the New Jersey Public's meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the beler board of education has
caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted With The Star Ledger and The Express Times and submitted to the town clerk of the town of beler on January 15 2025 the meeting will be live streamed
at www.bad sd.org um before we stand for the flag slute if we at the end of flag the flag slute can stay standing for a moment of silence for um Don Chanel are our colleague that passed away last week um and everybody
could take a moment and just think of their favorite memory of dawn because I think that's how she would want it um and then we'll go on with the rest of the agenda okay flag salute please I alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic
for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for all thank you everyone the mission of the beler school district is to celebrate our past and Empower our future while focusing on the four cornerstones of our district
tradition Excellence academics and Community we strive to build confidence and promote collaboration we encourage an equal partnership with our students and staff as well as its community members we Empower everyone to develop the best version of themselves the beler
school district is committed to shaping students into Global Citizens who take Initiative for their success and contribute to the continued Excellence of the district our students are leaders in the decision-making process of their education and will be prepared to excel
in the 21st century Society roll call please Mr Blum Mrs sbone here Dr zith here Mrs Duckworth here Mr Scott here m m Stefan
here W here Mrs wner here Mr chiarelli Mrs Gardella here mrsam here we are gonna start tonight with our uh sixth grade students Mr Reid is here want to talk a little about what we have tonight Mr
Reid okay thank you now they've been working with stem the robots this year in stem learning coding and um they wanted to demonstrate them and show you how they work and then oh I got the idea well why don't we have the band play and they we decided to do a
patriotic theme so they're going to play the star spangle banner and that's pretty much it okay uh please rise if you're able to and the band will play the star spangle Banner d [Music]
[Music] PA [Music]
[Applause] PA [Music] [Music]
[Applause] great job by our students that was excellent thank you Mr re for coming in you guys make us proud very patriotic way to start our meeting uh next up on our list for tonight is we are going to
honor our uh educators of the year for beler high school and beler Elementary School um unfortunately only two could be with us tonight uh due to some scheduling conflicts but um we're going to honor all four while while we're here so we're going to start out with Miss
Lori endik come on up Miss endik okay Miss indik Miss endik is a dedicated preschool teacher at beler elementary school she inspires young minds with her creativity patience and passion for early childhood education she creates a nurturing environment
where every child feels valued and supported laying a strong foundation for lifelong learning through playb bed in Hands-On activities she Fosters curiosity exploration and a love for learning Missi goes above and beyond by partnering with families ensuring they feel involved and support in their
child's educational Journey her dedication is evident in the confidence skills and enthusiasm her students develop under her care as a valued member of the beler Elementary School Miss endai contributes to the school Community by mentoring colleagues and sharing Innovative teaching practices
she is a shining example of excellence and education and is truly deserving of recognition as teacher of the year congratulations congratulations so much okay also here tonight is Mr Eric
cook Mr Cook's dedication and organizational skills make him an exe exemplary recipient of the service professional of the Year award as a technology assistant he goes above and beyond to support staff with tools and techniques that enhance productivity and collaboration known for his
well-organized approach to attention to detail Mr cook ensures that technical challenges are resolve efficiently and effectively his passion for technology is M matched by his commitment to fostering a supportive environment where Staff feel confident and capable in a
rapidly evolving digital landscape through his innovative solutions and personalized guidance he consistantly demonstrates patience expertise and a genuine desire to see others succeed Mr Cooks unwaver in dedication makes him an invaluable resource and a true leader within the school Community Mr Eric
cook thank you sir appreciate that now we have two um two staff members who cannot be with us tonight but we need to recognize them nonetheless for their dedication to the beler school district first is Miss Mary Cassidy Miss Cass Mrs Cassidy beler High
School teacher of the year is a dedicated special education teacher whose passion empathy and commitment transform lives daily with unwavering patience and Innovative Tech teaching me teaching methods she creates a supportive environment where every student feels valued and capable of
achieving success her ability to adapt to diverse learning needs inspires confidence and fosters growth in her students Beyond academics Mrs Cassity serves as an advocate encouraging inclusive inclusivity and kindness within the school Community her impact extends beyond the classroom as she
continually collaborates with families and colleagues to ensure the best outcome for her students beler High School is Fort to have such an exceptional educator shaping the future of its students Mary Cassidy and finally also can be with us tonight is Mrs Don Andrews Mrs Andrews
has been named the service professional of the year at beler elementary school and it's a well-deserved honor as a dedicated parent professional she consistently goes above and beyond to support both students and staff her patience kindness and unwavering commitment to fostering a positive learning environment make her an
invaluable member of the school Community Mrs Andrews excels in providing individualized support to students helping them achieve their goals and grow academically and socially her collaborative spirit and ability to adapt the meet to adapt to meet the needs of every child reflect her passion
for Education and Care for others whether assisting in classrooms offering encouragement or building meaningful connections Mrs Andrews embodies the qualities of an exceptional service professional our contributions have a lasting impact on the students and staff of Bel Bel Elementary and this
recognition highlights her dedication and heart congratulations Miss Andrews so can we just have another round of applause for our four outstanding Educators this year and on behalf of the board I thank you for your contributions to the district and all you do every day to
make our kids feel wanted and learn great things thank you [Applause] thank you very much all right we are on to our audit presentation good evening move this up a little
bit not good okay um I put a presentation in front of all of you um if you don't have one Shelley has some extras um my name is Anthony ardido I'm the auditor for the school district partner with our dto and Company and I'll go over this presentation it's very
high level Finance kind of give you an idea where the school is sitting as of last school year fiscal 24 June 30th 2024 and as you have any questions you know just hop on in and you raise your hand I'll take take questions as you go
uh um this first slide here is a pie chart of your governmental fund expenditures now your governmental fund is not only what you base your budget around your tax levy all your expenditures it's also your special Revenue fund which is all of your grants
all your title spending Ida all those covid grants are spent through special Revenue fund and if you had a uh a Debt Service fund that would be in there and capital projects fund would be in there also so if we take a look at this off to the
left we see instruction $5.2 million of your total government P that's teachers salaries and direct classroom supplies doesn't include benefits um if we go up uh clockwise we see a little bit of
tuition for private schools benefits the next piece of pie there almost 2.2 million uh 1.7 million of that is health insurance uh the rest is social security match employer taxes the pur payment
that you make for your Pur um employees for their pension unemployment and any kind of other employee benefits tuition reimbursements things of that nature how does that differ on on behalf benefits which is a caddy
corner to that down at about four or five o'cl on behalf is those benefits that the state of New Jersey pays for your district for the teachers pension and for the teachers postretirement health plan they pay that money it's not in your budget but in governmental
accounting we have to show it both as an expenditure here and as a revenue on on the revenue side so both the same exact dollar amounts they wash each other out they don't affect your fund balance at all uh support at the very top that's a
a lot of different things that support your uh instructional Area Health Services related Services extra services you know Improvement of instruction uh library media all of that is uh in support in the support function next to
that at 1:00 General and admin uh 1.4 million a little bit more than 1.4 that's not only the board of Ved office it's also principls all the secretarial staff all of your professionals your legal your accounting uh your it all
your it costs are all in that General and admin uh slice a pie there you're doing a great job of containing that that the the average percentage for a school year size in the state of New Jersey is about 88.1% so you do a good job of containing those admin
costs uh through shared services and whatever else uh in order to you know get them manageable uh next to that is plant maintenance a little over a million everything to run all your buildings utilities custodial anything of that
nature uh Transportation you don't have much transportation in this District that's all your busing the busing that you do have um with contracted services on behalf benefits we went over that a few minutes ago and down at the very bottom special Revenue a little bit over
2 million that's all your title program spending all your idea which is mostly special education ARP was the big spender last year ARP American Rescue plan the Sesser three and the three troughs of uh federal government
stimulus now that's over with September 30th 2024 no more ARP no more covid stuff anymore I love it as an auditor you guys probably don't because you've been spending that money over the last uh you know three four years uh that
also includes your uh preschool education Aid that you get from the state uh as well as those federal grants um and it includes student Student Activity um uh uh expenditures which were 212,000 last year preschool education was
569 so your federal spending is about 1 1.2 million last year little bit of Charter School very little bit of capital outlay but that's your total expenditure pitcher for fiscal 24 uh we take a look at the next slide
here now these are expend oh go ahead back to the prior chart where do you think have access um I don't I don't think you have accesses although I'm not intimate with your budget uh process as you go through
but at the end here we'll talk about your Surplus and where where it sits um you know you could quickly tell you're you have excess as if you're generating a lot of excess Surplus and I'll I'll go into that a little bit um
this chart here is expenditures also but we take out of here those on behalf benefits we talked about because those are fake um they don't affect your budget we take out capital projects because they could drastically differ from year to year um and so these are
your true operating costs so we start in 2020 at $ 11.8 million um and that blue line there with the blue squares is your 2020 expenditures adjust Ed for inflation so you could see that ramp up in 2022 was
like 7.7% inflation then the next year was 4.5 this year they said it was 2.9 that'll be revised at some point down the road also but there's mainly a 20% increase in $
2020 to 2024 um in that blue line uh the black line is your actual expenditure run rate so you could see your below the inflation level in fact the last two
years your um expenditures increased um mainly because of that covid spending um and you're getting more and more preschool education money to spend also but you're still even at 13 million in change in
2024 you're only at a 2.5% compounded annual inflation rate from 2020 you're doing a great job in this inflationary uh environment that we're all in um and keeping the school budget
low uh that red line is your 2020 costs per pupil adjusted for inflation and then multiplied by the number of pupil so you could see the decrease from 23 to 24 um that's because you went from 604
students down to 577 that's just a a kind of like another indicator to look look at your P per pup cost um yeah I mean in this inflationary period it's been about a 20% increase
from $220 to now you're at two 20% you're at two and a half 2 and a half% compounded annual growth rate so that's kind of unheard of so you're doing an excellent job and trying to keep that budget in
line uh next page page three are all of your revenues for the last five years so it's kind of a busy chart there uh but the biggest revenue is your tuition that you charge to
your uh member school districts Harmony white and hope um in 2024 that was 4.2 million a little in a little bit over 42 um State a is closely behind that um
3.1 but of course the tax levy overtakes state aid at uh 4.1 million and you can see your state aid which is that black line kind of in the middle going you know 3.3 in 2020 to 3.1 million now as
you know state aid has constantly been cut um I think this past year was the last year of the of the program uh and they just don't like rural schools state of New Jersey does not like Warren
County I don't think or hunon County or Sussex County um because your state AIDS going down now that state Aid's going down but that but your preschool education Aid is also in there so that keeps going up so you're losing out on the other other side your Equalization
Aid your transport or not Transportation uh you know all those different AIDs that you used to get are have dwindled um even with all that inflation we talked about um down at the very bottom
we have uh federal federal revenue again um going from 513 last year to a million 272 and most of that was purchase orders that uh were carried over from that um SBB grants that you got um SBB ver for
the efficiency and uh the project you did on Oxford Street 807 and what was the other one 809 Oxford Street um there's two big projects it appears like that was money coming from the state but
it wasn't it's actually a Federal grant uh coming in at the very bottom we have local Revenue hardly anything most of that is you know you're starting to earn interest on your bank accounts now you're starting to generate some Revenue
there uh next page is your excess fund balance excess fund balance is you're only allowed to have unreserved fund balance equal to 2% of your expenditures or $250,000 whichever is
less so that unreserved portion is basically what unreserved means it's not earmarked for anything it's free and clear can be used in your next year's budget um it's different than other reserves that you have fund balance components which we'll get into on the next slide
like capital reserve and maintenance Reserve but your uh maximum Reserve fund balance is in the yellow there for each year um and then 21 and 22 the state increased the maximum to 4% because of covid but now in 23 and 24 it's back
down to 2% uh so your maximum amount in 2024 that you could keep unreserved was 265,000 and change you came in almost at that and you could see you did that the year before um you're keeping close to the
maximum allowed while also being able to utilize about $300,000 of Reserve Surplus for your NE for your following Year's budget you were always kicking in 300 and you always have this 265,000 or whatever the
ex or whatever the maximum is is also in your back pocket so if we look at the next page these are all of your fund balance components so total fund balance is a mil 771 down below there uh at about 6
o'clock 7 o'clock is unreserved fund balance that we just went over that's the 2% number you're allowed 264,000 you got that uh right above that is maintenance Reserve 6 52,000 that you utilize as a revenue
source for your budget every year but you also put back into it fund it again every year if you remember in June you do a a resolution that says if there's any excess revenues or any unspent Appropriations we could plow that money
back into our maintenance Reserve or our capital reserve um basically those two items there uh so you do that maintenance Reserve last year and fiscal 24 you Ed 225,000 of it to fund your budget um but
then you add it back at the end of June 275,000 so you're a net pickup of 50,000 there uh this year encumbrances at the top it's a fancy word for governmental purchase orders that are just open at the end of June Services haven't been
rendered um Goods haven't been shipped or received but you need to keep that money open and res reserved for come July and September when those orders start to get filled uh next to that is reserved for use in the fiscal 25 budget so again
this is the end of fiscal 24 but you have to have the 300 Grand set aside and ready to start being used July 1st of 2024 which is fiscal 25 so that's always reserved 300,000 and down below capital reserve you have 468,000 you don't
really touch that much um over the last few years but that's another uh Reserve that's available for your Capital needs any questions I have to say that the
district is in good very good Financial uh condition we completed the audit we usually do it over The Late summer um and the audit's been issued for months now but I got sick last month so now here I'm finally here uh um the audit
went very well and Shelley does an excellent job um and getting everything ready for us and having everything prepared uh she keeps Immaculate set of books um I do have to say and uh there are no audit recommendations or
administrative findings this year so congratulations anything else for me recommend okay thank you very much okay thank you very much have a good evening you too thanks all right that brings us to committee reports we had
curriculum finance and our admin activities the light all right we can start with uh curriculum so um we have an update on Renaissance so they did their second
assessment and the k through eight participation did go up the data wall is providing uh data showing which kids have participated um and they have have been extending the the timeline a bit this session so that they could get a higher
participation the third assessments for ELA and math are going to be held in the classroom to hope to get a higher uh full 100% participation this time around uh the climate survey was sent out and the response rate was pretty high but
the survey is still open so we're hoping to get um a higher percentage mckenny is sending out reminders um we will be sending sending out a second survey towards the end of the year we're going to reward some of the questioning based on some feedback we got from parents and
students on the 1 um and then see if there's been any Improvement since this first survey um the scheduling for the high school and the sending District eighth graders will be beginning it has not
already I think the first one was 21st they went uh Dr McKinny went to the sending districts on the 21st and then the end of March beginning of April they'll start begin scheduling for grades six to
12 after school activities have started for 4 through eight grades um the stem class here on that um and the teachers did have
a PD day where they did some additional Renaissance training especially for the Middle School teachers which they had requested that went really really well um and Mr kba did an AI presentation and Miss McHugh did a
presentation on PhD and so overall I think they also had a lot of fun with some team um we're still following up and doing some work around the tech audit and um yeah I think think that is pretty
much anything does anybody have any questions I I just wanted to note that I did send an email to the policy Committee just about um questions around the guidance policy or guidance services and then just also some questions about our testing scores which I think is
rolled into our district CSA goals which we'll have an update about soon but just wondering where we're at I think particularly around I think English and science um so I know you guys have that email and
that I responded and thank you I just had a quick question on the policy too is that are we talking policy was that on there this is from the notes yeah the policy second reading is per okay then
I'll wait on that but then I did have a quick question on um the survey so I did take the survey but I found as a parent it was a little difficult ult to answer quite a few questions only because we're not in the school you know every day so I didn't know who would develop that but
you know I'll look forward to the updates and the addition we um we we take took that from the state of New Jersey um keep in mind that that survey was specific for our chronic absen ISM and and the reporting that we have to do back to the state um so the state recommended to any school district
that's with tagged as chronically absent to use that um survey now with the feedback we've got now we know to tailor it a little bit differently the next time through okay thank you um just to uh tag along to that do we know if we'll get um a summary of the survey results
we will we just keep we just kept it open a little bit longer to hopefully get some more responses I know the email that came with that too did say about parents talk to your children about their feedback on it too to kind of help because that you know that is what do you see what do you
see but the inside we don't see every day so yeah and so far we do have I mean it's not closed yet but would the it have the number we did get a good feedback so the
middle and high school par parents was 58 surveys returned we had 146 students turn it and 48 parents K through
five okay any other questions on that no all right then on to committee reports for finance and operation okay so uh for finance and operations the playground Grant we
submitted um to the dep Department of Community Affairs on January 31st and we're hoping to see an approval for that Grant we are requesting just um the majority of those um requested funds
to be put towards the playground with some just additional upgrades and then U we'll hear about that I think in sometime in the spring depending uh if we if we meet that eligibility criteria and then um we applied for oh
our tuition meeting there was a tuition meeting with uh leaders across the uh districts of White Hope Harmony badier and we settled on a 196 per student tuition
adjustment and then uh we're still waiting for a final analysis within the budget for sports um cost and the child study team and additional services that are provided to the school um hope and
white are going to work together on developing their own child study team and then badier and Harmony are going to partner together to um continue to share services for the child study team and then we're very close with
jcpnl um for the grant for the boiler updates and and the lighting so um we're going to work to pull from capital reserve to supplement for some of those costs because um there's virtually I think very little to no interest and it's really a a a giant steal for the
district um from a cost perspective and then we continue to work with Administration to balance the budget and there's various phases of balancing and we're probably like on the fifth out of 10 phases so it's a work in progress but shelle's got
it any questions on any of that all right and administration Student Activity community relations okay so we had a meeting and Mr carabinas is working with St Luke's to enhance the partnership that we have to
include some additional Services specifically focusing on Mental Health which I'm super excited about the academic coaching he gave us an update on which is a pretty successful program which which has been utilized with um quite a few of the students throughout
the the winter sports programs that are um finding success with their with their coaches and getting back on track as far as and things of that nature without really having any penalization without having to continue in their Sports um update on some of the Fall I'm
sorry on the winter sports the boy soccer this is fall sorry um boys fall for next year we're looking toward some um kind of re focusing on the program and taking a look into some um different
coaching Styles things like that we're going to do a co-op with Warren Hills for girls tennis team which is pretty cool um still looking for an assistant coach although I saw something on the agenda here for track and spring so that's GNA that looks like that's taken care
of um super excited for the girls cheerleading team which I guess um did really well in one in their division down in Florida and of course everybody heard the sirens yesterday is for the bowling so when we met the bowling team hadn't won their state so big congratulations out to them
um Also let's see the wrestling still going on I believe boys basketball completed their season and we're taking a look into the spring Sports we're also getting the field ready um we hired a company that's going to come out and do some air rating and getting the fields up and and
running so they're ready for the spring Sports the Student Activities is the BHS spring musical will be on 37 and volleyball tournament this is going to be the class of 28 so it's going to be including I think with the
freshman team I have to double check on that the student talent show is going to be for the sixth graders that's from 12:45 to 220 on 411 and we're going to talk too about maybe doing a talent show in the high school also I think beler used to do one we might try to bring
that back um travel Club trip to Greece 418 to 426 and the concert on 51 is also going to be Allstar band at Warren Hills um and that was pretty much it we we talked about a little bit
more for the community relations and we're going to try to get a policy enforced and start talking about a little more um meat behind that policy as well any questions on that girls basketball I'm assuming just maybe
clinch the first round of their states yes at the at the time they were close almost yeah when we met they were in the 60s so I don't know if that's still yeah yeah but then their second round would be Saturday and so I do have a question about the fields go for the
field for the spring will be planning or thinking about doing something for the fall sport field well I will inquire we've only talked about the spring so far but yeah I'll definitely check on that now might be the time to oh maybe just a reminder on those
Porter Johns out there for those uh spring Sports and the schedule on that and what company we're going to continue with thanks any other questions on any of that oh real quick I did want to mention we are starting to
maybe get feelers out don't know where this is going to go but we did talk about Press Box which I know has always been a hot topic for the football team so not it's not um it's still in everybody's mind any other questions on
that okay so everybody should have a me uh list of the next few committee meetings that we might have to change a little bit because of some of the county meetings and things that are going on getting towards the springtime so we will work on that as we go as soon as
everybody gets updated and we'll try and figure that all out best we can um if there's anything for any of the Committees that you guys want want discussed in a committee that you're not on just um send an email with those questions or those concerns to Mr kruba
and he'll make sure that they get on the agendas and if it's something that comes up and the meeting's coming up this week just again let them know and we can put that out there so that we get it talked about before our next meeting in case we need to deal with
something all right um and we are going to move up our student representative report and we're going to let Andy get that done thank you okay um the beler drama club will present Joseph in the technical dreambow on Friday March 7th
at 700 p.m. and Saturday March 8th at 1: and 7 p.m. tickets are available on the school's website is and everyone is encouraged to attend additionally three seniors participated in an all senior concer at Philipsburg High School alongside other schools the FFA uh
celebrated National FFA week last week on Tuesday we wore Orange in honor of Mrs sesler Wednesday was Barnyard day members brought animals to show to students and teach them um it was kids from K to senior year um last Friday was
bring your tractor to school day uh the week was overall an a success and everyone had a lot of fun um on Friday the Leo's club and NHS are going to the Mir V additionally Mir V is having a scone sale on March 12th um all proceeds
will be going to the to Project Graduation the National Honor Society is also having a Miller Keystone blood drive on March 5th if you are interested or in donating blood or purchasing scones please let me know thank you thank you
Andy quick question where is the blood drive is here yep and there's um QR codes around the school if you need one just thank you no okay so we are on to our interview of
our board candidate Colleen white good evening hello good evening you want to go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself I obtained my bachelor's degree in history pre-law from Caldwell College I went on to get my substance awareness
certification from Jersey City State I then went on to get my Master's in counseling with a concentration in substance abuse from cane University after graduating from Kane I went back and did post-graduate work where I obtained my school counselor
certification and my director of School counseling certification I've worked in education for over 25 years I worked in a Traditional School District I've worked in a school a public school run by a private company and I'm currently
working in an Adda District school for special education students run by a health care facility so I have a varied experience in education and have spent many years in education I moved to badier in
2017 at the time I was working in the public school run by a private Corporation I was the only counselor in a school for 200 students so at the time I had the entire case load I did testing curriculum I did
Hib Student Assistance 504 scheduling college applications I also took on the student council in the National Honor Society so when I was first in badier I didn't have the free time to devote to
any Outside Agency because I was bringing work home with me in 2023 when I moved to my current position I found that I had much more time on my hands and I wanted to get involved in my community and make that connection and I figured the best way to do it was in
education so the seat on the board of education would allow me to give back to my community in a field I'm very familiar with wonderful any questions question I ask every board candidate do you have any immediately immediate
family members that are part of the uh njaa no I have nobody in the school district I'm not related to anybody who lives in badier anybody have any other questions do anyone particular interest
in the board specifically like um that you'd be interested like Finance policies policies because I've had work writing policies I'm currently writing policies because I work for a Health Care Agency I work for a school out of
healthcare it's that Gray Line of what's Health Care versus what's education so it's getting familiar with the doe policies and procedures and making sure that they're up todate and beneficial to the students
great anybody else have any other questions no okay okay well thank you very much and we will discuss this and then um we'll get back to you this evening thank you yep
you okay okay I think we won I hope that was us all right so I have a board statement want me to read this read after Okay so we're going to look for a
motion to go into executive session for personnel and board candidate discussion motion second all in favor I I any knows any abstentions okay we're going to any
discussion held by the board which need not remain confidential will be made public as soon as practicable minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists the board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the closed session
in approximately half hour half hour okay we staying here yeah okay we are going to stay here if you guys can all please step out thank you
you action okay going to reopen the meeting with I need a motion to appoint Colleen white to the Board of Education motion second all in uh we're going to do roll call shall we please
yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes welcome to the Board of Education collie
[Applause] that [Music] allow I Colleen white do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I
will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the government's established in the United States in this state under the authority of the people so help me God I coling white do SW solemnly swear 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 1941 nor disqualified due to 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 according to the best of my ability so help me God thank you welcome okay before we do public
participation I have um a statement from the board to read we would like to address recent concerns regarding a district employee some of you may have learned of the arrest of one of our teachers AIDS we want to assure our parents students staff and the entire
School community that the Safety and Security of our students is the Bo Board of education's highest priority the employee was promptly placed on leave and prohibited from entering School premises or having contact with students or staff an active
Criminal investig ation is ongoing and we are cooperating fully with law enforcement we trust the judicial system process will address this matter appropriately and promptly in the meantime the board of education is taking additional action to address the
situation since this is a pending personnel and student matter we are a to provide any further information at this time now I'd like to open public participation um it's our first one it's on any agenda
items for this evening yeah it is on here you're an agenda item yes I didn't realize it was an agenda it um my name is Heather Wick I'm the grant chair for the beler Education Foundation um I just wanted to let everyone know that this past well for this current
school year um we granted four uh teacher whist list grants uh we did stem bins for first grade we did a photography um Expo with the multiple disabilities class we provided the robots for the elementary school and
um in just two weeks time the middle schoolers will be doing a Pi Day um so those were the grants that we had for this current school year I've uh just sent all of the information to Administration for grants for next school year we'll be granting grants of
$500 obviously the robots Grant was much more than that um so if there's a a grant request like that that would cover a wide range of students that one's covering the entire Elementary School um we would be um okay with that
um my husband Jeff wedlick is also here he is the president of the Education Foundation he just like to address a few issues um we have lots of parents here tonight and I know there's parents watching um we need your help we know that you all have concerns it's why you come to Schoolboard meetings it's why
you voice your opinions online um I am on those Facebook groups and seeing what you're posting this is a way you can effectively change things for your students here in these two buildings um giving teachers what they need to make your children's education better is
helping the situation um so taking an active role in that is super important uh the new Grants open March 1st so is Heather said we started the Education Foundation there was a pretty good turnout for first meeting when it was
organized um since then participation has been sparse to say the least I mean we've had some help with some of the small fundrais we done like roadside cleanups I Mr CER beus has come out a couple times and help us some of the other staff has um but really we're
having meetings and there's four people we don't even have all of our board seats filled so and we've come to back to school nights um as once again Mr carabinas has put it out there to the elementary school and we're really not
getting any traction so unless we start to get people that want to be involved and help out so that we can try and increase our fundraising uh do something large once a year where we can have a decent amount of money um you know
unfortunately this could be possibly the last year for these grants so really you know as he said you know we're doing the grants this year we have money to fund multiple grants if we get them um but after that it's highly
possible that unless we get uh Community or parent involvement to help out that you know the Education Foundation will at least go dormant for a while if not full so thank you thank you
hi good evening my name is Sarah Forte I am here tonight to address a few concerns regarding my non-verbal autistic children what non-verbal means is when they come home they cannot tell me how their day has gone for they cannot speak not even one word so if
they had a bad day I don't know if somebody abused them I don't know if somebody neglected I don't know I Rely solely on the school to protect my children now this Aid that was fired has been my stepson's caregiver in this
school for the past four years it is been brought to my attention that there has been many incidences that were reported from this teacher or this Aid that has done many things and it was not reported or it was reported and nothing was done prior to this all the way back
in September now getting back to this my first concern is the safety of my children getting two from school safely and for pickup and drop off to be safe unfortunately this has been a problem for a while and was reported to
the school daily without any resolution until I received a ticket from the town cop for parking close to the school to access my children because the provided handicapped parking spaces were being blocked by parents picking up their children because these parents were
illegally blocking handicapped spaces this caused myself and other parents with children with disabilities to park in inconvenient spaces to access our children which is unfair how would you like to have a child with a disability and not be able to access the school properly to pick
them up in a safe manner secondly is the safety of our children and whom watches over them it would has been brought to my attention that my disabled children have not been taken care of properly while in the school's
care for example verbal abuse physical abuse and neglect not being able to communicate with their AC devices also my daughter's AC device uh the communication talker it
was taken without this device she cannot communicate her wants or needs which results in exceeded with during the summer program to a lower grade to work with the aid Mr C because he does a better job with
Tristan and can handle him better and keeps him calmer is what we were told not for any other reasons but to just help the aid just do what he was doing
and initially imagine these are your children whom you can not tell you anything on how their day went or if they were mistreated or who hurt them how would you feel being their parent and not knowing what is happening or
going on with your child and to find out this not even from the school but to read it through the paper days later that should have not have happened us parents had a right to know if there is any investigation if an investigation
is put on our children we should know that the second that that investigation has started and what the outcome is there has been multiple investigations on my children against my children that we were very unaware of and it has been brought to our attention now and I don't think that that is correct and it should
be addressed that there should not be secrets between this the staff members or the parents just to protect staff member that is uncalled for also I am requesting any and all documented incidents videos against uh
um against uh Tristan because Tristan was with Phil for four years and I want to know if he has had any harm through the videos thank you thank you
next hi Vicky Davenport again um so this also goes with it I had sent you an email of some screenshots about another Aid uh as far as I'm concerned that goes against Hippa I sign a piece of paper for you guys every year that says you
guys can have Medicaid come in for my kids to get their services so as far as I'm concerned what goes on with my kids should be protected under Hippa now there's a beautiful there was a beautiful art uh parent who of an aid here who had
completely mentioned things I should not have ever been mentioned about my child especially in public if you have a problem with my child you come to me you go to my husband you do not under any circumstances publicly post it on Facebook for the entire town to see I'm
sorry to tell you but that is way inappropriate and then the next school day she actually wore a sweatshirt condoning the mother's business which I'm sorry I'm not one for
dress code but do not have somebody post something like that against my child and then support them at the school I don't need to tell you that I actually felt nauseous to see that because that was the biggest kick in the face I have ever received especially
from a PE person at the school that wasn't shouldn't have been happen I would also like to know what happened that my son was like oil and water and never allowed to be with Mr C because he's now working with Mr P and Mr
Scott which tells me that he's also working with men so clearly my son does not have a problem with men and obviously I'm married to a man so there's never been a problem with men for my son for my son not to be able to work with somebody
that's very unusual for him and I know my kid isn't easy um the other thing I'd like to know have you guys assigned an actual teacher for St yet is it like
that's fine I would just like to know exactly who to go to for my daughter's needs but I don't really think I should have to tell you guys what's appropriate post on Facebook and what's wildly inappropriate especially about a child with special needs my son did not ask to
be special needs so you can't say my kid is disrespectful when he doesn't even know what he's doing um if you can get back to me too about the teacher from is Dawn and then I also have a question I know you guys aren't allowed to answer if we can get an email
excuse me yeah can you tell us who you are oh I'm sorry my name is kimily Wilson my son is in Vader Elementary in the special education class um will there be more screening and training for the AIDS now with the incidents that happened and will you guys be hiring
more because I know with Mr P being taken out of the one class now they're down one person with five students who have their disabilities so how is that going to affect them because just I don't care that people know but he was
supposed to be going with John to PE so now my son has no Aid so how is this going to affect the children that need the AIDS and what training will they be getting now because I mean we sent our kids to school to help
and thank you very much any other public participation no okay correspondence I have one letter um dear board members it is becoming harder to raise money for Connor scholarship fund so the family will no longer fund it we will continue to offer the scholarship at the current level until the funds ran out it has
been a pleasure to see so many F students use the money to further their education if you have any questions please feel free to call very truly yours George babula is that it okay superintendent report please okay um a lot of what I
was going to mention was mentioned between uh the committee meetings and Andy's report but I'll still go through it just want to once again congratulate our teachers of the year um they'll be honored at a lunch in um excuse me in the middle of April uh countywide it's
always a nice honor and I think um as you can see we had some great Representatives uh this year so congratulations again to them um I have to say sadly I was not in town last night when the Bowling Championship parade rolled through because I was at a different meeting meeting but
congratulations to the bowling team um I think a team that started just last year to win a state championship at a group one level um is just unexpected and tremendous and um appreciate Mr Barto for kind of getting it rolling and Mr carabinas for
continuing the support for that team and um it's just a great thing for our our school uh we also have which didn't get mentioned we have three swimmers who made it all the way to the meat of Champions which is taking place um that tomorrow for some reason I have it in my mind tomorrow um I forgot to write down
their names I know Luke Tipton and MADD dur and I forget which beanie it's beanie yes thank you I had it written I was gonna write it down so good luck to them that's a also a great uh honor our cheer team was mentioned before went to Florida did excellent
down there and then they also over the weekend won the New Jersey cheer and dance game day Championship too so they had quite a season so congratulations to them we heard that the girls won today and we wish Kyle blo a lot of success in his run through the now
regions of the wrestling championship so very successful Sports season uh still ongoing and good luck to those that are still still going um we did mention the musical next week uh for Joseph and the Technicolor dream Co Friday night and
two shows on Saturday um I've seen a lot of the props being built by Mr Lutz and his and his crew so it looks really great so it should be a great show so please come on out for that next month at our March meeting we will have the beler Elementary uh a little preview of
the Finding Nemo play that they're putting on so looking forward to that uh Miss Kad always does a great job with them um I'll kick off and Tyler if you want to jump in we had a regionalization meeting last week the I actually just got the final report uh yesterday which
I will share with the board over the weekend as well um they trimmed it down it's now 249 Pages rather than 250 um so uh but there is an executive summary at the end to read I won't highlight it too much um the Consulting
Group is looking to put together a public meeting sometime early to mid April where all the Clusters can come together and they'll do a presentation and take uh answers and questions the only thing that was notable different from our previous meetings was the question that exists on state aid and
they believe that we would lose state aid by regionalizing right away um is going to be addressed through the legislation but it won't be addressed until December and I pointed out that we'll have a likely a new governor by well we'll have a new governor for sure
by December um so that could also change so but they'll go through all of that it was a I don't know about an hour and a half meeting you want to just jump in on anything Tyler or was that no I mean I thought it was really um informative and I think that it will be great for everybody to hear you know their findings especially here about you know
the updates with the schools and and where they think we're best suited to go with that yeah it was good good meeting um for those of you that follow along the governor had his budget address yesterday and so therefore tomorrow we'll get our state aid number that
usually comes in late in the day so we'll see where that goes uh just a reminder I sent out in my last update just some changes of of meeting dates um March 12th is our unsung hero presentation for the for Warren County School boards so we will uh actually
cancel the committee meetings that night so as many of us can go to that as possible and I think I sent the link where you can sign up to um and then we have our regular board meeting on the 17th and then I changed the April 30th
meeting to May 7th so I we'll make sure I commit to all of that and the last thing I did want to mention a regular board meeting is March 17 uh 19th I'm sorry 19 19th 19th I get
um I'm sorry I get um Harmon is sometimes I get the Harmony in the belard up the last thing to mention was mentioned in curriculum but uh just to mention Renaissance again and uh when I do my CSA goals update just to I think we've had a good opportunity to really
take a good look at the Renaissance data and the thing that struck me in a very positive way uh was we able to see where our students um what grade level that they're reading at and we we found probably more than half of our students are reading above grade level um
including couple of third graders that are reading reading on on an eighth grade and a nth grade level and a couple of fifth graders that are reading at college level um so we see that as an opportunity to really work with our students and to push them forward and start to create some some academic coaching for them as well as some of our
students that have needs um and kind of rather than taking away we're just going to add into it so we're really excited about that um it's been a good eye opening experience going over to Renaissance and I think it was a great move and that is my probably longer than everybody want to hear my voice report
tonight okay okay so that brings us on to agenda items first we're going to look at policy items 1 through 11 can I have a motion for items 1 through 11 and is there any hang on no no
add-ons no add-on no add-ons wait I lost my add-on paper sorry take mine my notes yep all right so it's just 1 through 11 no add motion second I have a question I don't know if
we're voting y um on the Food Services is your mic on I can't hard sorry there Food Services is nine nine M um what happens to the account balances
once a child graduates we refund them by check we refund them by check the school does cuz I know know I have heard of some people who never received it and then they didn't know if maybe it rolled over to a sibling or something you can request it
to roll over to a sibling but if you don't request it we mail them back how how do we get notified of the balance they're on your Genesis but then we have to pull the report or does the student have to know I'm just curious like how would when you
say how do we know it mean you as a parent or we as the school school okay oh oh I get reports so you would see if somebody has yeah we for seniors we usually wait till the end of the summer sometime by the fall and we send checks for I think anything over like three or5
doll we just we send them out we do have some outstanding okay um which eventually we'll contact them again and maybe a handful letter outstanding people maybe did Miss but that's how we reimburse everybody okay yeah I was just curious because it's their money I mean yeah right no I know that's I didn't
know if because that pay through schools if they do it or how it you know how it all works we do it by actual manual check and then just just a quick um on that also because I know we kind kind of run into kids not getting lunches sometimes if they their balance is low and I know
we've talked about the fact that they should still be getting lunches even if they're parents haven't you know updated their account balances and I know that's happened again a little bit um with the changes in this policy how is that happened recently yeah yeah how how is
how is that notified cuz I I saw this updated in the policy how is that notified to the cafeteria staff to be sure can we put like a sign that says no no child goes without a lunch no matter what your balance if you want to talk to me separately about that and let me know because that should not be the case and
know and we watch I that the reason I get the monthly report is because people are get very deep in the negatives because we continue to feed regardless of whether there's money in the account or not yeah so that doesn't seem to Jive yeah no it it definitely jived um it
happened so and it wasn't even a negative balance just wasn't enough to cover the lunch um that's why I was just it might be snack you can't buy extra stuff nope it was lunch okay well can can you talk to about that we'll talk to it offline but my question is how is the
STA how how do they get notified of the updates in that policy cafeteria we'll just go down and talk to make sure they know we'll make sure they not ask I saw that it was updated in the policy that that that shouldn't happen yeah that's all and I think it's a good time to reiterate the that that that
should not happen yes thank you any other questions on any of the policies and these are all second readings just so everybody knows okay no no no huh at the
end well they can ask for during the during public comment prior to yeah okay so no more questions then it's for if you have if you have a question you can always reach out to me and I can give you an answer that's that's something just yeah
just reach out to me now and I'll I'll help you with that okay so items 1 through 11 all in favor I I I any nose any abstentions yes I I have
that okay moving on to Personnel items and it's Personnel items 12 through 17 with the removal of 16 plus you have 17 A and B on the add-on motion Mo yeah can I have a
motion to look at those items motion second that was a lot we knew what you me yeah that was a lot yes any questions on any of those items that we didn't already no okay roll call
please mrone he went home I said Mrs sbone Mr he's not here oh he's not here oh that yes yes Dr zeith yes Mrs Duckworth
yes Mr Scott yes Mrs Stefan yes M Walton yes Mrs wenner yes Mrs Gardella yes and Mrs ratham yes the new one okay on
to oh yes and Mrs White Mrs White M M white yes or no or abstain okay thank you sorry we forgot about all right so we are going on to
education items and it's 18 through 24 and there is the um trip additions for 24 can I have a motion through for items 18 through 24 motion second any questions on any of
those items no all right all in favor I I wait do we have a question yeah I have to abstain from a okay oh all in favor I I any nose any extensions
Iain I in there okay on to business items it's items 25 through 30 with no additions can I have a motion for 25 through 30 business motion second any
questions all in favor I I any NOS any extensions yes have all right so now we are on to continuing business is there any continuing
business I'll do my normal Third Street update um oh yeah we are slowly but surely making progress there um we just got another notification that paperwork was that was submitted was accepted and just still waiting the overall final approval but as we go through the steps
everything is being approved I cannot give you a time frame any other continuing business I do um so a couple meetings ago we had talked about updating the website and we updated the front first page um I was on
the website quite a bit over the last couple of days or weeks and our website from front to back is really really out of date can we just have someone really look at it and every single page from
beginning to end and and update um yes thank you without me having to go find out and look did we fix those things from 2023 on the front page we did but
our I I I I don't want to say yes or no the front page looks good I know we talked about it right where you can scroll through everything really old okay that looks good we will we will do a deep dive okay
thank you um and then I also just wanted to follow up on when we would get an update on the goals because there are some Target dates that I will uh I'll actually do that for the March meeting okay so we can assume then the targets for January and November I have
mat never assume well I would I know but I I have to go back I just can't off top of my head no okay yeah I would I'd like to say yes but I will update it at the March meeting okay any other continuing business I don't know if this is continuing but um
we had talked about Mr carabinas had had shared that there's some new electives um for the high school students and I know some of them are pretty excited about it and I just didn't know if maybe we could touch upon not necessarily right now but maybe the next meeting just kind of let everybody know what new
electives have been added because I think some of them are pretty cool and just to kind of let everybody know that what's out there because I know that there's some Buzz around the school the kids are excited in fact we usually put that in in our in our budget presentation so we'll just kind of put it in the preliminary budget they it's an excellent idea yeah I thought that would be good and then also I know I've
touched a little bit about recognizing I know we recognized the teachers um with also student rec nition is that are we doing that like kind of publicizing on the website things like that or Instagram which I still can't get on because I'm getting hacked and I can't get on but um things like that yeah I
know the BH Red Zone does a great job with with promoting everything um we'll we'll try to get more maybe we need to link that to the website I don't know if it's linked to the website the BH Red Zone I don't know if that's linked to the website it's under the Athletics maybe we'll get that on the front page too because they do a great Jobo not NE not
even have to be athletic students but just students yeah but just recognize some of like the student achievements like on monthly basis or something yeah maybe a link to all that with a tech tip y there you go
yeah any other continuing business just still very excited about these I love walking in and seeing them I'm like new business um yeah I would just like a
check-in on this study hall um protocols um what's expected of the children uh on the high school level what's expected of them what are the rules what they can and cannot do um those sort of things just a just a check in sure students and the Proctors on the same on them in
March is okay perfect thanks any other new business yeah I have a question may it actually may have been continuing but I thought maybe new would be better the life skills room that we're talking about do we have a plan of action how we want to proceed going forward we do could you share that with us uh yeah we'll talk about that in
the preliminary budget too um what did you say life skills room life skills room uh life skills classroom so um a classroom oh oh yeah yeah okay okay so yes you can get an update
on that and kind of what the plan is yes okay good thank you any other new business no okay so we are going to open our second public participation is there anyone who wishes to be in second public
participation no okay great can I have a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor I any nose any extensions okay thank you very much everybody have a great night see