##VIDEO ID:LkckPldxorc## it is 609 we will now call the meeting to order we will start with the flag salute Justice all Anette can you please take R Mrs pen here Mrs Deus here Mrs B here Mrs Jeffrey here Mr Nikolai here Mrs Perry here Mrs Quinn here Mrs Reynolds here Mrs Scher here thank you and now I'd like to introduce our Spanish interpreter Miss susette Carter good evening everyone the New Jersey open public meetings act sorry open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the board secretary has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted on the bullet bulletin board located in the hallway outside of the administrative offices a notice was provided to the carrier news the home News Tribune and the middle sex Barrow clip we do not need to go into executive session tonight so we will move on to our presentations and first we have the 2023 2024 annual audit oh my name is Bob swier I'm a partner with self including company I have Wayne Miller with me he's the manager that actually him the team actually perform the audit each year when we finish our a which might give you a brief presentation let you know we found and uh answer your questions if you have them so um again each year when we come in we're we're coming in to take a look at we devise tests of the records of the district to determine we have in the end we have to form an opinion on the financial statements so we're checking with your payroll your cafeteria your grants and everything to make sure that you are in compliance and for those tests there's problems we have compliance issues will'll be recommendations if there's not but this year I'm happy to report that you have a a clean AIT opinion your finals are clearly stated and there are no uh comments in the order rep so you're not going to be required to do a corrective action plan so again that's that's a couple years in a row now you've done pretty well and that the staff do do a great job here um you know overall the uh the district's Financial uh uh status is very similar to last year surpluses are down slightly from last year $100,000 is you know 1% so you're in pretty good shape that way um you actually spent some of your capital reserve this year you put money away for Capital you're doing projects now that's gone down a little bit but you've also reserved more money for your maintenance Reserve um you know it's always good to have those reserves put aside so things come up you know that you don't expect in the budget you have that available to to use that for funding so uh again you know the district's in in good shape obviously you know the the additional State a that you got this past year is very helpful hopefully that will continue um that remains to be seen but uh again overall districts is in very good Financial shape if anybody has any questions about the audit or a process I'd be glad to answer anybody Mr swisser how often do um districts regularly get a clean audit with no comments not not it's not regular okay it's not regular you know there because the the problem comes out is that the St the state's always throwing new regulations at the at the districts okay and so trying to stay on top of those all the time that makes it difficult so you even when you have very good staff sometimes things through the cracks but uh D and the crew do a very good job here just want to thank Anette and her team [Applause] for obvious you know it makes our job much easier you know we we have some districts where there's problems we still have we're sitting here we're presenting you the report now the report has been done for a couple weeks now but we have some districts that are not done yet um that that aren't they're not even ready for their audit yet you know that's how bad it is so it's it's not it's not overly common thank you thank you anyone else very good okay we'll see you again next year thank you okay now we'll move on to our recognition whereas Mrs Janette De Jesus has demonstrated exceptional service leadership and commitment as a member of the middle sex burough Public School District Board of Education serving with distinction from August 2020 through December 2024 and whereas she further exemplified her dedication by serving as vice president of the Board of Education from January 2024 through December 2024 whereas Mrs Janette Deus has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to the Improvement of education and the well-being of students within our school district whereas Mrs Janette De Jesus has actively participated in key initiatives committees and decision-making processes that have posi positively impacted the educational experiences of all students whereas Mrs Janette De Jesus has been a tireless advoc for the interest of students parents and the community at large therefore be it resolved that the middlex bough Board of Education expresses its deepest appreciation to Mrs Janette De Jesus for her invaluable contributions to the betterment of Education in our district now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education extends its best wishes to Mrs Janette De Jesus and further thanks her for her unwavering commitment to the families of middlex borrow [Applause] Mrs d s to honor your time on the middle sex Board of Education we wanted to share our heartfelt thank you one voice at a time thank you for always putting our students first you've been a voice for our schools and Community thank you for your tireless dedication to our district you listen you cared and you took action thank you for always leading with kindness and integrity because of you we have build a brighter future for students of M you've helped make decisions that will leave a lasting impact we'll miss you and we're grateful for everything you've done [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh my goodness wow you're the best [Applause] [Applause] thanks okay we'll move on to our announcements um I don't have much this month um I just want to wish everybody a happy holidays um and I hope that the teachers and the staff have a good break and I just want to once again thank you Janette for being such a an invaluable addition to this board of education and I personally I know everybody else will agree that I'm going to miss you very much you all too but you guys know how to reach and now our superintendent of schools Dr Roberto Freeman thank you I only have one announcement Friday is our annual Winter Wonderland brunch with the senior citizens in the community so if everyone can come out and join us it's our third annual one and we have a really great time so looking forward to seeing everyone and wear your ugly sweaters now our business administrator board secretary Miss Miss Annette gordano good evening I have no announcements from the business office I just like to say happy holidays to everybody enjoy the break if you're off and we'll see you in the new year and then it will be budget season thank you now our liaison reports are middle sex County SBA delegate Mrs Janette Jesus good evening everyone uh Sharon and I attended uh the uh the middle County meeting on December 12th it was held right here in this scataway and um it was a very interesting evening um along with the board um that the Piscataway board had obtained their Master board certification so that was always um festive and then we also had a presentation by a former administrator from North penwick and the current admin and superintendent from seille they talked about the collaborative process of budget season what how they handle it how they do it um and they engage the the public they engage various um departments within which we do as well but they just had a very unique way that they did it they did it they also meet more often than we do we meet once a month they meet twice a month and they um really engage their committees again it's a different structure because they have a committee structure we have a committee of the whole structure but um it was it was refreshing to hear how um different schools handle their budget and how um the information can be presented in a way that um the public can digest and understand so I I thought that was great I took lots of notes and I share them forward so one four St with that now but um the next meeting I believe will be in February so um it they do have an inperson component actually this is going to be virtual yeah the winter month it is virtual so um and then so someone you have time you can just register and log on it's always a lot of great information that they share that's it thank you now our njsba delegate Mrs Sharon Schuler so the delegate assembly did meet on the 12th at Mercer uh Community College um it took about 3 hours for the meeting and in total um there were about 75 delegates from across um the different districts luckily we had 17 different counties um available so we were able to have a forum um it's not there it was not a lot of delegates so I guess in May when we vote on officers there'll be more um the delegate assembly does create policy for New Jersey school boards which is our advocacy platform um they do all of our state mandated training and they do um advocate for us they are regularly in Trenton at the State House advocating for all school districts so on the resolution subcommittee we did have 19 resolutions that were submitted seven were removed two were withdrawn and the other ones some were merged together because they were very similar resolutions so on the 7th we did review seven different um uh items the first one is really one of the reasons we didn't talk about this last time was because the da book was not available so the resolution was actually that the subcommittee report and the book needed to be ready within 21 days prior to the delegate assembly so we'll see um that passed the second one was um advocating for the electronic platform for open public meeting um act because as we all know the newspapers are going away I have more on that in a second that did pass to advocate for that one was to add a limited number of um absences for regarding military enlistment because like college visits if you are joining the military you have to go for certain events um and again this doesn't change state law this is just changing our advocacy um Verona was merged with a plane field one and it was about pilot programs and it passed to advocate for if a pilot program is being discussed in your town District whichever and it is going to increase the student population they're going to advocate for a somebody from the board and the administration to be part of the pilot discussion I don't know where if that will go two of them were about um from planfield were about curriculum those both passed and the one from curriculum about the renaming of schools as a collaboration with the Department of Education that one did not the subcommittee declined to support it and it did not pass so they are not going to push towards that mostly because New Jersey school boards always feels that local control is the best way and to have the theate come in and determine that your school name needed to be changed changed there all kinds of actually we had a couple people from Washington Township different ones believe it or not there's I think five in this state who said do I have to change the name of my town like who makes that decision so um they they declined to support it in support of promoting more local control they're not saying if you want to change your school name change your school name but do it locally um that was the biggest things Dr Perell who is the executive director did speak about a revamp to the new board member orientation um the registration for that will open on January 2nd and they're rolling out a new board member self- evaluation tool um so those will be coming soon after the delegate assembly I did go to a legislative meeting also on the 12 no the 12th was the county the 14th um and there we had um uh we talked about several different items that were on the governor's desk or heading towards the governor's desk one of which I wanted to highlight because it actually went to the governor's desk and was uh it went to committee on Monday the 16th and both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the assembly Appropriations Committee met and passed a temporary Rel for the posting of Public Notices because of the newspaper issue it only is enacted and it would only be enacted until March 1st but what it is saying that if it is an approved P place that we would regularly document our open public record meeting notes it doesn't matter whether it's digit digital or print and that was hopefully it will be signed this week I believe and um it's going to the governor now and but again that's only a temporary fix so that they can get something in place for March 1st so that's what I have thank you thank you now our middle sex Public Library Board of Education representative miss aronas good evening everyone uh the one thing I do have is uh during our meeting there was nice little shout out to our Key Club uh they do go and volunteer and help with children's programming over at the public library and they actually are one of the groups that are going to be helping with our lunch in on Friday as well I hope everyone has a great holiday thank you now our student representative Miss archd Parmer I would like to begin by wishing good evening to all the respected board members hi hardworking teachers and all that Community member who are present here I'll just wait for it to come I okay so um I'll let you guys first have a look on the picture um I'll just stand um so um days of dialogue our school went on days of dialogue and the purpose was to provide useful tools which could help in participating in uh in contagious conversations and the takeaways will take stand for what is Right staying mindful of a reaction staying curious uh creating space for strer others and respecting opposite ideas um I'm going to say I'm going to go in more detail that's written over there I don't remember it uh I just want to show this picture um you can see we had 12 students from our school uh you'll see me also it's all the way back I was taller so they pushed me back and we have Mr Regan Miss Omar and Mr Hall and now see what I wrote come here okay so first let me start by describing where did those lollipops came from they're from kindness club we were just thinking to spread some Joy before the holidays so on December 16 12 of our 40 leaders went uh from middle sex high school including me were selected by our principal Mr Regan along with other staff members to attend days of dialogue which took place in education Commission of New Jersey in piscat the goal of day was to learn effective tool to engage in contagious Communications and let me tell you guys something middle sex high school kids were the most talkative over there I think they should have kept a mic permanently on our table student learn the tool which would help them not only to uh not to hold someone's Space by being mindful of their reactions listening to others ideas and experiences even if contradicts your and staying curious and most importantly being very careful of what you want to share students also learned about the challenges that can get in the way of holding someone's space and how to recognize the specific one few of them were defensiveness deflection fear of open conflict resistance of seeing differently and fear of denial students also learn how to overcome these challenges while having a conversation some uh something which I found very interesting was that they asked us to be a tree so all the kids were a tree over there they told us about our Roots about our inner trunk outer trunk and about our branches and if you want me I will describe how they work because it's very interesting to me so the roots were um those people in your life who nourish you or who you get motivated from so we were our high school we uh people from our high school the students said that our roots are our teachers and parents and then uh the inner bark is what uh no one sees about about us the outer BK which we described was the characteristics which everyone sees from us and then our branches uh were our goals and Ambitions of our life and middle sex High School did a great job in explaining all of them and there were some of the important factors which we all learned that day and we also had conversations which we usually don't talk about due to our challenges the tips were given to the kids and would help them to have stronger conversations with teachers staff or School administrator without C causing any misleads and I also have a very exciting news to share with everyone today I invite you all tomorrow at 700 p.m. in the auditorium we have our Winter concert performed by the wonderful voices of middle sex high school and uh last but not the least from bottom of my heart I would thank Mrs I'll say it wrong I know Mrs desus did I said it right yes oh sorry for all your hard work dedication and consistency and I wish you a very um wonderful future and we'll miss you a lot that's it for my side today thank you thank you [Applause] now we'll move on to our minutes um 5.01 is minutes from last month Committee of the whole the executive session on um November 19th and our regular public meeting in that executive session on November 20th 5.02 is Corrections and revisions to previous board agendas as noted superintendent recommends approval of items 5.01 to 5.02 as presented so moved second any discussions questions and that can you please take the role Mrs FY yes Mrs Deus yes yes M Jeffrey yes Mr Nicholai yes Mrs Perry abstain from item 5.01 yes to the rest Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynolds yes Mrs Schuler yes thank you I will now open the public comment portion of the meeting comments at this time are limited to agenda items only please come to the podium and put your name address email address and subject of your comment into the record book before speaking please give your name address and subject of your comment to miss Anette gordano business administrator board secretary direct your comments and questions to the board president you may speak on two separate topics for up to three minutes each good evening guys uh I'd like first to start off by thanking Miss Asus for for I'm sure sometimes feeling long years of service I know it's not an easy gig but thank you for know taking the time and of doing that of doing it takes like I think what 25 hours a week sometimes they report in the NJ sbaa I don't know the official number yeah it's a long uh my next uh so next comment is going to be on it's be on the minutes 501 so in those minutes I talked last meeting about the hiring of the intern uh principle that intern principle that was uh as far as I'm aware as far as the minutes reflect was working for board approval for the State statue any hiring has to go before the board as suggested by the superintendent and approved and you can't be working prior to board approval as far as I'm aware as far as I read the statute is there any update based on my question from last meeting on why the interim super inter principal was working prior to board certification yes we spoke to our board attorney and Kaitlyn you're here this evening if you want to also comment um that that statute that we followed the statute as outline and it does not speak to retroactively um appointing someone so we followed the statute as outline Kaitlin I don't know if you want to add anything that's what I'm to say so it doesn't say anything about retroactively no so then why was then why was the date so it's permissible you means you can it says you can't if if you wouldn't be a so so you're saying because it doesn't say you can can't retroactively do it then interesting interpretation thank you okay I'll now close the public comment portion of the meeting I'm sorry public comments this is agenda items only though okay there'll be another one sorry no you're fine often times it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the board of education is then referred to the appropriate board committee the members of the board committee work with the administration and the superintendent to assure that the members fully understand the matter when the committee is satisfied with the matter it is presented to the board of education for discussion before any final action is taken only then is it placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting okay we'll now move on to our Personnel report by our committee chair Mrs Sharon Schuler uh good evening again the Personnel committee did meet last Tuesday night on the 10th um and we did review um almost all the items on the agenda for approv of tonight so we have appointments contractual um 9.01 we have two those are preschool positions and will'll be coming out of preschool budget um we have two items on two people on the substitutes extracurricular stiens um we have one we have four employees with leave of absence we have a couple transfers um one of which is going to the preschool and that will um that salary for the remainder of the year will come out of that preschool budget um and 9.12 is the approval of a substitute teacher and two volunteer coaches so as recommended by the superintendent I would like to move for approval of personnel items 9.01 through 9.12 as presented so moved second any questions discussions Annette can you please take the RO Mrs fenti yes Mrs Deus yes Mrs Beek yes Miss Jeffrey yes yes Mr Nikolai yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Gwen yes Mrs Reynolds yes Mrs Schuler yes thank you we'll move on to our education report by our committee chair Mrs Brenda Perry good evening the superintendent recommends the approval of the education action items 1101 through 1112 as presented so moved second any questions or discussions okay and that can you please take the all Mrs pereni yes Mrs Deus yes Mrs B yes Mr Jeffrey yes Mr Nikolai yes Mrs Terry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs rold yes Mrs sh yes thank you then move on to our policy action items um we did go through this last night um we only have adoption of bylaws policies and regulations and there is only one superintendent recommends the approval of policy action items 12 policy action item 12.03 as presented so second any questions comments andette can you please take the role Mrs P yes Mrs de yes Mrs B yes M Jeffrey yes Mr Nikolai yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynolds yes Mrs sh yes thank you we'll now move on to our facilities and finance report by our committee chair Mr Todd Nichol thank you Madame President um we met last Tuesday and we also discussed all these items last night committee to hold superintendent recommends approval of facilities and finance action items 14.01 through 14.6 so move second any questions or discussions and that can you please take the RO mrsi yes Mrs yes Mrs yes M Jeffrey yes Mr Nikolai yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynolds re is from 14.01 Owen Reynolds yes to this Mr yes thank you any ongoing business for the board any new business from the board okay now we open our second public comment portion of the meeting comments at this time can be on any topic please come to the podium and put your name address email address and subject of your comment into the record book before speaking please give your name address and subject of your comment to miss Anette Gano business administrator board secretary direct your comments and questions to the board president you may speak on two separate topics for up to 3 minutes each so the brief five minutes I did reread the statue obviously it's not the place for legal arguments but it does say only I'll read it verbatim subsection a a board of education shall appoint transfer or remove a certified or non-certified officer or employee only upon the recommendation of a chief School administrator and a recorded roll call majority vote of a full membership of the board I again it's his only and it's not the place for legal interpretation that's more of a it's more of an opinion of a judge or governing body in the state New Jersey but I just don't believe that a retroactive hiring is legal nor does it train a good president you could by this logic uh the superintendent could fire anyone and say you can make retroactive or you could hire anyone bringing it on without board approval which defeats the purpose of a board is to have the whole purpose of a board is to keep checks and balances on a superintendent and that President really just throws that out of the window and says you can just approve it later not to say what if the board didn't approve this interm uh interm principle then you have an issue of this interm principle work set a week and what happens if she gets injured now you're again working without approval it's a big liability I don't just I don't understand why I would just reiterate what the superintendent before um as long as it's um done with retroactive board approval it's completely legally permissible and that's what happened here um that's what generally happens I'm not aware of any instance where that didn't happen um so that's how it's done commonly in a number of school dist districts um it's it's extremely common so it's something that's allowed under the statute everything that you said in terms of what the statute contains is accurate but it's something that can be done retroactively so what happened if it wasn't Bo approved what would happen to the week of work so public comment just generally isn't going to be a I understand I'm not going to uh you know provide legal advice on I know I understand that but there hypothetical that's not going to happen I understand that but it is a massive liability we're going to have to disagree on that all have a good night thank you I know how pins work Jeremiah KS um I'm going to keep it to what I just recently found most about the website I'm just going to re re um read a prepared public comment good evening members of the Board of Education and superintendent I'm here to express significant concerns of regarding the transparency and accessibility of communication between the public and our elected board members specifically I'm concerned about how public feedback and complaints are being handled through the district's website as constituents we have the right to right to direct and open Communications with officials we elect to represent our interest however the current structure of the website raises troubling concerns about who is actually receiving and addressing our concerns on the board of education's contact page there's a form that appears to allow the public to email the board of members collectively yet it has become clear after my conversations with the president and vice president that this may not be the case I was told by I was told that the superintendent is in fact receiving these emails in one instance forwarded from my email to the vice chair no other member of the board had any knowled of my email or it contents this raises serious questions who has seen my email did the superintendent at any at any point attempt to downplay my complaints before the board even had a chance to see them if this is true is that fair is it acceptable for a Public Employee to have such control and influence over the communications between constituents and their elected representatives the lack of clarity undermines public trust the fact that a superintendent has complete completely separate contact page like she has a completely separate contact page only adds to the confusion and raises possibility that public complaints and critical of the that are critical of this Administration could be filtered and dismissed as a Public Employee the superintendent role is to carry out the policy step on the board not to act as a gatekeeper of public concerns I want to take a moment to commend the President and Vice President of the board for their time and engagement during our conversations the board president's handling m ConEd with Beyond professional and I deeply appreciate her thoughtful responses she even sh shared a beautiful phrase you know stood out just do do the right thing pretty much right be yourself be respectful and I agreed with her when I realized um um the vice presid the vice chair same thing amazing thank you so much for your time that you guys gave me and um for now I just to suggest to restore the confidence in the process I urge the board to take the median actions one clarify and publicize the contact process clearly stay on the website who receives the emails submitted through the board contact form I think that's fair two ensure unfiltered communication guarantee that all public feedback and complaints reach every board member directly without interference number three audit passed complaints I highly suggest that you guys take the time to conduct a review of how public complaints have been handled over the past few years to ensure transparency and accountability this is not just a matter of a website design it is not this is about the Integrity of our Democratic process and as elected officials you have a duty to ensure that our voices your constituents are heard without obstruction or bias thank you for your time and your attention to these concerns and thank you again um um miss peren and miss beesus for your time I appreciate it a lot thank you Le for you like the hurried time during your work time that was really appreciated for you to cut that out in your break hope you got enough to eat I I felt really bad but I do appreciate that deeply and I mean I'll be back for other stuff but that was for that um thank you Merry Christmas and appreciate you um and just a comment no you're you're good you can if you want to say that's fine um we did discuss the website last night and we are going to um make it more clear on who receives those Emil emails when you click on that link that says email the Board of Education we're going to make it very clear on who those emails go to so that that transparency will be there okay and I mean is it possible for you guys to look into what other complaints have been filtered because I'm going to open to find out to find the information um but if it was forwarded to Mr the Jesus from from the superintendent who else did she forward it to I was told nobody I to clarify what I said email goes to the board Pres president yes who speaks for the board and the superintendent who is also a member of the board she's a nonvoting member of the board I do not get that email no one on this board gets that email the board president can forward it to me or the superintendent can forward it to me since my name was referenced in that email that was why it was forwarded to me but I would have gotten it after they handled it on their level that that's fine I mean if you go click on the website it's just pictures of all of you like I don't understand why nobody else got it and that's why we're going to make it we're going to make it more clear on the website so it will Clearly say I'm just let you know as constituent to find out that a complaint about your employee and the treatment that that wasow in the meeting which is not what I'm here right now got to her to figure out who it could get to I just don't understand it's beyond like it's completely interfering to the process of of what should have happened she has her own separate contact information if I wanted to contact her I would have put her email in there it didn't have anybody I was expecting my my Representatives I was expecting everybody I mean did you guys did anyone even read it who who got the email did the board of AD members did did you get it did to like point out did you get my email no I got it just you so no one else got it and Mrs you didn't get my email answered already that's our that's our process yeah that's our process no I get it I'm just [Music] speaks individually speak represents all and you guys would like the representatives represent the consu yeah but we're going to make it we're GNA make it more clear on our website on who's going to get the so that yes well yes yes it is and we're going to get the I'm good we're going to make the the website clearer so that everyone knows where they go the emails go okay you'll now close the public comment portion of the meeting we do not have a need to go into exec so i' would like to make a motion to adjourn second all in favor