001looks amazing you guys did a really good job this year I guess now we're getting over to Kobe and everyone's back all right I call to order a regular meeting of the watch and Borough School District Board of Education on May 9 2023 at 7 pm please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome to the meeting of the Board of Education of the borough of Watchung please be advised that this meeting in all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open Public's meeting Act and that the advance notice required therein was provided this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of the borough
002of Watchung at which formal action may be taken this meeting is being live streamed on the district website there is a recording of the meeting also will be posted the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda at points in the meeting provided for the public to address the board recording or photographing other than for private personal use requires the consent of parents Guardians whose children may be included in the image can you please do a roll call Mr baccarelli here Mr Freeze Mr Gonzalez Mrs Harvey here Mr engracia here Mrs Jewett here Mr Morales here Mrs Murad here Mrs O'Donnell here we have a quorum can I have a motion to go into executive session so moved is there a second yes I like discussion and a roll call
003vote please sure so it was surprised to me that it's at the beginning of the meeting Amber because as you know we had a meeting of the search committee on Friday and you agreed that we would put this at the end of the meeting and that there was no reason to put it at the beginning of the meeting uh at first we thought we might discuss candidates for the interim superintendent and that should be a private but you know Mr Alexis says we don't have that many candidates it's premature I think your reason was Gwen wasn't going to be around at the end of the meeting and then I said well you know what is this check mark pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation and or matters of attorney-client privilege if you recall you
004didn't remember that time I didn't know the check mark was and I couldn't and then once Mr Alexis read it then I remembered it yeah then after a couple of times he said oh yeah that's because all this controversy we have and you know we might need a lawyer's advice on it and I said what you know I said to myself well that's a pretty uh pretty surprising to me you wouldn't remember that one uh and then I told you my concerns with it right my concerns are that I know what happened outside the meeting and if we go to this executive session I'm gonna be my hands are going to be tied because whatever comments I could make I'm now going to be painted with whatever we discuss in this executive session and I
005think the public is you know deserves to hear more about what went on as far as we know what that wasn't in the executive session before we start discussing the legal liabilities of what went on before the executive session okay to which I told you something very clearly that if this topic did come up that you are opening the district up to Legal liability that your your comments will open up the district to legalize that's a funny thing that you know my comments could open the yeah but it was your actions that are actually opening up the there were the the board to Legal library that you're thinking and just to clarify that that is why we're going into Executive Center right right motions call the question what was that Anthony make a motion to
006call the question to have a vote to go into executive session okay all in favor Anthony Anthony like we're in the middle of a discussion you can't keep trying to stop everybody from discussing things emotion has been made all the questions Morata I find it it's so widely inappropriate that you think Mr buckarelli is going to say something inappropriate when you supposedly leaked executive session information which executive session information was leaked so you're denying it I'm not denying it I am telling you no executive session right okay and you put us in potential legal Jeopardy okay so I I just don't understand why this board doesn't want to discuss anything we just want to cut board members off we want to make motions to just stop discussion it's very telling of the both of us
007Harvey that this is what you think it has for the rest of us can I ask her a warrior what that means so Robert's Rules right so does that mean anybody who doesn't like what we're discussing can say motion to call the question and then nobody can talk anymore is there a second on the motion to call the question is there a second second so now we can have discussion on that subsidiary motion if there's no discussion on the subsidiary motion then there is a roll call on whether or not uh the first motion to go into executive session will be voted on okay I'd like a discussion on the subsidiary motion that that's at the president's discretion are we going to have are we going to have a discussion on the subsidiary motion no
008I think the the comment has been clear that any discussion on that topic so I think it's it's time for a roll call so in other words it just gives clear our councils here so anytime Mrs Murad wants or Mr engracia wants they can stop us from talking by saying motion to call the question and then the public doesn't get to hear what I who've been elected to this office have to say is that right the board addresses how meetings are to be conducted and if there's no specific answer in those bylaws it defaults to Robert's Rules the subsidiary motion that was made is appropriate and any member you included any member here can make that motion it was proper properly made it was seconded and I believe we're going to have a roll call
009now no but now we're not going to have a discussion right she can cut off the discussion about the subsidiary motion since right because you just said it's a hard discretion I'm not going to say she the board president recognized emotions that would be a she the board president recognized the motion and you say now she the board president can say fine I in my discretion don't want anybody to talk about this anymore right is that what you're saying the conversation if any right now would be about calling the question exactly that's I I know I'm following along and she can recognize comment or not she is the president this body appointed her presence the bylaws indicate that your bylaws indicator okay so she can now say whenever she wants and as long as the
010board votes with her that she doesn't want to hear what other people want to say about it I'm talking about what the board president wants or not the order of business up to this point has been consistent with Robert's Rules and viewer bylaws well obviously if the board president wants to cut off discussion that's what she wants to do I mean you guys talk about Robertson the discussion is on calling this question I know all you want to do is hide I don't want to stop the debate you want to hide everything why not let us talk you have been hurt for the past five meetings you have been heard at this point you're you're tired I am not tired of you talking I am just saying Mr buckarelli as my email stated you are
011opening this board and District into legal liabilities that is true because of the information that you think happened or did not happen so I would strongly recommend going into executive session right now and I would like a roll call please the recommendation or an order it's a recommendation roll call please Mr buckarelli no but we're voting on the wrong thing though we're voting on a subsidiary matter you just voted to go into executive session that's not the vote before the board is it Madam Secretary the vote that's being called right now is the motion to call the question so let's begin the roll call emotionally cut off debate yes can there be a roll call in motion to call the question Mr buckarelli no Mr freyj just to clarify I do not know what call
012the question means I apologies it means thank you may I yes it it means that uh further discussion on whether or not we're going to go into executive session will end if this motion passes then uh the board secretary will move to uh for a vote on going into executive session okay yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Harvey no Mr ingrassia yes Mrs Jewett yes Mr Morales yes Mrs Murad yes Mrs O'Donnell yes motion passes can I have a roll call on moving into executive session Mr buckarelli uh no because we didn't get a chance to talk about it and my colleague Mrs Harvey was not able to be heard Mr fresh yes Mr Gonzalez yeah Mrs Harvey now Mr and Gracia yes Mrs Jewett yes Mr Morales yes Mrs Murad yes Mrs O'Donnell yes motion
013passes gonna go into executive session um where only the items that are discussed will be stated in the agenda uh Beverly can you please read the reason for going into executive session okay resolve the board of education at jurors to closed session to discuss oops I've got one page here seven pending or anticipated litigation or a contract negotiation and or matters of attorney client privilege and eight specific perspective or current employees unless all who could be adversely affected request an open session further resolvements of this closed session be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists the board will be in executive session for approximately a half an hour actually can I have a motion to come out of executive session so move is there any discussion all in favor say aye aye
014aye any opposed or going at this time we're going to move on to a presentation by the watch and historical Commission good evening we appreciate a few minutes of your time tonight to discuss the legend of Watchung mural I'm Steve poet former mayor and a member of the Watchung historical committee this is Chris vanderfleet current chairman of the Watchung historical committee among others in the audience I know there's other members of the of the historical committee our current mayor is here today several Council people here today and I appreciate everybody who's come uh to be here for this so to level set everyone the legend of wah Chung Muro is a 10 foot by 16 foot oil painting on canvas that was commissioned to be created and then subsequently it was displayed for 52 years
015at the former and now demolished Watchung Sears store it was unveiled by the mayor at that time Ken Schmidt the mural was painted by Garfield Hunter Jones a nationally recognized artist who had been hired by Sears Roebuck in in the 1960s to humanize what was at the time one of the largest stores in New Jersey in each of his paintings and he did several paintings in for New York for Sears stores across the country Jones tried to personalize his work by depicting something that was relevant to watch hung and its residents in this case the lanapi Indian tribe who we now live who we know now lived on and traveled throughout the Watchung area for years now fast forward 50 years after the 1960s once they were told that the Sears building would be demolished
016following the planning board application approval in 2016. the Watchung historical committee began to aggressively organize to have that mural safely removed restored and preserved this was accomplished by September 2017 thanks to an outpouring of support and donations which numbered over 200 donations and over twenty thousand dollars total the Watchung historical committee last met with Watchung Board of Education on June 9 2022 almost a year now the board of education at that time asked the historical committee to reach out to Native American New Jersey representative organizations to see if they would be supportive of the mural painting and its display at the Watchung Middle School we gave them the same materials that we gave each of you this board asked that we returned to the organization if we return with the organization's feedback which we secured
017by the end of July 2022. since then it's been understandably I know a bit tough to get on your agenda but thank you for the opportunity tonight I'm very pleased to have Chris Vander vanderfleet provide the requested follow-up to our prior meeting last June which hopefully gives you some closure to your concerns Chris thank you so much Steve and uh thank you for the opportunity for us to present this so as Steve eloquently introduced um we as the historical committee were able to successfully reach out to the leadership at the New Jersey Commission on uh American Indian Affairs in July of 2022. for background the New Jersey Commission on American Indian Affairs mission is to preserve and protect the history and culture of the American Indian communities of New Jersey they are also a liaison
018between tribes the state and the federal government the same report as Steve mentioned provided to the Board of Education was also provided to the New Jersey commission um on American Indian Affairs we received feedback from several people who had two basic comments to make one that it is fine for the mural to be displayed and two that they felt they generally felt that the legend or story created many years ago should not be further promoted because the legend is just that a legend I'll start with a representative from the New Jersey Commission on American Indian Affairs uh Rowena Madden and I quote good morning Mr Van Der Fleet and Mr Mayors thank you for following up when I sent your initial information to the New Jersey commission I received feedback from two people both thought
019that the mural was a very positive representation however one indicated that the story did not seem authentic since you have sent me the additional background information I will forward that to everyone and ask for any additional feedback as soon as possible Steve Steven Burton who sits as the commissioned chair for the New Jersey Commission of American Indian Affairs stated the following we feel the mural is acceptable for display but the story is not something we feel you should publish further the story is not based on any historical facts and we feel it does not represent our people in a good way we have found out firsthand that any stories based on Legends are misleading and counterproductive to our goals of presenting facts and truth about who we are end quote excuse me we thank you
020for asking our input and hope this answers your questions if you need more clarity please do not hesitate to call me we do strongly agree with putting the mural on display again as it was in Sears for over 50 years without any issue as has in the past the mural provides a great opportunity for discussion among the students and the larger watching Community about the American Indians past the mural sheds light on the Lenny linabi tribe and can further promote learning about watchung's rich history which includes this indigenous trap the numerous collected artifacts discovered in Watchung over the years by residents provide substantial factual evidence of the strong past presence of American Indians in Watchung the mural itself can help represent and honor their past in Watchung when I look around this room I see
021so many different countries represented with the flags that are above us this mural would provide inclusion for our first inhabitants in Watchung as well on the wall we respect we respectfully ask that the Board of Education motioned to support the display of the legend of watching mural at Valley View School for purposes of further learning and understanding of this Lenape Community indigenous to Watchung years ago thank you does anyone have any questions well I would just like to say thank you there was uh the last meeting that you were at that was one question that came up were you you might have had some conversations but did you have a more definitive opinion that came in from the commission and um it seems like you really did a good job reaching out and you got
022a very definitive answer there so and they're in favor of it being displayed so I think that's important because that was definitely brought up the last time that you presented as a question that you've answered I think very clearly I guess there could be some uh question of well if you don't you don't promote the legend now that if that's any impact it seems to the to the commission to the um New Jersey commission for American Indian Affairs that it's not an issue for them to that you can Pro you can display it and it doesn't come along with a explanation of this in their thinking it would be best not to tie it to a particular story if there's not a historical enough historical proof to confirm it that's correct and and the painting
023itself says the Legend So further iterating that you know this story is just that a legend yeah and I have to agree that the history is wonderful and it would be so much it would be so great to bring it back to the schools the history of Watchung and everything that's been part of it yes this Valley has a lot of history way back in the 1600s and I really think it would spark the Curiosity of the children's school that they see this picture up there or this mural up there and the work that went into it it will just make them have questions about it and we could go more into our Watchung history which I would really like to see happen so thank you well thank you I don't know I guess I'm
024a little biased with the pictures of Mr Mayors and this Auto and the satrium and um how he displays his the rifles that he has and he shows them to the kids and the stories and how interactive it becomes for the children to just learn the history of Watchung and overall the Revolutionary War Civil War and it there's a lot of history and I think thank you for going out getting the answers what we will do is we will go back and be able to have these conversations and committee meetings and get back to you okay yeah we we would yeah request that you know a vote for the next meeting please okay thank you thank you very exciting thank you thank you at this time I'd like to move to board member comments oh
025I have one comment I just have a response to a comment that was made at our last Board of Ed meeting uh coming up coming out of covet has been an adjustment for everyone both socially and emotionally our teachers principals and parents have put forth great effort to make our schools happy diverse and inclusive places with the many activities they provided our students in a committee meeting a proposal was made to have a positive theme a year such as kindness gratitude more could be also added to this list these themes encourage positive thinking and builds upon the Dei program which is already an integral part of our school curriculum with all the tragic stories that we hear on the news shouldn't we use all positive activities to promote mental well-being so I wanted to say
026good evening everyone um tonight as your board president I wanted to address a few important issues that are near and dear to my heart I want to start by saying there's no member of this board that objects to the referendum that's lying over there we all agree that the referendum projects are for the betterment of our district we had many new board members elected and every time there's a change it is followed by a learning curve to get everyone up to speed especially when something is unique that hasn't happened in 20 years a referendum is to be executed while the new board members are getting up to speed we did not waste time we bonded for a referendum and we now the five official board we've had five official board meetings and the new board
027members have worked diligently to understand the scope of the referendum it is said if we could first know where we are we could better judge what to do and how to do it in January there are many concerns to address especially with five new board members such as large class sizes hiring a permanent business administrator binding for the approved referendum and starting the referendum projects we have made great strides in addressing these concerns we now have hired going into 2023-2024 school year two full-time teachers and we'll be adding an additional autism class in total we are hiring three teachers which is not a plan possible last year currently principal kid is working on a plan with our wonderful teachers to reduce class sizes for the incoming fifth graders all of this was made possible also
028by hiring and approving the support that the business office needed we are proud to say that we have a full-time business administrator Mrs Patricia Rogers who will officially start next week fast forward to May we aren't aware where the board would like to be financially but we're a step closer the referendum project and planning started back in February and we have been working tirelessly with the team of amazing Professionals in our district consultants and our architects who are dedicated to putting the district in a better position the referendum projects are well underway and updates can be found on our website special thanks to Aaron this is something we've been working on for the past month so I thank you the public for your patience as projects get completed there will be pictures of before and
029after on the district website I cannot stress how much credit goes to our wonderful Administration the operations committee and the team for delivering on requests and addressing the concerns adjustic has made progress in addressing the challenges it faces and now we must hire a new superintendent who shares Mr Alexa's dedication to our district in order to fill this important position we're committed to finding the right candidate someone who shares our District's vision and dedication to providing our children with the best education possible with the support of our community we are confident that we will find the right candidate who will help us achieve the district goals in order to ensure the best outcome for our district we must constantly balance growth affordability and our moral duty to the children of our district despite the challenges
030we did not waver in our commitment to meet the short-term goals of hiring teachers a permanent ba and bonding for the referendum and starting the projects we are working towards achieving our long-term Ambitions through working with Mr Alexis RBA and our Consultants to put our district in a financially secure position and remain true to the expectations you placed on us I asked all of your you to support our efforts to make our district better for our children we're all in this together and together we can make a difference let us continue to work tirelessly for the betterment of our community our children and our future I'll leave you with a quote councils May accelerate or mistakes delay it but sooner or later Victory is sure to come it is clear that we are moving forward
031and unless the board decides otherwise nothing's going to stop us so we must talk to one another and respect with respect and courtesy and this applies to all of us on the board because if we cannot come together for the children I don't know where we're gonna end up thank you Amber I just want to Echo the comments that you made there and I I actually would I'd like to not uh go back from those very positive comments but I was a little hesitant to speak before you started to speak because I was really struck by uh you know Phyllis even when under such a wrong attack it continues to be so patient and kind with her statement so I was I was a little slow to speak but I I just want to express
032and I've always known her to be that way for many years now I I want to express uh the Deep disappointment in the comments that were made by the newest curriculum committee member at the end of the table accusing the committee chair of proposing a book ban and making anti-bei statements inflammatory comments that are only brought up in public meeting rather than in committee where issues are first raised is a perfect example of not working collaborative collaboratively as a Committee Member in the first year of my term on this board I was constantly reprimanded for not to raise any issues during open public meetings of report I was interrupted or scolded for asking questions about agenda items during board meetings unless I had rooted the question or concerns through the board president or committee chairs
033in advance sometimes weeks in advance of the board meeting yet here we have someone who was just added as a Committee Member someone who fought to be included in a committee attending one meeting hearing something they didn't like twisting it completely out of context and making a big spectacle out of two issues that really didn't exist like an ambush a sneak attack why to try to cause reputational damage to the committee chair that's not ethical that's not collaborative that's just malicious I wasn't there I don't know exactly what was said or what issues were raised but I do know the committee chair Phyllis is an almost 50-year resident of Watchung who gave an entire career's worth of service to our district schools as a teacher and administrator both Bayberry and Valley View he was there
034someone who raised her own children in Watchung and sent them through all our Public Schools K through 12. someone who has nothing but the best interest of the district at heart and her service on this board of education not to mention the person who just six months ago out of nine candidates per School Board received the most votes from our community overwhelmingly winning her seat on this board everyone on this Board needs to understand that we can all and will disagree especially in committees but we don't have to be disagreeable sitting there silently in a committee meeting without saying you disagree and then badly twisting their words in your board member comments is just plain wrong thank you um I wanted to give kind of like I guess my personal view um on the referendum
035so as I joined the operations committee uh I've gotten able I'm sorry I've gotten the opportunity to be able to learn the ins and out of the referendum because of this there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that there's referendum needs to be completed and it isn't just me I know that the entire board recognizes well along with our incredible Administration we have been searching tirelessly to find ways to speed up the process one of these things looking towards our school maintenance team to be able to do some of the work in house um things some of these things include stuff like replacing the exit signs because it's relatively easy to do replacing carpets and we're also trying to work on security upgrades as well all this work is also being closely inspected by our
036Architects the administration and the state just to ensure that we have the best quality work done and at a fast pace Dr Jr and maintenance teams have been endlessly helpful in this as well providing us with numerous different ideas uh similar to the ones I just mentioned on how to proceed our Administration has also found ways such as using the NJ arms account in order to make the district's investment work in the school's favor as we complete the referendum uh we are optimistic in the fact that we'll be able to continue to get this work done throughout the summer and we hope to provide the students in the district with a positive learning experience for years to come okay any other comments sure I have some um I think there's a lot of pretty words
037spoken tonight and action speak volumes for our community and our community has seen your actions I also find it interesting that none of you wanted to talk about the social media post comment posted by the two board members about diversity inclusion and equity I guess that was something you can't say I twisted which I didn't twist anything of what I said because they actually put it in writing for everyone to see I find it unsettling that some board members want me and Rich to stop speaking out they want us to stop talking about poor governance and our board leadership fields that our community who speaks up will eventually give up and go away so I felt it was a good time to give everyone a brief recap of things then I decided why put us
038all through that especially because our community has already seen for themselves the poor governance of this board leadership I do want to mention something that happened at our last board meeting as well a Community member revealed at our last meeting that the president of our board leaked executive session information to them that information pertain to our only employee the superintendent now this is rhetorical just in case anybody was unclear about that but what is this board doing about what the Community member said at our last meeting has our attorney spoken to this Community member has anyone investigated this or is this yet another thing that our board wants to try and sweep under the rug after four months the other board members can no longer claim ignorance now we are searching for an interim and
039a permanent superintendent with board members who don't understand their roles as board members and who don't understand their the superintendent's role a new superintendent for our district would have to continue to deal with the dysfunction of this board leadership because they have shown us all that they won't change if the president and the vice president are truly here for the schools the kids in our town our board leadership needs to resign to give our district a chance to return from this this mess is going to take us years to clean up give us a chance by stepping down now if they genuinely care about the children they should show us that they do this by resigning tonight everyone gave them a chance to Excel and look at what has happened in just four months so
040their leadership isn't going to get better based on their performance our parents have been through enough our community has been through enough the community sees this which is why some community members at our last meeting demanded their resignation at our last meeting do what's right and resign now I actually had some board member comments prepared but don't even know what to say anymore um first of all I just find a hugely you know disrespectful distasteful and quite authoritarian or Mr Gracia to invoke Robert's Rules of law for the second time to Robert's Rules of Order to stop debate I mean like what are we here for we're here to talk to each other and debate issues and Mrs Harvey didn't get a chance because Anthony invoked some obscure arcade doctrine that all you folks agree
041with you all you all you all showed yourselves to say we don't want to hear Dory talk about this that's what you guys did okay I don't know if the public likes that we'll find out um I had a bunch of questions about things that went on that I had serious concerns about and I didn't get any of my questions answered in an executive session I was cautioned several times and I got to be really really careful you know about what I say but I'll tell you this I think something's wrong I think I could say that I think something's wrong and so here I am you know a guy who's pretty much lived his whole career of 40 plus years professionally and as an attorney and as a senior businessman without reproach and I
042think something's wrong but I'm not allowed to talk about it I'm being put in a position where I either don't talk about something that's I really think is wrong that continues to that went on and I can't get answers to or reaching you know ethics violations apparently you know there's no you know whistleblower statute you can invoke as a as a board member um I really think there ought to be an investigation by independent Council of the actions of the board um and uh I guess other than that that's all I have to say and I'm gonna have to try to figure out a way to get answers to the questions that you know several people know the answers to but aren't talking about over the weekend I want to bring up is when did
043we become a town that is sort of run by I lived here over 30 years you know when did we come to town that you know is run by who knows who I got a I got an anonymous letter in the mail this last week saying horrible things nobody signs their names you know they're a candidate there are members of the board uh right now who don't even know who contributed to their campaign they there's a an organization that filed a fake name it's not registered anywhere um they contributed more than is allowed by a legal limit except for a pack they're not a registered pack you know three of the board members you know I keep asking you know I'm like Muhammad I was talking to him today he says well don't you know
044don't talk about this let's put it behind us you know um I said why why do I have to keep you know asking who contributed to your campaign and and you keep saying well don't talk about it you should be demanding to know why not why don't you guys know I mean isn't it absurd that you would run for an office and you not even be aware of who is financing your campaign as is required by election law so there's a lot of strange things going on here and I'm being basically told I got to keep my mouth shut about all of them uh or else base you know some kind of you know liability and it's really tearing it I gotta tell you it's really tearing at me all my life I've tried to
045do the right thing I've tried to do the right thing my entire life I was raised that way and here I am I feel like I have to hide things because nobody's going to tell me what's going on and I'm not allowed to talk to anybody about it and there's no Authority apparently that'll investigate it so I folks you know I apologize I'm just trying to do my job and my hands are tied I can't get any answers I would really love independent Council to come in and evaluate you know what went on uh but I have no way of of making that happen Mr buckarelli I think this is what the fourth time you brought up compliance I printed out the manual for you this time I figured you bring it up the fifth
046time as well there are elect filings are 100 accurate you can have it and I know that this is not your area of expertise as an attorney right but please look at it so to claim all of that is inaccurate so I would really recommend that the next time like in 2021 when you were running and I had to call Mrs Harvey and she could probably agree if she wants to or not that I'm the one who said please put a disclaimer on it her answer to me was Mr buckarelli's seen it he knows the law I trust him there's no disclaimer needed I did I know after I emailed her the the regulation in other words I comply you complied and so they're complying as well and they don't need to tell you anything
047they don't need to tell me anything okay because they have filed everything with elec regulations so they don't they don't owe you anything the only thing they owe you is what happens in this board all right who who's the committee foreign yeah I know it's not reading we tried to help you last time rich and just say simply get your facts straight you know you refuse to do it and you keep coming back with the wrong information and badgering individuals don't owe you anything people don't have to answer your questions it's your questions that your facts are important you don't understand simple effects if you read that you will I was you know what we're going to hold off this discussion to board member uh board business till the end let's move on I'm sorry
048just to not on that subject but I would just say that I think it's really again twisting things to say that uh discussion was not allowed on an important issue when we were going into exact session we've done this how many times over the years has the board done this it's a simple discussion because it doesn't preclude you from saying anything you want during your report comments or at other times asking questions so there's there was no loss of the right to talk you just had all the chance you wanted now but the point was to go in to talk we didn't know what was because you didn't give anyone a chance it was a very simple issue of the board going into exec session so for now this to become um this type of
049of uh twisting of the problem I just think is wrong again okay so we're gonna hold the conversation and for the end because I just wanted to say there is a difference between a candidate committee and a political committee look it up see the difference well yeah the man can put this to rest now I have something to say can we hold off until support business please so just in the interest of time we have a lot of people waiting here can we move on to superintendent remarks good evening everyone we were very pleased to celebrate national teacher appreciation day today as part of the national teacher appreciation week as well as the National Nurses Week I want to thank the PTO for generously sponsoring staff treats several times this week and I'm pleased to
050say our students have joined in and are showing their appreciation for their teachers and support staff throughout the district I'm sure you'll hear more about this during the principal's reports I also want to thank WAFF for the kind invitations extended to the administration the Cinco de Mayo fundraiser was a tremendous success and plenty of fun I also want to congratulate the staff being recommended for tenure we're proud of our Educators these were all staff members and administrators who began during the 2019-20 school year uh the one now Infamous for the global shutdown uh thank you to all of them for their perseverance and bringing their dedicated talents to our district that we have Laura Cuomo Karen McCarthy Jackie Pine Carolyn Starr Aaron Steve Vader Chelsea Velez Carolyn Weinstein Nicole de toota and Karen Kidd now
051I'd just like to call Mr Tota forward to give a brief special services update thank you okay um in April we recognized autism awareness and acceptance month with a variety of spirit activities students and staff celebrated diversity by showing kindness love and acceptance and wearing their school colors we celebrated the beauty into in the diverse spectrum of the human mind with rainbow and tie-dye clothes we celebrated individual passions by wearing something that showed what we each loved we celebrated how amazing it is that our minds work in different wonderful ways by bringing our belongings to school in anything but a backpack and we celebrate celebrated acceptance by wearing red students at Bayberry also colored fish in their own unique ways to create the bulletin board titled we may all be different fish but in this
052school we swim together you can see this beautiful board by the child study team office at Bayberry School currently the department is planning for our extended school year program to run Monday to Thursday July 10th to August 10th for students who are eligible the preschool at Bayberry school will also be open the same dates for tuition students currently in our preschool program or who are starting in September before and after care will be offered during esy from 7 30 a.m to the start of the student day and from the end of the student day to 5 30 pm at Bayberry School the registration form for summer and fall before and after care will be posted on the district website soon as the school year is quickly coming to a close I would also like to
053take this opportunity to thank the board for approving the students in the Watchung Hills Regional High School interact club for volunteering in our District's after-school program these high school students volunteered their time to come after school to Bayberry to support our students in our program in arts and crafts and games our students always look forward to the days that our volunteers would come from the high school and we truly appreciate their time and dedication to our program we hope that we can continue to have them in the future thank you thanks Miss Toda uh Mrs fickner you want to start good evening I tried to make this brief but we've been very busy at Bayberry so I'll do my best uh on April 26th students in grades two through four participate in the stem at
054Valley View there were many interesting projects and informative presentations by passionate scientists thank you to Mrs Mills for taking so much time to work with our students on their projects on April 27th our staff and their families participated in take your child to work day it was really nice to meet the teachers other children and welcome them into our school family on April 28th we had a PTO hosted author visit from trinka Hicks Noble who met the met with the grades K-1 to share her books how she gets ideas and explain her process for creating illustrations thank you to Kristen Heller our reading specialist for coordinating this program on May 3rd kindergarten students teachers and parents visited the Crayola Factory they had a blast thank you to the PTO for funding part of this trip
055on May 4th our Governor's educator of the Year recipients attended a ceremony and celebratory breakfast hosted by the department of Ed our teacher of the year Mrs Mills an educational support professional of the Year Mrs Heller received their honorary plaque amongst the other winners of Somerset County on May 4th we all enjoyed the spring concert with performances by third and fourth Glee Club fourth grade bands and fourth grade chorus the students really did an amazing job thank you to Mrs Riley and Mrs Morrison and on the same night our families also came out for the Bayberry art show the Halls were filled with impressive artwork from all students in grades pre-k through four thank you to miss Higgins we also appreciate all the staff and parents that assisted in displaying the students artwork let me
056tell you that was a lot of tape a lot of tape on Friday May 5th students were treated to an earth Dome assembly funded by the early act Club students were amazed at the immense blow up globe in the gym but some were not as thrilled of the inside of the globe I heard it was a little dizzying but they had but we celebrated staff appreciation a week early on May 1st through May 5th we all enjoy the acts of gratitude by the early act Club those are third graders including greeting us at the door with Applause and signs and offering a treat from the snack cart thank you to miss lamming for soliciting soliciting the students ideas and helping to put them into action the PTO kept the momentum going this week with breakfast
057and other goodies uh we had thank you to the watch on Garden Club for donating a tree to Bayberry for Arbor Day the Bayberry Garden Club the mayor members of the Boe and Town Council gathered on a lawn for an Arbor Day ceremony thank you to CPAC for joining donating funds for our Special Education team to buy library books that will help our students better understand and accept differences and finally third and fourth started njsla testing this week and we will continue to Friday May 12th thank you very much foreign good evening everyone as mentioned we had a successful and a packed house for our science fair here um I got to learn a lot about electric circuits so I know where to go if I have any electrical problems in my house those Bayberry
058kids know a lot let me tell you um on May 4th we attended the governor's educator and ESP breakfast I was thrilled to celebrate the contributions of our Somerset County recipients especially our watch on stuff congratulations to Valley View's educator of the Year Christina Franco an educational support professional Patricia Keane and to bayberry's educator of the Year Carolyn Mills and educational support professional Kristen Heller the Valley View trash and show run by our environmental Club was another big success Emma speeny won first place by reimagining Amazon food bags into an adjustable dress High fashion um two groups tied for second place they made equally imaginative passion statements one group with a Disney inspired dress they said princess I thought more evil villain dress um by Jade Larson Amelia Liam and Ariana Patel and a second
059design by Lily Sanchez and Sophia Jimenez involved a dress and a bag made from discarded books so that was very interesting I thought Mr Alexis liked that one our third place winner Leanne Guzman designed a hat worthy of the Kentucky Derby congratulations to all of our winners and participants participants Mrs Miller and Mrs landolfi put together an excellent event I was amazed at the creativity of our participants and this was the first year that every single student who participated used 100 recycled materials for their designs so congratulations to all of them that's a very impressive our fifth and 8th graders completed the njsla science Testing last week and starting tomorrow all of our students in grades five through eight have the joy of taking the njsla assessments and language arts and Mathematics students are reminded
060to bring fully charged Chromebooks and wired earbuds or headphones with them for testing a cohort of eight staff members engaged in a professional development day on sustainability goals and education led by Jamie cloud of the cloud Institute the njdoe school climate change pilot Grant funded the professional development opportunity and will for future opportunities before the end of the year thank you to our board of education for approving the grant I'm excited to see what kinds of experiences we'll be able to build for our students next year teacher appreciation week began yesterday so far our staff has been treated to a breakfast and candy bar from our PTO with a lunch from the Valley View student council scheduled for tomorrow and more surprises from our amazing parent groups and from our students thank you to everyone
061who took the time to express their gratitude to our staff it's greatly appreciated more than you know the months of Manju are packed with fun and educational events for our students I am looking forward to reporting about them at the June meeting thank you and have a good night this is kid you left out the field trip for the eighth graders to the 9 11 Memorial Museum I went with the kids I had a great time being with the kids and we also had a very meaningful experience I know we thanked weft for providing the buses at the last meeting but I want to reiterate that gratitude thank you can you have the district report please oh uh it remained the same as last month thank you moving on to committee reports Mr Gonzalez can
062you please give the human resource committee report yeah a Personnel committee met virtually on April 19th at 4 pm and adjourned at 502 PM Ms O'Donnell Miss fresh Miss Murad superintendent Mr Alexis and I were president Mr Alexis went over the list of Staff renewals and focused on 10-year recommendations for principal kid and committee agreed with recommendation black seal and cefm adjustments Mr Alexis explained that our maintenance staff member will be receiving a stipend of 300 for having a black seal license for boiler operations retroactive for this current year and for next year this is a standard stipend that custodians receive our BNG supervisor is recommended for salary adjustment of 2000 for earning his cefm certified educational facilities manager which was agreed upon when he started in the district Last Summer the committee was in
063favor of both recommendations proposed stipends Mr Alexis proposed two modest stipends for current employees the first is for the districts being and staff members who is needed to serve a leadership role when a supervisor is not in the district the second is for principal kid for serving as a district Safety and Security Supervisor overseeing Security in newly required threat assessment teams in both schools she performs this role in addition to numerous other District level appointments the committee discussed interim and permanent superintendent searches and after reviewing the three proposals with a focus on cost-effectiveness the committee recommended njsba to do the search of a permanent superintendent Mr and Gracia the operations and finance committee report yes thank you I'd like to just address the referendum projects also because I know this is a very important subject
064that uh I think unfortunately there's been some misconceptions about on the subject of possibly stalling the projects so I just wanted to take a moment to say you know that we're entering the second half of the year and the operations committee has met regularly since January with the administration buildings and grounds management and various Consultants including our district facilities manager the Management Consultant that was recommended by our superintendent The Architects that was that were recommended by our superintendent the assistant interim business administrator and now thankfully a permanent full-time business administrator also recommended and hired by our superintendent so in each of these meetings the committee reviewed options for executing the projects as recommended by the district Administration staff and Consultants at each step the overarching goal of the committee has been to pursue and recommend
065options that allow the district to complete the projects in the most efficient timely and cost-effective way possible that provide the greatest and most immediate benefit to the district students and staff as well as the residents taxpayers of watch on this is the oversight that we're legally and ethically required to provide at no point have there been efforts made by members of the operations committee to stall or otherwise negatively impact the projects funded through the referendum on the contrary the committee recommended to the full board to approve bonding for the full referendum amount as soon as possible so all the funds would be available to start the projects the funds were available by March upon recommendation of the administration with the encouragement of the committee the district has already undertaken and completed work that would have
066likely been scheduled for 2024 under the original plan the district has also outlined and planned additional work to be completed ahead of schedule and at a measurable cost savings than what was originally estimated I also just want to take a moment to touch on the composition of our current operations committee first this might be the first time that two out of three of the members of the operations and finance committee our alumni have watched on Borough schools themselves low and mean we both care a lot about the schools we came out of our hometown schools it's a way to give back something to the schools We Love by serving on this board and the operations committee I also think we have a nice balance of experience and skill sets that I've already seen to be
067a really good match with the experts the consultants and the administration and Facilities professionals we work with on the committee Manny Gonzalez has a lot of experience 20 something years I think in real estate services and things like home building construction mortgage lending and sales when The Architects get into specifics like having to saw cut or bathroom Renovations or evaluate estimated lead times and project timelines he speaks that language and he also understands the implications and importance of interest rates that service and how that plays into the larger Financial picture for the community and district schools mole freeze also works in the construction industry managing and understanding the operations of a masonry business but he's also receiving a finance degree from Rutgers his ability to provide oversight on the financial transactions of the district everything
068from the transfers we approve on every board agenda to interpreting accounting terms in the line item budget calculations is critical and he's a great fit for it I spent 20 years managing and running a general contracting company that my father and grandfather ran before me that was in the business of building mostly Public Schools all over New Jersey I've LED teams that built new schools put additions onto and renovated occupied schools I've helped bring together hundreds of publicly bid estimates for K-12 School construction and higher education construction work and had good working relationships with Architects and construction managers my entire career none of us want to stall these facilities projects in many cases we want to do the exact opposite accelerate them from their original timelines for example there's about seven million dollars of HVAC
069upgrades planned drg the referendum referendum architect proposed then and now to do the work over the summer of 2024. our committee expressed some discomfort with that we don't think that it's right or good to do nothing with all that project list until 2024. the system was already left unmaintained or under maintained for several several years by the decisions of the previous operations committee remodeling the lower level kindergarten and Pre-K bathrooms is another example of the committee's desire to move forward faster rather than stall we reviewed drg's proposed timeline and it showed fall of 2024 as the deliverable date for the project for that project and we encourage the experts to explore ways to move that up even if it's only for some of them so that a few classes can have a brand new space
070they can be proud to enter in the fall of 2023. especially since the the new in-classroom bathrooms are designed to be handicap accessible the thinking of the committee was if there's a way to provide new Ada accessible bathrooms in a few classrooms this year why not explore that we have been and will continue to be fully transparent to the rest of the board my minutes just on the referendum when you run out of a through z the the bullet points go to AA and BB from there just so to say uh that's just under the referendum point you know in the minutes that all the board members have had so um we have been and will continue to be fully transparent with the community also about what's being done when and how and I really
071commend and appreciate the administration putting the website updates now I'd remind everyone that the Warren Township Schools had a school construction Bond referendum improved in December 2021 a full year before ours was and from what little news coverage there has been it appears some of those projects were legitimately stalled in the bidding process yet you don't have nearly the amount of hostility animosity personal insults or anything like that we've had so hopefully this update can give everyone some food for thought and will help people not assume bad motives from your fellow residents serving the operations on the operations committee just briefly pass the first three pages of the minutes that were four pages for the referendum update to the rest of the board but the uh we did also review the current performance of the
072HVAC systems in both schools and um both schools are going to be changed over to air conditioning Readiness on May 12th um our facilities manager Ricky reported that at the end of last summer the AC system was working well any issues that arise once the system is turned on this year will be addressed as needed we also had a presentation from Brown and Brown that's currently handling the health benefits for the district and they confirmed that we have in the district a robust plan that compares very favorably to what is offered in other districts regarding vision plan long-term disability plan medical and prescription coverage with low co-pays and they they went down the ways that making that move that was done last year or that which was done in the spring going to the shift
073plan in 2022 and went into effect August of 2022 has served the district well and we're seeing less rate increases than if we hadn't made the change so we also had a budget discussion um although the you know the budget has passed we still had some uh questions that had come up and so we we discussed those also and uh there's already been reports about the interim and permanent superintendent search and uh as far as a transportation update at at least at our committee meeting there was no update since the last operations meeting as far as additional discussion between the watch on K-8 Administration and the Watchung Hills Administration with the transportation consultant since the February 2023 board meeting where the Washington Board of Education approved the shared services contract for a transportation consultant we
074also um had a another discussion on the School Safety and Security and much of that is captured now under the referendum section of the the minutes because we are moving forward with as many of those projects as possible as soon as possible so thank you very much for your time thank you um Phyllis can you please untangle the interest payment question yes Beverly we spoke to um Tony salamini today and he said we actually have that New Jersey arm account which they are abiding by all federal regulations so they are keeping track of that interest for us yeah Mike my question just to re-ask it and maybe it's for um you know our financial advisor right was you know it was said that we were getting you know interest payments on the money we have
075in the bank the arm account right right um in any financial transaction I've ever been involved in when you borrow money and put it in your account you then pay interest on it too so you might have a bank account that you put the money in and that's earning interest but you're also paying interest to the people that loaned you the money that would be the bondholders right so what I wanted to know was how much interest are we getting and how much interest do we pay it's on the bond is 3.75 in the interest right now I'm getting in the arm account is 4.8 okay so we're making like 100 basis points 100 five basis points on it so it's not really the seventy five thousand dollars we're not counting then the amount we're
076paying you have to deduct the amount we're paying versus oh you know from the amount that we're getting right like what would the net interest income be would be my question you're not prepared to answer and that would be you know the finance people probably can from India all right well I'll I'll get back to you with that okay and we spoke to the the finance uh people so to speak and uh it's the problem is with the question is comparing apples and oranges and so that's where it would be helpful if you have questions like that if you could uh submit them beforehand instead of I guess trying for something at the last meeting well yeah at the meeting and uh so there's a schedule of when the interest payments are made that's been
077available to you for some time there's also in this case which is different from the example that you just used Debt Service aid from the state of New Jersey right for that 30 something interesting right so the the point is that there's a lot of a lot of factors to consider beyond the the comparison that your your question was putting forward and so um I didn't know exactly but apparently well you made it sound like we didn't have the that there was a problem that the that the 75 000 and it's such a the question you never asked on the additional information that you're requesting now so we'll get back oh we can go back and listen to it but apparently we're getting paid interest in apples and we're paying interest in oranges is that
078is that right well there's that service there's a schedule of payments it's it's all presented and yet that's the book early I guess the question is the decision was either you hire teachers coming out of a pandemic that the district desperately needs to help the students during this time for Amber Amber I don't want you to you know no no I want you to Soap Box I was just asking a financial question that has a financial answer I know the reason that was done I asked the question last time we could go back and watch the meeting I thought it was pretty clear what the question is still don't have the answer okay our consultant gave and provided with Beverly and the attorney bond attorneys but moving on to curriculum committee report can you please
079give that one we didn't uh we didn't meet we're going to meet next Thursday Mr Alexis with the uh meeting date to next Thursday Mr Morales can you please give the policy committee report yes the policy committee met on Wednesday May 3rd at 5 PM we adjourned at 5 24. Miss Harvey Miss duet president Murad and Mr Alexis and I all attended we discussed for a second reading the Strauss SMA alert 230 uh it's policy zero one four four board member orientation and training policy and regulation 2520 instructional supplies policy 3217 use of corporal punishment policy 4217 use of corporal punishment policy 5305 Health Services Personnel policy and regulation 5308 student health records policy and regulation 5310 Health Services policy 6112 reimbursement of federal and other Grant expenditures regulation 611 5.01 Federal Awards and funds
080internal controls policy 6115.04 federal funds and duplication of benefits policy 6311 contracts for goods for services funded by federal grants policy 7440 School District security policy 9100 public relations policy 9140 citizens citizens advisory committees and again regulation 9140 citizen advisory committee we also discussed the second reading to the revision of policy 3160 the physical physical examination to include health services coordinator the committee engaged in a brief discussion on the difference between the policies and regulations that are mandated and the ones that are simply recommended by Strauss Esme the committee agreed that all the current policies and regulations up for second reading should be approved the committee also discussed three proposals for the superintendent search committee uh the committee like the preview like the uh Personnel committee the committee identified njsba as cost as the cost
081effective option uh Mr Murad informed the committee that Gwen Thornton who unfortunately wasn't able to make it today and Mr cremigno would be president of today's board meeting to answer any questions thank you at this time I'm going to move on to board views on reports legislativelyism uh nothing to report yeah there's nothing to report for Somerset County Educational Services Commission liaison reports there is something for Somerset counties school boards association their next meeting is May 18th I encourage other board members to attend as well the Somerset County teacher of the year and the Somerset County School boards Association will celebrate the many accomplishments of districts and board members during the Spring celebrations dinner and meeting it's always a fun event an affair uh there's no report for School Board Association as well I would
082like to move on to community engagement and from the PTO is there anybody here okay uh and like to move on to uh well I I would like to just add something for PTO there was uh the dance sneaker dance and it was really fun it was for Bayberry and the students really enjoyed it um it was the 90s theme and my son had a Game Boy tattoo so all of these kids they had all different tattoos that they were able to get candies and it was a really fun Affair um so thank you to PTO for all that you do I would like to move on to what um if you know you know and if you don't you missed it because we had one hell of a party at Cinco de Mayo it
083was a tremendous outpouring of friendship and neighborly love we had 85 people at least there because those were the tickets that we cut at the door everybody was happy the age range spread the gamut different political views and tremendous acts of kindness and this is what in my opinion makes Watchung a great place to live because we're all nice normal people at the end of the day and we like to enjoy each other's company I'm sorry that you miss and by the way Gail and Phyllis both thank you very very much for your thank you notes and donations that was very kind of you know and Dory I know you attended as well so thank you for that so we raised a ton of money so we're here to help you guys out um dining
084to donate is May 23rd please join us at water and wine if you can lunch or dinner just mention weft when you're there and I believe that's it thank you is there anybody here from cpeg right at this time I'd like to move to comments from the public we have input from the public and there are two at times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity to comment on agenda items only is now the second opportunity for public comment is towards the end of the meeting the total time allotted for public comments is 30 minutes before you make your comments please state your name and the municipality of residence in the event it appears the public comment portion of the meeting May exceed 30 minutes the presiding officer May
085limit each statement by a particip by participant to three ministration our public forums are not structured as a question and answer session but they're rather offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels a response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the Commons New Jersey statute do not permit the board to discuss Personnel or hiring in public session names of students should not be used members of the public should consider their comments in the light of legal action legal rights or of those affected and identified in comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible for protection potential liability for comments that they make to the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public have any comments
086on agenda items only hello Molly Herman lustig Watchung um the first item I'd like to talk about are the um draft minutes for the April 25th 2023 meeting um page 196 the comments by Frank visignano are missing uh Mr visignano's statements that uh confidential executive session materials were disseminated to him by the board president so I'd ask that those be amended um we as the public want to know what happened outside of executive session we want to know whether there are discussions that are going on uh between members of the board and uh quite frankly we want to know whether matters are being decided uh or straw votes are being taken outside of executive session um njsa 10 colon 4-13 A and B uh requires that uh in addition to stating the general nature of
087why you're going into executive session which of course you did um you're also uh required to State precisely as possible the time when and the circumstances under which the discussion in closed session can be disclosed to the public um so I am wondering if there's any more clarity that the board can provide in terms of when those items discussed an executive session will be made available to the public and if there's a process for doing that um I personally did really want to hear why uh two members of the board thought that they should we should not go in that you should not go into executive session on the basis uh for that with respect to the mural I appreciate the work that the historical commission did in ascertaining the opinion um of interested stakeholders
088I do you know question who's going to be responsible for ensuring that that narrative and that those stories that are not are not true are not perpetuated and if there's some type of curriculum that will go along with um this mural being put up um I'd like to know who the committee to bring back Excellence is made up of it is important the public does not like being in the dark and we want to hear debate on these things it's through debate and discussion that we can get to the best answer not just by reading some pre-rehearsed glossy statements about Good Intentions um I want to know what tirelessly means um board president indicated that projects are well underway and I know that Mr and Gracia gave a long explanation of what amounted to a
089defensive actions rather an explanation of what occurred at the meeting so again I appreciate uh because I I made this comment to the last meeting that the that the website had not been updated so I appreciate that the uh projects are now categorized into site Improvement security systems after learning Commons building and envelope HVAC systems gym air conditioning building interior electrical and plumbing and Valley View field but when we look at it we only see that there's been some work in certain areas that uh quite frankly amounts to maintenance there's been no work done or no estimated dates provided for site improvements security systems and I do understand there's a caveat there with not listing the actual projects because there's some security concerns so we appreciate that um there's been no work on the HVAC
090step systems there's been no work on the gym air conditioning when I say no work there's been no estimated dates um when work's going to begin or or be finished building interior there's been some handrail work some carpet tile and some interior finishes um again with electrical and plumbing there's been some exit signs and a 10g fiber run I don't know what that is um but I assume it's necessary um and again the value if you feel Valley View field there's been none um so there's been no HVAC no roof repair or roof maintenance no sight improvements and no air conditioning I am not sure what being a Watchung alumni uh has to do with uh qualifying one to sit on a board I think a lot of people in this room are watching alumni
091I know that uh prior board members are also watching alumni um and I'm going to save the rest of my comments for the next um oh one comment um the operations report uh the chair indicated that you had reviewed the HVAC and that the hvh the AC changeover uh was going to occur per Ricky um but I do still have some concerns that when in on May 20 whatever the date was you you uh mentioned Mr Garcia that um that's not what the two HVAC engineer said including the one that you hired so I'm concerned if that AC is not going to go on seamlessly but that's yet to be seen thank you thank you are there any other comments evening everyone Daniella Amadeo Washington Drive um I soapboxed a bit last month about not
092using temporary funds to pay for a permanent teacher um and I just wanted to support rich in his request um to find out that net amount of interest earned to make sure we really can't afford the teacher that we want um and you know I also hope that we'll have a forecast soon on how much money we'll be saving through reduced maintenance costs um from the referendum that will allow us to pay for this new teacher in perpetuity I think that's really important to make sure that if we can pay for them now we can continue to pay for them and and as a resident I'd love to make sure that that's in place um the other thing I just wanted to say um is just about the presentation tonight from the Watchung historical committee
093and the the feedback offered from the commission um it did not seem wholly supportive um the story is problematic but the art is fine and they use the words fine and acceptable they didn't say you know we encourage this we are excited about this that that concerns me a lot um uh it it says the legend of Watchung on it and the commission recommended that this Legend not be promoted and discussed um I don't want to display something that is acceptable I want something that represents our town authentically and that I can have pride in and encourages authentic discussion um in my opinion this painting is is Corporate art and it's meant to ingratiate our our residents or it was meant to do that and I I just I don't see the value in it
094today I don't see how it encourages I think authentic discussion of our history um it's not our heritage it's a corporate painting that's my opinion and I I hope that you vote against it next month thank you good evening Adam craft Warren Township um one thing before I you know two things before I touch on the mural one Anthony you said that Dory Twisted a comment from the curriculum committee meeting and took it out of context but then you said you weren't at the curriculum meeting so I'm not sure how you know what was said if it's a second-hand account that's hearsay we know in a court of law it's not admissible anyone who's played a game of telephone knows the old me reliable way to get information is firsthand so it sounds like we're
095doing something he said she said but she was in the meeting um HVAC I'm confused I'm not a commercial Builder or anything um so if someone could explain to me why we have to wait until a certain date to turn on to switch from heat to Air and from Air to heat that'd be great um is it because we have an older system and the newer systems are able to switch more readily if that's no that's not the case no system in the whole world is able to do that no uh it's when we asked uh Administration they said there's New Jersey state law that you switch it on there's timings for it and that was the answer that we received from them there are certain dates that you have to put the heat on
096by October 15th and you have to turn on the air conditioning by maybe 15. could we but it doesn't quite we we we're experimenting with trying to get it to work so you can go back and forth but I haven't gotten a report that that's worked okay we're hopeful that the new system will allow us to do that gotcha so the law says it has to be turned on by a certain date but it doesn't say it can't be turned on sooner right so maybe that's a shortcoming of the system potentially this is continually reminded that it's not a question and answer session especially when some of the answers were given at the last meeting so I just would respectfully as uh Adam did so many times from his chariots it's not a question and
097answer that's all so okay you know that I am not the one who answered the questions Anthony the person who presides over the meeting has the the choice whether or not to respond she so chose to respond it needed some clarification and I got the clarification I did did I answer the question okay just making sure keep your mouth shut yeah but you asked them and you should know better regarding the mural as the most vocal board member when the historical committee last presented the mural I do appreciate that Chris and Steve reached out to the American Indian commission and presented their response tonight I also love the idea of incorporating Watchung history into the curriculum as has been discussed and voted on in past meetings to me though those are two very different things
098the mural as the Lenny Lenape Indians confirmed is not based on historical facts to Danielle's point they also didn't come out and say yes we love this idea on the contrary they said we don't want to perpetuate the legend and I just I can't wrap my head around how hanging up the mural does not perpetuate the Legends it's there so that means we're supporting it because it's based on the legend it has the legend of Watchung written on it so now I'm thinking what's the conversation you know if it's generating discussion like we want what does that discussion look like my thought is a student says oh what's that neural all about what's that represent and a teacher someone says this mural is based on a legend and not fat student well then why is
099it up there answer because it hung in Sears for 50 years and why was it there because here's one at residence that feels though they had local ties versus being a national chain so again to Daniel's Point that's not generated like I'm obviously I can't predict the future but I think that's a reasonable expectation and it's not generating you know real real dialogue right and if we have so much Rich history which I'm sure we do I I love learning about history I think it's great for children to learn about local history National History global history all of that so if we have so much let's find a better way to represent Watchung and just this community has a vision of diversity equity and inclusivity this Legend of Watchung is does not represent that are
100there any other comments this is my first time addressing the board so I just want to Express gratitude for you guys to be here um I've been coming for the last so many months and my name is Renu Mita Chang Phil Hollow um and I'm thoroughly so disheartened because I feel like I feel very embarrassed to come home at 10 30 at night and express to my husband this is what's happening in this really wonderful Rich Town we've been living here 13 years we came to Watchung for the education primarily and I'm really sad and quite frankly I'm hearing a lot of people talking about pulling their kids out of the school districts now some people might be really happy about that because they're going to be paying taxes and their kids aren't going to
101be going to the schools but when the numbers start to drop that's a problem so for one I'm really sad that Mr Alexis is leaving and you know I wish you all the best and I really hope that I could encourage you guys to consider having someone on the board someone from the town the stakeholders specifically Mrs fichner to be a part of the selection for the permanent superintendent because listening to all these meetings and hearing about it from the years previously and now being uh you know I couldn't attend for family reasons for emergencies and now I'm here I really am so not happy with the way things are going and I'm concerned these children this is the most important foundation for our children before they go into high school elementary middle school you
102guys know all this we went through this so this is really important to have cohesiveness and I don't care if you're red or blue or green or black or white or whatever get together it's embarrassing it's not right and I'm really really upset so please consider using someone from the community who has knowledge Mrs fishner is extremely intelligent she's kind she's a team player she would be a vital part of the decision so that is something I and again as as the gentleman Mr bucharelli had mentioned I don't know how to make things happen I'm a resident I pay my taxes I work full time I have two kids in Bayberry so what can we do how can we remedy this so that there is more cohesiveness for the rest of the school year and
103the years to come so what and that's a question and I had heard someone said that you're trying to plan a or you're you guys decided for an outside service to hire for the new superintendent I wasn't sure what that meant a consultant firm um that previously there was an outside firm used and this time it was um Hazard and young Associates this time um we're going with New Jersey School Board Association but what does that mean to us so that will uh be presented on the June 6th meeting uh unfortunately Gwen Thornton our and jsba rep was not able to attend this meeting she was caught up in a prior commitment um she was expected to come here and do the presentation tonight unfortunately that didn't take place so when she does come here
104she will be able to walk the community through it however in that time frame before our June 6th meeting the again this needs to be kind of finalized with her within our search committee and the board the idea is that we go out to the public and there will be a survey sent out and the survey would get community feedback of what they would like to see in a superintendent then he comes back to the board and they kind of decipher it go through the information give us a report of that and then we move ahead from there when we're making the decision so we have the community input as well is there a possibility to have someone point of order through the chair you know sir I really appreciate you making those comments but
105we do with clear policy for that is not what she had mentioned prior previously you know what I appreciate we have 30 minutes and if there is nobody else no one is opposing it I would like to actually have the respect of being a community person having children in the school district quite frankly you have the respect to speak my mind I have sat here for four months watching people berate one another and that's not appropriate if you're gonna sit in that chair you respect me because we you are working for all of us right you're not your kids don't go to the school I've heard I found that out and I was appalled because if you are truly invested in our children's education that is really demonstrating to us if your kids don't even
106attend okay that is something I'm sorry I try to be extremely neutral in my life and be balanced but I don't appreciate you coming back and attacking me this she's educating me this is the first time I'm coming up here so please if you don't mind having a if you don't have a comment that's going to be helpful please don't say anything was not intended as an attack and I respect all the residents who come up and speak but I also appreciate that we've had a very uh long-standing policy that we're not going to have this be an answer session that's all that's I'm just bringing it up for the benefit of In fairness to everyone because I think many people would like to have their questions answered she has one more thing if we're
107going to make it a question and answer I respect that too but that hasn't but I think we've told so many people that they can't get an answer to their question thank you to be fair well just if this is my clarification question which is when you were explaining and reading everything you said that if there was a question to a board member that you would answer it to us correct yes okay so that is why I believe sir people have been waiting for answers so that we can get clarification so if there is a follow-up and if if there is any question that you have that is not answered tonight let's say if there's any community members please email me um with your however you like uh email me and I'll happily reach out
108to you myself or Mr Alexis with those answers and that's my last point is that I did actually email the whole board with Mrs pitch and I succeed her to recommend because I feel that it is important that someone from the community be a part of that search I didn't receive that because there are big shoes to fill and quite frankly sure we'll take it into consideration when we go into our search committee uh discussion bring it up thank you what was your name I'm sorry Ray new Chang I'm sorry reinu Chang thank you with any other kind good evening Hans Jewett from Watchung um as I was sitting there and this contains to a letter which I've sent to the board which I really have not received an answer to which I would appreciate
109but there seems to be great confusion on debt service and um I would also if I make any mistakes a new board ba please please correct me uh that service the way I understand it is a combination of principle and interest payment that's that service when we get done with Debt Service we'll have paid back Our obligation of the 15 million dollars we borrowed and the interest that we've paid on it uh the 15 million dollars the way and it's actually on the Borough website where this is explained um the 15.7 million or so and I these numbers are approximate uh will of course uh in total about 22 million dollars to pay back over 20 years it's called a mortgage we all have one we have a second mortgage do we not on our
110schools and watch on here uh the state says and this is where Mr buckarelli told me over and over again we can't leave money on the table we got to do the referendum because the state's giving us money state ain't giving us a penny with the state they are funding what the state is doing they're paying part of The Debt Service and if my memory is right there's about seven million dollars in debt service that estate is going to reimburse watch out so when we get done and correct me if I know I think you probably know these numbers uh when we get done uh the taxpayers and Watchung will have paid about 15.2 million dollars for borrowing 15.7 million dollars no money left on a table it's about the same if we took it
111out of our pocket and and we did all the things over time so when Mr baccarelli is confused with the interest the interest has been committed okay the interest we're paying about 750 000 a year and if you multiply 750 000 a year times 20 years arithmetic is simple again it's 15 million dollars so the interest is being paid by the taxpayers in Watchung through money that they raise which all we're paying which the borough sends into the school district to pay off the bond the school district has a responsibility to bond there's about two hundred thousand dollars so as the money sits as these 15 million dollars sits in the bank it's earning four percent a little more than four percent okay so what's that about six hundred thousand a year about that so
112until we spend that money so we got this double-edged sword do we spend the money fast we're not going to have as much interest do we spend the money slow we're gonna have the inches so that's where the money is coming from for this next teacher for this short period of time so we're going to get six hundred thousand bucks shake your head as much as you want uh we're going to get about 600 000 bucks which we can decide how we want to do it if we want to fund the teacher for five or six years uh we we can use that money when you whatever money we have left though is that I it shouldn't be a question answer but there's been so much confusion and by the way when I sat in
113the meetings with you I didn't understand this but what you might want to do is talk to Bill Hance he understands this stuff he told me what you know how this process works that's how it works so the interest is ours the interest we pay has been committed the taxpayers are bound to pay it it's an obligation it's called a bond uh and if you don't pay it you know they come after me so hopefully you know that sort of clarifies what that service is how much interest we're getting how much interest we're paying and it the the only question which hasn't been answered the fly has said it's going to cost the district 10 million in reality I believe Watchung taxpayers when we're done paying this Bond off we're going to pay 15.2 million
114dollars thanks a lot and if I made any mistakes please please correct I was at Valley View this week and I wanted to report to you folks you know in further into our event this last week this was in our mailbox it was a thank you card from the children to wet and I was taken aback because kids are kids they expect everything to be fine and happy the adults are going to take care of it but for them to recognize we're going above and beyond these are exceptional kids in these districts and they deserve to be treated fairly I'm very concerned I don't know actually what happened earlier how the meeting began I'm Gravely concerned with Mr buckarelli's reaction to it he seems like he needs to tell us something and he is somehow
115prohibited by law from saying whatever it is that he wants to say you're looking at me and I so want you to explain it to me because I know you're an attorney as am I and I know you're not going to because it's not a question and answer period but what I would like to do is ask each of you who I know sit here for the children and you really do want to do the right thing if Mr buckarelli looks forgive me frightened that he's not allowed to speak because he whatever conversation took place in executive session that should also ring true for the comment that was made by the Community member last week with respect to something that may or may not have been said in executive session and if it wasn't set
116in executive session I would think that the President and Vice President would Champion that investigation in order to clear your own integrity and the fact that I'm not hearing that and I'm hearing conversations get shut down leads me to believe that where there's smoke there's fire don't shake your head Amber if it's not true you'll be the first person to be screaming it because when miss Harvey when miss Harvey started talking about the holidays and what you said and didn't say in some clarification it was a cat fight on the street so if something of such creative concern is what that Community member stated last week is not true and the two of you do not stand up and request an investigation that speaks volumes to the community so I'm going to make a kind
117request I know also miss Morales that you are an attorney as well so you'll appreciate this I don't have the authority but I know each of you do I would like to make a very kind request of every single one of you one of you someone of rational mind to make a motion for an investigation because if Miss Murad and Mr and Gracia don't want their names cleared I want to know why I know it's not a question answer period we can make it a rhetorical and in case there is any confusion or Clarity is needed every single board member who is sitting here I'm kindly requesting that you do the right thing and call for an investigation that was a pretty big statement that was made and I for one would be very concerned
118if I were sitting in your chairs and I would want something done about it I really hope you do the right thing because I want each one of you to get a card like this this warmed my heart to no avail I got a million things I need to do tonight I know you do too I don't want to be here I know you don't want to see me here I didn't go to one board meeting last year or maybe I actually went to one crowd's always empty if you start doing the right thing the crowd's gonna get empty again you can't just pray we're going to go away because we're too smart and we care about our kids too much somebody please make a motion and call for an investigation and I'm sorry Council
119I know you weren't here last week so you didn't have the benefit of or two weeks ago so I know you didn't have the benefit of that so whatever the process is I ask one of you all of you somebody please make a motion to see what actually happened because if that standard is held to Mr bapparelli and that's going to deprive me of understanding what happened on that issue and all other issues of concern then that has to be applied universally thank you any other comments at this time we're going to move to action items Mr Morales can you move administrative action items oh we'll have an opportunity in a bit thank you okay I move Administration I move administrative uh action items A1 through A6 is there a second second a through none
120any discussion can I have a roll call me I'm sorry I just uh I thought that it was a good practice that we were doing last week if you don't mind I think it is helpful to read each one uh so that the public has the benefits so the administrative action items which we intend to move our A1 approved minutes from the previous meeting A2 accept school security drill report A3 approved placement or special education out of District extended school year program summer 2023 A4 approved placement for special education students A5 approved annual appointments revised A6 a firm superintendent Hib report A7 a firm superintendent Hib report Ace A7 approved therapy dog and Handler a eight approved state of New Jersey Department of Education special education student transportation contract and A9 approved New Jersey school
121boards Association as superintendent search consultant is there a second any discussion yeah I just wanted to uh have the amendment made to the minutes to reflect Mr bizignano's comments since they were left out and I'd also uh just like to amend this and add on a motion for investigation with independent counsel and so the potential disclosure of executive session information by board the board president okay is there a second never roll call please and this is on the investigation for any information that could have potentially friendly of executive session Mr buckarelli yes Mr Frazier Mr Gonzalez no Mrs Harvey yes Mr and Gracia no Mrs Jewett no Mr Morales no Mrs Murad no and Mrs O'Donnell no motion doesn't pass can we go back to the original motion and do a roll call for that
122um regarding A7 and I don't know uh could you just tell me is that in IEPs or is this incorporated into learning oh it's all the children so it's during school it's not a it's not a service dog it's a therapy dog a therapy though okay all right thank you I'm with the amendment please I never roll call Mr bungarelli yes Mr Frazier sorry this is what this is for the approval of yeah yes Mr Gonzalez yes this is Harvey yes Mrs Jewett yes Mr Morales yes Mrs O'Donnell yes Mr and Gracia yes this is Murad yes Mrs O'Donnell yes motion passes uh Mr fridge can you please move personal items I move personal items be one appoint certified tenured staff B2 appoint certified non-ten your teaching staff be three approved Administration and non-affiliated staff
123before appoint Treasurer B5 approved change of assignment P6 approve retroactive salary adjustment for certified educational facilities manager certification uh the seven approval retroactive salary adjustment the eight approved eternity leave of absence be none accept resignation B10 approved stipend for building and grounds team leader b11 approved stymen for stipend for district Safety and Security Supervisor and b12 approve additional family illness days is there a second second any discussion can I please have a roll call Mr buckarelli yes Mr Fraze yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Jewett yes Mr Morales yes Mrs O'Donnell yes Mr and Gracia yes Mrs Murad yes Mr Mrs O'Donnell yes motion passes uh Mr and grassy can you please move the operation and finance items yes thank you I move item C1 approve payment of bills C2 approved transfer of
124funds 2022 2023 C3 accept financial support reports C4 approve agreement Educational Services Commission of New Jersey C5 authorized Municipal tax levy payments C6 approved professional travel and related expenses and that's it C1 through C6 can I have a second second any discussion roll call please Mr buckarelli yes Mr Frazier yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Jewett yes Mr Morales yes Mrs O'Donnell yes Mr and Gracia yes Mrs Murad yes motion passes Mrs Harvey can you please move the curriculum items like G1 approved I'm sorry Mrs Harvey sure you don't want to no the chair do it I make a motion move D1 approve 20 22 23 field trips revise D2 approve the 2023 pursuit of excellent summer program in dates and D3 approved 2023 District esy program in dates is there a second
125I just second discussion and you can make your Amendment now okay so we just found out late this afternoon that we want to add to the class trip um D1 to the revised class trip for the Valley View chorus to the Texas house on May 29th I want to just add that we found out late this afternoon that the um at the Marin Township committee invited the Valley View course saying at the Memorial Day ceremony so we just want to make sure that's approved before that and that will be added onto D1 yes okay said Amendment accepted yes Miss Harvey you accept the amendment uh yeah are we voting on this did anybody's second it didn't get inside a second there's an addition to it you made the motion and there's a second the sure
126thank you you're welcome can I have a um roll call please with the amendment Mr buckarelli he's not here no uh wait until he comes back okay um Mr fresh yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Harvey yes this is jouette yes Mr Morales yes Mrs O'Donnell yes Mr and Gracia yes Mrs Merritt yes motion passes Morales can you please move policy items I uh make a motion to move policy item E1 approve policies and regulations for second reading and adoption uh attachment 11. can I have a second second any discussion a roll call please Mr buckarelli he's not here Mr fridge yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Jewett yes Mr morale yes Mrs O'Donnell yes Mr and Gracia yes and Mrs Murad yes motion passes at this time I'm going to move on to
127comments from the public I think you've skipped working but there's I'm gonna move that until after the public comments don't you think the public will want to hear what we're discussing in board business before they comment they will there's well they will but then they won't be allowed to talk Amber oh you want to stick to the agenda as a president that's why there's members waiting to talk will you allow the public to speak again if they would like after board business it depends on the time we just have a board business okay at this time I would move on to board business and I am going to start off with reading an email that I sent to Mr baccarelli and Mrs Harvey because Mrs Harvey asked me to read it and start off this
128conversation be wonderful I'm gonna pull it up dear Dorian Rich I'm writing to you with a sense of urgency as we approach Tuesday's board meeting I trust that we all share the same goal of doing what is best for the students staff and the district I'm aware that the board is divided and even though we all have the same common goals there's a vast difference in the best path to achieve those objectives one of them is the expedient and efficient implementation of the referendum while rapidly finding a new superintendent as a board president I want to find middle ground that can work for everyone and help unify the board given that both of you are the most vocal dissenters of the current board I am requesting an immediate meeting with you to discuss your thoughts
129and see if there is a way we can move forward together in unity to achieve this both sides need to start with the notion that we want to work together and do what is best for our children I truly believe all of the board members will agree with a prior statement and want to work together I want to listen to you and understand your thoughts on the best path forward while giving you insight into the thoughts of the other members I will have the same meeting with other board members after our meeting to share your views with them while we may not all agree on everything we all need to compromise and find middle ground that works for everyone the success of the Art District depends on the unity of the board on a Clear
130Vision and a path forward otherwise we will spend this year attacking past actions and making no progress in achieving our main goals of implementing the referendum and finding a a permanent superintendent I District our children our parents and our community will all suffer as a result can we schedule a meeting before the upcoming board meeting please let me know when you're available thank you for your time dedication to our school district I look forward to working together on this District's success best regards Amber Murad and I've tried my best to find middle ground only because not much gets done and accomplished when we discuss in public but Mrs Harvey stressed that we wanted to do it in public and as we have done in the past I think that all we can do in public
131and all that we do is make ourselves and individuals look better as individuals look better and self-righteous by attacking other board members and all that doesn't move this District forward and only enhances Personal Agenda while weakening the board I expect the same but hopefully I'm proven wrong the negatives will only will not only weaken our board for further strengthen our resolve to succeed our community is there any other comments by the board Mrs Harvey well you said you were going to share everybody else's views on this so I would like to hear from everyone else that's what you just read in your no no I would like to hear that when you met with me and Rich not only did you want to hear from us but you were going to share the views of
132the board members so I would like to hear from them no no it was to meet with both of you first so I'd like to know are you saying that we have to talk before anybody else does madam president yes I am wow you really like being authoritarian don't you I'm not being Authority I am saying that this was addressed to you and you didn't even respond to me he actually did Write a response but this is Mrs he did respond to you but I don't think your when he had respond it came to just me and I made sure to show that to you so I don't know why you would then say you didn't respond because you did didn't see it I guess you didn't read your emails properly but I reiterate I
133would love to hear from the rest of the board members because we hardly ever hear from them as to how they think we can all move forward with the things that have happened in the past four months mainly from all of you so I would love to hear how all of you plan on fixing all of this because I don't think that Richard I know what any of you are doing and I think our community has gotten up repeatedly and told you that they have no idea what any of you are doing so please let us know how do you plan to fix all of this um you know it's tough everybody we come here to work together and we put in um you know the tireless hours and there is um taking away from
134family and and things like that but what I have to say is that it's been going on for a long time this is the four months this it's been much longer than that um I do have something to say and um I will read it to you I want to thank first of all the parents you know your your Advocates of your children and believe me everybody's sitting here this table is number one your children uh I thank you for coming and giving um constructive thoughts to us so that we can move forward and listen to you and hear what you have to say but let me just read this quickly I want to first of all thank PTO for the dedication bringing activities assemblies and many other events to the students at Bayberry and
135Valley View schools without PTO the kids would not have all this enrichment that you provide for them um I want to thank Wes needless to say for their continuing work to be able to offer grants to teachers and principals and CPAC for being the advocates for special education teachers your efforts to bring creative and exciting curriculum to the students is so appreciated thank you for working diligently to help students succeed and find accomplishment principals and director of special services who hold the helm together for excellent creative teaching exciting learning and a beautiful educational Journey for the children Mr Alexis I met you at the high school while you were the principal I was on a committee that was developing a military plaque to honor those Watchung Hills Regional High School students that served and served
136in the military service that beautiful plaque is on the wall at the entrance of the Performing Arts Theater thank you Mr Alexis for your help and support in such an important Endeavor for those that served our country I was appointed to the school board when Mr Alexis was hired superintendent of our schools I told the board then that they hired a professional in the field of Education I was honored to be on the board working with Mr Alexis to my disappointment some of the school board members made unprofessional comments to one another and to the superintendent I wrote an email to the board stating the importance of maintaining our professionalism and respect for each other also to let Mr Lexus do his job that he was hired to do the next time I wrote an
137email was due to a concerning comment made by two board members about an administrator I asked for professionalism and respect from the two board members and also again wrote that Mr Alexis do his job that he was hired to do I only wish at that time that any board member could go to the superintendent to go ask questions or discuss issues during Pat perenti's tenure as superintendent his door was always open to any board member with concerns what a shame to be ordered not to speak with the superintendent when I left the board a year later board members were continuing to be disrespectful and unprofessional in interfering the referendum was being proposed and developed being an advocate for referendums to improve deteriorating schools over time is important for safety health and learning I explained to
138the Lord the importance of getting information to all residents and having informational sessions I offered to host those informational sessions I heard nothing the pandemic Came Upon Us giving the utmost challenge for any school system I want to thank Mr Alexis for providing an educational learning experience during the most intense time of challenges for all superintendents Nationwide during this Health crisis I came back to run for the board due to many areas of concern of our school system not only the disrespect of professional board members and but also the test scores I wanted K-8 Watchung schools to be one of the top school systems in the state once again I believe the small classroom size is important for a sound education for a child this gives teachers the ability to meet the needs of each
139and every student Innovative teaching and Creative Learning to enhance the education of the child takes place how did our class sizes get so large last year who was watching over the class sizes well I want to thank Mr Alexis noting and reducing the class size for 23-24 and the operations Finance committee's due diligence for hiring to go ahead and hire new teachers but our small class size is also essential for social and emotional health of our children after the pandemic our students needed to regain social emotional learning and interaction SEL is mandated to be taught I want to thank Mr Alexis and Town Council for working together on projects Phillips field and events in town bringing our schools in town once again United I never understood why the school in town parted during those years
140of the last Board of Education in 2019-2023 never had seen this happen the 44 years I lived in Watchung I was told by a board member that I have been out of education for a long time and that I did not know what was going on in schools today I I was shocked because she's very much mistaken um I know about the education and being an Adjunct professor and supervisor of student teachers at Kane University and going into many many schools and a teacher of 34 years I feel I do know the education all I ever wanted to do was get onto this board and serve the children of Watchung providing them opportunities to succeed a former board member made a snarky comment to me while I was walking into the board meeting last month
141once again with such disrespect is that where we are now Watchung are we going against our friends neighbors and our community I know we can do better and our school system still can do better let's go back to the best education for our children and everyone that makes this all happen are all of you my commitment to the board parents Community is to complete our referendum work hire a superintendent and keep a strong Educational Learning Experience for each and every student Mr Alexis I hope you have a more cohesive compassionate school board that lets you do the job you do very well in a community that is appreciative of all that you do thank you and all the best Mr Alexis thank you so we didn't hear from everyone we just heard from one person
142that's okay Amber you want to hear from me I'll say something Peter go ahead all right great so so whenever I place the vote here you know I think about what's in the best interest of the school district and the students and I vote according to that belief and I'm sure every one of this board has the same thought process when they think about something everybody it doesn't mean we're all going to vote the same way but that's what we each think if there is a vote that I can make that it's that's both in the best interest of this District but also brings peace and stability to this board I'm all for it I'm all for it however I've come to the realization it's not likely going to happen the truth is I don't
143see a truce happening here anytime soon and this is unfortunate because the public has valid concerns that we're trying to all address like the classroom size is the issues raised about the classroom temperatures moving the referendum forum but then we sit here and we talk about non-issues like library books and health sex curriculum nothing has changed with either of those yet somehow the perception is that they have changed nothing could be further from the truth the problem here is that of perception on various issues and how everyone's feelings are based on that perception based on what they believe to be the truth when the majority of time it's not now it's okay for us to disagree and we do not all have to get along but we need to respect each other and learn to
144move forward as a board I learned very quickly here that there's no nefarious motives by anyone on this board everyone here is trying to do the do the right thing I respect and appreciate everyone here that we just have some very strong personalities on this board and there's nothing we could change about that and since this is a contentious board and we can't change it let's just focus on the what's in the best interest of the school the children the school district and what service them best I also have something I'd like to say to myself so um you know when when I first joined this board I joined for two reasons I have three kids in this school system myself and um I believe I'm I'm a volunteer in this town as well I've
145picked up garbage around the circle and I've been a part of this Knights of Columbus for several years now over 12. and one of my brothers was here before and he's also um in the council in town so some of the board member comments um have been made and and I've heard all the comments that um I'm sorry that Community has made and I've heard all the comments that communities making and I believe that there's a misconception because it seems as if it's a group setting that we would be up here for any other reason than the kids so I just want to make something very clear to anyone who's listening to this audio and you folks who have been so great to be here at 10 o'clock at night um the the definition of
146tiredness means when you've had a full day you got to go home to a sick wife a sick mother-in-law you're texting them while you're in a meeting letting them know if everything's okay and then someone makes up a comment that they lost before and why are we on our phone right so when I'm on my phone I just want to let you guys know I have a family at home who relies on me so I simply will be probably just messaging them everything else that I tirelessly will get to when I get home at night tonight after the meeting I'll get to on my own time um as far as the the um the one thing I've learned the biggest lesson I've learned from my children is that if if they're ever throwing a fit
147I taught them that fit so when when you guys get up here and you guys are talking to us I would appreciate it if you could just provide us feedback so that we can give you what we're here to be and we're here to do which is make a movement so that the referendum that was passed before I got here can move forward we can effectively move on that referendum we can effectively do the things you want us to do and then at the same time I request that of the community everyone that's watching the video and and you folks who are here and US board members is that if we could all collectively as parents and adults come to a realization that it's only been four months that we've completed since I got here
148so four months some committee meetings right because there's two of those per month and then there's the actual meetings as far as I'm concerned things don't happen in four meetings in six or eight calls they don't happen that quick it takes more time than that it takes a lot more time it took the previous board quite some time to put this referendum together there was some things on there here we are we're dealing with what we have to deal with and we have the best intention so I think it's important that you guys all know that I'm usually the one that'll listen you know I'm I talk a lot but I'm usually the one that'll listen when it comes to certain things especially when people are upset you know attacking each other which you know
149coming here four months in that's all I hear is attacking um and you know I don't I choose not to attack people I'll pull you aside I'll have a conversation with you Dory we sat down for four hours we had a very great conversation got to know each other rich I rich I reached out to you we're gonna connect um I'm a parent I go towards the fire and I put the fire out so I'm here to do that um there was some concerns that were brought up to me by my neighbors who truly know me when I've shoveled their snow every single winter we've had to watch them because they truly know me as neighbors and that's what I'm here to do I'm here to help so I hope you guys can give me
150a fair chance not judge me because I'm quiet or you know and another thing I'm really upset about about being on this board is I've coached a lot of parents kids their most prized possession right I've coached a lot of parents kids and those parents don't talk to me anymore because I'm on the board and we won what does that have to do with anything you left be alone with your kid for four hours in a school and I coach them why my sick wife was home and my sick mother-in-law was home and I coached your kid and I waited till every single last kid got picked up and then I went home to my family and now you won't talk to me because we won that makes no sense to me so I just
151wanted to make that you know clear and you guys wanted me to talk I don't have a solution Dory neither do you we're gonna get there I'm on board with you though and I'm on board with every single one of you guys I think our intention is there that's it that's all I have to say um I think we all have the same General goal and it is for the kids it always has been for the kids um and I realized that a lot of the time honestly again same as many I don't really speak in these meetings too often um I feel like whenever there's the chance of me speaking if I do speak I'll get caught in the massive Crossfire that is constantly happening and why this meeting takes like five hours every
152single time even though I want to go home um I think if we all just you know as a board look at each other not even personally but professionally like with respect just because we are all sitting here again even though we have different methods of doing it we have the same motive the same general goal I think we'll be able to go through a lot of these much easier um but and it falls on everyone and myself included um just to make sure that that we are actually giving each other that respect that we deserve um I would just Echo a lot of what's been said here tonight and appreciate the comments from all the board members and um I think it's just worth saying that um it may seem confrontational or you know
153somehow disagreeable but boards have dealt with very contentious issues uh all over countries all over the world Robert's Rules of Order is recognized as a way to progress as an organization even when there's strongly held beliefs on different sides so that's why um where some things are subjective and it's not always that clear to make the interpretations there's Robert's Rules has a section entitled to Quorum during debate and the rule stresses that in a debate which it certainly applies to any of our discussion on any motions but um and board council could probably tell us that you know to instruct the board on the extent to which it applies to board member comments or things that are outside of our regular business but the a member in that section A Member must confine their remarks
154to the question be courteous in their language and deportment avoid all personalities not arraign the motives of another member and emphasize that it's not the individual but the measure that is the subject of the debate so I just think that there's wisdom in these rules that they're part of our policy as a as a board where we're working based on those rules and so I just think that uh the more we can uh you know follow them the better it will be um on some of these other fronts and that's why although I'm not an expert in them I do try to reference them when I think it would help us uh conduct our business in a more orderly and productive fashion for the for the kids so and for the benefit of the district
155and the whole town so thank you very much Trust so I think that's the biggest issue we have and I don't have any trust in the fellow board members anymore uh we started the year not agreeing with the recommendations of our superintendent who was a very knowledgeable very experienced very genuine man started out not taking his recommendations I was didn't feel great about that but then something happened that seven you guys knew about and me and Dory did and we found out after it was too late and I can't talk about it but that's the biggest issue facing this board it's not any one issue we can all have different debates you know we could we could have different positions on different issues but the way the board is run and governed and the way
156we take our Oaths of office that's immutable and that's where I've lost my trust and quite frankly I think the community senses that and I think the community's lost its trust in how we run the sport too I think a lot of this is an impression you're giving to the community wait I'm not sure I really feel that there is just too much personal attacks instead of listening to what the important thing is about or whatever it is about whatever comes up in discussion instead of looking to improve to be positive to move things on we seem to hang on to certain things certain beliefs that we have and don't let it go even when nothing is shown to the contrary so I just feel that there should be more civility people should be more
157respectful of each other and I don't think you should be saying things that will give people an impression that may not be true you have to be clear and concise with what your facts are and I think everyone has said the same things that I've been thinking they were very good very good at what they expressed I agree with what they've said and I just believe there should be civility into Quorum and that's not hard to do we all are professionals and we should act that way problem is I can't be clear and concise about the facts how would you and Gail feel if everybody in the board knew something but they said don't tell Gail and don't tell Phyllis they don't do that no but it happened to me and Dory right I don't
158know I wasn't at that meeting that's why I'm sorry I wasn't there I can't talk about it so I just uh I agree with Rich about trust um you know I thought it was pretty bad when I guess decisions were made and we were excluded um I think it's even more disheartening that all of you are sitting here and just trying to act like none of it ever happens and I and I also think it's very disheartening when a Community member who's an upstanding citizen gets up and makes a comment that potentially executive session information was leaked and the only two people on this board who actually want to find out if that happened was rich in myself and I think that it is very difficult for me to trust any of you at this
159point because why wouldn't you want to know what happens and the fact that you don't should disturb everyone that's what is disappointing to me in all of you and all of you sit here and talk about speaking to each other with respect and dignity yet I have seen a good number of you say God awful things in public not only to board members but to community members recently tonight Mr and Gracia and I don't know what show you think you're putting on for everyone I really don't and I don't know why you think that our community it's not being rich it really isn't I don't know why you think that our community isn't smart enough to see through this act because I hold our community up extremely high and we have extremely smart and brilliant
160people in our community we don't have to say anything they see it all with what all of you say and what all of you do and my concern is that with just repeatedly of how our superintendent has been treated not recommendations by him taken I mean there was even an instance where he gave his recommendation and Gail questioned and he still gave it and you still voted against his recommendation I mean I don't know why everyone thinks that you're going to rewrite history at this point you've already done it you've already done it I mean I really don't get how we can sit here and think that we're gonna have an easy time and a superintendent search when we have potentially gotten executive session information leaked about our superintendent I don't I don't know about
161you guys but I wouldn't be running into a job with that I wouldn't be so that's my concern and the fact that you guys say a lot of nice things to try and change what you have already said and done it's just really disturbing to me but if that's how you guys want to continue to go about stuff I don't know how any of you could think that I could ever trust any advice that any of you could ever give me I've lasted this long on my own I really don't want your advice because I don't want to be sued I don't want to go down the road that most of you are going down and I am going to make sure that I protect myself as a board member and I don't get involved
162in secret meetings and I don't get involved in one-on-one conversations where things take place I don't want to do that I don't want to be a part of it I don't Dory you've made claims that's not true and and you shouldn't throw those things out saying we don't care and we don't I didn't say you said that you don't care what I'm saying is through your actions and you your words is what our community is judging all of you on I know it's easy for all of you to just blame me and Rich I get it I get it no yeah I know I know it's easy for you to do that I think as Mr and gracias so likes to talk about reflection that he does never never takes for himself I think that's
163what all of you need to do because this is not going to change I mean I have seen this with our leadership for four months it is not going to get better I mean they don't seem to get how things should be governed properly I mean cutting down discussions because you just don't want to hear from me and Rich anymore trying to tout Robert's Rules all the time I mean it's just horrible this is what you're showing our community several times if you think that the community is going to sit here and say oh it's okay it's great that they just keep shutting down those two in particular board members then why do you think they're sitting here thinking what are you doing what is going on did you take the opportunity to ever just
164pick up the phone and say okay well let me have rich on the phone since you don't trust me or maybe Manny or when you met with him to then have that third wheel there to say oh let's have that discussion so then this person is there to Amber that's what Jen sharp and I did with you when we were president vice president and you still lie and twist and change everything no to change what fits the situation tell me to trust you I could never have this conversation with you privately I do not feel that you could convey how I felt accurately to other board members I don't want to shut down discussions between board members because I think we need to have this okay but that's all you seem to keep doing that
165is not true all you do is personal attacks if you want to discuss on any items like let's say talk about the referendum items I can tell you Mr Ricky has been working on them with our architects and our Administration we're getting stuff done that's approved in that referendum So when you say oh all they're doing is all tactics that's not fair So when you say that there are not enough teachers it was something you couldn't do so we're thinking outside the box as well as the administration and this was the administration's idea they came down with that recommendation because we kept on saying we would like more teachers because that is what the public would like I have a child in the school district too and hopefully I'll have one going into the school
166district soon as well and my niece as well so no if anyone has any vested interest as me because I will have two actually three generations hopefully going the school district so when you come up to all of us and accuse us of all of these statements it's unfair it's unfair that you didn't pick up the phone and call Mrs Jewett instead you publicly berated her and beloved I I have experienced that repeatedly from you and Mr and Gracia throughout the time that I have been president I just said you could it is amazing to me that you two are now all of a sudden surprised at these responses and if Mrs Jewell Hospital maybe you shouldn't make such statements in a committee meeting okay so speaking respectfully to one another I agree I don't
167expect to go to a committee meeting and sit there and listen to those things I don't if I don't expect to go to a committee meeting and hear you say uh this district has had enough of diversity equity and inclusion I don't expect to go to meetings like that and hear such things well clarify it is extremely disappointing clarify it if that's what you heard then clarify it because it's not necessarily what we hear is what I mean like I've said based on our attorneys letter that he sent us I didn't want to disrupt the consistency and you could have asked no you had asked if you joined it interesting that again this is something else that none of you want any of the community members to know what yeah give the entire story don't
168piecemeal what you think is okay and appropriate to tell the public how about you tell them the other adjectives that were used how come you tell them all these exercises I will not take advice yeah you're right because it does not fall into your narrative you forgot that they were talking about respect you forgot that they mentioned all discipline maybe rigor maybe all of these other things but no let's forget all of that and piecemeal what you think happened in your narrative and tell the public so then public can go ahead and get pissed of what of something that never happened when they're sitting here they're talking about let's talk about other stuff there's National schools of character what do they talk about do you know that's the discussions that they've been having they've been
169having discussions on how do we bring positivity to our school district May is mental illness awareness month right I'm sure you know that but coming to one meeting halfway through and then making allegations on what you think happened without giving the entire story is unfair I'm not having an argument with you on that because that's untrue what you're stating when you're talking about book Banning I clarified there was no book bending nobody hears ever going to say there should be a book bang because you have two teachers just like yourself sitting across from you who understand the importance of literacy who have nothing but day one asked that we need more teachers and Mr boccarelli on Friday I pleaded with you I cried telling you look nobody here I did and I'm not gonna get
170ashamed of that because you know what it came from the heart it came from the heart that Mr boccarelli let's move forward and Manny did that too and so did Peter and we sat there and we all agreed right but then it came to my attention that there was something that you were discussing with other board members what did you say to them that if you don't vote the way I would like to what was going to happen I told the other board members I was very concerned about how things were being governed okay and a lot of them said please don't bring up this and please don't bring up that and I said fine I won't bring it up unless everybody else goes back on their promises then I don't feel Bound by mine
171who's a lot of them you never spoke to me about anything you said you spoke with Mo right about this thing right she just wrote the manual you didn't want to read it but there's a highlighted section in here that says two or more individuals cooperation associations firm company and Partnerships raise expends less than thirty two hundred dollars nothing needs to be filed so why do we keep bringing up this topic like what are you trying to do it's a fake name yeah no do you know about it you don't know anything about it no so so we what okay where do we keep bringing this up what am I supposed to say like Miss Harvey just included all of us in her in her what she just said right why am I included in
172that she met me for four hours now you don't trust me Dory I don't trust the fact that none of you want to know if executive session information was leaked that is disturbing but you had a Community member who brought that concern up what does that have to do with us why can't we just move forward that could put us in legal Jeopardy communities listening to you saying you don't trust any of us so guess what they adopted they don't trust us either that that's great we're going to move forward there that that's wonderful thank you Manny what is disturbing to me again because you voted to not find out the truth because I just want to move forward right attorney here we had an executive session he advised us the way he advised us
173there are certain things we can't discuss you know that there's certain things we just the motion that was made was to find out the truth about whether executive session information was leaked and you all voted no except for me and Rich I feel like when you said us now all of a sudden I'm involved in that and I I don't like not being I'm in a trusted business I'm a trusted individual I am all about trust okay and there's one member in this community that knows that that I brought that up and I've even asked that member I wonder we're not going to be a part of this attack no because I don't want to be attacked by public I'm not here to be attacked but Manny I understand that you're a trusted member right
174why wouldn't you want to know the truth and you just said because you just wanna you just want to move past it yeah I do it's was I don't know I don't know if that's gonna happen that's what I'm saying to you yeah it's not moving past it I don't mean like moving past me trust me I mean moving past the fact that maybe executive session information was lead that's what I'm saying that's gonna make a difference has been made and it's over with we're talking now and the discussion for this board business currently is how do we move forward from personal attacks calling other board members that if you don't do this we're gonna end up opening up an investigation against you and when that is completely out of line This is a board
175business yeah so how about when I wasn't allowed to talk to Mr Alexis or Mr Rich Pepe how about that I was never a board president I wasn't able to talk to you what yes I called you you said oh yeah oh there's email proof here refer to the minutes it was never a conversation you sat there and made up a story about a conversation we had that we never had you think I'm ever gonna talk to you again it was not a made-up conversation it was a real conversation and I can send you the recording and not in my head please do not do that and that's the exact definition of gaslighting because I will record it and send it to you you need to stop Mr buckarelli just like last weekend last Friday
176when I asked you right right now when I asked you let's please work together in unity and I said look I'm done with people harassing me in January the first call that I got after I was approved or voted in as president was what do you think people would treat your child like right in school if they found out that you were delaying the referendum oh you didn't want to pass the reference I am not saying you called me oh Jesus make that clear why don't you make that clear it's clear who's that you're bad boy I just made it clear right but it wasn't you right and someone said that to me that is not what's that have to do with me I'm telling you because I'll tell you what your answer to that
177was I'll tell you what the answer that you gave me give me a second I'm talking right so when someone threatens my child who's a first grader that's unacceptable right one second about this yes you did I still I just told you on Friday and you know what you said I received Anonymous threats too and you just reconfirmed that and you just made that statement what you were talking about okay so that means you were not listening to our conversation so what we're trying to do is move forward as a community because all that's been doing is the best under the car creating issues my problem moving forward and sweeping the past under the carpet is just going to keep happening again until we have an honest discussion about what happened to the carpet I
178just said you know there's certain things we can and can't discuss and definitely just assuming no trust here in this group who's here to serve for Community is not you know something that I took very lightly so I'm sorry if I got excited about that but you know I I wish to prove that we're here for the right reasons and I open up the community to reach out to us with any concerns they have that are liable that can affect them in the way of us moving the things forward that we're here for in the first place that's all I wanted to meet you privately and have a conversation with you so you can get to know me too the only question I have for the two of you is what items yes it's free
179to two of you because everybody else I know where they stand I want to know where you stand where do you see us in let's say three months or six months from now no not a sarcastic Moment by the last four months what's going to happen Mrs Harvey where would you like to see us okay thank you Mr buckarelli as a school district where would you like to see us moving forward in a compliant well-governed manner okay I don't see that happening with you two sitting up there okay and that sounds about right to me too okay so those are your recommendations and where you would like to see it if we could from this point forward have those discussions and continue to have these discussions throughout our committee meetings the one you have made
180the request to be on committees you are on assigned to them right I reached out to you and you said you would not serve on it unless Mr and Gracia steps down correct well to be absolutely correct you asked me if I wanted to attend one meeting as a guest no I said to ask you if you wanted to take that position right and so did Manny right okay all right so yeah I do not want to be on a committee with Anthony again I was I I was on the committee with him last year all he did was block things um I was the chair of the committee I could have taken him off of it um but I thought it would be better to try to listen and it was a really really
181really bad experience and then I was on the committee um for the Outreach to the public on the referendum the ad hoc committee and it was an even worse experience there and so no I never ever in my life want to be on a committee with Anthony and Gracia again okay so that's a choice you're making right absolutely okay just still working and you're taking the choice to keep them on right I was gonna say you could choose to remove him since our community made a petition about it just trying to get rich on it to get rich on I cannot remove I mean they obviously want him on it so and he's welcome to be that's your choice as the president to keep the person who's constantly voted against the referendum to be the
182chair of the committee you know can I just say something I I know the hours that you we all put in for the Committees and sitting on this board and getting through the agenda and and for you to make accusations of somebody that's putting hours in and working diligently you it you shouldn't be saying that against him he's worked so hard I admire that I admire I admire Mo and and Peter and Manny and oh my gosh the hours that go into work here and we want to do that I was fighting fighting against I I feel bad because I know it was a referendum that was had ish a couple issues but you know it's everywhere that's done and you two would work great together making a great committee a great commitment no we
183all agree that that would be a fair balance and Mr and gracias actually spent countless hours in asking questions on how we can celebrate some of these projects and it really is could I ask would you be willing to sit for One meeting and then decide after in the operations committee take my spot for one year you heard my position thank you all right um is there any other comments you want to read something there's been a significant amount of disinformation and insinuation presented at our recent portable noodle sure I can't hear it oh okay there you go working okay I'll start again there's been a significant amount of disinformation and insinuation presented at our Board of Ed meetings the level of disinformation has risen to the point where a local tabloid felt obliged to
184use the words book Banning as their lead off words in an essay about what they perceive occurred in the Watchung school's Board of Education committee meeting naturally we all know the words book Manning are very inflammatory words and it's interesting that this essay editorial would use the words book Banning since their author was not present at the meeting I can assure the members of the board that the words book Banning were never used at the meeting the subject discussed was age appropriate reading material and how inappropriate reading material should be handled in watching schools the discussion resulted from a question raised earlier by a parent there currently does not exist a policy in the schools regarding the procedure for handling material found inappropriate by a parent that was obtained by their child the general guidelines
185provided to the school Community is that the parent should bring the material to the attention of the child's teacher the question has risen whether or not such a directive is satisfactory in today's environment and will all teachers respond to the parents concerns in the same way and is it fair to the teacher in the school age community there's a long way from talking about age-appropriate reading material to book Banning which are local tabloid may not understand in which our school board members should clearly differentiate it's of course very disappointing to me is a new school board member having attended only three board meetings to be the target of an insinuation suggesting that watching schools should engage in creating a policy for book Banning I am also disappointed in what I believe are other disparaging comments
186about my conduct and my volunteer role on the board however am I speaking out tonight is not intended to be a defense of what has been alleged and I want to prefer uh prefer to have my residency and Watchung and service to the community for 40 years plus speak for themselves in conclusion I'll make these notes available to our local tabloid which presented these allegations and other insinuations of what occurred at meetings they didn't attend so that in the future they may be able to more accurately represent the difference between Concepts such as book Banning and having age-appropriate reading material available for our children I'll also make notes available to other board members who feel the need to comment on the actions of their peers so they can accurately reflect what was said and not
187give the public an inaccurate perception of what actually occurred and that's the thing that I think is happening we're trying to give the public a perception like I said stick to the facts be correct be accurate and be civil because you're all capable of doing that any other comments this time I wanted to move it on to public comments please state your name and Municipality of residence Aaron [Laughter] I'm Sue Tucker um been a 50-year resident right now I am living out of town doing to due to a family situation but um I'm an alumni here and both my kids are um and I was very active in the school system when they were here um about the mural I do hope you understand that Town Council um had sort of directed Chris to come
188talk to this as a selected place for the mural which seems to have some educational value as [Music] the former residence the first residents of this community are not represented anywhere um there used to be a program that taught fourth grade project the dreaded Watchung report which I know you know um that took all year to death uh that did teach the kids about this and actually going through that with my daughter is what got me interested in Watchung history um and I was a co-chair of the startup of the museum texture Museum and still participate in it informally but one thing I think that's significant is that a Chris did get the support that was suggested by Mr Kraft to contact the the State group representing the Native Americans and that they didn't praise
189it highly enough they just he asked for their support and approval and got it um that they're concerned about it being a legend was valid um although we do have a chapter in our fourth grade textbook about Johnny Appleseed and we could discuss that that's another subject um I think um it should be noted as mayor Pope said that 200 people voted for this but they're pocketbooks when it had to be you know remove we had to pay people to remove it from Sears restore it and store it for us and that was with total approval at that point in time um so and I do think um the legend is isn't exactly a Dreadful thing I understand the concept of perpetuating it because it isn't to our knowledge proven fact it was putting writing
190in very early 1900s um but I do think that the painting isn't just Sears how Towing to the locals that was done with consultation and um really recognized at the opening of Sears by our mayor at the time so certainly with approval at that time and does represent I used to be princess running deer in the first grade event um in a big teepee on the stage at Bayberry to Inc teaching glenappy crafts and words and I think you probably know that the name of this town means high hills in the Lenape language so it is a part of our culture um when we first started the museum we did have an all all third grade trip and we also had sore kids come to the museum and I just sort of see it as
191a an extension of that um that's not actually in the museum that's here you know to introduce the top and if anybody um would like to know more actually about what that whole thing is if you haven't been to the museum please visit it thank you thank you Okay so I really appreciate the time that all the board members took to make their comments um but I'm not sure what's going on here it seems like this is a concerted effort to just shut all of us up um it is so clear you guys just don't want us to look into what happened with respect to Executive session comments um being disseminated I completely understand um that this board wants to move they want to do things but moving on doesn't mean not looking into this
192right one of your jobs is to follow the rules um so what I'm hearing is that you you um aren't trusting one another but all of your trusting and I don't know in my world I trust somebody or I trust something when I have some facts to go on so if I don't know the facts then I have to go do an investigation I figure them out right it doesn't mean that um I'm gonna like what they say but you know we got to get to the bottom of what happened what I'm also hearing is that you just don't want to hear what the public has to say right and that's not because of Richard Dory because of the way that the public is received um I know that you make a statement um about
193the board's uh policy and who can maintain liability for making comments um but I think you need to be really careful on restricting the free speech of citizens who come to speak before you there's plenty plenty of case law in the state of New Jersey um we're dealing with silencing comments by those who you don't agree with and permitting those who you do on two occasions this evening you sought to silence comments by the public based on their content that's not Within your ability because it is a Content based distinction it's not a Content neutral distinction um the statements by the Vice President this evening that you have a policy of not responding uh to public comments is it's just not a policy it might be the desire of the board I certainly sitting in
194the in the chair as board counsel to some of my boards I said you don't have to answer questions right if you don't feel comfortable answering you don't have to but you certainly can so you know when the president wanted to explain something she herself was was cut off she was we're not supposed to respond this isn't a question answer I'm not allowed to ask I'm allowed to get up here if I want and spend my three minutes asking a Litany of questions you as board members don't have to respond to them at all I hope that you would I hope that you know you take some time you'd hear what any of us have to say and that if you need to send some type of follow-up correspondence you would that's never happened ever
195so just like your statement that citizens can be held liable you too can be held liable I would implore considering that you're going to be using the New Jersey School Board Association to assist with the superintendent search that you consult the New Jersey School Board Association uh they have a pamphlet and it goes through board member conduct during board meetings and the very first the very first bullet point is view the public as part of the solution not the problem um proactively provide information to a crowd prior to public comment don't get sidetracked listen genuinely and attentively to every person who addresses the board be mindful of your facial gestures and your body languages and I'm sorry in your body language ongoing communication needs to be consistently reviewed and defined refined not just delivered during
196major events or emergencies I think that's the one that really hit me today you guys see a major emergency on the horizon and it's why every one of you prepared canned statements to read this evening I am not going to make any general overarching comments about this board in general because there are some members who have shown over the past four months that they are willing to work with one another they are willing to engage in real dialogue with their board members and they're able to change their opinions not everybody's right and that's part of why this discussion needs to occur and it's really disheartening to feel that other council members don't feel that they can have those discussions um to get to a better answer to all the comments that the board members are
197taking time away from their families to do what you're doing so are we and guess why we have to do it because we don't trust you I don't trust you um I want to hear the debate I want to hear what's wrong I want to hear the issues that you all have with one another right because I don't want to hear from two people I want to see it with my own eyes I want to see how you interact with each other at meetings and I don't see that happening I see each many of you saying we don't want to deal with this we just want to ignore it and we want to move along um again I just want to caution this board that of course a meeting that amounts to less than an
198effective majority is not a meeting so um president Madam president you are called to talk to Mr Corelli and Ms Harvey of course would not constitute a meeting but what you're proposing after that which is to then have a meeting of the other seven members to discuss what you discussed with Mr bookcarelli and miss Harvey is most definitely a violation um of njsa 10 colon 4-11 which states that no board shall fail to invite a portion of its members to a meeting for the purpose of circumventing opma which I believe is a possibility so just be careful when you're going to do that um again and I just want to clarify this um I'm not I I I'm not sure where this was all going but um Mr buckarelli didn't say anything didn't make any
199comments that were made by him he was talking about a public comment that was made um and this idea that civility is just everybody agreeing and not having any discussion just doesn't seem right it's not the purpose of this and also local tabloid uh you guys should probably implore the borough uh not to make their Public Notices in the Echo Sentinel if it is a tabloid and I did just want to go over what a tabloid is because I think we're not on the same page here so Oxford uh defines a tablet as a newspaper having Pages half the size of those of a Standard newspaper which The Echoes does not typically popular in style and dominated by headlines photographs and Sensational stories uh which the uh Echoes is not and uh just for good
200measure Collins Dictionary um defines a tablet as a newspaper that has a small Pages short articles and lots of photographs and tablets are often considered to be less serious than other newspapers so I would just be careful when we're talking about what is what is not a tablet and where we make our Public Notices uh to our citizens and if that's the case we probably shouldn't be making them enough to avoid thank you hey everyone Jennifer agliero watch on um I arrived a little bit late um but I did listen to the board comments about moving forward and how to move forward and I do think that there is a path to peace and I personally believe that that partially involves the makeup of the operations committee I'm the one that started the petition it
201was to place Mr buckarelli back on the committee and when I wrote the petition out I really wanted to frame it positively um because I really strongly don't believe in attacking our neighbors and our volunteers and I do appreciate everyone's work um on this board however the public doesn't have the trust that the operations committee will honor the referendum because of past comments that were made by the chair even if he was truly working hard on the projects the trust is gone amongst the community members definitely amongst the parents and I could write a second petition asking that certain people step down I mean honestly I wrote that in 10 minutes and I texted it to a few people and it flew I mean I had almost 150 signatures in 72 hours I could do
202it again if I thought it would help but I'd much prefer to just respectfully ask Mr and Gracia to step down as the chair for the sake of peace and moving forward I personally think that that would go a long ways towards regaining the trust with the both the parents and the community thank you very much I may have to tell uh blue wolf show I'd first like to thank you all for all the time and hard work you guys put in I know it takes a lot of time away from home Mr Alexis thank you for all that you've done for these past several years um I know that you truly care for our kids seeing you on the sidelines at both my kids baseball and softball game shows that you really truly care
203um I wish you the best your shoes are going to be very hard to tell um I have three kids in our district one who is graduating Bayberry this year and one who is graduating eighth grade I wanted to speak about the two important end of the year events at our two schools the fourth grade farewell and the eighth grade dance which are unfortunately planned for the same evening the evening of June 8th it seems to be an oversight but one that could and should be resolved especially in our small town and small District I along with five other families share in this conflict I know that there are always going to be overlaps and conflicts personally my family experiences them daily because we have three children in multiple activities in sports however this overlap
204is between our only two schools we are not Warren where there are four elementary schools feeding into one Middle School we are just one Elementary and one middle school and an overlap like that should be avoided although we do not stay and attend the eighth grade dance we would like to help our children get ready for this exciting evening take pictures and get them there safely and I know my eighth grader would like to attend his younger brothers farewell along with the other older siblings how can we be expected to tell our fourth graders that their family members won't be able to attend because two events were scheduled at the same day and same time um I know that the eighth grade committee cannot change the date of the dance because we have already paid
205a deposit for the venue secured a DJ and a decorator but on behalf of the other families we would greatly appreciate if the fourth grade fourth grade farewell can be moved to another date that week since we are still a month away thank you thank you hello uh Tom agliaro uh Portland Lane Watchung uh don't come to these meetings often my wife does it's who's much more well spoken to me on these things um I'd just like to propose that Mr Lexus leaving on this search assignment for his replacement if you're not going to use a recruiter to pay the fee in order to save money I would I would advise maybe employing a referral bonus to your teachers so you know sometimes your best source are the people working here so that might kind
206of incentivize them to make some phone calls I'll be honest I've already made a few phone calls say hey who do you know I find for my business that is the best way to find a good person I believe you were found through a search term even though you live here yeah and honestly when I heard that I was like Wow whoever found that guy awesome sad to see you go because I was like very disappointed to hear that I was like what happened um with regards to that I would say corporate governance is a big issue and take it seriously so I mean I value each one of you in all your time um I just came from a baseball field with one of your former board members who I love working with so
207far he's argumentative as am I um so we have a really good time and honestly with the conflicts I think we've already had a one or two and we resolve it very quickly but it's really easy for us because we're in front of parents so I understand where you're coming from and appreciate how passionate you are about it and I'm sorry to hear we're losing friends you shouldn't because it's a lot of hard work so uh good luck make it work that's all but I did send a letter out um again a little harsher than I probably should have been but I apologize for that but it is heartfelt so definitely appreciate all your time and if you need to shuffle around a few seeps to make everybody happy yeah that you could shop keep
208shuffling as much as you can so but thank you for your time all right thank you good evening again Adam kraftwer in Township um a couple thoughts one rich please reconsider you know the community has spoken it'd be great if you could join even if Anthony does continue to be chair um um other thing is sorry I'll speak up um while I obviously don't like seeing the Discord I've been a part of it so I know it's easy to get caught up in um what I would suggest is to stop scapegoating rich and Dory right so I don't necessarily agree with everything you two say or how you say it but at the same point it's really confusing to me why it from where I'm sitting and I think from ever where everyone else is
209sitting it looks like seven versus two that to me right there speaks volumes um lip service lip service lip service let's all get along blah blah blah blah just do the work um I honestly couldn't care less if your fight like each other don't like each other just do the work and don't waste two hours talking about how we should all get along better who cares do the work get it done I mean things are getting done I appreciate it the update from Anthony sounds like projects are getting done we wish more was getting done but just keep doing the work I don't know don't blame two people for all the all the problems they've been here a long time they were I know them well I worked with them they do good work you
210know to your point about wanting to be trusted I don't know you so all I have to go on is what I see up here right so to me you're still earning my trust and that goes for you too Peter and that goes to for you Gail I know you a bit and then right so there's a lot of people out here that don't know you well and all we have to go based on is what we see what we hear and we are intelligent enough to make our own opinions so please don't scapegoat them and blame them for our opinions just because it happens to we happen to agree with them sometimes we're allowed to I also agree with other people sometimes so just keep that in mind appreciate it any other comments right
211is there a motion to adjourn second listen thank you motion has been made and seconded to adjourn the meeting all in favor say yes all right any opposed any opposed say no this meeting has been adjourned