##VIDEO ID:1NDEsjRD3Eo## e e e e e e e e e e e start the meeting a call to order um in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public Act of 1975 the oton Board of Education transmitted notice of this meeting scheduled at 7M in the audabon junior senior high school media center to the retrospect newspaper and the Barrow Clerk and by postings on the udon Public School District website and at the Maine and the Pine Street entrances of the Junior Senior High School if we could rise for the flag salute flag United States okay our first order of business the board election results so uh we have the we had um one candidate that was for one year unexpired term and that was Sarah kin at 4,169 keeps going out yeah and then we had um four candidates and we had Danielle Mitchell D Franchesco 3568 votes Andrea Robinson 3,39 votes Alison Cox 2,99 votes and Brian Burns as 1,584 votes so the top three were uh not in any not in um order in alph well not even in alphabetical order there but Danielle Mitchell D Franchesco Andrea Rob and Allison Cox so if congratulations so if I could ask uh the four of you to come to the join me in the front here and bring your oath of office I left at your spot with you and uh we will administer the oath of office to you how about I'll Stand in a line right there and I am going to read and then you just repeat after me but you have it in front of you to to follow along so all at the same time yes uh so if you could just raise your right hand and then repeat after me I state your name do Sly swear or affirm or that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey I will support United States St and that I will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same and that I will bear and to the governments established in the United States and this state un States under the authority of the people so help me God I state your name do solemnly swear or affirm doly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a Board of Education and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs1 194 D1 nor disqualified due to coni conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 18a 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office I will Faithfully per ofice according to the best of my ability so help me God ACC abil thank you and congratulations [Applause] oh e okay so at this time I'll just take roll call Amy Davis here Steven Wilson here Sarah kin Alison lipsky here Mark Gaddy Bill Wilson Danielle D Francesco Allison Cox Andrea Robinson Jonathan Maxon okay okay now at this time we are going to take nominations for the office of President so uh can I have a motion to open the nominations for presence okay can we take would anybody like to make a nomination for the president of the board oh um okay all in favor for opening up the nominations okay any nose okay thank you good okay now can I have a nomination for nominating anybody for the office of President I would like to proudly nominate Amy Davis who's been an excellent president the last couple years to do it again and lead us okay any other nominations okay um now let's close the nominations could I have a motion to close the nominations oh geez we're bouncing on that all I'm getting there all in favor nose or do that what you normally say any any objections okay we'll close the nomination all right um so let's vote on we have on the floor nomination for Amy Davis as president of the Board of Education the board president so Allison Cox yes Danielle D Francesco Mark Gaddy yes Sarah kin Allison lipsky yes Jonathan Maxon yes Andrea Robinson yes Bill Wilson stevenh Wilson yes Amy Davis yeah okay Amy Davis is the president of the board for 20 2 [Applause] congratulations um first thank you everybody I appreciate the faith and conf idence um it has been a team effort it will continue to be a team effort and um I really appreciate the support okay um I have a motion to open up the nominations for office of Vice President all in favor any [Music] opposed all right nominations for vice president second any other nominations all right I will close nominations for office of the vice president all in favor any opposed roll call please okay Danielle D Francesco Mark aty Sarah kouan Allison lipsky yes Jonathan Maxon yes Andrea Robinson yes Bill Wilson Steven Wilson yes Allison Cox Amy Davis motion passed we blew it yeah right all right um can I have a motion to approve the board meeting dates for the period of this evening through January 7th 2026 meetings will begin as noted with the executive close session at 6:30 followed by the Action meeting at 7 except for this meeting which started at 700 p.m. M so motion for the board meeting dates all right did we um oh did we have any did anyone find any discrepancies or any issues with the dates that were proposed to us yeah this is my old I think we were good on everything I know we talked about um the potential for the budget hearing which would be either April 30th or May 7th we weren't sure about that we're not sure what the state uh State's timeline is yet anything else jump out to anybody from the last time that we met okay do we need roll call on this or just all in favor just all in favor any [Music] poos all right then those will be uh the regular board meeting dates for January 2025 through January 2026 um real quickly before we go on to the extremely exciting and thrilling ethics presentation I wanted just to um committee assignments um I will ask Mrs Ron case to send to send out the forms that we've used in the past so that you can note your interest for which committees you would like to participate in if you were interested in chairing any of those committees and then um Mrs Cox and I oh go Mrs Cox and I will um you know get together and look at those results and and try to honor you know everybody's first wishes as to which committees they'd like to be on okay so be on the lookout for that um thank you for that well the next meeting is next week um let's let's at least have that done by the next meeting um you can send it out to okay fantastic so get it if you could get it to me at least by Friday or Monday that would be good we did the January for operations and I just everything else I just thought was on hold until we had this done we're in good shape because the only thing that got missed in in December was changes in HR operations we missed but we had gone over it right I think we'll still be fine no I mean I think they could totally have them because they're not until January 21st and January 28th respectively so if you if Deb gets this yeah if Deb gets the surveys out um and you get them back to back to us by you know Friday if not Monday I think we'll be we'll be fine okay I think we'll be a deter that for in in time for the 14th yeah because I'm I'm I'm loed to make changes in that committee especially since we're in negotiations so okay all right so that's the committee assignments everybody knows about the U strategic plan forums uh everyone got the information from Dr Oswald so you know some of us are meeting with him tomorrow night some of us some of you are meeting with him on the 13th it's a virtual meeting that's all away question no so this is actually a forum this is a focus group specifically for board members so we are giving yes yes so this isn't the community Forum these are one of the small focus groups so we're actually giving input and insight in this one yes was the link in that email I think there was something in there yeah yeah yeah good yeah okay um and then we know that the First Community Forum meeting is the 22nd are we we all can't attend that correct can't Beed so we have to we'll have to decide who's going to go to each one of those Community Forum meetings how many are there well we could have know how oh there's three meetings yeah three to four there's 10 of us can have total of five I'd like as many people to participate as possible so I don't want to limit it to three but we could be as many as five yeah as long as we don't exceed five yeah that's what I'll do I'll put a sign up sheet out you're looking concerned oh okay all right oh heavens yes yeah oh yeah so like you can't go in and sign up as the first person on all and we have to have representation there at each one of the meetings thank you for doing that math um it's it's to yeah to whatever you're available to do yeah but I I mean I would think we would each want to do at least one so we had an idea of how it was going and yeah getting getting the pulse on it so okay um go to the first yes you did yes you good you got that yeah okay uh and then the retri we need to talk about potential dates for the retreat can we all whip out our calendars except Mar oh okay good did you see that bus go I'm sorry I'm sorry did you not check okay um um okay uh I know we in the past we've done this on weekends we've also done it on week nights so I'm gonna start anybody for February 1 still want to go with a week night okay I just that I guess that was my thinking yeah I'm gonna have with cheer comption cheer competition season I'm gonna have a lot oful try but it's the chances of me being available are going be rough there okay Wednesday the 29th of January I know we just put that in no we didn't okay okay no we didn't do Wednesdays we did Mondays Wednesday the 29th oh my gosh did we hit it like let's do it wait seriously what that's the what oh oh oh oh oh I apologize Wednesday the 29th okay once what okay so that's my next question what time do we want to start and do we want to do dinner with it I think we should 530 is that okay for because I know for work commitments and things like that everybody 5:30 works okay holy mackerel let's hope the rest of the year goes let's hope the rest of the year goes like this no it's that was just just that the picture look at her all right January 29th at 5:30 pm so I will next be soliciting you for topics or things that you wish to discuss at The Retreat I know we had talked about revisiting workshops and presentations that some of us had attended at njsba Conference in October so if you um are keen on that we can carve out little you know five to seven minutes for people to kind of TurnKey information that they learned at the njsba conference or if there are any other topics that you want to discuss send those to send them my way and then we'll work and develop the agenda I would love to do another Icebreaker thank you Miss lipsky we learned so much about each other last time okay you should okay I that is it is there anything else again before we hop into our presentation related to those topics Jonathan is back sorry about that okay all right now without any further Ado the moment you've all been waiting for we have a presentation on Schoolboard ethics training I will turn it over to miss Garen I know thank you very much okay I've handed out a copy of this year's presentation I I will warn you all not a lot has changed uh so a lot of the information I shared at your last training is going to be the same as this year I will point out the new stuff as we go through it um and if there are uh any questions or concerns along the way um please interrupt me and let me know uh it's important that we are all on the same page now to get us started you can't read any of that can you it is but you know it's always nice to have it projected okay um why do we do this well because legally you have to you are re to be trained in ethics every year you are required to sign an acknowledgement that you've been provided a copy of the code of ethics and that you have reviewed it I believe uh Debbie has already given everyone a copy of the code of ethics to sign uh it is in your folder so be sure that you sign that and get it back down I know it seems a little hokey but I actually think it's important that we read the code of ethics itself and become familiar with what it is we're talking about so I'm G to ask if we can perhaps start with Miss kulin uh if each one of you can read one of the bullet points that constitutes the code of ethics and we'll just keep going around uh until we have read the whole thing so please whenever you're ready hold on the one in my presentation the second slide I'm sorry responsility memb they are e person okay so that is it those are the actual words um and I think it's just important to hear them set out loud and to just take a moment on reflect to reflect on them and what they mean um in summary um if we had to sort of do some dos and don'ts I would say you do refer all School complaints to the chief School administrator it is in the code but it is something that um many board members and I'm not refering Aon specifically I'm referring to board members across the state find it difficult to do you are members of your community you are representatives of your community it is understood and expected that the community is going to go to you for information and just on a very human level it is very difficult to say I cannot help you you must go to Administration so by way of reminder follow the chain of command um send people back to the administration for the information when all else fails send them to the superintendent um you should consider the recommendations of the chief School administrator there are certain things that you can only act on when it comes to uh if you have the recommendation of the superintendent and I'm thinking specifically of personnel hirings the only Personnel you vote on are the Personnel that are recommended by the superintendent you cannot bring forth your own candidates and put them on the agenda or do anything of the sort if there are people you think are qualified for jobs you want them to be part of the process you refer them to HR you refer them to the business office you encourage them to put in an application and let the administration do its job the only people you vote on are the people who are recommended by the superintendant and then of course you keep the community informed on the progress and needs of the school district again nobody thinks that um you're going to suddenly give up your role as community members to sit on the board you are part of the the community it is expected that you will communicate out to the community the business of the board uh and the conduct and actions of the school district so that everyone is informed and involved do not on my list we have violate the chain of command make promises to help our act on complaints uh until they reach the board level bend the rules I I me personally just in practice have had a number of those in the last year um board members say watch out for this one they're very politically connected make sure you Handle With Care that one they're likely to go to the Press just this notion that certain people will get special treatment or handled with kid gloves and then of course that is not your role to do everyone gets treated the same everyone gets sent to the same administrators handled the same way again just for anyone watching at home this is not these are not issues I've encountered at aabon but issues I've in my practice that I share is information you cannot make personal promises it is very hard you know when you're campaigning a lot of people say I cannot believe the bus situation I'm running for the board to change the bus situation well surprise surprise you have no authority to change the bus situation that is for the role of Administrators to deal with um or you want to change the school lunch schedule you don't think it meets the needs nutrition needs of children you want to change with a Ser at school lunch again you do not have any authority to change what is uh offered at school lunch um so watch out for uh what you campaign done and watch out for community members who try to pigeon hole you into an issue um to to take their side um you will not become involved in the day-to-day running of schools I think this board is very good at that uh and you will not publicly criticize Personnel uh just by way of note for new board members reminding you that public employees have very many specific uh due process rights and one of them is to not be criticized in public to have their personnel matters only discussed in confidential executive sessions member uh members of school staff if they are going to be discussed an executive session or anything that impacts terms and conditions of employment they get what is called a rice notice it sounds like a goofy term it is it actually stands for the name of case there is uh the concept of a rights notice was developed in case law anytime someone's going to be discussed an executive session they get a notice from the superintendant advising them that the terms and conditions of their employment are being discussed they then have the right to have that discussion held in public yes people do ask for their private stuff to be discussed in public that is the only time it is discussed in public otherwise all uh Personnel matters are discussed confidentially in executive session only um and only the board president or a majority of the board can rice the superintendent otherwise all rice notices come from the superintendent's office so that is a quick overview some quick um this I throw in here every year because I think it's important to remember um boards often like to get involved in hiring of Key Personnel maybe not the day-to-day routine things but I don't know you have a a high school principal coming or going or you have a preschool program administrative coming or going positions that you considered highly valuable and high profile you want to make sure the right candidate is selected well just to be clear you cannot sit in on interviews or participate in the selection process it comes to you upon the recommendation of the superintendent after the process has been completed likewise if you have people exiting positions maybe you have um number people who all resign around the same time and you're concerned oh my goodness what is going on in our school district I want to find out I want to be in tune with what is happening I want to participate in exit interviews that is also a no you cannot participate in exit interviews that is part of the administration of schools what you can do is ask your school Chief School administrator hey we've had a bunch of people leave recently can you look into what the reasons are and report back to us that is an appropriate way to get that information um I want to move into some of the cases now some of these you've seen before um this first one is the Julia henerson case um I keep this case in here from year to year because I think it is a great example of everything you should not do as a school board member this lady got elected to the board and got elected board president and got it in her head that it was a mandate for her to come in and change everything uh and she went about it in the wrong way she went and recommended Personnel recruited people for positions that were not recommended by the school superintendant including a technology person and a nurse she sent a rice notice um to various employees she told the union president that the superintendent was not being renewed even though it had not been discussed with the superintendent or the rest of the board um she ignored recommendations regarding the hiring of a business administrator walked around ERS to District employees and a whole host of things what a wonderful introduction to ethics right this is everything you cannot do it violates almost every tenant of the code of ethics that we just read a few moments ago so if you want some great nighttime reading um the Julia henerson case is one that I would recommend um next uh just yes ma'am removed her forgive me I should say what all the penalties are in that case the penalty was removal you will notice in the rest of my presentation there's a lot of censure there's a lot of reprend there's a lot of that kind of stuff you have to be really really especially bad to Warrant removal it is a rare penalty that is imposed and this lady earned that award okay moving on to the next couple of cases um just than the cases I'm just going to talk about the principles behind them um the first one is about a board member developing interview documents this I think is a a great example of um board members bringing expertise to the table in this case the board member uh worked in the Human Resources field and felt that he had um in-depth knowledge on recruiting personnel and evaluating personnel and went about developing this list of questions and the rubric for scoring candidates and and he really went above and beyond and he thought he was contributing in a positive way that he was bringing his personal professional expertise what he did was cross the line into the administration of schools the penalty there was censure um but it's just a reminder that you all have you have professional backgrounds and you come with skills and life experiences that are valuable to your membership on the board um those recommendations and that experience and insight and expertise are things that you share with Administration and allow them to take it and to do the job not to do the job for them um the next point is about a board member who' issued a right notice to the superintendent without the consent of the board president or the rest of the board just a reminder that um only the board president can super uh can rice the superintendent uh and if the board president doesn't want that a majority of the board can vote to Rice the superintendent otherwise no individual board member has that right um the last one I thought was uh an interesting oh the penalty for issuing the right notice was a reprimand um the next one is about a board member who called a principal directly so this is um a new case that came out in 2024 so no you did not see this one last year um a board member and it is from the case itself exactly how that person got the principal's phone number but he got the principal's phone number and this uh principal would come to board meetings and express his points of view on the work the board the board was conducting and it happened to be highly critical of this one individual board member who did not appreciate it who called them up at home and express to them why are you criticizing me do not criticize me at board meetings um and uh pretty much complain I think you all know that that's a big no no that um individual staff members rain the right to come up here and to be critical of the work you are doing right um they do not shed their first amendment rights at the door they can speak on policy just as any other member of the public can speak on policy and if someone disagrees with what you're doing that is their right it is your job to do your jobs and V your conscience and do what you think is in the best interest of the school then educated people are going to disagree on what that is but we do not call staff members up at home and criticize them for exercising their rights um the next one is uh another new case that came out in 2024 this is about a board member who made a video endorsing candidates um saying that existing members were unable to impartially fulfill their d and then this board member went to a polling site the key here is they went on behalf of the board to collect tally sheets tally sheets and tapes and they were not acting on behalf of the board so let's just remember a key point about board service you have like no power or authority to do anything unless you are sitting at a board meeting with a quum that is and it's duly advertised your power to act is is sitting at this table in a group discussing policy voting on policy making decisions at this table once you leave this table you have no authority to control or direct anyone or anything um the sole exception to that is if the board votes to delegate authority to you so say you want to go out and represent the board's point of view at a convention or you uh the board has been invited to speak at a forum on on what is happening in aabon or your approach to governance that's all well and good but the board has to vote to say you Mr or Miss Board member are appointed by the board for this specific role uh and then once you are voted on you then have the authority to act but to be clear unless Authority is delegated to you you have no such Authority outside of a board meeting so the penalty there was censure U and just out of does everybody know what censure is what that means it's like the ultimate public embarrassments the um School ethics commission votes to Cent you um it's written um sort as a resolution it is sent to your school board the school board reads it publicly at a public meeting you may or may not vote to accept it and it gets posted on the school district for a period of time so it's pretty much an announcement that um you have made a mistake you have wrote a foul of the uh code of ethics and you are being penalized for doing so that's essentially what a what a censor means um the next case that I cite here is another new one that came out in uh 24 this is where um a board member specifically advocated for friend by the district and face disciplinary action you cannot intervene one one of the major tenants of the code of ethics and and later on as we get into um other parts of um conflicts of interest law is that you cannot use any of your Authority as a board member for the benefit of friends families or others and others is a very big broad category that includes everyone from your neighbors your co-workers your friends your extended family everyone else um intervening to stop discipline of a particular employee is an example of using your Authority as a board member um for the benefit of other um which is a big no no you can't do that the penalty in this case was a 60-day suspension um moving on this one um I you know this one I think is a is a tricky one um this is one of the covid cases that came out a board member sent an email to the legislature and the public expressing views on the mask mandate the penalty here was a reprimand it was um the reprimand was based on the fact that it looked like it was a call to action to undermine school policy and one of the major do are responsible for is upholding policy and supporting School District Personnel in the proper performance of their duties and in this case this person seem to be going beyond that now the reason why I say it's a fine line is because as individuals you do not shed your first amendment rights you are allowed to have positions and opinions that differ with one another you are not required to agree on everything that happens here uh and you are certainly allowed to exess your op to other public officials although you must do everything with the caveat that you are doing it as a private citizen uh and not in your capacity as a board member um so I think this is one um that's a little bit nuanced and a little bit gray area when you go so far as to call for activism to undermine school policy or activism to undermine School District administration that is where you cross the line and the penalty here was a reprimand the one on the bottom of this SL I like just I don't want you all to think that I'm nothing but Doom and Gloom and things you cannot do here's an example of where everything went right a parent filed a school ethics complaint against the board because she did not like the school policy this is the case and I want to say it was an elementary school where you had elementary kids being elementary kids meaning that they were in between the switching of classes going in the bathrooms and doing kid things that they are not supposed to be doing right acting or graffiti or whatever the case may be so the School District administration responded by saying okay during the changing of classes and during certain pars of they were a lock the school bathroom so nobody can get in there to do bad things it wasn't a ban on school bathrooms it were just locking school bathrooms at certain periods of the day these uh parents did not like it they went to Administration they did not like the answer they went to the board the board inquired with Administration what are you doing and why are you doing it they heard the explanation said to the parents well we've heard the explanation of administration we support what they are doing we are not going to take any action to overturn it no ethics violation there so when the the parents filed against the board um it was found to be no violation why because everyone did everything right they followed the chain of command the board did not investigate themselves they went to their Chief School administrator and their um under uh lower ad administrators to explain the situation they were satisfied with the explanation they took no action to intervene that is exactly how those kinds of problems are supposed to be solved now if the board disagreed with what administration was doing then you have a policy discussion you refer it to a committee and a recommendation comes out of committee for full board discussion at a later time um that is the right way to go about things so just so you I just so I can prove that not everything is dooming next let's talk about conflicts of interest the next couple of the next two slides um is language straight out of Statute I'm not going to stand up here and read statutory language to you I promise I'm not that cruel um but it says exactly what you think it says you cannot engage in any business that would be in substantial conflict with the discharge of your duties um you cannot accept gifts favors etc etc in exchange for voting a certain way or promoting a certain policy um you can accept campaign contributions separate conversation for another time in day are the rules around accepting campaign contributions that's not what this is about this is strictly about um accepting a reward a gift not necessarily monetary they can be ink kind things as well um I think a a a great example of where you have to be mindful of your conflict is I actually I gave this pres this exact same presentation last night at another reorg meeting I was at and on that board I have a board member who heads a nonprofit organization that provides services to the school district where he serves on the board now that might automatically give people the heej oh doesn't that isn't that a conflict doesn't that seem wrong well it's actually not a conflict because what he does is he makes sure that absolutely no Authority or control or input over anything that happens in the school district he recuses himself from every vote that involves his organization he recuses himself from every vote that involves his organization's competitors or um or other nonprofits or organizations that provides similar Services he recognizes the conflict that his position could put that his position can put him in substantial conflict with the discharge of his duties and he takes appropriate action um to both disclose it and avoid it so be mindful of complex um I don't know if any of you do business uh or have businesses that are engaged in education or the school district um but there are ways to continue board service if you recruit yourself appropriately um the next Slide the statute continues um you will not be any employment of service to Prejudice your judgment use or attempt to use your position to secure unwanted privileges for family or others act in any official capacity um where you have an interest direct indirect Financial involvement or act in any official capacity where you or a member of your family has personal involvement that creates a benefit to a school member or the community um again some of this is pretty intuitive um right you I think most of us in our gut knows when a conflict exists and if there is ever any question um that's why you have counsel all right conflicts of interest continued let's get into a couple of cases to see how this plays out um there was a penalty of reprimand for a board member who voted on a superintendent contract even though their spouse was employed by the district um now let's do a quick review how this works if you have a relative who is employed by the school district you cannot vote on anything having to do with your relatives employment obviously you cannot vote on anything having to do with their supervisor's employment or anything or anyone in that chain of command up to and including the superintendent of schools um so again these are not bad things to be related to someone in a school district just means you have to be conscious of what you're voting on and always be looking at the agenda and be wary of conflicts um there was a penalty of repr man when a board member called an employee at home and became angry when the employee would not send the requested reports you might remember this is a case we talked about last year this was a business administrator um who was asked by a board member to produce certain documents the business administrator was not producing the documents or not producing them quickly enough the board member got upset um let's just think about perhaps a larger point which is when can you make specific information requests of your Administration dayto day you're gonna have questions your board members you email your superintendent you email your ba you ask questions sometimes those questions require research um as long as it is kept to a minimum that is absolutely fine but there are many districts um and I have a few where the requests for information from board members are so many and so constant that it occupies administrators time to the point where they have no time to do their actual jobs because they are constantly responding to board member requests at that point in time we have to take a step back and say what is the priority what are we going to require of our administrators theoretically if a board member requests something it is not and your capacity is an individual it is on behalf of the board and if there's a question about whether it's good information for you to have or whether it is overwhelming or too much work for administration you bring it to the full board and have a discussion say you know what this is an issue that I think is important to us this is an issue we should Explore More fully how do we go about exploring this issue I think we need this information and if the full board a majority of you de it is then you give directives to your Administration um in this case you do not as an individual board member pick up the phone and call a school district employee and say where's my information I want my information that is a violation of Ethics um the last one on this slide is a new case this is one that happened in 2024 and ironically enough one that I um had last summer as well a Bo not this case but this issue um a board member repeatedly contacted Administration to get a Hib against their child reversed um by the moans and groans I'm going to assume everyone can see on its face why that is a bad idea you cannot use your position for unwarranted privileges of others that includes your own child if you have an issue with a hi being found against your child there is a chain of command and an appeal procedure you appeal to the board you sit in the audience you bring your case to the board you have an executive session where you present your case then you leave the room while the board deliberates you do not um start to Lobby on your child's behalf yes yeah if it's your own child absolutely yeah absolutely yes ma'am yeah I agree yeah there's a huge difference um you will not not just by the school commission but when it comes to Due Process rights in general employees have much greater rights um than even students yes ma'am I believe they are appointed um they are appointed um by each party and the governor and I forget the length of their terms but they're on rotating terms so it's supposed to be a nonpartisan group of essentially political appointees um who are making these decisions they do have a professional staff and the the process is when you file charges against someone um it's a it's not it's not like I I you pick up the phone and say hey I think so and so is acting on ethically would you investigate this it it actually looks more like a formal legal proceeding file a complaint which looks much like a court complaint where you have to specify the exact provisions of the code that are violated and all your evidence and reasons why you think it was violated um you have to serve it on the other parties the other parties have an opportunity to respond either with an answer or a motion to dismiss the school ethics commission this political body um that is appointed uh looks at it and can make any one of a number of decisions it can say um ins it was insufficient pleading or we agree with the motion to dismiss or we think it was frivolous um or it could say this is a contested case and actually refers it to the office of administrative law for a hearing and um if you know anyone who practices administrative law it's just like it it's it's like little court right um it's all of the same rules of procedure and it's a formal process with the presentation of evidence and the direct and cross-examination of witnesses and burdens of proof in the yard so it is a very it is a very formal process but um to Mrs Davis's point the first stop in the process is this part particular politically appointed body that is supposed to be nonpartisan who are they no they they are political um speaking of political points our next case on the list um is one that it's it's a new one from 24 um and this goes the penalty was Cent it goes not really to think the offense itself but the case really goes to you have to know what the rules are so this was a board member who worked for the for former lieutenant governor who voted to name a building after the lieutenant governor for which they worked um and the penalty here was censure and this person based on my reading of the case um used the defense that well my lawyer told me it was okay and what the school ethics commission found was well that's all well consult a legal counsil but that does not mitigate the fact that you violated the code of ethics that um seeking council's advice does not mitigate the offense though it may mitigate the penalty um and the last one on this slide um has to do with campaign contributions um Lea in this context stands for local Education Association this was actually not a case this was a series of advisory opinions so just so the board knows um when you have particular sets of facts or circumstances that are not adequately addressed by existing cases or advisory opinions you can actually write to the school ethics commission and request an advisory opinion uh and if they if they deem it of a sufficient import they will provide you with feedback and publish The Advisory opinion anonymously so that there's no um disclosure of the m involved or the districts involved but they will publish these advisory opinions and it becomes guidance for the rest of us so this issue is um based on a series of advisory opinions involving where the local teachers union made campaign contributions to individual board members um there was one so it sort of influenced here or it not influenced it sort of summarized here the three of them that as long as the board member has not accepted Financial or other contributions quote intended to influence their duties as a board member you are not necessarily conflicted and when you read these advisory opinions it's really a matter of degree did I solicit your endorsements did I accept or solicit or accept your campaign contribution uh or was it passive one of the advisory opinions actually a gentleman who never solicited the Union's endorsement but got it anyway uh and they offered to make Financial contribution which he declined and the question was well if the union is so interested in him is he somehow conflicted and what the school ethics commission advised was you are allowed to have political viewpoints and policy viewpoints that align with the Union there's nothing wrong with that right we're all entitled to our own point of view that does not automatically conflict you out but if you are engaged in some activities that um that look like that go beyond that that are where you're more entangled uh with the Union you may be in a position where you have to recuse yourself from a series of votes from a period of at least one year or if you're sufficiently entangled longer than that so I don't I don't know that it applies here or that appes to any of you um but it was some new information that came out that we thought was worthwhile um to put in if you encounter any such situations let's deal with it on a caseby Case basis since it's not a clear-cut yes or no answer it's more like what is your degree of entanglement and does it um improperly impact um your duties as a board member here is uh when it comes to conflicts of interest just here a quick summarizing there are a whole bunch of Commissioners um decisions and advisory opinions on when you can and cannot be involved in negotiations when you can and cannot be involved in evaluating or selecting or taking any action with respect to the superintendent they are convoluted and complicated so I want to say maybe two years ago maybe longer than that maybe four years ago the SEC took an opportunity to actually summarize its own confusion and put it all in a chart that is easily readable for everyone I'm not going to go through the chart I think it's self-explanatory um but if you have um any relatives or relationships with people who are in the Union uh whether it's locally here in oton or Statewide in other um in other teachers associations in other school districts um or whether strike that if you have any connection at all to people employed in unions consult the charts or consult me and let's determine whether or not you're conflicted from negotiations or conflicted from um getting yourself involved in the superintendent evaluation the next um couple of slides or this slide in particular gets into what it is a definition of an immediate family member versus relative um you can read this the the the definition of relative is pretty broad um it encompasses a lot of people if it does not get covered by the definition of relative uh in in the regulations govering ethics it is probably covered as an other in the statutory definition around conflicts so again I'm not going to read you statute but something for you to be aware of is that if you're not covered if your person is not covered in one definition they're probably covered by the other couple of quick points um this goes back to the Chart um it's not something I'm gonna um read to you specifically if you have a relative who was employed by the district and a member of the local union you cannot be invol in any aspect of negotiations including voting on the contract if you have a family member who is a member of the njaa or the Statewide Union or the local in another District you can not participate in negotiations but after salary guides are settled and after the mo MOA is signed you can vote on the contract again not something I think we're going to I don't know that it necessarily impacts anyone here but it's just a reminder it's an important piece of Ethics um next we get into nepotism and employing um family members so here's the rule of if you get elected to the board and your relative is already an employee you're fine though you may have conflicts and you need to recuse yourself from certain votes if you're elected to the board and you have a family member who wants to apply for an open position you have to they either cannot apply or you have to resign from the board if you resign from the board and they get hired you can always run again and get back on and you'll be fine again but um the rule of thumb is if they are here first you are okay if you are here first you need to resign before they can be hired that's the easiest way to summarize it volunteering and community events um again um a couple of ways uh to summarize this the school ethics commission knows that you are Community representatives and volunteers that you are expected to be active in your communities the question is when does your volunteerism interv with your duties as a board member um and there's rather than go through all of this because I can see everybody is so excited about my presentation rather than go all of this let me summarize it this way you can never be in a position where you are giving directives or orders to a school district employee and you can never be in a position where you are taking orders from a school district employee so the general just is if it is a passive activity reading in a classroom a Home Room parent um chaperoning a field trip coordinating field day um those you know being active on the PTA um fundraising um even inside the school so long as you are not giving or taking orders you are fine you can continue to do all of those things but if you want to be the head of a committee that is telling the principal I need this room and that room or directing employees can you you know have a cash box here an account for the kids there now you're in a position of orders and taking orders that conflicts with your duties as a board member you cannot do it um so couple of points on this slide avoid roles that give you an active presence in the district increase your likelihood of developing relationships with staff that impact your duties subject board member to direct supervision or call the board member to blur the lines of personal and social interaction with your Board responsibility um and these are just some examples of the passive activities I was already talking about things that you can absolutely do um without problem is uh we have a couple of cases about um fundraising the um in this case this is actually a new one from 2024 you did not see this last year there was a board member who had some sort of clothing apparel company uh and frequently engaged in fundraisers for the district with uh contact with the principal um telling them to send out emails telling them what to do it was too entwined and too entangled while they could do it as a private Community member once they became a member of the board they could no longer engage um because that was bluring the lines uh the penalty there was a reprimand and then a new advisory opinion came out um it was a couple of board members who co-owned an ice cream shop who wanted to know if they could engage fundraisers on behalf of the school that would involve School staff and community and Personnel uh and the school ethics commission said no you can no longer do that um however if you wanted to say hire some local kids you can do that so long as you were not showing them special treatment you were treating them just as you would any other employee or any other school district member board members and social media I know one of your favorite topics so I'm gonna remind you you might it's not in this year's presentation but you might remember last year I talked about the case where the uh ethics School ethics commission came out with an opinion that said that you you may not have to put a disclaimer on your social media if it is patently obvious you are not speaking in your role as a board member and I will say now what I said then which is I think that is a dumb decision why would you as a board member ever put yourself in the position of having to question what a reasonable person would interpret your statement to be safe when you post on social media regarding anything to do with policy or schools or anything else always put in a disclaimer I am speaking in my role as a private citizen not in my capacity as a board member even if you think it's blatantly obvious that you are speaking as a private citizen um because I never want to see you in that position having to defend your statements or defend yourself um for for making statements on social media that somebody decided to question yes yeah you can post I'm sorry I you can certainly repost things that the superintendent puts out so if the if Administration put something on Facebook or put something out on X or put something out on Instagram um though I don't know why you would Instagram School closer the um you can certainly repost that and that is fine I think this is more about Tak positions on policies and and statements like that right sharing information advising um advising the community I was at the board meeting today and here is what the board discussed that's one thing here is a policy that we voted on that is one thing here is a policy that we voted on that I think is a really bad idea right there's there's the difference you're speaking as a private citizen you're not speaking necessarily in C does that make sense yeah yeah that that is my default position my default position is don't don't put yourself in the gray area don't put yourself in a position where you are being questioned so my default is the conservative path that being said there are times where you can make statements and you don't have to put those disclaimers um it's a caseby casee basis I don't know that I would want to come up with a general rule um I'd rather speak about it in speak about the specific details but suffice it to say that if you're going to be out there um you know commenting on a policy or commenting on something happening in the community or you want to comment on what the mayor is doing or when we had the questions or issues around um the father daughter dance when that issue came up if you if you wanted to post things you have to be clear that you're taking that position you're not speaking you're not putting forth a board position you're speaking as a private citizen right yes sir here are some links I think you're okay to just push out the links yeah you're not taking a position you're not you're not taking a position you brought it up so I'm gonna go there father dance that was not a scho spity that activity spor in the community can I then speak about it as a community member yes you can speak about it as a community member but it was a subject that was discussed uh in a public forum in the in the public session of the board me so the board had some discussion on it you just have to be clear you're not speaking as a board member right you were speaking as a private citizen when you post in those forums in the same way that um if you were even if there had not been board discussion on it you are known as a board member in the community you say I take issue with this um for whatever reason and you list your reasons you would I I think you would want to be clear in that instance that you speaking as a private citizen you're not making a representation of the board on anything on things like that yes things like that so pushing out so again pushing out a couple of links P pushing out a couple of links on um on social media is one thing right taking a position on a charged issue local or national taking a position a politically charged issue something where a board member May conceivably have their own private position you would want to be clear that you are speaking as a private citizen and not as a member of the board I can't give you a laundry list I can't give you a bright line rule I wish I could um but I think it it's again I think it was what that opinion is getting to which is when it is latly obvious that you are speaking as a private citizen the disclaimer may not be necessary my advice is put in a disclaimer anyway because you lose Nothing by that's exactly the RO of counil that's exactly what I she's as a rule of thumb there are three people who are authorized to call me directly board president superintendent VA everybody else has to go through one of them for there's actually um well let me get back to what is on the slide and let me see if that helps but so here's um so this is the rule so this is the rule a board member social media usage May violate the ACT where a reasonable member of the public could Perce board member is speaking in their official capacity right that is a lot of when how do you judge what a reasonable person would be thinking right why do you want to be in the position of saying a reasonable person would never think I'm speaking as a board member if I do X Y and Z but I am speaking as a board member if I do a b and c that the great area I'm trying to help you avoid with with my conservative recommendation okay um Thea the next case down I think is an obvious one um this was Cent this was actually in last year's presentation this case where a board member and the the bullet point I have here doesn't do justice to the case you may recall this is where someone had posted on Facebook that the superintendent was terrorist and didn't have the best interest of kids in mind etc etc and a board member actually reposted that on their link right I don't know who did the original post but the board member did the repost board member got censored uh saying it was an intentionally confrontational act and and this is the key this is why you always have to do the disclaimers board members and you've probably heard this at school boards board members are presumed to have more knowledge than the average citizen people assume you know things that other people don't know that you have access to Insight information and quite frankly you're if you haven't already you're going to encounter that in your day-to-day board service people will call you up and say well what is the real story on this can you tell me what's really happening there I don't understand why this action is taken there is there is sort of an acknowledgement that you have access to information so that when you make certain statements on social media like calling the superintendent a terrorist reasonable people can reasonably conclude you had access to information to justify calling this person a terrorist and that is clearly a violation of the act all right did I just make social media more confusing rather than more clear is what your position you're solic I app it's the safe it's the safe conservative roots that is my goal to keep you safe I'm not worried about you being reasonable I'm worried about the general public being reasonable public isn't going to be judging us true but they're the ones bringing the charges okay before I get in more trouble with um more on social media um this was a six month suspense actually this actually gets Miss's comment about how employee protection seem to be greater uh than child protection a board member violated the act by using social media to attack anlo saying that the employee was unqualified received her job VI nepotism and that she was a greedy bastard who did not put children first the penalty here was a six-month suspension um and there were multiple violations number one you don't talk about employees in public number two you don't go on social media and make statements in Your Capacity as a board member okay so let's move on to or let's wrap up with a relatively easy topic which is the open public meetings act the general rule all board action must be taken in public you cannot take a de make a decision in private there is one exception to that rule the only exception to that rule is 10e charges against the teacher tenure charges against the teacher are taken in executive session all votes all other board um decision making must happen in public session there are things you can talk about in executive session and executive session only there are the eight exceptions that start on this slide and continue to the next slide things which are confidential by law things that impair your ability to receive funds from government things which war constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy anything related to do with Collective bargain NE iations um matters involving real estate your safety plans and how um your your preventative safety measures um matters related to pending or anticipated litigation matters within attorney clent privilege matters um rela to hiring firing and other terms of employment unless the employee requests to be in public I mentioned that earlier and finally um deliberations of a public body occurring public in which may result in civil penalties or the suspension or loss of license um which is not really you guys as more mun uh focused on municipalities when you are in executive session all of your discussion must fit into one of these buckets and you will notice in executive session unless you are asking me for advice on something I don't I don't really have much of a role except literally to sit there and listen to you talk and to let you know we are venturing out of executive session territory right do which I do which I have before and I will continue to do and how it usually happens is you're dealing with a confidential matter um maybe it's an employee discipline issue maybe it's a student discipline issue and you start talking about this very specific confidential matter that is properly in executive session and it bleeds into a larger policy discussion about how to solve the underlying problem those are fabulous conversations that I do not want to stop or sty or stifle in any way shape or form but they are conversations that you must have in public and that my friends is ethics in a nutshell oh violations of opna um just a reminder that um your uh responsibility to keep things confidential means confidential from everyone your wife your husband your partner your um neighbor your everyone your coworker your kids your dog everyone nobody gets access to the information in executive session and that obligation continues after board service has ended in perpetuity yes you must still hold them in confidence oh we do that offline um I don't the political signs is it's uh specifically fellow oh okay that is any other questions on thank you very much for your unwavering attention I appreciate all the feedback [Applause] all right um moving on to governance I have a motion for items one and two under governance any discussion your governance questions or comments okay roll call please Dad Sarah kulin yes Allison lipsky yes Jonathan Maxon yes and Robinson yes Bill Wilson Steven Wilson yes Allison Cox yes Danielle D Franchesco Amy Davis yes motion's passed thank you all right there is no business under operations education or human resources um public participation is there anyone in the public that wishes to make a comment all right seeing none we will close that um all right orders of business then remember the retreat we scheduled for January 29th at 5:30 p.m. dinner will be provided committee assignments will be forthcoming please make sure that you get those turned back in again and when did you want them uh received by just so I I mean Friday would be fantastic friday got it yeah okay I'll say Friday I really think it take that yeah I already have it set up have to send it out um just take note of when you are signed up for your particular focus group with Dr Oswald and then the um I'll send out um uh chart to sign up for the particular Community forums board self- evaluation yes got I'm on that okay yes are we going to do it at the retreat or another time oh that's an interesting question I think the retreat yeah something we don't vote on it correct you don't vote on it's simply for self Improvement and I think that would be a great place for it it is so people could come well right but we don't we advertise normally we advertise that has no action taken so just as long as we don't vote on it that would be fine would you like to chair it watch this would you like to chare it I think that would be excellent she seemed very enthusiastic yeah yeah but you could you're a teacher yeah you do you're totally qualified all right anything else picture next yes the picture is next board meeting we're supposed to be here at six six be here atess impress pictures and got it yeah if anybody needs a head shot it's individual head shot if you want to redo your head shot if you want to redo your head shot we in the samee I not close to aut color so you go ahead I'll right all right so the next meeting is Wednesday January 15th that is a regular meeting and now may I have a motion to adjourn this meeting uh all in favor any opposed all right thank you very much and we welcome to miss conratulations