individual needs of every learner. This is where we turn future kindergarteners into future readers. Snack and social skills. Snack time is also learning time. Students practice independence, responsibility, good nutrition, and manners. We intentionally teach conversation skills such as taking turns speaking, listening to peers, and using respectful language. Math block. Our math instruction is hands-on and interactive. Students build number sense through counting, number recognition, shapes, patterns, measurement, and problem solving activities. We focus on conceptual understanding rather than memorization, helping students develop confidence and a strong math foundation. And yes, we make math fun on purpose. Science and social studies. During this block, students explore the world around them through experiments, observations, discussions, and thematic units. Children develop curiosity and critical thinking skills. These lessons also strengthen vocabulary and language development. Movement and brain break. Movement is

015essential for young learners. Outdoor play or structured movement activities allow students to reset, strengthen gross motor skills, and improve coordination. This time supports focus, self-regulation, and overall readiness to learn. Writing and fine motor stu stu students strengthen early writing skills and hand development during this block. Activities include journaling, drawing, tracing, cutting, and guided reading lessons. Lunch. Lunch is a relaxed and social time. Students practice independence, responsibility, and positive peer interactions. We reinforce manners, cleanup routines, and respectful behaviors. Read aloud. We transition from lunch with a high quality read aloud. This builds listening comprehension, vocabulary, and a love of books while helping students to calm their bodies before rest time. Rest time helps students recharge so they can continue learning in the afternoon. Non-sleepers engage in quiet literacy based activities such as reading books or completing

016puzzles. Our next block combines routine care with continued learning. Students practice independence with toileting and hygiene. We incorporate an additional read aloud to continue building comprehension and language skills. Even our quiet moments are academically purposeful. This is followed by small groupoup activities that allow us to revisit literacy and math skills taught earlier in the day. This is followed by students engaging in STEM and problem solving activities that promote creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. During circle time at the end, we reflect on what is learned and we celebrate our accomplishments. students leave feeling proud, confident, and ready to come back and do it all over again. In short, our full-day pre-K schedule is thoughtfully designed to maximize learning without losing the joy of being four and 5 years old. Every minute is purposeful, aligned to kindergarten

017readiness skills, and focused on building strong foundations in literacy, math, and critical thinking. We keep students moving, engaged, and growing, proving that rigorous instruction and happy learners can absolutely exist in the same classroom. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so now down to another part, the financial part of it. Okay. So, um the end we are asking the board to approve a monthly tuition of about um of $950 per month. Now, we did a lot of comparison work to understand a little bit more about what that rate means in terms of tuition. That is approximately half of what you would pay for an equal quality program elsewhere. So, it is a very good deal. My my assertion is that it's the best deal around. Um, in addition to the program that we saw runs from 8

018till the end of to 240, we also have before care that will be available for 1 hour and after care which is available for three hours, noting that those are both town managed programs subject to adequate enrollment requirements, but something the town is willing to do as long as we have the enrollment. So that's the key. What about enrollment? Okay. So enrollment basically for next year what we're talking about is right now we have four classrooms. Two of them are very large classrooms one and a half sized basically. Then we have two smaller classrooms. I would say half size. One of the things that we have to do is we have to move the wall which is non-loadaring from one space from one side to the other. So moving it about 10 to 12 feet

019will give us four full-size classrooms. In those classrooms, we would expect to enroll 15 students. And so that is the goal. Total of 60 additional students enrolled in the program for next year. Um Mashu's food service has also agreed they will be providing lunch if that's something the parents prefer or you could pack your own lunch obviously. So that is the basics of the program that it is a program two classrooms would be devoted to prek3 and two classrooms would be devoted to prek4. That could change if there was a situation where say we had a lot of prek4 maybe one classroom worth of prek3. We expect that there'll be a lot of interest in the program. And so in the event that there are more people that are interested in the program than seats

020we have available, we would run a lottery. So um that's something that is pretty standard when you have a situation like that where you have too many or you have more students than you have seats available. But that's how we would resolve that. Okay. So why choose our program? So you heard from our teachers and so they do a very good job of explaining this but just in summary welcoming inclusive and engaging program fully certified teachers that's not always the case here we have fully certified teachers that have been spending a large part of the year or I'm sorry spend a large part of their career in early childhood education. We have a very strong and safe location. the full day program with beforeare and afterare was that was the afterare and before care was

021previously something that held people back because we did not have that now we'll have that um the other part is obviously the access to district resources student support services mainstreaming like we spoke about um a curriculum that is aligned and preparing students right away for success at the elementary grades here and we have this beautiful playground in a parklike setting at Milidge school it's an absolutely beautiful building and so Um there's a lot of advantages to our program. And so that's it. That's our presentation. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you. >> Board members, are there any questions? Anything that you would like to ask? We're good. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Actually, Vic, let can the girls just do their student rep report and then let's stay there. Yeah. Student representatives Yeah.

022>> All right. You're up. You're up, girls. I am pleased to share some highlights from Hubert Street School. The Hubert Street School Gymnasium was buzzing with excitement on Mon Monday, February 9th, as we hosted our annual kindergarten and first grade MVP dance. It was a great evening where our youngest students got to dance the night away alongside their most valuable person. Whether it was a parent, grandparent, or special guardian, the dance floor was packed with smiles and great moves. Huber Street School celebrated the 100th day of school in style by hosting the annual CC Caucus Senior Citizens Valentine's Day breakfast under the direction of SGO coordinators Alexis Lein and Carrie Stam. Fifth grade students who participated in the student government organization served our guests. On February 18th, the Huber Street School PTA hosted their annual

023Founders Day meeting. After a decade of service to Huber Street School PTA, former president Kim Quinn was honored with a lifetime membership award. The highlight of the evening was the debut performance of our first grade sing first graders singing four songs to the crowd. In addition to singing, the students used American sign language as they sing. Simply put, it was beautiful. I am pleased to share some highlights from Clarin over the past few weeks. Our annual sweetheart dance was a tremendous success. The special event invites each student to bring a significant person in their life for an evening of music and celebration. The turnout was outstanding and the atmosphere reflected the strong partnerships we value between home and school. In addition to building community, the event served as a very successful fundraiser for our drama

024club. Additionally, our participation in the St. Jude Mathon is currently underway and gaining impressive momentum. Students are enthusiastically engaging in math practice while raising funds to support the life-saving mission of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The district has already raised over $15,000 with pledges continuing to come in. Due to the snow this week, our PTA's founders day celebration has been rescheduled for next Thursday, March 5th, at 6 p.m. The special gathering serves as time to honor the dedicated individuals who establish our PTA and to recognize the incredible impact of parent and teacher collaboration on our student success. I would also like to share some highlights from our Caucus Middle School. February was filled with positivity, celebration, and connection at SMS. Random acts of kindness week. Our middle school Patriot ambassadors truly led the way in

025spreading kindness throughout the building. They surprised teachers with personalized positive messages on their cars, placed inspirational notes in students lockers, and gave kindness shoutouts to their peers during the morning announcements. The smiles around the building said it all. Black History Month. Bakus Middle School proudly honored Black History Month by promoting cultural awareness and appreciation. Students shared informational Valentine's cards featuring influential historical figures spreading both knowledge and love throughout our school community. Rock band assembly. Students were energized by a high energy interactive rock band assembly that filled the Arthur F. Couch Performing Arts Center with excitement and school spirit. The performance kept students engaged while reinforcing positive messages about responsibility, effort, and making good choices. It was a memorable experience that brought our school community community together through the power of music. Lastly, I would be

026pleased to share some highlights from the Caucus High School. Course selection for the 2026 2027 school year is now underway. School counselors are meeting with students by grade level to review academic plans and elective choices. While students are submitting requests at this time, finalized schedules will be released in August. We encourage parents and students to check out the SHS website for our program of studies. We would also like to highlight upcoming state assessments. Juniors will take the NJGPA, New Jersey graduation profic proficiency assessment from March 16th through March 20th. Freshman will take the NJS NJSLA from May 14th through May 20th and juniors will complete the NJSLA on May 18th and 19th. We are especially proud to congratulate Salma Shahada for her outstanding performance at the NJ poetry out loud regional competition. She advanced to

027the final round and earned a place in the top 10. An incredible accomplishment. Our peer leaders have been making a meaningful impact this month. They host a new student lunch social to help welcome recent transfers and create a Valentine's Day cards for local senior residents. Continuing to strengthen our connection with the community. The SHs literary clubs are currently hosting their fifth annual poetry contest. Submissions are due March 5th March 13th and students have the opportunity to win prizes and be published in our literary magazine, Metamorphosis. We would also like to remind families that spring sports paperwork must be submitted by March 6th in order for students to participate in the spring season. We are excited to announce the grand opening of our studentr run Patriot perk cafe today. The cafe orders coffee, beverages, and grab-and-go

028snacks while also providing students with a welcoming and productive space during lunch periods. The spring musical, Into the Woods tickets are now available on the SPOE website. $18 for adults and 15s for students and children. The class of 2028 will be hosting their breakfast with the Easter Bunny on March 28th. There will be a tricky tray, raffle, games, arts and crafts, and pictures with the Easter Bunny. Junior prom will be held on March 26th with a masquerade theme. The National Honor Societies hosted a successful Chipotle fundraiser yesterday where 25% of an event of event sales got donated to all honor societies. Graduation lawn signs are now available for all graduating class of 2026 students with orders due by April 30th. Lastly, we would like to encourage students, teachers, and the community to come support our

029girls and boys basketball teams as they begin their first rounds of the state tournament tomorrow. Girls game will begin at 400 p.m. and the boys right after will begin at 5:30. Tickets can be purchased at the door. Prices are $2 for students and $3 for adults. Thank you. Thank you, girls. You want to go? Thank you. At this time, I'd like to welcome up our school board attorney to do our ethics presentation. There we go. Okay. So, uh we have a number of people who have been on the board for quite some time. So, uh this is mostly going to be a refresher, but we will try to kind of go through it quickly, but at the same time hit, you know, the high points of the things that we need to remember. So, what

030we're going to go over generally speaking is the role of a board member that deals with school governance, the school ethics act, what that means, um what the school ethics commission does. We'll go over a couple of advisory opinions that the school ethics um commission has uh issued as well as decisions. Briefly talk about, you know, some free speech and school ethics act issues and then recusal, when is it necessary. I have a chart at the end, which is what we always consult with all the time. So, um, without further ado, the role of a board member, and I know that we have like a packed house here today with, you know, everyone, uh, waiting to hear about this, but it's important, I think, for the public to know, I think the board members all

031know this, but for the public to know that this the board is a governmental entity that is authorized by law and required to do a variety of different things. You have to enforce the rules that the New Jersey State Board of Ed um, puts out. You have to make amend and repeal rules for the operation of your school district and all the things that are necessary in order to ensure that you are providing a thorough and efficient education for the students in this district. What you do is, as all of you know, but the public probably uh knows as well, is there are certain things that you have to do. You have to approve curriculum um that meets the New Jersey student learning standards. I highlight that last part because in the past, not necessarily

032here, but in other school districts, there have been, you know, disagreement with New Jerseys student learning standards or disagreement with other policies from New Jersey. At the end of the day, you're a governmental entity that has to abide by all rules and regulations. So, if we disagree with those rules and regulations, you need to try to get them changed. Until they get changed, we've got to follow them regardless of whether we like it or not. Um, adopt a budget. We know that we adopt a budget every year. Um, hiring the necessary certified personnel that's based upon a recommendation by the superintendent. We'll discuss that a little bit more. And developing policies that are for the management of the school district. That's the big picture um piece that is what I would characterize as some of

033the most important things that board members do is policym, planning, and appraisal. You're going to hear me say that a lot during this presentation. Um that is specifically one of the major roles of a board member. Um again the superintendent is going to be making recommendations. The board doesn't necessarily act on its own. Um you do vote on things but ultimately it comes from recommendations made by the superintendent. Um when does the board act? We we we all know this but just for purposes of review there has to be a board meeting. There has to be a quorum. Um, you can have committees that meet and committees can make recommendations, but committees do not take action, right? I think we all know that, but for purposes of the public, um, because committee meetings are less

034than a quorum. They're not official action. We make recommendations, but until the board votes on it, it is not official. Um, the Open Public Meetings Act governs how we operate. We need to be careful when it comes to communications with board members. I'm not I have no problem with people saying, "Hey, I'm sending all the board members an FYI. This is an issue that might come up or you may hear about this in the, you know, from the members of the town. We have to keep this confidential because it's a student issue or it's a employee issue, whatever it is. But they should all be um do not reply all. do not have a group chat where people are going back and forth. Because if we have nine people on a group chat and then

035you're talking about something and you know over the course of 15 minutes there's 2530 messages sent, guess what? You're having a meeting. Did you advertise that meeting? No, you did not. Is the public invited to that meeting? No, they're not. So, we can't do that. Have I seen that happen in real life, so to speak? Have I seen a case that has addressed that? No. Do we want to be the case? No. So, um, just be careful about that. But also, what's important to remember is when we say when do boards act, it's the board that acts as a single unit. We could be sitting here, we could be debating about whether we should do A, do B, um, whatever the case may be. When the board votes, it could be 54, could be 90,

036somewhere in between. Whatever the majority decides is the board of education's position. Regardless of whether you voted no or voted yes, we're now supporting that going forward because that's the board's position. Um because you act as an entity, not as individual members. You have opinions as individual members and you can share those opinions, but once the board acts, then we've got to follow through on that. Um, the other thing that I think members of the public sometimes forget, but we certainly know, we are involved in policymaking, planning, and appraisal. As well, you as board members, not necessarily we, but you know, as board members, you're involved in policymaking, planning, and appraisal. You evaluate outcomes. You don't manage the day-to-day. It's specifically in the school ethics act, it says that you're not to administer the school.

037You you have a policy which mirrors what's in the school ethics act that says that no board member by virtue of his or her office shall exercise any administrative responsibility with respect to the schools or as an individual command the services of any school employee. Again standard um even when you go to visit the school technically you have to you know comply with the visitor policy. So that's the the the main piece that I think members of the public sometimes forget. They kind of think that you run the school district, but you as board members don't. You make sure that the school district is being wellrun. Who runs a school district? Your CEO and CFO, which are going to be your superintendent and your business administrator. So, imagine yourselves as if this were like, you

038know, a big Fortune 500 company. There's a board of directors. Board of directors oversees the direction of the company, but the CEO and the CFO are the people who are making it happen on a day-to-day basis. So that's the distinction between board members and um and the administration. Um you know it's a cooperative relationship not meant to be adversarial. We are supposed to support personnel and the proper performance of their duties. So just be mindful of those things. Um if a question comes up we should always share that with the administration before meeting because that gives the administration the opportunity to review it to determine sometimes they don't know what the issue is. it might be something that's happening at one of the schools and they don't they haven't heard of of it yet. So

039to make sure that there can be an effective public response, we should always share those things. Um be mindful of course what's appropriate for public and not for public. And then the code of ethics for schoolboard members specifically talks about as well as your bylaw that if you're confronted with a community complaint, right, and this happens all the time. Maybe you're at a soccer field or maybe you're at the grocery store and someone says, "Hey, you know, I have this issue with whatever somewhere in the schools this issue because you are all people who volunteer and you're giving your time and you want to help people." The the inclination might be, you know what, I'll take care of that for you. But the answer cannot be that. The answer has to be, have you talked

040to the superintendent? Have you brought this up to the superintendent or anybody else in the schools? If you haven't, I'm going to bring it to the superintendent and you're not going to hear from me probably ever again, but the superintendent or someone else lower in the chain is going to respond to you um as may be necessary. We have to refer all complaints to the superintendent. It's right in the school ethics act. Um can you act on on a complaint at a public meeting? Yes. When can you do that? After there's been some type of failure of an administrative solution. So again, that kind of goes back to the policym, planning, and appraisal piece. Um, you do have to support and protect, as we talked about, school personnel and proper performance of their duty. We

041can't undermine or compromise anybody who is a school employee. That that has happened in other school districts where board members have gotten themselves into some trouble. Um, does that mean that you have to agree with every single thing that the superintendent recommends? No. Um, do you have to act in a manner that's not arbitrary or capriccious and give thought to it? Sure. You know, I mean, absolutely. But in the end, we just need to be mindful of the obligations and making sure we're supporting school personnel and not doing anything that would particularly undermine them. So, again, this is the the presentation that I get to give to probably a dozen districts uh every year. And and this is the the same advice that everybody gets. So, um, again, we talked about how the board acts

042as a unit. I don't know why, every time I give this presentation, I say to myself, I'm going to take this slide out and then I never do it because it's kind of duplicative. We already talked about this, but, um, yeah, the it's basically you act as a single unit. Sometimes there are questions about who responds on behalf of the board. Normally, it's just the board president who speaks on the board's behalf unless someone else is asked specifically to respond. Now, in terms of confidentiality, we know there are a lot of things we have to keep confidential. It doesn't matter if it's your spouse or your brother or your neighbor, regardless of whether or not it might seem innocuous. You know, maybe I have a kid in third grade. My neighbor has a kid in

043third grade, and my neighbor says, "Hey, what's going on with Mrs. Soandso? Um, she hasn't been there." And by the way, I'm just using it as an example. I don't know who teaches third grade in Z Caucus. So, um, but we might know why Mrs. so and so is not there. Can we say it? No. Um, you know, they're entitled to confidentiality, personnel records, uh, student matters, negotiations until you get go to impass, all of those things have to be confidential. And again, it's pursuant to the, uh, school ethics act, that's where all of these things kind of come from. So, just turning over to the school ethics act. So, back in 1991, that was back when I was, uh, you know, senior in high school listening to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, right?

044Everybody remembers that good vibration song? Yes. No. Come on. Really? All right. So, um, in any event, you know, that's when they enacted the school ethics act. Um, the reason was is because there were various boards of education that weren't doing always the right thing and were doing things that would lead the public to think that the public trust was being violated. So, they specifically set forth number of prohibited acts. They also did the code of ethics for board members in 2001 was added. Um, and the school ethics commission oversees all of that. They hear complaints. If there are penalties, if there are violations of the act, they can issue penalties, which we'll talk about. Um, they can also give you advisory opinions about prospective conduct, which is great because even though they will tell

045you that you cannot rely upon an advisory opinion, and that is true, it's true to the extent that if you request an advisory opinion, you give them the information. If you don't give them all the information, garbage in, garbage out, right? You can't rely upon it. But if you give them all of the information and someone down the road brings a school ethics act complaint against you, you generally can feel pretty good about it because the people who are going to decide whether or not you violated the school ethics act are the people who gave the advisory opinion, right? So we kind of know how they are already going to think. Um but it really depends upon what information you give to them. People can file complaints under the school ethics act if it happens.

046People can be reprimanded which is not good. censured, which is even worse, which is a reprimand, but you have to read it at at the day it's here, right? That's never fun to do. You can be suspended or removed theoretically if if you do those different things. Um, most of the time, if the allegations have to do with your performance of your duties as a board member, you get indemnified um for your legal fees. If your actions are private actions that compromise the board and they are outside the performance of your duties, technically not entitled to identification. So just we always have to be mindful of all that. Um in terms of the prohibited acts, we'll kind of go through these quickly. A lot of them are pretty straightforward. They're under the conflicts of interest

047section. We can't act in any official capacity that would where we have an interest either in the business or in a business organization or we engage in some type of business that is in substantial conflict the proper discharge of your duties. Um if you are on some type of an organization that was trying to get rid of all public boards of education and privatize everything that would probably be in substantial uh conflict with your duties as a board member. So things like that. um you can't use your official position to secure unwarranted privileges or advantages or employment either for yourself or your immediate family or others. So, you know, basically we can't do favors for people who don't deserve them or you know those types of things. If you have a direct or indirect financial

048involvement that would be reasonably expected to impair your objectivity or independence of judgment, you should be recusing from voting on anything like that. Similarly, if you or a member of your immediate family has some kind of personal involvement that would create some benefit if you participated in discussions or voted on a topic, you should also be recusing yourself from that topic because then you would be violating the act if you didn't. Um, in terms of employment, whether it's compensated or not, if it would seem to prejudice the independence of judgment and the exercise of your official duties, you can't do that. that would be incompatible. Um, it doesn't come up a lot, but you know, from time to time that might um e, it's very lengthy. I'm just going to tell you like this is

049no bribes. Don't take bribes. Don't tell don't have people give you information, you know, give you things and say, "I want you to do this for me. Here's the pocket of money." Do not do that. That violates the school ethics act in addition to like the law and everything else. But just don't do that. Um, now if someone gives you a gift and there's and it's a like a dimminimous gift and there's no expectation that it has anything to do with your service as a board member, fine. But, you know, we we can't have people giving you gifts and say, "Hey, you know, I know there's a big vote coming up. Maybe you can help me out." That's not going to be okay. Um, you can't use your public office or employment or information that

050you get to then make a profit if you have insider information basically. Right? So we we can't do that. I don't think it really happens very much here, but you could see it happening at not when I say here with boards of ed generally, it doesn't happen at all here. Um but um but when it comes to like you could see like in a municipality if we knew it confidentially that certain land was going to be developed and then you said, "Hey, maybe I should buy that land because I know that the burrow is going to want to buy that land later and I'll make myself a tidy profit." No, that would be inappropriate, right? So, nothing like that could be done here. Um, you can't represent people against the school district. Should be self-explanatory,

051but you can't do that. That doesn't prohibit you from representing your own child like in a due process case or if there's like a HIB case and your child was found to have violated HIB and you want to appeal it to the board. I mean, yeah, you can technically do that. Uh, you can't participate in the discussions. You got to recuse yourself from that, but you you could do it. Um, and then there's a variety of things that says that, sorry, that says that you're not going to be um prohibited from doing certain things. I mean, if someone asks you to make an inquiry for them, um, but they're not promising you any money or gift or anything like that, well, that's fine, right? Um, if you somehow profit in some way, but it has

052really nothing to do with you necessarily being on the board, but you voted on something. And by you voting on something, you profit or you benefit just like everybody else benefits from that vote, that's going to be fine. Um, like if you were, I don't know, whatever. If you were, um, if you if you were voting on something that had to do with, I don't know, the redistricting of the schools or whatever it is, right? Let's say you were doing that. Um, and it's going to benefit you because now your kids's going to have like a, you know, I don't know, a hundred yard walk to school as opposed to having to get on the bus and go somewhere else. I mean, that's going to be true for everyone that lives in that neighborhood, right?

053So, I don't think that that's a going to be an issue. Um, so, you know, those are the those are the important things in terms of the conflicts of interest. In terms of the code of ethics, these are the things that you kind of read every year. Um, a I'm going to uphold and enforce all laws, rules, and regulations to the state board of ed and court orders pertaining to schools. Desire changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures. What does that mean? Um, like we talked about before, if we want to change the law, we've got to lobby to change the law, but we have to obey it as long as it's the law. Obviously, we make decisions with children's um needs first and we're not going to discriminate based upon

054ability, race, creed, sex, social standing. That's that's a given, but you know, it is in the school ethics act. Uh policym, planning, and appraisal comes up. Again, that's what we're going to do. And we also help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them. Now, as I say every time I give this presentation, does that mean that every time you're passing a policy, you got to go knock on everybody's door and ask what they feel about it? No, you do not. Right? But you do have to make sure that we are doing like a first and second reading of the policies. The members of the public have access to it. Um, they can make comments on it if they want. Um, sometimes we do surveys

055and things like that depending upon the nature of the policy, but generally speaking, big picture. Um, and you know, sometimes, for example, like I mean, and I I I use this example. I'm not saying that anyone is looking to do this here, but um, I've seen it happen in other school districts where, let's say you want to do redistricting or whatever it is, right? Okay. In those situations, they often have like a couple of town halls or whatever it is, or they have, you know, various community forums where they can seek input from the public. I think for major decisions like that, that makes sense. So, that's that's really consistent with what your ethical responsibilities are. again carry out your responsibility not to administer the schools but to make sure they're wellrun. And how do

056you do that? You have a superintendent who does all of the evaluations of the staff. You evaluate the superintendent. That's how you you you evaluate outcomes, not get involved in how the job gets done. Um don't make any personal promises or take any private action that could compromise the board. We'll see in some examples. People have done that in other school districts and have gotten themselves into hot water. We don't surrender independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups. We don't use our, you know, our position to for the personal gain or the gain of friends. Keep everything confidential. We know that. And also provide accurate information when you do provide information to the public. Uh vote to appoint the best qualified personnel after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer. um

057support and protect school personnel. We talked about that. And then referring complaints to the chief administrative officer and only acting on them in public if there's a failure of an administrative solution. Again, we kind of summarized a bunch of those in the beginning. Um in terms of hiring, right? I mean, so the superintendent makes the recommendations under the code or under the statute. The board can't actually hire anybody other than the superintendent unless the superintendent makes a recommendation. So sometimes, you know, you might have a member of the public saying, "I can't believe you hired that guy." Well, we have a superintendent who recommended the person for hire. We either vote yes or no. Do you have to vote yes every single time? Absolutely not. Can you decide that you're going to flip a coin?

058Uh decide whether you're going to vote yes or no? You should not do that. That's the definition of arbitrary or capriccious, right? But if you have like a valid reason why, you know, you say, "I looked at the resume. I don't I think we can do better or I don't really like this person's experience." You can vote no. you you are one of nine and you can vote the way that you want to vote on those things but so long as it's not arbitrary or capriccious that's fine. Um I think somewhere in this slide later I'll kind of skip through it in terms of hiring practices. Some boards in the past have had uh board members involved in some capacity in hiring principles or hiring a business administrator or something like that. New the the

059the New Jersey uh school ethics commission really doesn't want boards to do that. It's kind of blurring the lines at best. If you have a member or two sitting in on interviews, not participating, but just observing and giving feedback, that could be fine, but we don't want to overstep the role of the superintendent. So things that are pro these are just examples of kind of violations but also things that you have if someone files a school ethics complaint they have to say that these things happened otherwise they're not going to move forward with them. Um and some of these are just kind of straightforward. Um you know taking deliberate action that's going to undermine or compromise or harm school personnel. Yeah that's a problem. Um giving direct orders to school personnel or being directly involved

060in day-to-day activities. Yeah that's also a problem. Um so those are things that can kind of come up. So advisory opinions. So, a couple of things just kind of breezing through some of these. Can school board members conduct exit interviews? The answer is no. You It doesn't really matter if you have not that it doesn't matter. Let me rephrase. If you have concerns about staff turnover, if you have concerns um about why people are leaving, you should express those to the superintendent. and the superintendent is going to be the person who is either going to personally do or give to others uh the requirement to conduct exit interviews, things like that. There was a case um from years ago where a board member decided, well, I don't think the superintendent's going to do it, so

061I'm going to do them. Well, she got removed from the board um in that particular board of ed. She really overstepped her bounds. So, um can you interview prospective candidates for employment? Again, as we talked about, you can sit theoretically on an interview committee if it's like a very high level position. Um, but the school ethics commission doesn't really love that. They they try to steer people away from doing that. Um, can you advocate for your own child's special ed placement? Sure, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that. Um, but can you sue the school district seeking money? No, that you cannot do. Can you can you have a request for due process with the school district and say, "I don't think my kids's getting an appropriate education." and he needs more or she needs more,

062which might even be like an out of district school. Yeah, that's fine, but you can't sue like seeking damages. So, that's that's the distinction. Um, we had a case uh or or a situation where um a school board member asked me to assist him with getting an a um an advisory opinion about whether a district teacher could tutor his child. as it happened, the school board member spouse uh just just did it and didn't tell him and then he realized it afterwards. So he said, "Okay, well, I can't go back and undo what happened, but what about in the future?" And they said, "No, you can do that. Um especially if it's not like, you know, your your child's teacher for the upcoming year or the current year, but keep in mind the limitations you're

063putting on yourself when you do that. Probably not going to be able to participate in negotiations, right? that would make it look weird. Um and the um the public might think like well maybe uh that person is has you know mixed motives or whatever. You might not be able to probably would not be able to evaluate the superintendent or serve on negotiations. Maybe you could maybe you could evaluate the superintendent but you probably couldn't serve on negotiations. So think about things like that when we make a decision to um to have a teacher tutor uh your child. Now these I you know look I understand where they come from but some of them are amusing because you know here you are you're volunteering and the school ethics commission is like we love it that you

064volunteer but don't volunteer too much or at least don't do it in a way that we don't like which is fine. um volunteering for theatrical productions by being involved in casting, rehearsals, stuff like that. Being like an assistant director, that's too much like being an employee. And you might be giving direct orders to school personnel and students or you might be taking direct orders from school personnel. That not okay. Um same thing with being a leader of a school club that meets on school grounds. Too too blurry there. It looks too much like you're administering the schools. So that's not okay. Now, conversely, can you construct sets for the school musicals and plays? You don't really have anything to do with the kids, but you're just making the sets. Fine. Can you assist the marching

065band by basically loading and unloading, you know, the uh the equipment and and stuff like that? Yeah, fine. That's that's okay. Um, if you have a local educational foundation, can you serve as a trustee on that board, too? Because like you don't volunteer time enough, but we want to volunteer even more. Can you do it? Yes. But if the local educational foundation is donating something to the board or doing something, wants to use space, can you participate as a board member in those discussions or voting? No. Right? So, you have to keep that in mind. Uh, can you work the chains at a high school football game? Yeah. Right. I mean, I don't know if that's a fun thing to do or if that's a penalty, but either way, um, you can do it without

066violating your your board membership. So, just kind of skimming through some of these We had a board member many many years ago in a different school district who decided that um superintendent was not in town um and who decided that she wanted to review resumeumés for a candidate for an open position. Uh resumes that weren't being recommended for hire. Uh this superintendent wasn't there. The director of human resources wasn't there. She told the assistant superintendent, "I need you to open up his office and go in there and get that because I need to see them." No, that was not appropriate. she uh got a censure that they had to read at the board meeting. Um so that you can't do. Uh in one case, there were two board members who were convinced that the director

067of special services was double dipping. They did their own investigation and they came to the superintendent. They said, "We've done this investigation. You've got to fire this person." Well, two things. Number one, shouldn't be doing the investigation. If you hear a complaint, you're referred to the superintendent. Number two, it's a good thing that they don't do that for a living because their investigation was bad and they had the wrong information. Um, so they got in trouble. Um, can't do that. Uh, another example, you know, uh, this school district in Bergen County decided that they were going to use, um, MacBook Pros or MacBooks or whatever for their technology plan. This particular board member didn't like that. Thought that that you could do better if you had Chromebooks. Okay. the administration had looked into all that

068and had made a presentation and said this is what we're doing. She decided not good enough. She went and she got quotations from various vendors. How much would it be to get like 2,000 Chromebooks or whatever it was? Um she said in her communications, "We're looking to move students over to Chromebooks as part of our one-toone program." That wasn't true. That wasn't true at all. Um and um and also I mean like she also kind of representing that she might be per doing the purchase whatever. Anyway, it got back. It was a problem. This goes beyond policymaking, planning and appraisal. This is now running the school district, right? And also she took private action that theoretically could have compromised the board because she was implying that you know they were looking to purchase Chromebooks and

069they could have arguably there could have been a lawsuit where they would have said hey we spent all this time and money preparing a quote. you didn't even have authority to solicit this. So, you know, keeping that in mind, um, can can you participate in HI discussions when your child is the alleged offender? No. Should this board member have known that? Yes. Uh, were they told by their board attorney, who shall remain nameless, that they shouldn't do it? Yes. They do it anyway? Yes. Did they get in trouble? Yes. So, don't do those things. Um, you know, this other one, uh, the last the second to last one here was just someone was basically using their board email to have like a very nice function on school grounds, but it wasn't school sponsored. You know,

070it was private action that could have compromised the board. You probably should know that whenever you send an email that says just between you and me, that kind of looks like you're trying to hide information. Don't do that. Don't send emails like that. In any event, she got in trouble for that one. Um, making accusations against the superintendent um, and contacting staff directly via text message to question the building principal, like trying to get the dirt on the building principal. That was a problem. Um, that is is kind of going above and beyond. and also it's now blurring the lines between administering the schools and not taking private action that compromise the boards. Those things are not not okay. Um this other one a board member heard that the NFL was going to try to

071you know use their facilities for something big deal, right? NFL said let's keep it private. We don't want to tell anybody until we come to a decision. We went and told everybody that was not okay. Um you know like what I like to say about executive session is it's like Vegas. what happens in executive session stays in executive session. That's one where he got himself into trouble there. Um you know if if there if there are issues that you have a personal interest in technically you have to recuse yourself. This I feel bad for this lady because it was a superintendent which is not subject to the school ethics act but subject no excuse me which is not subject to the code of ethics but is subject to the school ethics act and the prohibited

072act section. her daughter was on a list of 300 substitutes. I'm not 100% convinced that she knew that it person was on there, but she was. She recommended it. You're not supposed to recommend hiring your own uh you know, relatives. So, that was a problem. Got reprimanded for that. Um, if there's a lawsuit against the board and there's a lawsuit individually against board members and you're settling that lawsuit, you obviously approve the settlement, you know, as an individual. But when the board is voting on it and discussing it, you really need to step out because otherwise they're going to think like you're recommending the settlement for your own personal reasons and not for the board. That could be a problem. Um, this was just about indemnification of legal fees. This is just this is like

073a a lengthy case. It's not that interesting. But if there are private actions that you are taking that compromise the board and then you have to defend yourself even if you're vindicated if it's outside of your board responsibilities not entitled toification for the legal fees. So just keeping that in mind. um you can make motions to, you know, to to to decide to put things on hold or stuff like that that's not violating the act. In this particular case, this board in Montgomery had just approved full day kindergarten. And then like right after that happened, the a board member said, "Hey, I want to look into the financial impact. I'm not sure that the information that we gave to the public was right. I want to suspend all work on this." She made a motion.

074It was defeated. it didn't get passed and she was actually wrong, but it didn't violate the act. Was it a great idea? No. But it was fine. Um, when you talk to reporters, which, you know, be very cautious about. Um, the argument was that they were criticizing the outgoing superintendent. Here, it's pretty clear it was the guy's personal opinion. He wasn't speaking as a board member. That was fine. Um, stuck here. doesn't want to go anymore. Well, in any event, what I will tell you is even if you don't see it up on the on the screen, if there's if there's confidential information that you are privy to as a board member about a lawsuit and you give that information to the person that is suing the board, what do you think is going to

075happen? You're going to get in trouble. It's not allowed, right? Can't do that. Um, so, you know, those are those are issues that come up from time to time. I don't know if we'll get this back on, but I'll just kind of zoom through some of these here. Um, there are some situations where, very rare, where someone violated the act, there was no penalty. They had one guy who was a volunteer football coach. He got appointed to the board. Um, he didn't realize that he couldn't do both things. He served as a volunteer football coach for two more months. They basically said to use a sports analogy, no harm, no foul, right? Like it wasn't that big of a deal. He didn't know that he couldn't do it. That's unusual. Usually ignorance of the law

076is not a defense, but it wasn't a big deal in this particular one. Um here's a good one that you should uh never do, but uh in Woodbine uh Board of Ed, so a board member had a friend of hers who was a school employee. She was being disciplined. There was a discussion in executive session. the board member's friend, you know, the employee who's being disciplined, said to the board member, "Hey, I want you to take this letter that I wrote. I want you to give it to the board secretary, I want you to make copies for all the board members, but don't give it to the superintendent." Alarm bells should have been going off for this person, but somehow they were not. Um, and then during the executive session, then they started questioning the

077superintendent. That's not okay. That's not the way that these things are supposed to go. what she should have done is recused herself from being involved at all, uh, she was suspended for 60 days. Um, which is, uh, pretty significant. Um, also, if you're a board member and someone comes and they speak in public and you don't like what they have to say, do you think it's a good idea for you to call their employer, which is another public school district down the road, and basically try to get them fired? Nope. That's not a thing that you should do. um that was seen as trying to silence members of the public. That was not appropriate. Um so those are things that you can't do. Um you know, the remainder of the cases, generally speaking, are along

078the same lines. Um you know, being mindful of your obligations um as a board member, you know, what you can and can't say. Um I don't know, at some point maybe it'll come. I have to if I escape and go back if that changes. No, it's just frozen. there. Anyway, without putting it up there, I can still tell you that when it comes to free speech, do you as board members give up your rights to have opinions on things? No, you do not. Um, but you do have to be kind of careful about what you do and say. Um, what you basically want to know and keep in mind is that if you're going to write a letter to the editor or if you're going to say something on social media, you should probably disclose

079that you are a board member and that this is your own personal opinion. It is not authorized by the board. You're not speaking on behalf of the board. So forth and so on. Generally speaking, when you do those things, you're going to be fine. Um, there are scenarios where people did that, but then they wrote like an like a letter to the editor and it said we we we and all these things and it really sounded like it was be speaking on behalf of the board. That guy still got in trouble. But generally speaking, you can do it. You just need to be mindful of not making it seem like it's the board's position. Um, you know, usually if there is going to be a response that's brought on behalf of the board, it typically

080is going to be the board president who's going to have that communication with whether it's a reporter or the public or whatever it is. But as individual board members, you can still have opinions on things. Just think about how you broadcast that. And when it comes comes to social media, I just kind of tell people use good judgment. I mean, if so, to use a dated reference, I used to say when I started giving these presentations, if you wouldn't want your email or social media post to be on the front page of the New York Times, then don't do that. Now, I guess we would say if you don't want it to go viral, right? Don't do it. Also, my other rule of thumb gratuitously is that if you're typing something, whether it's an email

081or it's a social media post or whatever, and you say, "Oh, I wonder if um wonder if someone might find this offensive." Stop. You answered your own question. Right? If you had to wonder it, the answer is yes. someone's going to find it offensive. Think about whether or not you really want to sign that. Um so because that's where we see um some board members in different districts sometimes get in trouble because they just kind of go a little bit overboard with social media. Now does that mean that you can't do things like someone on social media says, "Hey, when's the board meeting?" Um yeah, you can respond to that and say when the board meeting is, but be very cautious about someone who might say, "Well, I heard the board is doing this." and

082then you jump in and say, "Well, we're not actually doing that or this is why we're do let's have those discussions held in public at a public meeting." Um, and then finally, when it comes to recusing yourself, um, you can all see this at a later date when we get it back up there, but there is a chart that I look at every time. And what it really depends upon is, and it's really three things you have to think about. participating in negotiations, voting to ratify the contract after negotiations are done and participating in the superintendent evaluation, right? Or hiring as the case may be. So if you um are a current member of a similar union statewide, right? So let's say I'm an employee as a teacher in ABC school district and I'm in

083the NJA. Can I participate in negotiations here? No. Um, once the negotiations are all done, can I vote to ratify the contract? Yes. And can I participate in superintendent issues? Yes. Unless there's some other weird uh factors like if I'm the if I'm the head negotiator for my union or I'm the grievance chairperson, maybe not. We have to kind of look at that. Um, now when it comes to your spouse, if you have a spouse who is employed here or a dependent child, even any kind of a relative who's employed here in the district, the answer is no on everything, right? Can I participate in negotiations? No. Can I vote to ratify the contract? No. Can I participate in superintendent issues who since my relative is directly or indirectly evaluated by the superintendent? No. Um,

084none of those things are appropriate. Um so again that's for people who are now I will also say pe so if I have a spouse who is an administrator in another school district can I participate in administrative negotiations here? No. Can I participate in the sea negotiations? Probably yes. Yeah. And so you know it really depends upon what unit they're in. Um, and then if you have non-dependent children who are or or relatives who are employed in other school districts, the answer is usually going to be yes. Unless, like I said before, are they the grievance chairperson in the other district? Are they the head negotiator? Um, is there some kind of high ranking position that they hold that would make it seem to members of the public like you might not have the board's

085best interests in mind. You might have like the teachers or administrators best interest in mind. So those are the things that we think about um whenever they come up. You know, you can always ask us for opinion. Um, if we usually we know because we give this presentation every year, but every now and then there's a wild case and you know, it's very unusual and that's where we say if you want we can contact the school ethics commission and we can get an advisory opinion. Turnaround time is usually like two two and a half months depending upon when they're meeting but you can usually get an advisory opinion and they can um take an act on that. So anyway um so that's the conclusion of the presentation. I don't know if anybody has any questions.

086I don't know how long that was. I tried to keep it short, but I don't think I was that successful. But um but in any event, uh that's all the information uh with regard to the school ethics act. Any question? >> I just had one question. Um I don't know if anybody else did, but in in going back to what you said about family members, but let's say a board member had a brother that was a principal in another district. >> Yeah. >> Can't participate in anything that has to do with the principal's contract. Correct. >> Negotiations for the principal. >> Negot. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Um the theory, by the way, is that >> if I have a relative who's going to be financially theor in theory, >> if I give a big

087salary increase here, >> right, then maybe they can use it as comparative purposes to get a big salary increase in their district. And so, you know, that the public might think that you have their interests in mind more than the board. That's the theory. Sometimes it's very attenuated, >> but like with direct relatives, that's what they want you to do. >> Okay. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Okay. Jerry, >> retired member at the NJA, but I'm a still a teacher for district. >> What should I not be following? >> Um, you're a retired member, but are you still you still teach in a district? >> Still teach for the county schools. >> I guess you're still technically covered by the contract, right? >> I'm a part-timer. Okay. I'm in no unions or anything

088now. >> Right. Um I'll double check. You probably should not participate only in negotiations with the teachers union. I don't think >> you get back to me. >> I don't think anything more than that, >> but he can ratify the contract. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Yeah. Once it's wrote that down. >> No question. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you very much. Thanks, Beck. Just wanted to give everyone a chance to get back. >> Okay, moving on to correspondence. >> No correspondence. Interim superintendent report. Mandated reporting. Okay, so much of my report this evening is tied up with the comprehensive presentation you heard about the early childhood program. So I do want to thank the administrative team and the staff at Milbridgeidge School for their thoughtful work in developing

089and refining this important initiative. Um beyond the early childhood update, I wanted to just briefly highlight several important district activities and engagements. First of all, I was very happy to be able to spend some time this morning at the ribbon cutting ceremony that was held at the new Patriot Perk at Caucus High School. Patriot Perk is a project that was has been in the works from what I understand for many years. It's a collaboration between our food service vendor Mashios and our life skills program and it allows students to run a cafe for and also for lunch. program looks to expand operations as the students gain experience and right now um it is a very financially beneficial operation. Um Mr. Vigani reported that they are doing very well financially so it's really they have a

090great start. Next week we will celebrate ReadAcross America week. I look forward to spending time in our classrooms reading with students and engaging with our staff. The annual celebration is more than a tradition. It's a reminder of a core mission to foster lifelong love of learning. So, I'm eager to visit our elementary schools and witness firsthand the creative activities our educators have planned. I also look forward to continuing our work through the visions committee. Our most recent meeting fostered through uh thoughtful dialogue, innovative ideas, and meaningful community input on the C caucus schools future directions. Wanted to sincerely thank Mrs. Dearry, the other board members in attendance, and the community members who participated. Your engagement, insights, and willingness to collaborate are invaluable as we work together to shape a shared vision for our school district.

091I look forward to the next phase, hearing directly from our staff and our upcoming vision at our upcoming visions committee sessions. Voice of our educators and support staff is essential to ensuring our strategic planning reflects the realities of classroom practice and district operations. Um the other thing I just wanted to mention is that the district participated or created survey regarding the calendar for next year and in general um the the survey was really not the most decisive. Okay. So ultimately two calendars were offered um in this vote. There was option A, option B. Option A was basically the traditional start after Labor Day but that extends the school year late. Option B was a calendar that starts earlier on September 1st. And ultimately, um, with that and with input from the SEA, the board is

092going to be moving ahead this evening with with option A, which is a calendar that starts after Labor Day and ends on the 24th of June. So that is the option. There is a resolution. It does not specify. it will specify that we are going ahead with option A the traditional calendar. Oh, in the HIV report I forgot to mention um during this reporting period there were two cases of HIV. After investigation, one of those cases was found to be an actual case of HIV. The other case was unfounded. >> Thank you, Dr. Tobac. Harassment, Intimidation, Bullying Report for the period of December 19th, 2025 through January 22nd, 2026. >> Second discussion all the roll. >> Mr. Bartletta, >> yes. >> Miss Dennetta, >> yes. >> Mr. Barry, >> yes. >> Mr. Deombre, >> yes.

093Miss Eckles, >> yes. >> Miss Geller, >> yes. >> Mr. Lewis, >> yes. >> Mr. Lions, >> yes. >> Student safety data system reporting for period 1, September 3rd, 2025 through December 31st, 2025. >> Make a motion. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Call the role. >> Mr. Bartletta? >> Yes. >> Miss Detta? >> Yes. >> Mr. Barry? >> Yes. Mr. Deombre, >> yes. >> Miss Eckles, >> yes. >> Miss Geller, >> yes. >> Mr. Lewis, >> yes. >> Mr. Lions, >> yes. >> Business administrative board secretary report. >> Yes. Tonight I do have a report. Tonight under operations committee under finance, we will be adding three resolutions. R 4.15 which reads be it resolved by the Caucus board of education here and after referred to as the board that the items stipulations and conditions as

094established in the settlement agreement and general release in the matter pending in the superior court of New Jersey Law Division Hudson County docket bearing docket number HUD-L L-1653-20 which is annexed to this resolution are hereby adopted and approved by the board. We will also be adding resolution 41.6 six which states be it resolved by the Caucus Board of Education here and after referred to as the board that the terms stipulations and conditions as established in the settlement agreement and general release in the matter pending in the Superior Court of New Jersey Lord Division Hudson County bearing docket number HUD-L2844-20 which is annexed to this resolution are hereby by adopted and approved by the board and resolution R4.17 approval to advertise to receive proposals for a firm to conduct our superintendent search and under governance as

095Dr. Tobach just stated for the school year calendar 2627 we will be approving option one school year to start after Labor Day. Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank Mr. Heene, Mr. Mendoza, and the entire custodial team for their hard work and cleaning and preparing our schools to open after the monumental snowstorms we have recently had. Your hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed and it is greatly appreciated. Thank you so very much. Thank you. >> Thank you, Grace. Public forum agenda items. None. Public forum general. Moving on. Governance personnel. Good evening everyone. The governance committee met on February 3rd. We approved the second reading of several policies uh and regulations uh including nepotism, sexual harassment, conduct of the board uh meeting and the use of electronic devices by board members at public

096meetings. Group also reviewed uh the use of facilities policy and the student use of uh internet enabled devices. Uh we were informed that interviews uh were ongoing for our elementary school for a teacher in Clarin and that we will be looking to approve the hiring of a transportation supervisor as well as approvals uh hiring for PDM custodians and substitute teacher. The committee also discussed the early childhood learning program PK uh tuition rate. uh we discussed the program itself along with the uh comparison of the previous tuition rates uh for the previous year. The we also discussed the district calendar and the preliminary results from the survey. We also have several emerging items which are numbers R 1.11 through R8 which included uh medical leave, retirement and resignation. It also uh had position appointments uh including

097appointments for the boys volleyball team and the approval of the principal assistant principal salaries for the 2025 2026 school year. Thank you. >> Thank you, Alex. Policy. >> That was >> Oh, you covered it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I missed that. Sorry. >> Education. >> Good evening all. The education committee met on February 12th this month. A big part of our meeting was allocated to discuss the benchmark a data analysis presentation that took place during the board meeting in January. The committee discussed the data presented and there was a consensus that this is not the time to look who is to blame for but rather this is the time to build a foundation to move forward and help our students to achieve their goals. We encourage all our parents to look at the data and

098to know where their students are. The district is also committed to provide the resources and support to our students and our faculty. Um, our next news was, and everybody talked about this news already, the superintendent and the student representatives. The district is excited. I'm going to repeat it because it is very exciting news. The district is excited to announce opening of the community workbased learning opportunity Patriots per cafe. Today was the big grand opening and from now on the cafe will be open Tuesday and Thursdays selling prepackaged foods. Uh peer leaders and our high school special education students will be working in a cafe. Uh I have a please mark your calendar moment as well. Um our um Sikakus Middle Schools and Sikakus High School special education transition fair will take place on March 11th.

099And we have two resolutions to vote on today. Uh the district is looking for approval for a number of field trips and also to revise the high school program of studies. Uh there are number of revisions that we are looking for. They include um New Jersey graduation assessment requirements. Uh we are looking to senior opportunity credit requirements um certain prerequisite updates uh and dual enrollment edits as well. >> Thank you Tatiana operations finance. >> So at this month's meetings we were updated and had discussions on uh following uh throughout the district door and window shades are being uh are being replaced as needed. There were 243 school dude tickets that were closed. 65 are still open. At Claron School, the EP pod pump was replaced. At Huber Street School, the burner uh there was a

100burner replacement in boiler number two. At the middle school high school, the stage heat at the pack was replaced. Um the Patriot uh perk cafe in the media center is now open. Our architect submitted proposal for a new elevator. Uh Miss uh submitted uh grants for uh one for phone free schools and one for high impact tutoring. We were also updated on budget and monthly financials. We had two emerging items this month uh which are uh R4.13 and R4.14. And finally, we also wanted to uh commend the buildings and ground staff for their excellent job on uh snow removal and get the kids back in school. That's it. >> Thank you, Joe. Someone please make a motion to move all the items on the agenda. >> Make a motion to accept all the items on

101the agenda. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Call the role. >> Mr. Bartletta? >> Yes. >> Miss Diodeta? >> Yes. >> Mr. M Barry. >> Yes. >> Mr. Deombre. >> Yes. >> Miss Eckles. >> Yes. To all, but I need to abstain from R4.02 and R4.03. >> Miss Keller. >> Yes. Mr. Lewis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Delions. >> Yes. >> Ad hog committee shared services um is scheduled to meet on March 2nd. No meeting for legislation or athletics technology communications meeting was held on February 5th that are we reading the report? Who's the chair of technology? Melissa. Oh, she's not here. Okay. Um Okay. Visions meeting was held February 17th. >> So I will try to make this brief. We met our first um just really quickly what we put out to everyone was the SECOX

102board of education visions committee is made up of district administrators, teachers, parents and board members who work collaboratively to develop a shared vision for the future of our school district. So our first meeting was with community members and I will try to make it as brief as possible as it was I think almost two and a half hours long. So, basically what I did is I had people send me two or three items that we do in our district really well and two or three items that they would like us to see improved. And just to give you some topics, we've talked about which was Amplify ELA and our test scores. And we talked about how we could review the data and see if Amplify is really helping our students review the test scores and

103see how we can improve them. Another thing was we talked about was inclusion in special ed and how the inclusion in preK to second grade is great, but we need to do better. We talked about technology in the classroom and AI and helping our students learn about using AI for current um education practices and future jobs. We also talked about libraries, reading and screen time and looking at um a more blended approach to learning. Talked about phone use in the classrooms and a grant where looking uh we put in for for turning phones in. However, it is noted that phones are being turned in at the beginning of class. also talked about academic support and a comprehensive program to help our lower level learners and to stage people up staffing. Uh we also talked about

104our college and school culture patriot pride and also a big topic was communication how we have so many platforms and having a one central location where all of our information is for the district would be fantastic. And basically what we need to do is package the discussion points and identify clear goals so that we can move forward. Our next meeting is on Monday which will be with staff and then Monday afternoon we will meet with administrators and then we'll collaborate on all the information we gather. >> Thank you Christina. So next month we will have the technology communication report read by Melissa. Unfortunately because of the change of the date of the meeting she was unable to attend. her daughter is competing for her cheerleading team down in Atlantic City. So, we wish them lots

105of luck. Next is negotiations. We negotiated um the director's contract. That meeting was held on February 12th. Policy special committee meeting was held on February 5th and Jerry will read the minutes from that meeting. >> First of all, thanks to President Detta, Vice President Dari and Trusty Miss Eckles. We uh put discuss that as well as I apologize as well as using Strauss Esme and the committee felt that Strauss Esme has been doing a great job. We need we don't need to look elsewhere for that and also we reviewed what the NJSBA offers us and it's very restricted. Uh a discussion was held in the chain of command for any kind of district input to changing policies with suggestions being brought to the building administrators and the superintendent and finally policy committee. Uh if there

106are any suggestions committee change if there are suggest changes to the policies they'll be discussed by the policy committee. Uh Strauss asked me will be present at an upcoming board meeting to review what they what services they offer to us and the board members then will be able to decide whether we want to continue using them or make any change to it. And that was uh pretty much what we covered. Thank you. Sorry. >> Thank you, Jerry. Board member comments. >> I just want to say I know we've been here almost two hours. Everybody wants to get out of here, but I also wanted to thank the buildings and ground staff for all of their hard work. Bill Haney and his team did an excellent job at getting us ready to open. So, thank you

107once again to those guys. Um, also want to say congratulations and best wishes to Mrs. Edmmonds on her retirement and also mention that I was also there today at the ribbon cutting for the Patriot Perk. And I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped get this off the ground. It's a great great thing for the kids and it was very nice to be there. So I appreciate the invite. >> That's it. >> I just want to thank Mrs. Rivera and Mrs. Lein for their presentation tonight. It was wonderful. I want to wish the boys and girls basketball team good luck. Also, I want to thank Huber Street for PTA for their founders day night. As a past president, it's a wonderful night and to see those first graders perform with

108their sign language. It's wonderful. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing Clarence's Founders Day and have a good night. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good night, everyone. Motion to close. >> Motion to close. >> Second. All in favor? Bye.