##VIDEO ID:x59TXMNZoNo## y're call order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and remove your hat pledge FL flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting was advertised in the Asbury Park Press in the beacon on January 9th 2025 and by posting the notice in the forkid river and the lenoa Har Harbor Post Office and by filing a copy of the notice with the Lacy Township Clerk as requested by the open public meeting act roll call please Mr armado here Mr Peters present Mr Bell here Mrs armado here Mrs Walker Mr conedy here and Mrs Claus here we're going to go into executive session be it resolved that an executive session be convened for the purpose of discussing confidential student matters including but not limited to harassment intimidation and bullying confidential legal matter matters including but not limited to the current case load and confidential Personnel matters the subject matter of these discussions will be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality subsides the length of the executive session is estimated to be approximately 60 minutes after which the board shall reconvene and proceed with business at 700 p.m. action may be taken motion motion Peters I'll second all in favor I I okay we're going to resume our meeting we're going to start with the student Representatives we have Kayla and Eric okay for our news sgaa met on January 13th the freshmen are currently planning their talent show and the sophomores are planning their um Valentine's Day fundraiser the juniors are planning their volleyball fundraiser and also coming up with some um ideas for their junior prom theme the seniors are planning their senior prom and designing their senior t-shirt and for um the the um executive board ticket sales will start next week for our Winter Dance and then lastly the next sgaa meeting will take place on February 4th thank you Kayla now I would like to announce our January unsung hero Ezra tandola is Ezra here no okay I'll read a little bit about him for the month of January the student government Association of lacy Township High School would like to recognize Ezra tandola as the unsung hero Ezra is an exceptional student and a valued student of our school he is a proud member of the leadership academy and as such he's taking numerous honors classes and has very excellent grades asra is also a part of the freshman football and track teams outside of school Ezra participates in flag football and pickle ball Ezra is extremely talented and always works his hardest at everything he does for these reasons Ezra tandola has been selected as January's unsung hero thank you okay we're now going to move on to the report of the superintendent thank you and I'd like to bring down principal King who will share with us his seniors of the month for Jan anuary yes all right happy New Year everybody thanks for calling me down Mr zalinsky our first January senior of the month is Julia vanan Julia come on over a round of applause for her entire crew of family here as well they're filling the first couple rows I'm Julie VanZant and I'm proud to be named January senior of the month at Lac Township High School I've had the honor of being Julia's teacher in both Algebra 2 honors and math 158 it's not surprising that Julia is being recognized not only is she hardworking and dedicated to her education but she's also deeply committed to her school and Community I briefly participated in Surf Rider especially at their Beach cleanups I'm the president of Ina act and I'm involved with rotary inside and outside of school I had the opportunity to go to a leadership conference which was very exciting because of rotary and I have over 100 hours of volunteer work her ability to manage such a busy schedule while maintaining High academic standards is truly impressive her commitment to community service school activities and her academics are outstanding After High School I plan to attend college and get my degree in social work although I will greatly miss her Smiles in the hallway I wish her all the best as she continues her education at marrywood College lots of pictures good job all right our next senior of the month for January is Jackson conin Jackson come on down his family here as well so proud Applause for them jackon I'm Jackson Colin and I'm proud of be named January senior of the month at Lacy toship high school congratulations Jackson conin on being named the January 202 senior of the month here at the high school I'm a member of the student government Association as well as the drama club where I'm their head sound engineer in addition to that I am a part of WTS tv21 where I am one of their station managers Jackson just has such a strong work ethic and he really takes that across to all of his classes all the activities that he does including tennis and drama and especially the things that he does right here in the TV studio he was named one of our station managers for this year and he really has taken that rle and ran with it being the director on all of our big events um taking on a lot of responsibilities and really just doing some amazing work here at the DV Studio this year one of my favorite memories from here at the high school was the New Jersey high school Film Festival it's a 5-day film competition where you five days to write shoot and edit a film one of my films that participated in the competition wind up taking home best overall film and I wind up taking home best student director so I look back on that finally it was a really really great time Jackson is what we refer to as a Force multiplier he really gets the most out of the students around him and they really enjoy working with him and coming up with new and creative ideas and projects one of the things that Jackson worked really hard on this year is our new WTS weather forecast that we do every morning with the green screen some of the other students helped him to build around a new weather forecast format it's been a really cool addition to what we do and he even got a little Feud going with Mr trolan over some winter weather conditions and and that's been fun to see that developed as well outside of school I like to spend time with my friends create short films and practice photography After High School I plan to attend a four-year school to pursue a major in broadcast Communications Jackson I wish you the best of luck with the rest of this school year we know we've got a lot of stuff left to do here together at WTS and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do in the future as you choose your school and you go on hopefully in some broadcast television picture all right and our vocational senior of the month for January is Donovan meta Donovan come on down Round of Applause for his family up there I'm Donovan meta and I'm proud to be vocational senior of the month for January congratulations to Donovan meta for winning a January vocational senior of the month here at lths I am part of the drama club the choir club the select Ensemble Club the the anime club and the fishing club I first met Donovan when he was a student in my sophomore English class I invited him to that Year's first meeting of the anime club and he almost instantly took on a leadership role he helped to organize activities to um uh plan events uh to get supplies uh he was there at every meeting uh excited and ready to participate and the next year he was made president of the club here at lths my favorite memory is when I performed the spring musical mam Mia nth grade freshman year because of the actors the actresses and the sage crew I was with that were all great people they are the reason I was still acting here at lths Don's enthusiasm uh work ethic and sense of humor set him apart from other students he's always energetic uh enthusiastic and eager to learn After High School when I graduate I would like to pursue one more year at vocational school and then I would like to go to some University or college for the digital and visual communication field and get a degree in it best of luck to you Donovan for the rest of the school year and for all your future endeavors I know you will go on to do great things absolutely there right all right congratulations congratulations to all our seniors of the month Mr zinsky that's all I have thank you principal King now if I can make sure so I don't mess up her name we have our auditor here should we dismiss the students or do they stay well that's up to that it um Katherine Perry thank you y Katherine Katherine Perry jump Perry and Company LLP you are doing our 2324 audit as required by I guess New Jersey statute New Jersey Department of Education also you have some bonds so your bond holders want to have it and also you receive grants from the federal government and the state of New Jersey so they also require you to have an audit so we did the audit for June 30th 2024 it has a a couple of deliverables to the state and to the county and to your bond holders uh we had to do the audit summary which was due on 1 one odd date but 1 2025 we submitted the audit auditor summary we also did the the um annual comprehensive financial report that's the name of it it's about 150 pages of your financial data in that is the opinions that say you had an unmodified opinion sounds backwards but unmodified is a clean opinion we had no findings in that audit there's a lot of items that have to be tested we select your grants your major programs determine uh review your internal controls uh how things are processed everybody sees here that board's approving things a lot of it is accounting so we revie and make sure you're doing all the proper things we had no findings we had no issues with your bid your payroll dispersements purchase orders no issues we also issue a financial that's called the uh AMR the auditor's manager report that has some very specific spefic New Jersey Department of Education items that you have to follow no issues with any of those items in regards to cafeteria busing uh student count we had no items of uh issues there no findings then uh we also have to issue the data collection form detailing to the federal government what grants we chose what which ones we reviewed and we had no findings or issues with that so overall was a clean opinion no issues which is what everybody wants to hear we want to thank the business office no one really likes the audit but here we are so thank you very much much uh the audit is up on the Department of Education website if anybody wanted to look it I think you'll also have it on your website here and uh that's where you can view it and you can look at every Board of Ed in New Jersey is up on that website if you're ever curious of how Other Board of EDS look you're all very different so very hard to compare in the back schedules in the JS it shows about 10 years of data so you can see how you've transpired over the years with revenue and fund balances and items like that so if anybody has any questions you can email the business office and they can get them over to me if it's something I need to answer so thank you thank you thank you okay so as president president close reminded me if there any students who have to do homework this is your chance to get out any parents who want to go with them because they have homework to do this is your chance to get out thank you by oh yeah they they shorten it over the years I remember some years it was very long I'm good paperwork and yeah there were there were years of other things how are you with that I finish my report I'll reserve some comments for later and okay we're going to move on to a public comment yeah any audience member wishing to make a comment will raise his or her hand and when called upon please state your name address or affiliation and intention to make a statement comments will be addressed to the board president comments will be made one issue at a time comments will be Li limited to 5 minutes no audience member shall be recognized twice until all who have wished to have comment will have been recognized this portion of the the meeting is for public comments only and there will be no questions answered the purpose of this board meeting is to perform our business in public everyone is entitled to a public comment if there is a question for the board there is an established chain of command to follow do we have any public comments Mr s Regina descends of Sunset Drive Sunrise Beach um first a quick question though the January 28th public information session that's going to be held at 6:30 do you know if that's going to be televised yet or recorded for the public we'll probably like a board meeting prob probably record okay because to date there's been nothing on TV about the $92 million referendum unless I said okay um yesterday afternoon as the board knows I was the only member of the public that attended their special meeting which turned out to be a negotiations training session by the NJ sba's Labor Relations attorney for me it was a refresher course having been through the gamut of Union negotiations in all respects was also a bit of a night nightmare brought back some bad memories but Mrs Claus did ask a very good question about the salary guides and exactly how raises get decided it is very complicated and and costing out a salary guide I remember doing the math all afternoon at one of the salary guide workshops it's extremely difficult but every time you look at the salary guide if the board feels the guide was not calculated to their satisfaction doesn't meet with their expectations you can reject it so don't be afraid to do that if you have to uh let it go back for recalculation um this district has one of the best negotiation attorne in the state sitting right here Mr Bruce padulla he has one of the best reputations in the state of New Jersey for contract negotiations if you have questions please Mr padulla is the best we've had talks in the past and um I do have a question for Mr padulla can you be the spokesperson for the negotiations team if they told you to or asked you to can I be could you yes you could that's what I thought so you know if the board wants to Mr padulla can directly work for you as a negotiations person another tip I have is please make sure the board sees any contract revisions before the union ratifies twice the union ratified a contract the board saw after the fact I found an error and it couldn't be fixed proofread proofread your contracts before anyone approves them and make sure they are 100% correct thank you thank you for your comment would anybody else okay come on down good evening good evening members of the board administrators teachers parents and community members thank you for allowing me the opport to speak tonight my name is Karen Hopson and I come before you as an advocate for all students and a proud member of this community I'm speaking in response to the recent policies enacted by the board that prohibit political expression in classrooms that have been mandated to include Pride Flags while I understand the desire to maintain neutrality I must respectfully assert that Pride flags are not political expression civil liberties should not be politicized Pride Flags represent inclusion support and civil liberties the same civil liberties protected in our District's harassment intimidation and bullying policy that's on tonight's agenda as Educators our most important responsibility is to ensure that every student feels valued respected and supported regardless of their race religion gender or identity school is not just a place to learn math or science it's a place where students grow into comp comp passionate confident individuals symbols like the pride flag and others that represent inclusion and diversity are crucial because they communicate an unspoken yet powerful message you are safe here you are welcome here and you matter policies like this one risk sending an unintended but harmful message to some of our most vulnerable students whether it's a student who identifies as lgbtq plus a students whose Faith differ from the majority or a student questioning traditional gender roles these young people deserve to see themselves represented and respected in the classroom when we create environments where students feel excluded or invisible it undermines their ability to learn Thrive and contribute research consistently shows that students who feel supported and affirmed whether it's their identity their faith or their gender are most likely to succeed academic and socially when we Embrace diversity and inclusion in our classroom we are teaching far more than just tolerance we are teaching compassion understanding and the value of every human being I ask the board to reflect on the deeper message of this policy are we fostering an environment that Embraces all students including those who may already feel marginalized are we reinforcing the values of Justice equity and acceptance that we hope to instill in the Next Generation I urge you to reconsider and clarify the interpretation of the policy and collaborate with the community to find a solution that respects diverse perspectives while prioritizing inclusion perhaps this means creating clear guidelines that Embrace symbols of support for all ensuring that no single group feels excluded in closing let us remember that the classroom should be a sanctuary for learning growth and acceptance by by embracing all students regardless of their religion gender identity or background we Empower them to reach their full potential and to make our community stronger I do have um a guidance document um that just provides some support based just on this subject schools and pride flags and I'd just like to read a short excerpt from one of the um entries it says while speech in public schools may be subject to more restrictions than other Arenas the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment protections extend to teachers and students neither of whom shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate this Bedrock principle of the Supreme Court's First Amendment jurist Prudence ensures that schools do not become grounds for authoritarian control over the future of our democracy um thank you for listening and I have a hand out for each of you thank you for your comment is there anyone else for public comment thank you thank you hi I'm Mary joia chatt I'm from the LTA sorry I was waiting um happy New Year to the board and the entire Lacy community on behalf of the Lacy Township Education Association I'm very happy to share some good news with you um this week the students in the intergenerational club participated in snow day fun in at peasant run the students spent the morning playing board games enjoying hot chocolate and cookies with senior members of the community if any senior members of the community are interested in joining the club please reach out to Mrs Sero at Lacy middle school or Mrs J Bentley at lenoa Harbor school they would love to have some more members of the community join in the proud pause are overwhelmed by the tremendous support that lenoa Harbor School de demonstrated which allowed candy cane for cancer to be an ex incredible successful event they work together raising $1,869 for the ocean of love the love the enthusiasm and hard work were exceptional the candy cane purchases were made by a generous donation from the Lacy Township PBA giving 500 and also the New Jersey state troopers who flooded their sales with countless box of candy canes the classrooms that led the building with their candy cane sales were in third place Mrs cook selling 108 candy canes second place Mrs Miler class selling 175 candy canes and in first place raising over 300 $ Mrs riter's class so a big thank you also to Mrs gal's class for helping to restock and keep track of all the sales throughout the week a heartfelt thank you to all the staff the students and the families of lenoa Harbor school um tomorrow some exciting news for our kindergarten students at mil Pond they will be enjoying hibernation day can't believe it's that time already um they have completed a study about animals and hibernation and will be wearing their PJs and bringing a stuffed animal to the school the students will have a photo op in a den participate in some wintertime activities the students and staff are looking forward to the fun day the National Junior Honor Society at the Lacy middle school now has 31 members the members of the National Junior Honor Society must all have A's and B's to be eligible on the honoral participate in clubs in school and also complete community service projects outside of school this past marking period there were a total of 528 students on Middle School honor roll and of and 232 of the students all had A's at Lacy Township High School there were 584 students on honoral this past marking period the High School National Honor Society is honor is honored to be inducting 52 members new students to the National Honor Society in February so way to go to these Stellar students um also this week some fun things going on um the Ocean County court system came to the Middle School to talk to our seventh grade social study classes is a part of an outreach program that coordinates with the New Jersey Civics program so the Ocean County Superior Court judges and staff talk to the students about how the court system works they learned about the difference uh with civil and Criminal Court how the branches of the court system work and they explained the meaning of Justice it was wonderful informative program for the staff and students and they're coming back again next week to make sure the other half of the seventh grade are are it's available to them as well um if anyone is busy I mean everyone's free I sorry if anyone is a free th uh Tu Thursday January 22nd Lacy Middle School um the uh there will be an combined Elementary b a school band concert um it will be at Lacy Township midle School sorry the concert will feature musicians for all three elementary schools parents from the school's pto's ptas will be running a concession stand to help support students from all three elementary schools um and if you made it over to the Lacy town to our Lacy branch of the Ocean County uh Library uh there is artwork on display from all our young artists so if you hadn't had the chance to check out the artwork please stop by uh sometime this month and then over at Fork River our hero club and environmental Club are working together to make cards for the residents of Spring Oaks they will use recycled materials to make Valentine's Day cards for all the residents the environmental Club will help organize no plastic days the school aims to be plastic free for selected days to help make a positive impact and save the environment the first graders at forkid River School um are looking forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year at the end of the month uh 2025 is the year of the snake who is expected to bring Good Fortune so let's hope for that in 2025 and then we would just like to remind all Lacy employees parents and residents that there will be a community referendum information Forum on Tuesday January 28th at 6:30 in the Lacy Township High School auditorium um thank you so much for your time time and we hope to bring you another update in February thank you we love the positive update thank you is there anyone else for public comment Bob go ahead y you're welcome oh I didn't okay all right Bob Lay Lacy Township I see a few of you looking at me a little weird because I'm in the audience you haven't seen me in a while but uh first of all I want to say happy New Year skip s on your reelection uh and I want to commend all of you up there for the time and the effort you put into this board um many of you know I'm the newly elected committeeman on Lacy Township committee I also fought hard to be the new blaz on along with Tim McDonald for the school system and one of the reasons is because one I've sat in your seat for 12 years I was President my running mate for years is still sitting on the board and I've been off it for 14 years but uh my family's got a long-standing uh history in this in this uh Town we've been here since 38 my dad drove the school bus for 30 years and believe it or not when he started there was only two buses in this district and one school but kids went through it now it's going to be the grandchildren but uh one of the reason I wanted to come up because I don't know all of you on there uh I wanted to introduce myself to you as your new lays on the one thing I can assure you we're not going to always maybe agree on things which we everybody shouldn't but having me on a Township committee you definitely have a friend and sometimes I can give get ski the smile and he just did but uh yes I just want to thank you all for the time and effort you do and uh like I say uh I just want to introduce myself to you thank you and we'll be setting up that meeting soon is there anyone else besides Mr bidnick he wanted to go last okay floor is yours y uh Richard bidnick chair Lacy citizens for responsible government tonight I am speaking on behalf of my organization which I am the chair first I wanted to address the comment that was made by the individual about the lgbtq um I happen to be a gay person I've been gay my whole life I've never been with a woman okay so this is my orientation I do not feel and I feel very strongly about this it's very divisional to actually isolate a certain group and put a flag that represents a certain group that may actually go against the values of someone else that is in that classroom um there are religious people who have religious values who may not think that the lifestyle is a the correct thing I understand that I've dealt with Matt my whole life it isn't really an issue I'm I'm comfortable in myself and it doesn't really matter to me what other people think because I stand on my own convictions of who I am as a man and putting this in the classroom my feeling is I'm a Roman Catholic also so I want to have the popes the Catholic Church's flag in the cath in the classroom if you're going to put the lgbtq flag in there and how about the flag for the individuals who may be from Puerto Rico and every other group you can't really do this gay people I hate to say this we're not special we're equal to everyone else and that's the problem that I have is that the gay community especially over the last several years has taken on this very adversarial role in our political policies in our country trying to push and groom this lifestyle on a lot of our young people and I'm speaking out about that tonight I wasn't planning on talking about this this is something that you know someone mentioned and I just want you to realize that not everybody feels the way that you do and quite frankly Dei is one of the worst policies we've ever had in this country because I for one believe in meritocracy and only meritocracy you are good because you are good you strive to be good you try you strive for excellence in whatever you choose to do and your sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with that so the gay people in our community and in our schools be who you are be proud for who you are but you don't need to have a flag in a classroom to say oh it's okay to be gay and I'm safe that's ridiculous so I hope that the board will continue with their policy of not having this type of thing because it is divisive and and uh that's where I want to that's all I want to mention about that I didn't talk about my sexuality at all publicly but when this comes up I feel that I have to because there is another side of the story and there are many of us in this country who have lived through and have seen what the lgbtq community has done and you've set they've actually set back the gay community in a big Way by some of the things that they have endorsed and supported now my official comments for the evening good evening Lacy citizens and members of the school board I begin my address tonight in despair I watched the reorganization meeting which took place earlier in the month I was saddened to see that two members of this board who I firmly support and helped get elected were not involved or allowed to participate in the discussions before beforehand of who will be the next leaders of our board this isn't the way that this body should work and again proves the point that I have reached after 14 years of coming to these meetings that I honestly think the school district has passed the point of no return the school board last year over the objections of many taxpaying citizens approved a 9 99.9% tax increase which did nothing and I mean nothing to improve student achievement in fact it reduced some basic things like courtesy busing for many of our young people now they have proposed a $92 million Pie in the Sky referendum the timing of this referendum is quite suspect and the referendum will do nothing to resolve the main underlying issues that the school district faces and that is academic achievement over over the years I've given the board a series of suggestions and recommendations on how to possibly improve many of the problems the school district faces none of those recommendations have ever been implemented for example I recommended that our school budgets again be voted on by the public I recommended that the board form a Citizens committee on the budget I apologize for interrupting but the five minutes have expired well that's why I asked be last cuz then I would come up again can you set the clock again well we need to ask if somebody else for public comment that's why I asked be okay go ahead is there anyone else for public comment or can he finish all Mr benick would you mind I'll give well we're not giving it away we're let me just clarify that it it's people can't donate time to someone else I believe the process here is everyone has 5 minutes to go a first time and then there is allow is for people to go a second time I think that was Mr bik's Point why he wanted to go last cuz he knew he anticipated he would exceed the 5 minutes and that this would just be considered his second time around right do you mind taking a seat you withdraw okay anybody else okay go ahead you can continue for example I recommended that our school budgets again be voted on by the public I recommended that the board form a Citizens committee on the budget so that there would be active participation in the budget development process by the members of our community I ask for all committee meetings to be open to the public so the public can see what is actually being developed in the school district on a more intimate level I asked for the board to negotiate employment contracts that contain teachers performance evaluations that are linked to student achievement all of these ideas are achievable and worthy sadly what we're doing right now isn't working the Ford says that I'm quite critical and yes I am if my tax dollars are supporting something I want it to be the best it possibly can be and so should every other taxpayers in Lacy Township I had also recommended that the school board hire an outside executive Search team to do a national search for our new superintendent they are working with someone but not someone who's really going to get a person from outside side of New Jersey who has passion and vision who is articulate and who can see their Vision through to fruition they spent $40,000 though on a study to try to push through the reasons why they need to do a $92 million referendum and hired a public relations person to assist them dealing with the propaganda the priorities of the district have always been upside down the school's finances have been mismanaged for years and this is quite obvious when they have to come to the public for $92 million for a referendum for maintenance issues that should have been taken care of on a yearly basis if they had been fiscally responsible with their budgeting they blame it all on the state but honestly it's not all the state's fault the school district has had a decline in enrollment over the last several years we once had 5,100 students we're down to 3,800 students now some of that Aid is actually attached to the number of students that you have in our district also the board negotiated contracts that they knew they could not afford currently many people have pulled their children out of our schools because they are so poorly performing and partly because of the board's Draconian decisions made during the co era the masking of your children in our schools was a huge error in judgment true leadership would have never allowed that to happen but instead they took $8 million from the state to force their covid mandates on your children I should know I was one of the people who stood up against this board and I was criminally charged for speaking out for your kids the school district has also been involved in numerous legal battles of as of late hundreds of thousands have been spent on ethics charges of board members alone there are lawsuits involving students who've been bullied and harassed and students who have been physically injured in the classroom one particular student who was burned so very badly she took her case to court and won her legal battle sadly her instructor was a meth addict I question some of the people that have been hired to teach our children in our schools I question everything and I've had many parents come and talk to me and employees too that work in the school district have been informing me of many different things that have been happening in our schools why has this all been allowed to happen a lot of people ask me well when you elect people who've never run an educational institution of this magnitude with a budget of over $80 million who have no idea what it's like to run a government institution and then you expect them to be able to hire a qualified superintendant who then will hire the administrative team that will work to make the district successful there's your problem as I like to say it all starts at the Top If your board is dysfunctional incompetent and fiscally irresponsible which is the case you're seeing the effects of it right now and right before us I'm hoping that the state of New Jersey will continue to push for regionalization of schools and school districts because I really think that that is the only way forward at this point for our children the Lacy swamp is deep and cleaning that swamp out will take a heroic effort Mr bidnick I'm sorry to interrupt your 10 minutes minutes have expired I thought that you're allowed it's only two times Well I have one 30 seconds left and I'll be done okay let fine just finished the current board is incapable of doing that because many are part of the swamp I will not be voting for this referendum for several reasons the most important reason is I don't have any faith or trust in the board mismanagement of the last bonding Pol policy that they did for the solar panel project and the and the money that we're still paying on interest because of that over bonding is a disgrace and on that note the Lacy citizens for responsible government will be holding two forums concerning the referendum at the Lacy library on February 20th and March the 6th at 7 p.m. everyone is welcome to come and talk and learn thank you very much thank you for your comment all right we're going to move on now to board committee reports uh Mr Bell would you like to start with policy please all right uh the committee met for policy committee meeting myself Mrs Claus uh Jack hned and Mr zalinsky uh we went over some new policy and regulations um policy 50 uh 5512 harassment intim imidation and bullying uh this update to the policy 5512 provides guidance to a district when they must pause a Hib investigation to allow law enforcement to conclude the investigation uh when one exists uh policy number or policy and regulation number 5533 student smoking this update to the policy and regulation 5533 on student smoking is made to address the requirement that school districts report uh the use or seizure of an electronic smoking device when school officials believe the device may contain a controlled dangerous substance or cannabis uh then policy regulation uh 7441 electronic surveillance in school buildings uh on school grounds this update uh to policy and regulation 7441 has been updated to include language where a school district has provided law enforcement with access to live stream of video surveillance in an emergency situation then policy regulation 9320 a cooperation with law enforcement agencies this update uh to policy and regulation 9320 has been made which requires the school district to designate a point of contact for each School building when a Handle With Care notification is received and then policy 5460 High School graduation policy 5460 is being updated ated to include the graduation requirement where a parent must submit a financial aid application otherwise known as fasta uh a student may be exempt from the requirement if the student or the par the student's parents submit to the district a waiver form requesting the exemption and then policy 8500 uh which relates to Food Services has been overhauled to comply with the working class families anti-hunger Act to include new uh terminology an expansion of income eligibility this update is required by the United States Department of Agriculture uh then we have our next meeting will be Wednesday uh February 12th uh at 4:15 thank you Miss Walker would you like to do curriculum sure um curriculum met on January 14th um in attendance was Mrs Amato Mr Amato cannot attend so Mr Peters sat in for him um we also had um Mr zinski um Michelle Amos who's one of our district supervisors and mallerie kovski can never say her last name correctly she's also a district supervisor they will be joining us in all future curriculum meetings to um keep us updated on all the curriculum and special ed and all the things that we need to know uh so the first thing we talked about was uh Mr zalinsky led the discussion of the overnight field trip for the DECA competition team for the members who qualify at the regional competition um they've always gone very far um Deca with their this competition and this one will be in Atlantic City um this is just the preliminary um I believe they already won the preliminary the regional yet Regal they're moving on to the next level uh Mrs Amos led the discussion of the status of many of our curriculum adoptions in grades K through 12 we were questioning where are our textbooks were in regard to age and whether they are aligned to standards so the discussion included the status of current programs and a replacement timeline that will be recommended the discussion also included the financial constraints that the district is facing and this may affect some of the timelines and future adoptions she shared with the committee per ongoing efforts to engage vendors for new materials and the possibility of EXP extended payment timelines that can span several years for new materials Mr zalinsky shared the draft schedule for the upcoming certificated staff professional development day which will take place on February 14th Mrs kosi Kow how do you say it kovski kovski shared the power professional handbook that has been developed to provide our power of professionals with a guide to their positions um she also led a discussion on the continued efforts to train more of our staff in CPI training which is focused on de-escalating student conflicts uh again Mrs kros kovski led a discussion of our extended year program which will once again be led by Mrs spafford it will be located solely at Cedar Creek School again this year and they're working on online registration for parents in the near future and that was it for our meeting our next meeting is scheduled for February 11th thank you thank you okay now we'll uh hear from uh Mr conned with uh facilities and Finance on hennes uh the 8th of January um myself pres Clause Mr Peters Mr sininsky storms B um in regards to facilities uh the preate project update we had a discussion on the status of the uh preap project at mil pond it's almost completely uh done there was a handful of uh punch list items um a they were completing um cogistics uh storms be had a discussion on the uh current savings as of July August somewhere in there it um referendum was at discussed to be a discussion on the status of the referendum um had the website is live being updated um meetings are scheduled as uh discussed uh Now call Now call um they're the uh hilding painters here at the high school um swsy had a discussion on the status of their inspection um she's been in touch with them and creting to hear back hopefully so um H eight discussion on cost savings um options for grounds um preap facilities Grant project number two um had to discussion on the facilities project Grant um that are going to be accepting tonight um and then High School curtain for the uh gym um there was a discussion on I need to uh place that uh there were some major issues uh in December so needs to be replaced in on his resolution for tonight um under Finance uh has discussed uh lamp surveys um for milpond Fork River and un Harbor schools uh in regards to the 25 26 um budget P had a discussion on that as well um Mr sininsky had a discussion on salary increases for select uh staff members um Mammoth County Association of school business officials um in regards to his armsby since our County ba um has a conflict because she lives in town as rs's been working at the mammoth County ba um and suggested that she'd be becoming part of uh that Association um so we discussed that uh the SRE sales are going to be ending uh as of June 1st of 25 uh Child Care RFP has R had a discussion on the RFP for child care that the histri received and we'll be on for a resolution for tonight as well um the 2324 audit presentation which we had here before um talked about that Food Services his had a discussion on the large outstanding balance um for Food Service excuse me HR uh to be had discussion on the applicants um for the hits specialist um and the successful applicant hope be on pl's agenda and then had a brief discussion on superintendent search um which I believe Mr Peters will be touching on and then uh use of facilities nothing how to like ordinate ordinary professional development and then the draft of the 2526 school calendar um completed at 5:53 and our next meeting is going to be Thursday February the 13th and that's it thank you all right Mr Peters would you like to give an update on the superintendent search 22 candidates we had apply for the superintendent's position out of 22 candidates we went through resumés we bullet it down to nine out of the nine interviews we did one hour interviews for each um candidate and uh we are bringing back five of the nine for a second interview and um that's about it we'll give you more updates uh after that okay thank you um Mr zinsky would you like to have a public comment sure um so the big thing for this month and next month of course is going to be the referendum um I'd like to highlight a couple of things because I know that there's a lot of information circulating out of there there's a lot of misinformation circulating out there um the referendum of course is being held on March 11th uh normal polling places um you can vote by mail uh and a lot of that all that information you'll find on our website Lacy schools.org uh it's interactive you can look at all the different questions that we have out there um there's going to be three questions I'd like to remind everybody all the time question one is really a roof question for every building question two is HH C work at each building and then question three talks about repaving our parking lots renovating our bathrooms high school gym floor turf field behind the high school you know a lot of what we see out there on the misinformation campaign being waged about these projects is that it's either all for nothing or you don't get a choice or we're not really asking the residents proper questions I don't think that's the case um the questions are separate there's no catch or gotcha the voters of this town are going to be given the opportunity uh to choose the project that wish to be completed it's a 40% discount because the state will give us back 40% of 90 probably 96% of the projects I'll continue to remind you and hope you attend our session which is 6:30 uh on January 28th in the High School auditorium uh there we'll have the architect we'll have our financial professionals we'll have uh the lawyer who asked to write the questions for us answering questions um about the referendum uh it's the people that wrote the questions the people that helped us propose the questions and I hope to see you there uh on the 28th at 6:30 p.m. on a different note I visited Trenton this week uh with Miss Sharon Ormsby our business administrator uh we testified in front of the new y Department of Education uh about the Draconian cuts that have impacted our district which of course is being felt by all of our residents we spoke alongside many other school districts that are facing similar cuts and how the state continues this path towards what we consider zero fund funding from the state will be faced with insolvent school districts in the future that'll ultimately hurt our kids um we submitted written testimony afterwards and of course we're paying very close attention um but again uh as a previous business administrator said it's their money their game so we have to be very careful uh about showing up to these events and making sure that we give the testimony where it's due to counter uh the Draconian cuts that we felt and the large amounts of state aid that have been taken from us as Le Township residents um thank you and uh thank you president Claus thank you very much all right now we'll do board member comments we'll start with Mrs Walker okay um just very quickly congratulations to those students who were awarded tonight for their achievements I want to uh thank Sharon and her office for the accurate audit report uh for 2324 um and um just I will just set it I hope that everyone comes out on January 28th at 6:30 to hear about the referendum and learn about the facts not rumors but facts and you will hear you'll have all the dis hear all the architect as he said all the people that are involved in this so please come and listen and come with an open mind and see uh what there is to offer here and I think that's it Mrs classus thank you thank you thank you Mr armado do you have any public comment um just congratulations to everyone that was recognized this evening and um you know just to piggyback on Mrs Walker's thoughts about upcoming events um you know that's it I have nothing to add okay thank you Mr Bell pretty much the same congratulations to the students and uh look forward to serving again this year thank you Mrs armado yes congratulations to the students and I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight on this very cold evening um and for everyone that got up and gave comments I took some notes and um I want you to know that I appreciate your input and Mary Joe just wanted to uh reiterate what you said so you said we have 528 students in the Middle School on honor roll and then we have um 584 in the high school on honor roll correct and we're in uh 52 new members of the honor National Honor Society that's outstanding so thank you for sharing that information so congrat congratulations to all of those students and um Bob I nice to meet you I I did not know you before so thank you for coming out tonight appreciate that and um Mr bidnick as always thank you for your comments much appreciated and everyone just get out and vote on March 11th it's you know there's we put it in your hands to make the vote so I voted yes to put the referendum out there so people could vote so it's up to the public so come learn all all you can and then ultimately you decide that's all thank you thank you Mr Peters very Joe can I come to hibernation day I'd like to take come take a nap I got long day I see get wear my jammies um thank you for the positive comments we appreciate it I'd like to also congratulate Miss Clos conned as president vice president I'm sure they're going to do absolutely well Sharon thank you for the clean slate and uh yes please come out on the 28th for the correct the correct facts not what on Facebook they're correct facts regarding the referendum thank you thank you Mr conedy congratulations Hong hero students at the month um in regards to letting the public vote on the budget it's been since approximately 2012 when Governor Christie was in office that had enacted or legislated at we can't put it to the public to vote on I would love to we can any you been here the board chose in 2012 to follow their Direction so right now that's how where it's at and uh four out of the seven of us haven't negotiated a Teater contract yet that's coming up so give us a little bit of time um and come out on the 28th and get the information that's it okay thank you um I just wanted to remind everybody about our public comment um we would love to hear everybody's public comment um so there's no need to trade times that doesn't exist um but we're asking that everyone gets their public comment if your time goes over please take a seat and then you can come back up and do another five minutes so uh we don't want to exclude everybody I know you tried to give up your time thank you but doesn't really work that way so next time we'd love for you to come up and speak if there's something personal you can always call Mr zalinsky and meet with him um anybody can in his office he'd love to hear from you okay so just so we're clear on that uh we have a lot ahead of us this year uh we have our strategic plan that we're still following we have our superintendent search um and like skip said we're um moving on to the second round uh we have our referendum vote in March our budget planning is coming up um also we do include the public when we do the budget planning um every year for the past well since I've been on the board uh we have um our budget meetings that are open to the public in the library so um uh Mr bidnick I would love for you to join we it's open to the public we put it out there and very few people attend usually it's just us so but it is offered to the public so please come out give your input um and you can hear what's going on before the budget is set we have not made those dates yet just so you know but we're going to we'll announce them then uh when when they come out um what else negotiations is starting um with that being said I would like everyone to keep in mind when negotiating on both sides because we have two negotiation teams this year um we are all on the same team it is not us verse you and you verse us we we we need to work together to compromise give and take to move forward at every meeting stay calm and speak to each other with respect knowing that we all benefit when working together and we're supporting each other so please on our side your side we're all one team um we need to move forward at every meeting this is for all of us this isn't just for you or just for us we need to come together to get through this budget um again everyone's been talking about the Janu the um the referendum meeting coming up um it's very important everyone please come out to it's uh at the high school in the auditorium um the more information everyone can share that's accurate the better instead of you know this is how much for the turf and you know it's going to cost us this come out get the information um and then help share it whatever you know whatever you learn we would appreciate that and that's all I have for my comment so now we're going to move on to new business you ready okay uh page 2 A1 meeting minutes can I have a motion please motion second roll call Mr armado yes Mr Peters yes Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mrs Walker I'm going to abstain on the special meeting held on December 18th and yes on the others thank you Mr conedy yes Mrs Claus um yes but was Mr con supposed to obain for meeting items is that for this or no no no oh okay okay page two um A2 list of bills can I have a motion please motion second roll call please Mr armato yes Mr Peters yes but not to St on the ocvts 2122 one0 please thank you uh Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mrs Walker yes Mr conedy yes but I need to abstain on my employ lawyer 289 299 and 283 300 thank you or I apologize yeah and Mrs Claus yesk you page two A3 to four transfers can I have a motion please motion Peters second roll call Mr armado yes Mr Peters yes Mr H yes Mrs arado yes Mrs Walker yes Mr conned yes Mrs Claus yes page 3-6 A5 to a12 finance and Facilities can I have a motion please motion Peters second roll call please Mr armado yes Mr Peters yes Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conned yes Mrs Walker yes and Mrs Claus yes Page 6 a13 student tuition can I have a motion please motion second roll call please Mr armado yes Mr Peters yes Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mrs Walker yes Mr conned no on number 15 yes on the rest and Mrs Claus yes page six before we go any further apologize sure 810 I was supposed to recuse I Sal pun this war must be got it thank you oversight sorry we're doing 81415 MH okay Page 6 a 14 to 15 can I have a motion please second roll call please I'm sorry who motion M Walker I think it was Mrs Walker yeah and who second I'll second one or the one we all right this is for 14 and 15 14 and 15 yeah all right Mr rato yes Mr Peters yes Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mrs Walker yes Mr conned yes I'm 14 no on 15 and Mrs Claus yes um Page 6 to7 policy and regulation can I have a motion please move move second roll call Please Mr Amato yes Mr Peters yes Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mrs Walker yes Mr conned yes Mrs Claus yes page 7 A7 to a 18 hibs uh can I have a motion motion second roll call please Mr armado yes Mr Peters yes Mr Bell yes Mrs armad yes Mrs Walker yes Mr conedy yes Mrs Claus yes page seven donations motion Peters second roll call please Mr Amato uh yes and thank you Mr Peters yes and thank you very much Mr Bell yes and thank you Mrs armado yes Mrs Walker yes Mr conned yes and Mrs Claus yes and thank you page 7 C1 C2 programs and curriculum can I have a motion Mo second roll call please Mr armado yes Mr Peters yes Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mrs Walker yes Mr conned yes Mrs Claus yes page eight professional days and workshop and travel can I have Peters can I have a second second roll call please Mr armato yes Mr Peters yes Mr Bell yes Mrs armato yes Mrs Walker yes I'm sorry Mr conned yes Mrs Claus yes page 8 E1 to 11 certificated Personnel can I have a motion please I'll move second can I have a roll call please Mr armato yes Mr Peters yes and congratul Mr H you are going to be a big loss uh Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes and congratulations on retirement Mrs Walker yes congratulations and I agree she's going to be a big loss Mr conned yes M Mrs Claus yes page 10 through 13 F1 to8 non-certificated Personnel can I have a motion please motion Peters can I have a second second roll call please Mr yes Mr Peters yes and this is another big hit we're taking on retirement congratulations to everyone they well deserved Mr Bell yes Mrs armato yes congratulations on retirement Mrs Walker yes Mr conned yes Mrs Claus yes I believe that is all can I have a motion to adjourn motion all in favor