Hi. >> So, the district had a bid opening um I think it was January 29th and we had multiple vendors um submit their bids and we these the three debts presented on the agenda are the three lowest bids.
So, um, we're going to recommend awarding it to Bill Bill. >> It really is. >> That's where we sat when I first ran. >> Yeah. >> Everything. >> Is he trying to give you some bad vibes on that side? Is that what he's trying to do?
>> No. No. Very good. All right, 7 o'clock. All meetings order. It's 7 o'clock on February 17, 2026. Please rise for flag salute. I pledge allegiance 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. >> Root of egress. In the event of emergency, all people may exit right or left from this room and proceed to an exit door. All doors will be open from
the inside. The open public meetings announcement. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law is enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In
accordance with this provision with the provision of this act, the Hilden board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be public in the North Jersey record Herald News, the board's official newspaper on January 9th, 2026. Notices of this meeting indicating date, time, and place were posted publicly on the
door the main entrance of the school and filed with the clerk of the municipality available. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Cerna >> here, >> Miss Gado >> here, >> Mrs. Fischer >> here, >> Miss Garcia >> here, >> Miss Gatlin >> here, >> Mr. Guzman >> here, >> Miss Johnson
>> here, >> Mr. Williams >> here, >> and Mr. Ka >> present with us. All right, moving right along to committee reports. Starting with the president's report. Uh mine will be nice
and brief. Uh we had our first few scheduled committee meetings, which I was happy to see. Um several members of the board, including myself, uh Commissioner Johnson and Commissioner Cerna attended inservice training for the board uh leadership program. Um we
have a few items to discuss in executive session. Um, as we enter into the budget season, I'm happy to report that there's been a great deal of discussion and openness with both the chief school administrator as well as the business administrator. Uh, we're reviewing several areas and discussing all different options to
ensure that regardless of what the outcome of our financial or state aid is that we have the best interests of the children and that we have plans in place regardless of what we get. Additionally, I personally reached out to all three uh
35th legislative district elected state representatives and asked them uh to come to a meeting as well as uh expressed concern that over the last two years we had lost uh several hundred thousands of dollars from state aid. Um Assemblyman Abdelaziz did reach out and
stated that he would be happy to come to a meeting uh once so he could work out his schedule because he's also very busy. Um, and we also discussed u couple questions about the prek lottery. And that's all I have. Moving on to chief school administrator for his report. >> Sure. So, I'll start with the water
situ. I'll end with the water situation. Try to be easier. Um, on this agenda, a couple things should jump out. The first is um you'll see the district improvement plan for CQAC. Um, so our test scores went up a little bit, but so did our chronic absenteeism rate. um as
well as the the amount that uh you know is that that away weigh on us. So that kept us below the 80% line. So we are a school in need of improvement at according for that one area the instructional area. Uh we still passed in governance and and finance and every
other operation the personnel but in this one uh we had to create a plan. So this is the plan that I'm showing you. Um the you know our test scores went up. So we're we're we're proud of the work we've done as far as you know using our data to kind of realign instruction in
real time. Um but the chronic absentee rate is what's what's really really hurting us and um so you see that's addressed plan as well. Um you'll also see our annual school safety or our bianual school safety report. Um that's something we sent to you guys in the
summertime. Then you know about six or seven months later we send it again. Um, you know, I think that we'd all agree the middle school is being handled really well. Um, has done a great job. So are all the staff members um that that work with them up there. So we're happy that the numbers are declining.
Um, you'll see there's a executive session for HIV. It's a pretty uh clear-cut forward, you know, HIV case. Um, so any questions on that, I could answer that during executive or we can go straight through with it. And then as far as the water, uh so at 5:58 PM I got
an email uh from a gentleman from the Manchester uh water utility or utility association. Um and the the boil water advisory is still in effect. We'll probably find out sometime around 10 or 11 o'clock tomorrow um if it's if it's
good or not. So, you know, we we could throw the dice and and and and then have everybody come in and hope we get the results back, but that would be foolish because, you know, if it turns out that the water's undrinkable and we got,00 people in the building, um it would be quite chaotic. So, sadly, we're going to have to go into our our spring break
days and take a day off tomorrow. Um I I know that the the the piping all around town has been an issue. Uh yeah, I guess uh all most of you guys didn't have water for about a week straight uh this past July and August. Um and it's a kind of thing we we can't operate a building
um you know without without drinkable water for the kids. And there's just so many people that we would need it for. Um it's it's assumed or it's not assumed, but it's it's believed that we're going to get a result back that says everything's safe to go um and then we start back on uh on on on Thursday.
But that's where we're at. Uh so that's my uh unfortunate superintendent report today. >> Thank you. Any questions for uh CSA lock before we move on? >> Any no questions? Moving on to uh business administrator board secretary
report, Miss Austin, please. >> And thank you Kleta. So the finance team met yesterday and we went over and discussed a few items. Um the first thing I want to um just make um two announcements. The
first ann announcement is um we I just want to remind everybody about their ethical disclosure filings. They're due April 30th. You hear me continuously um bring this up until we're past that time and everyone's um form has been
accepted. Okay. So if you have any questions, continue to reach out to us. We get back to you guys when there's rejections. We already have a few of those and we kind of work those out. The second is I received an email regarding the tricky tray. I know we've been
hearing um about the tricky tray um the PTA that pulls off um every year. This year it's March 18th and the um president reached out to invite all the board members to attend. In addition,
usually um traditionally the board does um do a collection to present a small gift as um an item as um a group to the tricky tray and do I will collect my funds or you guys can stop by the board office and or sell me either way and we
are I usually buy a gift certificate and that would be um the group gift from the board members. So um please if you want to participate which I encourage you to do so to um reach out to me um before the 18th or um at least a week before
the tricky trade so they can prepare and kind of um put this on the list. Okay. Now, as far as the items that we discussed yesterday, the first thing I wanted to mention which is on the agenda for approval is the audit um um report
that we just completed the order just recently. Even though I have it on the agenda as a presentation, it really is a discussion during my report. So, you guys have received in front of you two big two big books. One is um one big
book which is the comprehensive audit and then you have a slimmer book which is the summary of the comprehensive audit. The the two areas which we usually discuss is the surplus and the reserves and also the findings just so
that we know um where the district stands. Financially the district is maintaining all of their um finances. So, I'm just going to go over the res surplus and the reserves first and then also just mention some of the findings where we can improve. The first thing is
the um reserves. You can find on page 14 to 16. I have it summarized on my report. So, I'm going to read it from there. And the first thing is the surplus amount which is on page at the top of page 15. We the district ended
the year of June 2025 with a surplus of one point $1.1 million. So what that is is all expenditures that were left over at the end of the year, we're able to use this amount of money to budget for our upcoming school year. So what what
we usually have an unassigned amount that we budget every year as a revenue source for the budget and once the audit is finished then we're we can use that in order to budget for the 26 27 school year. So that is all the balances out of
all funds all throughout the budget that are in fund 11 and fund 12 which is our fixed asset report um for fixed asset funds. Do I have any questions there as far as uh Okay. So then we go to our reserves on page 17 through 18. Then
this is where after the audit um is also balances that we are used to accumulate in these reserves to use for restrictive items. So I just mentioned the surplus amount and that amount could be budgeted anywhere in the budget. The restrictive reserves are only can be used for
specific categories. For instance, if you look at your um folder, we have capital reserves with an accumulated amount of $5.7 million that only could be used for capital projects. Period. There's no exception. There's no
deviation from that. Any capital projects that we have in our long range range facility plan, we can utilize those per budget. This is also not a big effect on our budgets. So, if we decide as I'll continue my report, we discussed
about a project that we may want to do. That project is about $3 million. So, I'm going to budget $3 million into the um budget as a reserve. And then I'm going to also put an expense in the budget as an expense. So, the $3 million
will increase our budget. The um $3 million as an expense will lower the budget. So, that would be a net zero. is not affecting our budget in any way up or down but is in and out at that point and the money could only be used for those projects. Then we have our
maintenance reserve. So the maintenance reserve is a area of the budget where we can use for maintenance required for our district to get you know repairback to repair the floors to anything when it
comes to the lightings. Those are the areas where we was can use the maintenance reserve accumulation amount and again our budget whatever we estimate for um in revenue and then the expense will come in in and out net zero and it only could be used for
maintenance items. Okay. And then we have our unemployment reserve which is used for if the if the district needs to pay out any type of unemployment claims. So that usually sits until it's needed.
It's not part of our budget, but it sits in a separate bank account until it's needed for any type of unemployment claims that the district has to um pay out. Then we have our emergency reserves. Now the emergency reserve is
the hardest amount to use. I was explaining to the finance committee last night, currently we have issues with pipes. So this year we are made aware that the pipes are happening. We can use the emergency reserve if we don't have
any other funds to um address those items this year. Next year since it the event already happened if there's a pipe issue next year the county or the commissioner would say no that you cannot use those funds because you were
aware that you had pipe issues and you didn't not prepare to use them. So, emergency refunds are for unforeseen items that the district not aware of. So, is there any questions on the reserves and how they could be used before I go any further with that? Yes,
>> I do have one. >> Um, is there a timeline how long you can hold those funds? >> You can hold the reserves as long as you want, but we would obviously utilize those because if you don't remember, well, we did have reserves when >> uh Chris Christie was in office last
time. He took those back because the districts were accumulating them. So we don't want to make a practice of not using our reserve. But we if we have a goal like a capital goal that we want to save up for in the future, we can plan to use those funds long term if we know
it if we're aware of that. Okay. >> But you're not at risk of losing that. That that was my only concern. So sitting there, we're good. >> Textbook wise, you're not at risk of losing them. But we know that our government can do whatever they want. Okay. Thank you.
>> All right. So, all right. And the other part of the audit is the findings. So, this year we had some findings that were reoccurring. We had findings specifically in payroll and we had some findings um there five findings. One was
in um payroll and HR. The other finding was in the ASSA which we were off like two like three points if you guys look at the report. And then we have another one uh finding related to um the general
ledger posting of the um audit um entries. So those are these findings are not detrimental but it is an opportunity for the board and the central office to work at getting better. We are working on getting the right personnel in these
um areas so that we could improve on that and have some consistency. Okay, any questions there? But we don't have any financial um deficit as far as um our our cash flow right now.
>> I just like to make sure that I preface that. Okay. >> All right. So, moving on with the report. We also had I got a notification from the state regarding our food service excess compliance. And what this
is is that our food service program is running beautifully as far as um the district profiting, but the DIS um the state doesn't want us to carry um operating funds more than three or four months. And then when we do, they look
at our previous order and say, um this is how much you went over your allowed um operating costs. You have to figure out how to spend down the money. So, our food service program is a separate entity than our regular general ledger
of budget. It's our enterprise account. It's supposed to be um be able to self- sustain and operate um on its own. And it does, but with that, we also have an obligation not to quote unquote have a
lot of money or hold money in that account. So, we have to figure out how to spend the money down. they give us some suggestions and allowable um um suggestions and allowable equipment that we can use and purchase. So I reached out to the food service company. We
looked at some equipment that is on it um end of life. So we're going to use um a a big portion of the money to um just replace outdated outdated com um equipment. I suspect we'll still have
this issue next year because our program runs um everyone gets free lunch and with that um that means that the district is receiving you know a big profit when it comes to the program. During our conversation about this, we
discussed about reaching out to Mashios to see if they can upgrade the type of food that they're um you know providing for our kids. And that's something that we're going to look into doing and having a conversation with the food service company. Maybe we can um you
know increase the I guess a quote quality of the food. Okay. Any questions there? Okay. So, we'll move on to um the facility operations. We also discussed
um the facility um need to purchase a um water tank that has failed. It's a a boiler feed tank replacement. Our builders and ground um director came across um a tank that's you know at
the end of their useful life too that we need to replace. I discussed it with the finance team. We got two quotes and it has a temporary patch on it right now. It is leaking water but we strapped it up what it's called. So, and it's being monitored so that there's no big
catastrophe but we're we're going to put a purchase order in. The finance team agreed that this is something that we need to move forward on a you know urgent urgently. The other capital item we discussed yesterday was our boilers and our pipes
and other items that are surrounding um the building. We had our architect and engineer do an assessment of the entire building. Um the there were some findings on mechanical review of electric and plumbing that need to be
addressed. I presented the budget to the um finance team and we have three options and the options from option one I think was around 800,000 up until $3 million to fix everything and that's including getting a new boiler which the
boiler is at its end of its life and could you know stop working at any time and plus um fix all the pipes that are surrounding it. So, we are now that I'm in the middle of um doing the budget, this is a time to have a discussion on
whether this is we have the funds to do it in capital reserve, but we really need to figure out um moving forward with getting this done and fixed so that we won't have any unforeseen issues in the future. So, all right. So you guys
can ask me some questions that the last thing is no actually two more things. We we also talked about um we added an addendum on the agenda for um the technology donation. We have two carts I
believe um at um Helden that can either be discarded or sold. Um but we were um we would like the board to agree to donate it to a neighboring district that is in use for um that can use the cards and we discussed about being a good
neighbor yesterday. >> So we just felt like the other district could use it and if we can donate it I would um recommend that we do that. Okay. All right. And the last thing is the SRO renewal. We talked about um negotiation terms on this um item and we
are going to set up a time to talk with the bureau to talk about the the extending or the renewal of the um SRO contract for um for next year or for the next few years. Do we have any questions for me? And that's the end of my report. I know it was a lot
questions. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, next up we have personnel management. Mrs. Cerna, uh, >> um, moving on to curriculum and technology. Mrs. Garcia,
>> uh, there was some confusion with our meeting we set up on February 11th. So, >> yeah, blame me because I'm the culprit. I I'm sorry. I was on a flight to Nashville and I totally double booked that. So, I apologize for that. Um, I'm happy to go through any of the agenda items uh tonight at the meeting to get
you whatever you need information you need. >> Moving forward, I could always take initiative and and make sure I send out the uh invite to everyone along. >> Sure. Or Lois Joe could do that, but I default's on me on this one. I apologize.
>> Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Garcia? >> Seeing no questions, moving on to policy and public relations, Mr. Williams. >> We're going to save that report for next month. Mr. President,
>> you moving on to safety and security. Mrs. Johnson, >> we have nothing. Uh, Mr. Waka touched on it already. the uh district submitted the bianual SSD the student safety data
system report uh to the board of uh the department of education and um all the the data is attached that >> does anyone have any questions for Mr. Johnson. Seeing no questions, moving on to
community engagement and outreach. Miss CuadraD, >> nothing for report. >> Thank you. Moving on to physical plant and finance. Miss Cerna, >> um it's very similar to the BA report. Um so we did have our finance meeting
yesterday and uh food services we have about 126,000 to use before we lose it. We are considering better food quality, more more menu options and cafeteria equipment suggested by Mashios. The wellness committee which includes board members, parents and students will meet
annually to discuss what the parents and children like and don't like so we can improve breakfast and lunches for professional development. Uh we've spent about 11,000 of our 40,000 budget to date since we have had some no shows to certain training sessions. One
suggestion would be to come up with a new bylaw or policy because the district loses money on registration fees when people sign up and don't attend. Um on the our SRO contract, we're scheduling a meeting with the bureau to discuss
different options for this contract. We look forward to working with the burrow. However, we are going to explore all our options. Lastly, we have funds for five different projects. Replacing a boiler tank due to wear and tear. Three projects recommended by BWS architects
following their assessment and leveling the p the pavement in the parking lot. That's >> Thank you. >> Do we have any questions for Miss S? See
more questions. Moving on to state and county. Miss Cordo. >> Thank you. Um so as districts move further into the 2025 2026 school year, the attention is now shifting towards budget development and planning for the
fiscal year of 2027. The New Jersey um Department of Education is expected to release prelim pre preliminary state aid figures later this month which will help shape district financial planning and staffing decisions. Um there is ongoing discussions at a state level regarding
adjustments to school funding reform act um with legislators showing an interest in reviewing funding distribution and stabilization measures for smaller districts. Um at a legislative level, the new um goo g govern gubberatorial
administration has begun outlining education priorities for 2026 um which include school funding stability, mental health uh support and workforce readiness initiatives. Education commun uh committees in both chambers have resumed regular meetings
following the conclusion of the lame duck session um with several bills reintroduced in advance that may impact district operations transparency uh requirements and reporting timeliness. Um at a county level, um the Pay County
Health Department and the United for Prevention, um continue to collaborate with local districts on youth wellness, substance use prevention, and u mental health initiatives. Uh additional county grant opportunities are expected in the
spring. Um and for uh Pay County School Boards Association just hosted their virtual uh professional development session on February 9th for those who attended. Um and that was titled fostering student achievement insights from district
leaders offering continued regional collaboration and board level training opportunities. Um, some suggested priorities for February include closely reviewing state aid projections once released, uh,
accessing budget alignment with anticipation funding levels, monitoring policy updates connected to standards and certification requirements, and remaining engaged in uh, county level advocacy um, efforts. Um continued attention to student
wellness, fiscal planning, and curriculum alignment remains essential as uh the district prepares for 2026 2027 planning cycle. Looking ahead to March, we should anticipate the release of final state aid numbers, um updated
budget guidance, and further legislative developments impacting school fundings and accountability measures. Um I also want to add um as I'm following the district consolidation bill S4861 uh it has not been voted on and it
remains under the committee uh consideration but it does look like it was carried over in January um to with the bill uh S2646 um which is currently at the Senate Education Committee.
>> And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Gardo. Does anyone have any questions? Moving on to board attorney. Mr. Brown, do you have anything? >> Nothing to report tonight. >> Thank you. Um, one thing I did forget to mention in my report, we are working very closely with our uh New Jersey
State School Boards Association uh field service rep, Mrs. Mitchell. Um, she did attend our personnel and committee meeting. So, I forgot to add that. So, I just wanted to add that in there. Can I have a motion to move on to 3.1
for the presentations for human resource audit? >> Well, then let's give the follow recommended to no problem. one time. That was a very good Way to use the arrow. Good to be back. Um, thanks for giving
me the time this evening to go through the the audit presentation with you. Um, Jamie Salo, Power Educational Consultants working on this audit now. The best part is six about over six months. Um had a great opportunity to meet with the
personnel committee about a week week or so ago to go through some of the finer points that related to that committee's the audit is broken up first. It's a lot of data. So I really did my best to try to
organize it in a manner that would make sense and be able to enable you to shift gears from different areas uh throughout the audit because there's looks like there's areas that may be duplicated but it's a different view. Um so one of them the first example is staff credentials
and certifications. This first part of the audit is about the staff members that are currently employed certifications that they hold. The certification is uh verified through the board of eds portal which is a publicly accessible portal and the uh
certification is also has we either have a copy of the of the certification or um a list of certifications in that personnel file or copy file. Okay. So in terms of going through um the New Jersey
ed portal as compared to the district's HR um records for with certifications that are held okay looking to match that those reports um are are being accurately reported the data is being
accurately reported. So a person would be submitted to the department of education as holding an elementary school certification. That certification should also be in file and certification the record of the certification would be uh available for search on the New
Jersey edert portal. So for the first section going through the actual going through the file records looking at the licensers and and certifications that are held the person's ID matches ID number matches
what's been submitted to the state everything was uh satisfactory the last u item there 2.4 for master credential catalog is something I'm going to come back to later, but that is was throughout the process of doing the audit, I was able to create
an Excel file that has every single certification held by every employee in the district. Um there's two files. One is is the sorted by positions and the other is sorted by individuals. Um, and
that that I'll bring that up a little bit later, how the district could use that. Next section was whether the information in these systems matches official records. Does it does the person's job title that they hold match what was submitted to the Department of
Education? Does that match what is listed on their contract? Does that match what was submitted for for repro? So what the department of education has a system called sled NJ sled used to be
uh smid they change vendors. So what the NJ sled information is every every staff member has a local ID number that your district generates typically through the system uh that you're using Genesis uh will populate an ID number when a
person's hired and then there's a state ID number. So the state ID number is the one for terms of state reporting that is the most most important. And the reason that each individual has a state ID number is so that if a person changes
roles or changes districts from one, you know, from top of New Jersey all the way to southern New Jersey, Cape May, they'll be in the they should be in the system and it and it helps the state keep track of our employees as they move from district to district. And it also
helps them keep track of experience and roles and and all that demographic data that comes with it. licenses as well as the professional development records meaning um the report the documentation that was in the hard copy of file. So again the actual
physical review of files everything was satisfactory matching for this for the employees um at the time that the data was pulled um state ID numbers matched um later on as I get later on into the a
little deeper um there's going to be areas that come up where I mention that if something looks like it's missing but it's not that it's missing it's that the data to find it may not have been available to me because the person for example was was a new hire. So I download when I exported all the data,
the person was hired like a month after that and is now showing up on lists and reports and I'm like, who's this person? Not sure what their I would have to look to see, do they have a different name? Was there a spelling error in their name? Um, was their date of birth listed
incorrectly? Um, or they just a new hire. And then that was what I would verify with Mr. block um about people married. There's a lot lot of lot of mated name changes that take place um that that makes it tough especially if
it doesn't get updated in the system because you go to look the person up their certification is held under the original their original last name and you can't can't find it. >> I have a question. the ID that you had previously mentioned where regardless if they move into like a different district
different roles kind of like the system social security number you weren't able to use that like >> you have so with the no meaning they if a person has person who got hired after I did the export would not be in my
reports as having that ID number because that data gets submitted um once a year goes to the state >> okay >> so it goes to the date and then they generate and and that's the massive report. Then there's up ongoing data collections. They collect student
information and staff information and whoever it is here that manages it will end up eventually seeing that this person has an account. So what it does is prevents you from creating a duplicate account for a per staff member. It'll say to you this person has
the same date of birth as this profile. They have the same last name as this profile, but or the same first name, same date of birth, but you know, last names don't match and you look a little deeper into it and that's what districts are supposed to do and that means that
you guys are doing that as well. So, but people that are hired new or someone who gets hired today, they have to wait until that cycle comes around again to submit them and then it'll sync them up and then then you then you own them. >> Yeah. Same way with students. Educator
certification and endorsement inventory. This specifically is how many certifications are held by the district's staff um in total. So the types of certifications held
meaning uh you know the different different areas that are required certificate of eligibility certificate of eligibility of standing standard provisional there's a lot of different uh you know terms that go into it but the most important thing is that people holding the certification that's
required for that position. So in terms of data just looking through that certification type the most the most uh popular one right now is CAS certificate of eligibility advanced standing meaning those are individuals
who have the initial process of a certification and either need to do um course another course that needs to be completed in that area hours of mentoring typically it's a mentoring program that needs to be completed
just to get to the standard. Okay. But the the certificate that matters at the end of the day is is those who hold the standard s standard sir is issued and it it's there for you. So um you know in
terms of of CAS and standards NCE those top four rows would be the total number of certificates held um that are eligible to to move into positions. Looks a good number.
What I did find and again this goes back to not that it's might not that it may be wrong but it needs to be verified farther looked into more are three there's three positions that when I performed the certification review came
up that I couldn't I got got to a dead end. Um so the the role of computer literacy applications that's specific for uh K to8 districts that has to be looked at to see if that person has a second cert
um in addition to that that might be applicable or not speech correction language specialist issue came up um on the ed New Jersey ed certification portal side of it. um and uh school
psychologist I believe was it was a new hire and I just couldn't find couldn't find the person I didn't have question um did your company get to work with the Manchester regional high school only
because we have shared service agreement with them especially as it pertains to special education and you know technology so on and so forth as you try to uh verified certification wouldn't need wouldn't need their their
assistance for that >> because some of those positions are actual hired of let's say the high schools are not Helen's hired >> oh no no this was this was not these weren't people that are hired by Manchester region >> understood >> yeah these were people that are hired by
by >> and would be either person's person is new and I didn't have their in other words I pulled all the data and they got hired after that. >> So I don't have and I already had finished the review of going to the board office.
>> So I guess my question is are any of these positions a share service position? >> I don't uh I I don't believe the first two are is your child study team shared >> the VP right? >> Only only one is um the director that's the only one. >> Yeah.
What's the percentage of um I guess all three um buckets where there was like a discrepancy or you weren't able to find a match? Is it like >> just three those three >> less than three >> those three roles that that those are
three current job roles that I I identified would need to be looked into that's it would be a followup would be like finding like I would need to know like the person's the school psychologist say if that person was hired after the report was export that was given to me they're not on that
report then I would just need to know or show the person how to look it up >> but it's literally just like three individuals. Oh, okay. >> In that in those areas. Yeah. The first one has to do with how the state looks at the way computers are taught elementary school compared to middle
school compared to high school and certification that's involved with it. And the second one has to do with with something I've said I mentioned I've never seen before for a certification um that had um a a in it was either
checked as inactive or marked as inactive from like a very long time ago which I've not seen before and it could be an error on their end but it's just lots of times becoming certification alignment review. So
that's that's now looking at the person's job title. What every staff member has a job role that is that is identified and then submitted to the state. State gives us a list to choose from and and we align their job titles
and that has to match the certification and that goes along to the state. So, as I mentioned, like there's a small number of certifications that couldn't be fully verified either because I couldn't find the person in New Jersey edert or they were a new hireer that
came along um afterward, but we we know the people to follow up on. It's not like there's anyone missing out there that's just going to keep continuing on. We know which ones to look for. Just curious, do you have uh access to uh people's um addresses to
help verify? >> I I would never contact. >> No, not to contact them, but like to help match when you when there are like >> No, doesn't m No, it's your >> So, it goes by your the spelling of your first name,
>> your last name, >> date of birth. It has to be a very specific order. And then the last four numbers of the person's social security, not the full. >> Okay? >> And then if any one of those four has something off, then it's going to
come up as no font. It's not found, >> which is which is I guess a way to keep the data safe for them. So those small the ones that are unresolved again just requires followup. Um but in terms of when you have new
hires m you know just maintain ongoing documentation like like like that's currently being done. The difference now would be the the um the the district administration has the ability to to update the certification catalog uh that
I created on an ongoing basis. So then they'll just be able to look at any time, do a search and find how many people hold elementary ser, you know, based on of your staff members IDs and experience.
This is the oldfashioned part. It's staff member IDs are are u it's part of the New Jersey sled, but this is the actual major um demographic data that gets exported every year um for the
staff members. And like I said, the the person will not have a staff if the person doesn't have a staff ID number in the system. That means they were hired and the district's waiting for the state to ident to do their update and then they'll marry the two
together and say this look these two people look the same. Is this correct? And they'll look through. That's when they'll go in to see prior history where they came from. Then it's a match. they match them up and the person's number gets released to the to the district. If
they don't have a match, then they typically have to call the state, reach out to the state and say, you know, something's up. This person's not coming up as a match. They said they worked in another public school district. We couldn't, you know, you can't find it. But that data is important because that
helps keep track of people as they move from public school to public school with start date, end date, the position they held, the certification they worked under, how long they were there. All that data gets collected and follows a person. So, it's like a giant database
that helps the school districts keep track um of people when they come and as they go out. So the when it comes to um reporting collecting and reporting as per what the state is looking for and the district
records matched um everything was fine in that in that area. So I this is just a this is you know I I put this in there because I felt I remember from the initial conversations with the board
um about wanting to be sure that you have readily accessible you know at their fingertips for the district to be able to say somebody's you know we need replacement or we need someone to fill in a class for six weeks or is there
someone that we can move or shift or something happen. You just go to this Excel file and be able to pull it up. Um, and it's serves that serves that purpose of being able to to make that that available information and not have to, you know, go off of memory lots of
times. Who has a certain who has So, this is like an example what it what the screen would look like. Those are all the all the hyperlinks are certification types. Each one of those will go to a separate Excel sheet and it'll give a list of personnel that either have the
certificate of eligibility, the standard, have a provisional, whatever, whatever was issued by the state, it's on that it's in that document. >> Question. >> Yes. >> Um, so who is moving forward? Who is going
to maintain this >> this spreadsheet? >> HR. What? >> HR. Yeah, this is what the HR person would do and submit this information to the state regarding credentials. >> Thank you. Got it.
Next section was got started moving to the employee total cost to the to the local district. This was looking at payroll from uh the previous year and the current school year. At time the data was pulled, we had 160 full-time positions. FTE is full-time
equivalency. So later on I when I talk a little bit more about FTEES, it's it could be confusing and misleading because one full-time equivalency doesn't mean it's a whole person. It's the equivalent of could be two part- timerrs, two 2.5s. That comes into play.
Um all of the all of the data used came directly from um the district's from from the district's uh payroll system that's in Genesis. The part that was um looked at more than
than not was the because of the concerns of the on the ongoing concerns with the health insurance premiums going up. So there was a focus paid paid attention to the uh 137 employees who received coverage with a you know with that total cost of $342,000
and then also taken into factor longevity payments that have to be made. Those are contractual payments have to be made every year um as per the the contract. So the total cost would for the purpose of this would be salary, health and longevity. A true total cost
would include all fringe expenses. um the fr the fr the fringe expenses were available to me as a total amount not a payroll by payroll amount per person. So this is how it broke apart um broke
broken into different categories for the amount of salaries accounted for and then the percentage of total salary cost. Um and and you go down the list and of course naturally it should be core academic instruction should always be the highest number. That's your K to8
those are your K to8 teachers. Those are your classroom uh teachers. Then there's then there's other areas that are considered um mandated by by statute like ESL and special education. Um
there's there's areas that are mandated by administrative code certain like health and physical education and having a nurse and certain electives. Um but it gives you an idea of all those all those position types salary and percentage
represent So, I I I'm not sure where um I know the numbers are going to come in eventually with the benefits um and the state aid at the end of the month, right? So, then you'll be able to turn back to this and get an idea of in
terms of positions and how those are being broken apart. student enrollment. You had a change from 0 2425 to the current school year. Um was it 45 students that I you know
the the reason why I wouldn't be able to say but we have to be careful again when we look at a number like that because does it when we have 45 different students it's really where those students are coming from. How many of them were in kindergarten first grade? What's a difference in third grade? Is
it a difference in special ed? Um because it, you know, it may look like 45 students. Oh, that's two classrooms. It's, you know, that's two full-time positions. No, it's not. You know, it could be it's spread out across many different uh groups. So, what I did is I just I show how it's
there's really not no rhyme or reason to the changes, the fluctuations that districts experienced in terms of having students, less students the year before. Um, but what the there what I've noticed is that there's a when once you get
towards that middle school age, once you get into sixth grade, that sixth and seventh, those two years were consistent, which means next year seven and eight would hopefully be consistent as well. So, the tough part is some grades went
up, some grades go down. This is where it gets tricky for the administration, especially at the elementary level because when grades go up and down from K through four or five, now it's how many >> third grade rooms do we need this year?
How many second grade rooms do we need? How many first grade teachers do we need? If you have three one year and then you're supposed to then the numbers show you need two and you got to make someone else move to four. That's where it gets to be really tricky and that's where those numbers are tough to to
gauge because those shifts, you know, they affect classroom planning and staffing decisions. So, moving, you know, everything I'm really going over moving forward has a lot to do with it's all in that context. keep it in the context of knowing that even though the numbers go up and down,
we have to make sure that when the numbers change that we're looking at the actual program type where those numbers are being impacted. Is it a special ed class and is it a special ed class that's limited to eight students? And that's a big factor, right? Because if
the number nine student comes in, that could be that could be a concern. Whereas if it's a, you know, the difference between having 14 in one second grade class and 18 in the other, you know, those numbers. >> Is that what the previous slide was
doing? Showing which grades. This one here is the deeper dive. >> Yeah. So you're not getting like a real chunk solid group in a row where they're showing. You're going up and down. And I don't I don't you know that there's a
lot of different factors. It helps having a prek because it having a prek helps you really project look forward. But if you know there's a chance that kids were in that were in that prek by the time you came to kindergarten may have moved if they left the district.
There's a lot of different uh reasons but that's what that show. So whenever you're sitting in committees or having discussions and you know having real difficult discussions these are the areas that you have to keep in mind that are compliance driven and that
naturally are going to be high cost per position. Um you know special education instruction related service providers speech you know PT your child study team have to have a child study services for students with special ed students. So,
uh, English language learning, that's a specific certification. There's funding that comes from the state, uh, counseling programs, and then your in-class support is your, um, typically referred to as the basic skills instruction, the BSI, and a lot of that
money is from title one. So, we got to always keep in mind before any adjustments are made, we have to look at these these categories and then look into each category because in that special ed instruction, there's a long
list of separate requirements based on grade level, based on program type um for different programs that you you may have running in the school. And if your numbers class sizes are go over the cap, you'll you'll have problems.
Okay, these are areas that you know the this is the core of it all. The core academic teachers that's their gen general education K to8 um teaching English, math, science, social studies. Your administration is always going to
would always have a high cost per position by its nature. Uh the electives would be all your psycho classes and uh you have in addition to that you have positions of reading specialists, teacher coaches and power professionals.
And it's important to know these categories because costs like power professionals shift would take place based on enrollment increases in um prek it because prek is a mandate. uh special
ed class sizes. If the class size goes above a certain number and it's allowed, we're allowed to have another three more students added to the class. If there's a power professional, that's what districts would do. They hire a power professional and make sure the class is in compliance. If it's a student that
needs an individual power professional, you'd have to add them. So th those numbers are going to be um fluctuating with student enrollment and it's common throughout the year to have those numbers checked. So now what this section does is all
right these are the numbers this is the enrollment these are our student enrollment for the current year and this is the staff that district currently utilizes and the way that FTE is calculated is
how many class section are needed so for what makes this school unique is it's really two schools really three. I mean it's you have a preschool program and then you have kindergarten through fifth grade and then you have your your
middle school sixth, seven and eight which I believe is is I think you start departmentalized uh instruction at sixth grade which means English teachers are teaching English math are teaching math science teaching science kids are rotating but K to five they're have home room teachers
um and maybe breaking out to go to different language right so when you come across an FTE E number you just have to understand you know we can't divide people but uh the numbers may may require us to add another person.
So when I went through the all of the different areas for general ed when it says plus five and compared to special ed equal ESL equal meaning no no need no change special areas says negative 1.4 for
nursing says equal and custodial leaves equal that means based on the FTEES that are calculated that first group of general education is the is potential FTE if you if the number if the schedule is looked at moving into next year if the
schedule that's built when it's built you'll be able to see okay we need two second grades three third grades how is that going to impact our numbers well we would potentially have five positions at each share if we needed to if that would be the the
FT equivalent special areas and this is important to bring up that's your negative uh 1.4 before. So like even though you may pick up some gened and the gened pickup is from how the the uh in-class support BSI
program kids are grouped and assigned and then the second teacher assigned. That's how that's where you find numbers. If we can dive a little bit more into that, how
usual is it for the plus five in any school district? I think if you remember when we first met Lame and I'm putting you in a spot. >> Okay. >> But I said first time we met I said I every place every go order that I've done and I went through the Chris Christie cuts you'll you you'll find at
least five to seven. It doesn't mean there you have doesn't mean you have five extra. Just want to make that clear. No, you don't have five extra people. You have the equivalent of five the energy of five people throughout the
day. that could be restructured, right? You're not you're not it's not going to be a total whole person and that see like you can't have 1.4 of a special area, right? So where it comes into play though is that so like going back to that initial
thing if the initial point about the computer um literacy class if that's certification that the person holds is not an issue then that.5 goes away. it's not an issue. But if the certification comes back and it's and and it is for
elementary school problem, then it's a shift that has to take place. Same situation with uh fizzed because fizzed is not just about the um number of staff and all the students taking it, the amount of minutes that are required each week. Minutes get built into the
schedule and everyone has a rotation through the electives that can impact it. It's kind of like you know Robin Peter to pay Paul. Okay. So in terms of how this all impacts the
budget itself, it is not a financial audit. So you know it's glossing over it. But when we start looking into how the money is being, you know, utilized and going through the previous year to the the current school year and then
hopefully, you know, as you're projecting forward, like where it says salary only cost per student is, you know, you'll see at the state level, it'll say a lot more than that. That 11,467 is not the state's calculation. That's just giving you an idea of what it what how the the salaries for all of
your gened, your electives, all of them come out. when divided out by your your entire population and then the total employment cost we throw in health and and longevity. So this makes it this is easier to get like 60% of of the distribution is
classroom instruction 20% support services about 10% administration then the remaining will be operations so 80% of the funds go directly to teaching and student support and that's that's good. Okay, financial uh planning for the future like financial stability moving
forward when it comes to enrollment and staffing. Um first thing would be to look especially now that there seems to be every day another school district is popping up on NJ.com as being 10 million short. Every day
there's another district coming up popping up. They're all popping up, right? So just now is really the time to be really hyperfocused on okay before we do anything do we have somebody on staff with that C that we can put in that spot to get us through this tough time
>> right adjust staffing based on enrollment changes you got to always play always pay close attention to your what you do special ed and ELLL service numbers because those numbers are are man those programs are mandated and many times the special
programs will have class- size caps and some programs doesn't matter if you add an eight. You can't can't go above that cap. It' have to be a one to one aid. Um so that would be something to keep a close eye on. Um this did not look at
out of district expenses for special ed. This was only in district programs. Reviewing instructional models for efficiency. That would be the the in-class support basic skills program model. In other words, if we if we if we have the data of which students need the basic skills for language arts, basic
skills for math, by grouping students, that will then end up needing less sections total of those of those pairs, but you have to have information and continue aligning budget decisions
with student needs, which which is what the district's doing. So the district overall the financial structure centered on instruction which is what anyone would want to see. That's great. Your uh careful alignment of staffing will support both educational quality and long-term sustainability. And that that
means as moving forward now keeping a close eye on the data, student enrollment, the student enrollment specific programs, grade levels, and the trends that are coming. Okay. What's up with that?
president. >> Sure. Um that was a very uh great presentation. I appreciate all the work um that you put into this and your team. Um being on this board for 10 years
straight and especially Mr. Walker being at the helm with this entire administration. Every single hire that's come through here always took into consideration, did we have someone that can do the job already? Fiscal responsibility has
always been first and foremost for this board of education. That's nothing new. We're not reinventing the wheel. We've been doing this for a very long time. Um, and I'm proud to see this report show just that. Um, and with that being
said, I hope that as we move forward as a board and our superintendent appears to be moving on that, you know, when we start fresh, it is important that when we hire someone that we trust them because that is why we're hiring them.
So when they come to us for a a hire or special ed uh you know it's important that we support the school administration um and the and the teachers as they continue running this this this this building because it is very difficult. they have a very tough job and I think
everybody on this board knows that. Uh and um as long as we continue working together as a team um there's no doubt in my mind that we can um get through this uh next I guess phase of uh HPS and uh continue
moving hill. Um and again I thank you for for the great work on that. >> And as I mentioned previous meeting and I mentioned to the chair at the last committee meeting you know I'm I'm leaving this open openended in terms of if the board has any questions from now
through the rest of the year. I know certain questions came up like there was a special question about custodians number of custodians question about uh the special ed roles. anything that comes up from now because my concern is I don't want you to be in a position
where you do get your your financial award and find out you have to um look at the actual design and see if there's a place that you know you'll be able to be more efficient. >> I like how your presentation also touched on uh the complexity of running
a school. Very comp. It's very complex. Things are things are very fluid, constantly changing. Um it's very difficult and again this is uh my personal opinion this is nothing but a uh uh
a demonstration of the phenomenal work that Mr. Waka >> and the entire school district has done um and I'm very grateful to have been part of this team. Thank you. >> Does anyone have any questions before going to the next topic?
Is that >> um technically >> already did >> do we have a motion to open the for to a hearing of citizens on agenda items only?
>> Motion Miss Cerna second Mr. Williams roll call please. All in. All >> in favor? Hi. All right. The floor is now open. It is 8:07. Please come up and address the board.
>> I have a bum name so I don't really >> Okay, that's fine. Just please uh state your name and address please for record. >> Lauren Ferrer on agenda items. >> I'll use my teacher voice. >> Thank you. >> Lauren Ferrer, Hamilton, New Jersey. Um
do the chair. Can I speak about the corrective action plan being that you kind of spoke about it? >> It's on their agenda. It's on the agenda. >> Okay. I just want to make sure. >> All right. So, um I want to thank I
guess the um the firm for doing a little cheat sheet because I did have my little highlighter going. Okay. So, the first question that I have is if everybody could take this sheet out if you have it. Um, it says the findings, right? And
it says in a couple of instances, eligible employees were not enrolled in the required pension plan, right? And then it goes to say that the district will ensure that eligible employees are enrolled. But my question is, let's say
it's a new employee, right? And they weren't getting their pension payments taken out for like five checks. Is that employee now responsible for that back pay? And how is that going to be taken out of their checks? Because that money has to come from somewhere
that's not for the district. We messed Yeah, you messed up, but it still has to come out of the employees pay. Okay. So, I want to know how that's going to happen. Then the next thing is in one instance, payroll taxes were not
remitted to various agencies. Um, it says the district will make sure that the payroll taxes are remitted in time. How much money did we lose or interested you lose by not paying things on time?
The next question is a few a few employees no longer employed by the district were not removed from health benefits. So, let's just say I'm a 10-month employee. I have benefits go um even though I'm a 10-month employee,
they're 12 months out of the year. Okay. >> So, let's say you messed up on the two months. Who's getting that money back? Because the employees basically got two extra
months of free health benefits. So, you're not getting the payments back from the employees that you lost. Where's that money coming from? Um, the audit, I mean, the audit, I think,
was a great thing that we did this. So, we were able to find some things. The other thing is I do want to mention to the um gentleman that presented the presentation, it was a great presentation based on the fact that you have new board members that weren't um
here 10 years ago, whatever when you were here and with Mr. Wonka. And I think that you should understand that when um he was explaining how the state ID works, teachers have multiple
certifications sometimes. So, let's just say even though I am an ELA teacher, I might have a music ser. So, if you needed a music teacher and you had to um get rid of the third classroom of that
ELA class and you said, "Oh, well, the music teacher now has retired." Even though I might not want to be the music teacher, I do have the cert. So this way you could shift me there instead of trying to hire somebody that's new and
that's a music teacher. The same thing when he was saying BSI, we call them a resource teacher. So if a resource teacher um right now if you only have resource teachers for just like one grade, you can make sure that that particular resource teacher teaches
multiple grades like three, four, five, and then look at how um especially if they have a K8 SER, you could say, okay, I want them to teach three, four, and five. And then you have to adjust the schedule. They may not have the same amount of time. might do 40 minutes um
depending on how the child's IEP is written. Um so it might be pull in or push out, but it's still you can utilize that person for those students and without having to hire um someone else. >> Um so those are some things.
>> Thank you. Yeah, sorry. Thank you. I know >> they don't want to cut you off midsize. >> I know. And you're being really nice about it, unlike others. Uh, do we have anybody online or anyone else? Seeing no one in the audience, seeing no
one online. Do we have a motion to close? >> Second, Miss Quadrad. Sec. Second, Mr. Duzman. All in favor? >> You. Uh, do we have a motion to accept correspondence? >> Motion.
>> Motion, Mrs. Johnson. Second. >> Second, Miss Cerna. Uh, is that all in favor? Roll call. Roll call. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Cerna, >> yes. >> Miss Gado, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fisher, >> yes. >> Miss Garcia, >> yes.
>> Miss Gatlin, >> yes. >> Mr. Guzman, >> um, I do have a question at the appropriate time regarding her question. Uh, my vote is yes. >> Mrs. Johnson, >> yes. >> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> And Mr. Ketta,
>> yes. Do we have a motion to approve prior minutes? >> Second. >> Miss Cordado. Second. Miss Roll, please. >> Mrs. Cerna, >> yes. >> Miss Gado, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fischer, >> yes. >> Miss Garcia,
>> yes. >> Miss Gatlin, >> yes. >> Mr. Guzman, >> yes. >> Miss Johnson, >> yes. >> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> And Mr. >> Yes. Moving on to personnel and management committee. Before we do anything, does
anyone have any questions on any of the agenda items 7.1 through 7.7? Seeing no questions from the board. Um, do we have a motion to move those up? Motion. >> Second.
Roll call, please. >> Miss Cerna, >> yes. >> Miss Kado, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fischer, >> yes. >> Miss Garcia, >> yes. >> Miss Gallen, >> yes. >> Mr. Guzman, vote. >> Miss Johnson, >> yes. >> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> And Mr. Ketta,
>> yes. >> Under section 8, curriculum and technology, does anyone have any questions on any of the agenda items before we move forward? Seeing no questions, Miss Garcia, do you have a motion to
move uh agenda items 8.1 through 8.7? >> Motion. Yes. >> Motion Garcia. >> Second. >> Second, Miss Cerna. Roll call, please. Mrs. Cerna, >> uh, recused from 8.7. Yes. To everything else.
>> Miss Gado, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fischer. >> Yes. >> Miss Garcia. >> Yes. >> Miss Catelyn and recommendation to recuse from 8.1. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gman.
>> Quick question on 8.3. The Mr. Walker can answer. The Brook Hollow's Barnard. What exactly are their kindergarten children? So, the I'm going to defer to our assistant principal who's in charge of
kindergarten who came just in case this question was asked. >> I knew you were going to ask that. Um, so it's a barn. It's perfectly sized for kindergarten students and you know, they take one group at a time because we are a larger group of over a hundred for a school. Um, they go, they walk around,
they get their carrots, they feed, they teach them about the animals, they take some hay rides. Um, it's really great. We've done it last year. They did it. I've been a bunch of times with my own children and that's kind of where it came from. It's a it's a perfectly
>> and that's exactly why I approved it for the agenda. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> Love it. Thank you. >> It's great. >> If you want to see pictures, you let me know >> or you want to go. >> Sounds like fun. Yeah. They deserve it.
Oh, I'm sorry. >> Yeah, I was gonna say what happened. >> Tell me what the >> car bucket. Your own bucket. >> Miss Johnson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Williams. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Kleta. >> Yes. >> What is going on?
>> Under section 9 policy committee. Uh the policy committee was unable to meet. uh we know it is a priority and we want to schedule a meeting as soon as possible, but since they were unable to discuss the policy changes, those items were removed. >> There's a couple things where I'm going to reach out to you and discuss to see because there's a couple different
options we have and um you know, you could kind of fill in the blanks as you wish. >> Okay. Um safety and security committee, do we have any questions before we move on? >> Seeing no questions, Mr. Johnson. Do we
have a motion to move 10.1? >> Motion. Mr. Johnson. >> Second. >> Second. Miss Cerna. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Cerna. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dorado. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fischer? >> Yes. >> Mia? >> Yes. >> Miss Gallen? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lman? >> Yes.
>> Mrs. Johnson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Williams? >> Yes. >> And Mr. Coleta? >> Yes. >> Finance and Physical Plan Committee. Does anyone have any questions on any of the agenda items uh before you? >> Yes, Mr. President, if I may. Um
regarding QAC um corrective actions. Um I know that Madame Ba has been working very hard uh to um >> the QAC was QAC was for instruction. I think the corrective actions for the audit that the required
>> um okay let's let me go >> let's skip the Q go to the audit madam b I know you've been working very hard um on um on your HR department payroll so on and so forth um now as far as the
pension is concerned uh there's not very detailed here so is it a situation because I know this does happen whereas you hire someone and it takes about six months for the pension board to actually pick it up and then in that six months, you know, is it was it something like that
whereas perhaps, you know, the person was in the process of being enrolled, which again it takes six months, they come in, they do their audit, oh, this person is not enrolled. Um, so that's kind of my uh my question um on that in terms of uh folks um that were not enrolled in the pension.
>> Okay. So in this instance, it was primarily the people that were part of the DCRP, which is another extension of a pension. And when my department took over from the personnel that was let go back in May or
June, we did an audit. We looked at some of the um things that were missing and we addressed them. But in hinds and when it comes to the pension the board does not make a practice of doing this but we have two years to
enroll someone when and if we do not do that within that two years which we do do not want to do we try to do it as soon as possible as soon as we're aware then the board will be um financially responsible to pay for that person's
pension for the last two years. The only time that interest is acute is through the DCRP. The other pension obviously if there's a 403bd or 457 those are voluntary items that um individuals are
um elected to do but our responsibility to enroll them in a pension should be within immediately or within the first 30 to 60 days of them coming on. and it does take longer depending on the time
of year you enroll them. So, in the beginning of the school year when it's like August, September, there's more applications. Even though the state is um starting to move towards us doing everything online, that may take longer. But if someone comes in right now and it's not much activity, that will um
their response time will be probably 30 days to 60 days. But it's usually 30 to 60 days before we get the state gets back to us. But if we fail to not enroll in someone within two years, the district will be responsible for paying those um pension back
>> pay will be responsible for their portion and our portion obviously in that situation after two years >> after two years but we have not no it's just I distinctly remember it was from the May June period and it was
the DCP um individuals and then even with that I reached out to DCP. They gave all of their interest back that they would have um accumulated during that time. >> Okay. Um as it pertains to handle with
care. Thank you, Madam B. Appreciate that. >> You're welcome. >> And I'm glad that we're we're not, you know, >> we're not making it a practice, but we do have transition in that department. >> Handle with care. >> Is it a good idea to try to get more
staff trained >> with handle with care? Um that would be >> so there's you're talking about the handle of care where the police the police officers are going to report to >> no the handle of care as far as restraining um >> management. So do we do we off the top
of my head the question is do we need more of that training? I'm not sure we specifically need more. Um it's usually the same you know handful of people that are most likely to be I guess one of the first non-eing responders. It's normally Miss Bzano, the guidance department. Um,
our behaviorist, Mr. Trio, Mr. Spizzado, um, myself, uh, or or child study team members, and those are the people we look to target. Um, I I think we have a a pretty decent chunk of the school has received that training. Uh, so off the top of my head, I wouldn't say that we're we're in need of more.
>> Thank you, Mr. >> We just retrained like 15 people last week. So, >> see, >> okay, >> he did. >> I have a question regarding that. Do we have um the amount of incidents regarding handle of care?
>> So the but if if there's a we'll make an incident report if a if we physically have to restrain a child because that's something that we'll we'll we'll we'll let the county know and and mom and dad know about as well. Um and we put that in the child's u you know their counselor log or their medical log or
both. Um so we we will keep like a a tally of that. Um and then uh as far as the other handle of care, whereas if if it you're a police officer, you don't you're familiar with this where if something happens in in your town and it involves our kids, um our SRO and
guidance department will get a heads up from the uh the office of that particular police department. Um and then we usually have our SRO reach out so we can get a better context of what the kids are going through. >> Any other questions? conversation back.
>> We have we have a question for Miss >> Yeah. I'm just wondering if um what's the percentage of the the staff that is trained? >> What would you say, Miss Posado, is a rough percentage off the top of your head? >> I would say there's probably at least 30% of us that are trained. And we do
have years where we have um staff that are trained to train. So we bring that in in the beginning of the year sometimes if we feel that we need that or staff is you know lapsing or things are happening which is definitely something we can look into next year. Um we started with the CPR push and we push
the whole staff through that. So they do have posters aids and basic things. This restraint is more if a child is in crisis and they need to be held in a certain manner. >> Yeah. One part of it is going to be the verbal deescalation. The next is going to be the physical deescalation. all in that team. You kind of don't want 100%
of your staff trained to do that because you don't want that many people >> putting their hands on a student like that when there are staff that we are trained over and over again to handle those specific instances. And they are staff that are stationed throughout the building and don't typically carry class
load. So, if we do need to call them in, they can respond immediately. I'm glad to see that because from a liability perspective, right, um if someone does have to put their hands on someone, god forbid, that's going through crisis of students, so on and so forth, um at least that teacher is certified and we have adequate personnel or training
>> and you have to be comfortable to do it. I would rather do it before I put one of my teachers in that situation. If it comes down to it and I can get there quicker or another administrator gets there quicker, we're going to put ourselves in that situation before any of our teachers do it.
>> Madam B, I did have one question. uh response to the community member question. Um is it similar? So and you know I've changed jobs myself. It's is it similar when there is that gap like like uh Commissioner Guzman said it's usually
it's usually never fast. Usually like six months is the minimum. Um the teachers are or the staff members for the school district would they they responsible as long as we did it as within the proper timelines they're responsible they would just get back pay plus their payments. Correct.
>> Yeah. So the the state will send us a certification form to tell us how much that's paid plus their current. >> So then they basically just get double dip until >> Yeah, they will pay double until it works out. But um like I said, if there's anything further, we will have
to be responsible if it goes too long. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> On to the vote on finance. >> Finance. Yeah. We have a motion to move uh items under the
>> motion. Mr. Cerna, >> second, Mr. Williams. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Cerna, >> yes, >> Miss Kado. >> Um, yes. >> I'd like to recuse myself from item from
12.13. Um, no, sorry, 12.20, 20 line item 71180 and then 12.22 I'm recusing from purchase order 600 330 and yes everything else.
>> Okay, >> thank you. Mrs. Fischer, >> yes. >> Miss Garcia, >> yes. >> Miss Gatlin, >> yes. >> Mr. Busman, >> always glad to see um us being good neighbors. um see where you know the bottle house allowing them to use our parking lot for the women's day march as
well as the donation to the Pros Park School District. Uh my vote is yes. >> Mrs. Johnson, >> yes. >> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> And Mr. Petta, >> yes. >> Do we have anything under new or old business?
>> I actually um I actually have a couple concerns. Um uh the website I was looking through it and it kind of needs like maybe a revamp. Um just it needs to be more
uniformed or maybe with um our emails attached to to our um like little picture or whatever. Um I just would like it to look a little bit um more professional. Um, another thing is is
that the residency concern link seems to be targeting the people that are reporting instead of the people that don't live in town. Uh, is that an error? Um, and then uh the weather issue since
it's not going to be an emergency anymore, what are the plans to keep our school open like Manchester? So Manchester is open and we're closed and we're in the same town and we still have the foil advisory
uh in both sections. So we need to are we going to extend the uh we're going to eliminate our spring break. We're apparently we're going to have a snowstorm in the next week or so. Um and the last thing is the grants. Is there an update?
>> No, not sorry. >> That's all. Does anyone else have new or old business? >> Mr. Guzman, >> uh, two things. Um, I know uh, I had formally requested um, for us to look
into our financing to look into um, a possible sidewalk on the other side of the parking lot. Just want to see if we had any update on that. Um, I haven't asked in a while. I'm sure we do. Um and the second question was uh regarding a
demographic study that we did uh about 10 years ago maybe maybe less maybe seven years ago and that thing was on the money that that decline that we that we saw in enrollment that demographic study that we paid for actually actually
predicted it. I was actually apprehensive at first when they said are you going to have a decline in enrollment in about 10 years? I'm like no way but it did. So maybe that's something this board should consider to do another one um to see where we're going to be um in the next several years
as it pertains to enrollment. What does what is what does it what what is heling going to look like? Um I think that's something that may be helpful and it's something that I just want to see you know the board administration wants to consider. And that's all I have. Thank you.
It was actually also my bad. It was very inexpensive, too. Like maybe >> I have a quote for it already for next year. >> I I let you go through your spill, but I already have it already for the budget next year. And also, we have a quote for
the sidewalk, too. >> Of course you do. So, we got quotes for the sidewalk and the demographic. >> Um, no, you know what? Um, just to piggy back off a certain I was going to ask if we had um bottled water on standby or
>> something like that. So, >> and if so, we use that and stay open tomorrow. >> Yeah. or couldn't we use that the certain funds that we discussed emergency funds not during emergency week whatever it
was just um I don't know >> yeah I thought I was going to get a report today saying that we're going to be able to open for tomorrow it's still in effect um you know it's it's not even like we could say to people like bring in like a a jug of water from home because they they probably are still in
an impact area as well. Um it looks like, you know, tomorrow we're going to see if if if we get bad news, then we're going to look to kind of go gung-ho um to try and get water and probably just do some sort of a half day schedule and just buy a bunch of pot water. Um and that'll decision that we made once we
get news as to whether the boil advisory has been lifted or not. Um as far as the idea that there might be snow this weekend, why I saw that too. um you know, I have to reook at the um the collectively bargain contract um because it looks like we did a good job kind of outlining what to do in every situation
as far as with the the schedule. So, I'll have to take a look at that and then, you know, we'll we'll look to just follow whatever procedure we have in place there. >> Okay. >> And I know we spoke previously about the u the link for the residency concerns
which is used by uh Manchester as well. Um, did we have an update as to if we could switch that to being anonymous, which would >> Oh, did I not switch that? >> Uh, I I didn't check today. >> All right. So, if if it was because it's because I forgot to tell Bill, we we can make it where it's anonymous to report.
>> I forgot that Andy Glight um the vice president mentioned something about um us possibly losing a certain amount of funds that were left over for I guess lunch or something. Um, can can those funds only be uh used
within the school district? Is that something maybe the municipality can tap into? They're doing a special event for children, students. I don't know. >> No, I don't want to lose it. >> No. Or you can if it's not if it's you can use those funds to improve the lunch
program. That's what they could use for if you're incorporating school lunches or service for the kids, uh, you know, for the program. So, let's say we want to do an ice cream social after school.
>> Um, and you're going to be giving it for the kids. Yes, >> sure. >> Okay, that sounds pretty reasonable. >> Where's our community engagement committee? Let's make it happen. >> Anything else under new or old business? Anyone? Seeing nothing. Uh, do we have a motion
to open the floor to hearing of citizens on operations of the school? >> Motion. >> Motion. Mrs. Johnson. Second, Miss Cerna. All in favor? >> I >> Lauren Ferrer, New Jersey. So, my suggestion,
so what happens if we are in, you know, a boil water situation, my my suggestion would be to just shut the water fountains off. You have flushable water in the toilets. It's not like the water is cut off like
we had in July and you'd have to purchase bottled water for the students. I don't know if you have a how your kitchen is. Um I know at my school it they just heat up. There's no water involved in any of the packaging of the
food that they receive from the state or from local business. So my suggestion is because what's going to happen is if you keep closing school, you're going to lose your spring break. People probably have plans already for the spring break and
then you're going to lose students and student enrollment is going to go down break because they're just going to take the kids out. So and there's going to be a snow prediction probably Monday, Tuesday, you're going to be fall asleep again.
So, I I would just say I would just say try to figure out how you can purchase water. The kids aren't going to pass out from not being able to not have water coming out of the the um the water fountains. We we shut the water off in
Patterson. Had signs up. You just couldn't use the water. >> And we had bottled water for the kids. two, three bottles of water for each kid so that they can have water for the day. And a lot of the students brought their own water because they bring their own
water anyway. So that would be my suggestion. >> Uh to piggy back off of >> this is for um and the uh sharing of the local municipalities. Um, I know it's a local
business in Prospect Park that donates uh water uh to the Prospect Park Middle School. I can reach out immediately to them to see if what the needs are for Helen public make that happen for the next couple of days. >> Yeah, if you want to send me their
contact, you know, basically once once we get the message I think it should be, you know, you said tomorrow morning I should get it. Then once that that comes in, make a decision. Then if we have to scramble to get the water, we will. But if you can give me that ahead of time, that'd be great. >> So, I know we have surplus in the middle
school for >> I have a question. I think bottled water is great, but what do the kids do? Um, even a staff after going to the restroom, how do they wash their hands? >> They'll probably have to just use the foam the foam sanitizer stuff or the
wall sanitizer. But as far as >> um as far as traditional um sanitary procedures, that would probably have to we probably to deviate that a little bit without the the you know the drinkable water. >> Do we have anybody online?
>> No. >> Uh see >> motion Mr. Guzman, second Miss Cerna. All in favor? >> I >> uh the last thing we have on here is a executive session on HIV and uh discussion on personnel matters. Uh we
have a motion to go into executive >> move. Miss Fisher second. All in favor? >> This the first HIV of the year, Mr. >> First one I can remember. >> Um the kids have been kids. This is a
really this is going to be a one minute HIV um thing and then um >> I guess for your personnel here. >> What do you think for personel? How long? >> Um 10 15 minutes.
>> I guess situation with >> you want that personel. >> You want to have an executive session for that and >> we raise them? >> Yeah. writing >> and the CS and obviously >> on the right side.
>> All right. Do we have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Miss Fisher second. All in favor? Thank you. Motion is adjourned. 9 for me.