001Borough School District Board of Education on January 24th 27 PM Maybe please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag in the United States with liberty and justice for all welcome to a meeting of the Board of Education of the borough of Watchung please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings Act chapter 231 laws of 1975 and that the advance notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of the borough of Watchung at which a formal action may be taken this meeting is being live streamed on the district website where a recording of the meeting also will also be posted the public will have an opportunity to be heard as
002shown in 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 a the consent of parents Guardians whose children may be included in the image can we have a roll call please Mr buckarelli here Mr fridge here Mr Gonzalez absolutely Mrs Harvey here Mrs Jewett here Mr Morales here Mrs O'Donnell here Mr and grazia here Mrs Murad here eight members present can I have a motion to go into executive session so moved is there a second a second any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed Mr burgo can you please read the reason we're going into executive session whereas the open public meeting Act njsa 10 colon 4-11 permits the board of educational meeting closed session to
003discuss certain items now therefore be resolved resolved at the Board of Education resolves a closed session to discuss a matter under confidential by federal or state law re-student matter further resolve the minutes of this closed session be made public when the need for a confidentiality no longer exists this closed session will be followed by an open session where action will be taken thank you should last 10 to 15 minutes gonna have a motion to come out of executive session is there a second second any discussion all in favor say aye aye neopos at this time we're going to move board memory comments until after these Auditor's presentation and move on to superintendent works thank you Miss Murad good evening everyone so nice to see you here um what we would like to do is move
004right into the principles reports we have our student council president Pierce scorenstein here to deliver both schools uh reports so we'll begin with that good evening everyone my name is Pierce grunstein and I'm Valley View student council president I'm happy to present the Bayberry and Valley View principles reports for the month of January the Bayberry staff and students gathered in the APR on December 2nd for an assembly and surprised our educator of the Year recipients congratulations to miss Mills our teacher of the year and Miss Heller our Educational Services professional of the year the Bayberry Championship spelling bee was held on December 14th congratulations to our winner fourth grader Lexi Castello we are so proud of all of our students that competed and would like to congratulate our class finalists on a job well done
005great job to Charlotte white Caitlyn Park Mark chericki Andrew lay and Lily D Pasquale the whole school gathered together on December 23rd for all School holiday sing-along students were so excited to sing all the songs they have been participating in music class to celebrate a variety of winter holidays the joy and holiday spirit was felt by everyone our fourth graders put on a spectacular band and course concert on January 12th special thanks to miss Morrison and Miss volley for sharing the passion for music with the students and guiding them in the musical journey in honor of Martin Luther King Jr Bebe held the very own Day of Service on January 20th students and staff who work together to be helpful to the school Community by creating positive posters of encouragement buddy reading and writing with
006the youngest student collecting books for classroom libraries participating in the programs Valentines for seniors and color smile students also volunteered to help in the APR and assist teachers with a variety of tasks it was a great day of service after school clubs are in full swing with students participating in sports painting and drawing games robotics gardening community service and coding and chess club in addition I would be by a pursuit of Excellence started this week before and after school with students working hard with the teachers on reading and math skills our students have been working hard to reach the ivory goals and we're looking forward to mid-year I ready Diagnostics which will be administered in the next few weeks thank you and now I will be moving on to the Valley View principles of words
007our science and social studies teachers participated in learning walks at Watchung Hills Regional High School with teachers from the sending districts while they they collaborated on best practices and focused on the implementation of the Next Generation science standards and Civics education math and language arts articulation opportunities are scheduled for February and March Martin Luther King Jr day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve the communities during Mountain View Monday students celebrated Dr King's message of giving by coloring pages for color smile this local non-profit organization regularly distributes colorful drawings to senior citizens average groups overseas and anyone needing a smile throughout the month students also read about Dr King's life and discussed the impact of his words and actions Valley View held
008our school-wide spelling bee on January 12th we had 30 participants in the Valley View spelling bee this year after 20 rounds Alex show Wiki grade 5 was named our school champion in March he will represent Valley View at the 7th annual SEO SNJ spelling bee spectacular our second place winner was Leila Costello grade six and our third place winner was Isha goodwini grade seven congratulations to all of our spelling bee participants the community outreach Club has scheduled Story Time with Bayberry sessions our first session was on January 13th Valley View students visited Miss Deegan and Miss Myers classroom to share a few favorite stories and then move to the king kindergarten Kingdom of Miss tala mayo and Miss stack we look forward to scheduling more time with our friends at Bayberry 8th grade parents are
009invited to watching his Regional High School tonight Tuesday January 24th the guidance department administration and content area supervisors will give presentations of recording of the evening will be available and watching his Regional High School's website under 8th grade events August 6th and 8th grade students attended an on-campus field trip with the Rutgers Explorer science bus on January 17th and 18th students boarded the bus and engaged in science experiments led by Ruckus graduate students I was seventh graders or scheduling for their own visit this spring thank you to a PTO for funding these fun and educational experiences the Valley View Winter band concert was held on January 17th at 7 pm the 5th 6th and combined 7th and 8th grade bands performed familiar and new compositions the Show's theme was titled music of exotic lands it
010is wonderful to see and hear the progression of our talented artists congratulations to miss Morrison and all our performers on January 18th the cognitive abilities test kagat was administered to all fifth grade students Valley View the uses test results to identify students for the gifted and talented program as well as to adapt instruction in ways that enhance each student's success in learning cogate measures students learning reasoning abilities in the three areas most closely related to success in school the verbal battery measures students abilities to reason with words and Concepts these reasoning abilities play an important role in reading comprehension critical thinking writing and virtually all verbal learning tasks the quantitative battery measures students abilities to reason with quantitative symbols and Concepts these reasoning skills are significantly related to problem solving in mathematics and other disciplines
011the non-variable battery measures students abilities to reason with geometric shapes and figures to perform successfully students most accurately Implement strategies for solving novel problems in sixth grade science students completed the ecology unit and are now studying geology each student selected one of the 63 national parks researched assays and questions related to what they have been learning and wrote a letter to the chosen National Park they are eagerly waiting for correspondence back in honor of the Lunar New Year Valley View students were read on Monday learned about the holiday and explored the Lunar New Year animal thank you have a good night great job Pierce thanks again uh it's uh Valley View concert I have to say it was a packed house we had all hands on deck taking chairs out of the science classrooms just
012to create enough seats for the uh for our guests uh it's also great to see and we're very pleased that the learning walks are continuing at the high school with the regional sending districts at this time I know we have the start strong presentation but we can put that on hold Miss Murad and we can invite Miss Dolan to come forward she's here to present the audit foreign good evening everyone I just wanted to say once again my name is Valerie Dolan I'm with nissabaccio we have we were hired to do the audit of the annual audit of the blockchain school district um we have completed our audit just to give you a little bit of a refresher I believe you all have an electronic version of the audit but just to give you there
013were actually your two documents um there is an actual large book which is your annual comprehensive financial report and that report is made up of four main sections there is a lot there's a small introductory section there's a large Financial section there's a statistical section which is actually very informative it's the Jays it's 10 years comparative data not only about the school district and enrollment but it also gives you information about the county of Somerset it gives you information about the borough of Watchung lastly there's a fourth section which is the single audit which is all of your compliance and details all of your Grant funds secondary there's a second report which is your Auditor's management report that's my report to the board for all of the procedures and testing that we did and any
014findings and recommendations or suggestions we might have unique this year in this report if you were to go through is one of the biggest key things that has been problems for plaguing school districts for the last couple of years if you've heard me speak before is that the state has delayed us once again with information that we need critical to complete your reports that information is related to pension and it's related to the post-retirement pension costs those costs are passed through your district and represented as a revenue and an expense therefore it has no impact on the financial statements as a whole however it's not disclosed in your report what we chose to do to ensure that you could get a timely report is that we have qualified the opinion for footnote number nine and
015audit schedule L5 only the rest of the report is a clean Financial opinion we did not want you to have to wait for that information as of today that information is out partially we still don't have the information and the state's still waiting for that information so we went forward to give you some information to go through what I usually like to do is go through the audit schedule C1 which I feel is actually the most important schedule in this whole report it's actually your budget if you want to follow along or have your books to keep track of it kind of runs from on the PDF of page 81 to about page 89. that's probably in this whole report that I prepare to you for the most 10 most important pages in the document
016it walks you through all of your revenues and where you budgeted and where they came through and all of your expenditures and all those Appropriations if the ready transfers made to any line items and any expenditures so that you can see where your actual budget versus expenditure when you get to the end of that document it gives you your financial picture it's the basis of accounting that you follow it is the most informative that will talk to you about your fund balance so when I look at your fund balance as a whole there's a large number on that schedule but that really is broken into a lot of important component science one of them is your capital reserve which actually as of 10 as of June 30th 6 30 22. let's keep where I'm in
017front from you have a little over a million dollars in a million 78 in your capital reserve 000 has been withdrawn from that capital reserve to support the budget that you're currently in in 2223. Additionally you have a small unemployment compensation that money is the money that's set aside for unemployment claims recently last year it actually became part of your general fund balances rather than being reported elsewhere in the report and that's 65 000. you have about a hundred and eighty five thousand dollars worth of encumbrances what those are are purchases that were made incurred during the school year related to the 2122 school year but had not been performed or completed by June 30th they roll in as part of your 22-23 budget now you have your big numbers which we would say is
018your unassigned allowable fund balance that current is about little under eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars as of June thirtieth twenty two the state allows you to hold four percent of your budget as an as an unreserved designation that was different than two years ago where they only allowed you to hold two percent but due to the coveted pandemic they gave you a bump that will be reverting back to two percent for your 6 30 23 audit report Additionally you had four hundred and fifty six thousand of excess Surplus from the previous audit the 630-21 audit that was anticipated and included in part of your budget for 22.23 leaving you with the most important piece that you're using to build your budget going forward which is what your the amount of fund balance that's being
019required to be utilized to support that budget and that amount is six hundred and twenty three thousand nine hundred and eight dollars that money will flow into your budget document and be used to offset your budget keeping you at your state mandated levels additionally the district received about four hundred thousand dollars worth of federal and state and local grants um they're detailed on the audit schedule E1 Pages 94 and 95 and then lastly you have two Enterprise funds you have a small milk program which in previous years I've always said had a little bit too high of a balance you're actually down to the most the lowest I've seen it and you're staying which means you're generating just enough and milk to cover your milk program and then lastly you have the new CARE program
020your CARE program has about thirty six thousand dollars in Surplus to roll into going forward looking at the management report I'm happy to report that all the recommendations from last year's audit corrective action was taken and have all been resolved additionally I'm happy to report that there are no new recommendations for this year this is a clean audit with no recommendations and also one of the things we like to do is discuss things that possibly could be what we call suggestions they are areas where could be potentially problematic for districts in the future or uh we've seen other districts have those problems the biggest one that we feel is is there's a large amount of federal funds that are flowing through school districts in the last two years and going forward through 24 in the
021forms of all of your covid grants as a result when there's a lot of federal funding there of course can be Federal Auditors who may come and knock on your door and start doing their own review in previous years when they come and do their review once they're in they start looking at them all this last round during the 21-22 school year they actually selected pieces of the Esser funds so they would select one of your Esser funds and they would audit that piece of that fund and then basically apply it to the whole not sure what they're going to do in 22-23 but always be aware when there's Federal monies flowing through they do reserve the right to come I'm have that's kind of a little summary that I wanted to give you but
022I'm here really more to answer questions if anyone has any questions on the records themselves or the audit just a quick question as we spoke on the phone yes with the with the excess Surplus yes we don't want in with the budget prep starting up now you should be really strategic on how do you want to utilize that correct right so one of you five sure thing um with excess Surplus as we see it generates itself it is not a guarantee so our recommendation always is if you have a larger excess Surplus from one year to the next it is best to use that on one-time expenditures because it will not regenerate it's not best when you have excess Surplus to use it for General operations when you use it for General operations and it's
023not there in a future year you run into the problems of a little bit of an unbalance in your budget so there's always as I know been doing this a long time there's always a wish list sometimes when you have these excess surpluses and these additional monies that have to be rolled into future budgets a good time for those access for those wish list items and then the second is uh some strategies going from the four percent to the two percent which could you do that resolution in June air marketing specific amounts yes flow in June you are afforded by the state the ability in the month of June so we have to keep track of that and make sure in June so during any of your board meeting in June you can take any
024excesses that you have and at that time during June appropriate them into any type of the reserves that are set by um the allowancy there's an allowance for um capital reserve those Capital reserves can be set aside for future Capital event expenses there's a maintenance Reserve which can be set aside for future maintenance of the buildings there's also an emergency Reserve that you can put in not always my recommendation because board action alone doesn't allow you to utilize that Reserve you have to go to the commissioner and ask them so that's not my favorite but if you have there have been districts that do choose to take advantage of the that additional emergency Reserve thank you anytime all right hi I'm not sure if Mr Borgo had a chance to pass on a question that
025we just had regarding the capital reserve yeah so I appreciate that you addressed that in your presentation and it's also nice to hear the good news about our review being a clean audit so thank you you know for that good news um there was just this reoccurring uh statement of our capital reserve where um and this is uh as recently as uh November 30th of 2022 where we were seeing the one million three hundred seventy five thousand and then there's been this um allocation and in parentheses a deduct of 298 000. and so that leaves us with that 1077 but it was uh Mr Pepe our previous business administrator had spoken about that at some point that would be resolved in whether it was the audit or in a financial report and you're on financial
026report so from what you're presenting today it's the one million and plus the other one you know 78 yes and then 600 000 uh that I understand we had uh it's still part of our so we're over 1.6 million with those two numbers he's actually withdrawn so you're actually down the 600 right but not spent just you haven't spent it it's preserved for like you pulled it out for Chillers um Energy savings and an rtu yes in case it was needed put off into a separate line item so I guess that's my question what are you seeing as our our capital reserve now and does the 298 000 still have to be accounted for is that now uh into that I actually went back and did a crosswalk I actually walked myself all the way
027back to 2018 because when I went back to 2018 that's where I saw the biggest largest number of your capital reserve your capital reserve was actually 1.8 million back in 2018 you withdrew actually a little over back then you actually withdrew about 800 000 came out um some of it ended up not being spent but that was really for hvacs and some roofs so you kind of brought yourself down so what happens with the capital reserve is your budget cycle you have the money set aside your budget cycle appropriates the money if you do not spend that money that money by by law is required to return to the capital reserve so the 298 000 that you speak of was actually returned to the capital reserve in June 30th of 21. it was appropriated as
028part of the budget during the 21 20 20 21 school year but was never spent a small amount was actually spent so 298 was withdraw from your capital reserve through the budget but I actually in my audit last year returned 253 000. so it's part of your one million oh seventy seven oh seventy eight it's already back in that number okay so that's that but it was showing as one million three hundred seventy five thousand I think it was a journal entry not made on the system but the audit was capturing it right all journal entries that we received from you were done in December I think he's referring to an earlier one and then I looked yes it was a timing of journal entries received when we were wrapping this audit up versus when
029they got posted okay so going forward it should be corrected correct and be in agreement with mine and so the total because the the 600 000 set aside if not spent like you just said would be returned to the capillaries so our our total now is over 1.6 million it's a million you just have a million you don't have 1.6 you have a million what about the 600 well the 600 000 will reduce actually as it stands right now today not June 30th my audit you're actually at about 400 000 because 600 is earmarked in your budget 435 341. there you go it's about 400 and if you do not spend that 600 it'll bring itself back to the million 77 6 30 23. okay I appreciate it I'm just trying to reconcile the treasury
030I appreciate the questions you know they have had so I was kind of prepared a little bit so right I had asked that week right so the journal that you can reduce that one million whatever yeah I just want because I everyone looks at my numbers but I'm June 30th so I try to at least let you know where I think you really are today because it's obviously January I'm last June so we're really at slightly over 1 million slightly over 1 million because you haven't spent I believe is right you haven't spent those projects nothing spent nothing in common so more than likely you'll be at about a million dollars 107 8 148 you'll be exact thank you very much sure thank you and I I believe there was one other question about a
031maintenance Reserve but has that been resolved I just want to make sure we have all of yours because I did a little research on you that might have come up in the uh the operations committee meeting but that was my question specifically if you'd like to no mention it um well I think the question was you don't have a maintenance Reserve there is a there was a maintenance Reserve established but the money that was in that maintenance Reserve was used when you had the mold remediation over and so whatever you had in maintenance was taken over when you used um when you had to remediate the mold and it wasn't replenished and it never has been replenished so in June when you're looking forward to those resolutions you're more than welcome you have an existing
032reserve it just is zero so you can you already passed a resolution to establish one which means in June you do have the ability to set aside money in that maintenance Reserve additionally or split money between maintenance and capital and you don't have to really be exact you could put not to exceed so it could be my suggestion always has been an amount not to exceed and put a pipe dream because that number really doesn't get settled until I come in and audit and see where the real numbers come and then I'll meet with Administration and finance and let you know okay the resolution say x here's the real numbers where would you like to put them the the more you put in the resolution the flexibility it gives you to me yes and so
033that would have to be decided in June and technically if we have 600 000 coming into the Surplus and you yep put that uh whatever that automatically goes back goes back up yeah and that would be up to 1.6 million again you could if you had an additional six yes okay so you have the flexibility but just always remember June right it only can be done in the month of one month you get one month one one remembering one month to do it so and it's a great it's a great tool for a public school it's it's just a great tool so you would two million into maintenance reserve two main capital reserve you may at the end of the year have two dollars in excess but at least you have the latitude or you
034may have 1.2 million and then she would sit down and say why don't we put 800 Capital reserves 600 here or 400 in your maintenance reserve and you're just building your I call them your special checkbooks for Extraordinary items thank you perfect any other questions thank you thank you kudos to Rich who had last year clean on it's really yeah it I mean a clean audit is not I mean as I think every year you've always had a corrective action you haven't had a clean audit in several years so so which means only action you have to take is accepting the audit there's no corrective action that has to be approved by the board today great evening everyone thank you yes thank you okay good evening everyone um we're here to share our start strong
035results um start strong is a state surprise mandated assessment um that the kids took their first full week of school um the reason I said it's a surprise is because start strong was put in place to meet um Federal requirements because we didn't have njsla because of covid so they gave us start strong as a nice little fall assessment to do last year just to see where our kids were start strong measures students Mastery of skills from the year before so in September the first full week our fifth graders were being tested on fourth grade standards our fourth graders were being tested on third grade standards um etc etc um and basically this is after the summer this is their first full week getting settled in the classroom and hey kids here's a test to
036do so they get tested in math and language arts in grades four through eight sixth grade also gets the pleasure of taking a science test which tests them on all of the science standards that they've had up through fifth grade so basically three through five and the tests themselves are the sessions are about 45 to 60 minutes per content area so they're asking in 45 minutes to 60 Minutes a student to demonstrate their Content Mastery of an entire year before the reason I want to point the timing of these out is because the purpose of the assessment was a snapshot for teachers it's a pre-assessment and anyone in education knows that's how we start our year off with our kids we want to see where they are whether it's after reading a summer reading book
037and doing a disc class discussion or small group discussion or an essay depending on the grade level we want to get the kids warmed up and we want to have them thinking and using their skills and then the teachers always evaluating where we are so that is what start strong was intended for after the students took the test in the beginning of September within about months turnover time maybe less the teachers were given the results they were able to access them online they were actually able to see the test questions which is nice and see how the students did in real time they could see how each student did on each question so if they were concerned about how well Denise did they could look and see if it was a geometry question if it
038was number sense if it was operations what it was that she was having difficulty with Aaron you can go any I'm just going through the whole thing keep going that's our vision um yeah keep going Aaron there we go um this is just basically saying what I shared with you what the intent was what the timing was next slide Aaron um uh the point they also said is this is not a predictor on how kids will be doing on the end of the year assessment for njsla even though it is targeting the standards just both assessments are targeting standards njsla will be testing our fifth graders on fifth grade standards whereas the start strong was testing them on fourth grade standards so the concepts and the expectations will be different so I wanted to point
039that out next slide Aaron so this is how our students did and there's three different bands to look at the lightest purple George calls it Lavender is start strong may be needed the darker purple is some support may be needed and the darkest purple is less support maybe needed so the students that are probably most secure in their skills and just need a little refresher is that darkest band the bright purple band those are the kids that are maybe you know still getting out of that summer slide and maybe some questions they understood and some they didn't and then there's our light purple children who maybe need more support with the standards and expectations from the year before and these are Bayberry remember in Bayberry it's just fourth grade that's tested so that's next slide
040and then um the the information we we finally got and that's why we're giving it to you now is we got these snapshots of how in our entire schools did how each grade level did and then all of our subgroups so I'm not going to read it to you each of you they are available um on our website well we'll have gender have it broken down by each grade level so you can see how the students did if it says nine students or fewer we're not allowed to um give that information those statistics out because it's such a small group of students it might show their identity so if you see that note that's the reason why ethnicity is another category students with disabilities there's our IEP and 504 students English language learners they're all
041nine or fewer and then other demographics has to do with economically disadvantaged students and you'll see non-economically disadvantaged is where the numbers are the nine are fewer is for the economically disadvantaged okay I'm gonna stop talking let's I'm gonna let Mrs fickner talk a little bit about Bayberry what we did we're able to do and um thank you to Mr McCarthy for helping us with this is we were able to take our overall results and compare them from last year's start strong to this year's all right good evening and again this is um the Bayberry results which is just fourth grade um and these are different students that we're comparing so we're just looking at the results from last year to this year um language arts um you can see there was an increase for
042this year in students in the sum support uh band and then a decrease in the less support band uh for math the students needing less support increased by 12 which is good and then the strong support decreased by 11 so that's encouraging and for Valley View in all subject areas you can see that our students did um you know there was improvement from last fall to this fall okay so then the LA uh I'm sorry Ela for this year to last year so last year so now we're looking at the cohorts so we're looking I'm sorry oh I'm sorry all right thank you so now we're looking at the cohorts so we're looking at this year's fifth graders how they did last year in fourth grade and how they did this you're in fifth grade
043so you're showing now that the the there was a decrease in the strong support band of an increase in the less support band which is also encouraging to see that thank you and then just going to the math for the cohort there is a decrease in the strong support band and an increase in the sum support uh and the less support band so overall Valley View did improve in all of the subject areas which is really a testament to the teachers the students and the parents so thank you everybody for helping them get back on track with their learning and their work habits because that's a big part of doing well on any of these assessments especially after the summer the teachers are using the data like I said to help them that light purple
044group we really look at who are those students what concepts are they struggling with what questions maybe it was testing vocabulary we saw that vocabulary is across the board in all grade levels an area where the kids really need to brush up on it they need to be exposed to different types of words and testing vocabulary is one of those so maybe it was the phrasing of the questions um that middle band of students those are those students we need to push over the hump you know so those are the where we put you know offer our basic skills our extra support our pursuit of Excellence programs we have all of these wonderful things in place Flex time at Valley View to help all of our students who may be struggling and then for those
045kids who are secure in these Concepts from last year it's a great jumping off point to give them the enrichment opportunities into differentiation differentiate in the classrooms whether it's at Bayberry or at Valley View does anyone have any questions about the um results I know you have a question thank you well it's not actually a question about the results I just was curious about the um it said about 45 to 60 Minutes to administer it yep and so that's for both math and Ela or is that separately and science also 45 minutes to an hour for each one yep and then um if you think about it njsla it's multiple sessions because they have multiple sessions of language arts they have multiple sessions of math and they have multiple sessions of science so it's significantly
046shorter test it's like a little baby snapshot instead of a regular snapshot right what would you estimate the njs SLA um testing time is compared to the yeah if I remember I feel like it was like 120 Minutes for language arts alone like double the time it could be mortar more than that I'd have to look because normally we do um those tests over four to five days whereas this one you could get done in two days easily thank you no problem any other questions from anyone okay thank you very much thank you ladies okay a couple of other things on the superintendent remarks section of uh the agenda uh it is our bi-annual reporting of the student safety data system uh for the period from September 1 through December 31 we reported one unconfirmed
047Hib incident and nine conduct incidents um for the enrollment we stand at 679 on September 1 we had 662 students and uh that will do it for this section of the agenda we're going to move on to board member comments at this point uh Phoenix advisors and bond Council will be available over the phone to answer any questions that you may have regarding the bond sales I have some board member comments I thought we were going to discuss the uh the referendum and the bond sales during the operations minutes are we not going to do that we are okay there'll be a they'll be available they're available right now do you have will they be available during the operations committee minutes be which is where it's really appropriate for them not doing board member comments
048well that's just a committee report and that's what you said I'd have the opportunity to discuss the referendum Amber okay thanks all right um rational to radical uh it's been less than three weeks since the reorganization meeting and in just like that this board has gone from rational to radical I hope the public is paying close attention to what's going on I'll try to help but much of it is not apparent because it's going on behind closed doors start with um what happened after the reorganization meeting when Ms Murad and Mr Gracia were elected president and vice president respectively a couple of issues here committee assignments so every year I've been on the board and every year I known about since before then whenever there's a new president he or she asks the members what
049committees they'd like to be assigned to but I didn't get asked did you guys get asked or is it just no maybe you did maybe you got asked but I didn't get asked I don't think Mrs Harvey got asked um so um let's talk about what happened last year Anthony applied we you know Mrs Harvey asked Anthony applied sent a kind of a summary of His qualifications and said I'd be great on the operations committee and I was a chair of the operations committee and you know Mrs Harvey asked me you know do I want to Anthony on the operations committee and you know honestly I didn't I didn't I thought it would be disruptive I thought you know Kevin and Joe would be a great um committee along with the president is what usually
050happens um but you know we I talked it over with my partners on the committee and they said look we should have you know he's against the referendum he voted against it he doesn't want it to happen but maybe if we bring him in and we hear his side of it and we talk about you know how he can can actually get things done it would help and so I said fine well how did that work out it didn't work out very well my first hint about it not working out very well was after we spent weeks and weeks and weeks on the budget process and without talking to anybody in the committee about it or you know having any discussion about it Mr and graci abstained on the budget because he wanted to see
051more money put in a capital reserve you know quite conveniently he didn't say what he wanted to cut out of the budget we had already cut six hundred thousand dollars out of you just dropped the bomb in the board meeting said I want to see more money in the capital reserve hadn't discussed it with the board so yeah I got the idea he wasn't going to be you know an open and Cooperative board Committee Member and and that's what we had to deal with so then he asked us to form an ad hoc referendum committee made up of people from the board people from the town various interest groups in the town and so we did that had a lot of meetings had a lot of input from the town and then one of his
052you know main objections to the referendum was we don't really need these HVAC you know upgrades so we thought oh okay we should we should meet that head on he he asked for a second engineering report by expert engineers um help choose the ones that we picked and what came of all this after you know months of talking with the ad hoc committee spending money and months of the engineers you know finishing their report he refused to accept the findings of the engineering report and he refused to accept the recommendation of the ad hoc committee so what happened after that what happened after that was probably the most bizarre thing uh he had uh this uh conspiracy theory that the operations committee was keeping information from him he said no Anthony you get everything that
053we the operations committee get he said well I think you're keeping information from the agents no we're not we're not what did he do he opened his own committee seriously um now obviously this would be kind of concerning but it was actually even worse than that because if you remember we had a school bus crisis at the time Mr and Gracia kind of in the in the fall when the buses actually weren't running was seemed to be and you can go back and check the meeting video seem to be surprised that he hadn't heard much about this before and how did we get to this position well if you look back early spring last year we started talking about it in the operations committee it was in the minutes and it was referred to um
054in the public meetings so what happens now is Mr ingrassia when Mr Pepe was the business administrator he's got his hands full trying to fix the bus situation Mr and Gracia Oprah's the committee and Mr Pepe has to go through over 600 emails to satisfy the Oprah request which turned out to be nothing he was getting everything everybody else in the committee was getting just like we had told him meanwhile Mr Pepe broke down at one meeting because he had so much pressure on him for the buses and we asked him about the the emails and literally broke down because he couldn't take the pressure so that's how that's how constructive that was I'll bring your own committee now okay I'm not on the operations committee this year um why I don't know you have
055to ask you know Amber and Anthony but I think my qualifications are are pretty good I was on the operating committee for the four years that I was on board um before that I had plenty of experience I was the CEO of a real estate company with 300 million in assets I I ran um a real estate company a real estate division for a large corporation that had a hundred million dollar annual budget and was in 60 countries I did sourcing and procurement for a major financial institution that spent 16 billion dollars a year and I saved him one billion dollars a year so those are pretty good qualifications but I didn't know much about school finance and actually took me probably the better part of two years to really understand it it's pretty complex
056stuff it's not like your normal finances a lot of ins and outs so what do Mr and Gracia and Mrs Murat decide to do not put me on the committee right but put on the committee everybody who was against the referendum right and all new members now I was dumped into the policy committee because I figured that they thought I would you know not make a Ruckus there or something which I declined um uh Mrs Mrs Harvey was the most experienced board member um without question uh was put on zero standing committees none zero the new people were put on two each pretty much right now look I think it's great for new people to learn bored I do but you got to figure they don't have that much experience like the three people that
057were just elected they didn't buy file their campaign contribution filings as required by the state campaign contribution law now you know I hope it's not because they don't want us to know where they got their campaign contributions from maybe they just didn't know that they're supposed to comply with the law and file campaign contribution um certificates with the state in any case I hope you do I hope you comply with the law now because that would be nice um but uh the the point here is uh they don't want me on the operations committee because the only people on the operations committee were people that were against the referendum and I don't think they're feeling great about the referendum um speaking of which you know as part of this Mrs Murad has twice now denied
058me I wanted to put topics on on the board business uh referendum progress and state of governance of the board and she wouldn't let me do that unless I talked to her about everything I was going to say first instead of talking directly in public so you're going to hear some of it in my opening remarks so that is all what happened kind of out of the side of the public you know out of the sight of me quite frankly I was just said here's your committee assignment you know whether you like it or not I don't know if the rest you were treated like that maybe maybe you were asked maybe she called you and said what committee you want to be on or something like that then you know right out in the
059open during the organs reorganization meeting it was notable for cherry picking the things that would ordinarily be approved as a matter of course just a regular normal reorganization meeting um but but they weren't they carved out Anthony and Amber carved out all the items that they didn't agree with and what do I mean by that well all of a sudden they want a new attorney on the board well did the superintendent ask for a new attorney usually we go with the recommendation of the superintendent I don't think so because he put on the agenda a renewal of the attorney's contract a ratification of the attorney's contract it's no secret why Anthony and Amber didn't want her back because she gave advice to them that they did not like drg our Architects and Engineers why on
060Earth Would we not after a referendum has passed after they spent three years working on it after they put tens of thousands if not a hundred thousand of their own money into why would we dump them simple reason Anthony and Amber don't want the referendum didn't like the referendum Anthony campaigned against it and he's it's his retribution against the uh the architect there's no rational reason in fact there's a lot of really really really good reasons why you keep the same architect it's almost never I don't think ever done so we can get into that discussion you know in the part of the meeting where they talk about wanting to hire a new architect but you know I looked at some of the presentations and it was odd to see that apparently board members recommended
061Architects instead of the administration that were addressed one of them at least in Mrs Murad which is highly unusual and irregular and one of the presentations actually said there's 14 steps in a referendum and if you looked at them 10 of them were already done by drg so like why would you change horses in the middle of the Stream again it's retribution then you look at the things that they surgically carved out of the of the resolutions right you know we almost didn't have our auditor here today because it's like well we're not going to renew these contracts and it's like what about the auditor you know they're going to come and give us oh okay let's make an exception for the order right and the thing is like oh we don't want people to
062have to new people to have to know what's going on and you know until they've had a time to review it and one of the things they did was they put one thing out of the curriculum out of the whole curriculum for both schools they pick one thing that they want to carve out of it and that's Health Ed like why would that be right well the reason that would be because Mr and Gracia voted no you didn't want the sex ed help Ed curriculum and Mrs Murad you know didn't have the courage to actually vote one way or another she had stained because she didn't know which way the political winds were blowing at that time and uh and you know you think about it less than three percent of the children in this
063District opted out they have the option they can opt out less than three percent opted out more than 97 percent of the kids their parents want them going to this it's required by state law Mr ingrassia doesn't like it he doesn't send his kids to the district but he doesn't want you to be able to send your kids to that curriculum right so it's pretty apparent what's going on here I mean how dare that's it's amazing keep an eye on this board folks if Mrs Murad and Mr and Gracia have their way they will stifle debate like it's already happened to me blocked timely and efficient process progress on the referendum which you're trying to do with the RG exert undue control over the administration which is trying to do with replacing Council or all
064for their own personal purposes there's a pattern here it's a pattern of governing by grudges retribution and politics and not primarily with the interest of the students in the district in mind watch them closely and hold them accountable don't let them get away with this our kids deserve better any other members would like to comment well just to say uh I disagree with those statements both being incorrect some cases not factual and not appropriate and uh what else can I say except you're welcome because I think that the suggestions that I brought to the operations committee for more transparency more due diligence are probably why you're a failed referendum had a better chance and passed this time so you're welcome and uh otherwise I'll just leave it at that I disagree and I could go
065Point by Point believe me and we can look back at the past videos of the meetings and see really where some of these issues uh were discussed but I think for now that's my response thank you Mr buckarelli uh since you've served on the board for I think what four and a half years now I prefer I would refer you to policy or by law sorry 155 and 153 where the president and vice president elected but your appointments are appointed by the president so it is at my discretion I know that and I think what was very clear from our auditor so I'm not going to go into an argument here was that not a dying one and two maintenance I would like to move on to actually I have board member comments sure true
066but not a dime was spent towards maintenance yes Mrs Harvey so just want to make sure everybody can hear me as board president for two years I proudly served with one thing in mind how we adults could take care of the children of watching it was my place to stay quiet on my personal opinions when it came to fellow board members and put aside differences for the sole goal of ensuring our students were provided in education that was set up for them to succeed and a school experience they could look back on and be thankful for I could have said a lot more at our re organization meeting but I decided not to in hopes that the new board members President and Vice President would continue to do right by the kids and Watchung Public
067Schools but I am no longer a president and the time for me to keep quiet has come to an end Mr buckarelli requested in advance that a topic of board governance be placed under bore business for the entire board to discuss there are no action items on the agenda that allow discussion regarding this topic so the request to the board president was rational the board president denied that request since it does not appear under the board business for an entire board discussion leaving Mr buckarelli and myself only our board member comments to make statements instead of being afforded the opportunity for us to engage with the entire board in a discussion it's not surprising that Mrs Murad would deny public discussion from board members based on her past and current performance as a board member
068and now president as a community member and parent of children who attend our schools I would question why Mrs Murad would deny this why wouldn't she want our board to discuss this topic what is she so afraid would be discussed denying board members who have requested in advance for a topic to be placed under board business for the board to discuss without any action items on the agenda regarding that subject just because she might not like what is said it's just the beginning of her lack of transparency to the public and poor leadership we sit here only three weeks into the oversight of the new board President and Vice President and already damage has been done as we sit here tonight the school district has not had legal representation since our reorganization meeting our attorney
069of more than four years having their contract go unrenewed at our last meeting what common sense reason would be given to have a district operate without an attorney there is none we rely on the attorney for guidance that keeps us out of trouble Mrs Murad would know this because during her second year on this board she was censured for public comments disparaging of our superintendent which put this District at a high risk of a lawsuit her comments cost this District unnecessary legal fees and taxpayers money paid for that instead of being used towards the children who attend our schools without our attorney we're at risk you are at risk and this is just the beginning three weeks into the new board and this board has decided to not rehire the architects who have worked with
070this district for over three years on the referendum a referendum this town less than two months ago voted to approve we now sit here with an approved referendum but with the majority of the board members that are that are slowing the progress to execute it denying you taxpayers and parents the right to invest your money into these improvements I don't know what's more alarming the fact that this decision was made in secret with only certain board members in those conversations and not public input or the fact that this decision was purposefully made in secret to deny the community the ability to see which board members are stalling this referendum and in turn the investment in our children the same people who cried time after time last year about transparency are now hiding behind a curtain
071of secrecy I guess they only wanted other people to be transparent but not hold themselves to the same standards just like the secrecy of having Mrs Jewett possibly sworn in privately and our board President and Vice President never telling the entire board that she was maybe sworn in I'm a board member and I'm just guessing because I didn't see her swearing in on this agenda I mean I would hope she was sworn in since she attended committee meetings where she could obtain confidential information which community members aren't allowed to see until they're sworn into office but again Mrs Murad and Mr and Gracia didn't think the entire board needed to know that information we represent you and you are owed the right to see how we operate this decision of letting go of The Architects
072the ones who now the ones who now are approved projects I'm sorry the ones who know our approved projects the best will delay the progress of the referendum kicking the can down the road yet again after a three-year effort putting off extremely important projects like new HVAC systems long past their shelf life is this board ready with a plan for educational days void of possible heat air conditioning and proper ventilation should these systems break down and if this board decides to change or even remove projects that you approved how is that respect in the will of our town why did we even ask you to vote on the referendum only to have a select few members decide what would and would not be completed what a slap in the face to those in town who
073supported this referendum what a shame this board leadership has decided to ignore your voice and deny your children the Excellence on the hill some of them spoke so frequently about bringing back during their campaigns or is that what they intended all along we saw last year efforts from Mrs Murad and Mr and Gracia to consistently delay this referendum and vote against it before getting on the board Mr and Gracia campaigned against the referendum Mrs jued while campaigning for her board seat made it no secret she was against the referendum sitting on a referendum ad hoc Committee of town members to discuss improvements to the referendum to make it better for children at night and then during the day going door to door and undermining the project to voters she never disclosed to the ad hoc
074that she was doing that until it was brought to my attention and I removed her from the ad hoc committee immediately for violating her mission statement that Mrs juab participated in developing months before and agreed with why would sitting board members vote against progress and the needs of the children they are supposed to be here to represent at our last board meeting Mrs Jewett stated we need to consider the opinions of those who voted no on the referendum that's not how voting works and if it did maybe that's why this board wasn't allowed to vote on firing the architect and the lawyer because under Mrs jewett's logic my vote would need to be considered voting is intended to give the majority its due voice and the no's don't get to be taken into consideration when
075it comes to laws you disagree with political candidates you don't support or School improvements if the will of the people isn't to be listened to and respected then what will ever get done the majority of the people who voted supported these efforts and our Civic duties board members is to support that not to derail it I can't help but wonder why my fellow board members wanted to serve if not to support the kids of Watchung and do what you the taxpayers voted for last year Mrs Murad asked our New Jersey School Board Association representative at a board meeting how many Democrats and Republicans can serve on a board of ed it's baffling does it stay somewhere in our bylaws that we should be looking at this school and its students through the prism of politics
076do the kids of Watchung care who is a democrat or a republican when they pass through the doors of Valley View and Bayberry why would the adults it can only lead me to one conclusion Mrs Murad keeps bringing national and local politics into our school district in hopes of Sunday winning a political race and getting into a political position using our district to gain votes we have heard her use our district while campaigning on radio show appearances about the health curriculum last year this board is not an instrument for anything other than serving children our board positions are not to be used when on a peewee football field to intimidate others and insinuate we are Beyond reproach our positions are not an allowance to corner a parent in the parking lot of Bayberry and accuse
077them of sending an anonymous letter to members of the town or interrogating them on knowing who sent it as Mrs Murad did last year and most important these seeds we sit in are not to be used as a vehicle to step on the backs of the children of Watchung while seeking higher office so the new board members I say this you are not here to make friends or to win a popularity contest there is only one side to take here that is the side of the children of Watchung your seat doesn't authorize you to take personal grudges and weaponize them to the detriment of children I see this in so many actions taken by Mrs Murad and Mr and Gracia and outside voices whispering in their ears you only need to look at the committee
078assignments to see these Grudges on full display I the only current board member with current experience in education I'm not on the curriculum committee those members that sit on this committee have not been in a classroom for over two decades and I can assure you much has changed in education in 20 years Rich buckarelli a board member who has worked on the referendum for the entirety of its time it's not on the operations committee I find it interesting but not unexpected that all of the new board members who had absolutely no experience on a board except for one were placed on at least two standing committees but I wasn't put on any I also am concerned and so should our community that the operations committee Mr and Gracia Mrs Murad Mr Fraze and Mr Gonzalez
079is comprised of only board members that either ran against the referendum and or voted as board members against it the referendum is one of the biggest topics the operations committee will work on but the President and Vice President didn't think there should be a board member on it that actually supported the referendum very different from the way it was done under my leadership for the last two years ensuring that all board members regardless of whether I like them or not we're on at least one standing committee I would take into consideration a board member's interest or profession and past experience and use that as part of how committee assignments were made at times the vice president and I were told that a board member couldn't participate on a committee or as a liaison Mr and
080Gracia should be familiar with that because he declined an appointment as a Somerset County ed services liaison last year because he didn't have time and he only wanted to be on the operations committee it was a group effort that required communication between the president and vice president with the rest of the board I even gave up my spot on the operations committee last year to please Mr and Gracia on it even though he campaigned against a referendum where some of the other board members I'm sorry were some of the other board members contacted by Mrs Murad and Mr and Rossi about committee assignments and just not me and Rich I didn't hear from Mrs Murad or Mr ingrassi at all I can only surmise this decision was made to stifle authentic discussion in committees by
081putting only board members that agree with Mrs Murad and Mr gracian on any of them all in attempt to ostracize rich in me from working with the rest of the board members we heard from Mr and Gracia and Mrs Murad last year about how they felt last year's board leadership disenfranchised them yet their voices were heard and standing committees that the previous board leadership put the bond and at board meetings their actions are the epitome of leadership disenfranchising board members why did I decide to oversee the board this way with communication and thoughtfulness of appointments because my personal feelings of others had to be put aside for the sole purpose of servicing our students your children clearly Mrs Morata Mr and Gracia has have purposefully decided not to behave with that as their guiding Factor
082which should alarm you if doing right by you watch on and the children of our district was the main goal of the leadership of this board then why does the person who campaigned voted against and spoke out against the referendum Mr and Gracia chair the very committee that is in charge of working to implement the projects of the referendum and having Mrs Jewett who also campaigned against a referendum fill in on an operations committee meeting instead of Mr barkerelli a five-year member of the board who has extensive experience in education Finance almost as much as the superintendent in the business administrator it is yet another example of Retribution by Mrs Morata Mr and Gracia why wouldn't Mr and Gracia and Mrs Murad want the best for our schools that's what our communities should be questioning
083right about now in the past our superintendent MBA created the minutes of the the committee meetings the superintendent informed me that the committee chairs are now taking over that responsibility normally I wouldn't have a problem with that but we were supposed to receive those minutes within a timely manner they must they must contain substantial and accurate information for all of the board members to review before the board meeting those would be particularly important to me to see since I'm not on any of the standing committees but that didn't happen to not be placed on any of those committees not to be involved in any of those discussions at all to rely on the minutes of those committee meetings to help me vote accordingly during a board meeting to not have minutes provided on time or
084with accurate information to now have the chairpersons create the minutes instead of an impartial ba or superintendent is unnerving to me it should be unnerving to our community the board members in charge of these minutes which lacks accurate information the same people who blindly voted against what our superintendent recommended but along with Mrs Murad and Mr and Gracia do not do not continue with our board attorney leaving our school vulnerable and not creating a contract with the Architects we have used for over three years for the referendum that that makes me pause controlling the information provided to the two most experienced board members that this board has ostracized and who fully support the referendum should make our community concerned each of the board members ran on transparency I mean Mrs Morata Mr and Gracia used
085that word at almost every meeting saying there was such a lack of transparency on our board now look at what they've created I don't trust the minutes of the meetings from the board members who make decisions that put our district at risk and who are stalling the referendum projects being completed by not continuing with the original Architects and neither should our community actual transparency is only a word used by them they don't intend to create transparency for our community or just the part of the community that agrees with them the former vice president and I also spoke with the chairs of the Committees and ask them if they had a preference as to who they wanted on their committee with them this was essentially their team to work with for the year so it was
086only right to collaborate with our fellow board members and let them have a say and who served on the committee they were going to be responsible for it is telling to our community that none of the chairpersons Mr Gonzalez Mr and Gracia Mrs Jewett and Mr Morales requested me to participate on their committee again the choices of the president vice president and chairpersons have shown their incompetence and retribution towards the most experienced board members on this board I am letting Mrs Murad know now that I decline her appointments to the committee that she made up board staff committee whatever that is since she never explained to me what the committee is and there isn't even a schedule as to when it would meet the Somerset County Ed Services Commission liaison and the njsba liaison I
087asked my fellow board members to make sure you make up your minds about what is best for the town and the children you represent instead of blindly following poor leadership it would help if you thought about your actions words and questioned why poor leadership is giving you certain advice on a topic or telling you how something is done chances are you need to get better advice like I stated at the last board meeting your name is tied to your actions words and your vote this community will hold you accountable for what you do while on this board trust me I know I also want you to remember especially since some of you have never attended or even watched a board meeting prior to being sworn in that if you're taking advice from the current president
088someone who in two the two years she has been on the board has now run for County Commissioner twice and lost and just this year requested to fill a vacant seat after our mayoral election and was rejected you're taking advice from someone who has been given who has been trying to get off this board ever since she got on in my opinion this is not someone who is here to serve the children of Watchung when she views being the Board of Education president as a consolation prize this is the person who accused our superintendent of quote gaslighting which is psychologically manipulating parents during a pandemic about coveted guidelines who got censured last year because she made evaluative comments about our superintendent's performance at a public meeting when all evaluations are to be conducted privately the
089person who cost this District the most last year and legal fees because of her continued inappropriate actions and words wasting taxpayers money which could have been used for children that attend our schools the person who abstained from voting on challenging agenda items to get out of making decisions because she was more concerned about her political campaign and using the excuse that she didn't read her board packet or get items on time our job on this board is to read our board packets any new information before meetings and be ready to vote accordingly during meetings the only time you abstain from a vote is when you have a conflict that would prevent you from voting and if you needed more information it's your job to try and get it to say you need more information and
090blame the administration and the previous board leadership to cover up your dereliction of Duty is different from what her abstention should have been used for Mrs Murad had other priorities such as running her political campaign instead of doing her due diligence for the students and school community that is the person you voted in as the president but it doesn't mean you should follow in her footsteps and make the same kind of poor decisions she has made think for yourselves you were elected to represent all of the children in these schools our community and the school district not just the ones Mrs Murad and Mr and Gracia tell you to represent you need to start making decisions that will benefit the children our community and the school district ask questions like why would board members find
091out from the president or vice president why wouldn't they find out from them directly that the architect has been let go all of these meetings are open to anyone from the public to view other vendors might see how some of the people on this board have conducted business and decided not to work with our districts education is a small community people talk to each other once word gets out that this is how this board treats professionals like our lawyer and The Architects and how we conduct business that could only adversely affect our school district what are the reasons for not continuing with the architects who deliver who develop the projects how long will this set us back how much more money will this cost us I understand why Mrs Murad Mr Agassi and Mrs Jewett
092would support something like this because they never supported the referendum but for the new board members I'm disappointed you would support this I've Been Told that the board president and Mrs O'Donnell have told community members that they are going to make sure the projects on the referendum start this summer as our superintendent had planned both voted during the reorganization meeting to not renew the architects how will projects start on time if we switch architects in the middle of the project that this board is just looking for better prices what better prices are they talking about let's hold better prices to them does it mean skimping on the quality of projects because I don't think our community voted on that and I believe our children deserve the best not mediocre not continuing with the original Architects
093is a huge red flag to the community that those words are just lies to our community be careful what you as board members say to community members because they will hold you to your word at some point you have to face the music and take responsibility for what you have said and done while on this board and unless you are planning on moving out of the town you still need to live here with your family Watchung is in a town that forgets easily I mean look at our community Facebook pages for the last couple of years the biggest stories to hit our school district were the covid-19 pandemic the referendum Mrs murad's gaslighting comments busing issues health education curriculum the county not placing Kevin McDonald seed on the proper election cycle and a Community member
094who didn't qualify to serve on the board of education I know Mrs Murad intimately remembers what happened to that Community member those topics are spread out over Years Years the amount of damage this board president and vice president have accomplished in three weeks of their term is astounding I can only imagine what further damage they will create for our district within a year if I were sitting on the other side of this table as a member of the audience I would be wondering that if this much damage and retribution can happen in only three weeks what will happen over the entire year what will this mean to my child will retribution towards board members seep out the seams of this room and affect me as a parent or worse my child what if I speak
095up at a board meeting to advocate for my child or the school district will I become the next Target for the president and vice president to dish out more retribution what will this mean to teachers and administrators who work in support of my child how many bad decisions are yet to come it's a scary thought given we are only at the end of January and do not know the year that is ahead I would hope parents take these thoughts seriously and use their voices to demand better for their children don't let the President and Vice President prevent you from speaking up due to fear of Retribution because you do have some good board members left on this board who will not stand for such inappropriate behavior and abuse of power I know what I said
096was long so I appreciate all who listens thank you are there any other board member comments uh similarly to my response to Rich's comments I would say that there's inaccuracies uh and uh improper statements throughout your your statement uh and some I would take it a step further to say we're really disgraceful comments and um you know when you're a toxic person people don't want to work with you on their on their committee so maybe you should do a little internal reflection there and look back on how you assign I'm sorry I have the floor that's exactly no uh I will just make my comments that um I think you've proven a lot here with your comments and I would say uh what I would ask the community which you don't seem to respect there
097though when it came to five new board members uh that seems to be uh not a concern for you but um it's been 12 business days since the reorganization so I would just say that if you feel like um there's things being stalled or things being done improperly I would think more than 12 days is reasonable to ask of new board members of new leadership so that's really it I think if you can uh give a little bit more than 12 days or business days to see if we get one if we get work done quickly efficiently and I think that's really what our goal is as a board is to get maintenance that's been long overlooked done get projects that have been uh proposed done quickly and efficiently and and so really to to
098uh you know characterize the the new board members or uh the leadership after uh 12 business days I think is unfair but Everyone's entitled to their opinion and so uh I just wanted to share that brief response from my own opinion thank you are there any other comments seeing that there are no other comments moving on to committee reports Gail can you please provide the Personnel reports Personnel committee the Personnel committee met on January 19th at 8 30 A.M um Mr farage Miss Murad superintendent uh Mr Alexis and I were present we discussed the two medical leave items that are on the agenda along with the special education practicum reappointment we discussed the additional need for a before and after Care Program providers and that is on the agenda for approval tonight the referendum Consulting
099service agreement was discussed Ernie Turner who has experience working with referendums for administrative and board support thank you I actually would like some clarification on a topic there was a comment in altering fifth grade teachers schedules um Mr Alexis can you please explain what altering teachers schedules in the fifth grade for the 23-24 school year would look like since it wasn't explained in the committee minutes I'm sure the parents in the district who desperately want to lower class sizes now in the fourth grade would really like to know how this approach will lower the class sizes when their children enter fifth grade if the intention is not to hire another teacher for the fifth grade anything it just doesn't want to work for you tonight Mr Alexa no it no it doesn't uh I I
100believe you're referencing a the initial part of a discussion about ways to create an additional section for the fifth grade next year and we're looking at adjusting the schedule so that we can do that and we'll have it's in the initial stages and we are talking with the teachers and we and Mrs Kidd is is working on this as a possible scheduling option because it does not look like we are going to have money in the budget to hire an additional teacher so we're just trying to be creative with some ideas great thank you and when did the meeting adjourn because that wasn't noted in the minutes it was about two hour meeting just going over learning a lot of things from our principles thank you for the clarification moving on to operation and finance
101committee Anthony can you please provide the minutes sure we had our meeting on January 18th that was Wednesday at 4 pm we have a change to having in-person meetings with an option to call in for some years now the committee meetings have been all virtual and so this was an in-person meeting with the ability to call in as needed and uh the minutes [Music] um are returning to the format where uh before only a short while ago it was the Committees that were producing their own minutes so uh this is something that's a tradition for many years in Watchung that the committee chairs were producing their own minutes and uh you know it's it's something that uh I I think is is helpful it helps uh give more time to the administration to handle their
102other obligations it gives the Committees a chance to do that but I that's not my report really so much it's just to explain that yes now the minutes are being produced the minute the meetings are in person and the minutes are being produced uh through the committee then rather than through the administration and we're going to have the first item that was on our agenda for that January 18th meeting we'll have more uh of a review in the in this meeting agenda later about the bond sale discussion uh things moving ahead uh with no delays there at all um and so it was an interesting conversation the resolution is actually a it's a 22-page resolution that's multi-part so it it really just moves through a process that is a well-established process and uh we can
103get more information if there's any questions on any one of those steps but it's anticipated that we'll have the resolution passed at tonight's board meeting if the vote goes that way and then the bonds would close March 8th so we'll have the the funding coming through that Bond sale for the um for the amount that was approved by the voters and that really is um you know something that uh we we have Bond counsel to help guide us through that as well as Phoenix advisors and so I really feel comfortable in that we'll be getting a competitive uh sale that will will have a good uh result from that sale and that the funds once they do come to the district because of the action that we took at the reorganization meeting to open up
104an Avenue to the New Jersey arm investment program that's very common for many districts to uh to put their funds there uh we'll we'll see a return on those funds which can only be relied on as until those funds start getting spent on the on the projects and so you do have some Revenue coming in from the investment which wasn't always the case because the interest rates are up the return on those accounts is more substantial than they they are Norm only and so we voted to place the bond form and sale resolution which it's uh named by form and sale resolution is on the board agenda tonight uh moving on to the architect discussion uh no one's being fired no one does uh being canceled it's a drg had a contract in place for
105pre-referendum and special election work that now has ended uh the only thing being voted on at the reorganization meeting was whether to renew their annual contract for architectural services to the district and so that is what was referred to committee for further discussion and so there uh there's nothing that was being voted on that would have given them a contract to handle any work uh for it that's funded by the bond sales um and so you know I think that it is a a logical point to uh when one contract has ended and you have a new board and new leadership that's um it's it's not uncommon at all at the reorganization to reevaluate your board Council in this case we're the re-evaluate your annual architectural services and so that's on the agenda also and
106the the uh the names there was there was recommendations and mutual recognition of these firms um so that there was some overlap and that helped to come up with a short list of candidates and again all that's being voted on tonight is for the annual architectural services it could help us get work done uh sooner than when a entire bid package is put together so if we want to get some work done President's Day if we want to get some work done spring break we'll have an architect that on an as needed basis that can provide some guidance for us there and help us to get that done quickly and the funding will be in place you know by March 8th if we don't want to tap into the into the capital reserve but anyway
107the um we talked about those different options of of moving forward and so that's what's on the agenda for uh Potter Architects for their company based in Union that uh we'll we'll talk about um as that comes up on the agenda there's also the board Council discussion as I said it's very common when changes are made at reorganizations or in this case reorganization where we just uh referred it to committee for further discussion there was Interview calls that were followed up after we got some pre-qualification documentation that we were the committee was able to review there was some follow-up phone calls to make a recommendation to be voted on at this board meeting we had pressed uh until last year we had some presentations that this district is responsible for updating its five-year strategic plan
108and so part of that is to select the facilitator for the five-year strategic plan in the past we had been working with njsba but in recent years Keane university has developed a program to facilitate K-12 school districts five-year strategic plans Mr Alexis had been in discussion with them on the cost which was down to six thousand dollars which is uh I think a very good deal for the district um both in comparison to what we've paid in the past but also for how eager Kane University is to bring to bear all of their knowledge and experience in education to help us meet our goals and to put a great strategic plan together so that's going to be on the agenda tonight there was discussion about a school resource officer with security being a top concern
109for for everyone I I think in schools we Mr Alexis has been talking with the borough administrator Mr D'Amato about a shared services agreement so that there would be the opportunity for a police officer to spend more time than they currently do at each school there is some unexpected and newly announced Personnel issues that are bringing concerns on the budget uh to to make that move and So currently that is uh being reviewed for further budget discussion before we can really even talk about whether or not to move forward or how that school resource officer would interact with students and parents and Volunteers in the administration and things like that but it's it's a it's it was on this agenda and it will come up on future agendas we also had a discussion about funding
110and classroom space available for reducing the fourth grade class sizes this year rather than waiting until next year we have uh been getting some guidance from our interim ba Dan Borgo and he was Finding avenues for us to get the funding I think that it would be uh very nice if we could get additional help there it's it's really a curriculum and Personnel decision I'm not weighing in on on it very much except for the operations committee to find out what funding is available if a decision is made and what classroom space is available so that we could act quickly potentially before the end of the year if we're if we're able to do that there's always the um discussion of short-term versus long-term funding also that when you um have funding for one year
111will you will you create a new position will you be able to continue funding that position down the road um and sorry if this update is a little long it was seven pages although 14 point font at these minutes uh are um fairly detailed which I think uh you know it was a good thing but um and I'm not reading them word for word but it was a busy agenda and you'll see the the rest of these operations committee agenda items here um there's additional budget impacts which we can get into maybe um as those issues come up but of course the rising uh transportation and health insurance premiums are also limiting options on the budget but there are others as well we had um the potential board agenda items that are part of every
112uh agenda setting um for each new board meeting and so some things get dropped off of that some things get added but um we did have a couple things that uh an elevator uh contract a a semi waiver that helps to um kind of it's a funding decision that we went a certain direction so there's some other things on the agenda that um you know if any other questions come up during that time that's great and then you saw the presentation of the annual audit we reviewed that in the operations committee the the 16-page Auditors management report and also the 141-page annual comprehensive financial report for the physical year end of June 30th 2022 and um there was discussion which I asked the question earlier about the capital reserve and we got that answered here
113and there's always more to look into with maintenance and and things like that so we we touched on that subject also we have some new business which um is one piece of this uh from an operation standpoint is that uh our interim ba Dan Borgo is leaving the district due to his personal time constraints we were fortunate to have him with us on a part-time basis for a short period of time he's been assisting the administration and coming up with a a plan to continue on after he leaves and so we already had to to kind of help with the uh the tasks were a interim assistant ba working uh eight hours four days per week and now we have a a new interim ba if it's voted upon being proposed for two additional days
114so um you know then there's always you know that opportunity to add a full-time uh interim ba and things like that but right now we're we're looking to just make sure we have what we need in place and that is where you'll see something on the agenda for a Summit Management Solutions it was also uh a consultant that can fill in if needed for things like this Bond sale uh being accounted for smoothly and things like that and so that's that's my update and review of the committee meeting minutes for the operations committee thank you for your patience I would like to just say one thing um thank you um I'm so glad that we are working with the town again our town console and they're looking forward to working with us we must make
115sure that we keep an open uh verbal conversation with them uh because I think they can help us as much as us you know helping them and knowing what we're doing so thank you and Dan good luck thank you for bringing that up Gail and also it was in the report there's uh things with the town like getting sidewalks fixed right away you can see that as a line item on the project list that's uh out there on the website but you know does that have to wait until it's packaged into a larger bidding package or can it be taken care of as soon as the weather allows in conjunction with services that the town's already receiving so those are some of the opportunities that we're going to constantly constantly be looking for to try
116to tackle things as quickly and as efficiently as we can thank you I have some questions on what you just said this wasn't in the uh minutes as far as I could read but you said and I think you just confirmed that tap into the existing capital reserve so that we could get projects done before the referendum I mean are you looking at using a referendum just passed are you are you are you saying let's do some projects right away yes take them out take it out of the capital reserve have the taxpayers of Watchung pay a hundred percent of that cost when we already got 33 State funding for those projects no that's not what I'm saying it's Saturday and it's an accounting it's it's an accounting uh issue to look at but the
117point is not the funding issue we have the funding by March 8th so like how much you're saying is we're going to tap into the existing capital reserve that was your words right if the town fixes the sidewalks tomorrow and says we need to check for five thousand dollars instead of the Forty thousand dollars that's proposed in the you know just for as a for instance and we need to come up with that five thousand dollars I don't I am not an accountant if we we would have to get that from the capital reserve and there's a potential that when you expend and funds from that if you have the the funding from a bond coming in that you could transfer you know you could take care of that from that funding it's it's something
118that uh we'll be discussing you know it's something I don't understand this forty thousand and five thousand it costs whatever it costs to have a sidewalk fixed right right we don't have estimates yet so I don't know where you you know you've picked the town is helping us with that item okay so yeah right so anyway I think it would be your advice to spend uh 100 percent of taxpayer money to rush projects that were already proved by referendum I have a couple other questions so um whose idea was it to change counsel was it the superintendents uh the superintendent is supporting the recommendation that we have for a council so it depends but did you really did he really want to Rejoice did you want to keep continue with Kerry Wright who's that the
119original attention you noted that before yes and that was the discussion at the reward meeting okay and that was denied so now we gave them some other choices and he has to pick he was in the process with us right but he but you didn't want to follow his recommendation on the current Council right as a board you can yeah I know Kelly and doesn't mean you should okay okay um whose idea was it not to use um drg for the um for the completion of the referendum projects well it's a consensus of the board but I would say I was definitely one of the pers the people on the parent board that worked most closely uh through last year's referendum process and uh being on the ad hoc committee for the referendum that I
120felt at least for there's still a process now to go for who will be awarded the contract for uh the project list this is simply what we're voting on tonight is to be the architect of record for the district for annual architectural services that's all we were voting on in the reorganization meeting and that's all we're voting on tonight so I I don't think it's it's helpful to um you know to lay out all the pros and cons of of drg um or to overly uh glowingly um give reasons for why we think the change that we're making is going to be a positive for the district in our in our goals to get things done quickly and efficiently so because it's still an open process for the overall package there's uh just right now
121on the what is on the agenda is for annual services on an as needed basis and who suggested these new architects like I said we discussed them it's there's multiple sources from the board members no actually there was a discussion between Mr burgo Mr Alexis and myself and the operations committee and all of us when we came up with names some of them were similar and they've worked with them in previous projects as well and they said we would recommend these members these Architects and those are who we contacted uh George is the uh are the bond Council uh still on the phone I I didn't call them yet I can now yeah this is a question I had for them because let me uh I got you know we got a couple of uh
122we got a revised version very recently of the uh of the operations committee minutes and the previous version had this in it um as item J which now is redacted and revised further discussion it it said this it said there is an option to reallocate unexpended funds towards long-range facility plan projects otherwise it will go towards paying down the bonds the long-range facility plan may be amended and expanded over time it was noted by Anthony and Gracia that in the year leading up to the 2022 referendum vote the operations committee the full board and the public were repeatedly told by Richard buckarelli that any unexpended funds had to be returned to the taxpayer the information now provided by Bond Council the interim ba and Superintendent at this first operations committee meeting of the reorganized board
123confirms that the statements made by Richard buckarelli regarding reallocating unexpended funds were not true then I went back to my email from Tony solomini who's our bond Council from August 29th so Anthony has been on this thing where he thinks that uh the drg people inflated the prices of everything so that we would get more money and then whatever we had left over we would just do more projects with and I said no it goes back to the taxpayers it goes back to the taxpayers and he kept fighting that no it doesn't and he did his own legal research and all this stuff and he kept saying no you don't you know it doesn't go back so I said look let's just get Tony to to give us his opinion and this was on Council
124opinion good evening everyone and it's addressed to Anthony so I don't know why he's still on this here is a short synopsis of what the board can do with the bond proceeds after a project is deemed complete the board may only use the bond proceeds for project costs for which the bonds were authorized by the voters as set forth in njsa 18a Colon 24-47 any funds remaining after a project is complete must be returned to the voters specifically under the educational facilities construction and financing act njsa 18a colon 7g-50 proceeds on hand after the completion of a project may only be used to pay down principal this was our bond council's opinion so I don't understand why you tell me why you tell why you tell the people in the committee here that I was
125not truthful in what I said so I guess let's ask the bond counsel if he's on the phone Tony did you change your mind or you know did I somehow misread your your your email so we're you're asking him based on the comments from the minutes that were revised because of people having uh you know especially in your statements today but well well here you go here we go like is it why is it going to be further discussed when I was asking those questions it was there was members of the public and myself that were skeptical about the actual um likelihood of funds being returned of unexpended funds being returned so I was doing my due diligence and you got your answer and now you're making a deal out of it again well I
126like that there's always um you know there's there's definitions uh both you know in the statute and also um in that email about what's deemed complete I think that's still an open question and that's why I simply this is why I took that off the thing I said uh previous item Jay regarding potential unexpended funds removed in the 123 minute revision pending further pending further discussion you think it's still an open question you never like to take the advice of counsel so let's just skeptical let's just you're skeptical yeah because you read the statute and the expert attorney who's been doing it for decades told you no you're wrong but no you think you're right no nrnj SBA rep Gwen Thornton told me differently from what you've been telling the public and other members that
127I've spoken canceled to a plan I don't think I'm personally not going to ask him to Define every word of his email but if you want him to reread the email that he sent then that's fine also I have it here too I could I could read that for you I just read it for you Anthony can we hear from the bond Council since he's on the phone every third word choice umarelli was asking about the questions I'm happy to answer hey Tony it's rich good how you doing hey uh if you don't spend all the money on the projects what happens to it so um you're only allowed to spend funds on the projects that were approved by the voters uh you're not allowed to change the use of bond proceeds except for what
128was approved by the voters um any money that is left once the projects are complete has to be returned to the taxpayers in the form of Debt Service relief to pay principal I mean I hope you I hope you guys are in that situation I mean um you know with Rising costs and such I hope you guys have money left over at the end of the project but you know um but any money left over has to be returned to the taxpayer to pay down principal as fast as possible thank you Tony is there still an open question on this Anthony well sure there is there's uh when when you would uh deem things complete when you would return it to the taxpayer it's my understanding Tony that you can actually return um there's there's
129certain time frames when you can return money and uh taxpayers might see a reduction in their taxes in a certain year if that's when you return funds so that's why I say further discussion there's a lot of good uh points here that I I look forward to uh hopefully um you know learning more about and also um like Tony just said it would be a nice problem to have that if we do have uh unexpended funds that we have to uh return thanks Tony thank you another question I'm sorry I couldn't Point here I think I think that's it for the uh I don't think we need you anymore tonight okay okay thank you very much I I also wanted some clarification on something um why weren't we informed that the original committee meetings were
130modified the report because the email that I received said quote additional documents added to operations Finance section of the folder but it never indicated that the original minutes to the meeting were modified so can the chair of the committee please explain why the board wasn't clarified of that why um our our secretary in the district office just put it in the folder without giving you personal uh Anthony I asked why the board the entire board wasn't informed that you changed the minutes of the original meeting minutes and the only thing that was in there was the section was stated that there was a document added to it and the only time that I realized this because I was working off of the old minutes I guess which I didn't know they were old because I
131wasn't notified neither was anybody else through the email that was sent until Mr buckarelli informs me that they were changed so I find this out from a board member who's not even on your committee but you change the minutes and there's no information indicating in there that the minutes were changed so how would anybody know to go back and look at that well except that it says right next to it revised you know it we have how many items in this packet where it either says added 123 23 or revised on a certain date so I think it's a good point to bring up we go when we get the board packet right and we go through all the documents and we get updates from Mr Alexis and we get emails explaining to us that
132things are added to the agenda or items added to the packet itself no one thought to say hey guys we revised the minutes of the operations committee meeting you should look at that wait I called you and Mr buckarelli and neither of you yeah and I said can you please provide me the update and guess what never heard from you again so since it was updated you're prepared to offer everybody on this board so I guess the answer is there's no answer okay I guess with seven pages and however many dozens of items on the minutes for one item to be uh held for further discussion didn't rise to the occasion of a special email yeah communicating with all the board members are there any other questions I understand we're going to move on to
133committing that that's a curriculum committee report ready for curriculum yes we are here we go okay the curriculum committee met on January the 19th at 8 30 A.M Mrs O'Donnell Mr Morales Mrs Murad superintendent Mr Alexis principal kid principal fichner and I were present okay we review we've reviewed the um the start strong presentation which you saw tonight and we're advised on the cogat testing which was given to all second and fifth graders the district calendar was reviewed for 2023-2024 school year and the committee was in favor of recognizing Diwali and Eid as holidays similarly to Warren Township students will have April the 10th off an observance of Eid as Eid falls on a weekday and Diwali falls on a weekend field trip to the Princeton plasma lab was discussed and how it is a
134wonderful opportunity for all students who participate class sizes for 2023-2024 school year was also discussed lastly the health curriculum was discussed with principals and how information is provided to parents prior to what will be taught in class thanks I would actually uh the meeting went from 8 30 to about 12 o'clock so I'd like some clarification on two items Mrs Jewett can you please provide more information as to what was discussed on the topic of class sizes for the 23 24 school year the minutes that the rest of the board were provided just a quote immediate discussion was had on reducing class sizes the present three fourth grade classes have extra support for Els and math end quote with two sentences to provide to the rest of us not on the committee that doesn't sound
135like a fruitful discussion but maybe it was until I got to see the HR committee meeting minutes which had more information regarding the discussion on this topic as opposed to the curriculum committee that actually had this topic on its agenda so again this is joette can you please provide more information as to what was discussed on the topic of the class sizes for the 23-24 school year yes the fourth graders were going to be they're going to be covered they're going to make sure those classes are covered they're going to be using different teachers that are there now and the fifth grade will not have a problem to get a new teacher because they'll be able to as Mr Alexis did say use what they have now they're going to be able to creatively work
136it out that they have the fifth grade is all they'll be uh four fifth graders now the fourth grade classes are three and I know that is a there's a teacher that's leaving but that's all going to be covered the way it was I was understood that day that they were going to cover these classes and the children would be taken care of now if there's anything more that uh maybe Mr Alexis could add to that because there wasn't all that much I don't know we we answered the questions in committee um Mrs fichner explained how the support teachers both our basic skills teacher and um one of our uh regular regular substitutes are who is a retired certified teacher uh who are helping out support those two fourth grade classes right now particularly during
137math and language arts the third fourth grade class uh is an icr class and there are two certified teachers in that room so that's how we are currently supporting the fourth grade I thought Mrs Harvey's question was about the 23-24 school year right that's what was on your agenda no it's the president and for fifth grade would be 23 24. um so I just wanted to know the reason why we're focusing on fourth grade is because they have the highest numbers in their classes at this moment is that correct Mr Alexis yeah that's why it was brought to my attention in terms of discussing and committee okay can you address the questions now I know we've gotten requests from parents not only in fourth grade but in kindergarten first grade second grade that they're concerned
138about the class sizes in those areas especially since some of them are our youngest Learners and to have 22 23 five-year-old kindergartners in one class to parents that's unacceptable so I request that the a topic of additional teachers for all grade levels with oversized classrooms to be placed on the curriculum committee's agenda I believe the parents in all those grade levels would like to know what the committee's recommendation is on alleviating the crowded classrooms this school year especially since most of you during your campaign send out literature that you guys would do that so it already is the story it we're just starting yeah we're working on it already I'm asking for something to be placed on the agenda it will for the next committee meeting um the second topic I would like clarification on
139uh is the curriculum committee planning on making a recommendation to the board to approve the health curriculum we're working it already has been we're working on the health curriculum we're going to be meeting some more on that and then we'll be making a recommendation to the board so the answer is right now you're still looking in so to help can I ask what else it is that you're looking into yes we're looking into how the parents know what is being taught in the classroom and we're trying to find ways that we can tell the parents exactly what the teachers will be teaching teachers parents want to know what's being taught we do read the curriculum we know it's there we've read the standards but exactly what's going on in other words I'd love to see
140a lesson plan and something like that could be shared with parents before the um before it's taught in class it sent it home parents can look at it and if they want to opt out that's fine they cannot doubt so my question would be then I would think maybe board members are micromanaging a bit here since that's the role of the administration to deal with a lesson not used no and onwards curriculum committee minutes it says for health curriculum discussion parents will be sent information from teachers prior to what they will be teaching if parents have questions they should contact their child's teacher all this sounds quite familiar to me the health curriculum now has its own tab on the school website on the right hand corner for easier access for parents so again what
141what are we looking to still discuss well if I may I made the motion at the reorganization meeting to remember he's the chair of the committee I would just say that I want to clarify that the only thing that was referred to committee at the reorganization meeting was the new standards that have been the most uh controversial and also uh difficult I don't really know what's controversial about understand so that's I'm just thinking it's not when you're saying the health curriculum it's there there was the only thing that the emergency committee was the health curriculum portions of the the updated portions of the health India yes my my question which still hasn't been answered is what else are you looking to discuss since everything you brought up seems to be discussed in the committee that
142you're on so what else are you looking for we're looking for ways to have a little bit more transparency so the parents know that is being taught in the classroom for example are you guys confirmed we're gonna move we're talking about the health curriculum only yeah isn't that what she's asking for the health curriculum right okay are there any other questions Mrs Harvey uh no thank you for your clarification moving on to policy committee report Mr Morales the meeting took place last Tuesday January 17th at 5 pm um policy 5561 was discussed in addition to staff training parent communication procedure was also discussed committee members discussed the possibility of parents receiving this training and requested that this policy be placed on the agenda for first reading what uh time did the meeting end because that
143wasn't noted in the minutes I think the meeting started at 5 pm . it's like 45 minutes the meeting goes thank you for the clarification moving on to boards use on reports legislative liaison Mr gurage is there any report I have no update that's done yes moving to Somerset County Educational Services Commission liaison Mrs Harvey do you have any I explained to you Mrs Murad and my board member comments that I declined all of your appointments thank you moving on to Somerset County School Board Association liaison I attended the Union County School Board Association meeting last week and the discussion was the health and physical education standards and the curriculum and how the approach for specifically Wayne and Lindhurst school districts took I have forwarded I will be forwarding that information since I received it
144today from um the njsba and I'll forward it to the entire board we'll I guess since there's refusal to serve on New Jersey School Board Association there is no report any Community member reports for PTO though I will try to keep this very brief um the biggest thing that we are very excited about with the PTO is that we were able to fund um coming up we have Rucker science um that I know this kid talked about um is going to come with a mobile bus that's going to do a project or a different um experience for the sixth seventh and 8th graders coming up this year and then we were able to get for the fifth graders a mobile Earth Dome will be coming and we were also able to get um a mobile
145Earth Dome to come to Bayberry for all the kids I believe it's I don't think it's for the preschooler they don't think it's age-appropriate but for k-4 they'll be there for an entire day so we're very excited about that um we have a really busy month ahead fundraising on February 1st we have a dine to donate with Panera so if you don't want to make dinner on that Wednesday come out to Panera we also will be hosting a fundraiser at Club air it's on March 26th which I know is a little bit ahead of time it will be um it's going to be available I believe on our site to you purchase I'm not exactly sure yet it's not applied yet it will be available for all of the Bayberry and Valley View kids to
146come and be a part of that fundraiser and most excitedly we are very excited that Mrs fickner has allowed us to start sweet treat Fridays at Bayberry um we're very excited and she's also very excited about it um on Fridays we're going to start selling to um we're trying to we're figuring out what it is right now it's going to be probably a little cup of ice cream and then we also got Italian ice that is gluten-free dairy free and nut free um we're not sure we're trying to get it all up and running we're hoping in the next few weeks to be able to get that going um and we will be there on Fridays to make sure it's going smoothly and everything we're very very excited about it um I know I have
147kids at Valley View and I have kids at Bayberry and my kids at Bayberry are always very upset that the kids at Valley View get to buy snacks um so they're very excited about it so that's it thank you thank you moving on to what is there anybody from what hi everybody Angela mealy from the Watchung Educational Foundation thank you for letting us speak today just want to update you on a couple of things we funded the fifth grade they're starting a holocaust novel study program here at Valley View and we provided money for books for this program so hopefully that's something that will expand the Children's Horizons I think it's a great thing for them to be studying and I think one of the things that we'd like to reach out to given the
148comments today about funding and for those of you who are not so familiar with web we provide extracurricular funding where there's some gaps and stuff so we'd like to reach out to the principals to see if there's anywhere where we can be helpful to provide funding for some of the programs so thank you and we look forward to working with the board and happy to answer any questions and we are here thank you thank you moving on to cpeg is there a representative from cpeg we are going to move towards comments from the public on agenda items only we welcome input from the public there are two items there are two times during this meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity to comment on agenda items only is now the second
149opportunity for public comment is towards the end of the meeting total time allotted for public comments is 30 minutes before you make your comment please state your name and Municipality of residence in the event it appears the public comment portion of the meeting makes seed 30 minutes the presiding officer May limit each statement by a participant to three minutes duration our public form are not structured as a question and answer session but rather are offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels a response is needed the presiding officer superintendent will address the comment New Jersey statute does 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 light of legal
150rights of those affected and identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability and comments that they make to the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made to the public foreign I'm going to talk about the sale of the bonds um but first I would like to welcome all the new members and returning members of the board I know that this is a hard job and it's quite the time commitment so the referendum has passed but actions taken by this new board such as not reappointing the architects um some public comments and questions sidestepped at the last board meeting left me feeling like this board was attempting to stall change or possibly even ignore the results I was really concerned and after the beginning
151of this meeting I'm now very concerned because as a parent I want the referendum projects completed as advertised and on time so I'm requesting that the board honor the referendum results and approve the sale of the bonds I also request that a motion be made to have the board publicly commit to completing the projects listed in the referendum as they were presented to the public and I think this could probably be done in an amendment to one of the other referendum items in the agenda you've run out of agendas but I think it was C 5 and c17 and of course all the bonds stuff thank you very much hello um my name is Ryan Curran and I'm a resident of Watchung I'm also a senior at the high school and co-president with Logan Chen
152of Watchung Hills largest organization diversity Club why you may ask is the diversity Club the largest Club at the high school our students value diversity equity and inclusion it's important to us that meaningful Dei changes occur in our community I'm also the co-founder of the Interfaith Coalition a group that has been working over a year to get Eden Diwali as school holidays for the high school I'm here today to ask you to please vote in favor of Eden Diwali um you know we've been working towards it at the high school and the board has actually been working against us instead of with us and we would love to see Valley View be the change maker be the person that you know the organization that puts a foot forward rather than working against the community we
153want to see you guys put pens of paper and set an example for the rest of the community as a Watchung resident and a senior at Watchung Hills I think I speak for all students when I say we would not be more proud if you guys voted in favor of Eden Diwali thank you good evening my name is Nora and I'm a resident of Watchung I'm a sophomore at Watchung Hills and I'm the co-founder of the Interfaith Coalition which as many of you may know is the movement behind the um getting the holidays they eat in Diwali off last uh spring I conducted a student survey collecting data from more than 400 students measuring sentiment more than 98 of the students voted in favor of the days off so when I stand here and tell
154you that this is something that we want I speak on behalf of all of the students at Watchung Hills your vote today is not something that's going to go unnoticed I want to express my gratitude to the board for making these steps I'll be so proud to be able to say that my hometown was one of the first districts in the state to make this change I look forward to the leadership that is going to come tonight thank you good evening board members Lisa craft Watchung New Jersey um welcome to the new board members I know I've had the opportunity to meet most if not all of you and um I just wanted to say congratulations Mr brokerelli on your exceptional audit it's nice to know that there are there is excellence in the current
155board um and I think that's something to celebrate so thank you for your commitment so I sat here as an observer of the comments and I've been involved in the referendum which I am very happy to stay past um and when I when I listen in on what happened and when you look at the totality of the circumstances the actions the communication the comments the lack of transparency as a citizen I have grave concern about the state of the current board and I'm speaking for myself but I also know that I'm speaking for others there's a mistrust here and I'd like it to be rectified particularly as it relates to the referendum and so I Believe Miss Aguilera had asked that emotion be put forth that the board affirmed that they will move forward with
156the binding referendum that the voters of Watchung passed in December after electing these new members after we still passed that referendum and so I will second that motion I would also ask that it be put before this board to affirm that they will enact The Binding referendum as is as the way the voters voted for it and I would like to also understand the board's rationale for why they're suddenly hiring a new architect at this stage number one I'd also like to understand the rationale behind why they're not moving forward with renewing the attorney's contract despite Mr Alexis's support of renewing the attorney's contract the board does not run the school they are not the administration that is Mr Alexis's job and he's done a phenomenal job thus far and my trust is still with
157Mr Alexis thank you hello Molly Hartman lustig I'm a resident of Watchung um congratulations to the new board members um just a few comments this evening number one I really um I'm not following um the appointment of a new architect or attorney not because the board isn't permitted to change those professionals but I'm just wondering um I'm assuming that these projects meet the bidding thresholds or their rfps out for these professionals or how did the decision to go with a new architect actually come about and I do understand your comments Mr and Gracia that the architect is for General services and not necessarily the architecture for the referendum I'm just looking for a little bit more clarification um you had mentioned that you reviewed information and so I'm wondering how you got that was that
158part of a bidding process were those leftovers from an old bidding process and just how how he got those names and I know um president Murad had mentioned that there was some discussion about the qualifications there was some overlap people had had experiences with them I'm just wondering where that information came from um so I have as usual a few issues the first one is um this this idea of not putting action items on the agenda when they're requested um everybody up here at one point I've heard the word transparency come out of your mouths and so in in the spirit of transparency to get a public discussion going um we need those items whether they're you know controversial or whatever they are they need to be on the agenda right so we can have
159a proper discussion not just back and forth statements um in terms of executing the referendum in a quick and efficient manner again I understand that the architect you know that we're referring to getting rid of drg and replacing with them with someone else's uh for General Contracting for General architecture services but I'm also under the impression that there's a 10-point list that needs to be completed with respect to the referendum from the architect that had initially started and there are about four items left so I'm not sure that in you know any way you slice it um somebody new coming in is going to be able to pick it up so quickly that there is no delay and I've I've certainly seen Architects pick up other other Architects plans right mid project and they run
160with them but there's just like you said 12 Days 12 business days you've been on the board give a little bit of leeway so you can get up to speed it's going to be the same issue with any of these new professionals so um I when I hear that there are and I'm going to use quotes around it meetings going on um that might have violated opma that the public wasn't noticed about that there are members who were or were not um uh appointed or sworn in yet um that causes reason for concern and I know everyone wants to rail against those people who file Oprah requests but that's why they get filed because there is not enough information being given so when people are talking about um the time-honored tradition of the committee chairperson
161taking the minutes just like you're skeptical about some things Mr and Gracia I'm skeptical that that committee chair while executing the duties that they have at that meeting are also able to take the minutes and so when there are questions you know really big questions about the content of those meetings that's what people are talking about they want that information um as far as the referendum goes I'd like to just Echo the former um comments um again I see the bond resolution in there I think there's you know uh definitely some distrust at this point um considering some of the discussions that have gone on at both this and the last meeting I just want to be really clear though the case law in New Jersey is pretty simple here it's not always like that
162um and here um when the public will um is to uh is is measured by a referendum it's then the board's job to execute um that public will and you know it's it's really clear that local public questions provide the exact method by which municipalities um determine their voters views on a proposed course of action right and so then it's the board's job to execute that public will and the public will in this case was to vote for the specific referendum questions both one and two and there's no question that over the course of executing that referendum there might be some wiggle room there might be some professional opinions that this isn't going to work and this might work better but there are certain things that the public voted on and they are clear like
163air conditioning a gym there can be no other interpretation of air conditioning a gym it doesn't mean put fans in it doesn't mean you know some other cockamami construction to get air conditioning it means air conditioning in the gym period and that's really clear um if that's the type of nitpicking I guess that that the board's going to take and try and parse things out of this referendum that's not inline line with the New Jersey case law on how a board is supposed to execute a referendum uh oh finally um I don't know if you have any idea how many emails parents get it's a full-time job keeping up with the emails related to the emails for the emails for the kids and my work emails and all the emails I don't want an email
164about the curriculum I don't want the teacher's lesson plan it's enough to review the work that comes home get the homework done get it back in the backpack charge the iPad up I don't want the lesson plan I trust that that the curriculum uh that the administrators are making sound decisions about what my kids are learning I'm you know I've always been a proponent of public education again the percentage of the parents that are even opting out it's so low we do have that process and again um I don't know a single parent sitting in this room whose teacher hasn't reached out to them and said time and time again if you have a question about what's going on in the classroom a question as to what's being taught a question as to how your
165child is processing that information please reach out and that's always going to exist thank you hello my name is just Raj Sani I'm a resident of Watson I'm a senior at Watchung Hills Regional High School and I'm also an executive member on the Watchman Hills diversity Club run by Logan Chen and Rian Curran who had spoken up earlier as a Sikh student of Watchung Hills who actively celebrates uh Diwali and recognizes Eid I believe that you should vote Yes towards Eden Diwali and that it wouldn't make Monumental changes towards Watson hills's position on the topic of whether or not to call Eden the valia's days off in our school calendar thank you Gina pontero staney Bridge Drive I know many of you here and you know I hold you in the highest regard and I
166came here after watching the last meeting at home because I had kids everywhere because I have four of them and everybody plays way too many sports and it's really hard to address everything but you try as parents to do the best you can everywhere and as my little John Luca was saying mommy I don't want you to leave I said but baby I gotta go because they need to know the parents care about this stuff they do you do and we rely on you you were elected to represent the students to represent the school Community you are not here to represent taxpayers that's what the Town Council does so I my feelings go out to you if you if you're you with a referendum was um that it should not have passed and it and
167it did and you're disappointed and we have to get over it because the residents passed it so now that the board passed it and the residents passed it and they had Huff committee passed it and everyone who could possibly touch it past it everyone needs to get behind it and start moving it forward and try to find ways not to spend more money and it feels to me like switching contractors along the way switching law firms that are so highly regarded within the state of New Jersey it doesn't feel right to me I don't know that it's wrong I'll give you the benefit of the doubt I don't know that it's wrong but I'll tell you it doesn't feel right and the best person in this room I will have no disrespect to the principles
168the best person in this room is Mr Alexis who gets I feel like doesn't get us the credit that he deserves I've been to so many class parties concerts shows performances I was at one last week and he's at every single one of them and the principals are there as well but he never stands up to address the audience he does not want recognition he is genuinely here because he truly cares about the students and I sat at the concert last week and every single one of those kids was so proud to be able to perform because I was taken away from them during covid and this room was packed about 150 degrees because we know the HVAC system issues and every single parent was beaming with joy and right behind them in the back
169row is Mr Alexis who was smiling right along with them and it moved me I will tell you you were lucky to have him and I really hope you start collaborating because it's a difficult situation it's hard to work with people that you may not love but we're adults and we're professionals you got to figure it out because you're elected to do it it's your job and I know all of you know this and I know it's hard to do the right thing all the time but that's what teach our kids right do the right thing it's doing the right thing it feels good and when you don't do the right thing it doesn't really feel right it doesn't feel right to you I know it you may not accept it but it doesn't feel
170right to the community so when certain items out of 35 are taking out of something that should have been a pro forma appointment I'm sorry pro forma approval at the reorganization meeting it does it doesn't feel right I don't know that it was wrong but it doesn't feel right to me I give you the benefit of the doubt I said maybe there's a reason and I came here tonight and I'm disheartened and I don't I think somebody is disgraceful I'm not going to go that far I have a lot of respect for you guys in 2018 I think it was back when Dory rich and Jessica got on the board there was issues about who was sitting on committees and I stood up because then president would not let Joe barbella who is a senior
171compliance officer and attorney run or even sit on the policy committee it was absurd they blocked Dory from sitting on the curriculum committee it's absurd you have the talent you're giving up so much time except they're offered to help and by the way and I know um Anthony you were on the operations committee and carry a wealth of knowledge for your tenure on the committee thus far but Rich has so much to offer he's been there right with you and you could disagree but guess what hash it out you guys are big boys put on the big boy pants figure it out have your opinions and then at the end of the day it's a vote and if you got the prevailing vote you're going to win but let the guy have a voice I
172mean you I applaud you because you championed giving the community a voice throughout all the variations of the referendum you kept saying it doesn't feel right this referendum no Community involvement doesn't feel right this referendum we didn't get this one's consideration we didn't doesn't feel right this referendum we didn't get a parent's vote taking place you wanted communication then I really asked you to reconsider your position I know it's your prerogative which was what I was referencing early or as extremely disheartening to me because I never thought I would hear references to buy laws of authority we're adults here just try to figure out a way to work together let these people have a voice they bring so much knowledge to the table it's a disgrace it's an injustice Community it's a disservice to the
173children and I if nothing else just remember you are here to serve the schools not the town not the taxpayers they got their say with the referendum they had that right to vote that has passed now you need to start working for the schools let people have a say and let them bring that talent and knowledge to these committees sorry last comment I'm sorry I don't know your name Miss duet had mentioned that she wanted emails from the teachers to the students more more clarity with the curriculum you know I adore my teachers Miss Pine and Miss Urbano they knock it out of the park every single day with these kids learning and loving school and it's just incredible to me it's incredible to me the level of commitment I get emails from them and
174I know what's going on in the curriculum with respect to sex Health Ed whatever we're calling it I don't have a problem with it I that's not my opinion with respect to the community the the curriculum itself I know that you need to do it because it's legally required because Governor Murphy mandated it there's not an option not to do it the only option is possibly to opt your kids out that's it just please do the right thing because it feels good and personally it feels pretty shitty when you don't do the right thing hello uh my name is Crosby sand and I'm a senior at Watchung Hills and a former student here at Valley View and it would make me incredibly proud to see my own Middle School show support and passion towards the
175diversity present in Watchung Eden davali are important holidays and their absence from the traditional days off has been an injustice for far too long change starts at a local level and I hope to see that spark from the town that I grew up grown up in thank you foreign silver I'm a resident of Watchung um I am really proud that you guys are bringing Eden dawali to to a vote um but I was um concerned about and I see on the calendar it says um school is ending on June 14th um hopefully um prospectively um if if it goes beyond that we have um Juneteenth which is a national holiday so I'm wondering if the reason why it's not on here is because you don't expect that um you're going to go the school the
176school year wouldn't go that far but because it's a national holiday would it automatically be observed June 19th yeah okay thank you hello my name is Hamza Nawaz and I'm a senior at Watchung Hills and I'm also a former student at Valley View and uh up until recently once or a couple years ago once I joined the Interfaith Coalition I didn't realize that I had a voice to uh actively pursue this like day off in our high school and we've been going to the board of ed meetings for a while now and they've come up with many reasons to not give us this day off of course they have a lot of the homework no homework Zone but we can just all agree that's a placeholder to just put off the thing that we actually
177want and it's been way too long the number of surveys that they've given is unnecessary the people have already spoken we want to stay off and it's unfair to the minorities in the school who don't have a voice but now are finally coming up to speak up for themselves to not be a lot of this day off it's it's our one day in a year that we actually celebrate and we just want to be recognized by the students and the teachers and everything thank you hope you're all having a nice evening my name is Vikram ravishanker and I'm a resident of washung along with Ryan and my other peers I'm a senior at Washington Hills Regional High School and I'm a vice president of the diversity Club at our school having transferred to this District
178last year one of the most prominent differences that I noticed was how much my culture as a minority student was valued and I'm proud to be able to say that I'm part of a community that that values my Heritage just as much as all the others that make up our community having family in all corners of the world like celebrating with them hard enough I believe that the holidays are all about sharing experiences with those you love but because of the absence of opportunity we are unable to communicate with those we love having the day off would be able to give us the ability to communicate with those in different time zones or allow for travel to a certain access to a certain extent Justice is made possible with Christmas it needs to recess with
179this being said I hope that you all choose to side with us in voting to make Eden the Wally School recognize holidays thank you and have a great rest of your night foreign good evening my name is Logan shun and I'm a senior at Watchung Hills Regional High School and I'm a current co-president of diversity Club along with I myself do not celebrate norbs are observe either Diwali but nonetheless I am in favor of these holidays being recognized I've known Rhian for almost eight years and I've seen just how important this fight has been for recognition of these holidays and I've learned throughout this time how important and impairment it is for these holidays to be recognized by our district so I ask you all kindly please vote in favor of Eden Wally I trust
180that the future of Valley View and the Watchung District as a whole will greatly benefit from this decision Valley View now has the opportunity to be the Catalyst of change in our community thank you good evening my name is Janan I'm a resident of Watchung I couldn't be more proud to see these future change makers come before you tonight asking for equity and inclusion we recently celebrated MLK day our students had the day off and in reflection you know one of the things Martin Luther King said is commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights you will make a greater person of yourself a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in you know as I think about the contributions of minorities you know we're back in school because of
181vaccines and those vaccines were created by one couple the the CEO of buy-in and Tech the Pfizer vaccine that allowed us to be back in school and I think about our students the future entrepreneurs the future vaccine makers I want them to know that they have a seat at the table that we welcome them their identity their faith they can be who they are and and your vote tonight I hope it is unanimous just as it was in Warren says that our community is one that's open which is important to me as a resident as a parent that people know that for educators who want to get a job in the school district that they see themselves working here because their identity is valued so I thank you in advance for your hopefully unanimous vote
182for making our community a finer one thank you so much questions are there any other public comments and at this time there will be limited to three minutes as the past during hey I'm Brianna Anderson I'm a resident of Watchung approaching uh our second year here in the district and there's some really important things discussions happening today um I'm here to to advocate for my fourth grade daughter for the class size is just really large I think we've all can agree on that and I just want some some really to everyone to put their their heads together and and figure out a way to help support these students Now with uh there's going to be a medical leave which I realize can't be helped but let's get that support in there it's really it's taking
183an emotional and social toll on these kids and I need you to take that really seriously okay and then being proactive for fifth grade um again let's put our heads together let's let's be there for these kids to make sure that they're they're getting the time and resources um to set them up for success thank you foreign are there any other public comments okay at this time I would move on to action items Gail can you move administrative items I move I move administrative action items A1 through A5 is there a second second any discussion roll call yes um I have a comment and I also would like to discuss something um so with the district uh calendar would there be a lot of changes if we considered um what for for any of the
184days for next year the calendar that was revised by the curriculum committee recognizes April 10th as edel fitzer they what what happens is that we're going to have the suggestion came forward to have it as a professional development day but a day which is closed for students so the original calendar had the October 11th the Tuesday as a professional development day and that day is moved to um April April 10th in next year's calendar I as I understand Diwali falls on a weekend after next year's calendar that's what I wanted to make sure okay thank you um yeah I had some questions about A5 as well um which Committee Member requested for our district to give a day off to observe to develiani I did and how did the committee come to the decision to
185recommend changing the district calendar by giving students the day off we spoke with the principals and they all of us working with Mr Alexis as well worked out the schedule where if a professional day could be moved on to that day as it will not impact the school calendar and it was that's it and the fact that Warren Our Town neighboring town is giving it as well those two holidays and we all understand that list of whether it falls on a weekend or whether we can offer a professional day we would be providing a day off of school yes okay um has the the board received a recent petition for this or are you basing anything off of the 21 petition that came out I had um residents reach out to me before the calendar
186would come up this January and that wasn't shared with the board it was with the committee it was shared at that committee meeting it's not in the committee meeting minutes okay uh normally school districts only take changes to the district calendar only after parents request for a change um have there any have there been any recent uh requests by parents who attend whose children attend the school district yes how many and what difference does it make why wouldn't you be able to answer that why would it make a difference at this moment I okay so you're just dancing to give a holiday off when the Asian American Pacific Islander population is that we as a state have the third largest population in the nation Mrs Murad I I I'm asking you a question that is
187that what you are refusing this is and if you have any further questions you saw items on you could have called so in January I'm just gonna move on because you're obviously not going to answer that question so in January 2022 it was discussed that it was important to keep our calendar aligned with the high school for parents who have children in our middle school and the high school what did the committee discuss on that point since this change might create child issue concerns for parents the school district in Warren I'm sorry in Watchung high schools does not give October 11th off so moving that did not create any changes as far as transportation so I'm not asking about Transportation yeah but they're saying so you're asking if it's amazing you would actually just so
188the kids are still going through school on October 11th what what I don't understand in our school which is happening right now is as a board member we're having a discussion and I'm asking questions and all you're doing is assuming that I'm gonna vote no you have no idea and you are becoming extremely aggressive for no reason I would just like to know what the committee discussed and they explained to you on us not being aligned with the high school calendar for parents who have children in the middle school and the high school because this was brought up in the past Mrs Murad when you were on that committee and I want to know what the new committee discussed did you guys even discuss that point Mr Alexis brought it up and on October 11th
189the high school is open and our Bayberry and Valley View is closed so it does not make a difference there is no alignment on that day hence it was moved to April 10th I I understand this might be difficult for you I answer these questions it's so it's okay Mrs Morad are there going to be um any potential issues with any of the busing not only just next year but within the future since we potentially wouldn't be aligned with the high school are there any potential issues I'm sorry I missed the question and as just as a point of clarification I misspoke it's not October 11th it's October 10th is the day that we're talking about I just wanted to know Mr Alexis if there are any potential issues going forward with what's being proposed
190with our busing with the high schools not not that I anticipate no this calendar is virtual for next year again what the board is voting on it's the calendar for 23 24. it is virtually identical to the high school with the exception that October 10th is now a day in session just like the high school has um we now have April 10th as a professional development day and we end the day we end on Friday June 14th in the high school ends on June 13th and then for a future any future years are we concerned about blessing we can still have bussing I don't think it's contingent on the high schools you know whether they're open or closed okay great we only run into that in snow days all right great and then um did
191the teachers union need to be consulted on the change of the district calendar and did they agree to the change if they had to be consulted I shared it with them yes and they were they were good our teachers were no no objections that I received okay so then in December 21 the curriculum committee discussed that if the district didn't observe a holiday with a day off of school and I believe um one of the community members mentioned it this um instead of being observed with a day off the students uh were able to you know get educated on the holiday have homework free days Test free days and since this committee is making the recommendation for us dessert to observe this as now is a day off what were the committee's thoughts on that
192previous approach I guess this is what happens when when you write one sentence in the minutes of meeting and there's no other information there yeah so did you guys discuss that anyone from the committee who sits on that committee yes it was discussed that it was previously known as homework three days and that is not the will of like they wanted to just have the majority of the curriculum committee that is the suggestion they made and is there any data that you guys use to actually make this decision no okay there is not um so during the December 21 curriculum committee we review the results of the survey that was conducted in our district in the high school did the committee review these results during the discussion no they did not because a survey did
193not indicate any that's okay I'm gonna hand out the survey to everybody since we didn't do our due diligence and actually look at any data you want a grandstand on this please too thank you I have it yeah so let me read these results to everybody So based off of who Took the survey in our district Diwali came in at the highest at about around these percentages at 24 percent second that came in was Orthodox Christian Good Friday at 23 percent third was Juneteenth at about 15 percent and then the last two that came in pretty much at about 10 percent each was lunar Chinese New Year and E so let me preface this by saying I absolutely support observing Eden davali actually I was the only board member on the curriculum committee last year
194to recommend to the committee that all of the holidays should be observed with a day off I make a motion then to close discussion no I'm not finished because I'm not repeating myself thank you sorry you can in the school districts where I teach Diwali and Eid are observed with a day off and I found that if some of my students don't know what those holidays are having a day off it created great educational opportunities to educate those students on what the holidays are it has continued to create a sense of cultural understanding and celebration so if we are going to be equitable I recommend that we also observe lunar Chinese New Year Orthodox Good Friday and Juneteenth which I'm sure you all know is a Federal holiday like Martin Luther King Jr day is
195a Federal holiday in which we observe with the day off because based on the data if the current committee since you guys didn't base anything off of any data if the current committee is recommending Eid that came in at the lowest request from the parents in our schools with lunar Chinese New Year otherwise how are we or I guess how was that committee deciding on which holiday takes precedent over others in our community so how do we tell one part of our community that their holiday is more important than another part of our community Mr Alexis is there any deadline for when the district needs to adopt the 2324 District calendar I'm not aware of a deadline but it's always a good practice to share it with the families that around this time of year
196at the you know okay great that's been our practice so I would like to make a motion to amend the calendar to include the observance of lunar Chinese New Year Orthodox Good Friday and Juneteenth discussion any discussion on that motion and we bring it back to committee and go over this then so we can look at the calendar too because I agree we should go back to discussion on that I think I thank you by the way for all this information I appreciate it so let's add it on I'm a school teacher in Jersey City and I would love to have all I know Mr Alexis knows you might not be happy with me right now but he knows I advocated a lot for all those holidays to be observed because that's what our community
197was asking for so we have to vote on it because there's a second correct that's right it would be nice to see in the story I think I remember you said you came out I don't know everybody up here would be unanimous unanimously encouraged by the effort that they came to put out here I agree that they would just you guys especially since it came at the lower part of it and why not celebrate the rest we need to take it back and also see how far into June will go then if we put in these some holidays the holidays which I agree with you and and this will help us so can we table it to the next Community we have to vote it's up to the board Gail yes you certainly can but
198please don't if I could say one comment please don't interpret uh Mrs Harvey Schumer about my not being happy with her that's some sort of uh whether I agree or disagree with this that that's not no that's not what I'm insinuating Harvey didn't you recommend at one point in that same curriculum committee meeting that all currently observed holiday should be on this survey as well such as any Jewish holiday or any other yes you did no no actually I didn't I did you said oh in my name oh yes because then you backtracked then it was back so so let me know however can we have a jewelry box please actually Borgo uh exactly Mr Borgo may I please have it on that finish the discussion discussion we have a second and we were under
199the discussion right I would just comments we have to vote on right I understand this discussion about the amendment Mr Burke if the board doesn't approve this amendment and approves the 2324 District calendar without addition of lunar Chinese New Year and Orthodox Good Friday and Juneteenth I request as Gail has hopefully already said for the addition of lunar Chinese New Year Orthodox Good Friday and Juneteenth to be placed on the curriculum committee agenda for consideration for being observed during the 23 24 District calendar for the committee to provide the board with their findings and recommendations for whether or not they should be added to the 2324 calendar that's all I was gonna say okay I have I have some comments through a discussion yeah so uh again I am completely support diversity and inclusion I
200also have throughout my tenure on this board look to work with the high school on their calendar so that parents aren't inconvenienced during you know one kid having to go to school and another child not going to school I also am a big believer in data-driven decisions I quite frankly I intend to vote no on both with the recommendation and maybe I do this and make another motion but I think we got to get right right the motion I would make would be for the curriculum committee to take this back you know understand all of the data and make recommendations with respect to you know the other holidays that the parents wanted and understand the implications of the calendar and also I would like to know why the high school has not supported this so
201like I have a lot of questions I'm not sure everybody was aware of all this um you know I certainly wasn't um I do remember the survey but I I think this deserves you know further consideration by the uh by the curriculum committee so second yeah but that means I think I think uh Dan that means I have to vote no on both and make another amendment right um correct yes this was uh Mr Alexis was a part of working with the high school on the survey and this was done um in the 21 school year yeah I'm sorry I don't I just use the last digits I have a question so what specific dates is the lunar China Chinese Lunar New Year like June 19th is June we just celebrated what day is it
202until next year I don't know of the top of my head sorry it's a Sunday so we will make Monday a holiday right a long weekend it's whatever no no so what the calendar would do is depending on the year whenever they're observed those holidays would then they would have a day off but it's not every year because they rotate so on the day that it would end up on a school day the kids and maybe the staff because in my district sometimes they'll make it a professional development like we're considering here where the staff would come in but the kids would be off so it just depends on the year that if the day that it falls on I'm assuming we take the kids or he's able to take days off the school year
203will extend possibly to June 19th so they would have that day off too exactly probably extended to the 21st one is June 17th so you would add three additional days so it's quite possible it could be June 21st with no snow days in a perfect scenario yeah okay well I'm not in favor of the new motion that was made uh let's I why don't we get it we have it on the table for the boat why don't we take that vote and then see where we go after that right and that's the discussion well uh we have we have a motion and a second to add three additional holidays to the existing cat uh existing calendar as outlined by Mrs Harvey and seconded by Mr buckarelli for the first time tonight so this will take
204that vote and then after that Madam President we could have further discussion on putting it back to the curriculum committee approving what's in front of the public tonight so that would be another discussion after we vote on this okay can we have a roll call please yes Mr buckarelli no Mr freyji Epstein Mr Mrs Harvey yes yes Mr and grazia I'm gonna have to ask for a clarification I'm sorry because discussion's over we're both clarification we are we would be adding three additional holidays as stated in the current existing calendar and the way it looks like it's brought out in real time would be the 17th of June plus the other two holidays so would it extend the school year by approximately one week from the 14th to the 21st no Mr Mrs Jewett no
205Mr Morales yes Mrs O'Donnell yes Mrs Murat no I got it or knows 3s is one extension yeah so that's motion did not pass I'd like to make a motion the right guy make a motion I'd like to move that in light of you know my reluctance to add three holidays to the calendar but still in support of of the diversity of Eden to Wally um would like to make a motion for the to table the the current um motion before the board um and send it back to the curriculum committee to [Music] study the calendars look at the data hopefully understand more about why the high school isn't doing this because that's a big concern to me so for further study of the data and our receiving districts um view on it and whether
206other holidays should be added in addition a motion to table A5 yes first reasons as stated correct any discussion sorry second any discussion um from what I'm aware of and again do not quote me on this because I'm not positive I would like the parents at the end of the meeting to come up and speak to either support or deny my claim um but most Muslim families did not actually fill out this form in opposition to it um they didn't think that the survey was necessary the state is skewed from what I'm aware of again um just to put that out there let's go let's keep it's got to stay in here there's nothing we can do people refuse to take a survey I mean I guess I would recommend if the curriculum committee is
207going to do another survey so they could base something off the data that people actually take it because you see the support here but we like to make data-driven decisions so if the community supports that the ones that live in our town and takes the survey that would help us we as a board do not control what the parents do and do not abstain to they do not want to take the survey no they don't but that's always very obviously skewed results yes and these results are just not correct honestly I'm not saying the committee should figure out how to get data that would be appropriate for all of us to view it doesn't have to be a survey I don't care what it is just figure out how we can see what our community
208is looking for okay can I don't know I already asked Can I happy and unfortunately we can't um can I please have us there's a second in a roll call there's a motion and a second to table A5 table A5 to reconsider the modifications to the existing calendar right Mr buckarelli yes Mrs Frank Mr Frank no Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Jewett no Mr Mr Morales no Mrs O'Donnell yes Mr grazia no Mrs Murat no emotionally tables fails so we'll go back to the original motion that's part of the A1 through A5 as originally proposed you never roll call on that please are we still having discussion on this no because we didn't really complete we didn't really complete discussion on the original motion so is there any other emotion you'd like to make I would
209like to discuss something Madam presidents um so like I said before if the calendar passes with what's being proposed we can always come back to the table after the curriculum committee has reviewed the other three holidays and have a recommendation from them to add on the other three or not so that's what I just wanted to make clear is that if we pass the calendar that's okay but we could potentially get a recommendation to add those on and that would be okay for us to amend the calendar correct Mr Alexis you could do that yes okay great that's all I needed to know just as an aside having experience in this you know a lot of parents make a lot of plans the following school years for summer camps vacations Etc and as a common
210courtesy as Mr Alexis has stated the sooner you could solidify that calendar I I think it's easier for your community and the community members to make those plans for child care days off because a lot of dual families mom and dads are working and the quicker we could do that the easier it is and the and the more efficient is we're born thank you maybe have a roll call please this is Administrative actions A1 through A5 Mr buccarelli I don't think that the uh curriculum committee has given us enough data discussion right yeah I'm explaining why I abstain I know you you don't explain why you abstained she doesn't explain I think the public is owed and uh you know an explanation for me okay Mr egress okay okay can I that was the discussion
211ordinarily I don't abstain but in this situation I do not feel that the curriculum committee has considered this carefully enough with respect to data that is available with respect to coordinating calendars with the High School uh my motion to you know to to send it back to them was denied so therefore I abstain from the smoke Mr Freight yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Jewett yes Mr Morales yes Mrs O'Donnell yes Mr and grazia yes Mrs morat yes motion passes seven to zero with one abstention Mr Morales can you please move Personnel items I move Personnel items Personnel action items B1 through B7 is there a second second any discussion could I just make one comment I just I just want to thank Dan Borgo I I know he's only been here for a short period
212of time but he was tremendously helpful to me in the rest of the administration and to the board uh during this transition period and he was instrumental in assembling the team for moving forward for this spring so so thank you very much Derek are we in discussion yes yes I just wanted to just note that a date on the agenda for B3 is for the second medical leave it says 4 28 28 and I just think that's a typo so can we change I mean I'm gonna say I hope it's a typo right like so can we change that to the 23rd if that don't know okay thanks any other discussion roll call please this is Mr buccarelli yes Mr freyj yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Jewett yes Mr Morales yes Miss O'Donnell yes Mr
213grazia yes Mrs Moore yes motion passes eight to zero so in gracity can you please move operation items yes I moved the operation Finance item C1 approved payment of bills C2 approve transfer of funds C3 except Financial reports C4 approved sale of bonds for December 2022 referendum C5 approve agreement with Summit Management Solutions C6 accept audit for the 2021-2022 school year C7 authorized waiver of requirements for the special education Medicaid Initiative Program the semi program C8 accept Financial year 23 emergent and capital maintenance needs Grant C9 approve annual appointments reorganization item 8 revised C10 appoint District purchasing agent reorganization item of 14 revised C11 approved depositories reorganization item 15 revised C12 authorized implementation of budget reorganization item 18 revised C13 designate custodian of District records reorganization item 21 revised c14 designate School funds investor reorganization
214item 22 revised C15 designate claims approver reorganization item 26 revised c16 designate line item transfers approver reorganization item 27 revised c17 appoint professional services provider reorganization item 28 revised c18 authorize the interim business administrator to invest funds in New Jersey asset and rebate Management program New Jersey armed reorganization item 35 revised and that's the last of the c one through eight okay b19 excuse me uh approve agreement with Kean University for strategic planning also thank you is there a second okay and yes I would like um just some more information about C5 can you explain why I mean I saw the information in the packet but can you explain why we need to hire Summit Management Solutions for referendum Consulting Services I didn't quite understand this was on the recommendation of our interim business administrator
215and Mr Alexis because we are working right now excuse me I'm happy to everyone yeah well yes I yeah we recommended it because like I said Dan was instrumental in assembling this team and he believes based on his time here and given that our assistant business administrator is part-time that we need uh the interim business administrator who's only available two days a week uh to focus on the daily operations and that uh Mr Turner who has a deep experience in referendum management and planning and all of the business office operations that go along with that to serve in a consultant's role on an as needed basis I think it would also create some continuity when you have an interim ba and this project May stand from 28 to 40 months depending on the length of
216your referendum that you have one person as opposed of some rotating doors coming through and the and the people that are currently in the positions are going to be handling the everyday operations of budget prep budget 20 22 223 23 24 Transportation special education so there's a lot on their plate and to create some continuity the contract is a pay as you go so there's no long-term commitment it's hours paid hours rendered and it's a really economic way to move forward and create continuity for this project I think I believe Ernie Turner it's the same one yes yeah um the interim business administrator here that is correct I'm familiar with him thank you you're very welcome uh some questions regarding c17 um why did we find it necessary to change counsel and number second part
217of that question is why did we ever if this attorney is getting paid by the hour which most attorneys do why would we choose an attorney from Morristown New Jersey clear on the other side of the state near Philadelphia where every time he or she comes to the board meeting is going to be an additional four hours that the people in the district are going to have to pay for that's just travel have you looked at the attorney agreement no okay there's a cap for meeting attendance there's a cap that it would be uh it would be capped at a a flat rate for attending uh how much is that it's in the uh it's it's in the how much is it agreement 895 895 and what was what was what was porzio bromberg's rape
218they didn't have a cap that I know 210 an hour that's roughly the same um so back to my original question why did we feel that advisable to change counsel because this particular attorney as we went through all the other attorneys when we were looking through them actually comes out and provides professional development for the staff for free it will not cost us as an hourly rate and at this time that is something we feel that you know it would benefit not the only the administration but the board itself and the staff so specifically what I'm asking is why did we not um agree with the administrators uh Chiefs you know superintendent's original recommendation to continue with porzio Bromberg I think that question has been answered previously I didn't I don't remember that I'm sorry
219I don't think it's been answered I don't understand why it was tell me why no because as a board it is the board's discretion on who they but yeah but you got to have a reason Amber and I'm telling you the reason what's that it's your discretion no what is it that we are I think I told you you didn't tell me you didn't answer the question tell me tell me again please because it was at whatever we were being charged it was too much compared to the neighboring districts Services [Music] she went and we actually did our research all of us here it was shared with you as well the information of the attorneys right I don't know if you're saying anything about rates we actually read our packets Amber but you still have
220an answer but they were in the packet they were yeah I understand this but at the reorganization meeting because we are trying to figure out as in the curriculum committee or HR or in every single meeting as you have pointed out we're trying to find out ways where we can save the district money Mrs Murad you the there were no committees established at the reorganization meeting okay so there was no way for anyone to do any type of research as and it wasn't shared with them why that would change so what I believe we're asking is why was that now all of a sudden a change at that time there were board members who were new five of them right did not feel comfortable voting on any Professional Services prior to looking at their contracts
221and I we were not going to reunit any of them right if you clearly remember that do you yes I remember that but and then what I want to understand is you guys renewed a lot of different vendors but you picked these specific ones so why is there all of you decide to change the attorney when our superintendent didn't give that recommendation well upon the recommendation of the superintendent he went through the process with us and I think that's if you have any if you have no other discussion that's no there's there's I'm sorry there's more discussions I I would actually like to read Kerry Wright's bio because I don't know if you guys actually know the attorney that you don't want to work with anymore and Carrie Wright is a principal of porzio Bromberg
222and Newman and a member of the firm's litigation Practice Group where she also co-chairs the education and employment team she focuses her practice in the areas of Education law and employment law specifically in representation of management in both employment counseling and employment litigation carry handles a variety of employment law matters for the firm's public and private sector clients in state and federal courts as well as before administrative agencies including the EEOC and the New Jersey Department of Labor she has litigation and counseling experience in numerous areas of employment law including issues involving wage and hour claims restrictive covenants harassment discrimination and whistleblowing she has successfully defended Management in class action wage and hour lawsuits and has handled numerous investigations by management into allegations of employee wrongdoing Kerry has significant experience representing and counseling school boards
223Charter Schools private schools and colleges in a variety of areas she is one of the leading attorneys in the field of reconfiguring school districts including the creation and dissolution of Regional High School Districts and the creation and termination of sending receiving relationships as an elected member of the Chester Board of Education in Morris County Kerry is serving in her fifth term she currently serves as the president of the board and chair of the board's negotiation committee she has successfully negotiated employment contracts and collective bargaining agreements with each one of the board's labor groups Kerry receives the New Jersey School Board member of the Year from New Jersey school boards Association for the 21-22 school year she has various recommendation recognitions some New Jersey Law Journal women's lawyers uh tons of memberships massive news articles events
224just the list goes on and on and she's an exceptional education attorney and well accomplished I just don't understand why we wouldn't want to continue to work with her for a school district she's worked with us for over two years and I haven't seen anything she or her firm could have done for this committee to make this recommendation she has been nothing but professional providing her board with sound legal advice and is overly qualified to continue to represent our Board of Education in the past when we changed board Council as far as I know was that the request of Mr Alexis who just started as a permanent superintendent and we were told by a former board president that Mr Alexis wanted to change our previous board Council because he wanted to build his own team
225and that made sense to me and the other board members at the time especially especially since it was at the request of the superintendent Mr Alexis didn't recommend changing board counsel at our last meeting I understand that Mr ambrossi and Mrs Murad might not want to might want to see new counsel because they cost the district a lot of money and legal fees due to their inappropriate actions words and competence it makes sense that they might have been unhappy with the legal advice that was provided to them and I wonder if they expect that I believe is kamegno Law Group would put their reputations on the line for some of the shenanigans that this this new board leadership might be preparing to to do so um it just I just don't understand why if our
226superintendent hasn't recognized that he wants to change this why we would and after reviewing the operations committee minutes which lack detail on the board council's discussion and not hearing anything more provided to the public in the committee report a key factor still has not been provided to this full board or the community as to why Mr and Gracia Mrs Murad are seeking new board counsel and why the other committee members agree with them making a recommendation to the board to hire a Magno Law Group and no longer work with porzio Bromberg and Newman can the committee please explain that reasoning well I think that there was a reason already given what makes you start looking maybe when you see that you're paying more than other districts might get the conversation started and I don't think
227it's productive for any one of us to share negative experiences that we might have had working with someone uh you know but I think that just like you did I'll read what what I think is good here and John comeigno has a very impressive resume as well I have the floor Dory founder and president of the commigno Law Group PC is recognized across the country as a leading School law litigator and lecturer shaping educational policy and representing public and independent schools and education vendors during the covid-19 crisis and school closures John is consulted by policy makers and Educators across the country to provide analysis and recommendations on the legal implications of remote instruction employment and vendor contracts particularly involving the rights of employees and disabled students John writes guidance documents interpreting fast evolving law and
228films lectures that continue to shape and Define best practices John's covid-19 webinar series produced by multiple National educational companies were reviewed by over 50 000 educators a long-standing member of the bars of the state of New Jersey and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and accepted to practice in other jurisdictions across the country John has tried hundreds of school law disputes including employment practice Section 504 Ada and idea cases involving disability accommodations John has extensive experience in all facets of school law a nationally recognized lecturer John has well maybe I'll you know rather than just what you were reading Dory I'll go on to that we have some very um strong and I could go on because honestly there's multiple more paragraphs about John but I can go into also um we have from various school districts
229some very strong recommendations um but I I do want to just mention that I'm skipping about another page and a half of John's recommendations this is from uh To Who It May Concern it is with great respect and admiration that I'm writing to recommend Mr John comegno affirm to represent your board of education and School District Mr kamegno has represented our district since 1998 with professionalism integrity and it goes on and on there's also a another um school board that is recommending uh on they give bullet points um when we went out and found the new legal firm they experienced in reputation Law Group is one of the leading educational law firms on the East Coast they've provided insights and guidance based on this experience they come to each meeting or interaction with options guidance
230and wisdom based experience they are practical in providing advice to Taylor our district board's objectives and they masterfully provide recommendations that are understandable and relevant to our unique members and board as a whole they go on to talk about their subject matter expertise their availability and close with another you know very highly uh you know uh positive review about their experience working with them so I again I I can continue to read what some of the things that impressed me about this firmations that we'll be working with and we stipulate to his qualifications please I I I just read some and I think there's a lot more if you have read the packet did you not read this part of the packet either with the they can can I uh can we go on board
231I'm sharing this for the Public's benefit that they understand your website Anthony they can read their website well this is a this is a little different this is a uh combined with the qualifications the expertise the professional development and also the recommendation of other boards that have worked with them I I have uh I had and not you know not to mention this was not something that uh George was not in support of Mr Alexis had a short list that that came together and he he picked to make no law from that short list as who he would prefer to work with now you could say when the previous board had an agenda for a reorganization meeting that included um the Attorney Services that we didn't you know choose to renew at that meeting and
232refer to committee that's I I've explained to you how this discussion might have gotten started one reason to start looking and I think we can put up the uh the resume and the qualifications and the cost of the District of this making this change compared to what we had and it's a favorable change okay my comment is as follows all you new board members realize what you're doing our superintendent recommended staying with porzio these guys didn't like it so you listen to them and you went against the recommendation of our superintendent just so just so you're aware you're kind of close to starting to run the schools okay so that's my comment on that my question is why didn't we why did we change Architects oh wait actually I'm sorry before we get to The
233Architects I have a question um about did anybody contact porzio Bromberg and Newman since I guess one of the factors after the fact that even though we don't have an answer as to why but um did anybody contact them and ask them if they would change their rates you know they're most recent no great gave a reason why they're raising it so I will not discuss their great structure no I'm just asking if somebody contacted them and asked them if they would change their rates for our district no oh it was nice waiting contact them do they offer professional development as well not for free did you anybody ask them wow so we we didn't speak to our former board Council before well I guess even after Mr and Gracia decided to try and change
234it or I guess maybe is now changing it but um to ask them if they offer professional development which seemed to be one of the only things I picked out of all the nonsense you guys said and if they would change their rate so we didn't do our due diligence or did we did it was the concerns of the majority of the board are there any other discussions why did we change architect which is what I started to ask well we didn't change Architects we didn't renew an architect that had completed the work that they wow that's a really interesting distinction Anthony we didn't change we just didn't we knew and hired somebody else right okay got it and they also didn't provide a uh a proposal for the architectural services actually they had they
235were they had their proposal for the uh referendum did you ask services and Beyond did you ask them I personally did not talk to them no so they didn't Pro did you did these other people's proposals just show up or did you ask them for a proposal uh this proposal for the architect that we have um not that I think we need to um you know track every document that is sent to the board but it came from the town it came from a recommendation but you asked them to submit a proposal no this was our Township our administrator reached out in a in a conversation with another board member and uh made this recommendation why so just like the attorney none of you have thought it would be to contact drg and have a
236conversation with them no no oh wow because that's not what we're moving them forward right we're not looking at referendum items but is there any other discussion because right now I think it's time for a roll call Yes actually I have um I would um actually like to hear from Mr Fraze he has been very quiet about this he's on the operations committee what's your perspective on the attorney and the architect that we're not uh using anymore I don't have one this moment I'm going to understand I I will make a quick comment um when I was on the board for for the amount of time I was a while back it wasn't uncommon to get a new attorney so I'm not finding this to be you know so much of a problem uh if
237we so desire to get another attorney because um their prices are less but yet the service is just as good as it's been commented um and regarding the architect as I understand we're going to be waiting to get you know bids from them anyway you know before we can The Architects so I just wanted to know um do we anticipate the new Architects creating new plans or working off of drg Architects designs that's not what's on the agenda tonight is for the annual architectural service what we're changing architect firms right so or I guess thank you Anthony another question is are we going to hire two architects or are we going to use the one that is being recommended tonight for the referendum the process have you guys talked about that yeah the process whether
238even if it was still with drg I'm not sure that within 12 business days we would have had a finalized uh contract to move forward so I'm going to say you guys didn't discuss that okay so are there going to be um if we decide to use because I mean I would think you know these would be important topics for us to discuss in a committee because you know we have a huge referendum in front of us um would there be any additional cost to our district to incur by not renewing the original architects I would hope that we'll have it cost uh you know savings with uh and if what seems to be a very efficient architect that uh is proposed and then would the quality and social service projects that were designed with
239our superintendent with grg Architects for over three years change they're a conceptual they were not actual right so we were still going to go out with an engineer to see if whether or not the wall would have a stud or there was a something else and this would something that an architecture something to change things it's good for you to let us know it's not it's saying they're conceptual but when you move forward you actually have to see if things fit in places and that's what it the RG would have done that is what any other architect would do right or unless we're saying that we're just going to fit places things doesn't matter where they go so they're clearly is no valid reason to hire new Architects no just like there's no reason [Music]
240in recommending to rehire a board attorney those haven't been provided to any of us so these are just seem like Petty acts of Retribution to the voters who voted in favor of the referendum um those who vote not to continue to work with the original Architects are to me pretty much going against the will of the people so I'm going to make a motion to amend C-17 to Now read board attorney porzio Bromberg and Newman and Architects grg architects is there a second second any discussion roll call please yeah no no no questions yeah so here's my discussion about that I'm going to say the same thing Mr Alexis is our Chief School administrator otherwise known as the superintendent he he recommended drg he recommended porzo Bromberg these guys didn't want them you're now the
241new board members and you're setting the precedent of doing what the president and the vice president of the board want instead of the superintendent and that's very dangerous okay it's very dangerous and you ought to think about what you're doing and you ought to think about how it's going to affect the reputation of this board thank you um I wanted to say Mr ambrozi is the one who initiated changing the board Council and architect at the reorganization meeting and after everything that has been brought to light about how much you guys have not discussed um and this room gracias horrendous leadership I'm pref unprofessionalism you know excellent retribution towards others hidden agendas and the lack of a Justified reason as to why our board would change Architects and a board Council Midway through a school
242year and Midway through a referendum I would think that all the new board members would vote in favor of this amendment unless they're just here to do Mr and Gracia and Mrs murad's bidding this isn't just their board this is our board otherwise this community is going to view all of you as Mr and gracias and Mr Mrs murad's lackeys or just being complacent with what the President and Vice President are saying and their incompetence I mean none of this was discussed in the committee properly I think we have to stop sending these messages back and forth of hurting people it's this is not productive at all um Mr Alexis I think you need to say something on this what I can't deny that I placed horizio Bromberg and Newman on the reorganization agenda and
243also drg is architect of record uh and then I discovered at the reorganization meeting that they were not being renewed like that item was pulled without prior notice that that's what I can confirm I mean I don't so when you stay with respect and I'm going to just ask this uh you know do we go out to get the best costs for an architect to do this work or do we just stay with the same person and not know what costs we're getting into is there any other discussion I don't I don't know who you're asking Gail I don't think you're asking us thank you you know a concern that's been raised by the community is that changing architects now once the referendum has passed that will delay the projects no it wouldn't well I
244mean that that's that's a concern and there is you know that that's been voiced to me too by other professionals with experience in this in this area so I don't know that to be the fact I but I it sounds like it would take more time to get an architect up to speed to handle the referendum work and do the specifications because they hadn't been involved previously any other discussion yeah I would just say that I think it's unfair that uh board members that are coming onto a board at a reorganization meeting are expected to prove every approve everything that the pass board had put on like a rubber stamp and if there's a moment of review and discussion and committee that then results in changes being made that somehow they are not fulfilling their
245duties as a board member when in fact it's just the opposite they're fulfilling their duties as a board member to review these things not be a rubber stamp and to um make changes that they think will be in the for the best we had every opportunity to abstain you should well for the board's attorney it's the board's discretion isn't it rich and that's and if the board if the if a consensus of the board felt like they wanted to make a change when it's clearly a qualified change with no reasoning behind it Mr Borgo uh I think it's time for a roll call we have an amendment to C-17 replacing commagna Law Group with porzio Bromberg and replacing the architect Potter Architects with drg moved by Mrs Harvey seconded by Mr baccarelli so that's what
246we are voting on Mr buckarelli yes Mr fridge Epstein Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Truett no Mrs Mr Morales no Mrs O'Donnell no Mr and grazia no Mrs Murad no motion does not pass we're back to the original emotions C1 through c19 . and can we do a roll call please sure Mr buckarelli yes for everything except C-17 which is no yes on everything C1 through 19 with the exception of c17. thank you yes Mr Mr Frank yes for everything except C-17 which I've seen Mrs Harvey yes for everything except for c17 which I vote now Mrs Jewett yes Mr Morales yes Mrs O'Donnell yes Mr grazia yes this is Morris yes all motions pass c 1 through 19. Mrs Stuart can you please move curriculum items yes uh I move curriculum items it would be
247D approved the 2022 2023 field trips is there a second second any discussion roll call please Mr buckarelli yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs drewette yes Mr Morales yes Mr O'Donnell yes Mr grazia yes Mrs Morad yes motion passes eight to zero mama can you please move policy items I move policy E1 approve policy and regulation first reading uh upon the recommendation of the superintendent the Board of Education approves the following policy uh PNR 5561 use of fiscal restraint and seclusion techniques for students with disabilities is there a second second any discussion yes so when I was on the policy committee and we discussed this policy it was important to us that Mrs de toota provide information sessions for parents so that parents understood what restraining techniques the district recommended utilizing and I
248want to thank her for her efforts in affording our parents an opportunity to learn about these techniques ask questions and voice their concerns if any um so thank you Mrs Tito you did a great job um I was informed that even though the policy says special education it actually applies to the entire student body is that still correct yes I didn't hear the response it applies to special ed students based on statute and code but not the rest of the student body correct so if those techniques can't be used on general education students who could also have meltdowns and possibly hurt themselves and or others as well what techniques are going to be used on the general education students I think those are two different questions she asked whether the policy applies to gen ed
249students right and these policies are right it does technique so yes I want to know what we would use for general education students who experience some of the same things but if there are certain and Mrs Mr Tony has patiently waited here too just in case there were any questions and I happy to have her speak to this but uh there are these uh restraint techniques include uh de-escalation verbal de-escalation strategies and other uh non-physical uh techniques but also the physical uh techniques and strategies there is a general policy in um that allows General Ed that allows the use of force in certain emergency situations of General ed students um so that is what allows them to uh exercise any sort of uh physical restraint in in certain circumstances but the policy that's on the
250agenda tonight applies to special ed students but again by by law so uh we we can't use I just want to make sure I'm clear so we can't use the techniques that were explained to the policy committee and to the special education parents and the information session on general education students but on general education students we're allowed to use more physical restraint on them I I think we're confusing the issue I I it's not that you can't use this techniques or strategies but this policy applies to special ed students only so that's what I'm trying to get at Mr Alexis I'm trying to understand if these because I like what Mrs de toota explained and I think that it's very beneficial for our districts to include this but I'm just trying to understand these techniques
251even though it's not stated in the policy can also be used on general education students if necessary under circumstances again the underlying um motivation for this law was for the safety of students uh individual students and the safety of others and so using techniques that are um you know that come from The Crisis Prevention Institute that are just good practices to ensure the safety of all students whether the student who is having the behavior episode is special ed or General Ed it makes good sense to use safe procedures is is there a policy for the general there's not a specific policy for restraint techniques but there is a general policy that allows the use of force in certain emergency situations yes again the goal is not to have to use these and to use the
252de-escalation strategies by them yes that that's that's how it is comfortable great thanks any other discussion can I get a roll call please Mr buckarelli yes Mr Frank yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Jewett yes Mr Morales yes O'Donnell yes Mr grazia yes Mrs Amore yes motion now resolution passes eight to zero moving on to board business uh one of the items is hybrid board meetings where the board meetings can be conducted with the public being able to join in on Zoom it's open for discussion anyone have any thoughts on it I do um I think we're in a world that has changed and yes when people can't make it and they want to be at the board meeting and um or a board member is at home uh that would like to still participate but
253not feeling well I think they would have the opportunity to still be able to participate in the board meeting just for clarification is this only for the public or is it for the board as well I don't know if there's a board I think right now we're in postcode yeah right the law prevents you to vote from the way I understood when it was proposed that it's it's for the public it's for the public it's okay public and public comment no that wasn't my understanding actually I thought that it was that um you could have a in order to have it possible for a board member to attend the meeting remotely there had to be certain uh things in place which included how the public interacted remotely but um what my understanding was what we
254discussed is that we would have a camera on the the meeting here and that people could uh still not only watch the meeting in a live stream but they could submit their comments they could make their public comments to the uh in real time at the meeting and that we would we would figure out technology that you know how that would need to be worked out because different boards have done it different ways with uh the administrator having a separate uh laptop or different ways that we talked about but I I did think that it was going to allow for um for board members to attend virtually also um I have a legal opinion that is not from this board because I do a lot of others and this question has been coming up a
255lot so you could do what you like with it it's from a reputable School Board attorney I'm not going to give you who that is uh the regulations and updates to Virtual meetings largely govern the conduct of the entire meeting virtually as opposed to traditional in-person meetings that allow virtual public participation in other words you are correct that the law itself governs virtual meetings during state of emergencies the regulations are still in effect on this point but these regulations do not prohibit public bodies from allowing the public to participate virtually so long as they also allow in-person participation if the board wishes to live stream the meeting and allow members of the public to submit question comments virtually during the meeting the board can do so whether this is feasible or advisable from a practical
256perspective is a whole other issue but this is something that could legally be done again just to be clear the key is that the board must still conduct its meaning in person with the public being allowed to in person as well whether the board wants to have virtual options in addition to in-person options for the public is one that is allowable at the board's discretion right so I think we're still saying that's not different from what I don't know if it said if a board member can conduct and vote virtually that's the only other question I don't know but it can have the public I didn't know that you wanted to have board members not be present in person and be able to participate and actively vote if they're not here in person yeah I
257think that we were talking about no attorney that could be his first question yeah right if for some reason then a board member can't make a meeting but could do could they that's I guess that's the question we don't know yeah so let's take it back into a committee um yeah I don't know what exactly what you're voting on and what you want okay so I have another question or actually a comment I'm very uh uh very guarded these days with uh people spoofing um you know what that means you know spoofing is spoofing is like somebody steals your phone and calls somebody else with your phone number steals your phone number we've had a a board members Facebook page you know illegally taken over by somebody else my request is that if we are
258going to do this if the committee does do this that anybody from the public who wants to comment has to have their camera on because I've been in plenty of these meetings where all you see is two initials and you hear a voice but you have no way of knowing it's the person so I would say you really have to be guarded on making sure that somebody isn't getting up there saying there's somebody else from somewhere else and making comments um I definitely agree with that um to add to that not only to make the people add their uh or turn on the camera we could potentially send out an email to all the students or sorry all the the emails I guess we have and just give them like like a zoom password or
259something if that's possible um the only thing is I personally don't know how if that would be prohibitive towards the rest of the community members if that's like an issue and if there's a way around them again I guess we can go into policy yeah we could just discuss in more in policy whoever's all about just as an aside we had a we've done this in other districts I worked and you gotta actually sign up prior through the board secretary that we would give you then almost like a login to interact so it it policed it a little better but it's not perfect and you know we went up to five o'clock the day of the meeting that if you thought you were going to attend even if you didn't think you were wanting to
260come in and get a password that would not come in email and we'd give you the password so we had a little bit internal control saying that we expect 27 people to watch virtually that may want to ask a question otherwise they could view it this way yes so that's just another option so some of the other things too we were had discussed in the past was that we could not demand well I mean we could ask people to turn their cameras on but they don't have to okay and the other thing um that we had discussed as well was oh God what was it it was something else that you were just saying Mr [Music] Joe oh God what was it just give me a second really going on seven hours this is an
261excuse oh no this is I'm ready for this uh well anyway I mean that was what what one of the major concern was was that we can't force um anyone to turn their camera on to be able to identify themselves so if a member of the community says well my camera's not working then we can't prevent them from speaking right so um actually no oh that's what it was thank you took me a minute to get back to it um the other issue we had here was that when we tried to do that and we were in person as board members it was really difficult for us to hear anything that was happening um and that's what frustrated a lot of us as board members there were a lot of delays I mean we couldn't
262raise the speakers in here loud enough um so if that I guess is something that should be discussed um because we couldn't hear a lot of what was happening and then it was just it was really awkward to kind of do it that way so um those are just some of the things we looked at [Music] seeing that there's something else moving on to comments from the public please state your name municipality and Municipality of residence important um election and family and at that election the uh there was a new board that was elected by I think a significant majority I think a little bigger than I don't know why we continue to talk about the referendum nobody has seen it what's going to be done on that but everything seems to be negative about
263it um and at during that election if the public wanted the existing board to continue and to continue doing the things that they were doing referendum wise um educational wise test results wise I think they would have reelected that board they obviously chose to go a different way which is uh you know their choice and I think what they wanted to see they wanted to see some change um I've witnessed about four hours of back and forth of an old board a lecturing a new board who's been in office for 14 days as to what they should be doing I don't know if the residents of Watchung really wanted that to happen I think the evidence so far on what the what what's happening is encouraging we couldn't get an agreement with the town to
264maintain ball fields gosh we got one it's not amazing the other thing is we didn't have a policy we didn't have a policy on how to restrain uh special ed children and now you're ready to vote on one I think maybe that's an indication of what the new board will do and I would ask Mr baccarelli the next time we meet if he could tell us what the residents of Watchung are actually going to be paying in that tax bill for the referendum at the ad hoc committee we kept on hearing we didn't really know what we heard we heard it might be around 10 million dollars I think Bond Council the the debt issue which was put out shows that the 15 million seven hundred thousand were going to borrow I believe I have
265the numbers unless what's been sent in the uh uh on the web page from the uh from the Watchung schools to pay that 15 million dollars 15.7 million is we're going to cost 23 million dollars okay and I believe what that debt server shows is we're going to get seven million dollars from the state leaving Watchung people to pay 16 million dollars for 15.7 million dollar referendum I don't know where that 10 million cost of the district came up with I would like you at the next meeting to get either Bond counsel or yourself to explain what is the actual taxpayer going to pay over 20 years for this referendum I think the people in Watchung really deserve that thank you very much Jen sharp Watchung uh again I find myself up here and I
266said I wouldn't come up I do just want to just express my displeasure I felt this way for years that when board members spouses come up here and talk I just find it extremely distasteful um I don't believe there's an agreement about the quote ball fields I haven't heard anything about that and as far as Mr buckarelli giving you any sort of report he was dumped in policy you need to be talking to that guy over there and secondly drg I'm not talking to you drg gave us renderings that we paraded all over this town who's paying for the new renderings is Potter going to use drg's renderings aren't they any other comments Instagram hi Janan from Watchung um I want to thank the foresight of the committee members for passing tonight's addition to the
267calendar um and to the one member that did abstain I want to extend an invitation if you'd like to learn more we're happy this is something that the community students have been working on for almost two years um so I I wish when you guys were having discussion we had a lot of the answers for you but I don't want I want to respect everyone's time and just say extend an invitation um community members did make you guys baklava and their donuts I'm not sure how many are left it's a long meeting but I will put them on the um the Shelf over there please this is meant to be a celebration I want to thank each and every one of you because you put into action what is on paper right what is strategic
268objectives and kudos to you I mean you're a young board you I know you were just uh you had your reorg meeting so I want to thank you um because you know taking action takes courage you're going to be criticized one way or another and I know there was a discussion about more holidays it's not mutually exclusive right so you know change is is good and it shouldn't be held back while we while we look at other options we should always be looking at options no matter what um so I'm really happy to see that the you guys took action tonight and I know the kids will be thrilled it's really about a stronger community and a stronger watch one so thank you again good night are there any other comments from the public is
269there any further discussion hearing there's no other business is there a motion to adjourn is there a second second a motion has been paid and seconded to adjourn the meeting all in favor say yes yes all opposed this meeting has been in Germany