e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e am I the right place are we live check check yes I'll give us the the 30
seconds something right here late a good I'm not completely messed it up we got like 30 how are you I'm good how are you are good super I'm sorry to go Jo yes that's it
says it in the agenda okay perfect all right I think we are 20 seconds in counting do we have a clock we need to get a clock here all right we're good 630 is it 60 oh it is 6:30 on the dot all right I'm going to call the meeting
to order could we all rise for the flag salute Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all I pr all
remain standing for a moment of silence for all those in harms way for all of our uh military um home and abroad thank you statement of advanced notice the notice requirements of the open public meetings Act of the state of New Jersey have been
satisfied by the inclusion of the date time and place of this meeting in the notice of regular meetings adopted by this board on January 6th 2025 such schedule and notice of meetings is posted on the municipal
building the at the municipal building the Mount Olive Library the board of Education offices and the six schools was submitted to the Daily Record for publication on January 7th 2025 and was file with the clerk amount Olive Township on January 8th
2025 I direct that this announcement be entered into the minutes of this meeting and M Jer will'll take a roll call please Mrs Aquino here Mrs Fenton here Mrs fera here Mrs Fitzgerald here Mr
gordano Mr Melendez here Mrs naris I am here and with that Mrs naris yes sorry Mrs O'Neal I am here Mr illo
here we got everyone okay with that I will take a motion for the approval of the minute um miss m she looking right at me miss m present motion uh for the approval of
the previous meetings and we have a second second second second okay and do we have any comments or discussion from the board on um items 2.1 and 2.2 no okay seeing none we'll take a roll call Miss joning Mrs
Melendez yes Mrs Aquino yes Mrs fan yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Nares yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes and with that uh are there any
Communications or petitions for the uh the board or the superintendent no anyone nope seeing none we will move on to our reports and discussions and we do we have and the mic is over here today ladies uh student
aison oh that's different they're Chang oh we have the camera at a different angle today oh we have to stretch you can lowerer oh we can lower okay good evening everybody I'm nor I'm the board
of edley onon and I'm Mia the vice president of the student council at Mount Olive High School okay starting off with our old business on January 31st we raised approximately $1,500 through our very first maraud
Royale all the proceeds went to a mental health charity called reach out it was a huge success Leila Blakey was our winner and all of our other talents did amazing on Sunday febru February 2nd we had our MSA food and cultural festival at our
high school we had food served from over 15 different countries and we had an amazing turnout our annual Valentine's Day flower sale was February 5th through February 11th we had a lot of people purchasing roses and our all district
choir concert was held on February 19th with another great turnout it went so smoothly our robotics team had their rollout event last Friday the February 21st and they look forward to their upcoming competition season for athletics our boys basketball season is
ongoing with a record of 10 to 15 our Junior Molly SMI became the second girls wrestler in Mount Olive history to qualify for the state tournaments which is amazing and our boys wrestling team won the district six wrestling tournament
advancing 13 out of 14 wrestlers to the regional tournament and now on to new business we have our lenp Valley student council coming to our high school tomorrow on Tuesday February 25th and our student council looks forward to showing them
our events and how we are able to make them so successful and the all district bands concert will take place on February 26th and the all district orchestra concert is scheduled for February 27th which we are very excited about and we are looking forward to we
are hosting the boys wrestling regionals tournament this weekend which should be a great turn turnout um the Special Olympics bowling Regional Tournament will be held on Saturday March 1st which is super exciting and we are expected to do great a mini college fair is scheduled for March 6th where students
can come and check out the schools that they're applying to or were already accepted to to get Insider information the robotics Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship will take place on March 7th 8th and 9th with over 40 teams expected to participate and this should
be an incredible turnout and we look forward to it the rising freshman curriculum fair is set for March 12th at 6:30 p.m. and then lastly our NJ GPA graduation requirement testing for the class of 2026 will take place on March
11th 12th 13th and 14th the fbaa we will be traveling to Atlantic City for the state competition from March 10th to 12th and the National Honors the National Art Honor Society Invitational will be held on March 18th bringing in
art schools from across the Northeast and awarding nearly a million dollars in scholarships to our students and that's all for today does anyone have any questions any questions from the board the winner of The Marauder Royale what was what was how did they win oh so she
sang She Sang an Adele song I actually can't name it to you off the top of my head but she did amazing um really good thank you I think it was when we were young by a oh that's a good one she did amazing it was really great yeah that's going to do it a thanks guys you thank
you thank you [Applause] ladies and with that we'll move on to superintendent report and at this time we would like to welcome Miss Charlene Peterson from New Jersey school boards who's going to be presenting on the superintendent evaluation
training thank you so much thank you so is it so I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to come and talk to you about the superintendent's evaluation and I love listening to the students there's always just so much energy and so many amazing things going on um in
your District so they also wanted to acknowledge as much as we've heard the work of the students and other things the work of that the board has been doing um in probably I don't know it's about four or five years ago now that New Jersey school board started like a new level of certification for
individual board members for new board members trying to get you interested in training within your first two years of board service and I was just looking and so many of you have already earned the new board member certification so in addition to having training together as
a board team just wanted to acknowledge all the work and the training that you're doing as individuals um and it just you know helps the Board be a stronger board when you kind of go outside these four walls right and bring in knowledge and information that you've learned from other boards and other
sources so just kind of wanted to to commend you and thank you for that that commitment to training on behalf of your students so wanted to you talk to you tonight about the the superintendent's evaluation process I was talking to the tech guys like it's that time of year
already it seems like you were just here not that long ago we talked about that I'm like you're right the time did go by quickly right but but we are kind of here so again I'm just going to take you through the process so when we talk about the the superintendent evaluation
process it really comes back to the students and kind of essentially saying that this process is for the board and the superintendent to work together um to be able to advance student achievement so it helps that that the superintendent kind of improve you know
the work that she's doing it you know again with the bottom line being the students and then just provides us that that basis is to kind of come together and have a conversation about how we're doing so as as we think about it you know sometimes you think about the
superintendent evaluation perhaps just a onetime thing we do the evaluation but it's really a process right and and it's a year-long process and sometimes that's part of the challenge for kind of the timing of new board members right you start on January 1 and the evaluation
year has started um you know July 1st so here you are you know kind of coming in in the middle of it and you know trying to kind of get caught up but that's why it's important kind of that that you have this training and you know be able to have these conversations so just
wanted to kind of you know as we look at the different components of s like we need to have a calendar training talking about the goal setting the importance of evidence the tool um putting the document together and then having that summary sitdown conference with the superintendent so just going to kind of
quickly take you through the these um steps of it so it starts out really and I have to say when I was a board member I didn't really even understand how much of this process is in Statute in code in terms of what's required of US during this process so it starts out
essentially saying that you we have to evaluate the superintendent at least once a year has to be in writing you have to meet to discuss the findings so it'll be based on the goals and the object objectives of the district the responsibilities of the superintendent and then any criterias prescribed by the
State Board of Ed and we'll talk about that in just a minute um it has to be done by July 1st and include areas of strength areas needing Improvement any recommendations for growth and again it all goes back to the students and then that summary sitdown conference should include a majority of the total
membership of the board I have to say that that's one of the things sometimes that as boards kind of do their their own process sometimes they don't really realize like sometimes I think well just the board president and maybe the vice president going to sit down or the personnel and try to say no like it's in statute and code that it has to be a
majority of the the total membership of the board so so one of the things that you know we have as we look at kind of what our responsibilities are as much as we say that this is among our most important responsibilities as a board member we also know that there could be
conflicts if you have a relative um who works in the district and so kind of essentially the guidance we would get from the school ethics commission um would be you know that you would be prohibited in participating in any and all matters related to the superintendent including the evaluation of performance and if you have any
questions about that you would always refer it to your board attorney for guidance um so in addition to kind of you know recognizing that we have a a legal responsibility you know people would say well like what happens if we don't do it like is there a board police
like what happens so it turns out the qac decided that it would add this um kind of become the board police and add some points associated with the board completing this process on time um so you'll look and see that there are six points associated with the board
completing the evaluation by July 1st um you know and that's a lot of points right so we want to make sure that that we're doing our part then to make sure that that that's not happening and then also the importance of you know making sure you have a policy um and that new
board members are trained on the process so you know it's required that all new board members are supposed to get trained with in their first 6 months of taking office but you know now that we provide that training in governance one so now you're pretty much getting it within your first three months just to
make sure then that that happens so so again you know going to look at a a more thorough calendar in just a minute but just again kind of recognizing that this should not just be kind of a halfhazard way of looking at this process and that we should be kind
of thinking about it and planning it and as the new board year even turns over here in January ordering to kind of just start to to think about that so and you know I mention the fact that it is a process and so that process really starts with the goal setting
right so we do that kind of back in the summer kind of essentially saying you like what are those three or four things we think are so important to move the district forward that we're going to hold the superintendent accountable by putting them in her evaluation so and that's kind of you know the board's
piece of helping determine the what right and then we turn it over to the superintendent to help identify the how so that's kind of then what kind of starts that process so again you know recognizing that you know when I just talked about the the legal piece of it I
was saying that the evaluation should be based on the goals and the objectives in the district so that's why we have the this annual goal setting meeting and annual goal setting discussion um and like I said it shouldn't just be happening kind of that once a year but again there should be ongoing conversation
about what in the progress that we're making so one of the things a few years ago when we redid this tool kind of sat and thought about how helpful it might be as kind of a an optional step in the process to maybe have an evaluation
pre-conference and kind of what that means is before anyone sits down before the board sits down to start the evaluation to kind of sit down and meet with the superintendent and kind of have a conversation you know recognizing that board members have different experiences
based on perhaps what committees you've been on how long you've been on the board so kind of making sure that all the board members have the information that they need um to you know to complete an informed evaluation so it um is just that opportunity then to make
sure that you have that understanding so some of those updates could potentially be in public like if the superintendent were to give an update on the goals that could be just a general update that would take place in public but if you wanted then to have an evaluative
conversation about that update like I was hoping to see this or what happened here you know any those then that piece of it then would be an executive session where you would have that kind of the a valuative component of that conversation so I had mentioned you know
sometimes with new board members just starting in January you know that one of the things then that becomes really important is evidence right and especially too if we are kind of fulfilling our responsibility of not being in the schools and not running the schools then we need to rely on the the
superintendent then to provide us evidence in terms of the accomplishments of the goals and of her work so as we kind of take New Jersey school board's tool and I know people have asked me like do we have to use your tool and the answer is no we just
have to be in compliance with statute and code but our tool is a way to help you do that um so it starts out first with kind of the you know capturing the individual input by the superintendent logging in and then each board member logging in individually so that
everyone's voice is being heard and then New Jersey take New Jersey school boards takes that individual input when the board is done and compiles it into one Anonymous document then that reflects all opinions then we say so then similar to the other work that the board does
the board moves forward based on the opinions of the board majority right so we kind of then can use that um compilation report to then help us identify what the board majority is thinking it also needs to be the board
having a discussion in executive session to you know kind of clarify that and come to a common understanding and then the state calls it an annual performance report so we considered that kind of document the annual performance report that reflects the majority opinion then
to be that the superintendent's actual evaluation so our tool is broken down into two parts so the first part looks at the the district goals and we you know kind of just went through why that's important and then the next piece is the six leadership standards and those standards
came from the the national standards for um professional Educators they used to be called the isck standards um and but I think there's 11 of those and those are not only for superintendent so we worked with the superintendent Association and said okay what can we
extract out of those that's most relevant to board members and board members and superintendents working together and so came up with six yeah I know you said 11 that sounds like a lot right so um so so then those six leadership standards then help us to identify the areas of strength areas
where more growth is needed and also helps us stay focused on kind of the professional level of this work you know sometimes we would see board members straying into areas that really you know weren't that meaningful the work so when you stay focused on the the goals and
stay focused on the Professional Standards it helps make sure then that that the evaluation is really measuring the work that the superintendent is doing so in terms of looking at the process so you know just kind of in some housekeeping I guess of kind of making
sure your census is up to date with everyone listed identified who's the board president you know you'll need to know what your username and password is and then the process starts with the superintendent as the first one to log in and then once the superintendent has
completed her part and hit submit then 48 hours later then the board members get an automatic generated email saying okay board your superintendent has completed her part and the 40 hour 48 hours kind of gives her the opportunity to go say oops I should have said this
or I forgot to put that in there and kind of gives her that opportunity to do that um and then the board automatically gets a link then for you to go ahead and get started so this is kind of a sample of what it looks like so the first piece that the superintendent does when she
logs in is to input the district goals um and then she does kind of like a a self assessment rating does she think the goal was achieved satisfactory progress was made or little or no progress made and you know one of the things that we've been seeing are more and more multi-year goals so sometimes
satisfactory progress made may be the best that we can do because we intended it to take a couple years for this goal to get achieved so we kind of have to look at it um from that context and then the superintendent can provide
um either comments or link links to information kind of to that evidence then for board consideration so that when you are in the tool when you log in you will see then that the self assessment that the superintendent provided and then you will be able to um
you know ask to give a rating what do you think do you think the goal was achieved satisfactory progress was made or little or no progress and then you are asked to provide comments and one of the things I would see a lot is that when board members were making comments they were directing them to the
superintendent as if they were speaking to the superintendent but really these comments are for your fellow board members right this is your individual input and as a group you're going to sit down and come up with what a collective comment would be so your fellow board
memb members need to understand why did you give this rating so this then is helping your fellow board members to see you know kind of what you were thinking so these then are those those six standards and you can see like when when we redid this tool the standards
were more along kind of functional lines of like Personnel Finance kind of said okay you know that the job of the superintendent is much more expansive than that so I wanted to make sure that we really captur the the essence of the work that was happening and then also wanted to bring your attention on the
rating scale to the you know the opportunity to select not observed recognizing again that we would like new board members or really anyone if you you know haven't had enough um of personal experience to evaluate something but want you to participate as
much as you can but not feel compelled to evaluate something that you don't feel comfortable doing so um so it's not a negative it's not a positive it's just strictly saying you didn't see it or don't you know just don't have enough experience so this looks kind of busy
but this is kind of an example then of what like this is we said there were six standards so here's the first one Mission Vision and core values so there's kind of like a standard statement and then one of the things that also got changed was that for each
one of those ratings like exemplary proficient in the past kind of maybe what one board member thought was exemplary another one thought was proficient so we tried to help board members kind of get more on the same page by providing a definition for each one of the standards of what that those
ratings mean then if you kind of see the red in the middle there it's kind of essentially saying that the superintendent has the ability to provide links so like usually there might be like a Google folder that says say standard one and then whatever information you know wanted to put in
there then when you as the board member are in standard one and want to do your part of the evaluation you then can look at the evidence um it's not required that you put the the evidence in this way some superintendents have their own way that they like to communicate with
the board about their accomplishments but just making you aware that this is an opportunity available to you so then we know that we're kind of looking at this overall standard but in order then to assess the standard we took it and we broke it down into some smaller more
meaningful parts and so initially when we were having the conversation of putting this tool together said you know okay we see these parts do we just kind of let the board members go down to the bottom and just give an overall rating or would it be more helpful to make sure that it's you know been done very
thoughtfully by asking you then to put a rating in each one of the indicators just so that you know you have taken the time to really look at it and then at the end then you are going to be asked for an overall rating for that standard and the system like somebody asked me
would like does it automatically fill it out like if I gave say all proficients will it automatically Mark proficient and the answer is no you still have to fill it out because things have different weights right like something could be like super important to your board that might not be that important
to another board and so you really kind of have to put it in the context of what's going on in in your district for your board um and then you also have the opportunity then to provide comments for each one of the six standards
so then once you know so then once the board is done then I would be in communication with with the board president um and then kind of the system automatically compiles it like as soon as board member one is done it kind of starts this com
this comp compilation document then when board member two is done it adds it to it when board member three so that by the time the last board member is done that compiled document is done and ready so I just have to set a flag in our system that says okay system you know
Mount oliv's done so let's let's send this off to to the board president so then the board president then is able to and I will send you an instruction sheet but able then to log in and be able then to download um we we break the compiled
document into two reports one that just looks at the goals one that looks at at the standards there's also that template for that annual performance report and then there's also a tracking report that really any of the board members can see like once you're done you can log back
in to see what kind of progress that the board is making because as much as we try like usually we get to about I don't know six or seven it's like okay we got to get those last couple board members right to get it done because we really do you know value having as many voices
participating as possible so we really try as much as we can to get everyone who can participate to participate so this is kind of just a sample then of what that compos document might look like for a goal so just list the goal kind of the the comments that that the
superintendent provided you can see the superintendent in this example self-rating was that this goal was achieved um then you can see that the kind of compiled the responses so eight board members responded six agreed with the superintendent one thought
satisfactory progress was made and one thought little or no progress was made so you can see then how this would help the board be able to have a conversation about what the majority opinion would be and then this is kind of the then the same type of information then that you
would get for a standard of kind of taking the standard then and kind of seeing so this would help you identify areas even within that standard that might be particularly strong areas within that standard that could potentially be areas for growth so again
just giving you information to help you have informed conversations to come up with a majority opinion so again then kind of so we to the point now where we've got this compiled document we've got everyone's opinions so now we know then that we've got to
take that and we've got to come together and we've got to then now determine what the majority opinion is so we'd use this compiled document and so a lot of times the board president or their designat like sometimes it's the Personnel chair whoever the you know is designated to do
this might take that compiled document and then take that template for that summary and WR a draft so that sometimes it's easier for the board to start with something right and kind of have that conversation and some boards they don't they just start from scratch and kind of
help write it while they're sitting there and in other boards they might start with this draft and tweak it what's important is that all of the board members have the opportunity to have conversation come together and talk about come to an agreement about what
the majority opinion would be um so we know that anytime then the board would go into executive session to discuss the superintendent's performance that you would have to you know issue the superintendent arise notice but that you know would just be the process that you would follow and then recognizing
that the end result you know would be that annual performance report or that that summary document so this then is what that template looks like so you just are essentially able to just go ahead and you know kind of fill in the blanks or fill in the template and so it just you
know um you can see that there's there signature lines for the board president and the superintendent which helps when cusac is looking um to make sure that that the board did the evaluation and by what day it was signed um so that's you know part of that evidence um so it
essentially just takes each one of the goals and then as a board you give kind of an overall rating on that goal and some overall comments like to help support then the rating that the you know that reflects the majority opinion the same with be true for each one of
the six standards um and then you we talked earlier about the importance of those areas of strength and those areas where more growth and Improvement is needed so again trying to keep it focused on the standards and keep it focused on the professional work and then the opportunity you know then
there's an open-ended box if there was any other summi of comments that the board would like to make to the superintended so that then would essentially be then the evaluation document that when the board and the superintendent then go into executive session to have the conversation you
know the kind of that that sitdown summary conference that that would be the document then that you would um be discussing so it is suggested that you share the document with the superintendent at least a couple days ahead of time and even some boards have said you know what like it's kind of
intimidating for all of us to just sit there with her the very first time so like a lot of times maybe just the board president and the vice president might go and just kind of of present it to her kind of go through it see if you have any questions and say okay you know we'll see you with the full board here
then you know in a few days but just to kind of make it a fair process and see if there's any questions and um you know since we're kind of working together right on to kind of help the students so you know one of the things in the beginning when I talked about the legal
Parts I said you know that it was required that it had a me be a majority of the total membership of the board but one of the things that we suggest is that all non-conflicted board members be present and the reason for that is if the evaluation document reflects the
majority opinion what if I was that holder of the minority opinion like in that first goal that I showed where it said kind of the majority opinion was what it was achieved but somebody checked that they thought little or no progress was made so that might not be
included in the written document that the superintendent receives but one of the rights that I have of the holder of that Minority opinion it is I have the right to be heard so I could say you know what superintendant while the the evaluation says this I was hoping for
this or this is kind of what I was expecting so you know you always have that and so you you never know who's going to be the minority opinion when so that's why it's important then to give everyone the opportunity to be there and be part of that conference so here I kind of took that
calendar and I just kind of looked at your calendar and said okay ideally we would start with that July deadline knowing that we have to be done then and work backwards so then let's take your last meeting in June and say okay and and try not to add any additional
meetings through this process right if we don't have to so just said okay when's your last meeting in June then let's make that be the sitdown meeting then let's you know then you actually you actually have two meetings in June so then the one before could be everybody kind of re reviewing that annual performance report and saying yep
that looks great did a great job this reflects the majority opinion um in May then you could have that discussion about to have the compilation report maybe the draft and kind of have that discussion about what you think the majority opinion should be um then we
would back into that of having the board members need to have theirs completed within enough time to kind of allow for that draft or allow um you know for the board to sit down together and then that means then that the superintendent's got to be done and enough time to give the board at
least a couple weeks um to complete their portion of the evaluation and then if you wanted to have that um that pre-conference then just I just kind of backed up your meetings and that would kind of been the end of your March meeting so it kind of allows you to go through all the steps give yourself some
time and not have to add any extra meetings so that's really kind of why I say like you almost have to start planning in January right so again just kind of as we look at a process and just saying like what makes it
effective everyone can be heard we all had the opportunity to come to a consensus on the majority opinion the minority opinion can exercise their rights it builds a productive relationship between the board and the superintendent we're in compliance and
then most importantly it's a framework for Student Success right that that is what the focus should be what what have we accomplished in this past year year to be able to advance the success of our students and then what do we need to work on next year to help keep that
moving right so kind of as we kind of sum this up and like a few kind of things to think about again saying it's not a once a year thing it's like a whole year process and you know a lot of times I've heard board members like kind of focus
on like the latest and greatest thing like if something just happened and then all of a sudden that takes up a bigger space in the evaluation and of thinking okay the evaluation has to reflect the whole Year's worth of um performance so
you have to consider that um we talked about the importance of evidence the importance of communication throughout the process you know we always say that when it's time to discuss the evaluation there shouldn't it shouldn't be a surprise to the board um in terms of the progress that's been made throughout the
year and it shouldn't be a surprise to the superintendent about what the board's expectations or thoughts were about that so so we should be you know kind of communicating throughout the year um the importance of all board members who can participate making sure that they do just because of the value
of uh you know the your voice and then kind of the last piece of this of making sure that the focus is on the goals and on the standards I mean I had a situation last year where the board set a goal the superintendent followed the goal but they didn't like the outcome so
he's like this isn't fair like you know they're they're dinging me for I did what I was supposed to do I can't help the fact that the outcome wasn't what we hoped you know so from the board's perspective we really have to make sure that we're being fair and saying this is what the goal was this is what the
superintendent said she was going to do did she accomplish what she said she was going to do and then the and then you know the the importance of the standards so that was all that I had in taking you through that process and then wanted to see if you have any if the board members
have any questions for me any questions from the board I know this is going to be our first year utilizing the um the online tool from njsba any anyone okay well maybe the questions will come up as you go along but I'll be there to miss Peterson is
this our last visit with you you're you're retiring May 1 yeah May first so we have maybe we'll have to drag you back in you're probably very busy Madam president I just have a quick question for m p so this like Miss n
said the board's doing this this year's for next year though shouldn't Dr Bia start at a certain point she should load up all her information prior right what do you recommend for that that it's isn't there a date like September 30th I know that's how it used to be when we used to do with our old superintendent
he'd have to have all his goals what he wanted to do loaded up we'd have to approve that as a board of ed and then track it through the entire year so the way the tool is set up is um because some board members or some boards are not done by July 1st we the
tool is and people have asked us if we could do exactly what you just described but because there are so many boards that are not done the like let's say in this case the 2025 evaluation stays open until the end
of December and then January is when we turn it over then to the next year so the superintendent wouldn't have the opportunity and superintendent have asked so so they've kind of figured out their own way of kind of tracking it until you can load it into the tool so
no good question and what I can do is um we had Dr Bia and I had set up a a midyear um document that was sent around I'll resend that to the board this week then so you could see what we said as the goals um as well as some of the
progress that was discussed um and we had done that in January I think was originally set it was January yep so we'll resend that and then that will feed into the next steps so perfect well good luck thank
you very much thank you so much yeah thank you everyone thank you okay with that oh I forgot I also have some you have presents for us pass some out last year but for anyone who doesn't have it do you guys want well
you want to leave the stack maybe for us or we um or a couple of them I have mine and Miss Peterson it didn't change from last year's right no that didn't change okay same guide perfect thank you so much
than okay with that we will move to oh we have just one committee report any anything further Miss Dr Bia nope no okay so then with that we'll move to finance and operations Miss Fitzgerald yes so the finance commit
committee met again um February 19th at 5:30 in attendance were Miss fera Miss showning Mr orillo myself and Dr Bia uh the focus of this meeting was primarily budget development we wanted to take a separate meeting to really
just focus on um the progress of that so uh Miss showning and Dr Bia took us through line by line where we are in the 2526 budget um what I really appreciated about how much work went into that was that we kind of um looked at the budget
on a worst case scenario um if this was the least amount of money that we could end up with what would our budget look like and I appreciate that because of the time we weren't um we didn't have what the final state aid numbers would be um and so uh they put a lot of detail into looking line by line it what we
could do what would the projected budget look like if the worst case scenario came through on state aid so um there are a lot of steps left in this budget process including uh getting to budget at actuals um from the state aid not just at um the worst case scenario which
I hopefully will be more fun um and um that uh our next meeting what we'll be doing is looking at um the final budget and that's March 4th March 4th state aid comes out on Friday the 28th exactly so we're all fingers Crossing it but worst
case scenario it's uh up to 3% minus 3% right yes they they sent um a broadcast which on my years they've never hinted anything out about state aid and they uh they stated the most they would cut a district state aid would be 3% so that's
what we're planning just in case yeah yeah yeah so Friday Friday's the day but I really I can't say enough to everybody who was involved in putting together budget Dr Bia uh miss showning it was the amount of detail that goes into it if you like spreadsheets the way some of
us do I really do it's beautiful it is a thing of beauty and a lot of detail do we have any questions from the board no right seeing none we'll move on to subcommittee and parent teacher Association liaison reports do we have
any one in the public for PTI PTO parent Lon report schools no and any board members attend any meetings I was at the Town council meeting last
week it was short and sweet um they basically passed some resolutions with some salary increases and they discussed um the house the Habitat Humanity
housing that's going I guess it's seven homes they're trying to pass something where at least three of those homes are marketed with preference for veterans that's nice so they're trying uh I guess they're working through that with the lawyer um
also Senior Center is looking for two wheelchairs if we have anybody knows anybody to donate any and there's a job fair tomorrow night at the senior center and that's about it oh and the other thing I saw real quick um I'm sure everybody here
knows but there's going to be 18 condos at it and their two bedrooms you're taking my you're taking my my sorry Lisa that's the Segway that's the segue yeah segis talk take
condos I was at the planning board and that's all we did till 10:30 at night was they voted on passing the um 186 two-bedroom luxury apartments there's going to be three buildings um there's
not a whole lot more to say you know statistically they're trying to you know work some things the good thing about it well so Ruckers said that we could have up to 200 students potential but their
their Planning Engineer said oh I don't think it's going to be more than 50 or 80 so who knows like we'll we'll see that when it comes um the only good thing and this isn't really for a school thing but in order for them to get those
uh units built and get their Co they do have to make a um sen senior housing where the hom Goods is so that is in compliant with this 186 units they also have to turn 20 of their older units
into uh uh low and moderate income housing so we will as a as a school as a state will be will be adhering to those NE Necessities but yeah so it did pass 186 two bedrooms Miss pen is that is
that for um The Village Green yeah y that is the village GRE I just want to for for the record and it's and it's out on social media and I actually have it three years ago I went it was they were still doing virtual Zoom meetings and I went on being a board member with concern of them rezoning that area and
we were told myself and another gentleman in town Mr fton um and it's all videotaped you can I can pass along we're told they were only doing that for rain runoff they were had no intention of ever building video is out there so um I don't believe there there are engineer that only be 50 to 60 students
I think it's going to be a tremendous burden off the school district well what people usually don't realize is um you know that one bedroom could house quite a few students and that's I did I did get up and explain that to them um but um I guess the state of New Jersey it's
illegal to ask for any comp for uh schools other states you can ask for you know building money or whatnot yes impact fees um yeah so actually Mr fton was there as
well I guess he did have some you know because he had some runoff issues they they were very compliant and took care and he was he said he was satisfied with how they were doing things um you know it's I mean like I said we were there from 7 to 10:30 about the Excavating and
you know the garbage you name it so for the public we're speaking about the Village Green on Route 46 and it's my understanding that these units will be taking up where the golf their mini golf course was in the I think I don't even
think that so one if you're looking at Route 46 there's going to be one that you can see on Route 46 that's building a and then Building B and C are by the water tower okay if you guys know where that is so they're kind of hidden um but
the one building a I guess I I really don't know where yeah they had like a a put like a I think a green like a putt and green okay it may be but that's the only one you're going to really be able to see from the road but the water tower is back there a little bit and there it's it's kind of going around the
outside of the complex and then did they get the variant that was required for their parking I guess is yes they required um 300 spots and I guess they approved
200 around 280 spots they're going to be doing but they they did um two engineering re uh researches that say that there's 100 spots open at all times so they do supposedly have plenty of parking for everybody they are required
to put some EV in there obviously handicap in there so I've lived there for 32 years and there not well so my big thing is I I'm sorry I'm not talking that's okay but I don't know how people are going to afford it
because the two-bedroom apartment that's been here for 30 years is $2800 yeah who's going to move in this is supposed to be luxury highend these are the luxury part of it is there's going to be like a a a a seal at um
rooftop kind of area you know a common area they're going to have kiosks for one underground parking per apartment the other spaces that I'm talking about the 100 free spaces are
150 ft away um that's for the second car um I AG I I'm not really sure how this is working I'm I am just giving my my you know minutes Our concern is more about the kids as opposed to the parking I was going to say though our biggest
bigger concern is you're putting more units in one apartment complex that already feeds into one of those schools that is already very large we don't know the needs of each student that will you know come into living there so what are
the requirements that we or you know costs that would impact us and we don't know truly the ages that would end up that you know you we don't know until they register if they're all going to end up in Elementary or if they're going to be spread across in the in the
timeline of that so at the end it does impact us to be honest with you that is not my biggest concern it's the um Love Lane housing that they approved the first unit that was um uh we Ruckers stated that could be
approximately 600 students um from there the original original quote was over 500 potential students impacted so you know we're we're going to have I mean looking at it you're looking at it
at least a minimum of 600 students coming in the next five years Madam president I just want to clarify that was what I what I went on was the zoom meeting for the town council meeting wasn't the playing board I don't know if I had said P Bo I apologize I think you that's okay they did they did make the
the they they did the runoff stuff so so at the end of the day we have apartments at cont coming in town Town town homes with over we'll say over 100 students and then we still have the love Lan development with over 500 potential
students impacting the district over the course of under five years yes is that well so an assumption so so the 600 average students for the Love Lane that's for all the units I I forgive me
I don't have it on this notebook but um only the one section is starting now so it's going to populate quickly but um you know I guess I you know approximately 2 to 300 students in the next couple years what is the timeline
just overall what is the project timeline will you I'm sorry if I missed that to be honest with you I'm not sure they can start soon okay um so but it really all depends and this was the the thing was they are allowed to build but they cannot get their coo until that
senior housing is done and the um 20 or I'm sorry 30 um moderate income houses so this can break around today really but I'm not sure they didn't really they
didn't have a timeline on the two other things they're going to talk about that I believe in their next meeting next month so I'll find out more then the last I saw on the senior housing was that they had to go back to the drawing
board on the access for the parking and um handicapped access for getting to the units cuz units would be the units are second floor unit so they're being where the HomeGoods used to be in that that storefront area so they're going to it's
apparently the first floor is going to be like the game room the cafeteria and whatnot for senior living and then the above floors will be I think it's three stories will be for Senior Living so yeah that has to happen in
order for this to happen so I honestly don't know but at the end of the day this board still needs to have that in in mind as we're making our decisions for the future because you know it's a it will compound going forward this sounds
like we need to anticipate we're talking at least within five years question we dem I would venture we're going to put it in the budget regardless demographic study at some point yeah because December 22 probably outdated by now yeah I would imagine was 22 was the last
time we had that December 22 yeah that's probably was out of date by the time we got it yeah yep okay did anyone else attend any other meetings no okay I attended too I attended the CMS school Community
Association uh their next meeting will be March 12th 730 via Zoom um they have upcoming uh February 27th um they will actually be doing an 80s dance um that will be running with
kindergarten starting at um sorry fifth grade starting at 9 9:15 in the morning and each grade uh through there so um Dr bji are you going to be attending the 80s attire I don't know about that one I'll see if I can make it happen it's the rock and
roll February 27 my hair youor J totally it's apparently back in so I got oh I heard the yes I heard 80s and '90s attire is back in I'm just trying to get through all of the they had a lot going
on um I actually printed all of their notes here they did have a book fair that occurred and then they also have their uh kindness matters they're selling T-shirts right now um let's just
see what else we have uh cereal boxes cereal boxes is at tint and I think that was all I had with CMS and I apologize then I also attended the tints Road school's um PTI um meeting so they have
March 15th a pancake breakfast at Applebee's occurring um they also have their PTO school dance on April 11th and what else did they have they provided an entire list of their end of
year events for the fifth grade so this of these cross over to other schools but so they'll also have April 30th their treps Marketplace and their TRS uh art show um they will have their field their fifth grade field trip on May
13th and let's see what other they have um their cereal box donations they're collecting them now until I believe it's March 7th and those cereal boxes can be uh dropped off at the school and they will be donated to the food uh Pantry
they they also had their duck doughnut um sale they sold over 80 dozen donuts um and they distributed 14 boxes of donuts to local community helpers that included the police department Library um EMS and fire
department and so let's see what else do they have try they have a lot going on on April 11th they also will be doing Pi Day Pizza kits will be for sale um and that will be started also starting on March 14th the school dance is on April
11th sorry Pi day is March 14th and I think that is all I have to report from the PT did I miss anything I'm sure I missed something can I piggy back on that cereal box because I was talking to her about that if they could get enough
cereal boxes they want to line them up like dominoes in the hallways and see how you know like have knock them down I think that's going to be so cool and I think shoppr has a sale on serial uh this week if anybody's interested in donating that's cute isn't it cute
anything else all right seeing none I have nothing for president's report and at this time then we'll move on to public comments on action items members of the community may comment on any action item prior to board discussion please state your name and address for
the record all comments must be respectfully presented abusive or obscene comments will not be tolerated and that's for Action items only there's another public comment at the end and the mic is open for any comments regarding action
items going once going twice can I ask a can I ask a question on action item sure um it's for Mrs shelling um I was I was talking to you a little bit about the bill list and uh the Food Service would
you mind explaining that part of the bill to me how it's broken down so in the past so that's part of our food service operation mashos is our new food service management company who took over July 1st um in the past the
board has not seen any of the revenues or expenditures flowing through that account the only time you would hear about the account is during the audit or um if there was anything that came up during the year so I brought this up in
finance committee that um I wanted to bring it's it flows through fund 60 as an Enterprise fund I wanted that to be uh part of the financial software because we do pay bills out of that
account we repair uh equipment we purchase equipment um we pay the Food Service management company we it's a it's a separate bank account and the daily lunch deposits and breakfast are put into this account and
we account for all the uh receipts and dispersements and in the past it was done via Quicken which is difficult it's a simplistic program but you as a board are not able to see what goes in and out
of that account and approve the dispersements so having said that um you will see on the bills list fund 60 anything with a fun 60 account is our food service account um that bill to mashos is operations for the month of
July it fluctuates because it's based on the number of um free and reduced lunch full lunch served um any type of um their purchases vary throughout the school year you know they'll only
purchase inventory when it's lower it's so it's never going to be the same amount every month so January was a high month because they did purchase more inventory I get on a monthly basis from mashos their operating statement and um
my assistant and I match it up with the cash coming in and other reports and so that you're able to see it it doesn't flow through the board secretary's report you can see it on the treasur report um you'll see it says fund 60 and
it it'll it'll have it in there and this is from January yes just want to confirm irm this was January I think we said July but it was January no January on the bills list you say it's for the month of January perfect thank you for explaining that I appreciate it sure I knew what she meant
y got you did I did I say J it's okay I just wanted to make sure I just want make sure we're on the record for saying it's January we're all dreaming of July and warm weather right now that's what it is okay with that um we will move on to
approval of expenditures and reports uh Dr chano yes Madam president on the recommendation of the superintendent make a motion to approve the monthly expenditures report 6.1 through 6.8 second do we have any questions or
comments from the board D no seeing n we'll take a roll call please Dr Gano yes Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Melendez
yes Mrs naris yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes all right and we will move on to Personnel action items and Miss quina upon the recommendation of the superintendent I'd like to make a motion
to move Personnel action items 7.1 through 7.17 second and do we have questions or comments from the board with relation to Personnel action items um I just wanted to you say h
congratulations to miss uh Emily Kramer I see that you were moving on you'll be surely missed um with that I'll take a roll call Mrs Aquino yes Mrs fanton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Dr gordano
yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs Nares yes Mrs O'Neal I abstain from anything with Christian humer yes to everything else Mr yes and with that we'll move to curriculum and Technology Miss
[Applause] ferera upon recommendation of the superintendent I'd like to make a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.5 second do we have questions or comments from the board no okay seeing none I'll take a
roll call please Mrs yes Dr Gano yes Mrs Aquino yes Mrs fanton yes Mrs Fitzgerald uh no to 8.2 yes to everything else Mrs Melendez abstaining anything related to
Angela Sanchez and yes to everything else Mrs naris yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes all right with that we'll move to
finance and operations Miss Fitzgerald upon the recommendation of the superintendent I'd like to make a motion to approve action items 9.1 through 9.6 second do we have any questions or uh comments from the board no okay seeing none we'll take a
roll call please Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Aquino yes Mrs fatton yes Mrs fera yes Dr Jano yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs naris yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo
yes all right and that's it we will move to public comments uh students parents employees and community members May comment on any item of Interest pertaining to the Mount Olive School District please state your name and address for the record all comments must
be respectfully presented abusive or obscene comments will not be tolerated and the mic oh over here is open did anyone wish to come to the mic yes yes welcome
[Applause] yep and just State your your name and address for the record hi my name is precious Phill my address is 37 wherwell roow Bud Lake New Jersey 07828 even though our School's principal and
our superintendent stopped responding to my questions I have to continue to be an advocate I have to keep trying so tonight instead of questions of course because I can't do questions anyway I shall propose I
propose that we stop observing Christopher Columbus Day because it represents one of the darkest periods of oppression theft hate murder and ignorance all because people look different from those
explorers I also propose that we begin to learn about juneth because it represents the beginning of equality despite the fact that the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws were passed shortly after I hope we can begin to build a
school district where we teach full truths in a child-friendly way and not just from the point the Viewpoint or the point of view of the historical winners thank you thank you thank you so much thank you anyone else the mic is
open uh go on once anyone else okay I will close public comments and we'll move on to Old business members of the board May comment on any item or topic that was previously discussed by the board anyone yes mam president just to just follow back up again and I will be
each board meeting uh is Miss clean going to be coming to the next board meeting to present on the special ed Auto do we have a date on that we can get a date okay super thank you anyone else from the board old business all right seeing none we will move to new business any board member
May introduce any new item or topic of discussion for the board uh to consider anyone all right we will move on to board comments members of the board May comment on any item of Interest pertaining to the school
district and we'll start at the end Dr Gano you just to congratulate coach SMI coach romano and all the the wrestlers from Mount Olive uh for winning the district title um and sending I think it's one of our largest if not the largest group of of athletes to uh the
regions so they had a banner year once again so congratulations and M um just a kudos to our music department if you went to the all district concert um choir are are you right you GNA make it okay um if you went to the all district choir concert
last week to get that many groups of human beings up on stage performing off the stage in I think we were out in an hour and 15 minutes I mean it was a thing of beauty I don't know how they did it it was amazing you got to hear every single group and then they moved on and it was just it was incredible it
was so well orchestrated and so to everybody who was responsible for making that so efficient and also so enjoyable thank you very much amazing congratulations to all the athletes and to the music department also and I wish the best to the robotics
teams and all the Endeavors that we have during this upcoming weekend especially wrestling Mr quo I had no comments wow sorry did they take all your comments day today I'm not going to repeat what every what they said but um everything they
said ditto you wantto and Mr oill did look at that well done well done sir M fig nothing for me tonight oh we're going fast jeez Miss okay I'm going to add to Dr Gano we
also um had Molly SMI um is one of our sec I think the second in record to go to districts I think we had what almost nine states nine students overall qualifi for individual states and then Molly M mly will go into the wrestlers qualif the the individual male wrestlers
are going to Regions Molly qualified for uh the states yep so on the female side Molly will be on the individual State platform those um individuals take place March 6th 7th and 8th and then we have robotics coming up on March 8th and as
you heard we have lots of music uh orchestras and band coming up this week com up too tomorrow and tomorrow band tomorrow band tomorrow Orchestra band's Wednesday orchestra's Thursday I have to look at a calendar with that we have we also have
a birthday Mr oilla Happy Birthday anybody else where's our where's our music department to sing cuz I'm not singing happy bir who wants to play it he turned 30 is this his anniversary of his
30th that's all we'll say and that's all I have and with that um I will take a motion to go into close session so moved second okay resolved that the board meet in confidential session for the purpose of discussing um
Personnel matters of attorney client privilege um pending or anticipated litigation I think that's all I have on the list and we are now in close session e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e e
five is that about the one from the one that just got $4,000 all right we're gonna we're waiting for board members all right I'm going to read I'm going to enter into the minutes we are back into session do we need to take
a roll [Applause] call Mrs Aquino here Mrs fanton here Mrs where did that come from Mrs Fitzgerald here Mr Dr Gordana here
Mrs Melendez here Mrs Nares here Mrs O'Neal here Mr orillo here all right so we have one last item um we are adding to our agenda for finance uh 9.7 and it reads whereas the Mount Olive
Board of Education awarded a contract to JDM Consulting Services LLC of Clifton New Jersey originally approved on October 14th 2024 to provide interim facilities project management services in accordance with the proposal dated
October 11 2024 and an amount not to exceed $34,500 effective on or about October 15th 2024 through December 31st 2024 and whereas due to delays in the project caused by two change orders resulted in
the vendor not being able to perform their obligations by the date of December 31st 2024 and whereas the extension of this contract was discussed in committee and with the full board and whereas the project is not scheduled to be completed until August 2025 and the
board wishes to extend the vendor Services until June 30th 2025 at no additional costs therefore be it resolve that Mount Olive Township Board of Education extends the contract to JDM Consulting Services LLC of Clifton New
Jersey through June 30th 2024 25 at no additional cost to the board do we have um a second second do we have any questions or comments from the board nope seeing none we'll take a roll call Miss ton
Mrs Nares yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Aquino no Mrs fanton yes Mrs fera yes Dr Gano no Mrs Melendez yes Miss uh Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orilla
yes okay and with that we are done I will take a motion to adjourn we have a second and all those in favor