New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of the act, the Hope Valley Regional Board of Education has caused notice of this
meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof communicated to the Hope Valley News and the Times on January 7th, 2025. This meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon files. The board reserves the right to enter into
executive session during all meetings of the board of education. The meeting is being recorded for the purpose of board review, future reference, preparation of the minutes, and viewing on YouTube Bulldog TV in the school district website www.hvbrsd.org.
Please join me in a flag. Okay. So, just to kind of explain for new folks and folks who are watching on TV why the board secretary is handling the meeting at this point. Um, as I mentioned, this is the board organizational meeting. It's the one
time of the year where the board um is coming together to be reformed to elect the president and vice president uh and begin their work. And by rule, the board secretary has all the power. So I could let the meeting go a long time and
filibuster, but nobody would really want that. So my first order of business tonight is to record uh or report the election results. Um just shout out again that that election did produce a successful referendum by
the board and we'll be we have been uh actively ongoing getting that started. We've met with many of our professionals and are preparing to sell bonds uh in a few weeks. We had our bond rating call today with standard and pores. Um hopefully we get the same or a better
rating than we got when we did the resale. So that's all good. But for tonight's purposes, elected to the board from Hopeel Township to a three-year term with 4,946
votes was Hope Cotter. Welcome aboard. And reelected to the board with 4,694 votes, Amanda Stilliano. Welcome back. and also uh being reelected to a three-year term, Mark Peters with 776
votes. >> Okay. So, the next >> that's all that matters. >> The next bit of uh the next bit is we'll join me back at the podium to take your oaths of office. Make it easy. We don't have
so we can uh we'll repeat after me. just through each the part. Okay. >> I >> Yeah. Ianu >> do solemnly swear or affirm
>> do solemnly swear or affirm >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and that I will bear true faith and
allegiance >> that I will bear true faith and allegiance >> to the same >> to the same >> and to the governments established >> and to the governments established in the United States and this state. >> in the United States and the state. >> Under the authority of the people.
>> Under the authority of the people. >> So help me God. >> So help me God. >> I say your name. >> I >> do solemnly swear or affirm >> do solemnly swear or affirm >> that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law
>> that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law >> for the office of member of the Hop Valley Regional Board of Education. for the office of member of the valley. >> Am not disqualified as a voter.
>> Am not disqualified as a voter >> pursuant to RS94-1. to RS 194 >> and not disqualified due to conviction of a crime >> and not disqualified due to conviction of a crime
>> or offense listed in NJSA 18A2-1 >> or offense listed in NJSA 18A >> and that I will faithfully >> and that I will faithfully >> impartially >> partially >> and justly perform all the duties
>> and justly perform all the duties >> of that office according to the best of my ability. >> of that office according to the best of my ability. >> So help me go. >> So help me go. >> Welcome back and welcome to
your attend. I will take you You guys want to get a Did you get a picture? You want a full picture of them all together holding their certificates up? >> Good. Very little good. >> Yeah, we need to get that >> out. Okay, now that we have sworn in board
members, we can take the role. So, Miss Carter, Dr. Genevacy, >> Dr. Lil >> here, >> Mr. Peters >> here, >> uh, Mr. Slottman >> here,
>> Dr. Stilliano >> here. >> Miss William Scalliano >> here. >> We have four. >> All right. The next order of business is as board secretary, my final act would be to conduct the election of president
of the board of education. I will call for nominations for the o for office of board president. No second is required. At the close of nominations, I will take a roll call vote of each member asking you to state your selection for board president. If there is only one nomination, I will
conduct a voice vote of yays, nays, or abstensions. Once a president has been selected, I will step down as temporary chair of the meeting and pass the gavl to the newly elected president who will then conduct the election for the office of vice president in the same manner.
Okay. Um, nominations are open for president of the board of education. >> I will nominate I need a Williams Galliano. Are there any other nominations? Seeing none, all those in favor of Anita Williams
Scallaniano serving as president for the 2006 year say I. >> I. Any opposed? Okay. Need a welcome back. >> Okay. I know where it is.
>> Yeah. See shuffle. wear it. Well, thank you all um for uh voting another year of leadership for
this amazing team. Um so I will call for nominations for the office of board vice president. No second is necessary. At the close of nominations, I will take a roll call vote for each member asking you to state
your sub election for board vice president. If there is only one nomination, I will conduct a voice vote of yes and n or as extensions. This will conclude the election of officers for the 2026 calendar year. Accepting nominations.
>> I'd like to Is this is it on now? Is it on now? I'd like to nominate Dr. Pamela Lo. >> Okay. Any other nominations? Seeing none, I'll um take a voice vote.
Yay. And >> I any nays or extensions? Seeing none, welcome to the team, Dr. Lson.
With that comes the obligatory paddle. >> I think I think we should toss it around sometime. Move the panel. Hey. Yes, we found that. Oh, you did. Okay.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. We are going to jump right in and have our student. >> Well, she can't read. >> Oh, okay. That's that's what I that's what I was looking looking for as I was
flipping. So, we'd like to remind me your name. Eene, welcome Eileene. And um Eileene along with another peer is our um student leader um reporter and um we
welcome you and we look forward to you throughout the year also inviting you to stay for as much of the meeting as you're able to and um again understanding you have a full schedule but do you have anything to share today?
So, this is a relatively short one because uh it was been like a week since December's um recap, but uh before winter break, the HV choir program performed a successful magical dinner and are now planning for their January cabaret concert this Friday, the 5th to the 9th, in the high school cafeteria.
area. Our HV dance program also finished a wonderful winter dance festival performance. Cast for the m musical Pippen have been finalized and shows will be in early March. Student council culminated the year by wrapping with a successful winter spirit week leading up to the pep rally. At the pep rally, our
school's dance team performed for their second year and both winter athletics and a choir performance were pe featured. The annual class danceoff was then held as each grade put uh in their best efforts and school spirit. Finally, during the break, girls basketball made a journey to Orlando, Florida, and had a
successful performance at their holiday tournament. Looking forward, we will start the new year strong by having our National Honor Society induction ceremony this month to celebrate the academic successes of our upper classmen. Thank you. Thank you. Um, and just I'll hope as I
go through things I'll kind of point out opportunities um where we share or um where things might be not written in the agenda. Just um so we always offer an opportunity for the board to to ask any
questions or just acknowledge our student reporter. So, um, anyone today anything to ask or share? Okay, seeing none, I'll pass um to Dr. Trice for any superintendent report.
>> Um, I will be keeping my comments brief um as we have our um the board's attorney, Paul Green, will be here to train the uh the school board and their annual training. Um, I just wanted to announce that our next meeting will be this upcoming Monday, January 12th. We will host it at the high school to
accommodate all the guests that we have in attendance. It will begin at 6:30 in the community room at Central High School and we'll be honoring our visionary principal of the year for the state of New Jersey who is our own principal uh Trish Riley at the high school. We'll be honoring some of our
transportation folks. The one I don't know how many of you are aware that we had a bus that caught on fire in our backyard. Um and because of our bus drivers quick action, they were able to move the other buses in the fleet away from that bus and was able to save other buses um in that in that uh that
emergency situation. So we'll be inviting those individuals in to honor them and also our retirees for the year will be at that in attendance. So we look forward to that very very full agenda in addition to the other business that we'll be discussing um on January 12th. With that being said, I'll pass it
back to the board president. Awesome. Well, um I obviously don't have anything major prepared, but again, thank you um for uh the opportunity to lead you again this year. And of course, I want to welcome back all of our staff and
students after a long holiday. And I know with the weather, it's not a uh an easy um transition back. So, we just thank everyone for um their um support in getting the schools back ready. Also,
just wanted to acknowledge in in terms of setting up the the board for the new year. Um there will be conversations with Dr. Lilison and myself with each of you around um how we want to build out the committees this year and um some of
you have already shared that information. So, um after uh this week, we can um get to that work and set up our meetings. Um so, as soon as we have everybody locked in, the um committee leaders can reach out and set up the
meeting, our first meetings in advance of our our February meeting. Um that's all for for now. Thank you. Any um questions regarding kind of setting up committees outside of um
not minutia but just anything um of question or concern. Okay, seeing none, we'll move on um to our famous favorite ethics training. >> It's always it's all it is always good
um for everyone to be refreshed. As you know, this touches on a lot of areas in terms of how we meet, how committees um how we work in committee, etc. So, thank you, Paul, for being here with us. >> Thank you, Madam President. >> I'm gonna You serve Paul for one second. >> Sure.
>> Each uh of the board members at their name plate tonight should have gotten a copy of the code of ethics and an acknowledgement of receipt of the code of ethics. If you guys could all sign that now, um, one of the obligations the board secretary is to make sure that each member of the board gets a copy of
that and the acknowledgement thereof. Paul's going to be talking about this code as we go through. just sign them and pass them down. John, get one over there. We'll get to you. Thanks, Bob. We'll try
to make this as painless as possible. So, let's go to the the first slide. So, basically, uh we have the school ethics act, which uh is actually a couple of statutes in 18A. Um and it's there for basically reinforcing the importance of uh holding the respect and confidence of
the public uh and avoiding conduct in violation of the public trust. Go to the next slide. Keep going. Okay. To whom does the school ethics act apply? It applies to two different classes. It applies to board members, managerial employees, and officers of the
schoolboards association. There are two parts to the uh school ethics act. There's a statutory part that applies to all school officials and then there's the code of ethics which is what you have in front of you that only applies to board members. Next,
the regulation. Why are we here tonight talking about this? Because the regulation says we must uh each district board of education shall discuss annually uh the school ethics act and the code of ethics pursuant to the statute at a regularly scheduled public meeting which is what we are doing this
evening. Next, the act itself, section one, talks about prohibited acts, which are conflicts of interest. Section two is the code of ethics. Go to the next slide. So, the prohibitions, we're not going to go through them in detail, but they're essentially uh business conflicts, any kind of business that's
doing uh business with the school district, any financial conflict. You may not use your position to secure unwarranted privileges uh or employment for yourself or members of your family uh or act in uh your official capacity where you have a family immediate family
member who has a conflict of interest. Exactly. >> And part of this will be the board receiving very shortly a invitation from the school exx commission to do a financial disclosure form. >> Right. So that that gets revealed in case there are any conflicts. uh you may
not have uh any relationship uh with with a business or organization that has an interest. Uh if you do that represents any person, party other than the border district. Um the one area that there's an exception to that is you obviously can of course represent your own child if there's any kind of
proceeding involving um disciplinary proceedings for example. Um but we would talk in that circumstance about making sure that you don't cross the line and and u basically do anything in violation of the ethics act itself. But you do have the right to represent your child.
Okay. Uh now the ethics code of uh provisions themselves. This is the board member provisions that that you have in front of you. We're not going to go through everyone but we're going to go through some of the key ones. The first one is why you're here. uh which is that you make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of the children.
Seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet individual needs of all children regardless of ability, race, creed, color, sex, or social standing. Next confine board action to policym your your role as as the board. First of all, you individually have no authority
except when you're sitting here together at a meeting as the board uh or in a committee meeting basically where you're charged with board business. So your your role as a board member is policymaking. Basically the way school boards often talks about it is the
balcony picture. You've got the dancers on the ballroom floor. You're on the balcony overlooking the ballroom setting the policy that governs the district making planning policy making planning appraisal. Uh and you will only frame those policies and plans after you've
consulted those who will be affected by them. Next, board members formulate programs and methods to effectuate the goals through a variety of methods, committees. You have ad hoc committees, uh, or standing committees. Um, sometimes you'll have a special committee to deal with a
particular matter. Discussion and action at a duly convened meeting, which is typically where you would discuss an act on item. Okay. Section D, you will carry out your responsibility not to administer the schools. Your job is not to run the school. That's your administration's
job. Um, but together with your fellow board members to see that they are wellrun. We often get asked the question, well, how do I see that they're wellrun without administering them? Well, you have oversight. Um, you have one employee that there's directly responsible to you and who you are
directly responsible for. That's your superintendent. There's a chain of command and everything flows through your superintendent. Uh, and that is how essentially you oversight oversee the schools themselves. Next slide. When uh a violation is alleged of that
particular provision, there has to be a showing that respondent. Respondent is the term for a board member who was responding to a complaint before the school ethics commission that the respondent gave a direct order to school personnel or became directly involved in activities or functions that are
responsibility of school personnel. Next. So, for example, there was a case in 2005 where a board member asked for copies of SAT reports from the guidance secretary took it upon himself to inspect lockers in the boy's locker room
uh and decided that he should instruct staff on supervision of students. Clearly, in that circumstance, that's a violation of the school. Again, you you don't administer the schools, you oversee the administration of the school. Next individual board members may not give
direct orders to the administration. So how do we in deal with this particular circumstance? Board members may ask questions of administration relative to the process by which a recommendation is being made. You're certainly not a rubber stamp. You're entitled to information about why a recommendation
is coming to you and why you're being asked to vote on something. You may engender conversations to the board meeting um when the discussion occurs after a motion is made and seconded or you may ask the board president to return the recommended action to committee or make what under Robert's
rules is called a motion to commit which is not a reference to sending it to an insane asylum. Frankly, it's a reference to sending it back to a committee. Next, the board or a committee may direct the administration to perform certain tasks, functions, studies,
analyses at any point. But again, that's basically a board determination. The board, a majority of the board can do that so long as they're consistent with the policym planning and praise the roles of the board uh andor consistent with board goals or the the
superintendent goals as well. Next, appointment of personnel. Uh this is very important. Uh, one of the areas that that we often find uh issues with are confusion over over the role in terms of appointment of personnel. The statute it's 18827-4.1
makes it very clear that only the superintendent can recommend transfer appointment or removal of certificated or non-certificated employees. Um, so you cannot take any action with respect to an employment situation without the
superintendent's recommendation. Uh and then it needs a what we call a full majority me vote of the membership of the board which means that you have to have at least a majority of the full membership which is on a nine member board you'd have to have five votes. Um it's you know it's distinguished from a
simple majority where some actions you can take where if you've got seven people at the meeting or let's say six people at the meeting you know you would just need four votes to adopt the simple but here you would need a majority of the full number of the board members. So, uh, employment actions are are are a
very specific area that are very carefully governed. Um, and it's there basically, uh, to reinforce the superintendent's authority. Uh, and it frankly limits the board's discretion. The board can reject a recommendation. Um, but it cannot be for arbitrary capricious reasons, which
means you have to have some solid grounds um, to reject a superintendent's recommendation since we're not the experts uh, in the area. The superintendent is the educational expert that makes the recommendations. Next, authority rests with the board of
education. You may not make any personal promises nor take any private action uh for a violation. Uh you may have evidence that the respondant made personal promises to somebody to accomplish something or took action beyond the scope of your duties that by
its nature had the potential to compromise the board. And later on we'll see uh we we always have a quiz that there's a case that recently came down that um had a little split between the administrative law judge and the school ethics commission on whether a particular action had the potential to
compromise the board and what that means. Next I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment. Very critical. you are elected to act as an independent uh board of education member in the sense that it is your judgment as a board
member um that the voters put you in here for and you may not surrender that judgment to special interest groups or partisan political groups nor may you use the schools for personal gain or the gain of friends called confidential all matters. This is
probably one of the biggest areas where we find violations. It It's sometimes difficult to do, but you know, like they say, whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Whatever happens in close session stays in close session. Um, anything that is is discussed in close session um
has the potential typically to needlessly injure individuals or the schools and you must hold it confidential. Um, and then the other part of this is that in all of the matters I will provide accurate information. where oftentimes people uh run a foul is they will put information out um that proves to be inaccurate. Um
the earlier cases typically came down with budget situation where board members were making claims about budgets that were not correct um and they basically were held accountable for that. Next, support and protect school personnel and proper performance of their duties. Your
goal and your object here is to be supportive of your administration and your staff. Uh if there's evidence that you took deliberate action in undermining, opposing, compromising, or harming school personnel in the proper performance of their duties, that would
constitute code violation. Next, complaints. All complaints go to the chief administrative officer. That's your superintendent. You will act on complaints at public meetings. So, you don't act on complaints privately and only after failure of an administrative solution. Um it's very rare that you
should ever have to get to that point. Um, typically they will be resolved by the chief school administrator. Uh, and oftentimes if they're not, frankly at that point it winds up in litigation. Uh, and it's not something typically that a board can really resolve. Next,
there's a question of the code doesn't explain how you refer complaints. Uh, two options. You may uh make the complaint or refer directly by yourself or you may direct the constituent to go directly to the chief school administrator. Um oftentimes what we suggest is that if it's a specific issue
with regard to for example a staff member um that the uh public member should be advised to follow the chain of command first discuss the issue with if it's the teacher concerned discuss it with the teacher then the principal and ultimately then the superintendent.
Next who can file a complaint? A complaint with the school ethics commission can be filed by anyone except uh it's any person. So a board of education cannot file a complaint. Uh there is a six-month statute of limitations for
filing. Next slide. We have the school ethics commission. That is the entity um that basically oversees the school ethics act. It's the only entity that can determine whether an official's conduct violated the act. Um and you can request an advisory
opinion from the SEC about your own or someone else's proposed course of conduct. Uh those are advisory. They're not binding. Um, but they give you an idea of how the SEC views a particular matter and how they would rule on something. Uh, and they offer you protection because if you follow an
advisory opinion, um, the SEC frankly will be hard to later on determine that you violated the act. Okay. Any school official may request an advisory opinion. Uh, if it relates to the conduct of another official, that official must be copied and may file a
response. Next slide. There are sanctions for violations of the act. They go from reprimand which is a basically slap on the wrist if you will censure which is a more formal uh and more serious uh public condemnation
of the action which includes reading the resolution at a board meeting and posting it around town. Um suspension, they can suspend a board member for a period of time and in very severe cases they can actually remove a board member from from office. That does not stop the board member from running again. uh but
they are removed from their current. Next, um Bob mentioned this that you are going to have uh financial disclosure forms that you have to fill out. They have to be filed within 30 days of being sworn in and if you're returning school official on or before April 30th. Um
this is just there to kind of remind you of this fact. U and that basically uh you have to reveal essentially um any potential business that you have. We're looking for any conflicts of interest. Um basically financial disclosure statement. Uh they also have to be uh
approved by the executive county superintendent. Next slide. This obviously is not readable. It's there just to remind you that um there are a lot of areas of conflict of interest in negotiation. Uh fortunately I don't think we have
anything immediate. So you don't have to have more soon. Um if you are on a negotiations committee, you have to be aware that um if you have any family members uh and we're not going to get into tonight what a family member is, but it's typically your close
relative um who are either employed in the district or who are a member of a state association such as the NGA in another district, you're going to have potential conflicts in terms of your ability to participate in collective negotiations or discussions of those
negotiations. Um just be aware of that. We don't get it. Next, free speech issues. You do have first amendment right to express yourselves, but again by the ethics code, you may not disclose information which is
inaccurate, which is confidential or which has the potential to compromise the board. Next slide. And you should I basically said that you should not publicly criticize it's the uh the staff members themselves. Now you can certainly you know criticize a
proposed course of action or proposed policy something that you disagree with but not the staff members themselves. Uh you shall not represent your personal opinion as the position of the board include in all formal expressions a disclaimer. So, if you write a letter to
the editor, which I would encourage you, frankly, not to do, um, that you basically have to identify yourself as a member of the board and state that you are speaking as a private citizen and that the opinion you are expressing does not necessarily represent those of the
board. On top of this, the SEC has also said that there are often circumstances, and we'll see a couple later, where a disclaimer is going to be ineffective anyway because you may say all you want you're acting as a private citizen when it's very clear from the context that you're clearly speaking as a board
member. Um, so you have to be very careful when you comment publicly on any board matter. Next, here's a sample disclaimer, uh, which basically says I'm speaking as a private citizen. uh that these are not representative of the board and totally represent my own
personal opinion. Next slide. This is the Tresen case just which we mentioned because that was a case where uh board member wrote an op-ed endorsing candidates. He did include a disclaimer that he was writing it on his own behalf um and the opinions were his own, but he
did not include the part that says these are not endorsed by the board in any sense and not the board's position. and he used terms like we and our uh and basically it was confusing because the SEC found that uh it created the
appearance that the entire board was endorsing certain candidates uh and that ran a foul of the act. Uh the ALJ administrative law judge uh we have these cases go typically before the office of administrative law where administrative law judges do an initial
hearing. They're the factfinder. They make a report, a recommended initial decision which the SEC then reviews. ALJ recommended a reprimand. The SEC said this is severe enough that uh it should be a censure. Commissioner reduced it to a reprimand since he said well you tried
at least you know even though you didn't quite do it sufficiently. Um but again the case law since this case has increasingly said that there are circumstances where disclaimers no matter how carefully you write them are not going to be effective. Next,
uh just one uh thing I would urge you to do is look at your bylaw 169 169 which is your bylaw that deals with internet emails, OPREA which is the open public records act and OPMA which is the open public meetings act um which govern u
the conduct of the board in terms of uh maintenance and access to public records and what it has to do um in terms of noticing and conducting meetings. Uh very important that you be familiar with this particular regulation by law. Uh basically it talks about the potential
for inappropriate or improper disclosure, breach of confidentiality. Um what I always say is don't put anything in an email that you don't want to see on the front page of uh the newspaper. Um essentially there should be nothing confidential in an email. Um,
you should not have email going back and forth between board members discussing a particular topic because that could be held to be essentially a serial meeting in violation of the open public meetings act. But be aware of those concerns and take a look at this this bylaw because
it's very important. Next, okay, some questions and quizzes. Is it a violation? First one, returning board members have seen this one before. We like to put it up because it's it's useful to kind of go over what's the extent of your outside uh volunteer
activities and do they conflict with board membership? Uh is it a violation of the act for a board member to serve as an executive officer of the PTA or any other executive officer position? Um this advisory opinion says it is not. Next slide. Uh basically under
volunteering you may participate in outside organizations that are self-governing and independent of the board. PTA, although it has a very close relationship with the district, is an independent organization. Um, you must recuse on voting and be careful not to admit your role as a board member uh
when there's the activity of an organization involved. Um, you may not supervise school personnel or funds. You may not have regular contact with students or staff. Uh, you may not have an active presence in school functions. You cannot serve as a volunteer coach, club advisor, etc. Um if there's
extensive involvement with school personnel um and with extensive fundraising that presents a concern. Next slide. So having said that, how about this one? Go back. Okay, go forward. There we go. Okay. Got
a board member. Uh before she became a board member, she co-founded the CPAG, the special education parents advisory group. Um, she continued to hold the leadership role after the election and was also chair of the board special education committee. Did she violate the school ethics act
when she sent an email from her board email account to the CPAC members advising that she intended to attend upcoming board of an upcoming board meeting as CPAC co-leader and not as a board member? And the answer she did that was a violation. Next slide.
So what the uh school ethics commission said is there's no inherent per se conflict of interest in serving as a board member and CPAC leader. They found this is akin to membership in the PTA as we've seen before. Um or there was an earlier advisory opinion that beheld that a being in in a special education
parent discussion group was not a conflict of interest in and of itself. Said you would not reasonably be expected to prejudice your independence of judgment in the exercise of your official duty. But here board member crossed the line. She blurred the line between her role as a board member and
the CPAC leader because she was now advocating on behalf of special education students and their families. You can say certainly why what's wrong with advocating on behalf of special education students and their families. And certainly that's a bonafide position to take but you have to be very careful
because um the board has its role and the parents have their role and you can't really blur the line between the two. you have to be very careful essentially jealous of guarding your role as a board member um and not cross over to that line of advocating um on behalf of families. Now, there could be
times when you could take a position as a board member in support of various special education initiatives, for example, and that's not going to cross that line. Uh, but here she clearly went essentially and said, I'm going to be here as the representative parent, not as a board member. You can't do that.
Next, prior to here's another one. board member prior to the election had been active community member occasionally if not often at odds with prior board administration posted board related comments and information on her township watchdog Facebook page many of which did
not have a disclaimer that is true is a violation so she had her posts had a clear nexus they look for a connection between the post and your role as a board member uh her posts were clearly relevant to the
board business. Um, even the posts with disclaimers, again, here's a circumstance where essentially the SEC is saying doesn't matter that you had a disclaimer, you're writing about board matters and or and matters that you had knowledge of because of your position on the board. And clearly, the public is
going to see that as acting as a board member or speaking as a board member, no matter how much you disclaim it, that you're acting private citizen. Um, the ALJ found that the respondent used her position to her advantages. She was trying to support board candidates that
she supported in the election. She made personal references to board matters that could have compromised the board. Uh and she supported a political group which was the surrender of her independent judgment. Um given the context of the post, the commission agreed that a reasonable member of the
public could perceive she was speaking in her official capacity or pursue it to her official duty. So the context is very important in this kind of case. Frankly, I would urge you not to have any social media comment whatsoever connected to the board activity. Next,
now here's another one. Board member violated school ethics act when he used his personal social media account to respond to social media post concerning potential banning of books in school. That post generated responses from the public who asked for clarification and the member's thoughts on banning books.
Uh again, no disclaimer was included here and that was a violation. Uh it's interesting though because the administrative law judge found that the posts were interpreted reasonably as being made in the capacity of the board member. So really the the disclaimer was
not really an issue because clearly this board member was speaking as a board member. Um which by the way your policy says that the board only has one spokesperson or technically two. One spokesperson for the board is the board president. um your superintendent is the spokesperson for district matters uh not
directly pertaining to the board itself. Uh but the ALJ found here there's no factual evidence that the post had the potential to compromise the board because keep in mind there's two prongs to this. You make it as a capacity in your capacity as a board member and it has the potential to compromise the
board. School ethics commission disagreed with that. They said yes clearly there's a nexus here. Clearly they're connected. But the comments did have the potential to compromise the board. As first place, staff were expressing concerns as a result of this. They were wondering what's going to happen with what's in our libraries and
what materials we're teaching. And keep in mind there's no discussions occurred at the board level yet. This is purely public, you know, commentary that's going on. And second, the uh poster was talking about uh potential board action because this could come before the board. Um, so I would encourage you to
do what courts do, which is basically not to comment at all on any matter that may come before them essentially. Um, if there's going to be a comment or a statement put out, it should come through the board president officially on behalf of the board. Next,
board member violated section D of the act. This is an easy one. As we said before, you can't be a coach or an assistant coach even if you're a volunteer. So, that's a violation of the act. Next, uh, board member owned a spiritware company. Um, did he violate the act when
he sent emails to the school principal asking to send emails to students and families to promote the sale of spirit wear for parent staff association? This is a parent staff association like a PTA fundraiser and everything's donated. He's not making a profit from the sale,
but it is a violation of the act. You still can't do it. Uh again because it was a personal interest that was found to be accomplished board member founded a nonprofit entity did what I'm I've asked here is did did she not violate the school ethics act when at the school
workshop the annual school board's convention she goes around wearing an identity badge with her board credentials the board of course paid for her to be at the convention and she's also wearing a shirt promoting a nonprofit that she's created nonprofit entity she live streamed her interactions with vendors introduced
uced herself to three vendors in particular, stating in part that she was the board vice president. She owned her own profit. Oh, by the way, I have this great nonprofit that so and so uh and here's our program and what we do. Uh that was a violation of the act. He did
vi basically attempted to use her official position to secure business relationship with a nonprofit. Doesn't matter that it's a nonprofit. She's still seeking business relationship with a particular entity that she's created. and a reasonable person would view uh that she
was lacking objectivity while performing her role as a board member promoting her nonprofit. They found a couple of violations. Next, board member received vendor information at the convention. Uh may that board member contact each vendor to ask about pricing and contact other school
districts that use the equipment? No, that board member may not do that. Um basically, next one. Board member violated the act. She took official action to affect policies and plans without consulting those affected. She has no right to contact the vendors
in other districts unless the board direct her to do so. Frankly, um she identified herself as a member of the board, indicated the board was contemplating switching from MacBooks to Chromebooks. Well, if the board had not even considered it change, this was considered pretty severe. They they
censored her. You have to be very careful that you don't take any official action and start taking it upon yourself to go talking to other vendors without basically being charged by the board to do so. Next member violated the SCA where after the
superintendent denied the member's request to have code of conduct violation removed, communicated direct with the superintendent several times, emailed other board members uh without indicating she was doing so as a parent, although frankly she shouldn't have done so as a parent either. uh and the board
attorney uh and the spouse raised an issue of public comment at meeting was a violation of the act slide. There we go. Repeated communications uh trying to persuade board members, board council, superintendent reverse course. Again, you have a right to
represent your child in disciplinary proceedings, but here she went beyond the pale. Uh, and one thing you always have to be careful of is even though you're coming in as a parent to meet with the teacher, for example, you're still seen as a board member. Um, there's still a lot of a lot of clout
behind that. Uh, and you have to be very very mindful of that and very careful to stress that, hey, I'm here as a parent. This is all about my child and that's all I want to talk about essentially. I mean, here she actually tried to provide a direct order.
um board member would violate code of ethics by act by participating in initial and or exit interviews. That would be a violation. This advisory opinion held frankly I don't know that it's correct but or that I agree with it but they
held that um by participating in initial interviews or exit interviews um you are actually administering schools at that point um and violating that provision of the school ethics act. They have reluctantly said that um in certain circumstances you could have one or two
board members kind of observe uh interviews especially for higher level administrators uh but they can't participate. They can only be there to kind of see the process. Uh and that was kind of a begrudging acknowledgement by the SEC. Next.
Okay. a violation of uh G section G of the code by inadvertently replying all to an email um that include the board and a parent who brought the complaint to the board. Um so it was an accident. Uh it was an inadvertent uh and it was a violation because it doesn't matter intention is not important. Um the key
is that uh by by replying all the uh board member revealed confidential information even though it was not intentional. So, uh, one of the things I usually advise is do not reply to all D and RTA. Next, just a bonus question. A board
member can review a staff member's file A only with approval of majority of the board, B without board input, C upon notice of the board administration, or D if there is action pending before the board with respect to that employee. The answer is D. The only time that a board
member can review a staff member's file um is when that the board is being asked to take a specific action with respect to that employee. Uh and in that circumstance, the board members are entitled to have the background information. At no other time, you have the right or the ability to see personal
fun. That's it. Any questions? Thoroughly numbed everybody probably. Thank you. I have a a a question. I think one of the um common questions that comes up among board members is around communication
with the public through email. Um, so if a parent or a community member sends an email, what can individual board members do in response to that email who are not the the board president? >> They can forward it to the board president superintendent and basically
respond. Um, you might even want to have a an automatic response. Some boards do that which says that thank you for their email, you know, pursuant to the school ethics act. I'm not permitted to respond directly. Um, but I'm forwarding it on to the superintendent for for comment.
Um, they should not respond directly other than to say I've sent it on to the superintendent for review. >> Um, I have another question. This is more a curiosity of mine because I recall it coming up I think three years ago when I did my my first year training. Um, are board members required
if they are also parents who have children in the school district to declare themselves as board members in their communication with staff or like teachers as it relates to their child? >> Um, you're not technically required. Um,
if you're if you're basically doing that, it's not a bad idea. Um, just to just say make you aware that, you know, I am a board member, but I'm I'm speaking as a you don't have to. It's it's not mandatory that you do that. U it's just very you know it's best to frankly you know especially when you meet with people that you not raise that
um you know that you not say to them I'm a board member you know basically I I'm saying when you meet directly with them it's probably better not to actually tell them that because then they could argue you're intimidating them you know >> that's interesting because during my training this is the reason it's come up
for me I recall them actually saying >> you should identify >> if you are emailing your >> I would say if you're emailing I would put it in I'm board member. I'm writing this to my >> Yes. I'm saying I would I would put that in the email. I would put it that in the email. But when you meet directly with with them, if especially, you know, if
if you're talking about that I I I find it personally better not to kind of raise that in the conversation directly one-on-one because that could get taken out of context or twisted around. If it's in writing, it's clear. Um if you're meeting one-on-one, they could argue that you're essentially trying to
intimidate them. That's my concern with that. But I definitely I would put it in an email. >> And also I I think another question I know it came up for me in my first year or two. Um you talked about not replying
all but also you can't CC a quorum of the board on an email also. Do I remember that correctly? Or it becomes a meeting. >> That's correct. I mean it it where it has the potential to. Yeah. um you know you want to avoid that because you want
to avoid having more than the quorum involved in the discussion. The danger is that people start responding. You know arguably if you just CC everyone it's not a problem but the recommendation is just air on the side of caution. Other questions? Those are questions.
Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Well, he's on speed dial. I'm just That's right. Okay. Favorite part.
Members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes. During this portion of the meeting, you are asked to state your name, address, and municipality. In response to your comments, the board of ed may respond or
direct the superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take up the matter in a future meeting so that the matters researched by the district administration. Public comment is now open. And I'll remind you that um there is a um booklet
at the day to sign in and there are some timekeeping notes. >> Yes. So I am the timekeeper. I'll be keeping time. You have 3 minutes for public comment. Um at 2 minutes and 30 seconds, I'll hold up the yellow sign and then when the 3 minutes is over,
I'll turn it to red. Thank you. Public comment is now open. Okay, seeing none, public comment is now closed. I need a first and second to move the um
consent agenda items. second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed or abstaining? Seeing none, consent agenda passes. >> Okay. Are you going to cover Okay.
Can I get a u a first and second for personnel? >> Okay. Thank there were just a few items that were uh put on tonight's agenda as they are timesensitive. Uh next week we we will have our regular
personel agenda. Roll call vote. >> Dr. Genevacy. >> Dr. Lilith. >> Mr. Peters. >> Yes. >> Mr. Slottman. >> Yes. >> Dr. Siliano. >> Yes.
>> Miss Carter and Miss Williams Galliano. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Wonderful. Um, any new business items? Okay, seeing none, um we will have another public comment.
>> Um I need a first and second to approve the calendars for January and February. >> Motion. >> A second. And again, we're not going to set committee meetings tonight. We'll wait till the president and vice president set the committees. Um, but we do want
to approve it because we're moving, as Dr. Tree said, we're moving the meeting next week to the community room at the high school to accommodate the many presentations that we have. All those in favor? Any opposed or abstaining?
Seeing none, meeting is moved. Um, okay. Now, public comment. Members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of 3 minutes during this portion of the meeting. You're asked to state
your name, address, and municipality. In response to your comments, the board of ed may respond or direct the superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district administration.
Second, public comment is now open. Seeing none, public comment is now closed. And now I need a uh first and a second to move us into executive session where personnel matter of employee 4018 will
be discussed. No action will be taken. All in favor? Any opposed or abstaining? Seeing none, we are now moving into executive session. Thank you all for uh attending our first 2026 meeting.