##VIDEO ID:TtA9eDzKmaY## e e e e e e e e e e e e e is 6:30 meeting notice statement adequate notice of this meeting of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows on January 9th 2025 notice of the Board of Education meeting schedule was sent to the Star Ledger and The Courier News and was also provided to all schools PTO presidents and the bhe bhea president and post at the administration building a copy was also provided to the public library and filed with the Municipal Court whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education seeks to adjourn to Executive session in full compliance with the open public meetings Act njsa 10 col 4-6 and whereas the open public meeting act provides that a public body May exclude the public from the portion of the meeting at which it discusses matters related to those identified below matters rendered confidential by federal law state law or Court rule individual privacy collective bargaining agreements purchase or lease of real property if public interest could be adversely affected investment of public funds if public interest could be adversely affected tactics or techniques utilized in protecting Public Safety and property pending or anticipated litigation attorney client privilege Personnel employment matters affecting specific perspective or current employees be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education adjourns to ex Ive session to discuss matters related to students Personnel negotiations and legal matters and be it resolved further resolved that the minutes of the discussion of any of these items will be disclosed to the public when matters have been determined and confidentially confidentiality is no longer applicable may I have a motion to enter into executive session we didn't do a roll call ah let's do the roll call first and then executive session roll sorry I didn't see it on the agenda oh yes there it is sorry Mr secretary roll call Mr Airi Miss Bradford here Dr forer here M Terrero here Mr Dylan here Mr JY Mrs Conor here Mrs Stanley here Mr secretary do we have a quorum yes thank you um I read the meeting notice statement and the adjournment to Executive session may I have a motion to journ to enter into executive session to to ex session thank you Dr forer and a second second uh Voice vote I I time is 6:33 on our executive session will be one hour e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e motion please to return to public session move thank you Mrs Jolly seconded thank you Mrs Stanley Voice vote I I any n okay the time returning to public session is 7:35 at this time please rise I unit States andice moving on um Mr secretary do you want to read this part or should I uh you can read it if you'd like appointment of board president Union County interim executive superintendent chose Gail Brad atford as president election of board vice president nominations for board vice president no second is required motion to open the floor to nominations for board vice president okay this is the first round do I have a nomination for vice president need a motion to open the Flor we need a motion to open the floor to nomination motion to open the floor to nominations for board thank you a second second thank you Mrs Jolly a Voice vote hi hi any n okay may I have a nominee for vice president I nominate Mrs dipy Conor um Mr secretary do we do one vote at a time or do we take all nominees just take nominees okay any other nominees for I nominate Pam Stanley thank you Mr Mrs Guero any other nominees okay thank you Mr secretary you can uh close the if there's no more nominations if there are no more nominations we will close the nominations for vice president first and second a first and a second please first thank you Mrs Conor second I'll second thank you Mrs Stanley V okay Voice vote we'll start with Mrs Conor or Mrs Stanley who no we just needed a Voice vote everybody Sor close the close the FL Voice vote to close the nomination any nay my policy go in the order of their nomination thank you okay uh nominee Mrs dipy cona and do we need a roll call Mr secretary yes we do uh roll call for vice president for Mrs Conor uh Mr Ki yes at the for yes Mrs Jolly yes Mrs Connor yes Mrs Stanley no M Terrero who am I voting for again we're voting for Mrs Conor president Mr Dylan yes Mrs Bradford yes motion passes congratulations Mrs kanana you are our vice president we will start again now since she was voted to take second nomination no as soon as the first one passes then the vote is over okay moving on uh we're going to close the floor we did that and we voted for vice president and that is done report of our student Representatives Olivia and Pippa thank you again for joining us good evening as of today the first semester of the school year has officially wrapped up and the third marking period has begun there are many new and exciting changes at Governor Livingston shortly after winter break the regim was officially redone and updated in time for the winter sports season to be in full swing on January 9th the GL band held its annual Winter concert featuring music from the bag pipes percussion Ensemble as well as the Jazz and concert bands in the month of January the GL Hilltop players have been preparing for their spring musical The Prince of Egypt which will be playing from March 20 to 22nd 2025 from January 13th to 17 G students celebrated Winterfest filled with spirit days competitions between grade levels as well as a pep rally event on Friday January 17th the Science Olympiad team traveled to Union County College for a regional competition where GL earned five impressive top 10 finishes this coming Wednesday January 29th the understanding Asian cultures Club is hosting a Lunar New Year meeting and celebration during lunch featuring snacks music and crafts to Mark the beginning of the year of the snake thank you hi everyone we are a month into 2025 and things are still going strong although sometime as passed since the New Year various academic and sports goals are being set by many a lot is going on so this will be a more lengthy report there are a couple things that have been shared by various Sports around the school including goals placing top three in counties said by AI Sayre play more consistently and get second singles by Nathan GA and drop time in my 500 free lilan Arts who achieved this yesterday in the county meet yesterday at Jersey aquatic club the governor Livingston swim team attended counties they did an excellent job placing fourth overall some honorable mentions the day include Nia Joseph breaking the school record for the 503e with a time of 2482 Nina frolov breaking the school record for the 100 free with a time of 5353 and both qualified for the meat of Champions as well along with that the 200 free relay including myself Nia Joseph Nina and Anna frolov qualified for the meet of Champions in March and we missed the school record by a tenth of a second but we'll get it next time up next for the GL swim team is sectionals in States so stay tuned along with that the GL Highlander wrestlers signed their Lal commitment to continue their academic and wrestling careers at a Collegiate level including Brandon bre at the Citadel Jake curg at Stevens in of Technology Christian Joya and Nate Faxon at NYU along with that the winter track team attended the UCC championships in Ocean Breeze New York City congrats to all the participants Rucker University held a national girls and women in sports Day celebration and Kelsey chees wer was Chown as G chosen as Gio's representative for this prestigious event along with that the Gio wrestling team had their County tournament with three County Champs and three runner-ups fencing Place fifth out of 55 School at the centrion memorial fencing tournament and this is the first time to happen in over a decade with and the girls finished 14th as well fencing is looking forward to districts this Sunday February 9th so let's which them LU on another note besides Sports I wanted to include something else I have not received much information regarding the heating issues at GL however I do want to express a level of concern from students while we all understand that heating is not an easy issue to fix um the students at GL feel like we have been left in the dark about it the past week or so various students including myself have been complaining about the cold although it was not causing any direct issues and it was being handled as best as it could I feel that much of the student body is worried about these issues arising in our school and want it to be fixed I also spoke to miss Bartlett earlier about possibly sending emails out to the kids about being more informed since most of those go out to the parents and sometimes that information is not related thank you thank you very much uh we want to have a shout out to our student athletes and also thank uh Mr CJ Hendrick for a fantastic Friday and Super Saturday I attended some of the events and it was very well attended and congratulations to him and to all our student athletes thank you very much our student I just want to thank you for sticking up for your student body I know it's not always easy to do um but I really appreciate you standing up for them and and giving us your Viewpoint I appreciate it thank you are free to leave whenever you'd like but please stay we do have some things that you might be interested in um our superintendent report Dr feltre welcome again thank you very much and congratulations thank you so um uh this month is board member recognation recognition month and in keeping with that whereas the New Jersey school boards Association has declared January 2025 to be school board recognition month a time when all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members and whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education is one of 580 local school boards in New Jersey which sets policies and overseas operations for public school districts and whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education Embraces the goal of high quality education for all New Jersey public school students and whereas New Jersey local school boards help determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 million children in prek through 12th grade and whereas New Jersey's approximately 5,000 local school board members who receive no renumeration for their services act as advocates for public school students as they work with administrators teachers and parents for the betterment of public education and whereas School boards strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students including those with special needs and whereas Boards of Education provide provide accountability to the public they communicate the needs of the school district to the public and they convey to school administrators The public's expectations for the schools and whereas New Jersey can take pride in its schools which rank among the nation's best in key achievement indicators such as the national assessment of educational progress scores and the preparation for college through advanced placement offerings and sat assment assessments now therefore be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education does hereby recognize the services of local school board members throughout New Jersey As We join Community Statewide in observing January 2025 as school board recognition month and be it further resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education urges all New Jersey citizens to work with their local Boards of education and Public School staff toward the advancement of our children's education and thank you for your service thank you Dr f um we'll move on to committee and liaison reports the directive from our Union County Executive superintendent for president only came only a few hours ago so we have not had time to do very much but he did pass on a directive to myself now to Mrs cona as vice president that we should work together as a board we should work for the benefit of students and work for the benefit of student achievement and that will be a goal this year to be able to work together as a board for the benefit of our students and our district at this time we do not have a committee structure we have had an offer from our field representative Mrs Jean clear to meet in a special meeting to come up with a committee structure and assignments uh there is a draft that I will put out to the board within the next 48 hours that we can look at to see what we have but because we do not have a committee structure at this time and we do not have a policy on on this I am going to as president set up some ad hoc committees tonight because we need them there are needs right now in our district so we're going to set up an ad hoc committee that will take care of infrastructure for Columbia Middle School and GL and that committee at HW committee will have on it Mrs cona Mrs terrera and Mrs Stanley we also have a need to move ahead with our scope and sequence for math so I'm setting up an ad hoc committee on math scope and sequence and those representatives from the board will be Miss Dr forer Mrs Stanley and Mrs Jolly we also are in a time of budget so I am setting up an ad hoc committee for the budget 25 26 with Mr uh Dr forger Mr Dylan Mrs jolly and Mrs Terrero I we have a pressing issue for referendum we've had some infrastructure things that need to be done and we are behind in our referendum timeline so I'm setting up an ad hoc committee for the referendum that will be including Mrs cona Mrs akiri and Mrs Stanley uh in terms of our head custodian contract which has been uh in delay since June I am setting up an ad hoc committee specifically for that with Mrs terrera Mr Dylan and Mrs Jolly at this time if you are not able to send on an ad hoc committee you will let me know within 24 hours we also will set up an ad hoc committee for Mountainside Mr Dylan will be a uh member of that although he's not allowed to work on the negotiations and that will in include Mrs uh Conor Mrs Stanley and myself so those six ad hoc committees will be set up immediately and we'll be setting up time for those meetings to take place if you are not able to serve on a committee please let me know once I have had 24 hours for this then I will decide who will be a chair and when those committies will meet these are all needs that have to be done and these are for very specific issues once we have a committee structure set up then these ad hoc committees are temporary they will be dissolved into our committee structure also we had some updates just from the town and from sorry Gail can I interrupt I just have a quick clarifying question yes when we are talking about the ad hoc committees why wouldn't we be able to come to the next meeting with kind of our structure going forward I would hope that we could yes so fair to say that it's an ad hoc committee structure for a month or so for the first three ex uh first three regular meetings until we come up with because our new policy says that the committee structure has to be voted on by and approved by a majority of the Board of Education Mrs clear has offered to have a special meeting with us to help us to identify that and what's the date for the special meeting that we have yet to be determined once we have this set up I will will reach out to Mrs cley she had given us some dates in January we will ask for some dates in February and check with the board members I have a quick question so Mrs Ziri um so you're not going to do what was done last year or the president of Berkeley Heights bard of fed you're not going to request via email our preferences collect our feedback and then put it up on the next meeting we do not have a committee structure so we cannot do that request these are six ad Haw committees created by the president of the board for very specific immediate needs no I mean what has changed at Berkeley Heights Bard help me understand the past president has been we vote for a president once we have a president and a vice president the president used to ask send a formal email and say what is your preference we on our district website we have a list of committees and which is what you did last year year also and then you gave us some time to rep reply back with our Committees of choice we responded back to you but last year was the first year with the changed policy where the the president did not require a board vote but prior to that until 2024 whatever the choices were the president Mr dequilla Mrs Penna made their selections it was put on the agenda and the board voted on them so you're saying this year they're not going to be doing that Mrs Airi policy 0155 is in limbo so we will be rewriting policy 0155 and maybe that will happen and maybe it will not at this point the president has a discretion without board approval to set up these six ad hoc committees we are moving on no sorry Mrs Dolly yes so Mr dler why are we saying that policy 155 is in question policy5 clearly has a standing committee structure and requires um the president to you know nominate I guess the Committees and chairs and uh have it approved by the majority of the board I'm not clear as to why we're saying that it's in limbo I okay I just want to answer that is the fact that we had nine standing committees which is too many and we have been asked to to consolidate some of those committees that's fine but we haven't done it yet and so our policy clearly states what our standing committees are at this time and if we want to restructure that that's fine too but in the meantime we're you know you why are we throwing ad hoc I mean committees out there when which we can still do but we why aren't we following what our policy clearly states we have not come to decision on our committee structure and it requires a majority vote by the Board of Education yeah I understand but we go with what is written down and we can certainly vote to change it but right now what's written down are the standing committees that are in policy 155 policy 155 is not in limbo it is the discretion of the board president to set up the ad hoc committees thank you I disagree with this so5 never went away was never abolish so that's the operable all policies were excuse me I have the floor and55 never went away it's still the operative policy there's eight committees and about 14 Liaisons and you are to uh basically appoint members and get them approved by the majority of the board now if you don't want to do that then you're just violating our own policy now with respect to the ad hoc committees it's not so broad that you can just willy-nilly set one up it says they're designed to study specific areas of unusual unusual or non-repetitive problems I don't see that what you're doing here is unusual or non-repetitive so this would be what you're trying to do is really an end run around policy 155 and I object Mr Stanley so a lot of things that are said are just not accurate so yes we have a policy 155 in place yes we can continue to work towards making committees right standing committees I don't think anybody is saying not to do that I think that's actually what the board president just said is that she wants to have a meeting to figure that out altogether but it's going to take time the reality is we don't have time especially when it comes to the referendum one that you said right we don't have time we're actually very behind that's a normal ad hoc committee anyways right it doesn't we don't have a committee for that so I think that everybody's objections are heard but they're not relevant because even if you want standing committees after this meeting and you want to give your preference for standing committees we would not even have a vote on that until the next meeting in February and then if it doesn't pass you're talking now not until March so again I think that what the president is asking us to do is pretty uh reasonable and she's allowed to do it so the reality of you can yell about it but she's allowed to do it and and Daryl did pick her okay so sorry I'm not ready to move on I do want to understand 155 why is it in limbo Mr dler if it is actually in limbo you never no I'm I'm happy so 155 was amended by the board I think 013 one one was abolished so the board has the ability to change 155 at any time but the policy itself still stands okay if you're asking me then I think there are a number of questions outstanding so I might as well if it's okay so I think the board president does have the authority to do ad hoc committees I think you are by structure still a board of committees and so it is important that without any committees in place that you do have on specific emerging issues that need to be addressed until your committees are in place ad hoc committees that are in place um once you have your standing committees in place which again your policy does set forth it sounds like you may have a special meeting where you may modify that if that's the board's will then you can do so obviously the board president under your current existing policy has the ability to make recommendations to put fourth before the board and so it's within the board president's Authority whether she will or she won't when it comes to 555 um but that policy does stand so I think at some point whether it's via a special meeting or at your next meeting a recommendation on those committees should come forward and then the board should vote on it thank you I will check with Mrs clear to set up a time and I will be in contact with our board members to see if we can have it we are going to move on M Mrs Bradford Mrs Airi we're going to move on now I just to the Berkeley height from the clean and green Mrs Bradford this is not how you have been no you cannot cut the meeting with you cannot spring a surprise about ad hoc committees and stop the discussion this is exactly what and I hope Mr darl is watching or if he doesn't care I really but this is this board belongs to eight board members and we have a say you cannot just shut the conversation by springing a surprise so Mr dler just clarified 155 is not in limbo so that was an inaccurate statement by you I just want to clarify that and for the ad hoc committees my question my follow-up question to Mr dler is so does the president follow the policy 155 when she makes appointments for these adoc committees do they have to be voted on not according to your policy so the president has the ability to assign ad hoc so it could be done one of two ways either by president or by board vote M um so the president does have the authority to set them up whether your atoc committees will remain because the purpose of them still exists once the board has standing committees that I think will be up to the board and the board president no um sorry gal because we this is a surprise can you please run down exactly your um so I heard infrastructure yes okay we have immediate needs for infrastructure within Columbia Middle School and Governor Livingston School understood um and I think there was a question from Mr over um correspondence what can the board exactly do with respect to infrastructure this will be a discussion for this ad hoc committee working with the administration again with respect to the math sequencing again I thought that you know Dr Curtis has a plan already I'm not sure what the purpose of this committee will be I'm certainly not more educated than Dr Curtis in the math sequencing that's needed so I'm not sure what what I mean you're forming this but what are the expectations of the committee what are the outcomes that you expect from the Committees the very specific outcome for the sequence and scope committee will be we have a professional development coming up on February 14th which is in two weeks so we are looking very specifically at the math 8th grade sequencing the ad hoc committee will work with the administration and Dr Curtis on that do did Dr Curtis request any help this is a request of our ad hoc committee for curriculum uh in terms of the referendum we are already a month or two behind the very specific request for the ad hoc committee will be to be the beginning steps to move us forward for a referendum as we have significant infrastructure concerns within our district so the referendum is going to take care of that so we need to move ahead with that so just to follow up you have SK last year there was a committee that you appointed basically by your own decision strategy and planning strategy and planning was supposed to discuss about referendum you kept sending multiple emails to board members about you have not scheduled a mountain sign Le is on committee you have not scheduled a meeting for this there wasn't a single meeting scheduled for strategy and planning and I asked you in a documented email if you asked the chair then chair why wasn't a committee meeting scheduled so I don't understand your sudden need for scheduling an ad hoc committee for infrastructure and referendum need when you created a committee you appointed a chair you appointed the members and you deliberately never followed up but then you followed up on certain people excluding the chair of the strategy and planning so why is the sudden need coming I understand referendum has been in talks since 2020 I believe in 2020 we were supposed to have a ballot question which was already finalized which was about to go on the ballot and when Governor Murphy said we're not going we're going to have a mail and ballot vote for the entire State the then board decided to pull that question out so after 2020 there have been multiple follow-up requests in 2022 2023 and every time it was said that this will be discussed in strategy and planning so why is there a sudden urgency or the need and I did speak to Dr phry today and I've raised this there is an agenda item for a referendum services but the board has to meet and appoint or agree on a vendor we are allowing we going to trust the administration on this and then we will pass on this agenda but this whole approach of a surprise you know don't surprise me but I'm going to surprise you and then I'm not even going to let you have a discussion is not going to work Gil thank you the Strategic plan excuse me the five-year strategic plan ended so we have to come up with a new fiveyear strategic plan and we have hired njsba to help us with that so we need to get that who hired them and when was the Board of Ed hired as part of our superintendent search the Strategic plan was also included in what we had that was for last year that contract ends after calendar year of 2024 so it doesn't it I don't think in that contract language which again you signed the contract without a Board review please go ahead and read that contract that contract was specific for that calendar year unless you're trying to tell me you signed some addendums which is going over into 2025 yeah so I'm asking her a valid question is there she's saying we hired okay we hired them for that year it was not going to go over into 2025 so I'm going to our strategic plan ended in 2025 our new strategic plan will be from 2025 till 2030 I am going to end the discussion I have a question for Mr dler because we are going to move ahead no you can move ahead but I want to clarify your statement the president was only established at 3:00 this afternoon so there has not been very much time no but you cannot make inaccurate statements Mrs to be addressed you cannot make inaccurate statements just because the county superintendent appointed you you're saying we have a contract and we have hired in jsba when did we hire them thank you Mrs no I want Mr dler to answer will a contract from no I'm asking Mr dler I'm asking Mr dler how does a contract okay Mrs Stanley no I you can speak I'm asking Mr dler there's a there was a contract for superintendent search that was signed by the board president and I did bring it to your attention we did not look at the terms and conditions they were supposed to help us in strategic planning I believe in that contract so that's a contract that was signed for the year 2024 remain in effect for 2025 when the President says we've already hired in jsba I don't believe anything was signed for this year I I wish I could answer that uh I I just don't have the contract in front of me right it's very possible it could right depending on the term of the contract or you might be correct it might have terminated right each contract typically has a specific term yes sometimes contracts don't have terms but they have it for you know spec specific Services thinking construction projects things along those lines um so I would have to take a look at the contract see what it says um I just I don't have in front of me so it will just if you could please take a look at it and then if we are hiring any vendors for any specific Services be it strategic planning or whatever after a board reorganizes and we've got new board members here doesn't the new board have to approve this vender it it may or may not right simp think of a construction project right the board the last board would approve will say a new heating project that comes to mind right the board wouldn't couldn't just say we violating the previous contract signed by the board because um we're a new board right so certain contracts will continue to exist obviously again certain contracts the board votes on annually and are set specifically to the board's you the board's term so is it fair if I may request the board president not to invite Mrs clear until we have Clarity on the contract that was signed by you last year I would like to get a clarification and I'm asking the superintendent and Mr dler to re at the contract give us the feedback that this contract is still in place and only then invite Mrs clear thank you thank you Mr Dylan yeah I don't think we're debating there there's work to be done by this board right the December 2024 version of this board made it in such that we may not have committees for several meetings several months based on the voting patterns and even what happened with the president I sit here and I don't know when there will be a committee but there's work to be done I don't think any of us are going to debate that there needs to be a focus on the infrastructure at CMS and GL while we sit here in a room with no heat and the the ceiling open with water draining down that we all got the video of that was ridiculous right I don't think any of us are going to sit here and say we don't need eyes on a budget because I know I watch from afar everyone's going to ask why didn't I get a version of that budget earlier sooner so I applaud you for this approach we may not have the right people we may not have the right committees but there's work to be done and failure to have committees and failure to have a process where we can agree on committees in a timely manner I don't see another alternative so that is your assumption Mr Dylan that we won't be able to Mrs you have not been recognized Mrs Conor I want to Echo what what bill just said but I want to defer in in that when we started the meeting and we talked about the directive from the county superintendent about working together uh this what just happened here with the Committees is in my opinion the exact opposite if the goal is for all of us to work together is to have a level of trust then it would mean that we operate with the same information and we operate in a way that it is not a surprise so there's nothing in 155 that says our standing committees are not functional anymore the only change or the version of policy 155 that we went back to is one that requires majority approval from board members for a certain committee to be constituted it does not say that you cannot have the standing committee all of the areas that you've highlighted Gail I agree that they're important but there is nothing stopping us from using the standing committee structure to accomplish that but I will say what you have done right now by just making a statement that these that 155 is in limbo or what have you is again before we've started to build back the trust we're starting to lose it again that's all thank you we're going to move on now to board Communications Mr secretary there are four Communications that I've uh received first is from Mary helmstead um and that's regarding uh due to the Sunshine Law we're going to have discussion it has to be on M correct yes Mrs airri and Dr forer if you are commenting Dr forer raised his hand to be recognized you didn't recognize him he had a question so thank you we're going to move on to board Communications so can he ask his question direct move on to board commun we have a question on I missed your announcements on ad hoc committee give him the floor you didn't let him speak he he had a we are going to move on to board Communications so we have a clarification on ad hoc committees you're not going to give it to us I think we have discussed this enough no who did you appoint that's the question that he was asking oh yes I trying to write down who they were and I yes I didn't get all of head custodian I will send that ahead I will send that to everyone in an email okay thank you Mr secretary board Communications yes I received a letter from Mrs uh helmstead and it's regarding the uh infrastructure here at the uh District level uh that's the first communication I received next is the problems facing uh Berkeley Public Schools that's from Michael leblond uh this is regarding the power school data breach that's the second third is the seal contract Amendment uh that is from Mr migz uh and the oversight of the municipality uh with the seel uh SEO uh contract and lastly is the uh correspondence that we received from the intram county superintendent regarding his choice of board president those are our Ford correspondents that concludes those thank you report of the business administrator uh just wanted to highlight some of the work that we've had done around the district um just had a few things here at GL there were some uh classroom from pet coils uh well I'm not going to get into that I'm going to explain that at the very end uh we just had a power surge caused some of the uh GFI outlets to burn out they were all replaced uh Snack Shack restroom heater had expired and the coils were replaced from our own stock uh let's see we had commercial grade dehumidifiers fans and antimicro uh excuse me uh I'm sorry I'm going to advise our Board of educ members not to be texting during meeting we do not want to have any violation of our Sunshine laws please put your cell phones down please continue Mr secretary I'm not sure what that was but I think it's extremely inappropriate if you are going to say something just say it in the mic I am the board president I will make that determination there is a violation of opma if you are emailing so you can be right they can ask for your text messages so I'm going to stop this right now board has been warned Mr secretary please continue with your Mrs Bradford I think you know it's really biased and it is very discriminatory that you only recognize one board member to speak we've seen your behavior at Exit thank you Mr no this cannot continue forever okay you can you you just allow unlimited time maybe use your timer go by the policies give us all 3 minutes and then we will we will let our floor go okay thank you and you're not even clarifying okay Mr board Secret secary please continue with your report uh Mountain Park uh we have our custodial staff is continuing to paint of painting at school CMS we had the fire department phot hose hookup repaired and whiteboards installed used multi-purpose room walm mats are in the process of being ordered the used PTO and Mrs nauy are taking care of this uh Mary K there is uh finding a uh custodial replacement uh at Woodruff they had changed the LED lights that had gone bad and that was at no cost to the district uh the Middle School fire panel update as you know the fire panel had completely had gone out uh at one point there that was about two weeks ago at which point uh school had to shut down we had to put in a temporary panel at that time that temporary panel uh was completely put into place kids came back what we had to do is had to find the parts for that panel uh those those parts were found they're being put into place uh school had to be put on a firewatch 247 uh the rest of the programming issues at the school are being were pretty much completed today um and I believe by either Tuesday or Wednesday there's supposed to be uh an inspection completed with with the subcode and uh subcode official so we're hoping that once that is completed that should be the final and last part of this phase of the fire panel um how it completely went out I've never seen that and many of the other people that came in to look at this I've never seen that before so uh this is one extraordinary event that has um been reported to the insurance company and hopefully it's our liability has been limited but um it's been one heck of a time with this whole entire thing and hopefully it's coming to an end so that's the update with the fire pound as in terms of the uh heating update um that issue occurred right after Christmas during that time we're trying to determine on whether that was the program that's supposed to alert us and let us know when there is um what is the word I'm looking for here when there's not enough hot water flowing throughout the whole entire system there's supposed to be alerts that are sent to our custodial staff during that time uh for some unknown reason those alerts didn't come out the heating coils froze up and about 10 of the classrooms and thankfully um our staff during their building checks had found that out and were able to save I'm going to say about three to four classrooms from having those coils freeze up uh during that time um they were able to um limit the water damage in some of the rooms but several of the other rooms did get water damage during that time uh one of the things that we had to do again was getting this all cleaned up had to call in someone through the insurance company because we did report it to insurance is getting those rooms cleaned up as best we could and that was using one of the um uh vendors through the insurance company to get those rooms cleaned up as best as we could as we conversed with the um insurance company one of the things that we had to do is find vendors to make sure uh we had to order the coils that were in the um units themselves those coils themselves had to be ordered because they're not sitting on the shelves so during the time as we're trying to find vendors to do that we only found two that were out there where we can order those coils from so that work well they were ordered the units came in on Thursday our staff came in uh were able to put those units in on Friday and finish that work up on Saturday so the units are up and running um as of on Saturday there were some tweaks with the um computerized controls some of the boards uh as we found out by today needed to be replaced and I believe they are were replaced by our staff we had the parts thankfully for those and uh those units are up and running the heat for here is a whole different story because as the unit up on on this roof is completely separate from the other units that we have on the other side of the building uh when these pipes up here came loose actually a lot of the things the coils up here froze and that was about a week and a half ago and as you know we had the Very extreme and bad weather during the time uh we could not do anything with these pipes here because of the weather and right now uh I had someone come in to take a look at the coils for this uh units up here right now to order them it's going to take 12 weeks so that's going to be a long time so what we're trying to do is let these uh coils unfreeze and hopefully when they unfreeze the gentleman is going to hopefully be able to braze those units uh we took pictures of them today to see how many of those most coils can be fixed and hopefully once they're defrosted we'll be able to fix them but until that happens we can't get at them so that is the um I'm going to say the update on the unit for this cafeteria right now so that concludes my report uh Mrs Terrero first of all I want to thank the district the staff the teachers everybody working with the district to try to pull everything together I know it's not been easy secondly um and I don't know AJ if this is a question for you or Dr phry um there was a question I had sent to you prior and that was what can we as a board do to try to help you move this forward faster is there anything that we can do to help that or is it just kind of a wait and see kind of situation Dr phry would you like to address that first well I'm I'm GNA say our first steps tonight are we have items on the agenda for tonight that we've discussed since November that's our first steps that we need to take tonight um that's going to move us forward uh we're supposed to have I've collected information from our principles um from our uh facility manager uh those items were sent over to the Architects they're supposed to be coming back into District to talk to the principles on what their needs are in the district so they can collect that information and start moving that uh down to the state and get the paperwork started I'm I'm specifically talking about the heating issues right now that are going on and any the um pending situations that are going on in the schools right this minute is there something we as a board can do to try to help speed that process up or is there something in place that we have that is hindering the progress this this current situation I've I've gotten as much as I can get done at this point and it's just a matter of uh if you can wish for some hot weather to come in here that would be the best thing at this point yes um soj the fire panel at CMS is it that everyone there's a TW you said there's a 247 fire watch and is that because there needs to be a um I guess a review and and sign off that the panels working like I I guess we got the replacement panel but then there's still the watch and and by and by watch I mean like people standing there looking for the fire right so if there is a fire will there be Sirens like like so I'm I'm confused this to the combination of the new panel the fire watch and when that kind of stops once once it's all done and the um it satisfies the Fire official and he's believes that once something happens everything automatically will occur if something a fire does happen like the smoke detectors all work the sprinkler system or everything else would go into effect the call would go immediately to the um Central Station that is all satisfied that's when the the the fire watch would end okay and so when is uh this individual scheduled to come in to review the work and make sure that everything's working right now I had a call with him this morning he was touching base with the gentleman that was working on the project he left them a message um I'm hoping that's between Tuesday and Wednesday okay and all the work has been done though so it's just a question of someone coming you know they they're finish the they were finishing up their work today I think they may have some things to do tomorrow other than that it's pretty much going to be all on okay and then um with respect to the heating issues and The Ordering of the parts and just the time it takes to get everything in is it because the infrastructure is old and the these parts are hard to come by you know kind of like I'm thinking of like old cars right like parts are hard to come by if you have like a you know an antique car so is it that or is it just um normal stuff I'm going to say ever since Co everything is hard to get and I'm going to give you another analogy my mother's in in um senior home senior housing their elevators in that building are probably 30 to 40 years old and every time they go out parts are not available and always takes a little while to get all the time the unit up on top of this building is from 2007 um the just like the coils in the building that we had to have they had to be made so and and the price dictated that if you wanted them done in five days cost more money you wanted them 10 cheaper 15 days was cheaper so we did it on a five days and that was just the five days five business days to have them built and then that didn't include weekends then the other piece was if after that then it was the delivery and that was between three or four days so it all depends on all those things that dictated everything so uh yes Piva sorry I just had a question I've been trying to listen to what you all are saying and you address the issues about the Heat and correct me if I'm wrong but I've also heard from my friends who are in orchestra that there are rising CO2 levels within the school as well and that she's frequently had to practice with the windows open inside the orchestra room and that playing the instruments inside are very difficult and along with that my Spanish Spanish classroom I'm not sure if this is related to the heat it was the radiator I think it blew up in um Senor demaggio's classroom and we've been in the cooking room for quite some time now so I'm pretty much just wondering if there's anything that you plan on doing to fix that or if that's something that would be done by the end of the school year what are the things you have to take in consideration that when we all breathe you breathe with CO2 also so CO2 levels were at a th000 which is very small 5,000 and above is higher high and dangerous so they were at a th000 or lower from what my understanding was and speaking with people from the state um and to avoid anything going higher they suggested to crack the windows or keep them open a little bit so that was what their suggestion was so there was nothing that was eminently outrageous or um exposure that was dangerous Dr do you have something to add can I add to that um I imagine you were in rooms that where the heat wasn't working yeah when the heat doesn't work the heating unit doesn't only bring in heat it also brings in fresh air so when that heating unit stopped working it stopped bringing in the F fresh air so when you bring in the people um you're now raising the CO2 level without the fresh air coming in that's why they had to crack up the window once those coils go in and the unit starts working again it will circulate in the fresh air and there won't be any CO2 concerns anymore in that classroom Dr felt do you have anything to add okay okay thank you fine I just have Stanley I have two questions the first question is um I know you said it could take 12 weeks if we ordered them but we're hoping we can fix them is there anything stopping us from ordering them in the meantime and if we can't fix them at least we have them on the way like I know it's hard with budgeting and all the processes that we have to go through no that's that's not the point like today I I got the the information about that but now we have to go back up there because now they want more specifics of the space between those coils okay there was more specific so uh one of the maintenance gentlemen or the person that is coming back from the uh heating company they're going to come back and and take a look at that tomorrow okay but you know here was the other thing during that that cold spell that we had supply and demand of everybody trying to get anybody down here was other thing I know I'm sure you know that was the everyone's every everyone's system is being put pushed to the test exactly so um my second question is I um I was under the impression from some of the emails that we did have delays due to a board policy that was pushed through in December is that accurate that we had delays in um getting stuff be for the heating because of our restrictions on cost not not those but the the one thing that I that we do have is um heating pumps we keep two sets of heating pumps we we always keep a second set around because because of covid there's always a need to keep a second set because of there's always six week delays on those things and having those particularly like I said six weeks you don't want to have heat for six weeks they've our staff keeps a habit of keeping a second set on the shelves so those are a must all the time so that's one thing that we always do and there's uh you always want to make sure with the pumps you got to see what you have otherwise if you don't and you order something some of those pumps are non-refundable so you want to make sure all the time that you're buying the right one otherwise you get stuck with something that's so we're unable to buy the pumps because of the policy liit no no we just we got to do our due diligence with those so um we there's one Co-op that we had that's in U Pary that I wanted to see we open up an account that's a little bit closer because driving a half an hour 40 minutes away isn't ideal so we we opened up an account with uh General Plumbing Supply on um 22 in Greenbrook so okay okay so we're finding ways to work around it yeah the limitations okay I have a followup yes Mrs Ziri so do we have a Target date for uh CMS and for GL what's the 10 like do we have any planned for CMS it felt like it's just a matter of them coming in certifying that everything's okay so we're hoping I just said Tuesday or Wednesday so that'll be before the end of January for CMS hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday this week yes and for GL do we know what's well this unit up here I don't know yet no like I just said I got to wait for the I'm praying for warmer weather and and the defrosting of those the coil right now because it's been frozen from last week I'm either going to I'm looking into a way either I can I can disconnected and get a crane in here which is not an a cheap proposition that's one thing we can do or I can have our staff go up there which may not be um feasible at this point is to go up there and have heaters or or propane torches to try to melt that up there so um just speaking from experience something similar happened in a 1965 home I think um they got like a a professional company which works with termites and bed bugs so basically when the building is closed off they get these high energy heaters and you put them in the in the facility close off everything and put it for 4 hours and then they basically bring the temperature up to a certain level which kills bugs but that is also another idea that others places that have had this happen it happened in our own house and then that's what they came and did it took about 6 hours of not staying which it pretty much took it in the night they asked us that that's what I'm trying to figure out with with who I'm working with right now to try to figure out what we can do to get that melted so okay thank you we're going to move on now to com comments from our the public on agenda items only during this portion of the meeting District staff and residents are invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only the board requests that individuals State their name town of residence or School of attendance for the record all comments should be directed to the board president and depending upon the nature and complexity of the question it may or may not be answered during the meeting by the administration if so the response would occur after this public portion of the meeting has concluded although the board may not respond to all items raised during the public forum all public comments will be considered the board ask that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel manners are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no respon responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by the members of the public please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from or adjournment of the meeting each speaker statement will be limited to three minutes in duration we will start with those participants in public and then we will go to our online participants thank you everyone on a Happy New Year my name is Liza Viana I'm the township administrator here with mayor Angie Dean Captain Frank Maya the Berkeley Heights Police Department and Deborah Varner and chair of the Berkeley Heights Recreation Commission first off you have my sympathies about aging infrastructure if you need any contractor recommendations we're happy to help when we can but we're here to thank you for putting the class three officer and vehicle fuel maintenance shared service agreements on the agenda tonight we've been discussing these agreements since last year and I'm hoping that since we haven't re receiv received any further questions in recent months except for the one today from Dr felt that one that this means that they will be approved tonight our class 3es are huge value add to our schools and the safety of our children as a mother of two in our schools CMS and G I feel much more comfortable knowing that one of our guys will put himself between any danger that may come through those doors or attempt to and our children should that day ever come the vehicle maintenance and class 3 service Agreements are wins for our community the Board of Ed and Township in this town have always done what's best for the community and the taxpayer with these agreements so we hope to do our part to contribute to this long-standing partnership which brings me to the last point we see you have several resolutions on the agenda tonight relating to the use of facilities including fields and applying for grants for playground upgrades as you all know we have a pending draft lease agreement for Lower Columbia Fields before you for review and a vote as stated previously we're ready to discuss further or answer any questions you have but have not received any recently so we're hoping that that can be put on the agenda soon if you would be so kind to provide a date for the vote so we know going forward how to plan for our resources because the township does currently take care of those fields in terms of Maintenance and we pay staff to take care of them we're happy to take any questions you may have I'm not sure how that works with their form of government but we are here thank you hi am I allowed to speak on infrastructure it's on the agenda it is okay hi I'm Marcy homet I am the President of the Berkeley Heights Education Association good evening I'm here tonight to speak on the issue of infrastructure and the health and safety of our schools this year we have written two letters to the board outlining concerns regarding infrastructure issues in our buildings as president of the baa I have an obligation to stand up for the health and safety of the members who have elected me unfortunately the scope and severity of these issues has now reached a level where I feel I must speak to you directly since the end of winter break I've been in communication with building administrators and our new superintendent they've worked tirelessly to rectify the most current system failures District administration has taken our concerns seriously and have been overwhelmingly supportive and collaborative in trying to find Solutions our administrators do an incredible job to keep us safe and our schools running but conditions of these buildings will not improve unless they are addressed directly by the board of education because of the scope of the most recent issues I've also filed complaints with New Jersey's public employees occupational safety and health this state agency has been both prompt and thorough in their investigations I am committed to continuing to report unresolved issues that endanger the health and safety of our staff and students while many of the most recent issues are being addressed the overarching concerns still remain we are simply reacting to situations instead of implementing significant repairs making minor repairs as issues arise as a temporary fix it does not address the problems at hand the systemic failures we faced in the P past month are not minor Governor Livingston had 15 coils burst leaving multiple classrooms without heat or ventilation po ventilation from non-working radiators led to poor air quality in these classrooms and this exacerbates health conditions and creates an unhealthy environment for both students and staff many classes had to be assigned to other rooms or staff was required to keep windows open if using those classrooms a Columbia Middle School malfunctioning fire panel closed school for two days there's now a temporary fire panel in place that requires staff to remain on firewatch to ensure the safety of students and staff until a permanent replacement can be installed such malfunctions compromise the safety of everyone there have also been boiler malfunctions throughout the district continuing issues with sewage systems and plumbing persistent roof leaks that can lead to long-term structural damage and the presence of mold and all of these pose health risks to both staff and students these conditions are unacceptable and addressing these problems peac meal is insufficient I'm not here to point fingers at District administrators or the Board of Education past or present these issues are due to a long-term neglect for more than a decade I'm here to emphasize the urgency of addressing these issues we need a comprehensive and proactive plan and ultimately the Board of Education Bears the responsibility our staff and students deserve better I urge this board to act decisively to allocate resources to implement solutions to bring our schools up to acceptable health and safety standards and to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in our schools health and safety in our school should be a priority our buildings are not healthy or safety and it is time to prioritize this issue thank you thank you hi I'm Nicholas solvin I'm the vice president of the PHA adding to what Marcy just stated I'm here to provide additional feedback from the the bhea the growing list of building infrastructure issues in several of our schools are greatly impacting the operation of the district we thank the school administration custodians and maintenance staff for working diligently to reactively handle ongoing issues as best they can as of today almost all the heating coils at Governor Livingston have been repaired one month after many of them burst over holiday break while a month is a long time for a portion of our building to have no heat our school officials did what they could to expedite repairs they also found temporary measures and got space heaters the space heaters allowed some classrooms that were in the 30 degree range to be in the 40 degree range and other classrooms were warmed up to be more normal it's important to note that there are no required temperature uh ranges for classrooms or schools only recommended ranges what is required by code is air quality and with compromised HVAC systems Co two buildup levels were found to be unsafe in some locations with compromised HVAC systems the excuse me the solution for uh compliancy is to open the windows such as in here we urge the Board of Education to please listen to the many stakeholders asking for your help it is disheartening to see our school leaders not have all the tools they need to address the issues at hand when a major leak occurred in this room a couple of days ago during student lunch everyone showed up we had building administrators central office staff custodial and maintenance they were all here trying to assess and help please listen to them and encourage I encourage you to work with them to help our schools improve it seems that the approach right now is to let systems fail and then try to fix them systems are feeling more and more and I don't want to sound aist here because age isn't necessarily bad but with systems the older they get the more problematic they are right now the present version of our fire systems are nearly 30 years old in our schools we have some long-standing leaks due to the roofs and many of our roofs have not been redone in 25 years the hfac systems in much of GL in Colombia were last redone nearly 20 years ago the HVAC systems in the elementary and early childhood schools are in some cases original the pipes in our building have been beginning to fail at times due to corrosion of the water and uh temperature issues please take a proactive approach to this you can do that through the upcoming referendum please involve everyone in creating a vision for a district we are excited by the process but are concerned by the delays we welcome Dr phry to our district and we look forward and are excited to see everyone work together to get a vision for collaborative collaboratively working to get our district on the Bri path thank you and we need your cooperation thank you hi my name is Ramia castori and I live in Berkeley Heights um first you're very tall first I just want to congratulate Gail on um being selected as the board president um and thank you Mr palmier if you're listening you made the right choice and I am looking looking forward to you guiding the board during this year uh I also want to thank Mr Hopkins for his service I know his um resignation is on the agenda and aside from everything that he's done academically you know he's just been such a support to lots of families including mine so I just wanted to put that on the public record that I'm thanking him for his service here and I also want to extend my heart thanks to all of the teachers and the staff at Columbia and G because if not for them our kids would not be in school so I just want everyone to be aware of all that they're doing including I know Dr Jasco went down to CMS to be on firewatch so I think in all of this we forget who are the real people who are letting our kids go to school and that's the teachers and the staff um and I've heard the same four board members argue endlessly over policy um while they sat here waiting to give their comments so maybe you need to relook at your priorities and stop listening to your own voices and start listening to the voices of others thank you thank you good evening I'm Jared puus I work over at Thomas Pew's Elementary School I just wanted to say that I agree with everything that Mrs helmstead and Mr O Sullivan said and please listen to them and um follow their feedback and suggestions thank you I see more no more um in person so we do have two people online um um Tim could I ask if you could promote our first um our first Speaker Mr MZ can you hear us uh yeah uh uh can you hear me yes hi uh I can't see you though that's okay uh John MZ uh Berkeley Heights New Jersey so Gail I'm I just I wasn't expecting to speak to this but I would ask you to kind of reconsider um the approach that you took tonight uh it betrays an inability to gain consensus it it was sort of a top- down approach and and you know collaboration and working together uh means you know working with people you may not necessarily agree with and yeah that's going to that's going to involve some really uh difficult discussions I I don't think um having disagreements about process or methodology is a waste of time I think how we make decisions is as important as um the decision itself you know a lot of times you know Democratic processes are sacrificed in the name of efficiency and when we get to efficiency sometimes we find that we don't make the best decision possible so I I would really encourage you miss Bradford if you if you wouldn't mind to reconsider the the decision that you made and try to work through the process none of these so none of these things can't be worked out um I also want to Echo um the other speakers in terms of facilities but I think the thing that's missing here and I and I really appreciate the bhea bringing up the fact that these were decades in the making and I think you have to look at our budget to understand why and look at where we've been spending the money how we've been spending it to get an understanding of what's been put on the back burner year after year after year after year and I I I really hope that the Board of Education this year takes a hard look at that budget make some hard decisions uh to advance facilities and teachers and academics to put money where it belongs the last thing I want to kind of talk about is the um as Leo contract um so I I I I I kind of written to you about that I showed you other contracts you know this you know there there needs to be a cap there needs to be some level of oversight some sharing I mean I think you guys have to go back and look at what the agreements that other districts have and try to model this I've asked for familiar oversight of police in schools theoo is one small piece of this I don't want to make it about just that there you know our our overall security spending has increased and I don't think even most people even know what's sort of going on is there familial oversight what are the outcomes to these programs so you know we just heard the Town Administrator say that this is great for our schools I'd like to see measurable outcomes I'm not saying it's not but you know C can we see the data to support these statements we're you know you know when you look at education weekly for example in 2023 showed that nationally police officers in schools are making the most out of any other position other than teachers they're the second highest paid position in schools I don't know where that is in Berkeley Heights but I I don't know if that makes sense and where where we're heading towards with this we have facilities that are falling apart yet we spent two months last year talking about ID scanners you know I I really want the you know I'd like for you you know so I'm asking you Gail and Pam and everybody else and Sai and dippy and Tom whoever I I don't care all of you I'm asking you guys yeah yeah I'm asking you guys to sort of step back from this a little bit Gail you're the president and you got to lead with an example what you did today what you started with was not good and I I'd like you to kind of take a leadership role extend an olive branch and get back to the drawing board on fixing these problems in a way that's a little more open and collaborative you'll come to better Solutions thank you that's it is there anyone else online thank you I don't see your name okay Mr Samson yes uh hi good evening uh my name is aric Samson and I'm a resident of Berkeley Heights and I would like to also talk about the uh sleo contract Amendment and um while we agree that the school safety is Paramount the district's approach to funding deserves greater scrutiny particularly as the township seeks to shift even more costs onto our schools currently the district pays the full hourly rate for sleo with no cap on spending and no limits on additional cost like SI time or over time this is in stark contrast to neighboring districts like New Providence and Linden which cover only a portion of the sleo costs and exclude additional benefits why are we accepting such an open-ended agreement when other districts have kept spending and clearer terms it's also worth noting that the township cannot pull SOS from our schools the current contract is in place until 2028 the fear mongering over safety is just a distraction this isn't about protecting students it's about politics and prioritizing special interest over education instead of shouldering these additional costs let's follow the example of other districts and negotiate contracts that are fair transparent truly in the best interest of students and taxpayers it is time to re examine all agreements with the township to ensure they serve our schools not political abisss or personal agendas thank you is there anyone else online no yes Captain Captain May by the way I just like to clarify we're not asking for any additional costs in the addendum these are the existing costs that we have agreed to year after year after year just to clarify um Dr fter does the Mr Phillips does the administration have any response to anything that was brought up tonight okay our board attorney has stepped out U thank you for everyone who has uh voiced their opinions at this time we're going to continue with the agenda and our agenda at the end will be on any item only for public comment in person and online moving on to the minutes resolution a all board members may I have a motion to approve resolution a all board members excuse me Mr uh Mr dler did you have any comments on any of the public comments online or in person I don't believe so was one in particular like me to address anything that you feel would be appropriate that wouldn't violate what we talked about in executive session no I don't think anything come to my mind but there anything in particular please let me know no okay thank you sorry resolution a all board members a motion please so moved thank you Mrs Stanley second second thank you Mrs uh Mrs Jolly uh discussion yes um this is Airi yeah I have bought this concern up to Dr feltri and if you want me to send an email I could I think in some of the the detail in the exec session minutes if there are any actionable items that we discuss that we are going to request the township or on any of the contracts that we're discussing I believe those are not being documented or being followed upon so there is agreement that yes we will request these documents we will get them back but unfortunately they don't make it to the minutes so I would like to request there'll be more detail around what is the action that is going to happen and it be documented thank you okay Mr secretary roll call vote for resolution a all board members approval of meeting minutes Mr Stanley yes M Jolly yes yes Mr Kiri yes Dr forer yes M Terrero um yes on the January 7th abstain on the two from December 12th because I wasn't here Mr Dylan yes on January 7 and you're staining on the December sure Mrs Conor yes Miss Bradford yes motion passes moving on to Administration resolutions a through D all board members may I have a motion to move this resolution forward so moved thank you Mrs Stanley second I'll second thank you Mrs J discussion so I had couple oh you can go ahead okay Mrs Ziri so I had questions on B which is and some questions on the hip but I thought they were going to be discussed in exac we couldn't get to them so how are we expected to vote on them if we have questions on them I believe we said in the in the agenda that we got for the exact session we were going to come to student matters it's my understanding you discussed these in the exec last time the the hibs that we would discuss tonight were the new hibs that would show up next time so last exec also we couldn't we didn't have any time to so then in this case um you can table it okay but s um we just voted on that which ones I thought so the hibs are under Administration and we just no that's that's open for discussion right now yes we're on uh Administration resolutions a through D all board members we haven't voted and last meet last exec because of the time I don't think we had an exec session at the last board meeting the F the re December yeah well I mean you had you had all of December and January to ask the question so I I like I right like I had to pull these up for Deb today um me Gail was like I can't find them and I was like I can't find them either and it was like dug into one of doctor uh U not doctor Mr Nixon's uh emails but we did find it and give it to her so it was from December 12th right because we always do the month after so these were received before December's meeting right now we're January and we vote on them so it's been a whole month um so it's up to you if you want to vote on it or not um I otherwise I think we're ready for vote okay any other discussion okay Mr secretary roll call vote Mr Stanley yes to all Miss Jolly yes to all Mr Kiri uh yes to everything I'll abstain on B abstain on B yes Dr forer um yes on a b and c and yes on D for the GL schedule uh no on the CMS schedule Mr Terrero yes to all Mr Dylan Iain on B yes a Mrs Conor yes to all M Bradford yes to all motion passes moving on to education resolutions a through e all board members uh resolution f is Berkeley Heights only may I have a motion to move on resolution a through e in education so moved thank you Mrs Stanley second second thank you Mrs Conor discussion I have a quick question on item F the new course mathematics um grade eight Dr phry or Mr Phillips if if you can maybe talk through a little bit about what is changing for the students that are moving into 8th grade starting September number 2025 that would be helpful so um in the past the seventh graders were all taking out your one and eth grade so next year next year what is being proposed um and this has been discussed I guess since late last spring and throughout the fall that we would be introducing an uh a math8 course and students can then um test into algebra one in eighth grade or go into math 8 um and what we found or Dr Curtis has found through her um research and and reviewing what other districts are doing that's typically what we're seeing other districts other high achieving districts do they have a math 8 course for eth graders and um an algebra one class for the higher achieving students any other discussion so oh I'm sorry I'm sorry who's hand Mrs Stanley hands up Mr K spoke um so on E I just wanted to thank um our um PE department for investing in uh uh their professional development I think I'm excited to hear what comes from this um I also wanted to uh say that I'm really excited about the new math 8 course um I I've had the opportunity to hear um how wonderful right it is to add an extra thing for students who are not ready right because this gives them more time not just to get the basics of math down before they move ahead um and we have made sure that we have things in place to help them accelerate once they're at GL and I know we heard from Olivia last year about some of the ways that she um doubled up so I'm really excited for this um and what it can do for our students to help them get the the the groundwork in math because I know right it's important to have that especially um just for even your mental encouragement right when you you feel like you're behind in math in particular it's really hard to feel like you can catch up and I think this will help with that so I'm really excited for all the hard work that our team has done to try to get this in place Mrs Jolly did you have your hand up I did thank you um with respect to the um the presentation item e the Hib law update I was just curious if this uh it says the presentations to administrators I was just wondering if that could also be shared with the board because we often have you know discussions about Hib and I think whatever the latest update is would help us as well that presentation will be given to the administrators the anti- bowling specialist in the buildings and the anti- bowling coordinator but I I'll I'll pass it along to the board members also just so you know I was the Hib liaison last year and they usually bring it up at their meeting which also would would have a the board Le on there so it kind of does get filtered down to the rest of the staff Mrs Ziri so um I have a followup on that presentation so it's happening on uh when is the presentation happening to the administrators is that a day off um correct that's on uh the Professional Day February 14th okay so I think I believe we have asked this from the Hib coordinator for the district that maybe like this presentation that's being made to the administration can each building like we are seeing an uptake so can we have key words that students from K to2 cannot use which can you know put them in hot water or like a Hib investigation can we have from third grade to fifth grade can an outcome out of this presentation be a a mass mailer to parents and students in different buildings K to 12 saying hey this is the training that we are getting but FYI if you use certain of these words or if you if there is a pattern of certain things this can land you in a hip versus this is a code of conduct violation I believe what's missing is we're seeing a huge uptick in Hip but the students get a lot of surveys we hear that there is a lot of Outreach that is done to students where counselors but when you do pull up like a third grader or a seventh grader and say hey do you know which are the words that you cannot use I think not everybody has a clear understanding so if we are spending this money with the consultant and to train our Administration can we pass this presentation along to the parents and come up with some sort of a cheat sheet for all students I I would have to speak to um the presenter sometimes you know their ownership to the their materials not they don't want that pass uh to a large group obviously because it's it's you know proprietory um as far as a cheat sheet uh the Hib law is much more complicated than just saying don't say these words and and this would be Hib or not so I wouldn't feel comfortable uh saying that such a list we we should be creating um I I think that would cause more problems for the districts in the end um I I I do think the district if that's what you're looking for uh can probably do a better job educating parents about the law um and that's something I would can speak to the anti coordinators about Mrs Tero well I was just going to add what um Mr Phillips was saying to kind of add on to what Mr K was requesting is maybe we need to look at programs that are out there that we can have shared with parents maybe this one's not appropriate but maybe there other programs out there that um can be shared with parents to achieve exactly what you're looking for Mrs Conor I'm I'm I'm going to Echo what um Debbie just said and we've been talking about this for the past few months especially every time we've gone through some of these HIV cases in exec and my personal opinion is before we start and I especially I'm concerned about the the younger students in the district the ones in elementary schools if we do not give them specific instruction on these are the things that are not appropriate um we're just setting them up to fail and then unfortunately for them the the penalty for for using what I will say probably everyday words is very high so and I had requested this to our you know acting superintend and I'll make the same request of Dr Feld we need to be a little bit more prescriptive and informing our students and parents especially at the junior you know grades on how the hi law works and what is inappropriate uh it's very easy to to use some of these words and and essentially that will result in an HIV um violation yeah without them maybe necessarily meaning it Mrs Stanley so I don't know if you read this month's uh January list but I can tell you the words that were being used should not be used they're not words that are used in everyday speech I can tell you that um or they shouldn't be in our schools and our parents should know that these should not be used in our schools um so I disagree with that completely um but I do think that we can do better um with training on Hib but we also it needs to be the families the families need to show up we had a training um a whole night presentation by two of our Hib Specialists and one family showed up at me so I can tell you that when these people make an effort to try to reach out we also need the people who are interested in this to come and to show up and I know it's not easy um but to be a part of it and to ask questions right and that whole presentation is still online so you can view view it um so I do I do want to say that we have to also get involved right we have to actually get involved and see I want to know what HIV is tell me more um as parents um but no the the words that are being used most of the time are not everyday words also if you use an everyday word and a and a child is not upset by that word if you use a bad word and that child is not upset by that word it doesn't qualify for an Hib so I think you're giving the wrong impression of what HIV is right there's multiple things in the law that has to be hit right in order for it to be a a founded HIV so you can't just say one particular word and then obviously it's an HIV right it goes down through a process and an investigation and then it has to hit other criteria right it has to be uh inhibit the education of the child right the victim has to show that there was an issue that had affected them right it can't just be some random word that's being used throughout the day so Gail just just as I'm making an observation and this is very interesting start to 2025 I'm noticing that one particular board member is making a lot of effort to generally push back or have some sort of an opposite comment to everything that others are saying this is an opportunity for us to have a discussion share a point of view you don't have to agree but you don't have to shoot it down either m is Aur did you have something yeah so the reason I requested for this presentation should be shared and like a cheat sheet is we are seeing just looking at the data and I would like to request Dr feltri to look at our you know graph of hibs from elementary to Middle School to high school there are there is a huge uptake initially we thought we are attributed it to pandemic but now there are also a lot of appeals and just to give an example if a second grader or somebody says like oh you look beautiful that is that is allowed but but if somebody says hey you look you seem to look a little chubby or on the heavier side that could be a hip so how is so when we go into workplaces or when we go into any other environments we are told clearly this is your code of conduct and this is something that you can do so I'm just saying because of this disconnect and yes the administrators need training but I believe there is a disconnect between what is being trained to the administrators to identify these hips and investigate these hips and the acceptance from the parents yes parents are busy they they might have multiple children they have Working Families so creating a sheet shouldn't be that difficult based on the kind of stuff that we are seeing you don't have to say put the same words but there are other districts out there which have made an Outreach which have given a cheat sheet to K22 or K22 325 so I'm just saying if we can ask the consultant maybe the presentation is not proprietary we're paying for it this is a presentation put it out there so that there is no disconnect between the parents and the administrators thank you Dr forer yeah I'm just curious about uh for each of these uh presentations how long are they how much time each one is two hours long two hours Mr Stanley so um part of the push back from me in particular is going to be when there's inaccurate information given so again uh this month's report which we will vote on next month um the majority of them were racial in nature and the majority of them were founded so I want everybody to understand that the information that is given I understand there are outliers right that they are talking about but that's not the majority if there's no more discussion Mr secretary roll call vote Mr Stanley Mrs Conor yes Mr Kiri yes Dr forer um this is a education a through e correct um f f for uh Berkeley Heights oh yeah yeah okay A through F yeah yes yes to M Terrero yes to all Mr Dylan yes for eight Mrs Jolly yes to all M Bradford yes to all motion passes moving on to Personnel resolutions a through e all board members resolutions J through t Berkeley Heights only may I have a motion to move resolution a through I in Personnel so moved thank you Mrs Stanley a second second thank you Mrs terrera discussion I have a question Mrs Mrs Ziri so on item G which is approve extracurricular activities we approved a whole bunch of activities back in um December I believe and then also in Fall so are these in addition to and these are the same dates this is for the current school year so are we adding additional people G yes so for the coaches yes it's the spring season and then for the lunch AIDS and yes those are extra additional people okay no because the reason is the resolution just says approves extra curricular activities for 2024 2025 school year it doesn't differentiate spring fall so I was just C ious we approved a whole bunch of positions in fall and it also said 2024 2025 years so these are in addition to what was approved PR okay and why is there a difference in amount in stipend for certain sports like for example I see head goal head girls lacrosse coach is at 88 8,833 whereas um certain sports are at 6,1 84 and 50008 are stiens contractual yeah they would be based on your collective bargaining agreement with your Association depending on the sport yep okay Sports and position and but the 10 but the length of the program is the same for all sports I believe right correct sometimes you know the involvement of the coach will dictate STP it so that's but it's negot it is a negotiable term of condition thank you I see no other hands Mr secretary roll call oh I'm sorry so I just wanted to say thank you to Mr Hopkins he has been here for years and years and years I hope you have a wonderful retirement um your institutional knowledge has been really appreciated during my time on the board as we have had um so many transitions so I just really really appreciate you and I thank you for all that you've done for Berkeley Heights and our students um so I really appreciate that and then I just wanted to ask a quick question I see that Columbia Middle School has a baseball coach but I don't see a softball coach are we still working on that or we not going to have a program this year I spoke with CJ um Hendrick today and he was still in the process of interviewing I don't exactly know that specific one he did have um but we're planning on having the program or just not yeah I didn't hear we weren't having a program so all right thank you yeah just just as my comment they did ask on several High School um positions and uh that were missing and it wasn't because they were dissolved it was there's no name in a box yet perfect so like that doesn't answer specifically but for CS okay no that one just stood out because doing interviews yeah there was baseball and then nothing so I just wanted to make sure we were looking so y he may have told me I just don't worry and also thank you to Mr Hopkins for his service to our district and we wish him the very best in his retirement Mr Secret roll call vote Miss Stanley yes Miss Terrero yes Mr Kiri yes Dr forer yes Mr Dylan I need some help going through I right yes all right and you care on G when they are Columbia Hugh Park theill in specific say yes or do you want me to say yes uh I believe only Governor lion only I'll say yes to a through I but on G yes to the governor of Livingston only I'm gonna have to do this more than once so I might as well figure it out Mrs Jolly yes to all Mrs Connor yes Mrs Bradford yes motion passes moving on to business resolutions a through R all board members may I have a motion and a second to move resolution in business a through R don't move thank you Mrs Stanley second I'll second I'm sorry Mrs cona okay thank you any discussion yeah I'd like to raise the point so yes Mr Dyan on B I'm 22 days so I admit I'm playing catchup um I I'm hearing conflicting opinions as to what the original contract how to interpret it um when it was created in 20122 um I I would like to make a suggestion that um some of the hesitation may be the length at which this addendum is being asked to put in place until 2028 um I think there's still some conversation that has to happen here but not at the um not at the result of us not paying the officers for the time that they've gotten out so um is there any appetite from the rest of the board to request that that addendum have a closer end date to solve for the problems that we have in place today but also give us the incentive to get back to have the conversation in a more meaningful way on the the open questions that so attorney just so we are clear I think what you're asking is can the you amend be to make an addendum but the addendum likely would only go through August 31st of 2000 don't know if I'm making that official yet I I'm I'm hoping I'm I'm opening it up for comment yep if that is worth even down that what I'm saying is the comments you're looking for is like an addendum that but the addendum that we vote on would only go maybe to the end of the school year did I understand that correctly I would something to that say yep get it right um we think that there's a bigger conversation that has to happen um is there is there a point here where we can agree to yep the language in the addendum will have it till 2025 right but let's come back to the drawing table before January of 2026 to address some of the open questions that still yep that that's yeah yeah that's what just so I can so Mr dler is the amendment allowed to have a different end date than the contract sure you can if the if it's the board's desire right if the board says to the extent of look we want to make sure we can get through the end of this school year but we have concerns about a larger addendum there's nothing that would prevent the board from issuing addendum that would have an end date that is again we'll say August of this current school year right if that's the board's desire the board can also say we'd like it to last the entire contract I was that was Bill was on the right track that's kind of where my head was also is if if there are people that are having trouble with the length of it maybe we can compromise and come up with a shorter period of time so we can move forward um and have something in place but then work towards something maybe more optimal for those who are hesitant um Mr dler with that require a motion it would so that would require us to amend the current addendum that is before you the amendment would be to modify the term and again I would have to you know this is only this board making that so obviously the municipality would have to pass something similar so I think it would be authorizing myself to amend the addendum the board would pass that with the addendum being that the same language is in place but that there is a specific term placed on that addendum that indicates that again you have to tell me which date you'd want to end this one ends August 31st 2028 so the easiest might be to just modify that obviously that's just a suggestion you can make it end the fiscal year right January or December so it's yeah but up for discussion but that's the I have another question does the does the township um like they can say no right that's what I mean this is only your body you know it's if you amend it right the township would still need to vote on it and it's up to them if they so desire but if you're asking me can the board do this I believe it can with consequence Dr forer what what would be the cost of this amendment you'd have to ask the financials can you be more specific I don't think we understand I've got a number that was said to me that you guys have done previous work to me I'm a little uncomfortable with the whole idea that you know we're going to discuss something which is really contract negotiations in public but maybe you want to do that um and uh I think uh I don't I don't think it's the end date that matters so much as the content of the amendment but in any case the right way to do anything is in Robert's Rules which is what we follow is just to do an amend so what is the nature of your Amendment what's the language for it so Mr Dylan would you like to make a motion for an amendment so if I can follow follow up secur as I requested I think we would like to I think the last time I requested that was and I'm going to put in a formal request is look at what was paid in the last 3 years you know for these public these are public records so we can I believe uh I was advised to reach out to AJ and to Dr feltri to request this information so we have to look at it we there are other contracts that I have sent from New Providence and other other neighboring towns in Union County and how they are going about it Mountain Side Dyan you said that you have a cap you don't it's a straightforward your contract has a cap 100 and something it's it's a it's a set agreement cap um flat number it's a flat number yeah yeah flat number for number of yeah so I believe where the the only hesitancy was I'm I'm for an amendment I think length is not an issue but getting this basic information that was requested in December we haven't seen it so my question was can we request for this information review it and then maybe we should be okay I would like to make a motion to amend um this contract to extend it through August 31st of 2025 to try to help move this forward and then we can revisit the remaining portion of the contract at a later time Mr dler could you help us with the wording on this uh motion second does she have a second yeah is there a second yes so there's a motion to amend by Mrs uh Terrero and a second by Mr Dylan and now we're looking at the wording one second P um I there with me isn't it I I understand it what what wording do we need it's basically amend the am the motion amend this contract not to end an a slow to be here yeah so um what I'm looking at is so remember uh you're not amend if my understanding is correctly you're not amending the underlying contract with the shared Serv uh so you're only amending the amendment this the resolution you have before you mentions the period of the contract so if I think discussion take place I will um I will have the resolution ready after discussion but just give bear with me a minute but if you want to have the discussion we talk I can or if there's if you're ready for a vote then just be with me one minute so we've had a motion to amend uh by Mrs ter Terrero and we've had a second by Mr Dylan discussion I think yeah thank you just for the record I think we all value the sleo I know I feel better that they're in the schools like I'm all for it I think um and we certainly want to see that service continue I think what some of us might be having a little bit of a time and how this started was that initially the the contract wasn't clear and that um you know now that we look at other contracts um they they are very different and so I definitely want the sleo to continue I don't want to do anything that would damage you know prevent them from being in our schools so I think uh Mr and you know and uh Mr Dylan had a good compromise that we can you know not worry pass this um and uh you know pay uh the bills as we go through the end of the year and then just revisit the contract to make sure that everyone is on board and to make sure that Theos do stay so Mrs Stanley sorry discussion uh do you want me to put read the resolution so um B would be amended to say resolve that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of business approves the addendum to the shared service agreement with the Berkeley Heights Police Department for class three special office during the peering starting September um 1 2000 well it would really be it depends on if we're yeah would still be starting um it be the date of today's meeting through August 31st 2025 and then the rest will be the same Mr dler would that affect anything that took place between September 1st 2023 and today's meeting true all done let me see starting date correct so if we're going if you're the board's going to apply this retroactively it's be September 1 20123 which is how it currently exists so then if that's the intent it should say September 1 2023 through August 31st 2025 and then the rest Remains the Same Mr Stanley you had a comment so I was just going to say that I'm not in favor of this um mostly because right as we've talk this is a very small number I really do feel bad for the two of you because you're getting thrown into this um but this has been months of um this and I don't think that most board members um I don't think the time is the issue for most board members I think for most board members it's they they want the township for to pay for something and um you know I I I just don't see why we would hurt that relationship so I understand why why you're trying to to work with people and I really really appreciate it but I know this relationship is more important than the couple thousand dollars that we're talking about in sick pay and I think that this is more important if we want to continue to work on the agreement there is nothing to stop us right like just because we have an agreement in place doesn't mean we can't work with the township to to make it better right there's nothing stopping us from doing that and what I'm saying is the last 6 months no one did that right so I don't see the next six months anybody doing that so that that's my reason for it and I I think the relationship is too important I think that and I appreciate your comments I think if we can try to come up with a compromise for those who are hesitating with this contract I think we all need to make a commitment to each other that we're going to try to settle whatever these issues are with the contract between now and August 31st so we can move forward and I that's what I'm hoping for and I'll make a comment th this may not work right but having watched the last two years and the stalemates that have occurred here and the lack of momentum that have happened something new has to be attempted to see if it makes a difference right so um we've got too many pressing issues this being one of them if there's a temporary way to move forward to make sure that the safety of our children continues right until the end of the school year and also the commitment to continue to work with the municipality to address this long term it at least frees up a little bit of time to work on the other stuff that's going here if we're acting in good faith and saying we have some questions but that shouldn't stop us from proceeding that's all I'm trying to do okay we have a a roll call call vote on the I'm I'm not I'm not understanding this oh I'm sorry Dr for okay I don't know the cost of this uh and I like I don't like to vote on things that have a cost without knowing it um and I'm not understanding if you're just changing some dates uh is there going to be a second vote on the actual amendment I mean what your what the the motion was to change the dates in the in the thing and then there'll be that so that would be changing the resolution and then there's going to be a second vote on the whole resolution correct okay soone is everyone clear on that just so I want to be clear so the first vote will just be to amend the resolution to put the word addendum for a shared service agreement and change the date August 31st to 2025 once if that vote passes then you actually have to vote on the actual item itself so I like the wording that you so it should be from today right how can we amend the start date so this original contract was voted on by different board members and the amendment is basically from today going forward we are voting on any payment that is included in the amendment language so we cannot go and say retroactively it's going to be from September 1st 2023 the or actual contract with the sleo have a different date so that is also my so some of the dates in this contract are also an issue so our original sleo contract with the township is from June uh 2023 I think it's June 20 possibly July 2023 signed in June 2023 yes sign approved in June end of June 2023 to August 31st 2028 but this contract says September 2023 so I don't understand the discrepancy in the start dates so I would be more comfortable if we going to do relook at it just do it from today January 27th 2025 to August 2025 and then could we agree if we're going to do that when I don't know what's the correct thing that we can at least get that bill paid the prior Bill have been paid okay I don't know where we are with that so there is a little bit of a miscommunicate long it's taken care of from up until this point however you do the dates is fine there is nothing that's not correct me if I'm wrong I I was just going to say that um I don't think it really matters because all the bills have been paid up to date so whatever that start date is retroactively doesn't matter what happened 23 we're just going to pay the going forward right so doesn't matter so if everything has been paid why should we put a retroactive date it as of I go and review the bills every month and I've looked at it so project to no definitely not um I'll flip if they've all been paid then why are we what's the push back the push back was for asking for the sick time which was not there in the original contract the language our original contract did not have sick time and and technically we shouldn't be discussing this in public because it's contract negotiations yeah uh we do have a motion on the table we've had our discussion let's have our vote and our vote is for resolution B approve shared service agreements excuse me approve shared service addendum agreement with the Berkeley Heights Police Department for class 3 special Law Enforcement Officers for the period 2023 to 2028 and we're going to change that to resolve that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent in the business administrator approves the addendum Services agreement with the Berkeley Heights Police Department for class 3 special law enforcement officer SOS During the period starting September 1st 2023 through August 31st 202 5 the specific sleo duty hours and school locations shall be set by mutual agreement between the superintendent and and or her designate and the chief of police or his designate so may we have a roll call vote on the motion M Terrero yes M Dylan yes Mr Kiri I'll pass Dr forer I'll pass yes Miss Jolly yes Miss Connor yes Miss Stanley I wish you guys luck yes Mr Kiri um with a hope that we will get the requested documents that we received yes Dr forer uh yes thanks guys miss Bradford no now we're going to have a vote on the whole resolution business resolutions a through R all board members we have a first and second already we have a first and second so maybe have a roll call Disc we haven't we only talked about B are we going to talk about more discussion uh just a minute yeah on uh let's see oh on this demographic Services uh there's an item it's option four which I noticed option four is to do a detailed housing analysis and that says they would compute student yields explicitly based on Berkeley Heights housing data that would be and which would be most useful if Berkeley Heights has a large number of news news housing units planned okay I don't think we have a large number of new housing in units planned uh and the work that's involved in this is actually pretty difficult um one of the things they want to do is a matching they call it a joining of the district's 23 24 student database with the Property database of Berkeley Heights okay I've done that sort of thing that's an extremely difficult thing to do uh I don't think we actually need this all he wants to do is get a refund estimate if you want to see actually what he's doing he's got in this first in his list of references the first paper talks about what he actually does and he doesn't get a he doesn't get a big effect from changing and doing a more detailed thing it's a lot of work and you don't get much effect uh if you had a that's why he says it only applies if you had a large number of housing units then you'd see a big hit in the number of students so I'd like to suggest that option four or just be dropped um the other thing I is I think he's saying you want to do one two one and two now that's kind of interesting what they're doing here it's not very difficult if you look at his reports uh he actually spells out how he does all this work it would make a marvelous thing for our math club students to carry out and it would really be a good credential if you could pull off a thing like this and think uh it would be much better if we had our own students do it a discussion oh sorry Dr forer so I I really like to suggest that we not go forward with this and just look into having our students do it just options one and two and then forget about four because it's a it's a it's not going to get you much unless you had a lot of housing uh Mrs Jolly um just a question to what Tom said so Tom I I think Dr fer you said that the last time the demographic study was done was 2019 2019 thanks a so since then um and again I don't know the math of what's happening but I think since then we did have a lot of new housing you know in Berkeley Heights so are you saying that this option four is only for future but I think how are we taking into account what has already um happened uh because uh with respect to the housing that came along which is a lot of the affordable housing there are uh developers agreements and I got all those developers agreements and I just took the factors it comes out of a report from rudgers he refers to it as cup and I set up a spreadsheet you just take the uh it's all based on uh distribution of bedrooms in the in the uh units and there's a factor for um that you apply to the number of B bedrooms and I worked it all out it's a spreadsheet I gave it to uh our previous superintendent I think I've given it to ajl uh there's one more um Development coming along I don't think there's a developers agreement on it yet but once that once that developers agreement is approved assuming they're going to go for a pilot uh we would we could do that too it doesn't take much I'm saying this is not difficult work it's kind of interesting and I think it would be wonderful if our students could do it Mr Dylan you had a comment uh somebody else did right sorry um so I think this this is part of the what is needed for the referendum am I correct okay and as part of what's needed for the recom referendum there may be a requirement that it is done you know not by the students but maybe by um an accredited or like people who typically do this kind of thing whether it's difficult or not so um that's my only concern right like I don't think if the I don't think it's the board's job right to to do that and especially if it's needed as part of a larger you know body of work Mrs well had a question um Mrs con had a comment I I did a couple of comments on on this particular item so first question is do we I'm assuming that the funding for this is going to be required between now and um June 2025 is that right yes and do we have this factored into our budget already in terms of um either a placeholder or are we redirecting funds to to pay for item D the demographic study yeah I'm going to have to find funds for it okay because I don't remember this explicitly being in our list when we did the budget last year it wasn't on it so Bill that was your question and I was like I think it wasn't but I want to make sure that I'm saying the right thing okay um I like Tom's idea of making this as a project uh for our students but I don't think it's going to replace the need that's likely to Natasha's Point there's probably a requirement out there uh but it's I I'm sure it'll be an interesting project for for the students I do want to go back and confirm the scope of what's in this option one two and four that the firm will go and take into account all of the development that has happened since the last study was done if option four is about new um units that's fine but making sure that we we don't um ignore the development that has already happened since 2019 uh Mrs Stanley you had a comment um I was just going to say that we are behind on the referendum um we need these things to be accomplished and and I think the Math teachers and the the science teachers and everything can definitely have our students uh do some studies for our school but um this one we need done by a professional so that if the state requires it we have it ready to go um but but we are behind and this is important we just had staff come up we had students come up and say that they are begging us to focus on this um I know some people said about the budget budget mostly goes to our teachers right and none of us want to see that change um so in order to make sure that we continue to have amazing teachers and amazing staff and and to fill our schools we need to make sure that we have a referendum right there are schools that do referendums every 5 years in order to keep infrastructure up right because these are Big expenses we have a bond coming off that's our opportunity we missed the last one right board members missed the last one we have an opportunity coming up that we can address these issues we need to stay focused on what's important thanks thank you you go ahead you go ahead bill um have we got that other bids on the the demographic study um not many firms that are I can't hear you AJ sorry yeah talking to the microphone please there are not many firms out there they're are dying breed at this point there's only one or two others and to stay consistent uh this firm did the last one but you're basing all your decision on sort of a guess as a probabilistic statement you think that me maybe the state requires uh some sort of licensed or certified person to do this there's a prescribed methodology it's called the coort survival thing he tells you what he's going to do you look at uh how he's done it in other studies it's not difficult anybody could do this and it would be a great credential for your resume a student that participated in this would look great okay now you do need uh what I'll call a project manager somebody has to you know coordinate this and that would be also a good thing for a student to do so I I think you're you're you're raising a concern but I don't think it's a it's a real concern Mrs zeri so I have two related questions on this um so we are approving a contract to perform demographic Services it's a prerequisite for a referendum I get that have we identified as I said before have we identified what the referendum is for what are the projects how much is the referendum for because I haven't been privy to it I don't think did anybody on the board receive what is this referendum going to cover I know we we say infrastructure but have we put a number because the last referendum question that was supposed to go on the ballot in 2020 was for 4 million was for media centers now I know our current needs are different so we haven't defined what the referendum question is and how much are we talking about the second thing is um we haven't done a bid obviously to look at who is going to do that this is not a big amount as long as it's certified and fine but I believe the the board deserves and documented email from the administration on what is the referendum going to be when is the referendum being planned for is it being planned to coincide with a November election that way we don't have an additional costs these I I would really like these answers because I am not in favor of a special election to just to ask this referendum because that's going to I think back in 2020 that was a quarter million dollars so we don't have Clarity at least I haven't been shared anything on this so I would like to request Dr feltri and the administration to share this information we are in the beginning stages of referendum uh uh Mrs Stanley so I think you can read the finance of facility minutes for the last I don't know six months that will answer some of those questions but then um the the previous referendum in 2020 um also had HVAC systems for GL and CMS in it um again we could have done that you know two years ago but the board was not focused and we lost a ba so we're in the same situation now right we got to get our act together well we are also sitting on a ton of Maintenance res so I want to understand how much are we asking in the referendum are we going to use some of our maintenance reserves we didn't have to wait for a referendum include them in capital projects thank you is there any more discussion Mrs Jolly right so I think um the dates for the referendum they were uh I think Solutions architect kind of gave us a high level timeline while stepping backwards um however I did have uh when AJ initially sent that I did have some follow-up questions uh to Mrs sec's point it's not clear are I mean it was an email like so there's a number of items listed so I think we need some clarity as to maybe starting with the previous referendum what was on proposed referendum what was on the list what has already been done what is being proposed for the current one and maybe because I think it's a pretty lengthy process right to get to the referendum end date that there are immediate things that we could do with existing reserves right so I think it's kind of important to differentiate like what's can wait till the referendum is approved versus what we can do now with the reserves and I and and I just don't have that Clarity of like the specific projects right like the final word I mean maybe it's in the minutes I'll go back and read them again but um just like a definitive list this is what we're proposing and again what can we do maybe sooner than when the referendum vote happens for the referendum we need to have public input on that and we are behind in our timeline yeah I'm not I'm not arguing with that I know that we're behind and I know we need to get moving I'm just saying that um we just need to get a little you know as we move along a little more clarity and prioritization of the work that needs to be done just just just as I've I've stated these are the stepping stones that we have here to the evening okay I just stated before that I got all the information from the principles that went to The Architects that all they have to have those interviews with those they have to put those lists together this has to keep moving forward once that is all collected that is when you'll get that information together we're not there yet and and until you're you're way ahead with dates for a referendum we're not even there yet we we we have to get to point A to B before we get to Z we're not even at A and B yet before we even get to those points that's the points we've been having and we've been discussing in finance we started those discuss discussions back in uh October November at that point so that's where we are at this this juncture so I I can't give you anything until we start taking those steps we haven't taken them taking this step tonight is going to initiate those steps going forward Mr Dylan two questions um I Heard more than once we're behind what determines us being behind is that the desire to time this in such a way when the old referendum falls off the other one the old Bond old Bond tax ta why is that a requirement taxing so if if it was a delay somebody would see a tax benefit for x amount of time right so there's that's not stone that that has to happen right i' rather do it right and do it well than chase a timeline that's a nice to have right um two my question would be Dr F I'm sure you don't know yet but I'd ask you to find out um I believe when I was reading the send receive contract from Mountainside um there is some input that has to happen that mountain side is aware of any tuition impact that this may come I'm assuming that all these wonderful updates will not come free of charge to the Mountainside residents that are sending their um at what point will we involve them so that they can plan for the impact as well and will when will they just me have a say in this process we're hoping that these ad hoc committees that we have for referendum in Mountainside will be able to address some of these Dr forer yeah I think you made a very good point I mean typically what happens in these uh referenda is you like to time it so that the new debt starts just when the old stuff rolls out and then you can go out and Proclaim oh look no tax increase but in fact there is that doesn't go away I mean you are spending more money you are issuing bonds you're going to have to pay the interest on that but it's just a sort of a slight of hand to fool the public into thinking oh there's no tax increase but there is once the bond rolls off your taxes go down you wait then you'll see it go up but that's what they like to do um I do have a question about this Rich's tree services 8,750 where are the trees that they want to take down to be prepared I would like to have those questions answered beforehand yeah I got a multiple things of things that are going on and if you had come in and asked that today I probably could have gotten you that answer off the top of my head I really don't know well it's such a specific number 875 oh it seemed like uh you had you must have had some sort of list is this like I mean we know we lost a lot of trees at Hughes is this at one is it all is this all at one school again off the top of my head I couldn't tell you okay all right sorry um Mr Ziri yeah on uh resolution a we are um inputting or we are embedding the email for clarification into the contract uh into the amendment correct it's not going to be a floating email it's going to be embedded into the like will we see after we vote on this that this email is embedded as you know supporting information and um the other following question is what determines the market rate like where do we will we have visibility into what was paid and who is determining the market rate because I believe I haven't seen the email I know Dr feltri forwarded it um um so I was going to ask her if I if I can see it or will it be embedded into the so the the amendment itself will not be modified the township via email through its administrator has clarified a termine that contract which my recommendation is that now that we have that that it' be attached on the board's copy in case there was ever an issue where the township tried to modify that term we would have clear guidance from them that we signed this agreement with the understanding that they have clarified that term that is the marker rate means the amount that they get charred by The Cooperative so that language has to be added right Mr dler otherwise this is the amendment is one document the email is a separate document so when you're talking about market right this is the market rate just that sentence has to be put into the contract so like how we did with the mountain side wrestling um share like agreement we approved it I am in favor of approving this but I I would like that language added to it after subsequent to yeah I'm comfortable if the board would like right we can approve the addendum tonight with the understanding that we will email the township again if the board would like to do that uh saying that the this addendum you know we could put a footnote to clarify that it's an agreement that this is the process in terminology utilized um if the board so desires right that's one option again option b is we staple to it and if there's ever an issue then we send them this email and we litigate it again the addendum is only for several years so I think once this contract expires obviously you will not need an addendum because the language here should be incorporated into your next agreement see I feel like if it's not embedded what happens is when the next approval or renewal comes in the email can be lost we might not be there you know I don't know after 2028 who's going to be on on the board so I just feel like adding that clarification into the language I don't think anybody should have a problem with that so if again that that would have to be done by way of should I move or you'd have to move I think I don't know if um you'd like to move now finish discussion um but yeah you would move to just add it as um footnote or the like where the language that was presented in the email would be incorporated into that agendum okay I have two things yes Mrs Mrs Conor um going back to the demographic study question do we have a full understanding of what exactly is the deliverable supposed to look like for the demographic study do we do we know what what the expected output of this activity is and and what's required for the referendum do we know Mr jitz has left could we save that question from for a minute yeah and my second question a report I mean I've seen a report and there's all these components to the report but he could probably speak to the specifics okay in the and then the and I guess I'm assuming that they are going to certify this that this is as um as accurate as it will be the deliverable specifically the second question that I have is item R uh I think I think I know what it is but I just wanted to get a confirmation we've discussed this at length in in one of our finance committee meetings is the idea that we will we will get um some golf carts instead of renting them every year uh I think we're purchasing these are maybe secondhand golf carts that will essentially eliminate the need to just rent them for two days in a year um I I'm just curious to understand the the way this is being procured and kind of what is the the long-term maintenance requirement for these the the on the plus side we'll have access to these all year round so that's great and just is that the cost per or the total cost and how many golf carts are we getting now we should confirm I think last time when we spoke in in finance it was like two I thought uh these questions may need to be asked by Mr jtz yes do we have any other discussion I yes I have one more question yes Mr Dylan I I'll say it's specific to P but my question I think is really for all the referendum item c d f have these gone through any sort of vetting of the committee perspective Finance right itm p is 72,000 s line items in there are social media help so has has this passed through yes but the the specific answer to your question is the finance committee did not discuss these numbers to be very specific we we talked excuse me I think one person at a time um we talked about the various components of of the Readiness for the the um for the referendum so the demographic study was a part of it the bond attorney was a part of it um and I'm looking at what item P here is and this is their own like the services of solutions architecture to sort of guide us through the process um but this specific um item I don't remember seeing this specific item we talked about it but if you ask ask me if this particular attachment went through committee no so mrtz while you were out of the room we had several questions um Mrs Conor will you address those questions again yes sure so item R the golf carts we talked about that in committee last year the well is it two cards is that what we getting here R you said R the last thing in the section yes okay so it's two cards uh total cost is 66599 but it's going to be there's two it's 6599 times two okay so this is one here now one's going to be next month because one went through on December one on January got it got it and do we have a clear understanding of kind of the maintenance require re ments for these carts we didn't have it previously I imagine this is going to be something in your budget to kind of make sure we have a placeholder to it's electric you know it's nothing nothing too crazy for in terms of of Maintenance of Maintenance okay I mean if it's going to be a battery but it's going to be chargeable okay forgive me and the gentleman that we're buying it from also does the maintenance on okay so that is not includ this is just the cost of purchasing it and we'll have a maintenance agreement separately if if if there needs maintenance and we can't do it on our own okay I mean okay if a battery goes bad we just have to buy it just like you see there's a floor scrubber back there yeah it's the same kind of concept so okay I mean if the batteries go bad we just have to buy the new ones replace it put them in that's pretty much it okay that's helpful and then Debbie did you have a question on the same thing just forgive me my for my edification what are these golf carts used for graduation okay so also getting around campus the trainers sports events and the ad director um it's not only even even because what we were doing was renting these things during the time to get um elderly people around for graduation yeah so for for that money that we were using for it what was it um 3,400 somewhere around that neighborhood I'm I'm looking up we we had this documented in the minutes and I can you know share those with you every year that spending just to rent it do we not buy them and and we can use it all year round for all the other different purposes because what what we're doing was we also have a third one that has a platform in the back for bringing supplies around for the trainer but instead of carry driving one trainer around with another one something happens at least now there's another car available for that purpose and and this is just for GL to be specific just because of the area that's required to be covered there's a lot of acor do we have any more discussion on the my other question was back to the um the demographic study I just wanted to confirm if we have a very clear understanding of what that deliverable looks like that is expected to come out of the demographic study I I I'm GNA be honest with you I took the lead with the architect on what was needed out of all those because the discussion that we had uh with myself the demog uh demographer and with Frank uh MSO knowing what he needed uh was all dictated by him so the presentation uh was one of the things because that's going to be needed in front of people and the two other pieces what we had with the buildings uh the development here because we've had several developments that have been going on since 2019 with I know at least there's at least three if not four developments that we've had here so far yes that was one of the things that triggered that to be on there um and the other piece so I let him take the lead on that yeah so yeah so I have two follow-up questions one is on um the demographics study so will this can we confirm that if there are any follow will we will we get all supporting information if we need will or will there be any additional charge for this particular consultant to come in clarify any questions or give us supporting information will they share everything as part of this process if you have questions or concerns before we get involved in this whole entire thing I would say send them to me I know you're asking me this right now at a board meeting but if you want I I can ask those things directly to him um I haven't been with a demographer in quite some time um so if you have questions and concerns I'd say send it to me I'll ask so um and I think you clarified before that the money for this demographic study you'll have to find it it wasn't budgeted for that is correct okay so now similarly I have I see item p and this is of I I had a similar question like Bill so did we do we have money $72,000 for this particular agenda item and uh do we have to no normally would be all inclusive in with it but if he decides to start doing some of that work ahead of time you know I'm going to have to find some of that money but normally that would come out of the referendum oh so but the referendum is for 2026 yes but some of that's going to start now so you know so he's not going to get paid normally you're saying he'll only be paid after the referendum it'll come out of I think what he's saying is if we don't go to referendum this is what he's indicating because look what's happened it's it's there's been work done before where hasn't gone to referendum that's the point oh so this is like a okay um he is to know if he's going to do this work and if we don't go to referendum he's going to need to be paid so may I suggest something because this the initial discussions were started in finance and facility Committee in the fall we haven't seen we we ourselves have not yet determined what the referendum question is going to be I believe this particular consultant is going going to help us and I do get your answer that we're asking you about the destination which is a z and we are at A and B but before we get on a train ride we need to know where are we getting on this train for so would it be prudent to Define this yes today I believe Mrs Bradford has already started created these ad hoc committees so can we not table P until we Define what the referendum question is how much how many millions are we talking about about what are the specific projects and then vote on this at the next meeting I think part of the challenges we need information from P to help inform the board and and it it's not like I'm going to make a recommendation that this is what we should do for the referendum we're taking input from you we're taking input from um the community and without having the Architects take everything and tell us this is what this is going to cost so we can make decisions NOP we want to spend the money here versus here because the Architects are going to say well the heating's going to cost this much and roofs are going to cost this much and parking parking is going to cost this much and so then we will be in a decision to make okay well we need to prioritize this and this and what do we have in capital reserves and what do we have in maintenance and can we afford this and this and this and we don't have all of that information so I hear you Dr feltri and I know we are in the budget cycle already we have maintenance reserves this is our question from and I know I know you knew but this was our question last year prior to the budget do we have any capital projects the answer was no no capital projects we do have money in capital reserve account we have money in maintenance Reserve account the parking lot could be an ideal Capital project yeah I want can we please have one person so my question is we are in the budget cycle AJ is looking at it last meeting I wanted an additional meeting to go over capital projects where are we are there any planned we don't even have defined uh purpose or scope for the referendum I I hear you that you need this consultant to start but can we and we don't even have the we haven't allocated any budget money for it so can we not get these questions answered first and then vote on this this can be this can wait to the next meeting what what is the emergency that we have to vote on P today they're the ones giving you the information that we need uh when will we get the information so if we which is no I understand but all I'm saying is that we haven't defined what we need so can I it's like it I'm going to say it's like retaining attorney okay you get into trouble you need a retainer to get an attorney he's not going to do anything until you retain him and start doing the work that's the most I'm going to say logical thing to put it as yeah and just to confirm from what's in the contract that is a not to exceed number and that seems to be kind of broken up into a few categories so my only question would be if the board decides that we don't want to you know pick up a certain category or maybe not as much or spend as much on it do we have the flexibility to do that given that this is not to exceed number I'm going to say yes I mean uh I'm I'm sure there's got to be one or two people that have gone through this phase at least a few years ago you know and be familiar with it at at some point this is what the third go around right someone has to be familiar with it or have been involved with this process with the community with it no I I meant us going back to the architect firm and just confirming that we have the flexibility to choose you know uh a slightly smaller version off of this que if you will I'm I'm going to say you you you everybody's getting here with very specific questions yeah send them to me and I will ask him that's all I can that's all I can do is will take you up on that that's all I can do Mrs Stanley so yeah so the finance committee had uh like a two-hour meeting uh with Solutions architect that talks specifically about the referendum um and what they need to move forward so like Dr phry said right like they actually go out and get the public involved they go out right like just like we had with the with the um the superintendent search right they go out and ask these questions right they go out and ask the right they talk to building principles what are your concerns and then they also bring in their knowledge of the building right we know this area needs to be looked at we know that your heating system is 20 years old we know this and that right so we spent two hours with them going over just PE pretty much right what they're going to do uh for us to try to get us there so I do think we need to move forward um right we have a referendum ad hoc committee I really thank you for putting that forward because we need to get this started um and we don't know right we don't know how much it's going to be because there's a lot of things um when it comes to the parking lots um I believe Mr Nixon has multiple times said right like I think gl's parking lot is like 500,000 if I'm not right just that one right so now you're talking Hughes and CMS and many of the others right well it's just like when I was looking at when we first talked about what it was needed over here at CMS all right first you look at it and you say to yourself okay I'll look at getting a paved and we had this discussion last year during the budget meetings and then I said to myself there's a lot of PUD puddles and there's a lot of ponding going on and I'm saying to myself before I'm going to do anything I'm asking The Architects what is going on here now we know there's a lot of low water tables around there a lot of them and as we delved into it they got the the um the plans up and they started looking at this thing there's a lot of other things that are going on here that are besides or or beyond the scope of what needs to be done and when you start looking into it uh particularly at the level right where the board office is there are some areas that they had to put French trains in to prevent water from getting into that building okay now you get down to the lower part and there's even more problems that are down there now what we have would completely drain of of some of the reserves that we have that needs to be incorporated in with the referendum because the amount of money that it's going to take to fix it and to do it properly so that was one of the discussions that were had in order to do it and do it properly I know a lot of the spaces that up at at when we did uh a ride through with the Architects a lot of the spaces and the drainage that's up at uh GL that needs to be looked at because that drainage there is very small so again it's going to take a lot more money to do it Incorporated in with the referendum in order to do it right right because it's not just Paving it's drainage Ando did a great job when he did take uh the board members around me and Gail were able to attend um and he he did a great job at showing us areas right so the CMS with the main entrance on the side of the building where the kids enter right like that whole underneath all of that sidewalk is there's drainage in there and we need to dig that up and redo the drainage under there and then redo the sidewalk and then pave right and all this needs to be done when we're don't have students in and staff in school so again right like this is a big project and this is just the step right this is the first step to saying we have infrastructure problems and we need to look at them and then we go to the public for a vote but we're not even close to that right we don't even know if we can get there but we have to take that first step because we know there are a huge problem that we cannot fix with capital reserves yeah I see no other hands um Mr secretary for a vote no I was advised if I wanted to change the item a to include the I should move you have to move yes so I move a motion to include the CL clarification on what the market rate for the fuel is into the addendum the shared services addendum for resolution a is there a second second second Mrs con so the exact wording is something about uh you're going to use the charge as given by The Cooperative on the on the monthly pillings yeah if you could give us the wording Mr dler um give me one minute sorry on it because I would like to make a change also I wonder if we could do them both together so the amendment would be to modify the market rate to clarify that it is the fuel rate at the date of delivery to our DPW to the sorry the Township's DPW okay I I don't know how to do this I would like it to be the average cost per gallon of all the fuel in the tank based on that deliv no you just wanted so the motion was um include the market rate on the day that it was delivered to the Township's DPW from the co-op so if it's okay I think Dr I think can we vote on amendment number one and then we can then move forward for if you have a motion to move the Second Amendment all right Mr J could you give us the wording again please how weing on this motion the it would be a clarification to the market rate so it would either be a footnote or the like just CL added into the addendum that market rate would be defined as the fuel rate as of the date of delivery to the Township's d uh DPW and I think um Dr felter mentioned that um the billing right will include the amount paid right any discussion okay we have a vote we have a motion on the floor we have a second roll call vote Mr Kiri yes Miss Connor yes Dr forer yes Miss Jolly yes Miss Stanley Miss Terrero yes Mr Dylan and Miss Bradford yes motion passes now let's go ahead with the business resolution okay wait I have I have an amendment also I'm sorry Dr I would like to use the average cost for gallon of all the fuel in the tank based on that uh fuel fuel rates on date of delivery can I sorry just just that's that's yeah not sure how we will validate or who's going to calculate that it's going to do the math it just seems like a you take you take the you get the uh invoices you know what did they pay I would say we don't have to go back 100 years and take the last 12 I'm just trying to if you are trying to keep it simple yeah my only take is this is going to be a little bit more complicated and it's unclear to me on who's on the hook to do this that or is it the town well we could just uh Tom we are the the earlier motion was we are going to see what the township the market rate is the co-op rate that the township got and then if we fill our buses on that day I believe we are paying the same rate correct yeah and if we fill them multiple times and if they fill their uh whatever the rate that is I think so basically they fill it on 27th of January and then we our buses go and fill between 27th to February 14th and then they fill their townships DPW again on 14th of February we are getting the same rate so I think as long as we see that visibility I think we we're okay right I'm I'm basically want to follow the principle that nobody profits from this so and the only way I can do that is to charge the average cost per gallon of all the fuel in the tank so so just take 12 invoices and add them together divide by the total number of gallons that'll give you an average average cost I understand the spirit of what you're saying I just don't know practically how easy it is to get the answer it's it's a little bit more transparent if we can see the rate they're paying and we pay the same rate Dr forer are you putting forward a motion yeah yeah is there a second on the motion idea to use the average cost per gallon of all the fuel in the tank I'll second it um wording well I I can give you a so I can give you the exact wording later I believe um so I think that would be the wording but I think the amendment would have to include the if I remember correctly you gave a formul uh so the the board was given a formula in executive session mhm I believe that formula would need to be added to the addendum so that it's clear on how the calculation would be done I have a question it's not does that then negate what we just voted to approve yeah so this would be yes this would be an addend denum so yes that would change the calculation so the first one that was the addendum was it's the original addendum as you would be voting on it's just adding a clarifying line that the toship clarified on the definition of market rate this is a new motion to amend which would change the calculation from the time of delivery to basically an average of the fuel cost over a 12-month period or whatever whatever uh that the first time you do it 12 months but after that I don't think you need to you just keep adding it every time you get deliver you just add a new thing to the uh yeah assume you add one and then chop one off no you don't even have to do that just add one just recalculate the average think of a spreadsheet you got 12 numbers I'm just you have to get the start get started put down gallons and cost 12 times right now a new delivery comes in just put in the the gallons and the cost for that delivery and then C recalculate the average Madame President I object to the consideration of the question you can take a vote for 23ds in the negative um so we already have a motion and we have amended it so this second motion would negate the first one that we have amended correct so let's not go there I'm still using the let's not go there I'm still using the the rate as given by The Cooperative right and we have no wording on this is that what you need really to vote yeah correct um we could amend this contract after we approve it you know there's always that option yeah because this contract only goes through August of 2025 this August all right would you like to withdraw your motion uh we have a second okay it's uh we have a hard to withdraw things I'm willing to withdraw it although uh yeah I'm willing to withdraw it but then I need to take a vote to withdraw it I don't believe so but it needs to be on if we have no wording you can't vote on it I believe so there's a motion a second if you'd like to move to withdraw you can make the motion someone seconds it and but again it's however you'd like to proceed I think the I the does everyone understand that the current motion on the table would negate is an amendment to the first one that would negate it um can we just say no and that'll resolve I think it's the moving forward with the vote I think that's the cleanest way let's move forward with the vote Mr secretary Dr forer No Mr Kiri no no Miss Jolly no Miss Conor no Miss Stanley no M Terrero no Mr Dylan no Miss Bradford no motion fails all right so now we'll get back to business resolutions 8 through R all board members we've had a motion we've had a second we've had discussion uh roll call vote Please Mr secretary uh this the motion my motion was to amend it so this one has to get amended right uh when we are voting on it yeah voting on the amended discussion yes Miss Stanley I'm sorry there's a question clarification yes made updates to A and B on our P we're voting on those updateds correct no whatever but for and just right but all resolutions right do you need does anyone need clarification or wording on all of them does everyone understand okay Miss Stanley yes to all Miss kaana yes to all abstain on G Mr kry yes to all no to uh yes to everything except no to see and um no to see DP and um no to two check numbers 21148 excuse me okay got it Okay resolution to okay yeah so it's just yes to everything except no to p d and c so it's C D and P yes Dr forer okay uh yes to a uh no to B uh no to C uh no to D yes to e uh yes to F no to uh G what are we up to H is yes I is yes J is yes K is yes um L is yes am and enter yes oh uh o is yes uh Q is yes R is yes so the only Nays that I have are b c wait did I say uh did I answer on p p is no yeah so the only names that I have are b c d g and P yeah that's right M Terrero yes to Mr Dylan yes Miss Jolly I'm going to say yes to all accept I'm going to abstain on G I think I had wanted to discuss this in exact session but we weren't out of time so until we get to it I'm going to abstain on J okay and Miss Bradford yes to all okay so I have three looks like that the broadcast see it looks like everything passes motion passes thank you moving on do Finance resolutions a through D all board members may I have a motion so move thank you Mrs Stanley a second second thank you Mrs Conor discussion I see no discussion we'll move on to vote Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Conor yes Mr car yes to all except C is a no and then no to two check numbers 211 483 2 2183 211 48311 483 that's your only one and 2111 408 21148 yes 48 okay Dr forer uh on a uh no on 211 483 and no on 21148 yes to the rest of it yes to b c and d m Terrero yes tall Dylan yes to all Miss Jolly yes to all but I'm gon to abstain uncheck 21483 Miss Bradford yes to all motion passes comments from the public on any topic during this portion of meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on any item the board requests that individuals State their name in town of residence or School of attendance for the record all comments should be directed to the board president depending upon the nature and complexity of the question may or may not be answered during the meeting by the administration if so the response would occur after the public portion of the meeting has concluded although the board May respond to all items raised during the public forum all public comments should be will be considered the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel items are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will will it be liable for any comments made by the members of the public please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from or adjournment of the meeting each speaker statement will be limited to three minutes in duration we'll take in person comments first then online Nick again hello uh I get to speak slower this time because I don't much to say um the parking lots were mentioned a lot recently um I was a student student here in the '90s and I'll tell you they're the same parking lots and they seem really old in the 90s so they're they've been resurfaced I think about 10 years ago but in terms of building from the ground up repaving it hasn't it's been a long time and then obviously all these many many things are millions of dollars a lot of things um some people who are new here I believe the last successful referendum was 2007 so it's been quite a while since we've had that kind of thing happening so it's been a while and I'd love to be corrected if I'm wrong so if anyone knows but I think it was 2000 it's been a while so looking forward to that process and uh looking forward to all the input sessions thank you very much thank you uh Tim I don't see anyone being um online is that correct thank you moving on do new new moving on to new business um Mrs Jolly policy 175 thank thank you um so I think as we are all aware last year there was a lot of debate about a meeting that occurred um with the transportation Consultants where there was um there were no parameters there was no agenda deliverables agreement on total cost so um you know and I had argued that as per policy 175 um this uh meeting should not really have occurred but to move forward i' like you know and I obviously there are people who disagreed with me so I'd like to you know to move forward I'd like to have Mr D kind of give us his opinion so we know that you know s situations come up again that we know exactly that we're all on the same page please so uh 0175 contracts with independent Consultants this is a bylaw um and you have to remember bylaws are for board members right so this is not a staff um uh policy this is a a board policy right this is for board members um so I would love to hear your um your thoughts on this but in particular right this policy is is a guideline for board members it's not a sta it's not in the staff policy can I ask a favor it might be easier if you have more pointed questions than uh broad I obviously I gave my opinion to the board in executive session regarding the specific instance I think that you're asking kind of more broad-based questions um and I'm happy to I'm happy obviously I can't talk about individual contracts because I don't want to but if you have questions more broadly I'm happy to answer them so with a given consultant we typically independent consultant we typically have a contract right and as per policies again and maybe you'll need to clarify you know to Pam's question but based on this policies it says the board will Engage The Services of an independent consultant only by written contract which must specify the work to be accomplished by the consultant the time within which the work is to be completed and the fee that will be paid the consultant an independent consultant engaged by the board is neither an agent nor employee of the board etc etc so if in the scenario that we had right where there was a contract with the Consultants they had to fulfill the contract we paid it the only thing I asked don't don't say the one we had I don't want to talk about that okay so moving forward if we engage with a consultant under contract the contract gets fulfilled how going forward how do we um continue to engage with the consultant is there are there limits or do we also anytime we want to reach out to the consultant for specific information need to as the policy says you know have a contract so I'm going to answer it a little early and I apologize for that so some of it's going to depend on the wording of the contract right so an example would be tonight um you approved a contract that said a cost no greater than x amounts right so you've given that consultant your Administration and the like flexibility to use a contractor up to a certain amount if at a certain point your Administration or the board or the contractor reaches that point they would need to come back to the board right there are obviously other contracts where you give an hourly rate and a Project based right and you know there may be some wiggle room when the project project quote unquote finished but that again that doesn't have a set end date it has a it's based on when the project is done but the Consol may come back a number of times without having to come back for the board there are other situations where it's just the consultant will be for X project for x amount and when that is done if the consultant wants to come back more times then they need to come back to the board for an addendum to that contract did I I know I did that with a lot of different hypos uh did I answer kind of what you were getting at can can I ask a followup to what you were just saying I believe that's allowed thank you so as long as you don't put me in the situation that Mr J was trying to put me on talking about the last year's situation no no I'm just I will continue with your hypothesis please or hypotheticals so I think what you're saying my takeway right now is in any situation in with an independent consultant if the extent or the limit of the contract has been exhausted into terms of the funding that was allocated or approved by the board um it is incumbent upon board members as well as District administration to come back to the board if they want to engage further with a consultant that is going to involve more funding requirements than were previously approved it's it's for that rule applies to everybody is that fair or am I missing something no I mean again it's not it depends on the wording of the contract so I don't want to put it entirely in a box right like the example I just gave was you approved a contract tonight but it put a cap on it right it said cannot exceed X sure there will be other contracts where you may not do that right um professional legal services right have an hourly rate so that's there's no cap placed on it by the board but if you're asking me do I think the contracts need to be approved and amended by the board I do especially in the case of a contract that had a certain dollar amount in it or a dollar amount and a duration and it has expired or the board and the district have consumed the services of said consultant as it relates to the contract and and there's more work to be done we all agree that there's more work to be done but before we can go back to that consultant we need to have some sort of an amendment or a renewal or a new contract to cover the new scope of work or new services that we want to engage is that right generally speaking I'm not going to sit here and say in every situation mistakes don't typically happen in districts around the state but if you're asking purely legally yes that's my view that if there's contract for X dollars then if it's going to go to x Dollar Plus you know y yeah then typically you would amend the contract and everything that I'm saying is in the context of us staying compliant with our own policy that's really what ordinance that's not what and that's what our discussion is supposed to be faced on our discussion is supposed to be based on this policy and that policy does not say that in sorry in what respect right so she's saying that that our contract right that we would be if if anyone ever contacted a person we have ever worked with in the past right like so let's say Dr phry had a question she's new here and she contacts anybody we've ever contracted before right our contract does not say that she can't contact right that's not what the policy says at all right and this specifically right says that the only people that can engage with this is the people that the board has given permission to to work with this people right so that's I think where you're missing the point of this this is a bylaw I think this bylaw was put in place to make sure that board members weren't taking up the time of contractors right with their questions it's supposed to go through a district employee to ask the questions to that that contractor right it's not so we're you're trying to try to put handcuffs once again on the district saying they can't do these things and saying that it's in policy but that's not what this policy says and that's not who this policy is directed at so then why would we ever go into contract and set any like limits right why don't we just keep calling and let having endless conversations and uh why would we ever get into a contract then if we can just call whenever we want uh Mrs Conor just just to follow up on both these points that are being discussed here if there is no limit and if this is going to mean that either the person is providing the service for free at which point we will not expect it to see a bill on our list or if they're not providing the service for free and they are actually going to charge us um this entire exercise where we go through the approval including the the field trips and whatnot I guess it seems irrelevant if there are no laws no bylaws to guide how we should be operating my take away when I read and Natasha just read that the the specific words of what the policy says and it it's clear it doesn't give anybody any specific directive on they can you they can call anybody at will it it basically says an independent consultant may have access to such school facilities uh and School District employees as may be reasonably required in the performance of the contract except expressly permitted by the contract so it it's very clear if we have authorized somebody to come in and and for $10,000 worth of work and and they have consumed those we have consumed those Services worth 10,000 if unless they're going to provide the next phone call or the next service for free I'm not sure why we wouldn't follow policy 175 so right does every time our district do something do they need the permission of the board to spend money they do not but if the board enters into a contract with a vendor yeah so that they fall within the parameters of that contract right outside of that contract they wouldn't necessarily need the permission of the board right and that's where I think we're differing right is this policy is specifically talking one to an independent consultant right but then I don't know what you just what dpy Kana just read because she she ended the sentence with a different sentence but an independent consultant may have access to school facilities and school District employees as may be reasonably required in the performance of the consultant's contract with the board except as expressedly permitted by the contract any communication between the consultant and a district employee or Community member regarding the work of the contract must be conducted through the board of the designated school office that's not saying that nobody can contact them it's saying that we need to go to the district who is supposed to be the one contacting them so we don't use up their hours on on nonsense on on silly little questions right when the district could be answering those and going to the contract so I slightly disagree yeah so the way again just not just your policy but I think the general parameters of the board right so the board is enters into the contract with vendors it's then your administration's job to implement the contract right typically speaking with independent consultants and like board members really shouldn't be interacting too much with them right you have committee structures and like it's your Administration right so you you give the authority to your Administration I agree that abortion handcuff your Administration when comes to implementing the policies but I do think that they have to stay within the parameters of that contract I totally agree what I disagree with is that anything in this in this policy says that they cannot ever con ever contact anybody again right like that I think and I don't think the board would ever want that right so we hire an expert right they do the job in the contract that we hire them to do and then we hire a new person and they have a question the best person they can go to after getting permission from their administrator is to contact that person right why would we want them contacting somebody else when we just had a professional come in so I don't think that that would be it but even if that's the case I don't think that polic this policy actually says that but I could disagree like that sentence says exactly what you said is that the administration is the ones that contact the contractors the board gives them permission to do so but they're the ones that contact that that point we agree on I think again just so Mr dler you're saying that from what Mrs Stanley read from the policy and what Mrs Kana read and Mrs Jolly within the parameters of the contract so the board within the parameters of the contract meaning the scope of work the time of work and the amount that was allocated and approved so for example today we approved $177,000 odd dollars for a particular study the scope of the work is provide the demographic study if any and then once they come and make the presentation they provide us the output if there is any follow-up action the work is done if there is any additional action that has to be taken by District staff or Administration which will incur a cost if we know ahead of time that calling this particular consultant or anybody after the work has been completed and there will be a bill that has to be approved by the bo board I believe that has to be that has to come back to the board they can't just say oh we just the board approved a contract the work is done I have a follow-up question if there is no cost that's fine but if there is a cost and there is go and we don't know the board is unaware of what the hourly rate is because the scope of the contract is over that was my question on the njsba contract from last year too we yes we hired them last year to provide us strategic planning Services we paid them a certain amount that invoice and that activity is completed so if we are going to go and re-engage with njsba and say hey come in 2025 come to a meeting is there an additional cost we don't know so 175 is very clear that you have to adhere to the scope of the contract and within the parameters of the contract correct that that's again there are some exceptions to the bidding laws for example an emergency situation where you you by law Administration has the ability right if an emergency comes in they don't you don't call emergency I totally understand I'm saying if there is no emergency and the work is done yeah so but generally speaking I agree that you know can you show me where in the in the policy it says that Withers we have had a discussion on this now for half an hour we still have to go back to Executive session and we need to close our meeting too uh within a reasonable time it is almost quarter to 11 now are there any other discussions on new business that we can have I will withdraw discussion on policy5 um is there anything else that we can discuss so on the number two the Raptor I would like to ask uh Dr feltri if are we implementing this um I know there was a pilot are we implementing this across all school buildings I don't think the Pilot's concluded um the pilot is only for one building can you clar yes it's not done yet but um I believe yeah uh so I haven't gotten any feedback from the pilot yet so can you clarify that while the pilot is being done only in one building which is William Woodruff this requirement of parents being asked to show a photo ID is not being requested in other buildings to the best of my knowledge you when you it's not being recorded whether or not you have to verify that you actually belong to the child that you're picking up that's standard practice I believe in all schools before Raptor was even so we used to sign in so prior to Raptor if I went to pick up my child for a doctor's appointment or a dentist appointment all I had to do was sign my name and sign my daughter out if I went for an IEP meeting I signed my name me and my husband signed my names and time in we were never asked to show an ID for the last two years at CMS we have had to give ID to come can I Mrs Mrs Bradford if who if I would really appreciate you enforce the rules uniformly across the board do you have any other question do yes I have a question I have been my daughter has an IEP I go to the IEP meetings twice a year and my daughter has been at CMS for the last two years I have never had a building administrator ask me but off late when I go to this particular building I do see a print out that says you do need to show a photo ID so I want a clarification from that Administration if you're confirming that the pilot is only at one building I am hearing from parents that there is this new requirement happening in other buildings and I can vouch for what's happening at middle school so I'll have to speak with the building administrators I know the pilot for the Raptor where you're using the technology with the ID and you're getting the stickers and all of that but I have not spoken with all of the individual building administrators as to what their safety Protocols are okay S I do know that it's EMS last year I had to show my ID they didn't scan it but I had to show it yeah but they never asked me now if you walk into CMS there is like a print out that you do need a photo ID and some parents have been pushing back so I believe without a pilot being concluding without us creating some policy language so I'm I'm willing to put this aside but I'll wait for the feedback from Dr phry is this kind you a comment I yes it's it's more of a question so when we discussed RoR I want to say in the finance committee maybe actually later in the tech committee and also in a meeting there were open questions on when that information um when the form of ID is scanned and the information is stored somewhere in the Raptor system um where is it stored who's responsible for the security of it who's responsible in case of a breach how how long is the data stored I think the Raptor agreement put the onus on the district in terms of defining such a policy and I have not heard anything related to what's going on with the pilot on us actually having a policy or Clarity on who's maintaining the data who has accessed the data how long will it store where will it store in the event of a hack and Power School like that's as as recent as it is there have been breaches no doubt about it so if that was to happen in the case of the Raptor system and with information that's going to identify and and provide a lot more information than than what happens today what is the recourse I'm not sure if I have seen anything that lays out a very clear plan or a point of view on what's going on with the data we don't make policy you do so the policy committee would have to make a policy there could be procedures at the school and I would have to read the contract the Raptor contract about the the data and who's responsible for the data typically um there's language about that in in the contract with the Raptor and I've not read that contract that's right so the board has not defined the specific policy we have existing policy language that that talks about um you know when parents come and and and interact or pick up their their students from the school but I am interested in understanding when it comes to defining any procedures what is the district administration's approach right now and particularly concerning is uh given the power school breach what is the fallback what's a backup plan or I mean any plan for that matter as it relates to Raptor Dr feltre just because of my technology background it might makes sense to also find out where that data is stored is it stored locally is it stored in a cloud is it maintained on Raptors where exactly is the data stored so Raptor has said in their contract language that we Define it we haven't seen where are we putting it that was our question from last year that is the reason why this keeps coming on new business because we are yet to see where are we storing this data and Raptor had a data breach very recently the the article was shared with Dr feltri so our concern is we're going ahead with this pilot we're chugging along we're collecting data we already have a power school data breach Raptor had a data breach we have been asking these open questions we haven't got anything from The District administration saying this is where the data is we will only retain the data for two weeks 3 weeks nothing's defined so we have three more items under discussion from Mrs Jolly uh Mrs Stanley and Mr Dylan Mrs Jolly we have about 10 minutes so um I did send around a version of policy 131 that's the policy that was abolished um at the last I guess in back in December um it's essentially the same except for the procedure portion which um which gives I believe the board greater powers in Dr said to make policy so that it policies can uh come for first reads not just out of committee but if they don't come through committee they can be you know added uh through uh through I guess through new business but they can be brought forth for a full board vote even if the committee does not recommend I think that's the major change again what we saw um it just want to give the board greater Powers right so if two or three committee uh two or three folks on the board don't necessarily recommend something that we the full board should have an opportunity to vote so the versions were passed around and so you know on the basis of that I'd like to make a motion to have the version that I sent to be put forth at the next meeting as a first read of policy 131 any other discussion I I do still think I I don't have I don't have a problem with what you proposed um I do think there are some flaws still in 131 um specifically the fact that if a if a bylaw or something is going to get abolished it should be done in two reads it shouldn't really be done in one shot and so I think if we're going to really revamp this I think we should really look at the language of the entire policy and maybe fix it so that we don't create a situation where we're making decisions like that kind of like what Jordan had suggested the fear of somebody's not here I just think we need to make sure that it's tightened up a little bit so if it does if it does if I do get a second and it does come to um the next meeting we can have that discussion and you know we can you know work on the language but I just wanted to be out there that it's um so that we have something to work off of right it would be for a first read and as we had amended you know resolutions here after discussion we can certainly until the next regular board meeting everybody will have time to review and I had sent it around over a week ago and come back no one came back to me with suggestions except for Tom Tom came back with a suggestion to make remove Strauss Esme and make it more generic um so like I said I'm open to feedback I just mention to address the very specific part about um you know having having the full board vote on policies that may not necessarily be recommended through committee because it is a full board and it is the um you know it's it's it's one of our powers right as Dr felter said we make policy and just to not have something come into the agenda because it was not approved or not recommended in committee I still think you know there there's room for the full board to discuss I'll second it and policies are going policy committee or committees recommend policy to the superintendent and the superintendent recommends it to the board that's only by the old policy that was abolished so the this version allows um allows a broader discussion and the policies are made by the board so they should the board members should have more power than you know requesting the superintendent to put them forward Mrs Stanley so I I think you you're hitting the nail right on the head right is that we're we're trying to go around the district and the superintendent right when we have a committee right we have the superintendent is on the policy committee so I know you wanted to try to make it like me and Gail somehow stopped you but you had a majority of the board last year the problem is is that you never worked with the district to convince them that the policies were good right and that's where I think this policy in particular really misses the mark right because you are removing the superintendent and the district and their concerns for policy changes out of this policy and this is dangerous and we saw that when we push through um policy and December it caused delays to our heating right because we were not able to spend the amount money right and so once again not point of order point of order this is not accurate information you don't information no there is a lot of no there is no I would like no I would like the administration to say that there was a delay because of a policy I will not there is a lot of misinformation disinformation allegations made but at this point she this is not valid I have not heard that from The District administration Mrs will you continue it's alluded to in the email but I want to say right because right that policy was never brought to the table not because of me not because of Gail but because the district said this is going to have consequences right now last September the first day of school um Miss Jolly sent an email to the to me as policy chair and to uh DIY kanana as the VP and to Acting Superintendent um Mr Nixon and you asked that the policy that you that the committee change policy because of one of your children's classes right Miss kanana said I agree right and then Mr Nixon came back and said it's going to cost $10,000 just for that class to change that PO if you change the policy and then it was never brought up again because it had an exact dollar amount this right the policies that you push through in December right couldn't have a clear we couldn't tell you exactly how it was going to affect the district right but the district kept warning these policies are going to have bigger consequence quences and we're seeing that now and now you're saying you want to continue to do that you want to continue to not work with the district right I think you're excuse me I Dr forer point I'm I'm OB the same amount of time objecting to the way she characterizes things Dr forer her remarks are directed to Natasha they have to be directed to you I'm going to this discussion there's a motion do we have a motion is that correct first and a second do we have a first and a second okay a vote so the the sorry mford I'm sorry um first of all um Pamela did ask Mr juskowitz if the policy had any impact and I believe Mr juskowitz said no so just to be clear so with the heating issue so that was asked and answered um that's what I wanted to thank you okay so we're looking at a motion if we want to put policy 131 back on the agenda for our next meeting meeting yes or no first read for a first read okay well there is no there's currently no second read there's no second read that's right right Natasha is making a motion I'm seconding it yes it was seconded now we're doing a vote Mrs Jolly yes Mr Kiri yes Dr forer yes Mrs Connor yes Mrs Stanley no Mrs Terrero no Mr Dylan yes M Bradford no motion passes okay moving on uh Mr uh Dylan and Mrs Stanley you have two minutes for your discussion I will move mine to the next one at 311 real quick um another month just passed and we're a month closer to the mountain side brookley height 10 received uh contract expiring I encourage you guys we talk about committees whenever we get to committees we create a committee to specifically address that not the day-to-day stuff not who are we inviting to graduations specifically send receip you need a committee out side is already started um this board is behind thank you we need a motion to adjourn to Executive session I move to adjourn to Executive session second voice yes okay let's move on I have e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e please favor thank thank you I need a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting so move second second Voice vote we are adjourned Jolly did first I'll do second yes who's the first in a second Jolly first this is Jolly yes and Mr Dylan and Dylan okay