America and to the rep stands one nation indivisible with liy and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings law we've been added to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies of which any business affecting
their interests is discust active in accordance with the provisions of the act for the Board of Education as caused notice of this meeting to be published on January 10th 2025 and posted on the district website at www.fb.com published in the board's designated online media Outlet
newspapers the record of the Star Ledger filed with clerk B of Fort Lee and mailed to all persons if any who have requested said notice please be advised this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date the open public meeting act allows for remote participation at
board meetings and defined meeting as any Gathering whether tutorial or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of a public body held with the intent on the part of the me on the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the
specific public business of that body roll call please is vus K here is here M Curry here Mr Knight here M go here Mr
Lopez here M Morel here Mr R here m r here everyone's hear the board will be convening to Executive session to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters the board will reconvene into public session at approximately 7:30 p.m I have a motion
to go into executive session second motion Rino second buers Kang all in favor any opposed okay the United States of America and to the
stand One Nation God indivisible withy and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies in which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in
accordance with the provisions of the act the forly board of education has called notice of this meeting to is published on January 10th 2025 and posted on the district website at www.fl published in the board's designated online media Outlet newspaper the record
and Star Ledger filed with the cler of B of Fort Lee and mailed to all persons if any who have requests and said notice please be advised this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date the open public meeting act allows for remote participation at board meetings and defines meeting as any gathering with a
tutorial or by means of communication equipment which is intended by or open to all of the members of the public body held with the intent on the part of the members of the body president discuss or act as a unit on the specific public of that call please Miss Kath here miss Curry here Mr
Knight here miss goang here Mr Lopez here M Morell here Mr Rino M RoR here pres the board can be executive session at 6:30 p.m. to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters Dr Kitz
will you begin by sharing the superintendence report good evening everyone and thank you for joining us this evening as we approach the month of March I remind one the importance of regular attendance in our schools not only is attendance representing our school performance report there's also a key indicator in the success that
children learn I want to thank the future teachers of America club for their from the high school has been working their way on elementary schools with various programs such as spelling bees and other programming events this month both our middle and high school have various incentive programs
regarding encouraging attendance which includes discounted local merchants and the Middle School receiving homework passes and cookies and cocoa at lunch if they are at perfect dependance tonight we have two students from our high school s and Samaya who will share
positive things scho thank you hello my name is SRA Bali I'm a high school senior and my name is son you high school sophomore and today we're going to be representing Fort Le high school so Andy dong was appointed
lieutenant governor at large New Jersey district Club International and Jacob Park lieutenant governor division 7 these positions are highly prestigious and entail overseed specific regions within the state of New Jersey and serving on the State Board additionally we're very excited that our current
District secretary Abigail Lee and Lieutenant Governor Henry will be running for district and international positions at this upcoming district convention post Valentine's Day celebration our amazing post seniors and Friends gathered in the Fortress for an unforgettable Valentine's Day
celebration with home based cupcakes chocolate covered strawberries and the best conversations the room was filled with nothing but love and laughter everyone left with a fabulous Valentine's Day card between two hands forming a heart because what's better than spreading kindness and appreciation
for our incredible Community funel had sweet for power and memories were made thank you to everyone who joined in to make this day so special 11th grade as or won B County championship in the H his season continues as the state needs and going
on good LU on February 7 and 13th Bley model1 Club attended K1 a conference hosted by VCA delegates engaged in debates craft solution to real world problems and tackled a range of glob of the 50
delegates who attended 10 earned Awards additionally portley was honored with the best large delegation award for the fifth consecutive year an achievement granted to only one School per conference on Thursday February 13th students from National Honor Society along with students from Spectrum voice
initiative volunteered for the opportunity to visit the Louis middle school and participate in an arts and cfts activity with the MD classroom it was an incredible opportunity on both ends to learn from one another and hope the high school students are so happy to continue to collaborate with other
schools in our district for wonderful opportunties on February 20th the Huber Club went to the aner museum in New York City and were imers in context that shaped her life the exhibition features a life-sized Recreation of the complete Annex where the where the handr family
were forc into hiding senior wrestler Michael gim won the 150 pound weight lass at strict 5 event Junior Ryan Kim and Senior gasis play second at the same event in their respective the junior class of 2026 is excited to
host the Harlem Wizards basketball event on March 13th this one killed Community event is open to all grades the special focus on Elementary and intermediate students teachers from the elementary and intermediate schools will take on the har Wizards in an exciting and entertaining game don't miss out on this
incredible night of basketball laughter and school spirit be sure to come out and support ticket information will be shared soon all grer 11 students will take the ngj GPA from Monday March 10th through Thursday March 13th students will report directly to their assign T students in
Grade 9 10 and 12 will have a delayed open once testing is completed all students will follow the delayed opening class schedule thank you thanks for that report this month we had two HS one was founded and
one I would now like to introduce Steve W our auditor District who will give a financial update as we complet our a for the 204 2324 school year much more intriguing high school stuff than the annual order but anyway
good evening thank you um another year quickly runs by us I'm happy to say that once again for the fcal year ended June 30 2024 we issued an unqualified opinion a clean opinion on the financial
statements of school district um little interesting this year uh the previous business administrator left in the middle of the audit new business administrator came in and I want to thank him for doing such a
fine job and pulling it all together and helping us do what we needed to do to get the order completed and filed on time these days sometimes that's a Monumental task I'd like to thank him publicly for
that I would would refer you to the smaller uh report which is the management report there were six findings none of them repeats from the previous year uh none of them are
Financial related they're all compliance related none of them are anything that anybody needs to worry about you you have a corrective action plan that'll be put in place uh some of the things have already been fixed and I'm sure there won't be
any repeat findings in next year's order and with that I would ask any board members have any questions thank you very much for working with um with our staff while there is transition so thank you Michael
and here they were able to get the AIT done in time um I understand that there from from your understanding that there were no repeated um recommendations when I 2023 to the
2024 order recommendation there were the three items that needed um the first one the first one is amount we reported um on the sheet in front of you this is the second item amount reported in the
subsidiary ledger should be compared to the reward letter um and carry over amount to ensure proper amount a variable for expenditure that's repeated from last year from what I'm seeing and then the following all sale checks
should be investigated and cancel if necessary that's also repeated and the last one is also repeated that the district take steps to improve nonprofit School Food Service program and reduce the N Cash resources is is
that right or am I reading it wrong um I would have to go back and look at last year's bear it but I will say for the the Food Service one it's not considered a repeat because that was something that happened to all the school districts
during covid the federal government through a lot of money toward school districts to be to be able to provide food service even though children were not coming to school they were at home they provided the money to
allow there to food pickup or what have you so meals would be served and prevalent throughout throughout the state um so we don't can you can you explain in term what does that mean that P resources that means you have too much
money so there's a calculation that's required statutorily that a food service Fund in a school district shouldn't have more than three months of its average expenditures on hand in cash go you mean
the money that's r f for food right the money right the money that's in the bank should not be more than three months of average cost to run the Food Service program it's this
comment is in school districts throughout the state so does that mean we need to like take more cash out of the account so we can use it for other stuff what does that mean it means that you you need to utilize it for Food Service activities you can use it for
equipment um you can use it for upgrades to the cafeteria or as we say here the cafetorium um and and the district is working I mean part of the um I guess the reason that you're still a
little too much money is you've had three different business in three different years so getting a plan put together in order to accomplish the goal has been a little bit slower I guess than it might have been if you had the same business
administrator for all those years I have a question do you think that because of Sals and things that aren so you're you're making a number based on how much is for child to
eat lunch um and then we sell a lot of products in our in our lunch program that are extras like ice cream and uh drinks and you can do all kind of Del of course the children love and it's nice their life but maybe that's making
the money go up as well because they buy a lot of those things yes but again if you're selling it at at a steep profit you might make money but I suspect that we're not selling anything at a very steep profit yeah they're definitely
Mak right there's a course to running you know cafeteria as well you have food service vendor you have spend money so again the re the reason is that Fort Le like a lot of
other districts got an influx from federal money through the to the Food Service fund theun everybody just couldn't give launch so I mean that's a good that's
not a bad finder that's find go it's good finder so and some of the reporting um there was reference uh to how the cost of everything is increasing um cost of services and goods um so overall the health of the financials in
our district do do you feel and Dr practice feel that we're pretty healthy overall yeah I do I I again you were able to put money back in capital reserve that you utilize during the 2324 budget so you have a healthy number of
over 10 million in capital reserve still have the $35 million maintenance Reserve about 800 ,000 of emergency um and we increased uh our excess Surplus by a million from 2223 to
2324 to be used in this current budget that's being formulated you know pretty much because being very careful to make that happen because the budget not just your budget
every budget this year whether it be school districts or municipalities or counties are high health benefits are up double digits inflation is know I you buy Pat of yellow paper what's twice as much
today as it did two years ago so you know we used to always talk about doing more with less and doing better with less but with what has happened inflationary over the last couple years can't you know give if you can have less
money to spend you can buy half of what you used to buy and in certain situations especially when you're dealing with with kids and education you just can't do it so there's you know I called him the other accountant in the administration Dr
critz is a is a good and big numbers guy so you know again you have two sets of high in is a good sense at the current inflation or the projected inflation versus our
increase in our tax phas at what point how many years down the road would would inflation over overpass this like a twoyear problem three year problem fiveyear
problem quite frankly in the environment we're living in right now where we don't know what federal government is going to do with the Department of Education or all the money the programs you get for title one and and Ida and all the other
programs whether that money is still going to be available in the future there's just a lot of uncertainty and and where do you make that money up from you cut programs cyut programs you
know there there's a lot of there's a lot of things that are in flux right now because we don't know know which way every day there's something else happening on the federal level that're getting this today then tomorrow we're not getting rid of it next day
we're getting rid of it again so you know we're in very uncertain times and what percent of our budget is tied to% um we we are the conversations that we're having in my level prend LEL of the business administrators and
this what we share when we talk about the budget is to plan on tomorrow as the governor is address for the state budget we're expecting most districts for for to to prepare for a 3% reduction in our state aid again is a small amount and then the federal funds which are usually
title funds as well as Ida grants things of that nature to expect percent drop so those significant but again these are these are rumors and these are conversations taking place we haven't received anything as of yet the first set of numbers we will receive will be
our state numbers within the next 72 hours when the feral number can come anytime the ADV the advice the the actual advice that I was told today by the County sence Administrator was until you get
the official notice from the state do not count anything hello you hear me so the offal noce we got today and the 1:30 meeting with the county ba was do not take anything in the newspapers or anything you're hearing that is here
say you you are to wait for the state notices and then from there you'll be able to know what that is and how we're able to react um thank you thanks um this second item on the corrective plan what is the
risk there that we will spend money that we don't have from our Awards is that the risk yes or or it will spend enough and and you have to give it back again it's it's
procedural understanding that that a lot of the state and federal grants are very fluid during the course of the year in terms of additions or deletions depending on some have to do with participation number of students all that kind of stuff so just just again
it's compliance it's tightening things up a little bit not that there's there's not just given that these are the repeat ones from 2023 I think it will be helpful to know you know are there are procedural um changes operational
changes that can place we don't thank you that's all question I have there's a corrective action that's attached if you look at the attachment you'll see I know I know I see it but it's repeated from 2023 so obviously yeah three of them are so
three out of six so I just you know I just um think that it's repeated it's worth looking into other gaps is it because no one is assigned that tasks on an ongoing basis that's any other questions for the
auditor thank you thank you thanks Steve finally closing my report on the agenda 5 being was an adjustment to the number of suspensions at the last me there was a question regarding the numbers um the reason for the adjustment so the default setting did the last
month last the was a cumulative number of suspensions and it was SP through year over year so that's why you see the adjustment on 5p tonight yes it's much better yeah other than that have a great we we
look forward to beautiful weather this week and a lot of posit positive energy moving forward so thank you thank you um do we have any committee reports yes
good evening so the finance committee met at 5 o' today um we discussed the audit which was presented to you in addition we started to review a draft to the 2025
2026 budget as Michael to before will be addressing the state Tomorrow based on that we expect that have numbers coming Friday finance committee will then group on Monday um to go over that the final
budget is due to the state on 319 and so the budget will be um will be on the 310 board meeting agenda for res thank you any other committee reports okay do board members have
questions or comments on tonight's agenda or any other topic by Mr night just I can't see so I just wanted to first of all thank PRS and thank everyone here I see
that me that e alure was added to the calendar that our kids will have the day off and that day will be recognized I think that's incredible just want to thank everyone especially Dr gra for making that happen um I did notice that the first day of Ramadan actually falls
on February 18th this year say um it it does fall on the school day but I'm hoping that we can add the holiday to the calendar just on the day just so that we can have it recognized so I'd like to make a motion to have it
added to the Cal not as a day off you're just saying that not as a day off the day on that's is that okay awesome PA you had a question yeah 3C the math program is that something that
parents pay for yes do right are we increasing there's no increase same cost as it was last year um $500 for current for students 600 for external but in the last several years we haven't had any external um students students from
outside the district attend thank you I just want to say that um this is a great program as a parents I love that give parent students and families this option for kids to advance in our math program I hope
that we will send a communication to parents home sooner rather than later my family missed it last year because we made plans for our kids for the summer so sooner rather than later we get the words home that this this program is um will be available and again that be
great um and another question regarding n key is this a role that is temporary temporary um because we don't have a payroll person currently or is this something that um that is new to the uh
office temporary Ro to make sure that we get payroll done you know payroll hopefully the next agenda we will have a payroll person as well that's our and once that happens once we a payroll person just turn the mic off
once that happens once we got a pay person what happens with it depends on what you know we believe the person coming in have the skill set um but we also want to make sure that everything is very tight with all of our procedures and policies regarding so the numbers that we saw on
last agenda were for the entire year or yes so when it says school suspension 29 amended to four right so 29 was how many we had last year yes okay so that was the last year and
then how did that happen so did the fall setting on the Genesis Program was that it automatically to cumulate number you have to click off the other box it say and then that sent to you um sent to the central office and put on
the agenda um okay and then um I have a question about what is a recreation coordinator what do they do in the district so my understanding the recreation coordinator has been in the contract for many years it's the person who the on between the recreation and
also and the younger grades their sports program that's thank you any other questions okay may I have a motion to open the floor to the public motion Curry second Morel any all
in favor any opposed or extensions okay we will hear first from the members of the public physically located in the cafetorium then we will take questions from those participating remotely participants are limited to three minutes in which to make their statement for remote participants please select
the raise hand button District Tech coordinator Mr rero will recognize each member in the order of raised hands please remember to unmute your microphone everyone please state your name and address for the record and begin your comments please limit to three minutes do we have people in
person who wish to speak uh good evening everybody to this um my name is Kei 2185 Lor Avenue um as you all know I'm the president of cpeg along with Andrew the
vice president Cynthia our secretary um we just here tonight for a few things to thank uh Fort Lee fire prevention for showing up at our meeting it was very um cool they did a little presentation and then they also taught uh some parents who didn't know about the registry in
Fort Lee where if you have a child or any family member that really needs special ACC for evacuation you can alert or register with emergency services and if there's an emergency call to your home the fire department or police get that information from the dispatcher
that there is a person in a certain room that might need special needs evacuating things like that so that was great we really appreciate Steve Curry Mike Deo and the Mary from the fort new fire prevention team showing up to U present to the cpag
parents um the other thing there was a item raised at the cpeg uh meeting regarding um teacher vacancies or teaches not any special needs class um so I had a couple questions regarding that currently are there any current vacancies or openings where those
classro would not have a teacher and um if there are inra um if there are just what steps are being taken what steps do you usually take when there is a special needs vacancy for a teacher because we've heard rumors about Paris man in the classroom um so with the Securities
so the parents of speed pag who raised this concern you could answer that and I'm not GNA bother you about bu but I want you to it's always on my mind thank you for your questions so U is on online we will be having some
answers hopefully within the next couple weeks with the the finance committee for stuff um as far as teacher vacancies there are no vacancies for special needs classrooms today the process with
anything regarding hiring an anytime to hire someone first thing we do is place an advertisement once we receive notice that there's a vacancy whether it's through retirement resignation or even a leave replacement medical leave replacement return leave replacement once that that position is available we
start the advertising in the case that we are notified officially we will put an anticipated opening out there we usually do it through our own system front line which puts it out to K12 job spot uh we put it out to multiple resources throughout the state uh We've even done some of LinkedIn and most
recently for the payroll position we did to the New Jersey Association of school business officials so we fill our spots as soon as we can I shed for many years there's a shortage of teachers specifically for leave Replacements knowing that there's a small amount of
time will they will be here and since there's a shortage of teachers most uh teachers will rather work in a district knowing that that's their 10e position meaning it's fulltime and will continue a full-time for many years um what we'll have times is teachers who will take a Le replacement position they'll be
interviewing at the same time in other districts so they might be hired here for four months one month in they get called through bside Park GS side park says we have someone who left quit retired and would you like to come work full-time and then they will interview they get hired and now we're back to
where we were with that position but as of now all special education CL are teachers thank you as mention president C say past Wednesday had really really great meeting want to thank the Board of
Education members that were there in attendance to support so it's really I want to thank the administration for all of your support for they the word out there our next meeting is going to be on Zoom it is second Wednesday of the month I believe it is March 19th it'll
be at 7 p.m. the zoom um we going to have Miss Rachel Hy um for those you who don't know she is the teacher for of the Fortress program which is the 18 18 20 21 year program and uh to explain uh
about the program and also we have a video that is uh done actually by for day of when they did theing I know met their parents it's not the new new building right
corre okay so so so so want parents really know about program um those you that don't know my daughter is in that program so the big big CH that program really really great program and one parents really know about that program
lot really don't know what that program is there are some towns that are known for this 18 to 21 year programs and we want for Le to be known for that program so yeah going to have heing that's be on
Zoom um that's on March 19th I believe it is 7.m zoom information will be on the forland website as always and our parents will also be getting em notifications that be sent out probably about a week or two before and then I
know usually sends them out a couple days before also so uh April we are playing April April is autis awareness so we are playing something special it's not say but it is yet until it's confirmed inar we have play something
special and unfortunately it we looks like we have to change the DAT of that mean due to some scheduled conference with that meaning we be in person again weate to have a special guest once it is confirmed then we'll come back here and
let everybody know thank you very much again thank all your support hi guys Stephanie h Road for New Jersey I I wanted to bring a few things to your attention I've been going over the
curriculum that we're using in school and I was like a little bit troubled by the first grade curriculum handouts that are being done so I looked up this company Atlas and I don't know if there's any clarification from you but when I look up Atlas it tells me it's
owned by the Faria education group and then it tells me the Faria education group was invested in 2022 by ta Associates Global and then it tells me paria education group is owned by chq
group LTD Oleg figary UK through China and Theodore Walker changa King is the owner of the Faria education Group which if you look up Atlas it says that's who owns it and I guess this new
chq group is activities Sports transportation management and solutions which all seems to funnel itself that money back through China UK here and I want to know why our curricul is being
written by China or the UK or any other person they have a holding Zone that's in Portland Oregon there's eight people that work out of Portland Oregon so I'm just trying to go backwards and see because it's super convoluted now in the
handout it talked about Scottish people the one Scottish man they showed in a killt was black which I thought was strange then there was a shake at the table with two white women touching his body which I also thought was strange because if you know anything about
religion every single photo that's in there is diluted strange and for children that are in first grade in visual Learners it's just bizarre after five pages of the front handouts you learn absolutely nothing you don't learn
anything about America about your your rights about the flag of America about anything of New Jersey I mean these are first graders and it was just bizarre like what we do today as opposed to what they did before there's not even a cell
phone there's a piece of paper it's it's very strange I would like to send it to everyone on the board so you can look at it yourself but I would like to know and find out is in fact this company owned by China through Britain and they seem
to have been put together in 2022 how are we using anything of theirs in our curricul at all I would like to know that that is issue number one issue number two
is stay on track my time is probably Stu there was one other thing that I found a little Bizarro uh I'm not last at the last meeting there was a equity inclusion and I had asked about it I I wasn't sure
what happens with that now with what um president Trump has said and I know you just said that the county ba told you everything's heay I'm not sure um how it's heay when the president put out what
is um that's what you just said you said I wrote down the county ba stated that everything is here stay until the state a gives us notic I was referring to State I was referring to
so that's the end of the question yeah I was referring to C not referring to to anything related to Fin and your question about Atlas
Atlas but why are we using Atlas Atlas ISR teachers in District so the handouts that are Atlas I just want to clarify Atlas is the platform that the curriculum is stored on that is it your time is upe
the minutes is up all right it would be good for know yes he answered your question not the question at all question platform the the curriculum is stored on the hand you want email me I can get sure
thank you my name is Caroline Kino 361 Edwin Avenue um first time speaking so bear with me um I would like to just say thank you to the board and just give praise to where it's due um for
approving uh e recognized on the school calendar as well as school basic extended so that juneth could be celebrated or observed as well um I I'm not a Muslim I do not practice Islam and therefore do not observe or celebrate
Eve but just because I don't observe it does not mean that its worth is diminished regarding juneth the now federal holiday recognizing the day when africanamerican no longer enslaved echoing the sentiment of those beautiful
words land of the free and Home of the Brave members of the board what may seem like a small act speaks volumes residents of the community here in Fort Lee advocated for their needs and you
listened and for that me as a parent of of forly school children students as well as neighbors for that we should be encouraged thank you board for listening to the community and for working towards an inclusive
environment have a good evening thank you December 25th is listed how on calendar for Holiday think it's is it winter break or holiday winter holiday no that questioned is that listed as
Christmas is that the only question that's it okay so it's it doesn't say anything for recommendation be and have it added as anyone else in public to
speak okay Mr rerro you're up there are no raised hands okay ma'am motion motion Morel second all in favor any opposed
orions no don't say no that okay moving on to resolutions may have a motion to approve items 1B through 5B motion second motion Morel second Tang roll
call please Kang m p yes Miss Curry I just have a question there were discussion about 4B that you were going to administratively do something yeah I was going to cover at
the end so so whatever it is we agreed to do with my 4B yes I think we were going to recognize another day I believe Mr Knight ask that we recognize the start of Ramadan I don't think those are
just things so we could either um you can we can do an adjustment at the next meeting but if you approve the calendar tonight you can table the calendar where you can improve the calendar as is and then have at the next meeting whatever
you prer yes fine with we're going to do something in the future so you're Ming moving as and then there were two recommendation one one adding the start the first night of the first day of Ramadan and adding Christmas I will just
mention that hanuka is not on there either so if we're adding then we are yeah okay so we will make that um change we'll vote through the calendar tonight
and make those changes the next meeting yes Mr kn yes M go yes Mr Lopez yes M Morel yes is work yes I have a motion to approve
items onec through three C motion second motion second Quang roll call please M buyers Kang yes M K yes M Curry
yes Mr Knight yes M kotang yes Mr Lopez yes M Morell yes M rord yes may have a motion to approve items 1 F through 4f motion motion Cur second pullback roll
call please miss buyers P yes Miss colbath yes Miss Curry yes Mr Knight yes M yes Mr Lopez yes M
Morel I'm abstaining on one two and four the rest I'm saying yes to please be more want two one f 2 F and four F I am abstaining on
noted just you said yes on um yes thank you may have a motion to approve items 1 p through 13 P motion second motion Morel second P roll call please
miss buyers K yes Miss Kath yes Miss Curry yes Mr KN yes and congratulations to Anthony madag noted m c yes Mr Lopez yes and and thank you and
good luck to all the coaches on L people go back M moral yes and M ber yes and thank you to those teachers who are putting in for their retirement on their years of
service okay uh any old business any new business too quick item um I just want to congratulate the four students who form at the uh North Jersey Regional Orchestra this past weekend um
they're the only students in forley who auditioned and made it um they will be auditioning next month at the All State so good luck to them as well um second I wanted to just um lend some support to
par professionals who have asked for more support U many of them have expressed that they can use more training to work with special education students so I wanted to encourage the the district to continue to learn more
support to them um outside of the one day training um who can use we can really use more knowledge around helping our special students okay um may I have a motion to adour Mo second motion Morel second
uh all in favor any oppos okay thank you