This meeting is called in conformance with the open public meeting act as as advertised as follows. Notice sent to the Burlington County Times and the Times of Trenton on April 15, 2025. Notice filed with the town township
clerks of Chesterfield, Mansfield, Springfield, and North Hanover townships on August or April 15, 2025 and notice of the annual meetings advertised in the Berlin County Times and the Times of Trenton on January 7th,
2020. I will now call roll. Mr. Figs, present. Mrs. Bond, present. Mrs. Applegate. Mr. Mr. Armanente, Mr. Bucks, present,
Mr. Narwood here, Mrs. Janice here, Mr. Spence, Mr. Zimmer here, and Miss Pierre present. Thank you. At this time, I'd ask like to ask everyone to please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence.
Has any board of education member received schoolboard related emails and/or correspondences that have not yet been shared with the superintendent? Right. Uh Dr. Zuckermanman, if you'd like to go over your superintendent report. Absolutely. First, I'll turn it over to Miss Pierre for the student
representatives report. Good evening, everyone. My board report tonight will consist of information about our sports clubs and upcoming events. Upcoming events, we have the following events coming up. Relay for Life, Northern Burlington Relay for Life is almost here. May 17th from 400 p.m.
to 10 p.m. We have raised over $42,000 so far, but our goal is 50,000. It's not too late to join us against the fight for cancer. You can create a team, join a team, or make a donation. activities. Multicultural day was held
the day before spring break and it was a success. We had 39 countries presented and so many students both monitoring tables and presenting. Student council elections are come happening right now. We are excited to see everyone campaign
and excited to see who is selected to lead the student council and each grade level council for the upcoming year. Prom tickets have been sold to students and guests and we are excited to celebrate with the theme of masquerade. The prom is on June 6th at the Weston
Mount Laurel. Sports. Many of our spring sport teams are doing very well. The girls track team are division champs with and continue to dominate their competitors. The baseball team got off to an amazing
17-0 and also clinch their division. They continue to do well and we look forward to seeing what they do in the upcoming upcoming playoffs. We are excited to see many of our sports teams make a run in the playoffs over the next few weeks. And that's it for my board
report. Thank you so much. Um, Northern Burlington is always a busy place, but this time of year it seems like there is something every night. A few highlights from the past few weeks include the sweetheart dance, the senior citizen prom, numerous sporting events, the
plants spring plant sale, not to mention the upcoming concerts, Relay for Life, and the end of the year celebrations. None of these events happen on their own. A huge thank you to the many people who work behind the scenes for planning and sometimes months of planning to make
sure that everything goes smoothly. You can find a list of the upcoming events in my May board report to the board as well as in the parent messages from the middle school and high school principles. Last month, we finished the collection that will ultimately help us update our mission statement. Since
then, we have spent time reviewing and analyzing the data that we have gathered throughout the thought exchange process. Just to review, we had over,00 people participate in the exchange. Of those, 1100 people, they created
803 individual responses. Those same people provided over 18,000 ratings. What this means is that people could provide a score of 1 to5 of the 803 responses that were submitted. We use this information to identify what the
students, the staff, the parents, and the community felt should be included in the draft of our mission statement. I have several presentations that are scheduled over the next few weeks. During these presentations, I will be discussing the process, the data as well
as the draft mission statements that we have developed. The participants will also be asked to provide feedback on the draft mission statements. We will ultimately use this feedback to develop the final version of of the future mission statement. I am meeting I met with the staff during their faculty
meetings last week. On this coming Wednesday, I will be at the middle school prior to the uh coral concert and at the high school on May 22nd prior prior to the high school band concert. Information will be shared with the families through direct emails, the
postings in the principal's parent messages as well as on social media. On May 23rd, we will put the presentation online for people to be able to review and provide feedback who are not able to attend. I shared a copy of the presentation with the board in my
May superintendent report at the in my June report to the board. I will include the final recommendation for our updated mission statement. This concludes my report. Any questions? Thank you, Dr. Zuckerman. Uh Mr. Cass, do you have any updates for your
business administrator's report? I I do not have any updates from from last week. Thank you. Thank you. Um, do any board members have any questions regarding the B business administrator's report? All right. Uh, Dr. McCann, if you'd like to give your high school
principal report, please. Um, so, so already my thunder was stolen by Miss Pierre and Dr. Zuckermanman because they told you about all the exciting events. Um, so I'm just going to highlight a few um, of the ones you already heard about. Um, in addition to multicultural day happening right before spring break, we also had Greyhound Choice, which is an opportunity to
highlight students for a variety of really great things they've done throughout the school, not just academics and athletics, um, but also just like being a good person or helping somebody smile each day in their class by assisting. Um, so that was a great ceremony. Um, right now we have AP testing happening. Um, so we have students that have been testing all of
last week and all of this week. Um, we think that's going quite well. We're using a number of different spaces to make sure that they um, have quiet and calm and can be successful. Um and then next week we'll launch into the NJSLA. Um so we'll have 9th and 11th graders testing and 10th and 12th graders with programming. Um we also have some
assemblies coming um next week as well. Um you heard about our plant sale if you didn't buy plants yet um in the greenhouse this Saturday coming up and the following weekend as well. Um they have a lot of different varieties and a lot of really nice stuff that our students have grown in the greenhouse. Um you heard about Relay for Life. We're
$8,000 a little less away from our goal of 50,000. Um, so if anybody wants to come participate, uh, this Saturday, 4 pm to 10 pm. And if you're not coming, or even if you are coming, pray the weather holds out. Um, because right now it looks like it might not go so well. If not, we'll be inside, so you can
still come out. Um, it's also concert season coming up. So, we have um, both the choir concert and the band concert coming up. In addition to scholars night, we'll be able to highlight our 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students for academic awards. We also have senior awards, which will highlight our 12th graders, and we have some scholarships
coming up for that. Um, you heard about prom. We also have uh World Language Honor Society, Thespian Awards, and a number other of ways that we acknowledge our students and all the great things they've done throughout the year as we come towards the close of the year. Um, and then graduation uh June
17th. That is um that's all I have unless you have questions. I'm sorry, we don't discuss rain and graduation in the same sentence. Okay, perfect. Uh, any questions? Great. Thank you, Dr. Okay. Uh item 2.04 is
consent agenda for the approval of the HIP reports. 2.05 is approval of the superintendence reports. Um this time uh Mr. Zimmer, if you'd like to give a report for the buildings grounds, finance transportation meeting that took place
last Monday. Sure. Uh so it took place last uh last Monday night and the first thing on the agenda was the update of the superintendent's employment contract because that expires next June of 2026 and we wanted to open that up and renegotiate that. I thought that was
supposed to be on tonight's agenda but I could be wrong. I didn't see it but that there's a public hearing on tonight's agenda. Is it Is it on there? Yes. Okay, perfect. So everybody will know about it then. And I don't need to
go into any further details. Uh um last week also we did the public budget hearing presentation. Um also of note in there the uh employee health insurance renewals. Health insurance was up 11.6% prescription drug plan up 19.75
and dental up 7%. We also did an update on the synthetic turf and track resurfering resurfacing. Uh just to remind everyone that's about 2.3 million and that's being funded by a uh long-term financing
plan. Um we had an update on the uh high school auditorium. We have a couple of work orders that we're looking to um get back into the contract because with the rebidding the price came down enough that we were able to have the vendor
rebid those specific items and they came in well within budget. Uh we also talked about a couple of other capital projects that were there. Most of these things were in uh Mr. Kaz's report if anybody wanted further uh information on them.
Um some things that were on the 25 spending plan, LED lighting in the high school and the middle school, some things to the middle school cafeterium, a dishwasher in the uh east kitchen. Um and that's about
it. Uh for followup, it's 7.12 on the agenda. Open here. Yep. Um any questions for the buildings grounds finance transition committee? All right. Thank you, Mr. Zimmer. Um we have no other committee reports this
evening. Um Mr. Bucks, do you have update from NJ SBA? I do. Um so on Saturday, I attended the delegate assembly in um Hamilton. There were um I think 11 counties represented
and there were just over 100 uh delegates that were present. The summary and I can uh submit this if this is I think this would be the first time we'd actually do it this way. Uh there was election of officers. So officer elected every two years as part of New Jersey School Board Association. There's a new
president Tamisa Tamisha Smith. A new VP for county activities which is Barry Walker. A new VP for finance which is Dr. Tom Connors. Uh and then a new VP for legislative legislation and resolutions and that's uh Shanta Jackson. Uh I believe Mr. Jackson has
been our uh VP in the past. Um there were three resolutions. One I think I'd mentioned uh last week's meeting was regarding the uh the inclusion of esports uh and I guess putting it on the similar level as um regular inschool
sports. uh that passed 90% to 10%. The there's a second resolution uh regarding let me see which one this was. This was school nursing. So, the ultimate language that was approved was a watered down version of language that was proposed by the resolutions committee
which was um the resolution read, "The New Jersey School Board Association believes all necessary and appropriate steps should be pursued to address the school nurse shortage and to increase the number of candidates who are eligible for the school nurse non-instructional endorsement from the
New Jersey Department of Education. So there was a lot of discussion, a lot of background about uh the inability to get nurses. Um and there had been an original proposal from Franklin Township was to uh to lower some of those requirements after it got reviewed by resolution committee. They had suggested
this uh this language proposal and this will ultimately get used to inform the legislature when they go through and work through any sort of legislation about what New Jersey school board's position is. And then the final resolution was from uh always butcher this one. Kit
Kittatini board of education up at Sussex. And this one was about um taking a position to increase the um the allowed excuse days specifically for um those that are pursuing a trade. So that
uh had passed uh like 95% to 5%. So the idea there was in December's delegate assembly a resolution was passed to uh to expand excused resolutions to include um those that are pursuing military service. That one had also passed back in December. So this is again kind of
recognizing those are either going to go into the military or go into any particular trade for schoolboard association take a position in support of that that those would be excused absences. So that is uh the summary of this uh this May's delegate assembly.
Anybody has any questions? Thank you very much, Mr. Bucks. You're welcome. All right. Um, at this time, I believe we will move on to the uh students of the month for the high school and the middle school. Yeah.
Thank you, Mr. F, for the opportunity to recognize our our students of the month. For our audience, the students of the month, there's a nomination process. Every uh every week, our teachers an opportunity to to nominate a student and then our our different committees uh meet, look at the uh the different nominees and we select our our students
of the month from those uh from those nominations. So, these are students that stood out to be nominated and then stood out again when they were selected by our our committee. And we're going to go through our our students of the month of March, April, and May. And when we're done the middle school, we have um a video that was put together by Northern TV of the different students and that'll
ultimately end up on our Northern TV YouTube channel. So, you can share that with with anybody um who has access to internet with grandma who lives in California, whatever the case may be. Um so, when I call the student's name, I ask you to come up. We have a um a certificate and a a binder here for you. And I'm going to ask you who you're here
with. So, be prepared to introduce your party uh to me. So, we're going to start with the month of March. We have a seventh grade student of the month and I'd like to introduce Miss McKenna White. Can if you join me and brave your very first congratulations here. Congratulations. Thank you very much for
coming. Continuing with March, we have our eighth grade student of the month and that's Miss Molly Catz. Congratulations. Congratulations. And finally for the month of March, we have our Elks student of the month for March, and that's Mr. Jerry Fall. Jerry, you join me up here,
please. Moving on to April, we have our seventh grade um student of the month for April and that's Miss Rebecca Zoak. Rebecca Our eighth grade student of the month for um April is Miss Emma Knip.
Emma. All right. In April, we have our elk student of the month and that's Mr. Cole Kaki. Cole, join that here, please. Thanks for the month of May. The elks don't don't they started in September. We don't start till October and so they finish the month earlier. So for May, we
just have our own internal students of the month. And so for May 7th grade student of the month, we have Miss Katherine Green. Katherine and finally we have Mr. Charlie Sulliv for May. Charlie. Those are our students of the month. And I'm turn over to Mr. Lee for
the video. My name is McKenna and I was nominated for seventh grade student of the month. I'm involved in flute choir, choir club, bucket drumming, gaming club, and crocheting club. In my future, I would like to take a job in the medical field. Hello, I'm Molly Catz. I
was nominated for 8th grade student of the month for March. I'm involved with the musical and I'm in real book club. In my future, I would like to be a psychiatrist. Hi, my name is J Fall and I'm nominated for Elk Theater Fund. At Northern, I'm involved with track. Uh, I
also do football. In my future, I would want to pursue my dreams to make in the NFL or I would like to be a rece. Um, my name is Rebecca Zolac. I was nominated for student of the month um, seventh grade in April. I'm involved with field
hockey and cheer. I would like to do my future um, probably coach field hockey or something. Hi, my name is Emma Knip and I was nominated for April's student of the month. I'm involved with FFA. In my future, I would like to be a
environmental scientist and specialist. I'm Cole Shreki and I was nominated for eighth grade Elk Student of the Month. In the past, I've been in the business club. Um, in my future, I would just like to be successful, but I'm not currently sure. Hi, my name is Katie Green and I was nominated for seventh
grade student of the month. I'm involved in bucket drumming and I was also in the play and musical and I also do art club. I would like to pursue being an eye doctor or an illustrator and author. Hi, my name is Charlie Solivet and I was nominated for eighth grade student of
the month. I'm involved with Northern baseball and junior graham football. I would like to pursue a career in the fitness world. All right. And that leads us into our high school students of the month. Um, so for March 9th grade student of the
month, Amelia Lroan and 10th grade March student of the month, Par Jane. 11th grade March student of the month, Anthony Montero. Anthony was sick today. and our 12th grade student of the month
for March, Haley Foresight. And our March Elks student of the month, Austin win. All right. Who are you here with, Austin? Here's my super awesome mother. All right. Thanks for coming. All right. April 9th grade student of
the month, Kira Cleveland, also sick today. Okay. 10th grade April student of the month, Sophia Rabba. Great. Congratulations. Thanks for coming. And April 11th grade student of
the month, Sachi Tvastava. and our April 12th grade student of the month, Jesus Wall. And our April Elk student of the month, Madison Lugo. Thanks for coming. All right, we're on to May. May 9inth
grade student of the month, Nicholas Toth. Congratulations. And our May 10th grade student of the month, Gavin Hoppy. I heard he was at a baseball game. Okay. 11th grade student of the month, Jeremy
Nicoladus. Oh, we got a stand in, right? Hey, congrats. Thank you very much. Who are you here with? I'm here with my beautiful wife, Maria. Very good. Jeremy and beautiful. Thanks for coming. And last, our May 12th grade student of
the month, Jack Smiley. Awesome. All right, we're going to go ahead and check out the high school video now. My name is Amelia Lone and I have been nominated for um student of the month for the month of March. I am involved with the high school girls
soccer team. I would like to go to law school to be a lawyer. Hi, my name is Par Jane and I was nominated for the 10th grade March student of the month. So I'm part of a bunch of clubs such as part of a math club. I'm part of FTC which is robotics and I'm part of DECA
club and I also run spring track. In my future I would like to go to college and pursue finance and mathematics and I just want to be able to make my parents proud. I am Anthony Montero March student of the month. I am involved with the black and brown student alliance northern Burlington track and field and
sphere. I would love to be a history lecturer when I'm older as history has been a passion of mine since I was a kid. I'm Haley Foresight and I was nominated for student of the month here at Northern. I'm involved with the FFA. I've been a wrestling manager and a football manager. My
future I plan on going into the workforce, maybe going into a trade. I'm undecided. My name is Austin Win and I was nominated for accident of the month for March. Here at Northern I'm involved in video production. Um, I take honors English. I like to do community service
around the area. And I used to be involved in sports a little bit. In the future, I just want to go to college, get a degree, and make my parents proud. My name is Kyra Cleveland, and I was dominated for the April student of the month. I do allstar competitive cheer
outside of school. I don't know yet, but I want to go to college and make a lot of money and start a family. Hi, I'm Sophia Rabba and I was nominated for April Student of the Month for 10th grade. Here at Northern, I'm on the girls lacrosse team. I'm a part of cross country. I also do DECA, health science,
and no place for hate. In the future, I want to be an anesthesiologist. My name is Sachi Shiovasa and I was nominated for 11th grade student of the month. At Northern, I'm involved with DECA, Interact, TSA, and FBLA. In my
future, I'd like to go to college and pursue something STEMbased. Jesus is our senior student of the month for April. He is a big fan of watching and playing volleyball. Also plays the accordion in his spare time. Jesus has two siblings, one of which is also a
senior at Northern Burlington. I'm Madison Luggo. I was nominated for 12th grade student of the month for April and an Elk scholarship. Here at Northern, I've been involved with the softball team. I want to go to nursing
school and be an assistant anesthesiologist. Hi, my name is Nicholas Toth and I was nominated for student of the month for May. I'm involved with DECA uh Northern Burlington football and track. I was going to go into finance and eventually
become an investment banker. My name is Gavin Hoppy and I was nominated for student of the month here at Northern. I play baseball and basketball. In the future, I'd like to get into college for sports medicine and help athletes with like injuries and all that. Hi, I'm Jeremy Nicolados and I was
nominated for student of the month as a junior. I'm involved with the uh varsity northern volleyball team and uh national honor society. In my future, I'd like to pursue my passion of cooking. I love to cook for my family and all that stuff. So, I want to go to the culinary in Hide
Park, New York. I'm Jack Smiley and I was nominated for student of the month for the 12th grade here at Northern. I'm part of the FFA club. I've competed in the winter CDE and I for a business and I've competed in the spring CDE for aronomy. I also used to play baseball
and soccer in my years past. In the future, I'd like to work as an electrician alongside my dad and grandfather and hopefully run the business one day. Thank you very much for everyone coming out. Um the board appreciates you guys
coming out for this. We love hearing love hearing about all the students of the month. Um it's definitely one of the highlights uh being on the board. So thank you all. Um at this time we will take a short recess. Um I know Dr. Zuckermanman would like everyone to get in the back for photos. Um so with that,
can I get a motion for a short recess? I'll make a motion for a short recess. Second. All right. All those in favor I. All opposed. Extensions. All right, everyone. We'll take an approximate 10-minute recess. Thank you. Feel free to grab a slice of pizza and
some cookies. Mrs. Bond, if you if we could resume. Sorry. Oh, I just got it. Oh, yes. And Oh, he was getting Yeah. All right. Uh, can I get a motion to return from the short recess? Motion. Second.
Sorry. All those in favor? I I abstensions. Nays. All right. Motion passes. All right. I'm guessing there's no public comment. Sign up at this point. Yep. All right.
Uh items on the consent agenda are believed to be items of routine nature requiring no discussion and which are to be voted upon a single roll call vote to the board. Any single member of the board may have any of the items on the consent agenda removed and placed on the other part of the agenda for discussion
merely by so indicating prior to the vote to be taken on the consent agenda. Items removed from the consent agenda are identified by an asterisk and will be subject to discussion by the full board. Right. Um 5.02 is approval of the
regular meeting minutes of April 20 April 14th, 2025. 5.03 is approval of the financial report the board secretary for the month of AP of March 2025. 5.04 is approval of the treasures report for March 2025. 5.05 05 is approval of the budget
transfers for March 2025. 5.06 is approval of the cafeteria report for March 2025 and 5.07 is the resolution of the board regarding the budgetary major account fund status. Um are there any questions or comments on
section 5? Right. Um does anyone have their mic on because I'm getting feedback? Okay. Yeah, there's the just making sure. Yeah. [Music]
All right, I'll continue. Yeah. Um, there it goes. Good job. That breaks it. Uh, 6.01 is approval of the bill list for May 12th, 2025. Any questions on section six? All right, section seven. Uh 7.02
is approval of board and staff travel. Uh 7.03 and 7.04 are approval of professional service contracts for the LED lighting. 7.05 is approval of professional services contract for the active directory cleanup and upgrade.
7.06 is approval of professional services contract for thirdparty testing and inspection. 7.07 is approval of interlocal services agreement with Hannesport for technology. 7.08 is approval of bid award for trash. 7.09 is
approval of medical plan renewal. 7.10 is approval of prescription plan renewal. 7.11 is approval of dental plan renewal. 7.12 is approval of public hearing for the administrative contracts. 7.13 is acceptance of
donation for theater department. 17 or 7.14 is approval of high school charitable organizations. Oh, I'm sorry. Scratch 7.14. That's non-consent. Does anyone have any comments or questions on section 7 consent agenda items?
I do. Mr. Fix um comment first on um on 710 prescription. And this is more I guess probably an investigation, but do we have um or can we investigate whether or not we have the option of controlling
any of the um formulary? I I know from uh Mr. Cass's update in his uh in his report uh there was uh some documents there about where the costs come from around this and it seemed obviously to be you know prescriptions were a problem and I think particular prescriptions were were a problem in terms of the cost
increases. So I didn't know if we've got a way um or someone has a way to uh determine what's on that formulary and what's actually um covered versus what's not covered from a prescription perspective. and maybe we look at uh how to move that into negotiations on
whether it's next contract or whatever it may be since again that that seems to be the real driver here. And then um my other comment is going to be around 712 and I'm going to be try to be very careful about making sure that I don't
say anything that's inappropriate for a negotiations item. Um, I think I voiced to to the rest of the board some of my concerns last week when we had our exec session. Um, but I kind of wanted to be out here and on record about what we're doing here.
Um, you know, I have some concern that um, I don't know again why we're here and doing this now. Um, I'd like to see a redlinined uh, copy of the contract with ultimately all these changes in it. and I don't know that that's been been
done yet. Um, I've got concerns that we have uh I'll say limited representation on that committee. I know Mr. Figs, I said it to you, but I want to say it to the rest of the board as well. Um, the committee currently has two members from Mansfield, two members from North Hanover. There's no member from
Springfield. There is no member from Chesterfield that I saw that's on that negotiations committee. And I think for an item uh that's as important as a superintendent's contract which is our only employee right as a board that all the town should have representation with
inside that committee. So I think that's something that we need to address um at some point whe it may be too late now but at least in the u in next year that we make sure that we have the proper representation there of all the districts. Um I also uh as a consequence of being
at the delegate assembly this uh past weekend there was some commentary that um the labor relations department out of schoolboard association now publishes superintendent data. So, um, I logged in and took a
look, um, and I know we did some comparisons to some, and this is where I'm going to be very careful about, um, the lines here. Um, I know we did some comparisons to other districts about what's in this contract or what's in the the changes
that we're we're contemplating for this contract. um when I took a look and and I think we had said I'd said to some of you that um I've been to quite a few negotiations trainings from schoolboard association. I actually looked over the weekend as
well. Um that totals um six different classes for me that I've been at and every one of those classes has talked about you do comparisons to your like comparative districts. I don't know that the comparisons that were used by the negotiations committee actually um
represent those actual comparables. So when I took a look and I could share this with the committee if it's of interest um and the rest of the board as well. When I logged in and looked at um the comparative districts which is based on a district factor group and an enrollment group. I don't know if everybody knows what those are but those
are ways to compare different districts to each other. Um and I filtered that data for superintendents and superintendent salaries. Um I think what we're proposing in these changes is well above what's um what's in the average today. So I think that
might be worthy of consideration by the committee um to again you know I think there's there's some goals from the committee in terms of what we're doing here. I think that should be tempered by the by the actual data. Um and I guess you know finally right I'm this is not
for me this is not about um Dr. Zuckermanman at all. Right. This is about us and a board and what we do as a negotiations process. And you know, from my perspective, when you negotiate, it's a two-sided thing. So, we certainly have
talked about what's going to be in this and what's what the changes are and how that's benefit to uh to the superintendent. I don't know what benefit we get as a board at this point. And I think that has to be quantified and I think that has to be shared with the public, right? Because this is a value proposition. we have to there has
to be some demonstration of what value we get for the increases in salary, the increases in other benefits and and how that's actually beneficial to the residents. Um, and I guess one last kind of data point that I can say and probably not um sort of touch cross over
any lines and I'm trying to be good next to you. I also took a look at um current social security uh COLA which is 2.5%. And I also looked at what the current the current CPI is which is 2.4%. So I just put that out there again
not knowing what we're going to publish when we're going to publish it. Um that that should be considered as well in terms of of input into um this whole process. So, I just want to be on the record that, you know, all these things are out there and available for us. And
I guess ultimately, um, I guess I think there's some things that we need to fix, I think, or at least I shouldn't say fix, address as a board, um, and make sure that we have everybody uh, represented and accounted for. So, may I ask a follow-up question to one of your comments? So, you had mentioned before
that we um, that there should be represent great wider representation from the different towns. So you've been through trainings and you have some awareness of this process at the superintendent level I imagine. Yes. So for a regional school who what what is
the model that we should be following? Do they have a model like how many different towns are all towns represented? I I don't understand. I I think you do the best to represent um that you can. I mean there's some there are certainly some regional districts that are more
than four, right? We have a limitation our committee size to four because we're a nine member board. You know, there are some regionals that have I want to say I know it's actually north of seven different constituent towns. So, obviously you couldn't do that there,
but that doesn't apply to us. Um I think as a board, you know, again, this is our only employee, right? We can't control we control the finance, we control policy, we control um you know, the superintendent. I think that's worthy of
consideration by by every town. So that answer your question. Yes. Okay. Thanks. You mind if I jump in real quick? Yep. Go for it, Mr. Zimmer. Okay. So, uh, I am on the committee and
I appreciate the comments that you made. Uh, and I think you made them respectfully. Um, so this is while everybody cannot be on the committee, that's why we have the hearing in public where you're able to voice whatever opinion you have on it
and your concerns. Mhm. Um, sitting on the committee, we looked at different superintendent in the general vicinity um, with what we considered the same similar responsibilities and uh, you know, number of students and whatnot.
and for a variety of reasons which uh among primary would be continuity of service um and protection for us as a district uh when his and and this is just my opinion and maybe Dr. I come in, you shouldn't be here for this, but you
know, um, yeah, that's fine with me. Um, no, we have other districts that are going to be looking for superintendent, and I don't want to be one of those districts that's going to be looking for a superintendent next year when we're now at crunch time. I want to give a
vote of confidence to the superintendent that we currently have and make sure that we retain him for whatever period of time. Now, as far as redlinining a contract, I have absolutely no problem with that. I mean, I think the demands of um tending to the district on a daily
basis is frankly it's not even object an objective that's on his list of things to do. But that's got to be I can't imagine what you know consumption of time that is. Um, so anyway, you know, the point being
from from where I'm sitting, I don't want to have to go through this job search next year. If if if if I were in Dr. Zuckermanman's position, I would say that that there's no confidence that the board has in me and I'm going to start looking and I
just don't want that. So, that's my opinion. I appreciate that. I think you and I I think we got to that um I think at exec um I got a little bit of disagreement in that in terms of the the confidence because the confidence isn't necessarily the question here right it's just a
question of what does you know from a from negotiations 101 right this is it's a value proposition what do we what do we get out of this and what's our driver for it superintendent but let's make sure that we're we're you know we're being very out there and transparent right we we've all talked about
transparency is is an important factor for us Right. Absolutely. Let's let's make sure that we're saying these things and and from my perspective, I'm not necessarily questioning the process that the committee maybe I am that the committee has followed, but um you know, I missed
I was not here for April's meeting, right? And I I came into the building and grounds finance committee meeting and I got kind of as I got an update that we were doing this negotiations and it came over to finance. It would have been nice to have
had some sort of heads up and now we're it feels like we're rushing this well before the expiration of contract and and that's again my concern like I don't know why we're we're rushing to do this now but
we still have the time superintendent knows the contracts being opened right because obvious I'm assuming that he's been in working with the committee to go back and forth in terms of proposals I assume I I don't know that right so It's not that there's a there's a there's not confidence from
the board, but I believe this should be social should have been socialized, right? We should have had some sort of input process into this. There could have been like I don't know was there a full review of the contract or not. So that's this is a procedural thing I think for us as a board. And again, you
know, I really hang my hat on this because we have one employee that we control. It's a superintendent. That's it. So like there should really be I think full input to this and it shouldn't be rushed. That's all.
Follow up a little bit with that is um the negotiations committee set up the first negotiations meeting because we've had negotiations that have gone on for months. Um it hap it's happened as recently as as teacher contracts on our last negotiation. So it was get it
started see see where the two sides lie. Um you know as negotiations committee as Mr. Zimmer said we were looking for for continuity um in a tumultuous environment out there um and getting that started a as Mr. Zimmer said that
Mr. Zuckman know that we are showing confidence that we are interested as opposed to waiting to start the the discussions till the last minute. Um and through that initial negotiations meeting, all the committee
members, you know, were were it it was smooth. It was content. There wasn't a reason to to schedule meeting, you know, follow-up meetings, follow-up meetings. Um which is why we scheduled last week's executive session to to bring the full board in on the discussion. Understood.
And that's that's the the you know the timeline worked for the way we were doing it because there wasn't wasn't a lot of animosity in the discussion. There wasn't a lot of you know back and forth and and this and that and that was you know the the timeline worked out
because of what felt like amicable discussions. Um that's why we brought it to executive session last week during the work session and to have a discussion before opening opening the hearing this this meeting um in case it didn't want to you know we didn't want on the consent agenda for this meeting
um and that was kind of why we set it up with the the double meeting in May working out um and then obviously there's the the gap meeting across the summer and the timeline just kind of fit after we had that initial meeting. Initial meeting was scheduled to start it. It just I said as it did didn't so happen where we had a lot of dis
disagreement or dispute. Um the meeting was you know held amongst the committee and Dr. Suckerman was brought in at a later time to to have further discussion and like I said the timeline just kind of worked out in this manner. It wasn't set up this way till we had that meeting
and went through it. Um for committees we obviously can discuss it. Um, as you mentioned, you you mentioned several the committees, you know, and that's we, you know, I mean, make sure you're you're on on your top ones is, you know, community relations. We always try to have all the
communities involved because it's it's critical, right? Um, you know, and I know you are a very strong proponent of both the finance and the policy committee. So, it wasn't, you know, getting out of negotiations. It was trying to to get you into the the ones I know you were focused on. Um, it was, you know, same reason I didn't leave
Chesterfield out. was just you know there are so many committees and four members in each committees and we try to distribute it to two two or three persons based upon requests and you know and that's how how they're formed um you know giving people the opportunity to
attend and share who are experienced and and so on and so forth. though just as some followup to to the whole discussion and and I understand those challenges, you know, and I do because I've been in your position and have had to make those committee selections. Um, not on this
board obviously. So, um, but for the same reasoning, right, that we have all four towns represented on community relations is again the same reason why I I believe it should be negotiations and finance as well. Um, you know, policy important, right? because we are
a policym body but um you know again for this sort of a circumstance where it it is our single employee it really all four channels should be there I I believe so so a thought would be to roll negotiations into finance but
negotiations I mean once every five years that's that's a killer I mean you're here let's just say often Um, I don't know if that's a thought, but you know, buildings, grounds, and
finance meets very frequently also. So, you roll from one right to the other. There's there's an argument for consolidation of that. I've kind of seen it go both ways. Um, again, prior experience, it's, you know, it's up to the board to make that determination,
but, um, they are all really closely related because, you know, anything we do in terms of negotiation is going to have financial impact. So, right, but I'm going to say for next year, if you roll negotiations into buildings, transom finance, it's really probably not going to make an impact because all the contracts have been negotiated. You
know, it's only going to matter again in four more years, right? Yeah. I mean, I don't negotiations didn't meet once last year because there was no need for it. It's just the the year, you know, we've got three three of five years that tend to meet for contracts and then the other two odd years there's not a need for a
single meeting typically. So it's just yeah co coincidence or you know happen stance how it works out in the in the scheduling um you know and that's and essentially negotiations is almost ad hoc right it's the year the years it's needed and versus the years it's not but you know
yes I mean that's absolutely worth discussing the the committee structure and the the townships and making sure that option is available. I said it's just you know at this point it it's always been just making sure people are involved you know right and I and I guess for the purpose of the record and I guess whoever might be listening
online um assuming that someone is at this point in terms of the process right now right so this agenda item is to obviously to authorize a public hearing um I don't recall has the contract been approved by the county superintendent or county after we approve the hearing it's
got to go 20 days prior to that hearing all right so yeah so depending upon that feedback there may required changes. I mean, if I can share this data with the committee to see if that's something that's of interest and I don't know if there's any sort of changes. I don't know what sort of cap capability or capacity we can make changes after it's
been already approved by um by the county. So, again, this is um I mean the data is always valuable. I you know, don't hesitate to share data with the board. I think the board would always rather rather have you share data you find than than not. Um I mean I know it's I always I always tell my kids I
always want to know more. So, you know, don't don't hesitate to share data if you feel it's valuable in any situation. Thank you. Yep. Um, are there any other comments or questions for section 7 consent agenda items?
All right. Um, with that, uh, SE 7.14 is non-consent agenda item for the approval of the high school charitable organizations. Uh, can I get a motion for 7.14? Make the motion. All right. and a second. Uh, does anyone have any any
comment or discussion on 7.14? I know Dr. Zuckermanman sent an email just to let everyone know it was being added to the agenda. Um, are there any I just had a question. Why is this a non-consent item? So, it wasn't it didn't come into being till after the work section. So, the agenda was already published. So we
had to add it after the agenda was published. Yeah, it came up after we had published agenda for last week's meeting. And it's also just timely they would like to do the sale around Memorial Day with the with the benefits going to the veterans funds.
Yeah. Any other questions or comments? All right. All those in favor? I abstensions. Nays. All right. Motion passes. Thank you. Right. Um consent agenda item for section 8. 8.02 is approval of out of
district placement. Any questions or comments for section 8. Section 9 personnel appointments. Uh 9.02 is approval of administrators association appointments for 2526. 9.03 is approval of treasure of
teachers association appointments for 2526. 9.04 is approval of child study team association appointments for 2526. 9.0 05 is approval of secretarial association appointments for 2526.
9.06 is approval of drivers association appointment for 2526. 9.07 is approval of custodians association appointment for 2526. 9.08 is approval of non-unit appointments for 2526. 9.09 is approval of substitutes
for 2526. 9.10 is approval of mentor. and 9.11 is approval of revised mentor duration. Are there any questions or comments for section 9. All right. Section 10. 10.02 is
approval of change of assignment. Any comments or questions for section 10. All right. Section 11. 11.02 is approval of leaves of absence. Any comments or question for section 11. Right. Section 12. 12.02 is
acceptance of retirement. 12.03 3 is approval of resignation. Any questions or comments for section 12? Section 13. 13.02 is approval of job description. 13.03 is approval of practicum placement. Any questions or
comments for section 13? Yeah, I just had a question that um job description that's an afterchool position or is that during the day? Ground staff for the ground staff apprentice. So the that's g going to be
during the summer and also on a work like if the student has an early release then they can begin that program but it's a limited number of hours per week for the for the two students right and then just a question curiosity really the same uh item does that come
back through uh personnel committee does that get reviewed there before it ends up here or is that just pure recommendation from staff I know we talked about it in finance. I I believe we also I I can't remember if
we spoke about it in personnel or not. Okay. It was a while we spoke about this in the winter and and I can go back and and verify which committee. I don't want to misspeak. Okay. Um but I mean we did speak about it quite a while ago and it just happened once since the budget was
approved. And and I asked that only for again for the purposes of kind of guidelines in terms of what we do if we're going to have some sort of description change. What is a board? Should we kind of put that through procedurally? Should it go to personnel? Should it go to finance? Should it go through both? Whatever that may be. So,
thank you. Thank you. Uh any other questions for section 13? All right. Um we have no items under section 14 programs or section 15 policy this evening. Section 16 uh 16.02 is approval of people transportation
contract renewals. 16.03 is also approval of people transportation contract renewals. Any questions or comments on section 16, right? Uh section 17 is use of facilities. 17.02 is approval of use of
facilities for NBC soccer camp. 17.03 is approval of use of facilities for NBC softball camp. Any questions or comments for section 17? All right. Um, can I get a motion for the consent agenda? All right. And a second. Second. All
right. Mr. Cass, if you could please do a roll call vote. Yay. Nay or abstain. So the vote uh I'll start with Mr. Figs. Yay. Mrs. Bond, yay. Mrs. Applegate, Mr. Arminente, Mr.
Bucks. Um, no on 7.12. Yes. On the rest, Mr. Narrow. Uh, yes. With an extension on 5.02. Mrs. Janice. Yes. Mr. Spence. Mr.
Zimmer. Yes. All right. Thank you, board. Motion passes. The um the A apprenticeship was discussed at the personnel committee on March 17th. Thank you. All right. Um I believe we don't have any public comment at this
time. Um you guys have heard a lot of future dates at this point. Um our next regular board meeting is June 9th. Um graduation is June 17th, Tuesday
with no talk about June 18th alternate date. Um, is there any um old business or new business to refer to committee? I know Mr. Bucks has made a few items in terms of the description, stuff like that. Um, does anyone have any other items they'd
like uh brought to committee or from update from Dr. Sacramento or Mr. Cass? This opportunity for good to the board or is that still another? Yep, this is the opportunity. Okay. Um I was informed that uh I think some
students out of the A program went to states and did evidently well um maybe it'd be worthwhile for uh the board to get an update about that at some you know next meeting just to talk about because I think we had some students that did well and placed so might be
worth us recognizing. Sorry there's something flying around. Catch it. I mean um there's and certainly that that we we I will do that. Um we're also trying to and not necessarily for this school year
for next school year trying to figure out a format. We have so many different opportunities to celebrate students. Whether it's the A students that you mentioned, whether it's some sports teams that are doing well, the the coral students that that that go to all state, like all of those things, trying to figure out a format where we can
recognize them in a um timely matter. Um and also kind of an and that that's a regular process so we don't like have anybody that that's missed. So, I'll have more update more more and recommendations to that come next school year, but I mean just we're thinking
about some way to do that. Thank you. Yeah, I just had two questions. Uh, when do we need to be here for graduation? Are we meeting at the middle school? And then the other question is with the superintendent's evaluation. We were talking just tonight. So, if you could just give us an update about that, that
would be great. Thank you. So, I would um defer to Dr. McCann about times and and so on. Um, and as I did share with the board, my goal was to be able to have the information in the system by today. Uh, last year on my evaluation,
there were some feedback just on some of the indicators that may not have had specific information. I'm trying to respond to every single indicator um, on there, which it's just taking me a little bit longer to kind of do that. So, I expect to have that done in the next couple days. So, certainly by the end of this week, the information will
be uploaded in there. And Dr. McCann, any idea on? So, we are meeting here. We're going to meet in the board office conference room. We're not meeting in the middle school. Um, I just don't know times that I can certainly provide that to you in the next couple
weeks. Yeah. Starts at 5:30. So, we'll probably meet here at like 4:30 um just to be able to line up and and so on. But, I will send that out in in an additional email. That's early, isn't it? Have you moved up graduation? Um, which is fine.
Yeah. Right. Makes sense. So, if you do meet here, you would just park in the back by the board office. Is that what the plan is? And then because the with the new stage, that's not an issue of parking back there. Nobody's going to park back there. Correct.
um with the with the staging and with the um the graduation the the board and the students sitting on the visitor side, it's easier to walk from the high school side. So, we're not going to be walking from the middle school over to the stadium, which is why it's easier just to park here.
Yes. All right. Thank you. Um we do not have executive session this evening, correct? Okay. With that, can I get a I believe Jerry motion for adjournment. All right. And a second. I'll second.
I All those in favor? I abstensions. Nays. All right. Have a wonderful rest