check check two check check check e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e before that we started using Transportation but I wasn't sure if you still did it almost got seate sever times but okay it works yeah yeah it it really e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e right okay all right welcome everyone to our Board of Education meeting this meeting is being held in compliance with the H public meetings act and is open to the media and Public Notices
were duly posted and the meeting was advertised in Hunter County Democrat and Courier News formal action may be taken can we get a roll call but M Cassie here M Fury here M here
m r here Ryan here here here you stand for the flag thank you good evening everyone welcome to our March 11th board meeting uh under the superintendent report tonight um I'm
going to take a moment and introduce Patricia ree Reese from the New Jersey school boards Association uh the board will recall uh that uh as part of one of the board goals uh we are looking at uh some governance training for the schol Board of Education and that includes
reviewing Robert's rules um and some more information about parliamentary procedure um to achieve that goal we've lined up Pat to come tonight to uh do a presentation on Robert's Rules which is very much like uh some board members may have seen back at in the October
Workshop um which was a great Workshop uh on Robert's Rules and it really helps uh board members stay focused on the work of the board at each board meeting so um Patty from New Jersey school boards Association is going to begin tonight's presentation thank
you I can't duplicate what happens at Workshop primarily because that's a highly interactive program um um and the other side of that is the two people that did that um have recent recently retired so it's being revamped but it
will be their next Workshop because it's it's very um very well lik if you could get to the beginning of the slide turn turn it on minor technity is at the top of this
button I for the there we go we're gonna most of the presentation is about Robert's Rules which is also known as the pentary procedure and we use the Robert's Rules version of that um a little bit about chain of command
but mostly about um rules and I know I have um 40 minutes about 40 minutes so I'm going to do the expedited version I handed you each a packet there is a lot of information in there there's cheat sheets there's how to make a motion
there's a brochure that we have um and I'm always available for questions certainly now um but email or phone call also works um so as really just going through the basics of Rules of Order um
and parlamentary procedure so what is parlamentary procedure it is a system that allows the board to conduct business in a fair and Democratic um manner using a proven set of rules not
laws but rules guidelines on how to run an efficient uh meeting that gets your business done prary proceding robers rules provide structure to the meeting it helps keep the order and it gives everyone the opportunity the majority
voice and the minority voice to have a take part in the discussion as I said you have the majority um but also important is to allow for the minority voice to be heard what it does is allow um to one
discussion item at a time and a full and free discussion of that motion or that item at a time every board member in the discussion has equal rights nobody has any more rights than anybody else in the discussion the discussion however is
start is led by the the board president they control kind of what the air traffic controller of of the Union um again carries out the r in the majority respects the majority and it merges or integrates uh individual
voices or personalities into a collective discussion for the vision of the organization Robert's Rules is based on U motions a series of motions and we'll go through some slides on what those motions are um and what they mean um and
the key to using and using Robert's Rules effectively is to learn what those motions are and I will say some of the cheat sheats in there um when I was a board member especially um when I was board president um I kept right next to me just just to help flow
the meeting along now back in when I when I was on the board right next to Branchburg um and years ago we were a highly divided board um and so it really was helpful to have to keep the the meeting moving
forward so that you could get the business of the board done um but it does also you don't have to be a divided board using Robert's Rules helps structure the meeting so that the board can get their business done in a Tim with men nobody wants to be here till
all hours of the night so it does provide a great structure to um for um and any really organization that uses model schols the meeting Basics are um the agenda which is a formal listing of the
business to be conducted it's generally developed by the superintendent and the board president uh it should be and and should be distributed to board members ahead of time which I think by by by law you have to have it posted to the best
to posted for the community in the open meetings that I think it's 48 hours but as a board member when you get the agenda you need to read it and come prepared to have a discussion and that's that's the way to help the
meetings flow so some more Basics quum is the number of me members that need to be present to hold a meeting for school boards or elected uh governing bodies it's a majority of the full membership of the
board if you don't have a quarum um there are some things you can do you can't hold the meeting to take action uh but you can set the time for another meeting uh you if if you lose a quarum if if you lose enough members that you lose the
Quorum in the middle of the meeting that cease that ceases the meeting as a as an organized meeting you can't take action you could continue um as a as committee meeting but again you can't take action there are five different types of
motions there's an and we go I'll go into a little of these as we move forward more in more detail there's the main motion which brings the item to the main to the group for discussion a privileged motion um and these are
motions that are um matters of importance but they're un unrelated to the pening motion um a subsidiary motion to the main motion it treats or disposes um it helps deal with the main motion
basically um incidental motions uh arise from pending motions and they have to be decided first and then unclassified U motions or bring back motions um allows for reconsideration of
actions already taken so a main motion introduces a principal subject and you can only have one main motion open for discussion at a time and you have to dispose of the the main motion before you move on to
another motion um anybody main motions require a mover and somebody to Second it and a majority vote is required of those present in also in there as we get into votes there's a five-page document
that identifies by Statute what votes need how many whether it's full majority three ERS you know what they call Super majority I thought it would be very simple when I looked it up to oh well I I thought there was only five things that needed a super majority
yet there's five pages of different ways motions are so take a look at that um and help you but I'm sure your VA knows what you need um a super majority for what what vote needs what so in processing a main motion
somebody um makes a motion they recognizes by the chair the chair gives them the floor they make the motion the motion if it's needs a second um some main motions need a second but some
motions don't need a second um then the chair restates the motion and then the motion is now the topic is now open for discussion amongst the board um they take whatever time they need to discuss
the U motion uh and then the if there's no further discussion the um it says a chair the board president restates the motion and then calls it calls calls for a vote calls a question um and then the
vote is taken whatever whatever it is the results is announced so now that we've talked about how you bring a motion forward how how you debate a motion um the once it's open for discussion it's
moved and seconded the president can then recognize each speaker as they as they see fit to um give them a chance to speak about the motion at on the table you know for against or whatever it is keep the discussion confined to the
motion on the table um and not to other subjects uh during the debate um it's a it's really should avoid having all this back trck sorry I'm trying to go fast and I'm
losing losing track um when you have the discussion about motion all your comments should be directed towards the board president um who's running the meeting not to individual board members
um avoid using their names because your the discussion is not about personalities um it's about the issue at hand and sometimes that's hard to do um but it really does help everybody get their
thoughts out on the table for discussion before you have to have a vote so there are several ways that you can amend a motion you can amend it by adding a word or phrase you can remove a word or phrase as long as areen all of
these it's as long as you're not changing the intent of the main motion or you can change some of the the language in the main motion again as long as you're not changing the overall intent of the motion that's it's
consider a subsidiary U motion um again that's not the main motion but it pertains to the main motion on the table uh there can only be one main motion on the floor at
time so just for example um somebody moves um that makes a motion to amend the main motion to read uh whatever they amend it to read somebody seconds that main motion and
then um the board president goes the motion to amend the main motion and they read what the amendment is uh has been made and seconded uh they ask for any discussion and if there's discussion then and at some point they call for the
vote this can be a Voice vote for the amendment um some main motions require require roll call or Voice vote but the amendment can be a Voice vote um and then you know then take the The Voice vote um and the results are
announced just note that when you vote you vote for the amendment um before you vote for the main motion so that last example was voting on The amend mment now you have to go vote on the main motion and at that point the board
president will read the motion as amended and what the amendment is um and then you have the opportunity to vote on the main motion as amended um again you vote for the Amendments before you vote
for the main motion and so here's a little knowledge check to see if you've been paying attention um what are three ways you can alter or amend a motion
anybody okay it's one of those things um you can add a word you can subtract a word or phrase or you can sub substitute the world phrase um those are the three main the three ways that you can change your amending of motion um what is not
part of the debate process raise raise concerns read about the motion provide information about the motion persuade others to vote one way or the other or everyone shares their opinions all at
once okay we go with everyone shares oh we moved it up but I'm sorry it's everyone shares their opinions at once that's really you don't want everybody talking at once that's the point of having Robert's Rules of Order you want an orderly discussion so if everybody's
talking out once nobody's listening to each other it's kind of like your kids right when when they all want to get their points in they all talk at the same time and you can't really hear you can't really understand the um an amendment to an amendment of a
main motion Alters the amendment and not the main motion true correct all right um so here are some other subsidiary motions and these um are they considered subsidiary
because they help the board to deal with the main motion um so laying on the table or otherwise known as table on a motion sets aside a motion to take care of something else that may be of more importance at that moment um although
it's not meant to delay um and you can bring that that motion them back um postpone definitely delays an action on a motion that was you know a pending motion until the next meeting it so so
postponing to a definite time I mean the next meeting or two meetings down the road whatever it is it's postponing to a definite time refer to committee is pretty obvious what that means you're referring it to committee for discussion
or um further further discussion um postpone indefinitely can kill a motion meaning you postpone it but you don't postponed to any defined time so will it come back or not you don't know um and
then calling the question stops the debate on the main motion and calls for a um a vote at that time um in your in the packet there I do have that some cheat sheets that tell you if these
kinds of things need a second um and how the vote goes on that um so you know there there are resources there but these all help the board in dealing with the main motion there are also incidental motions
these are the uh of the five that I talked about in the beginning um they deal with they have there were questions about um a procedure for handling the motion but not the motion itself um and
question incidental motion are not Deb so when you have this like a a point of order um is you you know it's it's it raises a question um related to the rules of the meeting and it requires
that the board president uh to make a ruling on that point of order I have an example on the next slide of what that might be um you can withdraw a motion uh a a person who has moved a motion can
withdraw but uh until the time the board president May restate a motion on the table for discussion at that point a motion can be withdrawn with consent of the group so if somebody puts in a motion and then they say they want to
withdraw it um if you're during discussion uh at that point if you reach the discussion then the the board you have to it has to be consensus of the board to withdraw the motion um and a point of the information is just a
nonprocedural question about um process so this question is a board member um asks for a point of order the board and again you direct all your questions to the board president uh the board president um asks what their point
is and so the board the board member just wants to clarify what you were vote what they are voting on if they're voting on the amendment or the main motion and we ask if we are voting on the amendment and the board president said yes the um vote um at this point is for the
amendment to the main motion so you're just before you vote you're asking for clarification on what you're voting on sometimes when amendments flies I don't know if you were at um if anybody it came our last delegates assembly we
had I think 14 resolutions and there were amendments to the amendments to the amendment um and in those situations that are it was it was impressive to watch it's a very structured if you really want to see parliamentary procedure in operation
our next delegates assembly is May 10th we hire a parliamentarian to be on site we have our general counsel and our legal staff there but the parliamentarian it really uh you know there are questions upon questions that
um it's impressive but but in in those all those 17 14 or 17 resolutions we were still done by no from not you know still done in in three hours um and that's includes the state of the associ
you know other things so used appropriately a Robert's Rules can get you to discuss the business business of the board officially which is really what you want um so this is another um
this person is asking asking about they request permission to withdraw the motion um you know the motion on on the table at that for discussion at that point and then the board president asks are there any objections to withdrawing
the motion of and restates what the motion is uh and that's a Voice vote hearing none or whatever it might be the next level of motions is uh privileged motions um they don't relate to the main motion but they take
precedence over the main motion and they are not debatable it's mostly about the rights of the board or board members so call for orders of the day is return to the if you stray from the order of the
agenda um it calls to return to the order of the agenda um you know a motion to recess for a period of time during that meeting a motion to adjourn um and um again they're not debatable and then
questions of privilege and I have some examples of what that is um the next one is a question of privilege so during the debate of the main motion to implement a standards based report card uh a board
member asked for a question of privilege again Ask board president the board president asks what their question is and the question of privileg is he can't he or she can't hear the the other side of the table uh and so he's missing they're missing some of the the
discussion right um and again um so that however you resolve that this is because of a fan either the fan gets turned off or people speak louder or you have microphones whatever that might be um motion doesn't need a second there is no
debate um and there is no vote the board the chair the board president just decides how to dispose a thing we talked about the last one kind the fifth kind of emotion is called an unclassified motion or bring back motions so brings
back motions to the table for discussion so um tabling take from the table or t tabling a motion um postpones or suspends discussion at that point in time um it can come back it can be
brought back for discussion during the meeting um and you're if you're tbling a motion um it's not debatable res sending a motion um basically is uh is is repealing or
repealing a previously adopted um motion from a prior meeting uh entirely so it can't you're not resending a motion from the meeting at hand it's from a prior meeting a motion to uh
reconsider um is asking to reconsider a motion that was decided at that current the meeting or at the current meeting um the member who is asking for reconsideration must have been on the side of if it was if it was the motion
was approved um or not approved whatever it was it had to be on the proving side um to bring it back so resend is uh repealing a motion from a prior meeting considerer is looking at a motion uh
from the current reconsidering uh or you know a motion that was decided and again the person who's bringing back the reconsideration has to have been on the um prevailing side of whatever that motion was okay or table another knowledge
check or tabling a motion and postponing a motion the same not correct they're not the same can somebody make a motion to resend a five 54 vote that was just taken 15 minutes
earlier no right that's listening great um another board member calls the question does this automatically end debate no yes calling the question automatically ends debate
um in my board we had somebody that if the discussion was going on too long he just called the question which means ends the debate and you you you you vote on um it got to be quite frustra though
he had a low level of tolerance for things like that and now you know and then he went on to sort of on the elected Municipal going about so um which type of which motion is not cons which of the list is not considered a
type of motion this it's actually subsidiary because the main motion is the motion this is you know subsidiary to the main motion I know that was confusing I had I
to look that up three or four times like wait but that's what it is so we go on to voting meth methods there are several voting methods as you see listed there uh for um for motions at a
meeting and again I I will refer you back to there's a five page sheet in there uh that talks about voting requirements of different kinds of voting um but these are just some of the examples and it just depends on uh what
the motion is uh you know if it's somebody that you're hiring that requires certain level of of of of response whether it's two3 or three quarters some are just what we refer to as a simple majority which is a majority
of those who are present then there is a majority of the full board so if your full board is nine and whatever that vote is is for a um a a a full majority well if you only have seven members present so you would have to have if a
full full majority is five of the nine you would have if you only have seven you still have to get five of the seven to pass unless it's a super majority uh and again five pages of examples for that the another way to vote is to
simply not vote by abstaining um and they're not considered a vote uh they they look at member conflicts as opposed to recusal these are recusal is um if you have a legal conflict um primarily
um member conflicts are you see some examples there's not enough information to make a decision um whatever you feel uncomfortable making that decision at that point um it's not a yes or a no it's just in obstain like in the middle
not not anything um and it is recommended that um try not to of stain on tough votes because you're elected to make those tough decisions and sometimes um you have to by standing on the tough boats um you know
it's not part of what your responsibility might or go in my um but so here's another question and answer about did it pass the board votes on the main motion uh and it passes uh it the
vote is four yes four no one exstension does it pass it doesn't because it's 44 you would have to we have to be 531 minimum um and the other one is you go to hire someone um as your new facilities
director there are four yes votes two no votes and three extensions due to conflicts does that pass it's almost a almost kind of a trip question it depends on what the requirements are for that vote what
requirements of the full membership of that votee but again your ba usually ba board secretary usually We R on you know knows knows that information quickly on to elections when when you have elections the nomination
does not require a second a member can only invite nominate one candidate per position that includes themselves they can nominate themselves for that position um however a member can be nominated for more than one position if
somebody else of others nominate them for more than one position the uh voting is um the voting on the candidates is done in order of the way they were nominated so whoever placed who's ever
put the first nomination out there um and when I said that my board was highly divided on the year that that I was President um we knew that um that we had to other people wanted to get my name out there first because we knew that
that would be voted on first um and just again there was a highly divided mod um but you know those are things you have to you have to pay attention to um the first candidate through the voting
uh that receives a majority wins and sometimes it takes a couple of roots I've seen that happen as well I also we also recommend you look at your bylaws that may um identify what the voting process is for the election of officers
it could be somewhat different um and as you know as I said the Robert's rules are are rules not the law so your bylaws take priority over whatever that might be for the elections um the use of the gab um it's
generally and used by the board president um it's for calling a meeting to order it um it's restoring order to chaos breaks out or people are yelling from the the the the a audience or
members you gabble um to bring order um it can also sometimes use um you know mean the the uh the end of a vot on that um most most people don't like to use again I will says we say don't be afraid
to use it um but most don't like to use it um but sometimes you just have to so um just a funny part to you know I move that we debate whether to vote on the um
to vote to decide whether to discuss bringing this meeting to an end so that is pretty much about Robert rolles the expedited version um if you have questions I know I have a few more
couple more minutes chain and command isn't isn't that long um but if you have questions I'll take them or call me after the p okay we'll go we'll go to chain of command I know it's sing between you and your budget discussion um so what is the
chain of commit it's a board's hierarchy of authority that helps make sure um that there's accountability and helps to establish lines of communications a a clearly defined chain
um really helps communicate to your staff the parents your community um the proper roles of authority along that hierarchy what it's not is a way to stifle discussion or sto discussion or
someone who has a complaint that's not really the purpose um it's a proc it's a simple process where employees closest to the problem or closest to the issue um have the opportunity to know what to
know what the problem is to address the problem and and work out something that's that's a solution that may be a solution um to the to the issue this is an example of a um chain of command I think this was when I took
this it was from maybe Monclair uh for um if they have an issue and how to get it addressed it also um below you'll see Jay that's one of the code of ethics um and that you will refer all complaints to your um superintendent so that all
part of why you have a chain of command also they run the district you don't run the district we look at um sometimes a member of the community will come to you as a board member say I'm going to the
top I'm G to get my uh my situation addressed by going to the top and and really that that is not a good solution um it impacts um the um the the morale because now now the employees are being
cut out your staff is being cut out your superintendent is being cut out um and it involves you as a board member beyond your area of responsibility it's not your responsibility to figure out how to
address that situation you need to let that the administration or whoever that is um uh address that situation and ultimately if there isn't a solution that's satisfactory um it could come to the board for find
your the the board of L Resort if if they don't like the answer they still may come to the board and so you have to allow your Administration time to work through whatever that process is and then if it comes before the board to listen to what they say about why they
came up with the solution they came up with not every solution is going to make everybody happy but they usually have they almost always have a reasonable what reason for why they decided that and and what the best interests are in
overall situation so you have to give them time uh to do that and and board meetings should not be used um as people come and to try if somebody comes to the podium and ask has an issue uh it should
not be used for discussion at that time it's just not really the appropriate place it's chain of command is in place to to deal with situations most efficiently at the lower at the level at which they are uh at which they have it
if it's a parent and a teacher um as a board member you know recommend listen empathetically to whatever the situation is and say if it's a parent have you talk to the teacher um have you talk to whoever the you know whatever the chain
is for that uh and then we also recommend that if you have somebody that comes to you then you want superintendent know that you had this conversation this was the issue and you referred them to the chain of command just so it's on their Rael um you know
giving them giving them um a heads up and as a board member you should know what the chain of command is for by if somebody a parent comes to you or a Community member or even a staff member or an administrator sometimes they think
I'll have a good relationship with this board member I'll just bring it to them and it's again not not replace um um it's just but but know what the chain is for that right um as I said refer
individuals to the chain and then notify your superintendent and that in a nutshell is chain of command I think I did too I did in uh yeah I got a couple of
minutes left but um anyway uh if there are I know you're moving on but if there um you have any questions after you read everything feel free to email me or call me um you can get my information well I forgot to put my business card in I'm
sorry um my information off the website uh to to do that thank you very much for sharing with us thank you thank you for coming out tonight appreciate it did anybody have any questions before uh Patty leaves or any questions about
um parliamentary procedure or chain of command thank you thank you oh yeah Patty before you thank you appreciate that before you leave we do have one question um around this time of year the board engages in the
self-evaluation process um we we'll discuss that a little bit more in new business you know timelines and dates and everything like that can you just give us a quick primer of the process what it looks like for the board self not the superintendent but the superintendent evaluation okay no board
self AAL will do that first and then they do the super so self eval yeah something kind of exciting we've revamped the board self- evaluation for the first time in 15 years it reflects more of what we feel a board member a board does um it does have a section for
board goals if you have board goals the your president inputs them if you don't have board goals there's a check box that you don't have um generally the board the board self- evaluation superintendent evaluation is
done first because there's a statutory deadline of July one for that the board self- evaluation does not have a statutory deadline and it's not even required it's best practice it helps a board look at how they they operate and
how they um govern and find ways to either do it better or they do it well and they don't need to do that so that timeline um generally boards do the board self- evaluation over the summer because it's a slower period of time um
and you also want to wait um part of the superintendent evaluation process is their evaluator and progress towards District goals um so many times the board self- evaluation happens after the district goals in in for the next year
or device or figure it out because if you have board goals they can come from what comes out of the board self evaluation but on some of them should align also with the district gos um and so the so there's the there's not as
defined a timeline for the board self- evaluation the superintendent evaluation again you have to have it done by July 1 by Statute uh and you also it's also monitor on Q if it's not done by July 1 you'll lose qap points um and so a lot
of boards look at where where their last June meeting is um and generally they have an executive session of that um to talk about with the superintendent to have the the evaluation conference and they work backwards from that so if it's
June um the superintendent has to enter all their information first um before it goes to the board uh and um then um so there's some time to do that that's not you know it's not a quick process um and then once it comes
to the board um you enter all your information um however you do the ratings uh and then when um your board President says you're ready for it and I can look and and he can also go online and see how many people have completed
it the superintendent evaluation is a majority in piece so to proceed you need at least five members of a nine member board to complete the superintendent evaluation it's most beneficial most helpful if everybody does it um that
that's really the best practices have everybody um and when I when you're ready to proceed I give um some info and send an email of information with a link to access the reports uh for the board
president president uh and um all and and it's a compilation report the report is uh board members have the opportunity to assess the superintendent and then provide supporting commentary on what
why they voted why they don't they evaluated what they did uh those commentaries are Anonymous there's no name associated with it um so uh and it's not like if you're the first person who complet the the superintendent
evaluation your comments aren't the first one under every they they're kind of the system kind of juggles of around so the only way somebody would know it was you is if one if you identified it was you in the conversation or your voice your your written voice is very
similar to your you know your regular voice but there's no name identified next to each one of them um and then when the super when the president gets that information they generally write a r draft of a written narrative uh that
then brings it to the board in executive session um and these there's two meetings that you have to race the superintendent it's this one where you're going to discuss um the evaluation and come up with the majority opinion of the board for the written
narrative um and then um whatever whatever people's input is and your board president works on whatever whatever that input is uh and then um then you want to schedule your valuation conference with your
superintendent again before July 1 uh and again it's a majority written piece uh so if you're there's a minority voice the conference is the time to express that but it will not be in the written a
that's the way the process works well just as in aside the um superintendent of evaluation that we have devised we worked on uh in collaboration with uh New Jersey ASN so um we feel that both organizations feel it does really
reflect um the duties of your superintendent so it's um progress towards District goals and then there are six leadership standards that you assess the superintendent is that is there any other information you might want no I
think that's everything um we have a an item on new business to talk about the self- evaluation process and I guess as a board we should discuss uh if you want to do the board self- evaluation first and then the super and get it done before the superintendent evaluation or if you would prefer to go through the superintendent valuation process and
maybe save the board self AOW for June or July when we have a little bit more time um in my newsletter to all of you in my vle I outlin that the super intended evaluation process um you know backtracking from our June board meeting
to our May board meeting and then all everything in between that needs to be done um so we can talk at under new business if that's okay with everybody yeah and and on our website on the on the homepage on L page if you go down scroll down there is um uh quick links
and there is a link for the evaluations uh and there's all sorts of uh information a webinar um that you could view frequently asked questions all sorts of information that might help you Pro proceed in both superintendent
evaluation and the board self- evaluation uh and you would then it was in in that place that you would then access those evaluations um to conduct your own you know to input your own again the superintendent valuation will will not
even if you click on that link nothing will be there until your superintendent finishes their inputting their information after they hit submit there's a 48 hour grace period that they have that they could make any adjustments to it that they see fit and
then at the end of 48 Hours um you will all get an email which you know automatic automatically generate email with the link only uh question I might have is if if you have any conflicted board members if you're conflicted meaning you have relative that works
within family member that works within the district you are not permitted to take part in superintendent evaluation um and um if if there if you have anybody if you let me know um we can mark that in the system and the the link will not be
active for that but that's thank you Patty that's great very helpful yeah okay uh Larry could you please bring up the budget presentation and can I trouble you to hand me the clicker as
well please thank you that's yeah okay um Mr B and I are excited to bring to you tonight um the tenative budget for the
2526 school year which is next school year um and it sounds like it's a little bit early uh but uh this tenative budget needs to be submitted to the county by next week and then our final budget needs to be approved um on our April
29th Board of Education meeting um so there are a couple more steps in the budget process but the majority of the work from the administration is complete as of now and the proposed budget that we are going to give to you tonight barring any changes from the county office is uh very close to what you'll
be voting on in April as well um this budget represents a reflection of this past school year uh but also a perspective look at some of our goals for next school year as well and I like this budget time of year and this budget season because it really between now and
April and May it's really nice to start to look forward to what we have coming into next year or next school year which is which is really cool it's a very exciting time of year so every time we enter our budget process we start with number of goals we want to present to you the most responsible budget that
also balances the uh burden that it places on the taxpayer but also to enhance instruction and co-curricular activities for students so we try to come in and propose a budget to you and recommend a budget that is as close to the 2% cap as possible with the
allowable adjustments there are several allowable adjustments we received a healthc care adjustment um is permissible from the state as well as any banked cap anytime that we don't use our full tax levy we can bank that cap and save it for future use so those are the allowable adjustments that you'll
see that appear in this budget this evening um we want to make some preparations for enrollment adjustments um preschool enrollment but we also want to be keep an eye on some of the housing developments that are going up in our community particularly um the housing developments at the White House um the
Camelot development at the White House side of town and then the Diaz property on the Three Bridges side of town it it is a priority of the administration and the board to keep class sizes low particularly in grades K through 2 K through three where um students need
more individualized one-on-one attention where literacy and math early literacy and numer SK numeracy skills are critically important of course we want to provide a well-rounded experience for students with extracurriculars and co-curricular activities as well as electives at the middle school um and we are rounding out our
five-year strategic plan and next year we're going to gear up to set another fiveyear strategic plan so we have taken that into consideration for next year's budget so as we take a look at enrollment um the the trend that I'm noticing in enrollment if we look at our
anticipated enrollment for 2526 and then sort of the second paragraph is what our current enrollment is right now is enrollment is either stable or increasing slightly uh as we go into next year which is good news right increased enrollment is a good thing
we're in the job of Education the students that we educate I see as a positive thing for the district um so 1366 we anticipate for next year K through 8 1365 is our current enrollment right now and that will fluctuate that
1366 more kindergarten registrations will happen between now and June movein will likely happen over the summer so we may see an increased enrollment of 10 or 15 students between now and next year potentially K3 prek enrollment um we are booming in
in preschool uh I don't know what we've done but it's a good thing for the district uh our doors are open uh I think families and community members knows that the doors are open and that we can service almost every preschool child uh that lives in our town age three and four uh and we have 231 kids
registered for preschool next year which is fantastic uh for a total ofr enrollment of 1597 um nine out of District students and we're presuming 149 kindergarten students in the district um we we don't know yet if we're going
to have any influx of students from any new new housing developments yet I don't see a large influx next year I think we have to look at the 26 27 school year to see if we would have more students be moving into the district at that time and I think we have to keep a close eye on that Diaz property in Three Bridges
because that property mirrors The Willows at White House station which we know has brought more students into our district than um The Ridge at Readington uh so this is a great slide you can see starting in the 2021 school year uh
enrollment has was on the decrease until then uh from for the past five years we're looking at stable enrollment we saw a little bit of a decrease from 22 to 25 but as you can see our projections have us going up slightly for next year as well again really good news for the
district it's we we are doing um you know some great things the district has a great reputation I think enrollment is a function of the fact that folks are moving into our town they know about the reputation of the schools this is another great slide I just want to point out I mean if if
early childhood education and if the research is correct which I believe it is it suggests that the earlier a child is educated at age three or four the better the educational outcomes in the future for kindergarten Beyond uh the fact that we've been able to increase
our prek enrollment from 25 students to over 225 students over the past two years is a huge Testament to the work of the district and the work of the board um in in making sure that every three and four yearold has access to an education uh at no charge in the
district uh which is great this how is very telling of the work that we've done over the past couple of years with preschool uh class sizes at the elementary uh grade level we want to show this to you because remember it's the board's goal uh to try to keep class
size as small as possible uh at the primary grades K1 and to especially having class sizes of 15 14 18 uh is are really nice class sizes for grades K through two manageable for
teachers um and very good for student outcomes by the time we get to grades 34 and5 we start to approach uh 19 20 21 students in a class uh however uh our district regulation class Siz has a
maximum of 21 students grades K3 and 22 grades 4 five so we are still under our regulation class sizes that we aim for um so a couple of highlights so um Mr bow and I are going to go through Personnel preschool curriculum and pupil
Services as well as Catholic projects so this is a little preview of what is highlighted in the budget for next year so we know enrollment uh I I talked about some preschool numbers and our budget goals uh but what are we really going to accomplish next year uh so in
Personnel uh we have an addition of an Adam District nurse uh for to serice a student uh with an IEP which was a great move by the board and the administration um having our own nurse to be able to service students with disabilities for private duty is much more effective for
that student than Contracting with the nursing service uh so our own employee has been uh a great great outcome not only for the student but also to use as a substitute nurse if needed or a floating nurse to assist the building nurses over the course of the day
um when we talk about reconfiguration or reallocation of employees uh what what we mean and what the administration is talking about is building a budget expecting that some class sizes are going to be reduced and we can reallocate staff uh which means if we
have a retirement or a resignation the administration is going to review those specific positions and ask the question about whether or not a position requires to be filled in the future our goal is never to uh lay people off or put someone out of
a job but our goal is to take a look at what positions are being vacated because of a retirement or resignation and then ask that question to deliver the most responsible budget to the board of education and to the community as well so we talk about those things we're looking at a reconfiguration of at least
one teaching position and a reallocation of support staff positions um to make sure that we're aligned with programming needs we will maintain our four police officers through our shared service um and we have budgeted increased wages that we started to um increase from last
year we have um a proposal that we'll discuss in uh Personnel about some of the work of the retention and recruitment task force from a couple of years ago some research was done regarding some of our non non-aligned
employees um and ensure our wages of those employees are match the hunon county public market uh for those employees so that we can retain them uh so we'll have more conversations about that the RTA contract we have a 5-year agreement with the RTA and we're headed
into uh year three um and through that contract through bargaining a couple of years ago uh each year uh the members of the RTA get paid um stiping for curriculum writing stiens for uh
teaching teacher cies and those go up a couple dollars every year through the life of this contract and we built a budget to to accommodate that um we have a new morning bus tier dedicated to preschoolers at no cost to our parents uh we're continuing to preserve our ret
retention and recruitment stiens any employee that finds us a bus driver or power professional um is given a little stien a little bonus which is nice it really improves our re retention on our recruitment really our recruitment efforts uh and we are sustaining the employee assistance program uh for
employee Wellness this was something that we agreed to when we had Esser funding um a couple of years ago and the Board of Education the administration felt like this employee assistance program was um an important piece for our employees and we're going to
maintain this uh within our budget as well preschool expansion um we have free preschool a six-hour day for three and four year olds uh we are right now we have confirmed uh that we had budgeted
for 14 classrooms we discussed with the state uh about using any carryover funds that we had to open other classrooms 231 kids is beyond the 210 students that or 210 seats that we have the state has given us the green light to go ahead and
use whatever carryover we have to best accommodate our community so we'll be talking in the Personnel committee about uh an additional preschool teacher so that we don't have to turn any parents away uh if they have a preschooler they want in en rolled it's our goal to open up enough classrooms to make sure that
we don't have to go to a weight list it's really um the the fiscal responsibility of Mr B uh the commitment of the state and uh of Mrs beagle to make sure that we can make this happen and our partnership with the private providers is going to allow this to happen they're they're giving us the
room to grow uh so I I do believe that you know parents preschool parents in the community are a little anxious about it um but I I am hoping that we can send letters out soon to tell folks to rest assured that we're hoping to have a spot for every three and four yearold for
next year um we're talking about the creation of a preschool supervisor through reallocation of existing staff um to be funded through the preschool um pea funding preschool bus aids for
transportation um we're looking at so there are several required positions we have to have a preschool coach an intervention specialist a community engagement specialist we're looking at the supervisor position kind of working in concert with those positions so that it's a net zero impact
to the budget meaning our budget won't increase but we can accommodate a supervisor but also reallocate some of those um coaching positions as well um and we're going to continue our partnership with Berry Patch Global Pioneer Stant and learning White House
prep uh for 15 total preschool classrooms 225 seats um registrations keep coming uh we have backup plans in case we need to open up a 16th classroom that has been some discussion that we've had so
far as well um so I just want to give you a little preview there um curriculum and special services um so we're going to continue uh self-contained and special education programs for students with disabilities uh we have autism
programs ER programs which is emotional regulation impairment programs previously known as Behavioral disabil ities and lld programs learning and language disabled programs as well as preschool disabilities programs we're going to continue these very important programs for our students uh and our
life skills program as well um this not only keeps students in the least restrictive environment which is their home District but it also um is a a net savings for the district because we can grow our programs inhouse and we don't have to send students to private
schools uh we're going to continue our extended school year program over the summer we have several curricular initiatives that the curriculum supervisors reviewed in the February board meeting uh we're going to look at uh English language arts and math to see if any adjustments need to be made there
no big revisions are coming this year to language arts and math we don't want to do that to the teachers again both of those big revisions happened this past year um and they're adjusting and the teachers are adjusting nicely but they have feedback for us and if there's some feedback we can incorporate into those
curriculum documents we want to do that uh there are some new textbooks um like um decodable texts for language arts uh math we are purchasing the grade 68 Ed gems uh kits in Science grades 4 five we
will be purchasing um amplify science uh Health textbooks to accommodate the middle school schedule uh as well as a handwriting pilot that's happening right now uh selection will be made by the end of the school year for a handwriting program for grades K1 and cursive for
grade three our Mental Health Services are going to be maintained uh we have our behavioral health counselor at the middle school we're going to continue with one behavioral health counselor through and uh at the middle school and three behaviorists districtwide and our employee assistance program um we've
provided a lot of support for our English language Learners through our sheltered English instruction program which is a more of a curricular and programmatic initiative um and we have implemented this year um halfday breakfast and lunch service primarily
for all students but primarily uh in recognition of our free and reduced lunch population and students that really came to school on early dismissal days looking for their meals um and we want to make sure that we accommodate those needs for those students um and then finally really exciting work that
we have coming next year is the development of the district's new strategic plan so I'll be talking with the board over the summer and early in the fall about bringing someone in doing some workshops over the course of probably late winter um to to launch
some new strategic goals and what do we want to see out of the next five years here in Readington um and with that I'll pass it over to Jason to talk about some of our capital projects uh coming up this summer um so first up is the referendum
which the board voted on and approved on February 25th um I won't go through the 91 slides again um but just to highlight that we're talking about 83 construction projects at four buildings which is a tremendous amount
of projects um and if it passes it will reduce the local tax levy compared to what everyone is currently paying so a great bang for your buck um and hopefully we'll talk about that in a few minutes um the actual refer date and
that go to the website to see more on the actual projects and cost of each project so what is the board do annually we also look at um other projects that we can do to keep our buildings up to date and we get very creative with how
we can fund those things uh using grants um or cafeteria Aid uh funds or using creative measures using the state New Jersey uh funds that don't impact the local tax levy and we have a bunch of
projects we're going to end up doing the summer uh either through our maintenance staff doing them directly um or using cafeteria funds or other mechanisms um that really don't impact our Capital Reserves at all so it's a it's a nice
thing that um we're contining to do this even without the referendum um some of these projects didn't also make the referendum and we just want to make sure they get done so I'm not going to go through all of them but some some health and safety ones uh removal of asbest um contining with hot water
feeder um some crical backend things like that but also water bottle filling stations which every child now BRS water bottle school so having those throughout the district so they can fill up whenever they like greatly important um we're also going to do some
things that are great for students which is uh the performance stages we've we've been recently doing the audio um at all the district school buildings for different performances so now we're starting to look at lighting as well as
uh fling itself so that way you know all aspects of the performance can be enhanced for music and arts department uh the gym mats at hollbrook school um if you've been to the Middle School gym they have new pads we're going to end up using the same company
but obviously different logo so that design is going on right now for the h school gym have all new gym mats and wall padding and we're also doing some you know toilet room and drainage and other
basic things um really big things we also do is we preschool classrooms which St mentioned we may have 15 we may have 16 um next year depending on en rollan um we make sure that each classroom is identical so that way it
doesn't matter where you're placed um if you happen to be placed at a place that you may not want or desire um children all have the same furniture we all have the same resources and supplies um we make sure that it's up to dat um and
Main state code um so that way there's also a certified teacher um and professional development we want to make sure that the experience is the same um everywhere to the best degree possible so included in that is capital projects make sure that uh we review each of the
centers to make sure that all the rooms are up to date and ready for September and then last but not least we'll talk about solar expansion in few slides what is the composition of the budget I mentioned this last meeting um
86% is salaries and benefits if you include nikoal which is a small slipper up there that's yellow it's actually 88% so 88% of our budget is human means which you would expect given that we service
children so a lot of pressure has has been put on the budget over the years because Health has been going up dramatically um and salaries go up higher than the 2% tax of the cap and the board has done a great job of not impacting programming um and also still
providing uh the utmost for the students of brington including redesign of schedules to provide more math and more Ela um so uh it's another great job by the board to to this coming year budget to
um keep things as best as possible moving forward despite not raising taxes and being C tax so this chart pretty much sums up how well the board does each year with
the tax ly um the five colors that are not green are the top five costs of the district and each of those have raised dramatically um over the past 10 years
and the board has done a great job of keeping the tax levy as low as possible um and we are cogent that the school district represents a a large portion of the tax levy um so we're making sure that we're being fiscally PR our funds
that we can generally get from that so what El has the board done I mentioned solar and the board voted to for with solar which in the summer months we will be 100% um our energy will be met by solar and the winter will probably be
75% so will average out to be around 85 90% of our we driven driven by solar and this chart really represents how much work the board has done the district to lower utilities and this has
allowed us to keep no impact of program if we had done no action we could still be paying upwards of a million dollars on electric and if you've been reading the news on June 1st electric is has spe to go up
20% um I don't think we're going to be impacted by that pretty much at all because solar which is being installed hopefully this summer um has a fixed rate for 15 years so we will be paying a fixed dollar amount for the next 15
years on what we produce um and we've done some amazing work over the years to keep our electric down um and it's really a testament to uh the board's uh work over the years well before I was here I I got here in
2017 and much of this happened before I got here so what does this mean for um next year the tax levy what we're looking at um is an increase in tax levy uh we also got some increase in state aid and the
finance committee met and determined to Lo lower uh the tax rate so last meeting we were discussing a 3.7% increase with the increase in state aid uh the finance committee decided that we should lower
uh tax levy locally to 3.2% so that's the budget that is uh draft for you to sent to State uh represents a 3.2% um increase which again supports us being cent of the local taxpayers using
the increase in state to drive down the taxes um and you see the amount of money we get in preschool which um is fantastic because there's also no impact to tax for that Jason yes
ma'am Mr uh quick question is this implying that we have no federal aid uh no um if you go to um yeah we we get uh about
400 little over $400,000 in federal Le and those are in Essa and Ida Brands and most of those have been for the past 30 years under different names and right
now the state guidance is that we anticipate we're not going to lose any of that Aid this coming year but to budget the normal 75 to 8% which we um this is our debt service so we talked about this with referendum our debts
expiring in a year and a half um so this amount of taxes will um become zero um if the referendum doesn't pass but hopefully we'll replace this with a lower dollar amount so we can fund 83 projects what does this mean overall
3.2% tax of the increase um so you can see we've been between zero % and 3.2% for the past 10 years ofcl one year um so done a very good job at um keeping
taxes down and even before 2015 I think that it was zero or negative for about eight years so if you look back 20 years the board has done a tremendous job with um keeping programming strong and keeping taxes
slow so on an average house what does this mean uh $72 over the year um do the math on that it's about six bucks a month so if this would fored in April taxes
would go up $6 but we' be p and improve School District next year um I included the actual tax rates um so that way people know how much pay in average and
questions I'm glad we were able to work that green committee slide in there that one that one slide that was we said we could work it in somehow so yeah look at the other ones and there the whole yeah what questions does the board have regarding the
budget uh I have another question was I saw a lot about the 2% maximum tax levy increase and we're a little above that and I saw there was some exceptions so I'd like to understand that a little better um there are two J Jason can give you the more details there are two primary
exceptions that allows you to go above 2% um the first is a health care adjustment uh when the state of New Jersey they anticipate healthc care premiums going up a certain percentage and if they go and and everything in the state is based off of the State Health
Benefit Plan correct Jason and if those plans the premiums for healthcare go up higher than anticipated it allows all districts to apply that same Health Care adjustment so if Health Care increases at an exponential rate beyond what is
anticipated it allows Jason to go into the budget software and account for that rate increase that was beyond what was anticipated and that's a healthcare adjustment that can be applied to the next year for budgeting purposes so that's the first which is a health care
adjustment and then the second is um banked cap so as you look through our budget history there's times where we didn't use the full 2% Bank cap or maybe we didn't use a healthcare adjustment or waiver when we qualified for it or an enrollment adjustment we qualify for it
anything that we qualified for over the past several years that we did not use in budget planning becomes something called banked cap that sits almost like in a bank a bank account like as banked cap if you will um and it stays there for three years and if you don't use it
you lose it so it's money that's there that is that went under spent in previous years and there is about I want to say about $200,000 in banked cap that would expire at the end of this year if we didn't use it so we thought it'd be provent to use that banked cap in
addition to our healthc care waiver in order to go up to the 3.2% so it does allow us to go beyond the 2% to 3.2% but it's those two adjustments that allow that did I did my non-ba head capture that all right yeah all right and those
two items are actually on the agenda we're voting on 310 and 311 thank you great question other questions about the budget uh so next steps uh tonight the board will vote on the tenative budget that vote allows Jason to submitted to
the county once we get County approval when we meet at the end of April um then it is final budget hearing and budget approval so that's the the business that's in front of the board for this
evening but also uh is the referendum vote date uh which we have to vote on tonight as well Larry could you switch over to the referendum presentation uh as a preview to this um we've been in referendum discussions uh
for the better part of the year um and even previous boards before some of you were on the board we knew that this debt was coming to expire and um what we were tasked with was two major things with the referendum first
we had to discuss the projects which we did and we voted upon last time but the second big thing the board has to do is decide what date do we want to put the referendum out uh on the ballot out to the public as a question um you know I've had previous
opinions is thinking that having voters focus on just the one question at a time in a September election or January or March or something like that was a a positive thing for us the one thing that's changed really from looking at the
fall um is the fact that the September election date is September 16th um and referendums require a a lot of lead time in my opinion for a Communications campaign in September 16th I just picture myself
right as a dad coming back from the summer starting up the school year parents coming back from the summer September 16th sounds like an awfully early time to ask community members and parents to focus on a school matter um so we are going to be proposing to the
board for this evening uh that our public vote uh for our $38 million T um referendum which would essentially lower taxes for the community um to select a November date and what we did is kind of went through the administration made a
kind of a Pros cons chart um the pro for September right the the nice thing for September is if we can focus voters on the one question that's a positive thing we can really just have folks go out for to vote for that one
question however you can see in red um that there are some concerns with the September date being September the fact that there's an additional cost to a special election uh we wouldn't have enough time to do what we anticipate we'd like to do like public walkthroughs of the buildings to have
the public and our community see the buildings uh we wouldn't have as much time to communicate to the public um and oftentimes less uh less fewer members of the public turn out for special elections um if we go to November the
pass rate is similar slightly higher um there's no cost to the district it's a well-known date so it's there's much higher turnout which means if we really put this issue in front of the hands of Voters in Readington Township hopefully they show up to The Ballot Box having their mailer or some information knowing
how they want to vote um we can take the time to do public walkthroughs through September and October invite members of the community and the public to come through our buildings um see the proposed projects that we've identified through our building walkthroughs um
there is more public turnout and it would allow me along with our communications consultant to to plan at least six to eight weeks if not more of a public campaign to really get the word out um starting like hitting the ground in September so you know I've gone back
and forth about this but my recommend recommendation that we put on the agenda tonight for you is to consider a November election or a November ballot putting the referendum on November um knowing that we can have a strong campaign um hope that it passes and it
moves forward but know that we have other opportunities if it doesn't pass in November to to hear the voter revise our our proposals and go back out if we need to um Jason is there anything to add are there any questions from the border or anything that you want to
discuss in terms of the proposed election date put it on the ballot I wish I had my crystal ball to know how it would turn out but I don't uh but I think November is probably our best bet I think it gives us more time to really communicate to our community and I think
that that's a good thing for us if there are no questions that's my superintendent report thank you very much okay our next on the agenda is public comments for items on the agenda
so no one in public phone okay move on to the next all right approval of administrative reports we have two opt um motions to adopt 1.01 and
1.02 can I get a motion and then a second motion Helen second okay any discussion Mr M G yes m f yes Mr yes M bski yes M
rad yes Ryan yes yes yes yes okay next item is approval amendments motion to adopt 2.01 second all right can any discussion Mr
bone Mr Cy yes m f Mr Los yes M borski yes m r yes M Ryan Yes M yes yes okay finan and Facilities
um we did not meet this month so we don't have a committee report but there are quite a few items Dr Hart and Mr B went through most of them during the presentations so a large part of them is obviously the bill list that we've done the other items that we talked about the
budget and the statutory things as well so can I get a motion for to move 3.01 and 3.2 and then a second I'll move second any discussion any of the 20
items okay CLE yes M yes yes yes right yes on 3.01 I abstained from check number 0
65087 yes else yes Mr yes okay no committee report right no okay so we have three motions 4.01 to
4.03 can I get a motion and then a second I make a motion any discussion m c yes M Fury yes M yes M yes yes yes yes
yes for the committee believe there will report oh no that's right no we don't that's right we didn't meet for personel I'm sorry thinking policy okay so we didn't Personnel didn't meet we're meeting on Friday next Friday so on that regards
can um I have a motion for 5.01 to 5.04 in a second moveen second okay any discussion can I point something please your Mr I'm excited to announce to the board that Rebecca Burns uh appears on
this uh agenda she is our new director of pupil Services uh joining us um from a supervisory position right next door in Flemington riton unfortunately she couldn't be here tonight with us um she does plan to come and meet the board at a future meeting so I would like to just
point it out that we have a new director poopa Services she couldn't be here and I will introduce her to the board at another board meeting but we're very excited to have her join us come July one thank you any other comments okay we a
vote Cy yes Fury yes yesi yes M yes yes M yes Mr yes I guess we there we are thank you report right
yes the policy and Communications committee met on February 24th um we first reviewed our policy review rubric the committee reviewed the policy tracking document over the past month each Committee Member reviewed the bylaws in the policy manual and made
notes and suggestions on bringing them up to date ensuring they support current laws statutes and code as well as meeting the district's needs Dr Hart will draft the edits and bring them back to the committee for further discussion and review and ultimately to the full board for first read many bylaws only
required minor edits um however the following bylaws required a little more involved revisions U bylaw 0134 for board self- evaluation um further Define this bylaw to include language showing our commitment to conducting a self- evaluation each year ensuring
accountability to the public and to improve our board function each year uh bylaw 0141 board member number and term include language to clarify the majority majority vote of the remaining board members of the board uh by law 0145 board member resignation and removal
include language to cover voluntary uh resignations bylaw 0153 annual appointments to have more extensive list of appointments to include board attorney attendance officer psychological examiner insurance broker Etc um by law
0167 public participation in board meetings to clarify the language regarding the time limit mentioned to better reflect how our meetings are conducted uh bylaw 0171 duties of the board president and vice president to include language to further clarify and add additional responsibilities of the
board president um bylaw 0174 Legal Services include more specific language regarding maximum amount and who is responsible for the log and specify which uh information should be included in that log the following bylaws have been recommended to be abolished um by
law 01311 at Tech committee uh this is covered in policy 0155 uh under board committees and then also bylaw 0147 board member travel expenditures this uh content is covered in policy 6471 for school district
travel the following bylaws require further discussion in committee uh bylaw 055.0 one board member participation of board meetings using electronic devices this was created for the unique situation that Co presented and we need to see if it still serves a purpose to
the district uh bylaw 0168 reporting board meetings further discussion is needed to see if language should be included regarding board member reporting of committee meetings Etc and also uh if this should include AI tools bylaw 0169 board member use of
electronic mail and internet further discussion is needed to see if we include language regarding social networking sites in this policy or if we add a separate policy to cover it and bylaw 0175 contracts with independent Consultants further discussion is needed to see if we should add this to our
bylaws um then we went on to discuss the cell phone policy um the committee reviewed results from the cell phone policy survey which revealed that staff and parents strongly believe that cell phone use has an impact on student achievement and mental health and well-being the majority of students who
participated also indicated that they feel cell phone use has an impact on their mental health and wellbeing and then uh sample policy 551 6.01 student use of wireless communication devices including cell phones this policy states that students are prohibited from using
Wireless communication devices during the school day students may use wireless communication devices before or after school while on school buses or during co-curricular activities nothing in this policy shall prohibit a student from using a wireless communication device for a purpose documented and a
classified students individualized education plan or a plan developed under Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 a student may use a wireless communication device to monitor or address a health condition which shall be with prior permission of the school
nurse and documented in the students individual health plan it also States students shall keep their wireless communication devices silenced and in a secure place such as the student's Locker at all times when device use is prohibited provided however that students May wear smart watches at all times but shall refrain from using the
devices for any purpose other than timekeeping during instructional periods the committee agreed that this policy should move forward to first read the committee also agreed that if this policy passes the full board that a review of this policy should be conducted in six months to see if the implementation and practicality are
working well um alert 234 for policy 511 and policy 8500 eligibility of Resident and non-resident students and Food Service uh this was tabled until the next committee meeting due to time constraints and then we
discussed the key communicators meeting it is scheduled for March 25th Dr Hart shared with the committee that the key communicators meeting is scheduled and there is good participation so far and responses are still coming in um we also reviewed the more feedback uh Dr Hart shared the results of the s'more
newsletter survey 100% love it and 0% prefer the other version um and then the agenda items is policy 551 6.01 our next meeting is for Monday March 24th at 4M okay so we have one motion to adopt
six 01 can I get a motion in the second motion second okay any discussion Mr M C yes m f yes Mr Lo yes M borski
yes yes yes yes yes is there any unfinished business we need to discuss okay all right new business from the board I know we're going to discuss on board self- evaluation after Patty's
presentation in the timing of it does anyone have any thoughts of before the superintendent report after July any preferences the only thing I noted was I noticed last year we did it at this time it was this meeting that it was brought
up and then um it was completed by the end of April so I didn't want to miss this opportunity and then um but I'm into discussing and moving it if needed I was going to say the same thing mrto we did it around this time last year and the timeline wise for the board it's
helpful to do one or the other you don't want to do both the superintendent ofal and the board self ofal at the same time so it's helpful to separate them um the only other thing that I would bring up whether you want to the board wants to do it now and get it done before you do the superintendent V or whether you want to save it until June after the
superintendent of B I think it's helpful if we're going to do a retreat in July for you know Judy Wilson or Patty or whoever is going to come in July to talk with us about setting goals for the following year it would be helpful to have it complete that that's my only suggestion whether we do it now or in June I would just say let's get the
results and give them to whoever comes to visit us in July so that they have the results what's the timeline when do we start the superintendent eval so the the April 29th board meeting is that that Tuesday board meeting I share uh
progress toward District goals and then um we go into executive session and I walk you through the documents that I put together in that Google doc if you prefer the Google Doc I'd like to just use the Google Doc again go through it um and then it's in the specifics are in
my bule but um what I'll say is it starts that um April 29th board meeting board members have roughly two weeks from that board meeting to complete the evaluation so that
um Mr rizm Mrs depinto can put everything together and then come back at I want to say it's the May 10th board meeting um and discuss all of the comments and all of the evaluation with the full board without me here and then from there it's up to the board
president and vice president to put together the final document uh so really the full board is done with the work by that may board meeting so we could probably launch the self V by the end of May and have
the month of June to to do it or you can do it now either way it's really up to you after that may board meeting the only thing that needs really on David and Ellen have to put together the final dock for the superintendent of Al and you've got about a month to do it
because doesn't have to be done until that June board meeting but it's completely to that's the rough timeline yeah I mean I'm fine either way I don't know um does it take them like does it take time to get us what we need for the board selfie
b or I could re chck the Patty on that she said to help set it up so you guys are okay with using their evaluation to for about so I'll just you check the Pat and get that started yeah I think it's just a link that she sent to you really as far as our remember and then she compiles everything we'll send a report
to us and then we do it we what with it can we comp do it now I guess are you guys I didn't notice any issue with it last year doing it at time simp consistent okay that put put some
information at the board gos and stuff so yeah right I don't know if we did that last year though either we did board think she said there's a new form she said that's right they changed so now there's a new form yeah um all right so I'll just reach out to her get the details so we'll plan on doing it sooner rather than later okay so we get that
done prior to We Begin the superintendent report this is we have a few members who've been on the board for roughly what month um month and a half six weeks if you delay
till June those members might have a little bit more to go on to evaluate the cor that they've only been on for a very short amount of time and maybe we'll get better more self-reflective input if it's you know
look I'm sorry Linda what yours on that my first time had to do it just like a month or two after I started I'm like I don't know what bu and and you know I mean we have a unique unique that the board president is brand
new and you know um I just think a few extra months help to get I would prefer a little bit more time to get my feet wet and feel a little bit more comfortable with answering the questions and I'm not quite sure what the questions were I was
prepared in my governance training of the superintendent evaluation but I I don't really have an idea of what's there's yeah there's a link on the report one of the things they gave every once they give a sample one I think for
the and it's against our goals because I know we' talked about that the the policy PA talking about that frequency and actually doing something with that all right so the light of this new
information started after the May meeting in June I mean I was in the same boat last year um and it I didn't maybe there was like one or two questions where I felt I couldn't you know that I kind of just
stated or felt that yeah that I I couldn't really answer it fully um but for the most part I thought all the questions you know I was able to answer and and give feedback but I'm totally fine with waiting I it's a good point to bring up so but it wasn't like you
couldn't do it at all so there's an option for for also I I remember that with the superintendent evaluation that there's data or well it kind of comes like as your reflection you know like you kind of realize that you haven't had that
experience yet or yeah and yeah that was just something I was thinking but it certainly can be done I we've always done it in the a so
every it's just this is third Bo okay any thoughts from the left side of theable said for the superintendent you know evaluation like for new board members you know you can use the same argument for that so I mean it doesn't matter to me if we want to delay we can delay but yeah we were all in the same
boat you know when we first came on and the superintendent about us the only thing want to rush you guys doing it so I want to be cognizant are you guys okay with doing it in April or do you prefer it away okay let's wait then right okay all right that subtles that all right do we
have any delegate reports you're looking I know us the Garden State poition schools uh had another meeting February 27th that I brought in attorney general butkin um I know everyone was invited to
attend and there been some discussion about the dear colleague letter that went out on February 14th um that threatened to remove federal grants um coming to our state we didn't eliminate Dei events uh and so the Attorney
General gave the advice that this executive order um was written in rather arbitrary language it wasn't very clear um it is not has no legal basis and bypasses Congressional input on
spending reiterated that the 10th Amendment supports State's rights to educate for their prerogative um and they advised not reacting to it um and then when there are actions that take place that we that we
would just consult the attorney General uh and he would proceed forward uh with the appropriate action but for example he was giving some examples of things that might be coming up and here we're celebrating St Patrick's Day on Monday and that was an example of a you know
cultural event that were being inclusive of a group of people and do we want to cut out all of those events in a nature re action to an unclear and not legally based executive that was his advice all right
thank you P okay our next section section is a comments from the public on anything on or off the agenda there's nothing in the chat okay all right so next item is
executive session so I'm going to have a motion to adopt the following resolution resolve to adjourn to Executive session in accordance with the Sunshine Law to discuss h IBS for approximately 30 minutes at which time the board expects
to return to public section where action will be taken the matters discuss will be made public if and when the circumstances requiring confidentiality no longer exist however is not presently known when such circumstances will
exist we got a call session oh yeah I'm sorry have a motion in a second second okay Cassidy yes fur yes yesi
yes yes yes is yes is it yes