All right. Um, can I have a motion to begin our public session? Dr. Puchi Gander, seconded by Ed Payward. Okay. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? No. Okay. Um, Dr.
Puchipenda, are you able to lead us in a flat slute this evening? Thank you. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. >> Thank you. All right. Adequate notice of meeting in accordance with PL 1975, chapter 231. Notice of tonight's meeting was mailed to the record in the Ridgewood News on January 6, 2026. Notice of this meeting
was also mailed to the burough clerk and was posted on the bulletin board of the board of education office in the administration building on the same date. Mr. Corey, are you able to um read our mission statement, please? >> Gladly. The Glenrock School District, founded on
principles of education in partnership with a supportive community, provides an exceptional education to all students to cultivate resilient, responsible, and engaged global citizens. >> Thank you. Um, so we won't have a um
student council rep report this uh meeting. Uh, and I'm ready for >> minutes. I will be brief uh because I know we have a long night. So, uh, over at the middle school and high school, we just switched over the second semester, so a lot of electives just changed and,
uh, was just talking with an art teacher today who was excited about that. And it's just kind of nice to have a fresh new group of of students. Um, some great things happened over at the high school this weekend. The musical Freaky Friday was was over the weekend. I know I saw Mr. Hayward there um, on Friday night. I
know Mr. Canelis went on Saturday. It was it was a good show. It was it was a lot of fun to see. Um, really appreciate their hard work and and the work of all the the staff members also and students that put it all together. Uh robotics team, both of our teams competed on Saturday. They took second and third
place. They're advancing to states again, which is great. We're really proud of that team. Um just really, really good stuff going on there. On Friday, I got to see the uh JV girls hockey team, our our brand new sport, which was a lot of fun down at the ice house. See, see what they're up to. And um uh unfortunate loss three to four to
uh to Madison, but it was it was a fun it was fun to be there and see see what was going on. Um just real quick on kindergarten registration opened last week. Um we are at 92 folks uh kindergarters who have registered. Last year at this time it was 99. So we're
maybe seven behind where we were. Um just for reference this year we currently have 171 current kindergarteners. So, a number will still register between between now and then, but we seem to be on on track with that. And um
that's about it. I'm I'm glad to see some warmer weather moving in because it's been quite chilly, but uh it's been a good winter so far and hope it continues. That is my report. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Um so, tonight we have our annual um ethics
training. Um uh Mark, you're ready. >> Yes. Thank you. Did you want one? So, good evening members of the board, uh members of the administration, members of the community. Uh my name is Mark Sidimemer. I'm the board attorney. Thank you for having me this evening to
discuss this important topic which is the New Jersey School Ethics Act. Uh the New Jersey School Ethics Act is an important law in the state of New Jersey that governs the ethical dos and don'ts for school officials. And I'll talk a little bit later about who is a school official within the meaning of the
school ethics act. And so I always think that a good place to start this presentation is the preamble, the the introduction in the law itself to the school ethics act. And it explains why we have this this important statute in the first place. And what our legislature has said is that it's in our
representative form of government. It's essential that conduct of members of local boards of education and local administrators hold the respect and the confidence of the people. Uh officials have to avoid conduct which is in violation of the public trust or which creates some justifiable impression among the public that such trust is
being violated. What does all this mean? It means essentially that the community has to trust that when you act as members of this board of education and as school administrators, you're always acting in the best interests of the students that you're here to serve and that you're not acting in your own
personal interests, the personal interests of family or friends or for your own business interests, but again for the best interests of the Glenrock school community. And I always tell board members, not only do you have to avoid actual conflicts of interest, but you have to also avoid um what I like to
refer to as the appearance of impropriy. And if there's ever a question about whether somebody's going to reasonably question whether you're acting in your own personal interests or business interests or friends interests rather than what's in the best interest of the school community, you need to take a step back and make sure that there's no
uh appearance of impropriy and that that what you're doing, I would like to say, passes the smell test. And there's a process for checking to make sure that you're doing the right thing. And certainly here as your board attorney, I'm here to counsel you in that regard. And there's another process that I'll talk about later on as well where we can
go to the school ethics commission and get an opinion from them too before you engage in a particular course of action. So New Jersey code and law says that we're required to annually discuss the ethics act at a public meeting. So this will satisfy that legal requirement. Um
so who does the act apply to? I said school officials. Who's a school official within the meaning of the school ethics act? Uh, of course it applies to board of education members, but it also applies to the highle administrators, the superintendent, business administrator, principal, uh,
assistant superintendent. It also applies to, uh, individuals, officers of the New Jersey school boards association as well. Um, within the ethics act, and I've handed it out to everybody tonight, is the code of ethics. The code of ethics within the school ethics act only
applies to the conduct of board of education members. It does not apply to anybody except board members. It does not apply to the administrative team. So essentially the school ethics act is broken down into two parts. We've got what are called the prohibited acts. Those are the sections that deal with
conflicts of interest that say board members and other school officials shouldn't act in a manner uh where they have a direct personal or indirect financial or other type of involvement that could impair their objectivity. And then again you have the code of ethics that only applies to board members. So,
let's go through briefly because I know we have a long agenda tonight some of the various provisions of the code of ethics. Section A says board members have to essentially follow the law. You have to uphold the laws and rules that are promulgated for the school district as well as court orders pertaining to the schools. I think that's pretty
self-explanatory. Uh section B says you make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of all children. You're here for everybody regardless of the students race, religion, color, sexual orientation or social standing. you're here to represent all of the students.
Um, section C really defines what it is to be a board of education member. You are a policymaking body. So, section C says that you're going to confine your board action to policym setting policy. And as you all know, we use uh Strauss Esme. They develop our our templates for us, but we have the ability to shape
those policies to suit the Glenrock School District. Um, some policies are legally required. the legislature says we have to have certain policies. The HIP policy is an example of that. And other policies we don't have to have. It's discretionary. And sometimes even within a mandated policy, we have
discretion as to how we're going to tailor it to the to the Glenrock School District. Uh just by way of brief example, whether we want to allow homeschooled students to participate on our athletic teams. There's nothing in law that says what you have to do there. That is a policymaking decision that's
up to all of you as to how you want to handle that. It says we're supposed to make policy as board members, plan for the future of the district, and appraisal, taking a step back every year and saying, "How are we doing? Uh, what could we do better? What are some goals that we want to set for the district?"
That's essentially what section C means. Um, section D is an area where board members sometimes get themselves into trouble because they get on the board of education and they think they're going to be in the weeds and responsible for the day-to-day administration of the school district. And that is not the case. That's what you have a wonderful
administrative tier here team sitting to my right to do. They are responsible for running the dayto-day operation of the school district. The board members don't run the district but it is your job to make sure that they are wellrun. Um within the code it talks about what
would somebody have to show to prove a violation for instance of that section. So, somebody would have to show that a board member gave a direct order to school personnel or became directly involved in functions or activities that are the responsibility of school personnel or became involved in the
day-to-day administration of the school district. Again, that is not your role. And just by way of a kind of an extreme example, here's an actual case from the school ethics commission in 2005 where the SEC, which refers to the school ethics commission, found that a board member violated that provision when
during the school day one day he went to the guidance secretary, started asking her to produce all kinds of SAT reports for him. Then decides to head down to the uh locker room during the school day. uh tells the fizzed teachers how they should be doing a better job supervising the students and why the
locker room wasn't clean to his satisfaction and so on and so forth. Somebody filed an ethics charge and said you're administering the schools that is not your job and the school ethics commission agreed. Um section E says your authority re uh rests with the board of education and
you're not going to make personal promises or take private action that could compromise the board. So you have the authority to act when you're sitting at this deis. We discuss matters as you know. We vote on matters. But once once you leave this room, you don't have the authority to speak for the board of education. You don't have the ability to
bind the board of education. You shouldn't be doing your own private investigations. And we'll talk about how you're supposed to handle complaints. Again, authority rests with the board, but no one individual board member. Uh, section F says you're supposed to s refuse to surrender your independent
judgment to special interest groups, partisan political political groups, and so forth. We're an a-olitical body. We're not a political body. You're not supposed to be using these schools for the benefit of family and friends. Again, I think pretty self-obvious, self-evident, I should say. Um, section
G, they're all super important, but I always like to stress section G to board members because as board members, you're going to come across a lot of confidential information. you come across a lot of student information that's private uh personnel matters, matters of attorney client privilege, things we discuss in close session. Your
family members are not subject to the code of ethics. Your friends are not subject to the code of ethics. And I implore you, please make sure that what we discuss in close session and the administration and the information that the administration gives to you remains confidential at all times. And I and I truly mean this. I represent a lot of
school districts. Um, I think when the board as a whole doesn't trust that confidentiality is maintained and respected by the full board of education, it completely undermines your ability to be an effective body. And that's just as blunt as I could be about it. Nobody's going to want to have open and honest dialogue and debate about
topics knowing that as soon as that closed session's over, people are running to the community and telling people what is what was discussed and oh, please keep it quiet. We know there's no such thing as secrets. So stress to your family members and friends and people that come up to you at the shop, right, and say, "Hey, you're on the board. Can you tell me
what's going on with that situ?" Oh, yeah. I can tell you, but don't tell anybody. No, the answer is respectfully. I'm a board member. I'm bound by confidentiality and I can't discuss it. That's the right answer, and it'll be uh hugely beneficial to the district because, like I said, in the absence of
that, it really hinders your ability to be an effective body. Um, the other part of section G that I want to talk about is accurate information. So, we'll talk a little bit later about First Amendment rights and that board members don't surrender their First Amendment rights, but it's very important that when you speak about board issues to community
members that you provide accurate information. So, you're allowed to say, "Hey, I'm voting against the budget because we're I'm making this up now, but we're adding two new administrative positions and I can't support that." That's that's a fine statement to make. You're entitled to your opinion, but you can't say, "I'm voting against the budget because I think we're adding
seven new administrative positions." If that's not an accurate statement, that would be an ethics violation. So important that when you talk about Glenrock issues that you convey accurate information and that's the other part of section G. Um section H you will vote to appoint
the best qualified personnel after considering the recommendation of the superintendent. So by law the board of education cannot appoint somebody without the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. A board member could not make a motion to appoint somebody, transfer somebody, dismiss somebody without the chief
school administrator's recommendation. And there's another section of the New Jersey school law that says the board is not supposed to withhold its approval of the superintendent's recommendations for arbitrary and capricious reasons. Uh does that mean you have to rubber stamp everything that comes by? No. But you um
should certainly support it to the extent possible and unless you have an unless you're being arbitrary or capricious, you should generally vote yes. Uh, does that mean board members have a right to see the applications and resumeumés of people that are being considered uh or recommended, I should
say, by the chief school administrator? The answer is yes. The school ethics commission says that in order to uh vote for the best qualified person, board members have a right to information to make that decision. You'd make an appointment. You'd ask the superintendent, "Can I see the resume of that person that you're recommending for
the XYZ position?" That is your right as board members, but ultimately it's going to be the superintendent's decision as to who to recommend and then the board board will give either the thumbs up or the thumbs down. And personnel on a nine-member board requires five yes votes regardless of how many people show
up. So a quorum, as you know, is five people. We can have a meeting with five people, but in that particular case, all five people present would need to to vote yes, whereas a lot of other actions require a simple majority, which is three out of five in that particular example. By the way, if I'm going too
fast or if you have questions, please just let me know. Okay. Um, section I says you're supposed to support and protect school personnel and the performance of their duties. This means that we shouldn't be evaluating staff publicly. We should not be discussing staff publicly. uh to show
somebody violated that. The code says somebody would have to show that a board member took deliberate action which resulted in undermining, opposing, compromising or harming school personnel in the proper performance of their duties. Uh generally speaking, we discuss employees in close session. They
get a rice notice. They're informed that we're going to discuss them in close session and then it's the employees option as to whether they want to compel that discussion into public. Um section J, I think, is a good section for board members. Section J basically gives you the ability to punt when
you're in the local supermarket and a parent comes up to you and says, "Hey, I know you're on the board of education. I've got a complaint. My child's teacher is giving way too much homework and Dr. Robinson, I want you to handle that for me." Well, the answer to that is, "Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will refer to the superintendent of
schools to handle." And that's the right answer. You're supposed to refer complaints that come to your attention to the superintendent to handle. That's what section J of the code says. So, who can file a complaint if somebody believes that an ethical violation has
occurred? What do you think? Who can file a complaint? >> Anyone? >> Anyone? >> Anyone? Anybody can file a complaint. Is there a time period by which you have to file a complaint or it's barred? I see some yeses. I see some nos. Dr.
Robinson, what do you think? >> Yes. >> What is the time period? Do you know? >> Is it six months? >> It is a six-month statute of limitations. So, if you don't file it within 6 months, you're forever procluded from filing it. Um, the board of education as an entity cannot file a complaint. Individual board members
could, but it can't be the board of education versus board member John Doe. Um, and again, we talked about that six-month statute of limitations. So, in New Jersey, we have the school ethics commission. They're part of the DOE, and they are responsible for administering and enforcing the school ethics act.
Does anybody know who comprises the school ethics commission? Who is this mysterious school ethics commission? Who's on it? Does anybody know? [snorts] How many people are we talking about? What is it? Do they really exist? What do you think? They do exist. Yes, they do. >> It's appointed.
>> They're appointed. Correct. By >> the commissioner of education. >> I think I heard it over here. >> James, you're allowed to participate. >> The governor. Correct. Does anybody know how many members? All right. So there's nine members when
it's fully everybody's fully seated. I don't know if everybody's I don't know if it's fully staffed right now, but it's nine members, five community members appointed by the governor, two administrators, again appointed by the governor, and two board members actually sit on the school ethics commission. They are the entity responsible for
adjudicating ethics complaints. Um and they're the only ones who could determine whether somebody's conduct violated the ethics act. Now, I talked a little bit about this before. If there's ever a question about whether a particular CO board member should engage or an administrator in a particular course of action, you can actually go to
the school ethics commission and ask their opinion. They will issue an advisory opinion for you. And all their advisories, by the way, are on their website. Everything I'm going to talk about today is if you go to the school ethics commission website, all their decisions are listed there. So, you can you can get an advisory. My recommendation is before we go to the
school ethics commission and and request an advisory. I've read most of the decisions from the school ethics commission. So I suggest you know come to me first through the board president and I can generally kind of steer you in the right direction. But in unusual cases I have actually had to go to the school ethics commission just by way of
a real quick example. I represent a school district where a senior student 18 got elected to the board of education and the board president called me and said Mark can he vote on his teachers? Can he vote on his classmates? And I scratched my head and I said, "This is a
good example of a case that we should go to the school ethics commission and get an advisory." And they issued a very nice decision for us kind of telling us the dos and don'ts about what that um particular board member student could do. He turned out to be an excellent board member by the way. Really, really good. Um what are the sanctions? What
are the penalties if somebody violates the school ethics act? What do you think? >> So at the Go ahead. >> I was going to say it depends. >> It does depend. That's exactly right. So at the light end of the spectrum, you got a >> um censure or
letter of a letter of recommend. >> Yep. So exactly. So the lightest suspension, lightest, I'm sorry, penalty is a is a reprimand. That's kind of a slap on the wrist. You get a letter from the school ethics commission saying you shouldn't have done that. Be more careful next time. A censure is a resolution that we have to read aloud at
a public meeting saying the board member violated the ethics act. It's it's embarrassing. we have to post it where we post notices for our meetings and all that's it's just it's not a good look obviously and then you have suspensions which is removal from the board for a certain period of time and then lastly in the most extreme cases you have
removal um I want to talk briefly about indemnification now this is outside this this is not in the school ethics act itself it's part of title 18A which is the school laws that govern um schools in the state of New Jersey but um under 18A
board members are entitled to be indemned ified if a complaint is brought against them for something arising out of the course of their performance of as in the course of the performance of their duties as board members. So what that means is if an ethics case were to be filed against a board of education
member, the board of education has to cover their defense and the legislature and I think correctly so thought why would anybody ever want to get on a board of education if they could be sued or if somebody could file an ethics case and they have to go hire their own lawyer out of their own pocket. Nobody would ever volunteer like you folks do.
So, what the law says is you'd be entitled to indemnification. I think we generally cover insurance for those sorts of things. So, you know, I do want you to rest your head on your pillow at night, you know, calmly because if something like this were to happen, if somebody did file an ethics complaint, the board would um, you know, allow you
to retain counsel and the board would ultimately be responsible for covering your costs. Um, and that's even if you're found to have violated the ethics act, believe it or not. So, if the allegation is you voted on something where you had a conflict of interest, you might say, "Mark, well, that didn't
arise out of the course of that person's duties as a board member, because you're not supposed to vote on matters where you have a conflict of interest." The standard isn't whether you're innocent or guilty. The standard is whether it's something that you did during your duties as a board member, whether you are right or whether you are wrong. The
only time that winning or losing, so to speak, matters is in criminal indemnification. So, in other words, if somebody filed a criminal complaint, you'd have to um you'd have to be acquitted in order for indemnification to kick in. For any other case, the standard is did it happen as as a board
member. Does anybody have any questions about indemnification? >> Okay. >> And that that doesn't require that the allegation is like egregious or anything like that as long as it >> No, the standard is did it arise out of the porse of the performance of your duties as a board member. The only thing
in the code of ethics that I think arguably wouldn't fit into that is if the allegation was that a board member took private action. I talked before about taking private action that could compromise the board. Perhaps an argument could be made if an ethics complaint was filed against a board
member saying you took private action. Then the question is, well, did that really arise out of the course of their performance as board members? If it was private action, something they did outside the scope of their duties, that's something we would have to look at very, very carefully to determine whether indemnification would kick in.
Okay. Do board members surrender their first amendment rights by being on the board of education? Of course not. You have first amendment rights. You have a right to speak on issues involving the district that are important to you. But there's some caveats, right? We talked about the fact that you have to provide accurate information. We talked about
the fact that you can't breach confidentiality. you can't do things that could um evaluate our personnel in public. So there are limitations to the first amendment rights of board of education members. Um we have a policy that you should be aware of 0146 and
0169. And what that policy says is that when you if you're a board member for instance that likes to post on social media or write letters to the newspapers or tweet on X or whatever you like to do or give speeches or whatnot, you have to make it clear that you're speaking as an
individual and then you're not speaking on behalf of the board of education because like I said before, you don't have a right to speak on behalf of the board. So if you want to post or give your opinions about issues affecting the school district, you need to have a disclaimer and that disclaimer is as follows. Um, you need to say that the
following statements are made by me in my capacity as a private citizen and not in my capacity as a board member. These statements are also not representative of the board or its individual members and solely represent my own personal opinions. This way the public knows that when you're speaking, you're not speaking as the board member of
Glenrock. You're speaking as a private citizen in your own opinions and that they don't necessarily represent those of the board of education. >> Yes. Um, so if you, so I guess it's the complication is always like if you're a private citizen speaking on behalf of
something, wouldn't it have to have been something potentially that would come up at a public meeting as opposed to like I'm a private citizen speaking about something that I'm only aware of because I'm a board member? >> Yes. So I'm So what's the question? I'm sorry. the the conflict being like when
you're speaking about something as a private citizen, it's hard to separate that from the fact that you're a board member because you may be aware of it only specifically because you're a board member. >> Possibly. Yes. And that's why you have to be super careful to make sure you're not divulging information that you learn
for instance in close session or that sort of thing. Um look, if you're talking about just some issue that really doesn't affect the board, you don't need a disclaimer on that sort of thing. The whole purpose of the disclaimer in the policy is so that the public is not confused about, you know,
whether Liz, for instance, is speaking about an issue. But if you're really speaking for the board in this case, no, you have to make it clear that no, these are my own personal opinions. I'm I'm taking off the board hat now and I'm private putting on the private citizen individual citizen hat. That's so that there's no confusion. That's that's
really the theme behind it. >> Okay. >> Safest thing to do in that situation is just to say nothing anywhere. I look, I happen to be a big fan of of board members not posting about board issues on social media where you you read all the cases from the school ethics
commission. Lots of cases where board members get themselves into hot water because they're talking about things perhaps they shouldn't be talking about and sometimes it aggravates the rest of the board too because like who gave you the right to kind of go out there? We have a public meeting. This is the place probably where you should be expressing
those viewpoints and opinions, not once you leave the room. So yeah, I I I strongly agree with what you just said. >> Yeah. >> Political issues. Look, again, you have a right to comment on political issues. That that's your first amendment right.
But if you're going to talk about, you know, political issues, just make sure it's clear that you're speaking as as an individual, not for the board of education. Yes, I would I would say so. Now, there are some cases from the school ethics commission that go a little further and they say, "Look, if it's clearly an issue that has nothing
to do with the school district, if you're just talking about, hey, look, in the next election, I think you should vote for John Doe because he's going to be good for our community," probably don't need a disclaimer in that case. But I think if you said something like, "I think you should vote for John Doe because he's going to be great for the Glenrock School District." I would
say you clearly need a disclaimer for something like that because now you're tying it to the board and now hm, is he speaking? is does the whole board agree with that or is that just your own individual statement? So, um I do I like to do a little quiz every year. I'm not going to call on
anybody, so don't get nervous. Um but real cases that have come down recently from the school ethics commission. So, as you know, I handed out the little code of ethics provisions and the the conflict sections here. So, this has to do with the conflict section. So, do you think a board member violated sections B
and C, which says no school official shall use his official position to secure an unwarranted privilege or advantage for himself, members of his family, or others, or C, no school official shall act in a matter in which he or a member of his immediate family or a business in organization in which he has an interest, has a direct or
indirect involvement that might be expected to impair his objectivity or independence of judgment, etc. So, do you think a board member violated that when she asked the superintendent to provide a sworn statement on her behalf in response to an ethics complaint that was filed against the board member? So, in this particular case, a board member
was the subject of an ethics complaint. And she approached the superintendent and said, "Look, you were there. You're you're aware of the facts of what happened here. Would you be willing to provide a statement that I could submit in my answer to the complaint to the school ethics commission?" and somebody
got wind of the fact that the board member asked the superintendent to write a statement on their behalf and they filed another ethics complaint saying you violated section B and C by asking the superintendent now you got two ethics complaints you got to deal with for so do you think this was a violation
or not a violation of those two provisions >> I think a violation >> so I see some nos I see some yeses the answer it was not a violation Ed I think you shake your head no and so you got that right so they said asking the super as long as you weren't putting pressure
on the superintendent and saying, "Hey, you know, your contract's coming up. You really should give me that statement that I need for my case." There was nothing wrong with asking the superintendent, the school ethics commission held to provide a factual statement about what had occurred that the superintendent was was privy to, not
not a violation. Um, how about this one? A board president violated section E of the code of ethics. This is the code of ethics now, not the conflict. Section E says recognizing your authority rests with the board and not making personal promises or taking private action that could compromise the board. So do you
think a board member violated that when she unilaterally canceled the board a board when she it should say board meeting I'm sorry when she canceled a board meeting in which a large public presence was expected. So board president gets wind there's going to be a large public gathering at the meeting and and she cancels the meeting. Uh this
was in Pleasantville don't worry this was not Glenrock. Um, do you think that was a violation? No. I see a no. And I'm going to go with the answer that it is no. They said, look, board president has certain authority, call meetings, cancel meetings. There was nothing unethical,
no violation of uh personal promises or taking private action by cancing a board of education meeting. How about this one? A board member who previously worked as a security officer in the district three years prior to becoming a board member and was critical of the superintendent at the time is conflicted
on matters referred to the superintendent related to the superintendent. What do you think of that? Do you think a so you understand the facts here? security officer, worked in the district, then three years later gets elected to the board. And while the person was a security officer, had some
problems with the superintendent in the time, and the question was, huh, is this person now conflicted from the superintendent given the bad blood that existed at the time that that security officer was a uh an employee of the school district? What do you think? Conflicted or not conflicted? I see Dr. Robinson saying, "No, I agree. It was
not." And the school ethics commission said um the fact that the board member submitted a resignation letter outlining perceived adverse actions by the superintendent including dissatisfaction with uh changes to the individual's job position and salary or his admitted
vocal opposition to the superintendent does not mean that he cannot exercise independence of judgment or otherwise be objective in matters relating to the superintendent. Moreover, the board member did not become a board member until three years after his resignation, uh, which is a sufficient amount of time
to have lapsed, and there's nothing in your request to suggest that he ran for a seat on the board with a personal vendetta against the superintendent. So, not an issue. I think they kind of did leave the door open. You know, they said it was three years ago. So, if it was 3 months before this person got on the board, maybe the outcome would have been
different. So, this was where it says A1925 in the corner, that means it was not a complaint. This was actually an advisory opinion. somebody requested from the school ethics commission saying, "Hey, can that security officer um be involved in matters pertaining to the superintendent?"
How about this one? A board member who employs a district teacher to tutor his child or her child is conflicted from being a member of the board's negotiating committee while she's employing the teacher as the child's tutor. Do you think that that is uh true
or false? Anybody think it's false? It is true. You are correct. Um, so when you employ a staff member of the district in your own district, you're creating a conflict for yourself. The board member was conflicted. And what the school ethics commission said was uh
that the board member should recuse from all matters relating to the teacher's employment while the teacher is employed as the board member A's A as in letter A's child uh/tutor. Should the matter come before the board that involves the teacher, board member A should not
participate in any discussions or votes related to same. This includes but is not limited to any and all matters related to the local union as well as any employees who directly supervise the teacher. Furthermore, board member A should not be a member of the negotiations committee while he or she is employing the teacher as the child's
tutor regardless of whether there are any currently pending related actions that would directly impact the teacher. So, you got to think about that if you're going to hire a staff member of the district as a board member to tutor your child or whatnot, you're now creating a conflict pretty much as to everything having to do with the union
as well as everybody up the chain of command. So, uh this again was an advisory opinion request. So, presumably I I assume once the board member got it, they decided they're going to get a tutor from another school district, which is probably a good thing. Anyway, couple more and then we're done. uh a board member who received signatures on
her nominating petition to run for the board from district administrators who lived in town is conflicted from any matters relating to the employment of those administrators. So board member is running for election or a person is running for election for the board and they go to local administrators who
happen to live in town and said hey can you sign my nominating petition? The question was once that person got elected to the board, which she did, were those was she now conflicted as to the administrators who signed her nominating petition? What do you think?
I see Leah shaking her head no. Anybody think yes? And the you are you are correct. It was not a conflict of interest. And what the school ethics commission said was that signing a petition in their private capacity as individuals who live in the community in and of itself is not enough
to present a conflict uh for board member A and board member B. Absent any additional facts which are not which are not present here. It cannot be assumed that board member A and board member B have or will surrender their independent judgment to the administrators.
Therefore, as long as board member A and B are members of the board and they don't, among other things, attempt to leverage or otherwise rely on their board positions to gauge to engage in conduct which substantially conflicts with um their services as board members, um they're not prohibited from voting on
anything having to do with those administrators. Okay. How about this one? A board member violated section B of the code. and that's the one that says you're supposed to um make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of all children. So,
did a board member violate that when he voted no on a re a resolution reaffirming the district's stance on inclusion for all students? So, this one just makes my head spin a little bit. They have a resolution basically saying we're going to include everybody. We're here for everybody. And this board
member votes no to that resolution and somebody filed an ethic complaint saying you violated section B. Do you think that was a violation? Yes or no? Yeah. >> No, you're right. It was not a violation. It's crazy. I couldn't have said it better myself. It's crazy, but
it was no. And there are lots of cases out there, by the way, where fi ethics complaints are filed against board members for the way they vote on things. And the commission universally holds how you vote as a board member is not an ethics violation. Again, unless it's a conflict, that's an ethics violation.
But voting yes or no on something that you feel strongly about is not is not going to be an ethics violation. Okay, final question of the night. Um, I hit the button. Hopefully you didn't see that. A board member with a podcast focusing on the town council. So, a
board member's got a a podcast and it's all about the the local town council. So, he did he violate section I, which is the section says that board members have to support and protect school personnel. Did he violate that section when you described the complainant who
is a supervisor in his district uh as a tyrant, narcissist, and creepy? >> Problem or not a problem? >> False. >> It was false. It was not a violation. And they said, look, he was talking about him really in his capacity as the council president, really, not as the
supervisor in the district where he was a board member. So, uh, not a violation. it was false. Um, and so, you know, like I said, I've read a lot of these decisions and I often scratch my head because your your knee-jerk reaction on a lot of these things is it sounds like an ethics violation, but if you really take a little bit of a deeper dive, you
have to actually look at the words of the various code provisions and see if there's an actual violation there. Um, and so, um, does anybody have any questions, thoughts, concerns? >> No, we're good. Okay. Well, thank you for the opportunity. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. All right. All right. So at this time I will open our first set of um public comments. The first set of public comments is on action items only. Um in this meeting you know the last meeting we had a snow
uh date and school was closed. Uh so we compressed the two agendas. Um so the action items um are things that are uh also held over from that period of time. Um so if we open that at 8:06 p.m. And if there's anyone that has any comments
on action or voting items, please state your name, address, and you'll have three minutes. All right. Seeing nobody, um we'll close that um first public comments at 8:06 p.m. >> Can I get a motion to discuss uh G1
through G9? >> Miss Parlamis seconded by Mr. Hayward to move. I don't have to disgust you. All right. Um, so do you want to go ahead? >> You know, you need a second. Go ahead. >> Oh, yeah. >> Do the discussion first.
>> Yeah, the discussion and then we if you want to explain. >> Yeah, sure. >> All right. Just let me clarify. So, so basically under Robert's rules, technically it's supposed to be motion, second, and then discussion. So, that that was my recommendation to Dr. Robinson. We somebody moves items G1 through seven. Is it >> uh nine?
>> Oh, G1 through nine. Second. Somebody would second it and then we would engage in the discussion and then vote >> just so it's Yeah. >> Okay. >> Somebody can move. >> I'm Do we have that? Did I I have I have a um a first and a second.
>> You can move it. >> All right. Do you have So, who do we have for um making the motion? Parlamus and then a second by >> Parlamus and a second by Hayward. And then now >> so motion's on the floor. >> Motion's on the floor and then we
discussed G1 through G9. So was it the wording that I had like the like a motion because I had a motion to discuss instead. So >> yeah. So a motion to discuss is really not technically proper. It's a motion to move items uh G1 through nine. May I have a second and then discussion and
then vote? Yep. >> All right. >> Mark, you have a do you have an issue with the way we write it? We write a motion to approve. >> Yes, that's that's fine, too. Okay. >> It's really just not a motion to discuss. It's a motion to either vote or approve. Yep.
>> Noted. Um, so any comments or questions about G1 through G9? >> Miss Parliamentis. >> I just want to thank G8. We have three very generous donors for some beautiful items. The golf cart, the girls ice
hockey expenses, and the wrestling swinglets. And just to thank those donors. Absolutely. Um it's it's amazing actually that we have members of the community that are able to help this way. So very thankful, >> Mr. Corey.
>> Um of course, yeah, to second everything you said on G8, that's just fantastic. Wherever you are, um on G7, the 29 passenger bus, is that the one that was totaled through our insurance settlement? So that's something that's just going off our books now.
>> That is correct. >> Thank you. Any other uh comments or questions? No. All right. If we're able to um take roll. >> Mr. Corey. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Hayward. >> Yes. >> Miss Parlamus. >> Yes. >> Dr. Poochie Bender. >> Yes. >> Miss Stevenson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Tang. >> Yes. Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robinson, >> yes.
>> Motion passes. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve uh resolutions B1 through B6? >> Mr. Corey, second by Mr. Hayward. Any uh comments or questions about B1 through B6?
All right, seeing none, if we could have roll call, please. >> Mr. Corey, >> yes. >> Mr. Hayward, >> yes. >> Miss Palamus, >> yes. >> Dr. Pooie Bender, >> yes. >> Miss Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Tang,
>> yes. >> Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robinson, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Can I have a motion to approve resolutions P1 through P15? >> Mr. Tang, seconded by Dr. Puji Bender.
Any comments or questions with regards to P1 through P5? Yes, Miss Stevenson. >> For P1, I would just like to congratulate all those teachers on their retirement. I wish them well. I thank them for their service to Glenrock and I hope their retirement is long and healthy.
>> That's wonderful. Thank you. >> Yes, Miss Parlanis. >> Uh P4, I just want to say excellent hires on that one. Yes indeed. Dr. Puji Bender >> on P1. Uh like to give a special thank
you for the years that uh Mrs. Moer provided to the district. She was my children's kindergarten teacher when she served as a kindergarten teacher. Best of uh best wishes to all of them. It's welld deserved. Thank you again. >> Yes. I mean some of some of the names on
this list have served uh this community for decades. Um, and so there's definitely um much appreciation from from this board and this community for their service for our children. Any um additional comments or questions with our P items.
All right. If we're able to call roll, Mr. Canelis. >> Mr. Corey. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hayward. >> Yes. >> Miss Palamus. >> Yes. Dr. Pooie Bender, >> yes. >> Miss Stevenson,
>> yes. >> Mr. Tang, >> yes. >> Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robbins, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. Um, and we have our evangelism suspension reports as of
January 26, 26 on the notes. And then we will begin our um cow agenda. So, this would have typically been a cow meeting, which is where we would have initially started. Um our first item is under uh policy and so if we want to have a
discussion of our um first read of some of these new policies. Thank you. So I shared with you the guidance from Strauss Esme for for these things and I'll just re briefly review some of these things. Um P0142.1
there are no material revisions. They just reorganized it to better align with the code. So it's just a a revised copy. It's a mandated policy that we need to have. Nothing changes really. Uh P1220 is um revised with just a few revisions
to legal citations. So same thing, we have the same choices. We'll model it after what we we currently have. Uh 1552. So we used to have or we we currently have actually policies 3362 and 4352.
Each of those addressed sexual harassment but did not include protections under title nine federal laws for title n. So this new policy 1552 incorporates sexual harassment law in both title 7 and title 9 in one spot.
Um it's they describe it as legally complex um and it's a much more detailed policy and gives the administration a much more clear much clearer path to follow for any kind of allegations of sexual harassment. Um, what that means, which I'll skip down, policy 3362 and
45352 are being abolished because what was contained in those about sexual harassment of teaching staff and support staff is now incorporated into this new policy. So, it's a mandated policy. It's lengthy. It's um, but it puts it all in
one place for us, which is good. Policy 2530 is about resource materials. So there was a recent law called the Freedom to Read Act and it's specifically about um library materials, library books, library materials,
library resources and what is the policy um about how are materials placed in library and how can they be challenged by the public. So what they've done is they removed every reference to library materials
from this one which is resource materials and created a whole new policy just for library materials. Um so this policy 2530 has had the library stuff removed and the next one 2535 is new to address just library stuff. And one of the things that it does in in includes
the curation of collections but it also talks specifically about who may challenge materials and what that process is. So who's allowed to um and basically have to be affiliated in some way a parent staff member or something. It can't just be somebody off off of the street. Um but it spells all of that
out. And then the last one here is public complaints P9130. And basically the only change they did here is they removed anything about library books because there's a whole new policy about library. So that used to have a a section in there about complaining about materials in the
library which has now been removed. So these are the policies from Strauss. This is the first reading of it. You have the the markedup documents. Happy to answer any questions if I can or we'll look into it if you have more detailed questions. Uh, I had a question about the policy
about the superintendent or the chief um school administrator. So, in reading through it, I noticed that it didn't make mention of an interim or an acting. So I didn't know may maybe this is a question for Mark whether or not the policy really should have some kind of
um capture that an interimm or a acting superintendent shall have the same um power that a superintendent has. you know, basically possess the same authority and responsibility as the chief school administrator because the policy really only acts towards the
superintendent and we might be in a position where we have an acting we have a you know an interim. >> Yeah, it's a good question. Um I don't think it's necessary and I'll tell you why. There's a separate law in title 18A, which is the school laws that I talked
about before, that talks about the board of education's authority to appoint somebody's the acting person in the place of somebody when they're um absent essentially from the position with all the rights and responsibility. So, I don't think it's necessary to put it into the policy because it's already
codified in statute. Yeah. >> All right. >> Okay. So, without any other questions about the policy alert, we'll have them on the meeting on the 23rd for the second reading and approval and um and then we'll look at the regulations that
go with them as well. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um the next piece of policy discussion we had under old business is the ad hoc committee had some questions or recommendations from the New Jersey School Boards Association
policy wellness check that we did. And one of the one of the difficulties that that we have is that schoolboard policy check they organize the policies their way with their numbering system and their and strame organizes it another
way. So we have also had Strauss look at our policy to double check. I included that letter in backup and there are a few irregularities that they want us to see correcting minor things. So we're looking through those things right now and I'll provide you an update for that. Um I can certainly um I know that that
the chair of that committee is not here now so we could certainly talk about those recommendations next time. >> I think I think it would also be helpful um to have that conversation while he is here unless we unless I mean I'll leave that as a decision to the board. Um would you
like us to um continue on with regards to the policy wellness check and those uh questions that Mr. Cohen asked or should we hold that item um and we could just talk about it at the next meeting? um when he's available >> and it's not uh timesensitive. So
>> yeah, I think we can we can hold it. That's okay. >> Perfectly fine. >> All right. Um and with that, would you be able to include in our next um uh documents like that document that strame provided that showed what the missing pieces were? Yep. >> Um just to follow along. Thank you. >> You bet.
um not listed on here but under old business that I just want to give you an update on is the um cell phone policy or internet enabled devices guidance etc. So the state um the governor Murphy on his way out signed the law and we have
now they the commissioner of education has now released guidance for schools on student on use of internet enabled devices. They released it in January. Strauss Esme sent us an email a few weeks ago that said they're reviewing the guidance and the law and will revise
policy and regulation guides accordingly which will be released mid-spring 2026 to allow school officials time to review and adopt before the next school year. I'm not sure exactly what mid-spring means, but when we get that guidance, we will share it with you and we will make a plan. I'm sure it will have basically
a menu of options of of how we want to do it that all fits within the law and we can we can talk about how that looks. Okay. And then the next piece on here um is um policy 2430. So policy 2430 is about
co-curricular activities and we had um a student speak about it. We've had our student representative speak about it questioning um what is our policy for for creating new clubs is is the the sticking point. So, I've talked with administration about it and it's it's a high school issue generally. Um, and the
the issue is that students want to create a lot of clubs and we have a process for doing that. And part of our process, I'll I'll admit it slows things down a little bit, right? Because we want to be careful and methodical and make sure that the clubs that we're
offering um are appropriately staffed, right? That we have teachers who are who can do it. Teachers are very nice. They will volunteer as as club adviserss when nice kids ask them to do things, but often they're doing a lot. So, for example, right now we have 84 clubs at the high school. We have 78 staff
members. So, if you do that math, you know that people are advising more than one club at a time. And and our teachers time is valuable, right? And we want to be careful and cognizant of that. 29 of those people are volunteering. They're not getting paid to advise these clubs, right? And we we want to just keep that
in mind. Um, so we want to make sure that we have appropriate staffing. Um, we want to make sure that we're not duplicating clubs already. With 84 different clubs, we often have requests for a duplicate or it's very similar to that club that already exists. If we create a second club that's really
really similar, it could end up diffusing both of those and they might not both have enough kids in it, right? And we want to make sure that that they're strengthened. And then the third thing that we really work on when we're looking through this club process is to make sure that the club is sustainable. So is there interest not just from the
person requesting it, but are there enough kids that are going to keep it going? Because the last thing we want to do is put all this work to create a new club just to have it peter out because a student graduates, right? So, so those are the things that we're always looking at. And so we do have a process in place
that they have to submit an application. There's a committee that reviews it. We make sure that they have a club adviser. We make sure it's not duplicating and it does take time. Um but the time frame makes sense to us, right? So when I talk to administration, um this is something that that we believe in. We think that
this is the right thing to do partly to protect the time and our expertise of our teachers, partly to make sure that the clubs are sustainable, partly to make sure that that everything's just monitored well. So So that's where we are with it. Everything that we do fits very much within our policy. when I'm
reviewing the policy, um, starting with, you know, assessing the needs and interests of students in the district, um, and and making a recommendation to the board. So, I don't see a need to change the the district policy. I think it's working. The administration feels it's working, but I wanted to report
back out to you all. >> All right. Thank you for um, following up on that. Um, is there a problem for instance like I know when this comes up there, you know, the the children have made it seem like there's not a way for them to um organize or to still um meet.
Um would it be you know possible that if a child wanted to start it and maybe miss the application window that they would be able to still meet perhaps even at the the library or something like that? Like so it's not like we're from what I hear it's not like we're preventing um children from you know
advocating for issues or you know forming clubs or forming you know like groups and things like that. They just aren't necessarily officially recognized until they go through that process. >> I think so. And I think also having that for lack of better word grassroots movement probably is is is
would strengthen their request for a club. Look, we have this many kids that have been involved and we want to bring it onto the campus here. Might have a a stronger application, if you will. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Um, any questions or
>> Dr. I just want some clarification. You said the library. I I believe you mean the public library. >> I meant the public library because I understand that um if it was a if it's not a recognized school club, you can't have Right. That's okay. you can't have it on public property without it being
recognized. And then if I mean anybody could any adult could um you know request to use our facilities but then you have to have a whole other process that would not apply to a student that would you'd have to have insurance and things like that. So yes um Mr. Corey
>> I think that commentary just kind of hit to what I was trying to say. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. >> I think that think that's all I have on policy. >> All right. So on the same time I remember the student the case was the student had a
cousin right was killed >> that I just feel waiting a year is really like long time right there because there's a time and sensitivity to the event right in that particular
case >> yeah and I think that There is there could be cases for exceptions, but I think the review process is still going to take time to make sure we have an adviser to make sure that this is an appropriate club to make sure that there are others that are interested in
participating all that. So, my understanding is I think she is going to submit that paperwork and and and we'll move forward with that. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah. only because I think that that was something that um was striking at times
sensitive and the social emotional that we keep talking about is very important the mental health issues. So I think that if there is some sort of way to uh differentiate between you know a need right versus a want that maybe there
could be you know just looked at a little bit more closely with a closer view. I I do have a question there because would it be would we be opening ourselves up to a situation where like you know is your story good enough like
how do we then determine whether or not somebody's story is like good enough like that and you know fully respecting this individual situation here that we all heard right absolutely feeling for the student her family um gun violence
overall um but I also want to make sure that we're not setting um setting anything up for an unfair process because then you're like is this tugging the heartstrings enough, you know? >> No, I agree with you on that, but I'm I'm just thinking that maybe if it there
could be um for you know, you have to sometimes use your judgment, right, >> both? Um, in this case, I think the student made an excellent um, point on, you know, you kind of have a window of only being a sophomore or junior because when you're a freshman, you have to wait
a year to get the club going. When you're a senior, you're out the door. Is there perhaps a way that we can increase um, awareness of this in the eighth grade level of what what do you have to do to create a club or you think the students are already well very versed on how to do this? I'm not really
comfortable with saying to eighth graders who are not part of the high school, start planning clubs when you haven't even gotten to high school yet, >> right? And and that's part of the piece is that, you know, this is a different situation, but so many of these clubs, we have 84 clubs. You know, somebody
might come and say, "Hey, I really want to do X, Y, Y, or Z, but that might be check out the club fair first, right? Like, let's see what we have already going on. We have a we have a lot. So, I I'm not comfortable with a student who's not here yet proposing a club for when they get here.
>> Not proposing, but just understanding the process. I was just trying to, you know, address her point, which was, you know, that it takes a while to get the whole maturation process going to get the club going. So, >> but okay, fair enough. I would then ask like in this situation since we're
talking about that request from um a prior meeting if if there was like a way for that student to potent like would there be any problem with that student going out to the community and saying like would anyone help me start a kids demand action uh club and then you know
like just immediately like if you can get I'm sure that there would be a member of the community that would be likely willing um that may or may not like know but it wouldn't be necessarily on us but maybe guiding that students is saying, "Hey, these are some venues for you to potentially ask. Um, we don't
have control over that process, but perhaps you can find somebody to like help you start this club in the community." And then when that application period opens up, then submit your application for it to be considered an official school club. So that way it's not like hampering that
that that desire that the student has for action, for meeting. You're able to build a um a group of people and you're able to just go go for it. We're not preventing you. That's at least that's that's the understanding that I'm getting, you know, like that we could really work as a community to do this outside of the school while the school
process is a little bit different. Do you think that would I mean I think this is part of our conversation, but do you think that that would kind of like address some of the the issue? It's not like they can't start it, but yes. I mean, I I do think that if if kids understood, you know, what other
avenues that they could pursue. Yes, I agree with your point. >> Yes. Yes, >> I did want to expand on my thought now this conversation is expanding too. Um I one thing that Mr. Vanes expressed was uh I think the second point of would one club kind of consume the other
operations and does this function already exist with the one particular request I was I immediately felt myself going into a different mode. We're all we're I've noticed we're all empathetic people and my first thought was okay health and welfare of a person who's expressing a a need for themselves. I
was comforted to know that she found that that club outside of the structure of what what the school can help her create. There's a lot of things outside the school and I think our job is to incubate students a little bit to let them go out and it sounds like she did that already. So maybe for this
individual's um desire that might actually be uh better suited in in the environment that she found specifically the organization. uh but like for our role I think that's pretty that that that kind of hits to the broader policy that we're trying to write of does something already exist for this to
happen and uh that's that's a great ratio we're we're over a onetoone of clubs to advisers that sounds like quite a lot um I hope that they were all meeting at least twice a month because it gives the kids uh the viability
within that that group so these are tough questions for us to to have to judge individually which is kind of our policy puts it together to make a unwieldy task more manageable. So, thank you. >> Any other questions with regards to
2430? All right. All right. Um, so also under policy, I was going to ask Mr. Cohen if he would um if we would be able to make like another committee meeting to then determine a way and a process for us to
review all of our policies. But I'm actually going to tie that into um our our governance discussion. I kind of decided at the last moment I want to add something to like a new business under governance. Um in the past and this is predates I would say in a way it
predates my presence on the board but we had a different committee structure. We had um committees like we worked out of committees as opposed to the committee of the whole. So, um, Rona Mcinola, who was, you know, like an amazing, um, board member and long tenur here, um,
when we had the cow structure, she would go through a lot of, uh, policies just consistently and I just remember her like going through that and I don't know that we actually had any one of us that specifically has taken over that kind of like uh, leadership and policies since then. Um, and so through that process, I
feel like we um aren't when I say reviewing, we review individual policies a lot. We get a lot of things from Strauss Esme and we go through that, but we aren't reviewing it in a series fashion in the same rhythm. And I I could see where years um going forward
can pass and we're not necessarily always um proactively reviewing a certain series. So, I was going to um make a recommendation that we start off with maybe um two series out of this uh our entire policy manual like maybe
let's say like the 5,000 series and 1,000 series like this year and then um you know like next year it's maybe like two and four and then the following it's three and one or like whatever so that we review all of our policy manual on a
like on a more intentional basis. um as opposed to reactionary. Um and so that is now another time for us to just talk about um our structure. Um and I briefly asked Mr. Zidimer about what he sees
like you know like you go through you have 60 plus um boards that you have and like if you could talk about how many of them actually have a committee of the whole structure how that differs from what we are doing. I think over years, I mean, I've been board president for this is my third year um vice president
before that, and we've I've really tried to be intentional about moving us to a um point where we're discussing a lot more of um things in a way as close as you can to to a um committee structure, but it doesn't ever quite fully get
there. And I've only known a committee of the whole structure. So, >> yeah. Sure. Um so so just for the probably for the benefit of some of the newer members, this board as you know operates as a committee of the whole which means that
with few exceptions we generally tackle issues as a as a full body of the board as opposed to having individual committees that vet issues with the administration report out at public meetings about the work that they do and
then they would usually correspond to a particular section of the agenda. uh uh some of my boards have for instance a a policy committee that meets regularly. You are a policymaking body that's one of your main functions. And so if you're and and in my experience it's hard to do
that as a committee of the whole. It really is to have nine board members weighing in on policy. I think there's a lot of detail work that needs to be done. So having that done as a committee that's going to work with the administration and then report out on recommendations to the full board is a
better way to do it. Some of my boards have a finance committee. Budget time. They meet with the business administrator. Vet issues and then come back to the full board with recommendations. Personnel is another committee that some of my boards have your appointing personnel all the time. You would meet with the superintendent
about the personnel. You would ask questions and then again report out uh at the board meeting on those issues. Most of my boards have kind of moved away from a lot of my boards have moved away from the committee of the whole structure that you have to more of a committee type structure. They find it's
a much more efficient way to do business. You can take a much deeper dive into some of these issues that you than you can at a regular meeting without being here till 1:00 in the morning. And um some of my boards have even found that by moving to the committee structure uh they've been able
to actually have one meeting a month rather than two meetings a month because it just it makes the board that much more efficient. But the board members have to be committed to doing the work and to taking the time that the committees require because it does require time and effort and um you know
vetting issues a lot more closely probably that than you do at the regular meetings. Um I personally like the committee structure. I think it's a it's a better way to do business. I think it's just hard to operate and really uh take a fine look at some of these issues as a as a full board and to give it the
proper attention that it needs. >> Um this is our moment to open up this discussion and for everyone to like kind of weigh in. I mean, no time like the present. We've been dancing around this issue for months, if not years. So look, I think at this point we have a strong
ability to look back. Um, you know, like Angela, you know, you've been on the board before and then you're coming back to us and I think, you know, like your opinion, you'll have a lot to say and maybe anybody else. So go for it. >> If I may, I think that um, echoing, you
know, your sentiments, Mr. that having the committees allows the superintendent and the BA at times when it's a finance committee to have these deeper richer conversations in a smaller group and then the topics that are
discussed in one committee can be had and woven into other committees. Let me give an example simple example. You're hiring a new staff member in a certain department area. Well, that also becomes part of finance, right? So that same conversation can be had. so that the
small groups are getting the same information from the same people which are your superintendent acting superintendent uh you know BA everyone's hearing it everyone has an opportunity to ask um more detailed questions uh deeper again as I said before the richer
and I think that we function better when we come back to the community and we say that we had these discussions and then we report to the community what the discussions were you know outside of anything that might be confidential. I think it just is a little bit more
efficient for everyone getting the same information all um at their appropriate times instead of open dialogue which doesn't >> you know more said when you're having an intimate conversation than when you're just >> big >> and I think it kind of goes back into
like um one of the things that we discussed in your presentation u Mark was like the accurate information when you're saying it so the problem that we have here in this environment sometimes is like, well, we'd almost just want to talk about it. We almost just want to like kind of bring up certain things and
just like say, hey, you know, what do you think about this? But that that same like, what do you think? Could then be looked at from the community as like this is what they're going to do. This is what they wanted to like. So, we're never able to just have honest open fully honest open conversations without
potential repercussion that the things that were just like floating as ideas that are coming from us individually are absolutely the way that the board is going to do something. Um even the calendar for example like we we basically talk about the calendar way far in advance and then have other
discussions you know about it like leading up to the final thing if it was worked on fully in the committees then perhaps that's an area where we would have been able to be like okay now this is what we're saying at the the end like this is the recommendation of this committee to um the board and then it's
just different like I don't >> so much easier to bounce ideas off of one another in a small group than it is in a formal setting like any other I I know well actually I'm going to ask um both both of you were you were on the board as well when it was a committee. Yeah.
>> No, they had already moved to a whole committee of the whole right before I started. But I do know um when they had a straight committee structure I would say there was a lot of I'm going to call it infighting at the time and that's why they switched and and credit
to you and I guess to all of us is you know we seem to get along much better. We understand we can have differences and discussions and points of view and I think that trust is required to allow people to be in committees and know that smaller groups going to do a job and
then bring it back to the board and report back. Um, so I'm a fan of it. I I like the idea and I think we have the ability to do that. >> Okay. >> Yes. I was I'm I've only been on the board for the committee at the whole but
as somebody who used to attend I believe not only like with infighting I think there was a level that people wanted transparency but [snorts] I think if the committees are functioning and there is trust there and I I I do agree with Ed that we do have a lot of trust here amongst the um the board members and
when the committee reports back out it will be in public and we can still have a discussion on it. It's just that there'll be more information that we have coming in and have time then to formulate questions. Sometimes here if we're just discussing something for the first time, you don't think of something right away and it's not until after like
you think about it as so I mean I would be a fan of switching over and and doing the committees. >> Um I think we're in a good place as a board right now to do that. And I think a lot of it will also then depend on like if this is if this is something like one, you know, I'll also um talk
separately with the administration, but um if this is something that we want to do as a board, um whoever's in the president role in choosing the the chairs of the committees, it's that's also something infidelity because what could happen is that you have like you
have somebody that has a personal agenda for something and now they don't want to ever touch this issue and dance around it or ignore it or don't ever put it on the committee agenda. I mean, that happens at the state level. You can't get things passed because it never actually makes it into committee and it
never makes it out of committee onto um, you know, the Senate floor or things like that. So, we don't want that version of that here. Um, so I think it's, you know, incumbent upon any member that's currently or in the future going to be on the board that if they decided that this is not
that they just kept that in mind and and kept each other honest. Um, but I would love to hear like think about it a little bit more and um and then you know send me your thoughts and then what would be like what was the process then? Um do you happen to remember were you
hurt at the time before your time? >> Um well I'll find out more about the process if we Oh yeah, we had some committees initially. Yeah. And which I would we kind of had a budget committee, but it's different than a full full full
>> finance negotiation. >> Yeah. We have committ >> buildings and grounds was a committee >> building and grounds >> personnel instruction program. >> Yeah. >> Okay. It's worth saying we we've been we've been modeling a committee light >> in this and it's been functioning and
and the board has been adapting to that and that it it creates an opportunity to like to blend I'm not going to say just the CSA but the leadership team to be able to to balance to the to those committees needs as well. So like we're we're trending towards that direction
and it's working. So it seems like the right step even if even if we did this much this is this is better than putting everything into just a a cow structure. >> Yeah. >> So >> So are you saying you're in favor of committees potentially or >> Yes. Yes. I've I've been saying that for
>> Okay. Well, [laughter] >> all right. All right. So, um more to follow, but uh definitely get back to me and I I'll also have probably separate conversations with you as well and um get your uh feedback. Um >> one last question.
One last question if I may. Mr. Zinnman, can you uh verify when we have the committee of the whole structure, >> are there supposed to be actionable or are there not supposed to be actionable items on the agenda when it's a committee of the whole, right? I'm asking.
>> So, so the answer is you don't necessarily have to have actionable items at every agenda. So, some districts that operate as a committee of the whole have one meeting a month where it's committee of the whole. you're doing all the committee discuss discussions and issues and then the second meeting of the month is the action meeting where they vote on all
the committee of the whole issues that came up at the prior board meeting. >> Yeah. >> All right. All right. So, um I think we're closed for that uh governance and policy. Um so more to follow with policy
and then um I'd say we'll have an update on this um discussion at our next meeting and see um you know what the thoughts are and and come back. Um nothing else under governance IMP special services um management and
community. We have the website migration update. >> Sure. Just a quick update from from our director of communications. Um we started with the district website. So, they're migrating it to the new host, which is Aptigy, and that is migrated over in a draft form right now. The
middle school or high school website is ready to begin migration um as of last week. So, it may well have been migrated. I'm not sure. And then the community school and all the elementary school websites will be next. So, she's working with them to to do that. Um the goal is to complete the content
migration for all sites by late February or early March leaving four to six weeks to verify accuracy text test functionality and update content so it's all just launch ready. Um she confirmed a tenative website launch date of Friday
May the 1st. Um and then we will sometime before that we will work on training staff members. So the goal is to have two people in each school know how to manage their site so it can be done locally. She says it's a much much
easier website to manage than the one that we have right now. So she's confident it's going to go smoothly. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um and questions. >> Yes. Um, just I know we we emailed about this, but is are you and I just for the
benefit of all here, are we able to get web analytics on the site and data for there? >> Um, we have access to that. I'm reaching out to Rich Santos, our IT director, to get that. >> Okay. Thank you. All right.
And I feel like there was something else I was about to ask and I lost my train of thought. All right, forget it. Um, so thank you. Any other questions with regards to, you know, the website or anything under management community.
All right, thank you. All right, so on to fiscal management and draft budget. >> Thank you, Doc. Thank you, Dr. [clears throat] Robinson. So, uh, consistent with prior years, um, the first meeting in February typically
marks, uh, the board's first look at the proposed budget. Um, it has been circulated to everyone, uh, both in narrative and, uh, numeric form. Um, we would like you to review that if you
have any questions. We are uh going to be setting up some micro meetings uh based upon people's desire to come and talk. Uh the the finance committee met last Monday um and went over what the
state of our budget looks like. Um and to be honest, we we really have a twostory budget this year. Um the first story is the 2% tax levy story. And uh we're we're happy to report that we were
able to uh prepare a reconciled budget uh within the 2% cap. Uh that includes all of our operating costs um and some portion of the second story. And that
second story is the state health insurance plan uh cost increases which have been astronomical. Um the state says that their uh premiums went up 31%. If I look at it, it's more like 34% but
it doesn't matter what I say, matters what they say. Um and so we have incorporated that as of January 1. uh our benefits adviserss are advising uh based on some of the conversations that
are happening in Trenton on the insurance fund that we would be seeing a similar 30% uh increase for January 1, 2027. The result of that is a $3.2 million
increase in health insurance premiums. So what does the government the the state give us to to try to manage that? Well, they give us something called the uh health insurance uh cap adjustment. And what that says is is you can take a
an adjustment to your tax levy cap equal to 98% of the increase of those costs. So, the district assumes 2% which we've assumed which is about $800,000 in our general operating 2% budget. and the
credit that we are eligible to take is $2.3 million. Therefore, our tax levy would be increasing by a total of $3.4 million. So, what have we done to try to control
our health insurance costs? The first thing we did is back in the fall, we uh submitted our claims rates, which we have done now for two consecutive years. Uh our claims rates basically give us an idea of what our claims are versus the
premiums that are paid. Uh unfortunately ours is about 131% meaning for every dollar of premium that we pay we are paying out in cost from the funds $131.
Obviously that is not a good ratio. uh what the target number is uh in the industry is 85% which leaves 15% for the insurance companies on their commission you know the difference between the com the the the
premiums and the actual medical payments uh with 131% claims rate uh in consultation with our uh benefits broker it was determined that we are not a candidate uh to go out and come out of
the state plan and insure privately. Um, by way of example, I received a call on Friday from a gentleman who wanted to put us into a private plan and he was the the sales pitch was anybody with, you know, 100 to 108%.
And that's increased from in the past, but we're nowhere near 108%. Uh, so we explored that there there really isn't a place for us to go. Uh what we need is um Trenton to give us uh some help in
reforming the plan. And there are lots of ideas out there as to how you reform the plan whether it be uh plan design or the uh the drugs that are included in the formulary as well as who can and
can't leave the uh the state plant. So unfortunately that $2.3 million of tax levy increase is beyond our control. Um we just it is what it is. Um and we are
recommending that the budget that the uh district take the full 2.3% uh sorry 2.3 million credit. So what does that mean? Uh, everybody likes to talks about tax rates and I hate doing tax rates before we strike a
final budget, but we did it anyhow. Um, we estimated uh ratables in the district based on the same increase uh from last year and we adjusted also the average home value for the same increase as last year. We'll be getting those numbers from the assessor's office uh in a couple of weeks and then we'll be able
to give you a firmer number. But it what it looks like, it looks like a 2.38% tax rate increase. Uh so what does that mean? That means an average home of about $600,000, it's going to see an
increase of uh $517 annually, $4310 monthly. A million-doll home will see an $868 increase annually or $72.40 monthly. a $ 1.5 million home will see
an increase of $1,300 annually or $108 monthly. And and then those home values that I give you are assessed values, not market values, but your assessed value on your home. [clears throat] So what does that 2%
budget, the first story where we do have control, what is uh it include and I will turn to Dr. I'm sorry, Mr. Vaness for that. >> Sure. So, when we went through this budget like we did last year, trying to trying to fit it all in, we really wanted to make sure we're not reducing
the programming for our students. We're trying not to reduce staffing and and we've succeeded in both of those things and stayed within the 2%. So, we don't have any program reductions. We do have some additions actually. We're going to add um AP Chinese next year, which uh through an overage. Um so, we we did
budget for that. We are um the they only get the the digital resources only get more expensive, but we are a new five-year contract for our science program um at the elementary school and a five-year contract for the Sunday um word study program that we have, the
phonics program. Uh we have built into there the curriculum writing for the new science standards, making sure that we are aligned to those 2025 next generation science standards and for the new cursive handwriting standards that the state just required. Um and we maintain the the professional
development responsibilities that that uh that we've always been been doing for our staff here. Um shall I continue or Okay. Um this also means uh we have no new staff. We have no new FTE increases just that overage in in Chinese APC
Chinese. Um it reflects all of our collectively bargained agreements which is I think the salary increase for all staff on on all the contracts is 3.5% in this contract year. So squeezing 3.5% into our 2% cap is is tight. It's very
tight. Um it includes uh the chief school administrator and the assistant chief school admin salaries based on existing contracts. The continuation of what he described with state health plan which is where all the cost is coming. And uh we have a new delta dental policy because it was five-year policy. Is that
what it is? Or two. Okay. So a new policy for that. So, so where do we go from here? >> An idea. Um, our 2% increase on the tax levy is equal to about $1.1 million. The three and a
half% increase on our collective bargaining agreements is about $900,000 to a million dollars of that 1.1. So, it's it's it's a difficult budget to reconcile. um just to give some idea. Uh
so from here uh Greg and I will be reaching out to Dr. Robinson uh to coordinate uh some smaller group conversations um and trying to pair folks of you know similar backgrounds and and and uh
uh understanding of the budget process. uh state aid um in this budget is assumed to be flat. Uh the governor typically has the fourth Tuesday in February to
provide a budget address. New governors um are sometimes given latitude on that. And so on January 28th, uh S3219 was introduced. It has not been voted on, but it gives the governor until March 10th. Um we the that the state then has
48 hours from the address to give us our state numbers. Uh so we will patiently wait for that. Um and even though the governor has been given a twoe grief grief uh grace period uh grief period
flian slip there um we will not have a two-eek grace period on when it is due. So, we could look at something like getting our state aid on the 10th and you folks voting on the 12th for the tentative budget that needs to go to the
county by the 19th. So, it's going to be a pretty uh close uh window there. And then we will have our um public hearing uh in May. I believe it's scheduled for May 4th uh where we will uh present the
budget in in much more detail uh to both the board and the general public. And that is all I have on the budget. I have a um a quick question. I know a couple weeks ago um I received um an
email from the county about the timing with regards to the health benefits when they when they when they do the increase and they tell us it's basically like January which is like off of our budget timing and and that's a conflict and so I know um that you did chime in because part of it is like well what can what
are the advocacy things that you know like that we can do and there are things that you know sometimes I am going I ask you for your expertise but then I think that there's other points where it it is our responsibility as elected officials to then go out and advocate advocate at
you know the state level whether it's through our association or you know um writing letters and things like that to advocate for the way that this affects our budget and that they really have to resolve something with the you know state health benefits plan. And while we
are in a fortunate position um based on the income levels in our community, we're all still struggling at various levels and um and we want to be responsible with any of the decisions that we make. Um additionally, you know,
as we hear in the news, many um school districts around us are massively failing with their budgets um in in record numbers. And we are thankful that we are not currently in that position. Um however um I assume that based on on
enrollment at other you know schools like Hackin Hackinac I mean we see Anglewood, Montlair, Lakewood um East Orange, all of these other school districts um that this is going to continue to be um a massive problem across the entire state. Um, so are you
able to just kind of like talk about that a little bit like the advocacy that you know like at the county level or what kinds of things you see and like that kind of trend just to >> so um the association of school business administrators uh has put out a paper on
the uh health insurance uh situation. Um they have uh provided remedy. They have also provided a numerical opposition to the uh amount of money that Trenton says they are saving
on the chapter 44. Um so that is something that is going on uh you know as we speak. Um, as far as the advocacy from the board, um, letters to your local, uh, representatives and and and
state senators would be great. Um, I'd ask please send them after we get state aid. Um, but, uh, you know, things of that nature because it's not what's going to be resolved is not going to be resolved in this particular fiscal period. It's more forwardlooking.
Um, and uh, like I said in in in my opinion, there are some very clear ways to fixing uh, the the the the health insurance issue. Um, not to add the municipal insurance fund is also in in
in dire straits. So with two funds in dire straits, there are, you know, real ways of of of of creating reform. And I think we just need as a board from an advocacy perspective uh is is just making your um legislators aware of the
issues and the pressures that it has on us at the local level and our community. >> James, would it be also beneficial if the members of the community also email outside of the board of education? >> Absolutely. I think what we're going to see is
you're going to see town after town as people begin to share their budgets for next year that they're going to see numbers that are well in excess of 2% because of this, right? I mean, ours is what six is going to be six 6.3
on the operating budget and five5, you know, including debt service. Those are numbers that, you know, people say, "Well, wait a minute. Isn't there a 2% cap?" Well, there is, but there's also, you know, adjustments to it. And these are circumstances beyond our control.
And I think you're going to start to see a lot of sixes, sevens, even eights and nines in some cases, especially in schools that are in the state health plan. If they're not in the state health plan, then they, you know, it's hard to tell what their particular increases may
be because they're a a a limited risk pool and depending upon their experience, they may not be where we are. Um, the state plan today as it currently exists, um, all of the goodins
insured districts, right, are gone >> and what's left are all of the districts with very high claims rates. So you have a everred reducing risk pool, right? And that risk pool happens to have very
large claims and and so that needs to be addressed and and how do we address that? And there there there are there are certainly suggestions uh out there that that answer that. >> Thank you. >> Obviously, I have my ideas, but >> that's why I'm not in Trenton.
>> Thank you. Um Yep. Go for Just just one thing to advocate because we talked about committees and I think just to speak we have a a committee that was able to take this information in on an early level give some constructive feedback various
levels of of input where we were discussing what is possible to cut what it when you when you make cuts are we cutting services or we cutting dollars out of a budget and um hearing this brief tonight was was excellent on bad
news. This is bad news for every district. It's worse news for a lot of districts. Um we you said there's a tale of two budgets, but there's a I don't know what the future is going to look like, but we do have a path to get there through this. Um it it became abundantly
clear to me that real costs are increasing everywhere. And the idea that we can actually manage within a 2% increase year-over-year is is hard to believe when I think of my own home budget. And then we have New Jersey law is written by exemption. Everything is
illegal unless expressly permitted. So we're not allowed to exceed 2% unless expressly permitted. And and then insurance is really just the u the major spotlight of the fiscal concern across the state or across the country. And we're we're feeling it here right now.
And it's not much that we there's nothing that we can do as a as a board other than what Mr. Canel has really recommended is know that this this fight is ahead of us for all of us to really try to advocate and help the state know what problems to fix in the way that
we're still able to function this year. So, thanks for the committee on this one because it's I think everybody on the board's going to have a better chance to to hear this refined uh process and story and we'll get to a manageable budget that we can feel comfortable passing.
>> Okay. Thank you. questions. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Questions. I think you were suggesting all we can do is to reach out to our state representatives. I'm not clear what do we reach out them for? What do we ask? What is the request?
>> You want reform on uh the state health insurance uh fund and the reforms in both design as well as um participation. As a result, the premium would be lower.
>> There are things like plan design that can lower premiums. Yes. >> Okay. >> It's it's a it's not something that is going to be easily understood for like it's it would be unrealistic for me to expect that you would be able to
understand this like immediately. Um it took honestly it takes years in some respect if you're not like either in education to understand this part or um have you know experience as a board member like that um understanding the educational budget.
But um you'll we'll make sure we get you up to speed with all of the things that you need um to at least feel comfortable with whatever decision that you're going to make as a board member um to the best of our ability. Um it is unfortunately
complex but I would say you know thank you Mr. Canelis for um putting in a tremendous amount of hours and also for the future hours that you're going to put in to um having these uh smaller discussions for us to talk about like
you know what are the options um and then um you know come back as a board and discuss that. >> Please don't set an expectation for options. There are very few as Mr. Corey will. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I think I mean well what
you've said in the past um is that really when we're talking about um any options, it's we're not doing a lot of uh we're not doing a lot of projects. For instance, we're not doing a lot of new programs. We're not doing a lot. we're we're basically at maintenance and the biggest
part of our our budget is always going to be uh you know personnel health benefits and you know things like that as well as the fact that we also are doing all of these rooftop units. We're also doing um the the the repairs for the sinks and things like
that because those are maintenance items or end of life of our fields and things like that. So we're we're only seem to be doing you know some of the necessary work. we already um you know did not put the project out to bid again for the press box you know um there you know and
those are things that wouldn't necessarily come out of like the operating um budget but I think that we don't really have a lot of those other options and in order for even personnel changes to make um this significant of the thing it would be you know like a
massive amount of people that you would have to be reducing in order to make um a and then that would only be this year. Then do you have to then have a massive personnel cut next year and the following year and the following year in
order to maintain it and um that would not be sustainable and it sounds like we're in a again a better position than many other school districts um and it's going to create a crisis across the state. Yeah,
Glenrock is very lucky to have had a um a financial plan that has worked for many many years, has added to the capital reserve which allows for a lot of the projects that you mentioned to be
paid for um out of old dollars, not new dollars. Um and so yeah, we are we are definitely lucky. >> Okay. One of the things um I went to school boards uh you know like most of us went uh in October and um
I went to the legislative session and uh there there were uh sitting senators and assembly people that um were talking about like a variety of questions that they were being led through and one of them was about the 2% cap um as well as the state health benefits plan and
things like that. Um and so you're talking to people that are heading the Assembly um uh education committee or the Senate um majority leader and things like that. And one gentleman um he said that well the 2% cap the way that we
thought about it was that you know like it wasn't going to include things like your rooftop units that that should be something that maybe is coming from um you know the state or if you're in a very very old building that those are things that you can't necessarily control on a um on a budget level or if
you need to replace um furnaces and things like that that there was a separate fund that that would come from and that most of the 2% would be you know like our operating our health um our health benefits, our personnel, all of those things. And that if you had another project that you wanted to do
with with the school that you would float the question through a referendum and do the referendum and and he said that that was the way it was designed that you ask for a referendum and that's what the expectation is. But as we know um as public servants on this side, if we said that something like, oh, we need
a referendum, that's like almost a bad that is a bad word, you know, like it sounds like a failure. Um, so it's just interesting to hear from them. Their perspective is that they assume that people aren't going to be able to make this 2% cap and make everything happen within 2%. And and that you should be
going to the community and asking them um proactively for a referendum. And I just thought that that was really interesting um to hear, not like positive um but really interesting to hear from them that that we're supposed to magically just do everything within that 2% and then um constantly float
questions and ask for referendums from our community um because that would not go very well. Um, additionally, uh, with regards to like their thoughts with the state health benefits plan, um, I don't I I mean, they don't really want to we have almost like a singlepayer system
here. And when you have one major, um, company that's in charge of pretty much most health insurance across the state, they're not really incentivized to provide any changes. So, I think that it's really hard for like I'm going to advocate. I'm going to do whatever I can um as an elected official as well as
just a public citizen to advocate for changes, but I think it's um unfortunate that we it doesn't seem like there's also an appetite to increase and open up the market to allow for a competition that would actually benefit the people. Um I don't see that and I don't really
see an appetite uh for legislations to change that. But that's just my opinion. Um any other questions or concerns or anything? Go ahead. >> Thank you for saying the word referendum three times. The ceiling didn't collapse when you said it. The the floor didn't burst into flames. It's not a bad word.
It's >> just flames. >> You Well, [laughter] um it it is a tool. We don't have the budget to paint that head stop. Um it it is a tool that I think uh a board in support of a community and a community
in support of a school district knows how to use. and what conversations like this open dialogue about challenges I think are the the method of transparency that the community is going to need to hear and see to be able to get behind things um with tonight we Christine
thank the community for donating a couple thousand dollars for equipment like that that's not lip service that's an incredibly valuable portion to our budget that's $10,000 worth of wrestling singlets and a hockey program that that couldn't have happened without that if a
well I will say if a wealthy benefit factor wants to donate a million dollars for a new press box, we'll probably have one next year. But short of that, we would need to float a referendum and to exceed our budget for something that if the community should see that to be what we need to do, that's the path to do
this. We we built four new class four new classrooms at Hamilton without without doing that, which is really stretching the method by which we're constrained by. That's incredible. Well, I'm sure there's other economic ways to do it, but it really comes down to public trust in the direction of the
school district that and that's what the referendum as a tool can be for us. >> Thank you. >> And I think also based on um other funding that we had in prior years, you were able to, you know, adjust your budgets, if I'm correct, in certain ways that don't exist anymore. Um, so the
amount of money that we're putting into Capital Reserve and like you know all of that it's it's smaller than what we were able to do in certain years especially in the COVID years. And I think that what you're seeing across the state is all of these um places that were fold
that are are not were but are folding are places that use the temporary funds to balance their their their budgets and are are struggling. Liquidity is a double-edged sword when you're borrowing from one pocket for the other. Yeah. >> Um, so
>> Dr. Robinson, to your point, this this very board used to budget contributions to the capital reserve. We can't do that any longer. Those we just can't afford to do. So, um, and to
Mr. Corey's point about million-dollar donations, um, those also include, uh, pool and landscaping services. just let me know and we can get that all arranged for you. >> But speaking of which, um I I I think well you mentioned it so I
think that some of the things like we talk about shared services and working with um our you know our town, our borrow um it looks like those burrow relations have been going really well. Um, and I know you have a
moment later or sometime soon to talk about that, but I think it ties in really well with the other things that we're doing to try and balance our budget and make things um a reduced cost for both ourselves as well as the borrow as a whole. Um, so are there any other questions
with regards to um this tentative budget? I know we're going to have our meetings and I'll definitely find a way for us to meet. One question that I have is but you I I read you said similar 30% or more increase is going to happen
again in January 27 right so assuming using the same method you on your projection let's say we have 2% tax increase this year same thing happen again next year
>> it's been more >> using the same projection if nothing changes is >> if you could turn on your mic. >> Sorry. This budget is this budget covers the first six months of that second 30% increase.
>> The just January 1 through June, right? It does not include the other half of it. But assuming right that it stays in that neighborhood, you've now built it into your budget. So your budget carries forward. So what I
would say is is that you're in a good position, it would be if if the if the health fund doesn't go up 30%. Or it stays flat as of J January 1, 2028, then you could be there is a way to get there
within the 2%. >> That's just an unrealistic expectation based upon the historical trends of health insurance premiums. >> I see. So you're not projecting another 30% in January 2028. That's not >> No, but that wouldn't be in this budget.
That would be in the no budget. >> Yeah. >> So, this projection is based on that increase will be relative to a lot smaller than 30%. >> Correct. >> Okay. Yeah. And that that actually goes so the so the the county actually sent a letter which I forwarded to James um
talking about advocating at the county level for um the budget times to align where you know we're project we're doing a budget based on the following you know full year almost calendar like the school year. However the state does a budget based on just the calendar year.
So you don't actually know like what's going to be approved for you know next like 2027. So we're we're guessing and in some um places people have guessed wrong and then they have a budget shortfall in a period of time where they you know like we don't actually have the information and so that's like another
form of advocacy that we need to have to be able to align it so that you can make an accurate budget you know reflective of you know the needs and and and things like that. >> By way of example to what Dr. Roberts was just saying last year's budget had a 15% increase anticipated for January 1,
2026. It turned out to be 30. The delta resulted in $500,000 that we had to find in other places within our existing budget to fund that. And that's the advocacy that we where we
need help to put maybe put the state fund on a fiscal year and not a calendar year. I'm I'm sort of glazing over so but bear with me. Um did we get a number that we were eligible for from the state?
>> I'm not even sure. >> For what? >> State for state aid. State >> for the uh the raise for the increase percentage >> calculation. >> Yeah. The calculation >> for the insurance >> the cap. >> I'm sorry I don't understand. >> To go over cap
>> to go. Yes. Yes. budget software has been missed. That's why I'm asking and so we are able the $2.3 million is the uh calculation per the state's uh budget software.
>> Um for you had percentages, you had the numbers. Just for the benefit of all, can you just give us the high level readout one one last time? >> Sure you can. I don't want to misspeak. So, our 2% cap levy is going up $1.1
million and our state uh health insurance levy adjustment is $2.3 million for a total of $3.4 million. That is an increase of 6.3%
over last year. When you factor in debt service, which brings that percentage down because we were able to refinance the 2016 uh refunding bonds brings it down to 5.5%.
And then the tax rate uh again which is uh really not a function of the school district but the tax assessor's office we estimate to increase uh for the s for the tax rate to be 2.38%. See the increases on the levy and then
the tax rate. >> So we're using um 1.3 of our fund balance to reduce our 6.26% 26% rate to bring it down to 5 >> no >> 26 >> our $ 1.3 million fund balance is
already baked in as part of a reconciling item. The reason why it reduces from the 6.3 to the 5.5 is the refunding of the debt service which is not fund balance. >> Okay. But we're taking down from our our
reserves to take down our 6.26% 26% increase down to a 5.49%. >> No, that's not accurate. We are It comes from 6.3 to 5.5 because of de our debt service. Our debt service is a separate
fund from the operating budget. What you're referencing is is the $1.3 million that we balance all of our budgets and have balanced our budgets in the future with that 1.2 2 million or $1.3 million in this budget is baked
into the 6.3. Okay, that is $100,000 less than what it was last year because we have been as part of our goals on a uh a trajectory to bring that number to something reasonable. Um, and we think
that that reasonable number is probably somewhere around $750,000. So, we have quite a bit of ways to go. So each year we've been taking that $100,000 off in order to reduce our reliance on generating
surplus. But the difference from the 63 to the 55 is all about debt service which is not related to our fund balance contribution. >> All right. Any other Did you have a question? Okay.
All right. Um, thank you. All right. And if you're able to discuss the copy release and then the [clears throat] snow removal. >> Speaking of saving money, um, one of the, uh, areas where we were able to save some money this year, um, was going out and, uh, trying to bring in a new
leasing company and, uh, photocopy company. Uh and so we had had some uh preliminary discussions with a company that has a a uh a state uh state contract um Atlantic tomorrow. Um they came in, they did an assessment of our
uh equipment. Um and so they were able to give us a a a deal whereby we would be saving uh $2,500 a month on our copers. uh and all of our copers, same
number of copers and same capability. Um they are also going to eat the remaining two years on our existing lease. So, they're going to take back those copiers that we have uh I believe from Xerox,
pay them off, and then uh enter a new deal with us where they would deliver for September 1, and we would then enter a new 5-year lease on that equipment. So, we're excited about that. We don't get the full savings this year because obviously August and uh July and August
will have to be at the old, but starting in September, we should be at the new. Um the lease agreement will be on the uh next agenda for approval by the board. Uh and when we will begin uh if if
approved, we will begin a transition plan. >> Excellent. Thank you. And any questions about that? >> Just make sure I understand this is talking about the paper copy machines. >> We're spending tens of thousand dollars
on paper copy machines still in 2026. Yep. >> I'm very surprised like what do we use that for >> it is used in every school building. Uh whether that be for assessments or um
worksheets or or whatever okay needs >> for to answer your question in the admin areas there are only about four uh of those copers. They're mostly school-based. And uh oh, did you have something? >> When we sign the the bills every month,
I would want to say that the stack of bills just to just to do the accounting and the cash reconciliation for a district in a month, you know, I kid you not, is probably eight inches thick. >> Are you talking about the stack? >> Oh, that one. Yeah, >> that's just that's one month of ju just
the bills that you'll get to review as a trustee. So there's an incredible amount of paper to support >> but not why not review the digital copy. >> I I really enjoy that my kids get inas work on you see that it's like a huge use in the elementary schools too >> in some cases and Mr. Zmer can uh uh
correct me if I'm wrong but statute actually requires paper copy. >> That's right. >> We're not escaping paper yet. >> Yeah. >> Yet. >> Yeah. Right. Um, snow removal. >> Finally, some good news, right? Um, I
just wanted to discuss the the the snowstorm from two weeks ago. Uh, it was my first major snowfall here in Glenrock. Um, and also my first major snowfall as a business administrator as well as the first snowfall for our uh
director of buildings and grounds. And so we didn't necessarily know where the pain points were. We found out what the pain points were real quick. And fortunately, we had uh in advance establish an open dialogue with the municipality. Uh we were uh included in
all of the OEM meetings prior to the storm. um and was we had an an avenue to seek help uh when we knew we needed help and and and they were very quick uh to respond to our request. Uh and we are
incredibly appreciative of that. Uh you know, very special thanks to uh uh the head of the DPW, uh the head of the OE OEM, the mayor, uh the fire chiefs, the uh police chief. It was just uh it was
it was a it was a very wellexecuted plan and and I think we got it we got through it in ways that other places did not. Um and it's just the beginning I think of much more open and much more uh
collaborative efforts with the municipality. I know uh in anticipation of this past weekend storm, all of our parking lots were brined by the uh municipality and we got a note, you know, the night before, hey, we're going to be in your parking lots at 5:00.
We're going to brine you and we're like, thank you. Um and so there's opportunities there. I think we're going to try and do a salt uh co-op bid uh together. um maybe even a place to store salt uh so that we don't run into some
of the salt shortages that other municipalities have have uh experienced. So um really it's just a personal thank you to the municipality for supporting us uh during the storm and just a shout out to the DPW. were on
the clock working 29 straight hours and when they went home at 11:30 and I was driving here to see how things were and there were folks throwing snow into the into the street and it's like they're gone. That's not that's going to turn to ice. Stop throwing snow into the street.
So, I think they would appreciate that as well. Um once DPW is done, don't throw snow in the street. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um thank you to the DPW. Thank you to the burrow. um leadership and um everything. And so I
and I'm appreciative of of you working well with them um to get this done. So thank you so much uh Mr. Canelis. Um on to liaison. So I posted the liaison assignments. Um I spoke with everyone. Um if you have any questions about the
liaison assignments, do let me know. Um if you have anything to report out today, we'll do that. I'll just tell you about the uh fed federated HSA meeting that I had on on January 15th. Um uh for CPAC, they reported out um that there
was a meeting on January 20th for the prek and elementary and their next prek elementary meeting is going to be on May 12th um for the middle middle school high school um CPAC. Their meetings were uh February 4th as well and then May 6th will be their next one. Um they talked
about uh the um in November uh because this was the first meeting since we came back from the new year um that there was a virtual lecture on uh pathways for students with disabilities that was wellreceived and very successful. Um they talked about um
uh teen mental health first aid uh the wellness counselor um at the high school level um there was a a a grade 12 fundraiser um and that they need um about 20,000 in order for everyone to have a free prom. Um uh the uh our
principal um high school principal, middle school high school principal reported out that um like how the monthly student and principal student advisory committee meetings were going where the um principal sits down with the student reps and discusses um kind of generally things that they um you
know like any pain points for the students um and they can ask questions. Um uh there was a winter Olympics pep rally on um February 6. Um
oh so the grade six, seventh, and eighth elective choices um uh come soon and kids usually get one to two of their top choices. Um and uh they spoke a little bit about how that goes and I thought that was interesting because I mean I have a elementary school student so I'm
not aware of of these kinds of level of details, but it was nice to hear. Um, the juniors do a post-secondary kickoff for college and alternate pathways, and that will include parents and students. Um, they talked about the holiday concert that was on January 21st.
Um, science week was uh, February 2nd through 6th. Um, they in the elementary schools, they did um, a switchover between mand Mandarin and Spanish. which I know my own daughter um was telling me that she, you know, loved Mandarin. She's on Mandarin now, so she made sure
to mention that to me. But that occurred on uh January 30th. Um on February 20th, uh you'll get some report cards out. Um I reported um just that we did the uh the RF the um RFA for the the CSA search
um went out. Um we talked about the central naming uh committee um and just introducing new board members. Um and and that was really it. Any questions or comments or anything? I know many of you also have other um like uh you know like
HSA meetings that are within each of the elementary schools or middle school, high school. Um, and so this is kind of like the the collective one where everyone reports back up to the uh to the um chief school administrator and all the building principles and things like that, but we also have individual
ones um that lead up to that and that's it. Anybody have anything to for for leazison? Oh, uh go ahead. >> So, uh for the rec advisory board, just two updates I was able to get from from the group and some others. Um, one is
the I want to say the Wild Memorial Park baseball field. They're considering to change that from a 60 to 90 foot pitching mound which would allow for access for the middle school teams. Um, that's a future idea to help coordinate
between the town and the and the school district field. Um, and another one was regarding uh use of I think it was Hamilton's field between 4 and 5:30. I think the good thing for us to see is that uh
people looking to use it or using the school dude or whatever the new program is so they're able to access information and communicate back. I assume all this communication will go through the ad or perhaps you as well. But these are the kinds of things that our town's working to do and sounds like we're figuring
ways to work together. So, Excellent. All right. Any other reports? Do you want to talk about naming committee? Naming committee? I know you I know Dan's um our rep, but I think you were able to attend the meeting or do you have anything there?
>> Well, in Dan's absence um >> uh we had a meeting uh the first meeting of the naming committee where we sort of went over the process um uh looked at the new policy, made sure we were following it. Uh Mr. Vanest was kind enough to lead the meeting and um I
think we had a little homework. Uh we're talking about possibly putting together some surveys to ask people's opinions um and get some information. Once we have all that back, we'll be able to sort of have a better conversation about it. >> Okay, great. Great. Thank you.
All right. Um I don't have anything else under old business. Oh, yes. Go ahead. >> I have two things. Oh, go ahead. >> Uh, well, one is we were we were just talking about I'm going to speak from my heart here. So, we were just talking about the subcommittees and and that and
just as it's a new year and um bringing up the idea I brought it up on email last year, but the location of our meetings. So, we have I think the choice of of where we meet and um based on my aunt used to be on the board Mary Joe Dervvis and she had mentioned that the
meetings used to be held in the media center. So, I just want to speak to the other board, you guys, and just let you know that I would love for us to consider having it there for three reasons. One is just acoustically it's hard to hear in here. If we don't have
the mic on, if we're not speaking directly in the mic, it's really hard to hear even in closed session. It's hard to hear each other. Um, so just acoustically, I think there's a huge advantage. Uh, logistically, I find that we are very far apart from each other. We're far apart from the public. Um, you
know, the media center is just a much more cozy environment. Whenever I look at other board meetings from other towns, they are always I always see them held in media centers, um, aka the library. So, you know, I there's probably a reason. And then last is just
it's it's quite, you know, we all know it's very cold in this room and, um, there's a chance that the media center might have slightly warmer temperatures. So, I I you know, I brought this up on email last year. I just want to put it out there again. It is something to
consider if we ever want to do it. Of course, we'd have to run by the administration to see logistically, but since I think it was held there in the past, it's probably logistically feasible. >> Um, I don't know if anyone has any thoughts on on that, but uh I just want to plant a seed [clears throat] in your head.
>> I could give you the logistical answer is that we cannot. When the media center was redone, all of the uh broadcasting abilities from that room were removed and installed here. So, currently we do
not have a way to video and broadcast our meetings in the media center. We would have to go out and purchase a similar type system that was installed here in order to do that >> there. So there's no speakers is is in there.
>> It doesn't have any. It doesn't have any of the equipment that is needed by the gentleman uh to broadcast our meetings to broadcast. It doesn't have a speaker system. It doesn't have a mic system. It doesn't have a gateway out. So we would
have to spend money in order to do that. So if the board wants to move their uh meetings to the media center, we could easily get quotes on what the cost would be to install such a system in the media center. >> Okay. I was not aware. I just knew that
it used to be there. So I and I I didn't know the reason was, you know, that the acoustics weren't the uh electronics weren't set up. Um >> Okay. >> You said you had two things. I had
something else. Um, last meeting Mr. Cohen brought up later school start times and I wanted to revisit it. I I've spent the we've our last meeting was five weeks ago. So, uh, in that time I've done some research on later school start times. I think we've all spoken about it before. There's a lot of
support for it. Um, and I just wanted to share my my research on it that I, you know, managed to to look up. Um, so, you know, I think this is an important topic. I just even observing my own kids in the past week. Um my son, you know,
he has to report to sports at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. These kids don't get a chance to really sleep in and recover. My daughter, she she plays sports till 9:30 at night and she's seventh grade. Um so, you know, they they really these kids really work hard
during the week and and sleep is has been proven to be really important. They've done so many studies in the last 12 years on sleep and how it helps you academically, socially, emotionally, mentally, um, and you know, just every
in every regard. Um, I reached out to Ridgewood and spoke with them because they spoke with Sheila Broen who is the president of the school board there and learned about their experience there. Um, and it was really interesting
conversation. They actually spent so many years just researching it. Um, the principal really advocated this whole initiative. Um, initially there was a lot of doomsday thinking in Ridgewood. Um, they thought $200,000 increase in bus cost. It ended up being zero. Um,
they thought, you know, there would be a lot of issues with it. There turned about to be none. Um, everybody has seemed to like it. Um, so there was actually a two-year study. I welcome you guys to all look at it. It's on um their their last board meeting in November is
on YouTube. Um it was a two-year study about the effects of how what has happened since they put in later school start times. So they had a significant change in start times. They changed from 7:45 to 8:20. That's 35 minutes. Um I
know here there's concern, okay, we can't do it. There's, you know, we have the teachers have a certain schedule already set up in their contracts. They kept the teachers the same schedule. They did not change it. What they did change was their um school school block time. So for like an 80-minute block
went to 70 minutes. 55 minute block went to 50 minutes. They have this period of time of chunk of time in the morning for that 35 minutes the teachers are in school and they're available to students uh who might need extra help. But this
the period shortened. So, the two-year readout, it's a it's a great presentation they have. Um, they spoke to the effects and the effects were really incredible. Um, their state scores have got it's like a lowhanging fruit on how to, you know, these kids
can do better academically. They had their state scores went up, their um scores in class went up, teachers uniformly reported out that that the teach that the kids were way more alert in class and engaged and participating.
Um the athletics reported the kids were just better sports. They actually run a won a record amount of sports um in the last two years. Not that that's the goal, but it just is reflective that these kids are are feeling physically
better from more sleep. And the stat that I just thought was incredible was the amount of tardies. So there was about 8,000 tardies a year reported two years ago and it reduced almost in half to like four it was to 4600.
So there's you know these kids are coming in and showing up at school. And then you know just on the legislative and political side you know things are turning in our country. Um, there is a law now in California and in Florida that high schools that get state aid
cannot start before 8:30 a.m. So, you know, and this is being this is c catching some steam in other states. Um, so there's now legislation in nine states, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York,
Oregon, Texas, and New Jersey. There was legislation last year in the assembly and the congress um for for this move and there's a number of schools in New Jersey that have recently changed um Ridgewood, Princeton, Pleasantville, Chadam, Westfield, South Orange,
Maplewood and it's in discussions with Bridgewater, Rariton. So, you know, I just think it was I I know a lot of us are interested in this topic and I would really hope that we can consider and we could speak to it and you know, Mr. Cohen's not here. help you, but we can
consider coming together and seeing if we can start just exploring what it takes to to do this. um and just exploring because that's all I know that there was there
was concern last meeting that doing this um you know it would would be interruptive to the the superintendent situation but again it's just exploring and um so that's just what I wanted to bring forth to to share what's going on
on this front. >> Florida actually repealed that >> latest start time. Yeah, they repealed that. When did that happen? >> Uh recently. >> Oh, last year. So, as most of you know who have been on the board, I am an advocate also for a later start time and
it was brought up. I went to several um meetings on it or workshops on it school boards a couple years ago with two other board members um that aren't on the board anymore. Uh Chadam also has a start time and that superintendent who's now in Princeton did a lot of research on it as well. And I I do think it's
something that we should look at especially with the tardies. you know, kids are going to be in school. The biggest issue the the districts had in it was the busing and we are not a district that buses so it's a little bit easier for us. I know there was division would mention anything with you know
school the high school sports the games start at four o'clock. Was there any issues with that? >> No they um they mentioned no issues with busing. It cost them zero dollars increase in busing. Um, and sports starts like it was like 10, 15 minutes later, but it didn't really have any
effect. The kids just kind of hustled. They the amount of time they had between the end of school and the start of of sports was just reduced. Also, when Chadam superintendent did his presentation, they did a lot of other um initiatives for the children's well-being. a lot of the same things
that we have done here in Glenn Rock and the later start time was just one more piece of the puzzle in order to help our students be the best that they can be. So I I would be supportive of looking into this at any time that we want to decide
it. I mean it was spoken about and it kind of was tabled. So it was something that I would support is just to investigate it and get a get a feel for how it may or may not work in Glenrock. And I would add that the Ridgewood principal that that initiated this, Jeff
Ny House, he is he has he's been answering fielding calls from all schools, that's what Sheila Broen, the president of the BOE, said he's very open and happy to speak to anybody that wants to learn about their success story. Can I piggyback on that? So I was in a
meeting and I had a very brief um encounter with the vice principal I believe he was of West Essex who also started the later start time for their students and it absolutely did nothing to their schedule as far as start and finish time. He said the teachers were
thrilled with what was happening. What they did there was that they massaged the passing time periods. So if they were five minute passing maybe they took a minute off of here and then the lunch time you don't need the same amount of time before and after the passing time
for lunch. I don't didn't get all of the specifics because it was in in passing in my meeting with him and I just you know hearing his enthusiasm about it and how you know getting full support from the uh staff teachers and administrators
they were thrilled with the outcome. the kids are the tardy was a big big thing that it really cut it down to almost nothing he said for them and as a VP you know they deal with a lot of the tardies so uh I would be very um happy to be
part of also looking further into that and digging in. I think that um this is at the end of the day I know that I had heard somewhere that it was you know well a new superintendent coming in but at the end of the day this is a board decision. Do we want to go in this direction or not? And I think if we
start the leg work to find out, if we ask the administration to investigate or however it should work, uh I think that we might be pleasantly surprised. It doesn't have to happen tomorrow. It doesn't have to happen this school year, but I think starting to investigate is
only, you know, to our benefit. >> Thank you. Thank you. I'll be in touch. I'll be in touch with you. >> All right. Any anything else? All right. Um, so we're on to our well,
our next meeting date is February 23rd. Um, and we're going to open up our second um, public comments at 9:47. Please state your name and your address and then you have three minutes and then you'll hear um, a beep go off. I know Miss Scarpelli already knows.
>> Hi, Sharon Scarpelli, 687 During Miss Avenue. Um, I actually wasn't going to make any comments, but I want to thank you for bringing up the later store team when I was on the board along with another board member that's no longer on the board and I was at that meeting with
Karen. Um, we were asking for this then and that was two years ago. Um, it seemed pretty seamless. Now, I know there's always bumps in the road, but this is something this district can do. Eliminating the issue with the buses is huge. We have a middle school and a high
school in the same building. You can start them both at the same time, make them both start later. It there's no reason that we can't look into this and get this done for our kids. This is for our kids. Um secondly, moving on to the budget. Um I don't know if I misheard,
but I thought you had thrown out a 3.2 $3.2 million increase in the health insurance and 2.3 of it will be covered in the adjustment. I'm just curious where the other 900,000 falls.
>> Don't answer. >> If you can't answer that, I get it. But I just listening here, I just know there's a $900,000 shortfall somewhere. Plus, what you said there's a 1.1 million in the 2%. So, if it's within the 2%.
>> Okay. So, that's where it's being captured. Okay. Thank you. So, best of luck with the budget. It's not going to be easy. We knew this years ago. know this is going to happen. It's going to be difficult next year. I know we're increasing that 2% cap for the pre the
futures budgets by having this big increase, but this is a huge increase and it was nice to hear that there was some kind of budget meetings with board members in in a smaller setting to discuss this. um you guys are going to
have to make some hard decisions and we all know where the big dollars fall. So, best of luck and um get the kids in school later. >> Thank you. >> Rob Morris, 560 Acrimanav. Um,
I'm here tonight as a parent of three Glenrock students, including my son, Wyatt, who was recently suspended. Let me be clear from the start. I'm not here asking for empathy, sympathy, or understanding. I'm here asking for oversight, which is the responsibility
of the board. In my meeting with the acting superintendent, Mr. Van Nest, he admitted that he had watched the video evidence related to this incident only twice. The video taken out of context and never supplemented by interviews,
statements, or broader investigation appears to be the only evidence relied upon by the administration. And yet, this single piece of evidence resulted in 27 student suspensions. That alone should concern you. Even more
troubling, during the same meeting, Mr. Vaness admitted that he did not know anything about my son. not his history, not his character, not his record as a student. This is not just disappointing, it signals an alarming lack of diligence
in a situation that affects a child's disciplinary record and well-being. We were also informed that the assistant principal who issued the disciplinary letter will not meet with us. We were told the matter is considered closed by
the administration. I disagree and more importantly, you should be troubled by this position. When administrators refuse dialogue, rely on minimal review of evidence, and fail to understand the students they are disciplining, this is
not leadership. It's a process failure. And it raises serious questions about whether those entrusted with authority are equipped to handle complex, highstakes situations involving students. Since the last time we addressed this board, I have written to
you twice and met directly with Mr. Van Nest. Yet nothing has changed. No review, no reconsideration, no accountability. The frustration we feel as parents and as taxpayers funding this district is at
an all-time high. You are the governing body. The administration reports to you. We're not asking you to reverse the suspension tonight. I'm asking you to do your job to question how decisions are made, how evidence is evaluated, and how
students are treated. It will not take long to uncover the administration's processes are simply inadequate. Finally, I understand that the board may be in the process of hiring a superintendent. In times of challenge, schools need leaders. People who step
forward, take responsibility, and engage with families. Not individuals who hide behind legal language and close doors. This moment matters, not just for my son, but for every family in this community. The standard you tolerate is
the standard you endorse. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Morsy. Um to start, are you able to um Mr. Canelis just clarify the budget question? >> Yes. Um the
almost $800,900,000 difference between the tax uh adjustment and the actual increase was absorbed in the 2% uh cap uh levy increase. All right. just to um you know address
uh I know we've had a few um exchanges um but since you mentioned in public comments so part of the process um when we when your request or not even just your request the other requests that came through um I had I had those
meetings with our chief school administrator to ask about the process and I also had that meeting with the our legal counsel um with regards to the process I had um not even just that but I I had we had uh some small discussion
you know with our um prior meeting and then even in this meeting again you know we did an afteraction review and discussed whether or not policy was followed and things like that we had our legal counsel here with us to do that kind of um discussion and so it's when
it's it's hard to you know like one have back and forth and say like where what we do and don't do when we have like certain internal, you know, review things that we're really unable to tell you to the to the level of the satisfaction that you may want. Um, or even if I wasn't a board member and I
was just sitting on the other side and wanting to know information about a question that I had and I felt like I wasn't getting a satisfactory response. But yes, our our process is to ask those questions and then you know push it to the level that we're able to and then it follows into what I had sent you in the
email that anything outside of that is the um is the responsibility through the commissioner of education um which um I know you know is an option that's available to you um but I just wanted to
address that. All right. So, seeing no additional public comments at 9:55, um well, I should have done that first, but um we'll just say officially 9:55 we close public comments and um I just need
a motion to adjourn. Miss Calva, seconded by Mr. Hayward, thirded by Mr. Stevenson, fourth by All in favor? >> Any opposed? None opposed. All right, we are adjourned.