like to call this meeting to order, please. Will everybody please rise for the flag salute and remain standing for a moment of reflection to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it
stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. 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 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 filed with the clerk of Mount Olive Township on January 8th, 2025. I direct that this announcement be entered into the minutes of this meeting.
On November 17th, 2025, the Mars County Clerk issued a statement of determination certifying the election of John C. Petri, Louisa Melendez, Canedo, and Lisa Brett for a term of three years for calendar year 2026.
At this time, the board attorney will administer the oath of office to the newly elected members. them all at once. >> I was going to say, would we want to do it all at once or just one at a time? Either way is fine with me.
>> Do you want to all come up? That'll be fine. >> You just stand in here. Make sure you have your statement with you. You >> want to just raise your right hand and
repeat after me? I state your name. >> I >> do solemnly swearly >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New
Jersey. >> Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. to this >> and to the governments established in the United States in this state
>> the government >> under the authority of the people >> under the people. So help me God. >> I state your name. I do >> do solemnly swear >> solely swear >> that I possess the qualifications
prescribed by law for the office >> that I possess >> of member of a board of education >> education >> and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS194-1
>> that I'm not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 191 >> nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in NJS18A12-1 NJS 1812- >> and that I will faithfully and partially
and justly perform >> I will faithfully and partially and justly perform >> all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability. So congratulations coming up. Coming up. Come on up. It's official now.
>> They don't tell you that right away. It's official now. You should try doing it as an interum. They really get they spring it on you. >> You're so cute. >> Okay. At this time, I'm going to ask for nominations for board president for uh
the 2026 calendar year. May I have a nomination, please? >> I'd like to nominate Dr. Jana for president. >> I'll second it. Anyone else? >> Could I get a motion to close nominations?
>> So moved. >> Congratulations, Dr. Gardana. >> Congratulations. PRESENT. >> You can move into your spot. There's nobody nobody else running against you here. >> Nice meeting you over here, John.
I'd >> like to thank everyone on the board for their support. Means a lot to me. Um, I'd like now to open up for nominations for board vice president. >> I'd like to nominate Mrs. Figera for VP, please. >> I second that.
>> Any other nominations? Seeing none, can I have a motion to close? >> So moved. >> Congratulations, Miss Fger. >> Thank you. >> I don't travel lightly. Bye, neighbor. >> See you later. >> Right now, next is the uh NJBSA
representatives and and Morris County ESC representative. Those have to be voted on. Um we'll do that at our next board meeting. Um and I'll solicit uh if any board members are interested in doing that. Traditionally, that's how we've done it. Um, presidential appointments. I don't see any of the committee chairs changing. Um, but
certainly if any committee members want to switch a committee, please email me. I will have uh that list out by Wednesday. So, between today and Wednesday, uh, let me know. Um, and I just have to figure out, especially with Miss Brett and Mr. Petri, what what what you're thinking, committees you'd like
to be on. Um, and see see how we do that from there. So certainly everyone I just think it's mid year as a school year to kind of move everyone in and out totally. If we make one or two changes if someone wants to do something that's fine but um I think consistency is the
best way to go and then uh let me know um any liaison um you know from town council uh planning board uh recreation advisory committee all that stuff. So um if you could do that within the next few days that would be great. Uh we are not going to go confidential session right
now. We are going to be moving confidential session to the end of of our meetings. Um, so we don't have to worry about that. And then I will turn it over to Mr. uh Gert who will give us our annual by code our ethics training. >> Well, thank you. Congratulations.
>> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. Um, I do have a handout that you have in front of you. So, um, you can take it home and read it at your leisure. Uh I will move fairly quickly through this but I did want to just uh point out a number of things to you. We
do have to go over the uh school ethics act and we'll do that at this time. So uh on page two it states the school ethics act. It gives you the citation so that we can uh move from there. Page three what I want to point out to you is
the penalties for violating the act. uh the the commission can recommend reprimand, censure, suspension or removal from the board. So that is uh >> and real quick, Mr. Gabbert, the board itself cannot issue anything to its fellow board members, right? It has to commission.
>> There's case law saying that the board has no jurisdiction to take action against its members that it's solely in the school ethics commission. Um and then on page four, we start out with the prohibition on inconsistent interest.
The main thing here under 12 hyphen 2 is that a board member uh cannot be interested directly or indirectly in any contract with or claim against the board. Nor could you be the mayor or a member of the governing body as well. So
that's a general statute. On page five, uh, general principle here coming out of 12 hyphen 22A is that board administrators must avoid conduct which is in violation of their public trust or which creates a justifiable impression
among the public that such trust is being violated. Now, starting with the individual points on page six, we have subsection A. They're all listed at 18812- 24.1. We do have to go over these 10 statements and you do have to then
sign an uh certification that you've gone over them. I will uphold and enforce all laws, rules, and regulations of the state board of education and court orders pertaining to schools. Desired changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical
procedures. And I've uh listed a case under each of these two that you can read at your leisure. But I do want to point out that these give examples of where board members violated. In this first one, they voted uh against two directives from the Department of
Education on a send received uh matter and that got them into trouble. Now turning to page seven, a number B. Uh the second point is I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that
meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability, race, creed, sex or social standing. This basically sets forth the principles about we're here for the benefit of the children and that we do not discriminate. Uh and then there's a case
underneath that as well. Now on page eight we go to number C. This is an important one. I will confine my board action to policym, planning and appraisal. And I will help to frame policies and plans only after the board
has consulted those who will be affected by them. So here the case is an example of a DARE officer who was found that they couldn't also be a board member because the nature of their job was they were so involved with juveniles and students that it was a conflict of
interest. So then turning to page nine this point here D is I will carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members to see that they are wellrun. So this administrating the
school tries to draw a line between what the administration does and what the board members do. The case under here found a violation where the board member bypass the superintendent and demanded information directly from a district supervisor. They were censured for doing
that action. So that's a line that you need to be uh careful of. And obviously I'm always here before and after board members board meetings or uh during the meetings themselves. Feel free to reach out if you ever have any questions along
those lines. Now on page 10 number E says, "I will recognize that authority rests with the board of education and will make no personal promises nor take any private action that may compromise the board. So the takeaway here is
making sure that you don't do any kind of promises or any kind of private action that compromises the board or puts the board in a bad position. Uh the case here out of West New York showed where a board member unilaterally issued a rice notice to the BA without notice
to the board and that was found to be inappropriate. Now on page 11 we have subsection F and this one says I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups or
use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends. So you have to be careful here about not surrendering independent judgment to special interests or political groups. And you also cannot use the schools for personal gain or the gain of friends. And this is
an example here where they did not violate it in writing an article uh to the uh letter to the editor. But still that's an area that you have to be very careful of. Now turning to page 12. This is the confidentiality provision. And
this under G states, I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which if disclosed would needlessly in injure individuals or the schools. In all other matters, I will provide accurate information and in concert with my fellow board members
interpret to the staff the aspirations of the community for its school. And here is a case that we should look at and you should be aware of it. The board member here violated this section when he intentionally informed members of his immediate family of an incident
involving a student which resulted in discipline. The information was subsequently shared with countless others. Part of this was a board member texting to his son and other family members something involving
a student discipline. The son of course immediately sent it to everyone he knew and it just went throughout the entire town. Board member was uh centured for doing that and that's something that you need to be careful of. Uh turning to 13
uh subsection H I will vote to appoint the best qualified personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrator officer here. So this point is one that stresses taking action
on voting uh for personnel after considering the recommendation of the superintendent. It's an important point. Uh this case does show that a board member is permitted to table appointments with the board if they want to ask for additional information but it
must not be done for nefarious reasons. So we have that basis there. Then on page 14 I uh talking about supporting the school personnel it says I will support and protect school personnel in
proper performance of their duties. And in this case they they found it actually wasn't a violation here because the board member commenting about the board president and they said that technically it wasn't school personnel. But you need to be very careful there when speaking
about school personnel. We're here to support them and protect them in uh different ways. Now turning to 15. This is the last one in this section J. And it says, I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer
act on the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution. So the idea here is the chain of command and referring the complaints to the superintendent to give them an opportunity to act on it. And the idea
the board sort of uh the judge of last resort you act on complaints at public meetings o only after there's been a failure of an administrative action on that. And the case down here shows where a board member sent a series of emails to the superintendent, football coach,
board president, board counsel directing certain actions to be taken by an administration. They found they violated that provision and they were censured. Now, on page 16, I'm just including the uh conflicts of interest chart. We're
not going to go over them in detail here. comes out of advisory opinion 2417 and relates mainly to those board members who have a current member of the family who work in the district or with the local union or um board members who
have a current member of their family who's involved in a another school district in a statewide union. So that's just something to be aware of and we can talk about that. I'd be glad to talk with individual members if they fall into either one of those categories.
Now, moving on to the um prohibited acts and the conflicts of interest. Uh now that we finished the 10 main code of ethics provisions that you certified to, it's important that you're also aware at least briefly that there are is an additional statute 12-y that lays out
potential conflicts of interest. And part A here says no school official or member of his immediate family shall have an interest in a business organization or engage in any business transaction or professional activity which is in substantial conflict with
the proper discharge of his duties in the public interest. So the whole idea about not having a conflict with discharge of your duties, advisory opinion here that I put in talks about a board member who owned a private business and they were told they would
violate it if they had that involved with their board position. So that's something to be aware of. Page 18 number B talks about no school official shall use or attempt to use his official position to secure unwarranted
privileges, advantages or employment for himself, members of his immediate family or others. So, as you see there, the phrases are somewhat general and that's why it's always good to to prior on the side of caution here. They say you can't use your official position to secure
unwarranted privileges, advantages, or employment for yourself or members of your family. And uh here is a case where a board member made public comments about a candidate. They damaged the board uh candidates's reputation and
this was found to be a violation. So you have to be careful with that. Um, page 19, part C. No school official shall act in his official capacity in any matter where he, a member of his immediate family or a business organization in
which he has an interest, has a direct or indirect financial involvement, key word here, financial involvement, that might reasonably be expected to impair his objectivity or independence of judgment. No school official shall act in his official capacity in any matter
where he or a member of his immediate family has a personal involvement. Here the key phrase is personal involvement that is or creates some benefit to the school official or member of his immediate family. The example here the broen case the board member attended
close session where litigation was involved and she was a party uh where it was discussed. She didn't recuse herself. This was found to be a violation. Now turning over to page 20, we have subsection D and this talks about no
school official shall undertake any employment or service whether compensated or not which might reasonably be expected to prejudice his independence of judgment. The official in the exercise of his official duties. The case that we discussed before about
the DARE officers cited again here. They found he would violate this provision as well. They did note that not all police officers are barred from serving as board members. You can. It's just because his assignments required extensive daily interaction with the
schools, district personnel, staff, students, and parents. He his role presented an inescapable likelihood of conflicts. So on page 21 subsection E this one thank you >> talks about no school official or member
of his family or business organization which he has an interest shall solicit or accept any gift favor loan political contribution service promise of future employment or other thing of value based upon an understanding that the gift
favor loan contribution service promise or other thing of value was given or offered for the purpose of influencing him directly or indirectly in the discharge of his official duties. This is basically the bribery provision. This
pro provision shall not apply to the solicitation or acceptance of contributions to the campaign of an announced candidate for elective public office if the school official has no knowledge or reason to believe that the campaign contribution if accepted was
given with the intent to influence the school official in the discharge of his official duties. So there is a carve out provision in the second half of this section permitting uh the campaign and political contributions. the Rubino case that's cited down here
below. The board member was found violated. Uh this section, they sent emails soliciting campaign contributions to three district employees at their district email addresses and they actually were suspended for six months for doing that. So that's something that
should not be done. Uh, page 22, subsection F. No school official shall use or allow to be used his public office or employment or any information not generally available to the members of the public which he receives or requires in the course of
and by reason of his office or employment for the purpose of securing financial gain for himself, any member of his immediate family or any business organization with which he is associated. So there once again the confidentiality provision uh that you
have to be careful of. On page 23, subsection G, no school official or business ex organization in which he has an interest shall represent any person or party other than the school board or district in connection with any cause,
proceeding, application, or other matter pending before the school district in which he serves or in any proceeding involving the school district which he serves or for officers or employees of New Jersey school boards association, any school district. This provision
shall not be deemed to prohibit representation within the context of official labor union or similar respons representatational responsibilities. The advisory opinion here has an example that a board member may serve as
president of the local PTA, but they have to make sure that they do not represent the PTA before the board on any matter. So, they would have to recuse themselves in that particular situation. As we move along towards the end, subsection H, no school official shall
be deemed in conflict with these provisions. If by reason of his participation in any matter required to be voted upon, no material or monetary gain acrru to him as a member of any business, profession, occupation, or group to any greater extent than any
gain could reasonably be expected to acrue to any other member of that business, profession, occupation, or group. So the idea is that they would not benefit any more than anyone else in the group. The advisory opinion here has the example where a board member whose
children attended the district high school were permitted to discuss and vote on a proposal to give greater weight to more academically challenging courses but they were not permitted to vote on whether they could make such proposal retroactive when the
retroactivity would give their children a greater benefit. So the individual facts sometimes depend on that. Um subsection I, no elected member shall be prohibited from making an inquiry for information
on behalf of a constituent if no fee, reward, or other thing of value is promised to, given to, or accepted by the member or a member of his immediate family. And in this case, they found the board member violated the act when he sent an email to the superintendent that
was critical. the superintendent's handling of a matter involving the board member's wife, a teacher in the district, in an attempt to secure an unwarranted privilege for his wife, with respect to the disposition of two days of leave time. So, this case is an
example of a problem that would come up if a board member tried to direct the superintendent to do something regarding a spouse who's an employee in the district. Um in J on page 26, nothing shall prohibit any school official or
member of his immediate family from representing himself or themselves in negotiations or proceedings concerning his or their own interests. This is a safe harbor for uh parents, the school board members that that they obviously can advocate on behalf of their
children. The example here uh which went to the New Jersey Supreme Court case Kennedy with the seal city. A board member is not disqualified from office by filing a special education due process request. Court said you can do that. But in this case, the board member
got into trouble and was actually removed from office because their due process request included a request for specific monetary relief money. Demand for payment to the board member's spouse for services provided to the sun. So
that's where the clear lines drawn that you get in trouble once you go after the district for money, things of that sort. K, we're going to skip over in 27 because that just deals with employees in New Jersey School Boards Association. Um, so that brings us to the end of the
prohibited acts. I did want to just give you two or three additional slides on things with social media that I want to bring to your attention because in addition to all the other obligations as a board member, social media brings additional things to be concerned with.
So in page 29 and 30 I have uh stated the Mount Olive board policy for you 169.02 on board members use of social media and just going through them in general the main thing is not to post anything that
violates the district policies. Number two to avoid making defamatory statements about the board the personnel etc. Three, not to disclose any confidential information. Four, not to use or refer to your board of education
title or position when soliciting for a business organization as well as not posting any confidential information regarding the board. Over on page 30, it finishes five, to refrain from having communications through social networks
with other board members. And as we know, you can have a violation the open public meetings act if a a quorum of the board is discussing things in um outside of an off of the board meeting. Six, not responding to any postings regarding
board of education or school district business and you shall refer such questions or inquiries to the superintendent of schools to address as appropriate. And the last one, not posting any information on a social network determined by the New Jersey School Ethics Commission to be a
violation the New Jersey School Ethics Act. Now, in 31, you hear quite a bit about a disclaimer uh for board members when they're dealing with social media. We've discussed this before, particularly for the new people. This is a new area for Melnik case. They now
require board members to use the following prominent disclaimer when making or responding to a s social media post, community pages, or other things that are involved in the public. And what you do in large letters, you state the following statements are made in my
capacity as a private citizen and not in my capacity as a board member. These statements are also not representative of the board or its individual members and solely represent my own personal opinions and that's to go with the board
policy that the board has the authority to speak on an issue but the individual board member does not. Um, you do have a right to have your opinion on something, but when you post on social media, you write a letter to the editor, you do anything along those lines. You don't
want to mislead the public into thinking that my opinion is really what the board's opinion is on something. So, I've added one or two cases here just to show that even where they use a disclaimer, you can still get into trouble. So, uh, I hate to be full of
bad news here, but it's sort of that's what we do. We as attorney in the Leonard case on page 32, this, uh, board member did use the disclaimer, but then they went on to violate the act because they posted
anti-Muslim statements. Um, and the board member was found to have engaged in private action that may compromise the board and could be viewed as violating the public trust. the school ethics commission felt that their comments about Congresswoman Omar and
other people and Ad Doll uh and violence was way over the line and they felt that Muslim students would not be comfortable in feeling that they had a fair opportunity from that board member. So that was something to be careful about even when they did a disclaimer. And
then on page 33 um here Tristan uh in a discla he did put a disclaimer statement in uh advising that he's writing on his own personal behalf but that wasn't sufficient to insulate him from censure
because then he went on and the content of his statement where he endorsed two candidates and spoke out against another one. Uh the commission concluded even if an appropriate disclaimer is used, the school official must never negate the import of the disclaimer by proceeding
to discuss board matters in a way that leads members of the public to believe the individual is speaking on behalf of the board. So here even if you say a disclaimer if you start talking about the board and the board and the board and matters that the board is discussed
and done and things like that it just it there were multiple references to the board and board matters in this and it led the commission to feel that any member of the public reading that would think that the board was actually doing the endorsement along those lines. Then finally, I just added on page 34
the the danger too with emails. I don't think we can discuss this too much. Uh in this Lynch case, the commission determined that a board member failed to maintain confidentiality as required by the ba the act when he replied all to an email. Now, the email
contained his opinions on a controversial issue and they were actually accidentally sent to a district parent that he thought he was just responding reply all to the board members and superintendent, but it had been initiated by a parent and so the
parent was still on that chain and all this confidential information was given to them. The commission found because the board member did not intentionally include the parent on the email, he was subject only to censure as opposed to a more severe penalty. So sorry to race
through that, but I did want to just touch on the important points for you. Feel free to look at this and I'm available at any time to discuss, you know, specific situations in there. >> Any questions from the board for Mr. Gert?
See none. Thank you, John. question. >> Make sure everyone signs that and we can pass them drop them off to uh Miss Shing or you just want to pass them down now. If everyone has them, we can just pass it out. >> Want to make sure that I >> We're moving right now to public comments on action items. 61. Members of
the community may comment on any action item included on tonight's agenda prior to board discussion. You're looking at 7.1 all the way down to 10.1. So, anyone come up to the mic, state your name and address for the record on action items and action items
only. Seeing none, closing the public comment. Can I have a motion for consent agenda approval on uh the action items? So moved. >> Need a second. >> Second. >> Thank you.
Mr. Aquina, would you make the motion from 9.1 all the way down? I think I messed that up. >> 7.1. >> Oh, sorry. 7.1. Thank you. From 7.1 all the way down to >> 10.1. >> Certainly. Um,
>> messed that up. On behalf of the superintendent, I'd like to make a motion to approve action items 7.1 through 10 >> no one. One 10.1. Thank you. >> You want to second that again? >> Second. >> I messed that up, guys. I apologize. Any
questions or comments from the board? >> Shake the roast off. >> I know. I got to >> rusty. >> Seeing none. Uh, no comments. Closing. Roll call. Miss showing. >> Mrs. Aquino. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Brett. Yes. >> Yes.
>> Mrs. Faggera. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald. >> Yes. >> Dr. Gordano. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Melendez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. O'Neal. >> Yes. >> Mr. Orailo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Petri. >> Should I abstain on the minutes because I was not a board member?
>> Yes. And actually, >> yeah. And actually, Miss Brett should go back change Miss Brett to your vote. I didn't realize that. I just thought of that now. Yes. They should both abstain on that on the minutes. >> So, everything abstain for 81 and 82. the same. >> Okay.
>> And now we're moving to public comments in general. Students, parents, employees, and community members may comment on any item of interest of pertaining to the Malov School District. Please come up. State your name and address for the record. Good evening everyone. Uh >> happy new year.
>> Happy new year, President Gordano, members of the board, members of the community, staff and uh welcome guests in particular. Glad to see members of Moesa.
My name is Gita Vogle. I live at 48 Jungrass Way, Panther Valley, Alamucci. And I am in my seventh year as PSA representative for Moesa. I have two
reasons for being at the mic tonight. One is to congratulate the new board members to wish you all well and all the decision making that is uh forthcoming on behalf of the wonderful community we
call Mount Welcome to the new members and uh you will see what a an august group it is. And the second is just to say thank you members of Maesa. uh you
will get to know them as well. They work tirelessly on behalf of the students, the staff, and the Mount Olive community. A great place to be. So, once again, happy new year. I've been on hiatus with, you know, recovering from
this so-called easy surgery. So, don't believe them when they tell you that. But, nonetheless, thank you all for all of your accommodations during these past seven years. Thank you. >> You look great.
>> Thank you. >> Good evening. Nice to see you all again. >> A minute. Hold on. >> Hang in. >> Come on. Is that up for you, sir? >> I'm a little taller. >> Uh, I'm very excited about this award. First of all, I want to congratulate Dr. Geodano and Miss Figueroa. Excuse me.
>> You have some veteran leadership there. >> Can you say your name? >> I'm sorry. Tony Tony Strilace, Norwood Roadflers. Thank you. >> Um, and I want to congratulate Mrs. Melendez for rear reelection and welcome
back John Petri, a former board member and a new board member, Mrs. uh Brett. Um, now what you would have to do, this board has to do is it has to coales into one mindset. You have to talk to one another. You have to confide in one
another, work with one another, work with the administration, and the administration has to work with you because in addition to every exigency that's going to occur during this this school year, you've got a couple of major issues you're going to have to deal with. One of those I would like to
talk to you about tonight, and that is our overcrowding in our schools. Now, I know you've been talking about it and I believe the administration has discussed this with the town administration, but there is no doubt in my mind, folks,
that this year, this year, you have to go out for a referendum. There is no doubt in my mind. I'd just like to take a moment, if you would please, and I'd like to give you a little history and some suggestions.
When I came to Mount Olive, we were growing. so fast we literally had to lease space in a church and in a bowling alley for classrooms and all during that the the following years the community of Mount Olive was
so supportive of the district even during it's always tough times and always when people are struggling and we built the the upper el school we built the Mountain View school and closed the Budlake school with and the Flanders school we built I'm sorry, the Bud Lake
school, Slater School. Then we built the S San We closed the Budlake School. Then we built Mountain View North. Then we built a high school. Then we added an addition on to the middle school. Then we added an addition onto the high school. We kept doing this and doing
this and doing this. And the the the uh the community kept supporting us. Now, let me take you up to 1990 and 1991, which is when I first got on the board. In those days, the budget was different than it is now. There were two
segments to the budget. The capital expenditure, capital outlay. You had to vote for both of those. Capital expenditure, as you know, would be your operating expenses. Capital outlay, of course, you would know would be what your capital reserve is account today where you do your building, your
equipment, everything. Well, you had to vote for both of those. And the people did, and they kept voting for it, and they kept supporting us. But in 1990 and 91, excuse me, we had to put an addition on to our middle school in the back of
our middle school. We we I'm sorry, we already put one in the back of the middle school in the in the 80s. Now we had to put one in the front of the middle school in the '9s and there was a reason for that. But in those days, we had no cap on our capital outlay which
we have today. And we had the money in there. So we took 600,000. It was million two. We took 600,000 from the 90 budget and 600,000 from the 91 and we were able to pay that without going to referendum. But now we saw some and the reason why
we did that we saw the growth continue to come and come come and we were so loaded in our elementary schools. We did that because now we were going to take the sixth grade level and move it up to the middle school and be sixth, seventh and eighth. Let me tell you something.
I've been in attendance in board meetings for over 750 meetings. I have never seen a meeting that was as full as the one when we announced sixth graders were going up to the middle school. Their parents were irate. They were
upset. They did not want 11 year olds going to school with 15 year olds. But we had an out and we explained it and they lived with it. We had had two additions we put on to that middle school. You know today a CMS. The one in
the back and the one in the front. And we explained to them they will never see those eighth graders. The eighth graders will be in the back, the seventh graders in the middle, the sixth graders in the front. They will not have lunch together. They we kind of appease them and thank God we got through with that.
And now we were able to alleviate some of the overcrowding in our our elementary schools. But we knew what was coming. We saw it continue to build. I mean, with all the apartments we have on Oakwood Village and Village Green and Steadwood Village and all the
developments that kept building and building and building, we knew it was coming. So, in 1997, we came out with a referendum, a $40 million referendum, which was the largest in Mars County at that time.
Now, I've been involved with four referendums. two two passed, two failed. And as you know, when you have put out a referendum, there are two things. The core of that school was built in ' 67 and the hallways were narrower than they
are today. That was the code then. And I watched those kids in that hallway and we prayed that never did we have a problem because they were shouldertoshoulder changing classes. We didn't want to see that happen again. So we knew we had to build a new middle
school and then capture the old school as an elementary and that would solve our problem. So we went out to the people and we showed them what we were going to do. In addition to that, save them some money because we were going to join Mountain View North with Mountain
View and save all duplicate administrative costs. So that was going to help and we were able to show them some undeniable need that was there was probably 90% of that that referendum and it passed.
We then knew eventually as the bubble kept going up we were going to have to do something at the high school. So in 2003 we came out with a $49 million referendum to expand the high school.
We only probably at that point had a 50% undeniable need because we built a performing arts center and we put put turfills in and what have you. But we got a break that year. That was the year
that the state said we're going to put in $8.6 billion for school construction and and and reform and everything. and we were going to get approximately 23% or $13 million. I'm using these figures,
but I'm I I know I'm in the area someplace, but you know, your mind goes that, but I'm pretty close. We were going to get $13 million. So, oh, we only had a 50% undeniable need for that for that referendum. But who could turn down 13? You're not going to get that
money again. $13 million. So, it passed and it was great. Now, come along. We're still getting we're still getting loaded up in our in our in our elementary schools. So around 2017 18 we said we're going to put classrooms on the back of
Sanure. We need more elementary room but we also said let's let's get a kicker in there. Let's get a little help. So, we're going to also put in into that referendum a separate question
full day kindergarten. Don't ever do that again. Because we insulted the public. We gave him an ultimatum. We said, "If you vote for this, you can have that. But if you don't vote for this, that fails. Don't ever do that again." Because we learned
the lesson at that point. Now we fast forward to 2003. I'm sorry, 2023, this past election. We're crowded again. We have to do something. And so we come out with a
50some million dollar referendum. But only about 40% of that was an undeniable need. We thought more, which I'll explain in a minute. And that was we were going to put on eight classrooms in uh Tense Road, eight classrooms in
Sandshore, and we were going to do two classrooms plus a allpurpose center in a middle school. That was roughly $21 million or 40% of that referendum. But we also told them, look, our schools are 40 years old. We're putting more
need into the other part of it because we need roofs, we need ventilators, we need HVAC units and so on and so that was a need for us. We learned a new term because when that thing failed, I spoke to a lot of people and I said, you know
something, that should have been those things should have been put in your budget and done every year. And I tried to explain to them, look, our budget's capped at 2%. We can't the money is not there. we are doing other things but but you we just didn't have the money to do
it. They said wait a minute you had the money to build a stadium. You had the money to build a a a sound recording station. You had the money to build at least purchase a a a dome. You had that money. Why didn't you put that into the roofs and
everything at that time? So you learned something. We learned a new term, a deniable need. And that's what that was. So, what I'm trying to tell you is this. You definitely have to listen when we had the the 2022 uh demographic study. It showed we were
over capacity. Then, this is three four years later, folks. I can imagine what's going on in that school. When the before I got off, the last ter turn that I took tour that I took in the schools, they were they were teaching in the hallways. They were doing in a in an al cove. They
had musical instruction. I talked to one principal. She said, "Listen, I need to put on another section, but I don't know where I'm going to put them." So, it's got to be even worse now. I It must be two years, three years later. You need to go out for referendum this year, but when you go out for a referendum, go out
for 100% undeniable need. Don't put all this other stuff in there because the the folks are going to uh knock it down. You have to realize when you go after a referendum, you have a core 25% vote against you to begin with. That's number
one. 25% core vote against you. Now, one of the biggest mistakes we made in this last referendum, you have 5,000 students in this class in this school system. If you only used one
parent, not two, you got 5,000 votes. If you allow what that one parent to have two students, you have 2500 votes besides some of the other votes you're going to get. In the last this last referendum, we got 1,500 yes votes.
So you when you go for this next referendum, you zero in on the parents of the kids that are in school now. That's your that's the people you have to talk to. Those are the people you have to convince because you're not going to convince the people who do not
have any any more people in school kids in school. And that's where you're going to have to go. But folks, I'm telling you right now, you have to go out this year for referendum. You cannot let it go any longer. It's been three years since the last one, and you're and if
you don't do it now, you're just going to be really in trouble. Thanks for your listening. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Closing the public comment. Any board comments? Uh board members may comment on any of interest pertaining to the Malow School District. We'll start
down with Mr. Petri. Just want to say thank you to the voters to get me back on the board. I'm looking forward to the next three years. Uh and just found out from Mr. Stanbury the alumni is tomorrow. Uh I love that event. So hopefully I will be able to make it. >> That's it. Thank you, >> Miss Brett.
>> Same. Just thank you to the voters and my family and my friends who came out. >> Mr. Aquino, >> just want to congratulate Mr. Petri and Miss Brett and Mrs. Melendez. Welcome back again. Um, and we're going to have a great year.
>> Miss Fitzgerald, >> we're gonna go with Ditto. Everybody said everything. >> Miss O'Neal. >> And Ditto. And congratulations to president and vice president. >> Mr. Rosilla. >> Oh, congratulations. I'm looking forward
to working with everybody and a good year. >> Thanks, >> Melendez. >> Thank you for the voters for free election and the vote of confident and welcome to our new board members. I hope we are going to uh work closely all of
us and congratulations to the vice president and to the president. And thank you so much uh Mr. John Gippert for always your orientation and wise words. >> Mr. Gara, >> I'm gonna keep it short and sweet because I'm losing my voice.
But I just want to thank everybody for the vote of confidence. I will work to the best of my ability to keep our district moving forward and always putting our children first. And I I thank all of you for putting your faith in me. like to congratulate the newly newly elected uh board members, Miss Faggera
uh on vice president. I look forward to working with you this year and to the board members uh as well for uh confident in and in and me as the board president. With that being said, I will need a motion to move to confidential session. >> So moved.
>> Uh all in favor >> is the statement on your yes. resolved that the board meet in confidential session for the purpose of discussing personnel matters of attorney client privilege pending or anticipated litigation um and be further resolved that the matters discussed in confidential session be disclosed to the
public when reasons of confidentiality no longer exist. Action will not be taken. You usually we say may be taken is not being taken today. All those a favor.