##VIDEO ID:nQ5j6x7Evxk## uh Ken roll call please Dr calino Mrs Foo here Mr Palama here Mr Petrino Mr Rapaport here Mrs Smith Miss Zuckerman here Mr doy here Dr modra here Mr brookhouser here miss Patel here Pledge of Allegiance flag United States ofer stand na indivisible andice for open public meeting notice please the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accord with the provision of the act the Montville Township Board of Education provided a public notice of this meeting which included the time date and location that was posted at the Montville Township Municipal Building all Montville Public Schools the Montville Public Library the Montville Township Board of Education administrative office building the district website and advertised in the daily re record and the monfil tap into the board's official newspapers on January 15 2025 okay Ben Gia who would like like to go first I'm going to start off as usual so we're going to start off with the uh past for the high school starting off with the sports so two-year Captain Logan MC Bernie is leading the boys varsity basketball team to a 15in you 15-2 record while solely winning their last 13 games out of 15 the girls varsity basketball team is now seven and 11 with most with their most recent win being against St Elizabeth on February 1st uh a huge shout out to Juliana odow for hitting over 1,000 points in her high school basketball career Varsity ice hockey is now 610 and one and are entering the quarterfinals tonight versus Mount Olive at 8 and varsity wrestling is now 17 and4 with their next meet being tomorrow night versus Mount Olive now to the school related subjects so from Friday January 24th through the 30th midterms took place including the makeup day the mvel Acappella group mulse won their ichsa quarterfinal for the second year in a row and a huge congratulations to Grace her Melena Sky Dort and Anthony D benedetto for winning the best choreography and Alex tarno for winning best soloist the winter track and field team also had a historic night on January 29th at the Morris County championships where three indoor school records were broken Chris snowski earned a bronze medal in the boy 55 meter running his new school record time of 6.61 seconds the girls 4x400 meter relay team of laari Thada Sierra Turner Sophie Hummer and Alexa Amoroso also won a bronze medal running a new record time of four minutes and 10 seconds and Alex pelov bettered his school record in the 1600 meter with a gold per medal performance of 4 minutes and 11 seconds congratulations to all now I'm going to let Gia take the present and the future so earlier today representatives from Mikey Cheryl's office came into school to talk to students in Mr Riot's AP government and politics class it was a very informative session HOSA welcomes representatives from hackensac Meridian health to discuss careers in research this Wednesday at 2:20 in room 611 students do not have to be a member of the club to join tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. the mths incoming student orientation for e8th grade ERS will take place incoming students and their parents will get a first glimpse into high school life and the rich and varied programs that mths offers on Tuesday February 11th Key Club will be having an event after school in the cafeteria to paint Ceramics ceramic hearts for those who need their spirits lifted this time of year this is for hearts of hope all high school students are welcome regardless of whether they are Key Club members or not that's it thank you okay thank you I remember coach when I was coaching we played against Julia odow she was very good back then and I see that she's still doing well yes I think she broke the record or the uh thousand points a couple games ago yeah she did and they have a game coming up yeah they have one tonight I believe so oh what time uh it was at 7 or it started at 7 okay let's make this quick okay uh moving on then superintendence report yes we have uh several presentations tonight and uh we're going to start off with really good news and uh we at Cedar Hill we're going to recognize a life-saving uh situation so Lori please step forward um I'd like to bring your attention to the heroic and life-saving actions of Lori palant Palante who acted swiftly and decisively in an emergency situation during the school day Lori noticed that a student was choking and immediately responded by performing the heick maneuver thanks to her quick timing and training she successfully cleared the obstruction preventing what could have been a tragic outcome Lor's composure under the pressure and commitment to the well-being of our students exemplifies the high standards and care and professionalism that she shows her actions serve as a testament to the importance of preparedness and the dedication of our school staff to ensuring a safe environment for all we would like to formerly recognize Lori for her courageous efforts and her response in this critical moment which underscores the invaluable role she plays in our school Community thank you so [Applause] much yeah yeah you have yep so Dr Raj couldn't be here tonight he was sick but yes please grab the mic I wrote something sorry I'm a little nervous no just us glad you weren't nervous before hello hello uh thank you so much Dr Gorman and Dr shoran and the mville Township Board of Ed for recognizing me tonight I'm extremely honored to be here as a member of the Cedar Hill Elementary School staff while I'm honored to be acknowledged for my actions that day the true reward is knowing that I was able to make a positive impact in someone's life when faced with the situation that came about it it wasn't about being a hero but more about the instinct to act quickly in an emergency when I saw the child struggling I didn't hesitate and jumped in what I had to do jumped in to do what I had to do many years ago in my other place of employment we were brought in on a hot summer day to do first aid training hesitant to be there because the beach sounded so much better I went in and did what I had to do for training hours since then I've been doing Comm continuous training and currently I'm a proud member of the mert team at Cedar Hill I credit my quick actions that day to my job my co-workers both past and present my principal Dr Raj and our school nurse Bonnie dla for all the training and awareness that they've offered to me throughout the years in the moment I was nervous don't get me wrong but I was also very confident to know that I was trained to do my best to everyone here tonight I highly encourage you to take the time to learn basic life saving skills even if it means missing a day at the beach you never know when you might be in a position to make a different in someone's life I'm so thankful for the positive outcome that day and I'll forever hold January 3rd and that little boy in my heart this experience has taught me that the true value of Life lies in the moments we step up and act not just for ourselves but for one another thank you so we have the Historical Society here tonight uh they resurrected it um and uh it's back so uh actually the board our monitors are down up here so we're going to have to turn your chairs or move to a different spot to watch it but uh thank you for being here to educate us about what's been going on thank you hello yep can you hear me now all right all right uh good evening everyone thank you for inviting us here tonight uh my name is Anthony Angelini um actually here for two reasons for the historic preservation review commission which I'm the chairman of as well as uh the historical society which I'm president of and also introducing Eileen strer who is historical society board member program director and hprc right could bring up the first uh next slide who controls that Mario so I just wanted to call your attention to two things so the hprc versus the history hisorical Society the hprc is a government board uh we report to uh most of the the township commission the bo planning board board of adjustment and we hear applications from local historic homeowners the focus of that particular commission is on the historically registered properties within monville flip side Historical Society is a basically a 501c3 entity um that works with multiple um groups with within the community both uh government entities uh educational uh as well as um local residents as well as other residents from outside of town and the reason I bring up the difference between the two is because a lot of times people get confused um between they think it's the same organization and I'm coming to you tonight with both organizations and if you could turn to the next slide and I understand I have about 50 minutes to present this is that correct no I'm just kidding just just kidding just kidding all right so um starting out with the historic preservation review commission um as you can see we've been working on a lot of different things um as well as things that are in progress now and we're we're trying to reach out to the community um we're doing everything from putting together historic homeowner guide books uh updating our historic data sheets to actually conducting some archaeological digs here in town those are in the planning stages what I'd like to do um and what we'd like to do I should say is to partner with the Board of Education and and the and the Mountville Township Schools to try to get two individuals added to the commission we have three openings right now what I'd like to do is if we could get a either a history teacher or a teacher who is interested in history to become part of the commission so that they can get that perspective on the commission from the Township's educational departments um so that's one thought that we had and the other one is we have an open another open position that we'd like to offer to a student someone who was 16 years or of age or older um they would be put as an alternate condition we've already checked with the state um we we actually um are a CLG which is certified local government which means we actually also report not only to the town government but we report into the State Department of Environmental Protection um otherwise their division called the state historic preservation office um so we've already checked in with the state and they've agreed that um we can have a position open for a student um again they that uh they be put as an alternate and this way if they are someone who was interested in history and maybe going out to history major in college um it would be a great thing to put on their not only on the resume but experience um that they could also participate on the commission but also in some of the activities that we undertake as well as eventually the archaeological digs in town so um yeah so send me the information and I'll definitely pass it along sure we get some people to help you out absolutely okay all right in that case next slide and now going over to the Historical Society uh so we've resurrected the Historical Society back in November of 2023 um as you could see we've made a lot of progress including opening up both museums uh both the Montville Township Museum uh which is located on Six tailor Town Road which is our one room Schoolhouse as well as um the Daris house which is our 18th century uh built um home that is located across from seab breze um that is is an original building from the 18th century back uh it dates back to 1760 it has never been modernized it is on the local state and National Historic registers so it has no electricity it has no running water it has no heat and it never has um and so that's an original building um so what we'd like to do partnering with the the public schools is back in the day when the historical society was very active there used to be um School tours so they used to take the third grade classes and come over to the durus house or the Montville Museum um and they would conduct uh you know a day a few hours of just going through and and and we're able to answer questions and show them what's in the museums um if you can just go to the next slide uh which we'll then come back to so this is what the museums look like today the Montville Museum that's what the inside of it looks and you can see that that's um actually the third building that's been on that site um the original School houses before it uh dated even prior to that which were originally used for the capstick factory which were the factories that were located next door to it which is now unfortunately a super fun site um but uh this Schoolhouse as you can see there's multiple artifacts in there dating back all the way to prehistoric times uh we do have some dinosaur prints and some other um Native American artifacts that are there um but we also have a lot of the different things that have come throughout the history of Montville from the in the back right hand quarter you can't really see it but that's our uh d Corner um and it has basically a lot a number of the dairy farms that were here in Montville at the time um we have artifacts from the post office because this was also used at the post office and there's a lot more things that we can use for educational pieces to teach the kids um you know what has gone on in the history of Montville going back to the 1600s all the way to the present time and again prehistoric as well um because there are plenty of AR archaeological sites within Montville and most people don't know that we have both prehistoric um archaeological sites and a prehistoric site and it's funny because and you're probably thinking dinosaurs but um I didn't even know this until a few years back and that a prehistoric site actually means from native Native American time frames onward um not the uh dinosaurs or going back to that time uh so we do have a few sites there plus all of the different um historic sites we have over 66 properties on the local historic register here in Montville plus we have the Mars Canal we have three historic districts we have the industrial district I mean we are actually super rich with history here in Montville um most most other communities have no idea how much we have most most residents have no idea how much we actually have uh so we have captured a lot in that Museum and then the the Dutch Stone housee um which we open up twice a year um because obviously with no heat running water it makes it a little difficult you know some between October and may uh it gets a little difficult to be able to stand out there even as you can see we do dress in period costume um and it gets quite cold um so those are the two museums and and the second one the darus house um we do have some artifacts in there um and plus again we focus that house on the Revolutionary time period um which as you know we're coming up to the 250th anniversary of America uh in 2026 um so there'll be a lot of more activities going on but again we'd like to open up both of those museums to um classroom tours um so again presenting that to you uh you know getting your opinion on that and then if you go back to the previous slide real quick and what we'd like to also do is um partner with the school system on future research projects or special events uh getting the students involved um as well as uh in eventually as we move on to performing more archaeological digs in town um and archaeological surveys we' like to get uh students and teachers and others involved as well so um that's one of the reasons we're coming to you for here tonight um so any questions comments um is there anybody particularly we should work with directly I just want to thank you so much for doing this work um the last time that I was in the Montville Museum it did not look like that photograph there were artists effects KY it was Dusty we had hoped back then someone would begin to take care of it and here you are years later but here you are if my son would oftentimes uh reenact at the Daris house he's now in Colonial Williamsburg um but I wish that he had the um possibility to be more locally involved more than he was so thank you for opening that opportunity for our students and I am a member and I did plug membership for the board why don't you plug the membership as well how do people join yeah basically they can come to any one of our open houses um the museum has open the third Sunday of every month um and then when we open up the darus house for special events which is the pathways um which is on the first weekend in May which is the first Saturday in May that will be open as well as in I believe it's October uh I don't remember the exact date uh that we're open but other than that um we do also have meetings on the second Wednesday of of each uh month uh except for July and August and that's met at the senior house um and also we can also send you a membership form which electronically so that can be passed amongst the uh good thank you yeah so if you forward me the information uh website all that kind of stuff I'll send it out we have one of your one of our renowned uh historians here in the audience Mr Riot uh so he'll help spread the word to his history department and and colleagues but we'll get it out to the supervisor and the rest of the district and I'm sure you'll be able to get some volunteers of of students and anything you need that would be great so we should just send the information to me yes you got it that'd be great I want to reiterate the thanks too but I also want to ask a question have you done any work with the county in terms of getting montville's role in Morris County and the Revolutionary War because I know there's people on the you know County Commissioner board that have been have a similar goal as you just countywide and you could probably you know have work together there's a collaborative that's great collaborative yeah yeah we we work with both the um the I'm sorry we work with both the County Historical Society as well as the the commissions uh dick seberry is on some of the local commissions down there we were with Amy Curry who's the head of the the the uh Mars County uh we're also attending a lot of meetings uh for revolutionary New Jersey which is the 250th anniversary uh we actually will also be working on some of the Heritage trails that they're trying to create uh we qualify for two heritage heritage trails in New Jersey um the colonial uh times Revolutionary War period uh since we have the dreis house as well as the one room schoolhouse uh Heritage Trail um because we have a one room Schoolhouse um so we'll be working on projects with that as well as we all potentially working with the national park system as well because it is a nationally registered building yeah again thank you Mike you sure more sorry I guess I'll just shout not not coming on here okay yeah uh more specifically the third Sunday of the month for the Museum what hours it runs from 1: to 4: and for the Daris house I know you said the first Saturday in May yeah um do you know a little more specifically like what time do you have to sign up ahead of time or oh no no it's it's usually open from 12 to 5 um and that's first come first serve um the first time we did it last year we had over 130 visitors on the the first time the house was open in about uh eight years um and then the second half we did one later in the fall uh which turned out to be about 70 people showed up so just you you park over at seab breze and then you walk over um and it's anybody's welcome yeah that's great just they never remember seeing any advertisement for it or anything like that do you do anything in patch or anything like that to uh let people know we actually do um we do advertise in in most of the local um papers we do have someone who writes for the patch um that has it listed out there we put signs out um in a lot of the local stor stores uh we also have a Facebook group um and we also advertise in in all the local large Facebook groups Instagram uh so yeah we try to get the word out as much as POS we also had signs around town too uh so if if you didn't see it that means we need to do a better job the next time around thank you I guess I just wasn't looking thank you well no I think we have to get one of those large banners that go across the street yeah I think yeah yeah no no the ones down on like change bridge and 20 too where they hang them across the road yes yes yeah those are very good and also as you're driving if you see someone dressed in Period costume flagging you down that means we're open yeah okay thank you so much business thank you so much I appreciate it okay thank you very much thank you for having us and Lori unless you want to stay it's up to you as part of the process that the district goes through in order to be compliant to the statutes we at the end of every year have an audit that is performed to review our financial position and we compile a annual comprehensive financial report that summarizes all of the events that occurred in the district uh representing it in dollars and cents and so tonight we have the district Auditors uh Rob ha who's going to come and do a presentation on the summary of that audit and the district's financial position as of June 30th 2024 thank you ctin uh yeah uh just to give you a brief summary uh the 2324 annual order was filed back in late December early January uh the deadline this year for that audit was January 15th so the district met that deadline uh well in advance uh there are two reports we file with the state on your behalf uh one is the annual comprehensive financial report uh as K stated that's kind of the bigger report that has all of your financial statements in it our audit opinions uh related note disclosures uh so really anything to be compliant with generally accepted accounting principles uh the second report we issue is the order's management report that discusses the results of the order with any potential findings or recommendations that will require corrective action uh so just to talk about the two reports in summary for uh the annual comprehensive financial report you received three audit opinions from us uh one is on your financial statements on whether the uh they're presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles uh the second opinion is uh what we call the government auditing standards it's required of any governmental entity uh it's really more of an opinion on your internal controls over your financial reporting so not so much the numbers themselves but your controls over the over the financial statements uh and the third one is what we call your single audit opinion that's specific to your state and federal grant program so as you receive state state and federal grants uh we're required each year to select the sample of those programs and uh audit them in detail to make sure you're compliant with all the grant regulations uh in all three of those opinions you receive what we call an unmodified opinion it's basically the highest level of assurance we can give as Auditors uh you start at that unmodified level uh and if anything uh precludes us from issuing that unmodified we reduce that level of assurance uh that did not happen here so you receive what we call a clean opinion or an unmodified opinion and all three of those opinions uh just talk about the fin finals a little bit uh the district ended the year with around uh 16.4 million total fund balance uh so what that represents is after the uh revenues are collected and and the Appropriations are spent uh you're really left with that total fund balance of 16.4 million uh just to talk about where the where that money kind of Falls uh you had about 8.2 million in a capital reserve fund so that's money that's put aside specifically for Capital Improvement projects um 2.3 million was in a maintenance Reserve so similar to the capital reserve it's put aside in a separate account and it's really for any maintenance of your existing facilities so whereas the Capital One is more for a long-term uh improvements to your buildings addon to buildings uh the maintenance is more for uh daily and routine maintenance of your existing facilities uh you have about 2.1 million that is designated for tax relief in the current budget so while that was still part of your fund balance at June of 24 uh that's currently being used in the 2425 budget and then when all those shake out you're really left with a surplus of about 2.3 million uh that's really what we call unassigned fund balance so it's not set aside any kind of Reserve fund uh and that uh represents about two and a half% of your total budget uh so it's uh pretty much right in line where the state wants you to be the state want you be around two to two and a half% of your budget in in Surplus uh anything over and above that would have to go back into a subsequent budget so basically what that means is you're you know you're collecting your revenues and you're spending your budget basically consistently every year uh because you were pretty much at these same levels last year when when we did the order in June of 23 so your capital reserve your maintenance Reserve you know as you use that money each year it gets replenished uh so you're basically very consistent year-over-year in your financial operations uh as far as the UDS manag report the results of the audit um very happy to report that for second year in a row we have no recommendations in the audit that require corrective action uh so obviously as we find things during the audit we bring them up to the administration uh try to clean them up and when we're here doing the audit so anything we did fine was cleaned up uh nothing Rose to the level of any kind of audit recommendation that would require corrective action uh so that's very positive on that front because U you know I think if you look at District Statewide there's there's a very small percentage of of audits that go out with no recommendations uh so obviously means the business office is doing a very a very good job uh we did have one what we call suggestion in the report that was brought up to Administration uh doesn't rise to the level of recommendation but just something to keep your eye on it it really deals with unemployment bills coming in from the state of New Jersey every Court of the district getss unemployment bills uh so you have uh some discrepancies in in what the state is saying you ow versus what the district thinks ow so it's just a suggestion to keep on top of that to make sure we're we're reviewing those bills and uh you know remitting the payments for what we think uh we finally ow uh so both reports very positive financially like I said very consistent from the previous year so for district year size to keep that consistency is very important uh not only for audit purposes but for budgeting purposes kind of keeps you on a un even Keel each year and to have an audit with no recommendations that that's very positive all around so uh very happy to report the positive results so happy to take any questions on the audit or either of the reports that we file thank you very much um for bringing that for bringing his support to us uh and I would like to First say thank you very much ctin and your all your staff two years in a row that's an outstanding job I believe we do have a very good Financial team in place place and they've done a wonderful job and they deserve a lot of credit for this but um I actually have no real questions other than just to note that uh yes we are keeping on top of things because katin does keep us appraised of what's going on um so I'll open up the questions John you had something agree all the praise goes to katin and her team on this two years in a row you made the comment that we're one of a small group of you know districts that have that I was just wondering how small is that group um I don't know that off the top of my head I mean our firm ourselves we do around 80 to 90 School District I mean if I had to take a guess I'd say don't hold me to maybe 10% of those audits go out with you know no recommendations uh so you know it's very few and far between where you pick one up and and you see none great so very POS so yeah very very small group I don't have an exact number but you know it's certainly in the smaller smaller group of of what's out there for sure uh one can never shower katine and her staff with enough praise but let me just add on to what my colleague said thank you ctin she certainly does not seek praise no she shrinks away she shrinks away from it okay anything else anything else no thank you so much okay thank you appreciate it thank you very much and and thank you for all the advice you give us throughout the year and everything and and coming in we really appreciate it we have a great working relationship yep very good absolutely excellent to have that during the year so at the end of the year kind of we're in the of what's going no we appreciate it and I I too want to thank ktina and Diane for everything they've done to really make sure that this is really tight uh and to have this two years in a row is is outstanding so great job by everybody agreed thank you all right have a good night get a picture okay uh anything do we have anything else here yes so I have uh two things I just wanted to report out tonight one is uh the parents will be receiving a news uh letter shortly about uh Gaggle Gaggle is a new software monitoring software that we'll be using with a monitoring students um and how they're using our um different platforms and and different packages online uh it's to to ensure the safety and well-being of our students and their usage of School provided digital tools as part of this partnership with gagle our district will be implementing the Safety Management solution for work Google workshop for Education this technology will help us proactively monitor students activities uh on school accounts ensuring they you're using these tools safely and appropriately gagle combines Advanced machine learning with the expertise of trained staff professionals to continuously Monitor and review students digital activity it's it's systems um analyze content in real time flagging any concerning behaviors such as signs of self harm or depression thoughts of suicide substance abuse cyber bullying threats of violence and other harmful situations and when necessary then they alert the administrators and then we'll investigate and look into this if it happens after hours on weekends or something that uh late in the evening uh then the police will be notified if it is a life-threatening situation so this has been implemented uh Nationwide for many years now it actually has even saved lives so we're happy to be bringing this on as just trying another measure to keep our kids safe so that'll be coming out shortly and on that same note I have to do the uh incident reports about um HIV and other things that are going on in our school district so this is for the first half of the Year September 1 to December 1st 2024 uh the incident total was 7 for all seven of our schools this was actually down eight from comparison to last year violence there was four uh incidents at the high school that were deemed violent um that means like kids got in a fight or something one case of vandalism also at the high school both of these were down from the previous year uh substance abuse we had one at the high school zero weapons offenses uh Hib confirmed we had 11 overall for the district which was down by three from last year uh we had other incidents that led to a removal like a suspension we had 11 incidents like that that's the same as last year and we had uh only 10 HIV alleged incidences that were not confirmed that's down 25 from last year so we've made great progress over the past year we hope to keep that going into the spring and there's just been a lot of great um effort by our teachers and administrators to make sure our students are safe and um and not engaging this type of behavior and that's my report okay thank you any questions forant okay then um let's go on to committee reports Finance Karen uh no report tonight okay curriculum Michelle no report policy John yes we have a meeting next Tuesday um I welcome all of the board members not just the ones on the subcommittee to you know give us any ideas we know cell phone use and the high school is a hot button topic so we we're happy to discuss that in more detail uh and we'll let you know next meeting on how that goes okay thank you uh Joe Communications we'll be having our first meeting on February 26 at four o'clock okay 26 at four o'clock okay Christine safety uh we are setting up our first meeting soon so no report at this moment okay uh delate the ason New Jersey school boards Karen I'm sorry my throat's a little scratchy tonight uh a lot has gone on uh since our last meeting at New Jersey school boards uh the first is we conducted our first of two weekend trainings for new board members this is a comprehensive three-day training uh which hopes to create effective school board members uh there's a second training going on uh in mid-February and I was able ble to uh pass along some remarks at the January training and I'll do the same in February on July 30th njsba had a finance meeting and on the same day um we were able to participate in a joint session of the New Jersey legislature where I was able to accept a resolution on behalf of the 5,000 school board members in the state of New Jersey in honor of January as school board recognition month the resolution was offered by Luan peterpaul and Margie donlin and we're very much uh appreciate their uh effort to recognize school boards it's the first time in the 24 his in the 24e history of of January being School Board recognition month that the ad joint uh legislative session came together in order to pass the resolution uh on the 31st we attended a board of directors meeting the budget was discussed and I'll just mention one item from the budget and that is our NES revenue is going up which takes the burden off of du's Revenue so that's been a lot of hard work by the Association in order to make that flip um the other thing I'll mention is that uh new board of directors members um took their oath of office including our own Joe Dy uh who participated virtually and took the oath of office for uh alternate Board of director for the county of moris um and finally uh I was not able to join my colleagues today um they're down in Washington enjoying a day on the hill where they um uh have a schedule to meet with a number of our Representatives including uh our Congress our Congress people as well as some Senators so look forward to hearing back with their report and that concludes my report okay thank you okay um Morris County uh School Board Association Mike the meeting is tomorrow uh viral meeting is tomorrow night okay Joe Morris County Educational Services our meeting is tomorrow night at virtually at 630 okay and drug awareness we have a meeting next Thursday next Thursday okay and John moris uh the athletic boosters yes um next meeting is not until April 8th um and I just I happy to report that I made contact thanks Tom for sending the me the contact information and plan to attend the meetings they're going to send me monthly treasury reports and all that our our our Sports fundraising is very healthy from what I gathered in the first uh review of their finances that's good okay keep that in mind um Karen depending on sport Cedar Hill liaison uh no report okay Christine no report although if you notice they they're doing a fundraiser tape Mr schwindel to the wall they're selling strips of duct tap tap and they're going to put him on the wall and tape him there as a fundraiser I love that idea okay uh no valy view uh John William Mason William Mason had a meeting uh this past Thursday fortunately I was unable to attend but luckily I have a wife who's on the executive board and could fill me in uh the the big hot button was the the playgrounds they are moving forward with fixing up the current playground which is across the street swing and things like that and or and the soil samples tested you know positively not in the negative sense of the word but clean they were clean uh exactly and and they're going to move forward with some of the the planned uh construction there there's also a Valentine's Day fundraiser if anyone wants to buy stuffed animals uh for their kids they're raising some money on top of that I think most of the elementaries will probably have some and even Lazar in high school I think have fundraisers don't they I'm the only one reporting it so okay then it must be the only thing okay uh Mike Palmer Woodmont no report okay not even a valentine fundraiser okay uh Joe uh Lazar Michelle next meeting is March 10th okay okay um and then Mike High School no report okay okay uh public public participation anyone wishing to speak about items on the agenda I guess not okay let's move on uh consent resolution for items I through n second thank you questions on the minutes section J gifts grants donations K facilities Finance any questions l Personnel just one change on l32 uh in the discussion area the uh initials ABA are going to be removed okay uh M curriculum questions and N policy nothing on policy um okay vote roll call please Mr Palama upstand on the meeting um on the minutes from our last meeting yes and everything else Mr dri yes Dr calino yes Mrs Fano yes Mr Petrino yes Mr Rapaport yes Miss Zuckerman yes Dr modra yes okay uh next sections uh General board comments new business old business anyone have any comments to make okay then uh second public participation anyone wishing to speak to the board about any item on their mind at all can come forward I see you want to come up on up yeah yeah take the microphone and tell us your name and address and what you would like to say my name is and I am a parent of children at Cedar Hill Elementary School and I live at 8m court in taco and thank you so much for your service and I was just so pleased to see Miss Lori here before too and and celebrate her um heroic efforts at the school um I'm here um with some concerns both as a parent um also as an attorney I'm a public interest attorney um in New Jersey at Lowenstein Sandler and of course it kind of goes without saying the elephant in the room there's been a rash of federal policy changes happening very rapidly over the past couple weeks and I'm curious how the board and the district will be responding to some of those changes and I just wanted to note four areas in particular that are on my mind and that I I'll just kind of be following um closely and I don't expect any you know answers I know that some of these things require probably legal analysis but I just want wanted to share that I'm concerned about them and probably a lot of other parents are also um so the first is you know some districts have been putting out some messages about how um the board or the district or schools will be interacting with ice presence when there's enfor when there are enforcement actions um it's possible that that won't be a um a major concern given the demographics of our district but I think it's important to have um a policy in place so people know what to happen what what would happen how they should respond particularly front office staff if ice comes to the building um and what they need to look at they need to require a warrant they don't need to Grant access without a warrant for example um and there are trainings available our Law Firm is providing trading trainings to some districts on that topic um on a pro bono basis um so that's kind of one um area another one is you know just kind of the implications of possible Federal funding freezes um there was one announced last week of course it was rescinded but I am curious how much Federal funding comes through down to our district and what you know do we need to be concerned about um programs being interrupted school lunch um both my children one has a IEP one has a fight of War plan like are is there the potential that those types of services could be impacted and it would be good to have some communication from the district and from the board about you know what what contingency planning is being done just to allay some of the fears the legitimate fears of parents um and and children the third is um I'm curious what the district will be doing around ensuring that we continue to acknowledge um lgbtq individuals there have been executive orders stating that trans people don't exist um and I'm just concerned about the mental health of our trans students um and if there is any kind of planning around that and safety safety planning and and mental health um resources and just kind of how the district is going to be dealing with that and lastly um I'm I'm interested in whether we can expect any changes in the way that history is taught in the schools given that there executive orders relating to um history there have been changes in how the federal government is um addressing black history month and I I just you know I'm curious about that so those are sort of the areas I'm curious about um and I'd love to hear more whether at this meeting or through Communications that the district hopefully will put out to help us calm ourselves and calm our children because of course our children become nervous when we become nervous when it trickles down thank you so much thank you thank you uh were there any other comments from the public okay um would you like to okay uh so we'll go ahead and close the public participation how you want to address some you bring up great points these are the ones we you know you hit I one the ones just say ditto you know I agree with everything you say uh I don't know all the answers to all that right now we have been in touch with our counselors and talking to them uh I mean our attorneys uh talking to them about that um just regarding ice you know the laws and all that stuff they just can't come into the buildings they do have to have a warrant and things like that if something like that did happen of course I'd be reaching out to our attorneys then we uh have to act accordingly but they just don't get the I know there's a misperception out there they can just come into the schools and knock on classrooms so that doesn't happen that way um Federal funding we're very worried about that we have a little bit over a million dollars tied up with federal funds from the different titles I think one through four titles one through four we receive and at any point those could be frozen but it's hard to speculate because I don't know New Jersey's response or how deep it's going to go or what's going to happen or you know it's hard to uh I don't want to get ahead head of it uh because all the information like you said like you know things have been rescinded as soon it was put out so I did get a number of inquiries about that but until things are actually laid out and then we have to react to it I want to hold off on that LGBT yes we're we're we're concerned about that and we'll see but we're always going to make sure that all our students are safe in in our buildings as you just heard about Gaggle we continue the same policies to protect all students and make sure their rights are insured and history being changed that's another one that's close near and dear to my heart Mr Ratt as well about what's what's going on so we'll keep an eye on that and then we have to see how New Jersey interpret certain things and then we'll follow the direction so you're spot on with all your concerns and time is going to tell but as they come up and then I do have a response to them I will be letting the community know absolutely thank you thank you and if you do have any other information we've been receiving stuff from the state I've been sharing them out with administrators and stuff but if you have anything please sharing with me and I we can't have enough resources to help uh educate our everybody and I'm having a meeting with the administrators uh uh next week actually talking about many of these items that you just brought up as well Tom you listed a number of the titles was that two three and one four uh one through four uh and then we have idea which is special education and what kind of C what kind of monies are involved uh Ida like special education it's $140,000 uh title one's $100,000 title two is 42,000 title three 177,000 title three is four title four uh is 10,000 and um semi is another thing that's tied into special education that's 41,000 thank you so comes out to about a million dollars in in monies that we receive okay Tom one of the things that she asked about was lunch money with that one item we don't actually get any federal funds for lunch correct that's correct we fund our own program okay so that we would be totally unaffected by anything then for lch okay and and just one other thing so um and maybe you can jump in on this a little bit but we have to schools have to uh lay the money out ahead of time and then we get reimbursed from the state or from the federal government so if you were putting that money out you know it could be frozen you're not going to get it reimbursed the following year or something like that Governor Christie did some of those things too you were always behind on how he was going to backfield and then when he said I'm not going to give you the money then all the districts were on the hook for all that money and then they had to find ways so there's different ways that both the federal and the state governments can play around with how they're goingon to you know do things in the future uh and I would also just add from the perspective of the board I I hope I can speak for everyone here we take our job seriously and we do believe in the highest standards for our for not only our students but our teachers and our staff um we've made quite a effort to make sure that personal politics don't interfere and we encourage an honest education free from bias um so we we really do care up here as well thank you um motion to close motion toj I should say thank you okay good night