##VIDEO ID:fzdi-AImiWg## I think so just talk a little louder because it's coming from here now they should be be able to hear now yeah they'll they'll pick it they'll the stream they're on will end and they'll refresh and they'll Su us so they'll be able to get back on or we good is there anyone [Music] online can the person online let us know in the chat he us we're good yeah go yeah we good sure yep okay is obviously understanding the njsba regulations and policies but the key to it is someone that's a good communicator some that can facilitate the meetings the Committees working with the administration as well some that has great organizational skills um that is what I bring to the board I have a lifetime of experience I am known throughout my whole entire career someone that actually is successful all project handling large budgets just making sure that all parties are heard and communicate and everyone's successful on to the other thing is um the president has certain roles communicated signning some commit more than that it really is being able to bring everyone together because we're one board we're a bunch of individuals and a bunch of individual board members but the key is when we get to the table we vote board and you look at what the president does the president's vote is the same vote as anyone else in this room the key to of the board of education is the Committees and the committee CH so as a board president is working with the committee members and the chairs just make sure that everything flows well that there's no hiccups if something happens just being available to make things work out well um so that's why I think where I bring to T because that's I've done my whole entire career I also think it's good to have someone with a fresh perspective that can come in that can see things and say okay this is how it's been done in the past maybe we could do things slightly different Maybe hear different viewpoints of the new board members and experienced board members and see how to do things so once again that's something I would do is facilitate conversation now for um priorities as Beth mentioned obviously the referendums they make sure we handle that we have the budget coming up in April that's another important one that's coming up as well um I think board Norms are important I know a lot of boards throughout the state are trying to come up with board norms and put them make them ailable for each team um so I think that's something we can work on in regards to the email that e mentioned that she sent I'm actually a little surprised she mentioned it and I'm actually one of the people that actually responded to the reason why I'm surprised is that you'll see this when we do the ethics stream and we'll come up and sure it's be a slide on that as when you do email Communications you're not supposed to send it to all board members because you created a forum when she sent the email out she actually created a forum she sent it to all six members that are on the board with the three new members something you shouldn't do is write estim training is probably going to be an ethic tram and we're going to see in about 10 minutes or so the other thing is if you read the first sentence she actually asked for feedback I want you to respond tell me who should be bo and so on so she's asking for two communication once again that could put you in violation of sunshine act so I'm sure miss fiori didn't mean to do that but someone that has as much board experience should know not to send an email to a quum to all board members asking for a two-way communication and actually someone did respond all so there was a two-way communication so not anything against Mr just because you've been on the board and with the stream doesn't necessarily mean you can't make a mistake so it's not necessarily about being on the board and know for 3 years four years and knowing everything it's listen to your board members communicate and facilitating and that's what I bring to the board I will make sure we work together as a board through our committees and each individual board I do hi um yeah I uh I've M Beth actually for a long time now our children uh go to school together so I can attest the fact that Beth is at many many events SEC their frequently is heavily engaged in the district um is very familiar with how the schools operate in the IND work here I also noticed in the meetings that I've attended that Beth has been going out of her way to Benchmark with other boards um she's has been uh getting great ideas that have helped us reduce our tax burden and uh get grants for our district so I think she's very experienced in that um I as a private citizen did email everyone on this board asking who was interested um for running for positions and Beth was the only one who had reached out at all so I am surprised that the comment around uh your strengths and communication and listening and hearing and generating conversation because I I didn't hear from you I didn't hear from anybody else on board besides that proposing this and I was under the impression um as I was going through all the onboarding and training that you talked about how much of the interactions of the board occurs outside of meetings where people are communicating and providing information and I didn't feel like I got that at all I I just felt kind of stepping here today day one and I I really don't know much about you said I can only go on I just wanted to share that else I just want to add the reason I did not respond to the email was also because I thought it was a violation because it was a form so I would defer to the attorney for that question to see if that was correct so it wasn't that we didn't want to communicate with anybody it was the fact that I did not want issues ESP [Music] involves same I didn't want to reply could be against rul so that's why it was because of lack of communication um so I included my phone number in there and I said conversation and here is my phone number and that was the way that you were supposed to get back to me so I just want to clarify that that I was not trying to hold a public public meeting or do any discussion behind the scenes and in fact I read it in public what the discussion was about so I don't feel like I violated anything in the in my duty or in my responsibility as a board member so I just want to clarify that I'm I'm actually trying to figure this out because um being on the board for many years and understanding how this works and I'm trying to imagine myself on day one in a leadership position as the president of the board um which feels really strange because we all did an onboarding survey this year if the board members who sat on here last year remember this we took a survey of how how was your first year what did you wish you knew um what would you impart on new board members and the number one thing that came back on the onboarding survey is that there should be a mentoring program because it is so difficult in your first year to understand what's going on there were comments on the survey people had no idea in meetings what acronyms were they sat confused in many meetings they um didn't know when it was okay to talk or not to talk these are all things that as a brand new board member it takes a little bit there's a definite learning curve to be a board member and to you know this is not a corporate board where you sit down and you you immediately start working right away there are so many things that are woven together State mandates just I mean we're an employer we're a you know Community partner there's just so many things going on and moving at once you need to have that full picture of what is going on I mean having budget issues legal issues like the there's a background on this I'm just I'm trying to understand as someone who is brand new to an organization could come in a brand new College hire you're our new CEO I it's it's interesting to me um why the board feels that somebody who has zero experience would be a better leader than me I I you know I think experience matters in this I think knowing all the principles and the union rep and who our board attorney is and you know what our contracts look like I think all that matters and I think that matters to the public too to have somebody who can sit there and answer questions right away I mean right after we take this vote that president is accountable for everything that's happening in the district and should be able to answer questions talk to the press and I don't feel conf that that Mr Rizza has that knowledge to be able to answer to the public in that way so I mean I I just feel strong about that all first I do agree that experience matters and that's exactly what I to said strange some step into a leadership position I don't think that's strange at all I've my whole entire career so you're just looking at it from a little microcosm of the board itself but be a leader is to be a leader across projects across multiple companies across multiple positions throughout their career being able to come in and step in and take the position lead bring people together that's not just about being in one section like okay I've been a board member for four years I'm automatically leader absolutely not it doesn't make you in leadership just because you're on the board it's your career and I've been a career leader my whole entire um existence my whole 35 years of working in the industry so I agree experience does matter and that's exactly what I bring to the board it is about communication it is about facilitation that is the key thing now you bring up acronym of learning things every company has acronyms everywhere you go you can get that that's the biggest concern that the board president has to have I don't know I'm not over concerned about learning Acron to be honest with you my whole job I work with legal contracts all the time every week I deal with lawyers from different type of things I deal with contracts with Finance multi-million dollar budgets but that's in the real world that's where things have consequences that's where if you don't actually successful you can lose your job compy can lose millions of money uh dollars you could have a project that um fines a State statue a federal statue work very heavly regulated industry so yeah that's real life experience where if you're an not successful and you do something wrong there's an impact so yes experience matters between you and I I believe I have more experience in you what would make um I gu um so one of the things that is important duty of President and I haven't heard mentioned is as the president you're basically the boss of the superintendent you're responsible for performance evaluations um and having not through the process at all no understanding of what the process is it seems just a little disrespectful to think that you're going to come in and be boss over something that you know nothing and um listening to what you're saying and it sounds you know sounds good leader I'm not sure exactly what but I also it gave me a visceral reaction when you said the real world you've been a leader in the real world I don't know how much more is the education of our our children um to me that was just you don't consider this the real world um I that to me is upset to you okay I understand your concern but just to reiterate president's not the boss of the superintend the president is a partner with the superintendent I've done performance I have set I've received them I've done them that's I don't know I'm not concerned about doing performance reviews of the superintendent in fact the whole nine board members are going to participate in that it's not just the president it's another so the president is not the boss the president is a partner as you think of yourself as a boss it just doesn't go well it's not that's not a good way for communication obviously this real world Maybe had choice of terms so thank you for bringing that up but I was just trying to say I have experience not within the board of education but experience outside of board education and that translates very well into this environment thank one of the reasons why I hesitated to respond was because I didn't appreciate the tone of the email stating I Lear that first M was inec that I wasn't up to speed this year because I feel like this first year I was very up to speed and was a very effective [Music] any other thoughts or [Music] comments I am curious was anybody else um did anybody reach out to anybody here on this board to discuss this matter individually because I am I did confirm with you Jason you can send individual emails you can send messages so I'm just curious if anybody here [Music] discuss the RO of the president because they do take on um sometimes assuming responsibil I have conversation with I comments all right well um so at this time we're going to vote on the order of nomination so I just remind you uh do your best to only vote one time for one person um you can vote Yes no orain person that receives the majority of those present for here the nomination the same thing for the vice president so we're going to first start with um a theori um so I'm going to go around and um do a roll call so you say yes no obain if you say yes uh you're voting in favor of Beth becoming president if you say no your against her becoming president um exact same thing for Dave so first vote is for Beth fi Miss Cassie yes is depinto no Mrs F yes Mr Lopes no Mrs py yes Mr Rizo no Mr R no so the second nomination was for David Rizo so right now we're GNA go around same exact R call yes no orain for David RZ Mrs Cassidy no is the yes no Mr Lo yes Mr borski M rad yes m r yes Ryan yes so David uh you won the majority congratulations on your appointment to um so at this time you actually uh P the role of board president you take a meeting over from me I do have choice you can stay there you can come up um you will lead the rest of the agenda so if you need copy of the agenda I have a point for you um and you're going to go on to nomination of a vice president which does not second thank you thank you everyone for your support nominating for looking forward to working with each so now we're going to something very similar that just for president except for vice president so I am going to ask anyone if there's any nominations for vice president which again it doesn't need to be second so any nominations I would like to nominate this nominations I would like to nominate myself any other any discussion okay yes thank you Mr Rosa congratulations um I would like to put my name out there I wasn't expecting to do this but I feel like if we have a president that has zero experience as a member of the Board of Education that I would be a bring good balance to the board um I could potentially um help train and Mentor um Mr Rizza in this role I feel that together as a team we would um be able to work really well together to bring cohesiveness to the board I think we saw this last year in that our president and vice president had different views uh at times not all times but at sometimes and I felt like it was a really good show to the public that we can work together um and for the um Unity of the board and like for the the health and wellbeing of the school so I um I think that I'm more than qualified for that role and I would be happy to serve alongside you as your vice president thank any other discuss comments and I can share my reason for nominating Mrs I found working with her this past year she is very willing to compromise um she's very knowledgeable and even though she is in her first term she is very cl to receiving her new birth member certification so um I think that shows that shows a lot and I think she she would do very well serving this board as vice president any other coms so first nomination we're going to vote on is Mrs um so again yes obain try to vote only once if you can um Miss Cassidy no is the yes is this no Mr yes this borski yes Mr Riz yes yes second vote um we're going to vote on Mrs do a roll call yes no or abstain Mrs Cassidy yes M defto sorry M Fury yes Mr loses no mski yes Mr Rizo no r no Chief Vice okay congratulations so now we're going to move on to the organization we have to adopt motions of r 1 R5 so can I have someone give me a motion toop R1 R5 second I just wanted to bring something up okay sorry I wasn't I wanted to bring up uh discharging the green committee okay so we'll do that after we do if you want to do okay so we get a second on our one so we can go into any discuss okay okay so any discussion I would just want say I've been on green committee since March when I started my term and it's been great they do a lot of great stuff for school so panels and great I just don't see need to be a separate committee I feel like everything that gets handled in the green committee always has to go to finance anyway so maybe we can think about merging the two um I just think it' be easier and make you know less time for Dr har meetings and teachers it's one less easy that they would have to say okay so I just going to clarify so we have the motion and then we had the second so we're talking about the main motion now we have an amendment to R2 so the next discussion is only going to be about the amendment that M Lo's brought up once we complete discussion then we'll go into a vote on that and then we can open the discussion on the full motion which is R1 through R5 plus the possibly amended R2 so just to clarify the amendment we know we discussion before I open it up is that on the one section of R2 it says committee chairs and committee assignments and has policy Communications committee um education finance committee I mean Finance facilities committee education technology committee Personnel committee negotiations committee and green committee so the amendment that is proposed is to do a strike through of the green committee so based on that the discussions only that I'm going to open it up the floor for discussion so is there any discussion on the proposed amendment Mr yeah so I'm pulling up the sustainability policy right now because I think that um that's quite a big uh undertaking to strike a committee on pror day um the purpose of the green committee is to uh gather ideas it's an advisory committee there's no action taken at all uh there's no action taken many committees it all comes back to the main board um but the there's several reasons why that committee is in place one is to fulfill our partnership goal of our strategic plan um we have members of the community who sit on that uh committee and it's like I said it it is helped us in fulfilling that part of our strategic plan um it also satisfies our requirements for sustainable Jersey application we have to have a green Committee in order to uh certifi and we have all four of our schools silver certified right now which is the highest level of certification that any school district can receive in New Jersey so if we were to remove the green committee we would not be eligible for that we have received tens of thousands of dollars in grant money from sustainable Jersey so that is a huge financial hit if we decide to remove that committee all together um give give me a moment here while I pull up the policy around sustain um the sustainability policy because I know that within that there is also references to a green committee um I just yeah um I'm I'm curious why that if it's uh it meets quarterly four times a year it's not a huge burden as far as I'm concerned for our administrators to sit on it uh staff members volunteer as far as I know to sit on it are they during this the work day we have the committee during school hours so that they can help on the call um sometimes after school but they they volunteer to be on this committee um so I guess while I'm pulling this up because I want to be able to vote uh you know fully aware can you please explain to me why you don't feel the green committee is necessary I'm not saying to get rid of it I'm just saying to merge it with another committee because there time we were just sit the meeting just talking you can't get anything done until it goes to finance anyway so when Finance comes to us and they have questions I feel like if you have the two meetings together they can understand why we're going to spend money and approve to spend money on those topics that's all the the green committee um like I said is not made up a board members so then you would have the public sitting in on finance meeting and I don't see that that is um an effect is that you could have first the chair of the finance committee obviously if you need quarterly now the committee the finance committee person can obviously set an agenda item to discuss the green committee at the commit committee at every quarter so you can do the same exact functionality there I do know that when I was search in other districts to see how they set up the Committees what committees they had I look at all the neighboring districts that are part of central descend as well as other ones none of them had a so I couldn't find it so I thought that was interesting and and I think the rationale is that the items of the green committee do go up through the finance committee get voted in through the finance committee so it's not that you're getting rid of the green you're actually just moving the agenda to Finance which is where it gets actioned anyway so I don't know if someone on the finance committee from last time would like to speak about that so I was on the finance committee and everything does then kind of funnel into us to make um decisions and to discuss it so I kind of agree why not just have it together um I haven't served on the green committee so I um you know I can just go based on the minutes that we received um in our sustainability policy 7461 the superintendent of schools will establish a School District Green Committee compris of board members Administration the green and sustainability initiatives coordinator staff community members and guests to provide the superintendent and the board with information on the benefits of increased sustainability practices within the school district I feel like this conversation should be tabled if you're looking to abolish a policy I mean I I I feel like um trying to do it at a reorder to is is not the appropriate Avenue without making sure that all of our pieces of the reason why we have the committee and where it fits in all play together well we are forming committees today right I after this to discussed but from the conversation hearing committee is one board member board members and then community members teachers all all the meetings have community members you know sometimes people show up or don't but part of the group is made up of community and teachers I heard so are you suggesting that the community members should have Finance me no I don't know exactly how that would work but I would think that we would have a separate time stop for them to join in for the green committee that would that an idea and it just this an idea I'm just throwing it out there not make sure people are clear I'm not against the Green committee I'm not trying to abolish it just try to merge it with another committee so part of usually part of the committee is discuss you know we talk down ideas we come up with you know things that we want to do some more research on more discussions all that pre-work pre discussion that's done the committee are you suggesting that all now moves to the finance committee or when is that discussion happen I think it's something we could come up and figure it out as a board and with Dr Hart's advice I'd like to his input on it also but I think that it requires us to approve things that the finance committee ultimately has to make the decision on because they have to spend the money and taxpayers wanted so my understanding is your men to abolish green and then merge it with the finance so when there the discussion about you know how we're going to get the participants there and we're gon to talk about it right now oh right now I me Dr what do you think I hopefully unprepared for this conversation that said um The District Green committee has had a purpose in my almost seveny year 10 year he um and the purpose is exactly is stated in policy which is to provide information on the benefits of increased sustainability practices with with the district um there are memb there are teaching staff members administrative staff excuse me staff members parents volunteers community members that come to these meetings um the green committee I a board member of the passive once said that the role is really sort of an idea generating committee and the ideas that get Ved through the green committee that then require full board action V finance committee for that discussion um I believe um that thus far merging the two committees together from what I'm hearing the conversation may not be the best use of moment on time there' be a lot of logistics to work out you know like you said Paulo um because we don't have members of the Public Public teaching staff members attend our committee meetings so if we were going to put them together we still have a green committee which just function with the finance committee um it almost would make for as if our finance committees aren't long enough Jason would make our finance committies that much longer to add initiatives they thrilling big initiatives in there um I think what the board should certainly focus on is what are our goals what's our strategic work what is the culture of the ready to toship school district if our culture our strategic goals and our initiatives include sustainability and environmental um practices within the district that have served our district well and we ought to talk about this and give it some greater thought and consideration um changing the structure of the committee to be under Finance is something U that we should take seriously and give give thought to um I think that we have to look within ourselves and decide what kind of community we are and what rols are and what our strategic plan says about who we are and decide whether or not if this is something that warrants its own standing committee or it's something that needs to be embeded elsewhere um an example of this was we had a quarterly Tech committee be carollyn you would remember a quarterly Tech committee that never really they actually never met to tell you the truth we had it and perhaps when I came here it was a quarterly Tech committee that be established every year by the board and in my first couple of years here we never really found a need to meet because technology initiatives were being discussed in at Tech the word Tech is in at Tech so we thought it probably would be a best use of our time to put technology in Tech the difference with the green committee as opposed to the quarterly technology committee is it does meet quarterly it meets for an hour there's a packed agenda there are more participants um than not I would say those that are committed to the G committee generally come um so it's not like we're taking sort of an extinguished committee and merging it with another we're Tak an existing committee that has active participation and we're considering merging I've said all of this back to my original point being woefully unprepared for this conversation so I hope that I articulated that and it gives the board M something that's a question um roughly what percent of the ideas that come out of the GRE committee funnel into fin because I can't imagine it's hard to say um certainly recent examples are like the solar project um electric bus grants any grant that we receive for any projects um Mrs Freeman's $10,000 grant for her student program that she has the mle school came from the green committee and ultimately have to go to finance because board has to approve any grants that are $100 any donations grants over $500 um it's hard to say a percentage um but certainly ideas that are generated at the policy or I'm sorry the U green committee go elsewhere Finance is the primary place that they go policy is another place that initiatives go and Tech sometimes bring initiatives can go so it's not all necessarily gener Finance I Pam I couldn't give you a percentage but generally any conversation that happens in a green May likely end up in other uh committees or in front of the full board um often times we are honored and celebrated for our great initiatives and those kinds of celebrations and good movs come to the full board we're going to the press for communications um so when we were talking um at the last meeting about the governance committee informing the governance committee was kind of determined that a lot of the responsibilities hand within other committees I know that has pillars I believe in one of them is like education it seems like some of those pillars could be divided into the other committees whereas a district as a whole we still maintain our commitment to sustainability um and you making we improve oural impact and everything so is there a way then to bring the pillars into the other committees where each committee will still add those concerns or those ideas you know the education fin you know there be those components to those committees would that still qualify for this have to C separate committee inorder to continue us um so to answer your first question yes I I mean I think that there are certain components of the great committee that certainly could commit whe there's a will there's a way we can find a way work would it make this eligible for our sustainability awards no um because there there's a certain criteria that sustainable Jersey provides to districts in order to receive credit for having a grein team in fact I have to pull up the application but I think having a grein team is one separate non-negotiable priority item that has to be established within certain criteria in order to get that point you don't have team we call it a read committee made up of all of the members that got listed that's policy um you will need be eligible for the application and and if we just a a minor logistical thing here if we chose to strike it from the agenda tonight and reframe it in some way I don't know what that would do to our current application that we're applying for and we're doing the first round of submission next week and we've already applied and uploaded a lot of our documentation so I'm not suggesting that we not do it at all if it needs another conversation need another conversation but if we abolish it tonight I can't answer the question I don't know what impact it would have on the hours and the time of work that the School Administration staff have already done to make application and I don't know because it is such a stringent criteria of having yeah I just want to clarify I do appreciate all the teachers and we know know I really do I just think that it's almost like what Al like think in my head like we can have a green Committee in almost every committee and policy we have green policies well wellness policy we have Tech green uh Finance everything uh electric School Bus C money a lot of us don't I don't agree on electric school buses so I have a problem with it like the green committee decided to do this prior to me being on the board and everyone was great and then I have I'm fing I come from a background fing background I don't want any electric vehicles I don't want to go near so this is new technology so for me if this was merged that part of the green committee was merged with another committee that may other board members would have potentially had some other ideas and it wouldn't have gone right to let's put in for the grant now it's approved now we're afraid to deny the grants or whatever if we didn't strike through thee was mer fin facilities Comm with that satisfi sustainability policy and not I don't believe so the reason is because the way the policy is written and the members that have to be on the Green Team are established by the sustainable Jersey criteria putting the green committee within the finance committee doesn't satisfy I don't believe would satisfy requirements I haven't tested it out but I don't believe that that would satisfy those requirements um the individuals listed in the policy the individuals that attend to the Green Team the amount of time a year that the team needs on all the criteria in order to be eligible fors merging it with the finance committee don't think achieves the same thing any other discussion have aat discussion so you do have to vote on the amendment but if we want to your appoint table it you can put it down any discussion discussion before we vote on the amendment so to reate was on R2 section to merge the green committee with the finance facilities Committee just that specific thing on the whole entire so confirming Vendo M FY no Mr loses no on voting just we talk about it this isori this no Mr is no no all right now back to the original R1 through R5 any discussion additional discussion on that yes ISO yes is Fury yes Mr yesi yes Mr yes Mr rizen yes yes okay so next thing is the super report well welcome and happy New Year CH one um this is supposed to be the board meeting where I present the least um but here we are talking about the the commit um so first I'd like to welcome um jizza Linder rad um and Cassidy welcome to the board I look forward to working with you and certainly welcome back Mr Paulo Lopes um it's a pleasure to have you back and congratulations Mr Rizza assistant Pino our board President and Vice President your new roles um at this time because I'm going to promise myself that I'm not going to talk too much in this meeting um I'll introduce Jennifer Osborne um from and War you've met Jen most of you have met Jen before she's come to board meetings in the past um she's has a handout and a presentation for you on board members code of ethics she's provided a handout for you tonight so I'll introduce Miss osor to talk abouts um it's just the one page hand out you see that the substance uh is on the and I really need for this to be um a discussion so please you know feel free uh to stop and and ask any questions as we sort of go um to begin the school ethics Act is sort of an umbrella uh set of statutes that is designed to ensure that the conduct of school officials holds the respect and the confidence of the people um it is essentially a road map it's a a dos and don'ts so to speak with respect to um s District Operations I say that because when I use the word School official what that means is any Board of Education member but also a school administrator the differences is that why the 12 School ethics act applies to those two groups of people the code of ethics for school board members only applies to Board of Education members and that is where the primarily the the rules of the road so speak come from some of it can come from the school EIC S as well um the way that we like to think about it um in my group is that we divided into themes we call the five C's so that it's it's sort of easier to remember and encompasses all of the different things that in terms of those dos and don'ts with respect to your role as a board education member and those are the five Cs that you see in your chart it's commitment confidentiality conflicts claims and chain of command and you will see that as I sort of go through them some of the topics that I talk about will appear again in another in another column either because import or because they all sort of overlap and are intertwined with one another so with respect to Commitment the first St um and some of this has sort of been discussed a bit in some of the comments that board members have made about different positions and so forth on on you know on the board it's a huge time commitment to be a member of the Board of Education um and it's it's um commendable that you choose to sit the seats it's a volunteer role and with that comes this responsibility and one of the responsibilities is with respect to the code of ethics knowing that it exists understanding what it is and sort of following it with respect to um everything that it lays out one of the primary responsibilities that's associated with that is that all of the decisions that are made in this room should be done with the best interests of the students and taxpayers in mind when I say the best interests of the students I do not mean just your top tier students or just your middle students or just your lower tier students I mean all students with no discrimination with respect to any category so everyone's being sort of treated equally and put on an even playing field um with respect to opportunity and of course those best interest of taxpayers in mind in New Jersey you have New Jersey statutes which are the laws and then the administrative code regulations which are for lack of a better way of saying it's sort of the howto with respect to implementing those laws and for education in New Jersey we are set up with a ladder where your person that sits on the absolute tippy top of your ladder is Dr Hart your superintendent of schools and every other employee whether he likes it or not every other employee uh in the district sits below that on other rungs of the ladder statute requires us to move up the ladder accordingly so if I have a problem going on I'm a I'm a parent in the district and I have a problem with my child's teacher I can't just jump to Dr Hart's rung on the ladder I have to go to the appropriate rung of the ladder and work my way up in order to sort of seek resolution as a board of education member your responsibility is to oversee the district not to not to you know work in the dayto day but to oversee it so with respect to the chain of command making sure that it is implemented and that people are in the district are following that appropriate rung of the ladder uh you know so to speak board policy we've heard you know comments about board policy tonight we've had some conversations about some specific ones your primary role as a board of education member is as a policy maker currently as you sit here today there is a body of policy that already exists it's available on your District website it's been done um and put forth by Boards before you that policy those policies C I should say are created from a variety of different ways in some cases New Jersey statutes and regulations require School District staff certain policies and might go as far as telling you your policy must minimally contain X Y and Z in terms of those requirements in other cases you might have a policy that's specific to rington for example you might have a visitors policy where you control it a little bit you might have specific things you know connected to certain technology in the school or a system that you use with with respective visitors coming into the building and that might be something that's a little more tweaked so to speak with respect to Readington the role of the board is to help make those policies and then to ensure that the policies are followed both with respect to individually as individual board members but as a board as po um and then to make new policies as they come along could be because a new law comes down um you know from the state of New Jersey or a law gets modified and you need to update a policy or just because there's something new that happens in the district you decide you know what we're going to sit down and we're going to Hash it out we're gonna we're going to put forth a new policy with respect to that particular issue all the while knowing that the overall commitment from a legal perspective that the board of education is making is with respect to following sort of the the legal rules of the road and those would come through ersy statutes Administrative Code regulations case law which would interpret those statutes and regulations and in some cases a court order so if you were to have something where a court order is delivered to the district with respect to potentially a student in the district or some issue that's you know occurred to the district some kind of uh uh litigation rather that that's actually being enforced um and being follow so it is a big commitment confidentiality or second SC this is one of the most important things that occurs on the board you will gain access to confidential information what kinds of information might that include one it might include Personnel information so there are dozens of employees that work in the district and there will be over time situations that involve those employees where that information is confidential it has to do with their evaluation um things that are happening within the district confidential information information that is spoken about at this table when you are in private session executive session right now we're in a public session of the board it's open government the public is able to attend you guys live stream as well so you have even more people that are participating in that that's because everything that's being discussed at this portion of the meeting and throughout the public portion of the meeting is public information however in every single board meeting there can be an opportunity for what's known as an executive session or a private session discussion if you meet certain requirements under the law where the law says this topic cannot be discussed in public because it's confidential Personnel discussions would be one of those you can then just talk about it behind closed doors and that kind of information needs to be kept private discussed with the board only of course you're your two key administrators as well with questions as appropriate um should not be discussed with spouses friends children anyone outside this sort of unit with respect to the board another topic that is highly highly confidential would be anything related to student hours um and so that information will generally come to you in the executive session or could come to you in a committee meeting for example you may have a Personnel committee and you'll hit a a period of time in the year where you will you will take a look at non-tenure Personnel to see whether or not they they will be granted tenure you know it's at at some point you'll look at evaluations and things of that sort in Dr Hart's recommendations with respect to that non- tenur Personnel that could potentially or all boards to a different link that conversation could start in a Personnel committee which is is you know less than Quorum of the board but still receiving confidential information and may ultimately result in an executive session conversation at the board level in that private um discussion you could potentially receive confidential information as a portion of your board packet so when you get the agendas for the meetings there could be confidential information in some some kind of an attachment um I think that the most important thing is to be able to recognize it so if you have question about whether or not something is confidential is to never be afraid to ask you know to ask your board president to ask Dr Hart to um you know ask your business administrator uh so that you so that you understand the difference between what is for public consumption um and what is that your third C is conf and this kind of you know Works in two different regards um from the from the Practical perspective you've heard me say that the Board of Education Works as your policy makers that's your that's your your job right is to make policy but one of the things is that you are also charged with overseeing the district not administering the schools but overseeing the district you employ a fleet of able-bodied Administrators and teaching staff members and other employees in the district who are charged with running the day to day so there is a line that should not be boss with respect to your role at this table and the dayto day you want to make sure that there's no sort of conflict um between those two you um all come to the table with independent judgment and you wear two hats and you you know live as private citizens and then have this you know very public capacity um you're not asked to Forfeit any of those judgments or opinions before coming to the table um but you are expected to be here for the best interest of the students and the taxpayers so not to Foster any special interest group um opinions and so forth in this in this role the other way that a conflict can exist for a board of education member is with respect to what I'm going to call sort of personal connection in some way to a matter that is currently before the board for example you could be an educator in another District say I'm a board member but I also happen to be a teacher in the district that school right another Public School District that condition in my sort of personal life can create a conflict for me with respect to this district with respect to Collective negotiations and as a result of that I'm not able to sit on the negotiations committee I'm not able to participate in discussions with respect to um negotiations and then at certain points of the process I may need to recuse myself or abstain from a vote with respect to negotiations because the state of New Jersey has said that that that because I'm a teacher in another Public School District I'm sort of too close to the situation I might try to do something in Readington with the idea that it would create some kind of a domino effect in another District somewhere else and so a conflict gets created another way that a conflict can be created is let's say I have a you know let's say I I have children in the district and I happen to have one of my siblings an adult you know lives in the district as well so I have nieces and nephews um in the district and something happens with respect to one of them and the matter student matter makes its way to the board the law would say I'm too close to that situation and so I should recuse myself from the discussion of that student matter which of course would be happening in executive session because it's a student matter but then I would also abstain from a vote related to that matter I'm too close legally the nice thing about conflict with respect to the school ethics commission is that there is a decent body of law that already exists with respect to that whether it be actual publ published cases that have appeared before the school ethics commission or something called advisory Ops an advisory opinion is a situation where you're looking down the pipe as a board member and you know that something's coming you have a question and say I have this situation I don't know if that will be a conflict for me is there somebody that I can ask who would be able to tell me in advance so that I don't you know wind up reaching the school ethics after board board member code of ethics that I would know enough in advance so that the first place you would go or your administrator to say has this happened before do you know you talk to your board president you figure out if this is something that the district has had experience with before perhaps they can reach out to our office to do some research and see if there's something that's an existing law that would let you know whether or not it would be a conflict and if the answer is no we turn we turn over all those stones we're not able to find anything we can write to the school ethics commissioner to request and advisory opinion it's all confidential so while these opinions get published it will not be published with the Readington Township Board of Education name and it will not be published with your name as the board member you will be referred to as board member a board member B however many board members are part of that advisory opinion it does take some time for them to be able to do it so if you find yourself in that situation where you think there might be a conflict you're not really sure the sooner you speak up the better because you just have access to more resources um if you do the goal is to be able to um not put yourself in a position where you're violating the school ethics act um or the board member who the fourth area is with respect to claims um so this is a volunteer position um which you know obviously very commendable that you're on this board but as a result of that um you should never be in a position where you are sort of benefiting in some way whether it be Financial or receiving some kind of special um do so to speak uh with respect to this role you are here out of the goodness of your heart to give back to uh to the community to the students and the taxpayers um in your role as a board of education member you are expected uh to not bring litigation against the board or to cause litigation by by someone else but for you to cause it to be brought um against the Bo and with respect to that sort of du you're not here to ignore you know benefits to yourself or on behalf of sort of friends and family that last C is with respect to the chain of command and you kind of heard me say that you know in the beginning because it it all sort of comes you know full circle this idea that we are here as policy makers the Board of Education the best interests of the students and the taxpayers in mind and not to administer the schools and we talked about that latter so to speak and so when the situation comes up where does it slot in you know in on that ladder you are public officials for those of you who have been here before you continue to be public officials for those of you who are new you you are now public officials you wear two hats you wear the hat of a private citizen and the hat of a board of education member and it is difficult to take those hats off while the law will say you don't give up any of your private rights the Practical nature of it is that it's difficult now that you're in this public role to truly you know move about and act as a private citizen so what will happen if hasn't happened already for sitting board members it will happen at some point in your time on this board you will be approached you'll receive a call at your house you'll be approached on the sideline of a of a sports field you'll get you know somebody will come up to you in the grocery store it could be someone you know it could be a friend it could be a family member it could be someone who just lives in the community but they know who you are because you are Board of Education members and sometimes they'll give you great news you're doing such a great job it's a really great district and unfortunately sometimes they're going to come to you with complaints they're going to come to you with a complaint about their child's teacher they're going to come to you with a complaint about something going on in the school they're going to come to you with a complaint about a principal or whatever the case may be what should you do what is your goal your job as part of that oversight role as part of that making sure the ladder is follow followed is to refer the complaint to the superintendent of schools it is Dr Hart's job to make sure that that complaint sort of gets slotted in where it should go on that ladder and he will follow up to make sure that it's sort of being addressed appropriately you should not get involved in the situation because you're a board member you're supposed to be separate from them it's an oversight role and on the flip side of that many of you if not all of you have children in the district and so you wear the role the Hat of parent and board member so now put yourself in the seat you unfortunately have a problem with your child's teacher who does that get addressed with well the law will tell you it gets addressed with the teacher first and if you try to jump over and go to the principal first the principal should refer you back to the teacher first to address it you're but you're a board member do you get special treatment no it goes to the teacher first you're all going to be issued or have issued board email accounts I assume okay what should those email accounts be used for board business only so if I'm a board member and I have an issue with my child's teacher and I'm going to email the teacher about it great no problem do I send it from my board email address no I send it from a private account because to do otherwise means that I'm putting a a flashing sign on myself saying I'm a board member and so now I'm telling you that I have this problem and I'm I'm expecting some kind of different treatment as a result of it while there are good things about the school ethics act in court member code of ethics one of the troubling things is the standard with which this is all sort of looked at the standard is whether or not the act the action by the by the individual creates the impression of a violation of the public trust and the language that you'll find in school ethics commission cases is the appearance of impropriety so it's an Optics based standard which is which is unique in the law but that is what it is so they're it's always very concerned about how it sort of looks and so that's why if I go back to that example I would never send that email from my board member account speaking of emails before I I drop down to the latter part of the um um handout with respect to social media I want to address something that was raised earlier um in the meeting with respect to comments on the open public meetings act can is it possible to violate the open public meetings act with respect to a quum of board members being on an email chain and communicating back and forth yes that is possible but to send a oneway communication which then results in say a telephone call to discuss a matter or an an email back on one thread an email to the person who sent it that is not a violation of the open public meetings act in order to sort of best protect against that if you are going to send an email to the full board whether that is going to be a board member sending the email or even Dr har sending an email to the full board what we always tell people is in the subject line of the email all caps you you type something to the effect of do not reply all so that you alert people so that they know it's really just an email blast for purposes of getting sort of a a piece of information out and then it triggers for them that they know okay I'm not going to reply all I'm going to maybe reply just the one person or I might pick up the phone or I might go over and talk to them whatever the case may be and I am a belt and suspenders person so while we say to put it in the subject I start it in bold caps at the top of my email and I remind people of the bottom again so that they know so that it doesn't it doesn't result in that back and forth which then leads me to social media so social media is like the wild west when it comes to school districts board members um and conversations that can go on if I had my brothers I would tell you in the interest of keeping everybody fully you know compliant and avoiding problems with the school ethics act and avoiding issues with the board of member code of ethics I would say don't use social media um as a board of education member I know that I cannot do that so what I tried to give you um are some practi tactical considerations guidelines with respect to using social media so first and foremost you can have a private social media page you know um you know Jen Osborne the individual with no sort of indication as my board member status and it's just a place where I don't know I post pictures of my kids and and and whatever the case may be okay very much sort private home life stuff if you are however going to make a comment about anything associated with the school district what the law will require of you is that you make sure that the public knows that you are speaking as an individual Citizen and not as a board of education member that's not easy to do and so the way the school ethics Commission will say to do that is you need to use something called a disclaimer now the school ethics commission they tell you you need to use a disclaimer they don't tell you this is the disclaimer you need to use they don't have a sample or a model disclaimer what they do have is they have cases that have disclaimers in it and when you look at the case it the disclaimer either worked or a didn't so one one of my jobs is to make sure that we know what's sort of the most upto-date what disclaimer has worked in the past with from the perspective of the school ethics commission and if you drop your eyes down to the bottom of your handout you will see a sample disclaimer let me be clear this is not the required disclaimer but this disclaimer one hits all the requirements of the of what the school ethics commission looks for I'll explain what that is um and two is an actual disclaimer I mean I put in uh you know Readington word of education on it um but it's an actual disclaimer that came out of um a school ethics case what it says is the following statements are made in my capacity as a private citizen and not in my capacity as a board member these statements are also not representative of the ready to temption board of education or its individual me members and solely represent my own personal opinions what does that hit on one it identifies me as a board of education member but for the sole purpose of being able to tell you that I am not speaking in that capacity I am speaking in the capacity of a private citizen two it tells you that what I am about to say is not representative of any one individual board member on this board and more importantly it is not representative of what the collective board says or feels for the position it is my opinion and my opinion alone and it is my opinion as Jen Osborne private citizen if you are going to make a comment about the school district I would urge you to use the disclaimer and my belt and suspenders approach I put it as the first thing that said then you make your comment and then I say it again I understand it's duplicative I don't care I say it again to remind people particularly if what you're going to say is a little lengthy to remind people at the end that you're speaking as an individual why because this is a nerson board any one person in this room not the president not the vice president not any of the other members no one has any Authority or power or control over alone you are nine pieces of a puzzle and the puzzle has to be together in at least a quum in order for the board to be able to take action in order for the board to be able to make policy to Ure that policy is being followed to ensure that the school district is being well run in order to do any of those things last comment about um social media just because of sort of the the the Oddity of this to my understanding and I'm not a big technology person if you are liking a post you're you know on Facebook you're pressing the the thumbs up or the love or whatever it is or liking something on Instagram I am not aware of a way to attach just by way of liking some kind of a comment to that like I'm aware of how you make a comment it but that's something separate if you can't attach a disclaimer to a like that's a problem so I urge you to think about that before you go into sort of like somebody else's post about the school district and then finally with respect to the disclaimer people generally remember the disclaimer when it's your own page when it's your own post because you're kind of thinking about it but when you're commenting on a post that's already there you tend to forget it would still apply you are speaking about something related to the school district and so the Optics as far as the school ethics commission is concerned is who are you speaking on behalf of are you speaking on behalf of the board which means you've been authorized specifically by the board in order to make a statement an example might be something happens in the district and the board collectively decides that it's going to issue a statement that statement would generally be made by your board president and would generally be made at the board table during a public meeting there could be a situation though where the board collectively decides to have a board member we sort of nominated to make make a written statement somewhere or to make a statement at an event that's outside the board meeting not a problem but that needs to be authorized by the board in advance of that in order for everything to be you know um appropriate and so that protects the board and that protects the individual board members with respect to the school ethics act as well as the board member code of ethics does anybody have questions about anything and and I would add just sort of with that is that as things come up you know I'm a big proponent of asking questions if you're if you're not sure of something asking um easy way you can always ask your board president you can always ask your vice president you can always ask one another you have access to your administrators you can always ask them if it gets to a point where a question needs to be posed to my office no problem you should be reaching out to Dr Hart and your board president in order to make sure that that's appropriate and they will make a sort of a decision as to whether or not they're going to put you in touch with us directly or if it's going to go through that office um we'll get you an answer you know it's just a matter of the the procedure in order in order to get there there still comment yeah I just wanted to add so the new board members were aware that there is also through um I guess it's njsba the attorney of the day yes which I have called a few times just with questions that I've had so that is open to anybody just to call um they usually return call within that day 24 hours so yeah that's also a hisy source yeah and and I would add to that as well um that they have a great website they they have a website where you can go on and and I find they have a great website sometimes s the easiest way to find the information on their website is actually a general Google search before you get there you sort of Google you know lersy school boards Association and whatever it is that you're looking for and it usually helps you to pull up the applicable portion of the page first but they will have on there sort of for example q&as with respect to reorganization meetings where it'll sort of run through some of the various topics you know of discussion that might come up at a reorganization meeting and you think just sort of real question answer question answer um and so on and so forth they do they're a great resource you had mentioned that if somebody approaches you outside like somebody and it was about child's teacher you said go direct you tell them to go directly to Dr go to the teacher so so interesting I I think the response to that because you you want to try to be helpful um is did you speak to your child's teacher yet because you know I I think that that's where you're supposed to start thank you for sharing this information with me I will refer it to the superintendent of schools so that someone from the district can reach out and then Dr Hart can determine you know where it's supposed to fall with with respect to that ladder um and follow up to make sure that the district you know reaches out to that person I had a question I'm just curious uh what are the best practices for having these pre-communication or communication meetings with not not scheduled meetings but how best can we communicate as individual board members um not at the meeting right so I want to hear about what the best practices were that the board is already done and found that that worked for them because clearly emails recommended I'm not terribly comfortable using my personal phone for a lot of communication with um that doesn't seem like a IDE sure sure sure so I I can speak with respect to sort of philosophical you know uh best practices and then you know if any board member wants to chime in on what they've actually done here um please feel free so committees are a great way to communicate you know you're on different committees and so that's where a lot of the work will be done um you know often you know the committee sort of bets it so to speak they they might Le with administrators whatever the case may be and then it gets proposed to the board um the full board uh where you would then have H A discussion based upon the topic the executive session or or public session uh prior to a board vote email is okay um what what I was responding to earlier was a concern with respect to the open public meetings Act so you are a nine member board that means that a forum is established at five at least five people it's it's just over a majority right so if you have four board members on an email communicating you don't have an open public meetings act problem um what the board may have sort of a I don't want to say personal opinion but a the board may have a practice to say you know we don't we don't like that for that to happen um because we really want everything to be discussed in committee and then discussed at the at the board table I I would leave that to you know individual board members uh to kind of talk about what I will point out um yes we've talked about the open public meetings act but there's also the open public records act Oprah which is a different law which has to do um essentially written you know documents and material that are in the possession of the district so Communications by email between say two board members is not in and of itself um exempt from an over requirement sometimes an over request can be made to the district and the district might be just con the the document rather might be confidential and just not subject to work in which you know in which case the response would be you know there we the document is exempt under XYZ exception under Oprah sometimes a document is requested and it exists it's eligible for redaction because some of the information in the writing is confidential and can't be disclosed but the actual communication can be disclosed emails would qualify at least at first blush without you know looking at specific email and and sort of what's being discussed as a possible document that would be that would be subject to over so that is something to to think about with respect to Communications rep you okay so now we're going to move to the open public this is for items limited to what's on the agenda we have three minutes to speak through anyone that's in the room or through chat I see a couple comments come in I really can't from here but um so if anyone want to come to the podium we have up to minutes speak for anything that's on the agenda com this yeah Mrs hample said there is sound now so she was confirming that there was sound after we started the meeting um she also said that the green committee is a collaboration between board and public they bring a to the board that then get dispersed to other committees before it comes to the board is imperative to maintain our grants that we continue meeting with the public and the finance committee as an established official board committee is not possible due to confidentiality all right so we'll move on to correspondence I do not see any correspond listed so now we'll go to board action which is the approval of the minutes um we have motion have for 1.01 and 1.02 which are the meeting am minutes from December 10th as well as the exception session have motion to ad discuss Cassie is yes is Fury yes Mr Lo yes this bori yes m r yes Mr Rizo he's right have question wasn't perfectly fine yes you can do either one okay yes I resolution passes we have unfinished business um agenda okay all right so now we have new business from the board we're going to talk about the committee selections as well as the earbook photo for committee selections simar to what you've done years I'm to request that you send an email to myself and we'll riew committee selections pick your um you can pick your top three order second third you like be on as well if there's any time constraints like you do mornings you do evenings um you do after and so on we'll take them into consideration I didn't pricing out an email today to everybody so you can get that so then you can respond back to it in addition there are some appointments like for and so on so if you want to be the delate put that in email as well and I will go for that we set Dr I know some meetings are probably right so want to come up on the agenda so uh the first thing that's coming up would be the HSA business meeting is on Wednesday 15 generally there's a representative from the Board of Education that attends the HSA meeting um so that's uh think they move the meeting to 6:30 or 6:30 meetings but that will be heing virtual meeting and that's Wednesday January 15th Thursday January 16th at 8:30 in the morning is thech committee meeting that's been scheduled Friday the 17th is the finance committee meeting as well personnel has been scheduled for Wednesday January 22nd at 8:45 in the morning policy has been scheduled for Wednesday January sorry Thursday January 23rd at 4:00 those are the meetings I have on my calendar as of right now terms of what's coming up sooner rather than I think those are the the next round of as well as h regarding committees um I brought this to Dr har and Mr B about meeting minutes the chairperson typically takes the meeting minutes and this is um not to give Mr B work but it was as a suggestion and I learned about this at the convention um it is I guess common practice that the board administrator would be the one to take the minutes for all the meetings um you do attend all of them I believe okay um so if that's like too much just know stop talking but the reason for it was um I think they would be consistent um we receive them in a timely manner and the third thing for me I know is like I like to be 100% vested in the conversation as opposed to like making sure I'm not missing something when I'm typing minutes so I don't know how anybody else feels that has you know people that have taken minutes or um it was just a suggestion I thought I would bring it up since a form you take wonderful Mee we actually have use those in some meetings of the pilot so there are um we have we have done there um they've been pretty successful they're very detailed so they have to be amended I'm G be opposed to that you know I would mind amending them but I just find that I would like to be fully vested in the conversation and the questions and really you know paying attention as opposed to worrying that I'm capturing everything yeah because it allows commun chair to be not I think we could try I don't know what tools we've used in with P Jason I have not used that but I know that there are some virtual meeting platforms that will create a transcript and create like your AI you can try it once we establish our committees we can try it and see if that works for you know the chairperson to them use goog will me as our platform um just as a person who offers a lot of information during meetings and I know Jason does as well I and I for the same reason you're thinking Justin about take minutes Jason's really responsible for Content during especially finance and some of the meetings um I know that I have a lot of content during know personnel and policy it's hard to also run the meeting and take minutes as well and as just as a thinking about it as well you know so I would prefer more of a virtual option than putting it on School administration but I also am not a chair of a committee so I don't what burden is it when a chair of a committee to have to capture the conversation and also participate in the meeting whether you find that problematic so you quite well take it but I also know that when I be your leaders meetings would rarely take minutes because I'm always running the meeting and then we you know I forget to type in notes and like yeah my intention is obviously not to add more work I'm just trying to make things work a little bit more I want to offer a Counterpoint because I was in the same session with you when we were talking about committee structures I believe the same one in attic City and at the table I was right next to you um there were complaints from board members that Administration rised the minutes because they heavily edit how they want the district to be presented at board meetings and um giving up that autonomy as a board member to write minutes how you want that to be how you interpreted the meeting and how you want that to be read out is a a huge decision that I think um the board should really think about giving up that that you know power in that way to um to write your minutes um I just I remember them saying Oh no no no they just write like the the committee met on this day and we discussed things and that's it and so they they sit there at their computer and that's what they read the minutes that their business administrator wrote for them so just want to offer that Counterpoint I can understand that to what takes place but I'm open to a virtual I mean we can look into it that' be great is there any benefit when it comes to taking minutes you know we're administrators right we have a lot we have a very different working knowledge of what happens in commities because we're presenting we're talking we're really in it as chairs of committees do you feel like it's helpful to take the minutes in a way that's you know legible and understandable for the rest of the board in the community right us writing minutes is like you know education jargon is it helpful for a board member to kind of take the minutes and interpreted and then provide them to uh you know the public as well as other board members I don't know the answer to that question but I just don't like through the lens of a board member isn't better for the minutes to be provided that way than through Administration just because the lens is different abely I'm certain that Mr not right and we talked about things but it is different different I also think but I I would beology so I would be open to try virtual think getting computer AI to actually write out the details then having the go through probably most efficient and lens chair to suggestion to our investigation find and see if that's that works until then standard practice Yeah I into it we get some of the other platforms that used you know licensing and things like that so something we take up next item was the yearbook photo so I'm not familiar Logistics of that there are no Logistics just to tell you where you're best on January 21st you're going to get your take it so yeah just make sure that we're ready for that and hopefully everybody can attend because I know that sometimes somebody misses a meeting here there hopefully everybody's here so that everybody participates okay so next any other business I have something to share um tomorrow night in Somerville from 6:00 to 800 PM the NJ doe is holding a local meeting uh for public comment on the state school funding formula so if anyone has any thoughts or comments that they want to present there um I can send a link to I found on the patch bbo patch yeah um they are asking for um replies beforehand or RCP beforehand if you are planning to comment so I can send that if anyone's interested anyone I'll just mention that the school administrators all the H County administrators meeting on Friday and there may be a contingent maybe one two may not be me that may be going to one of these hearings from H County as so there may be representation anything else okay next item is the second open public for just for any items that are on or off the agenda again you'll have three minutes to speak if you decide to Tom Curtis Rous station I just wanted to uh um have turn so can't I can't H out right now yeah so I just wanted to welcome all the new board members and congratulate uh Ellen and David in their new positions and hope that you folks have a great coming year thank you [Music] okay so now we'll so this cast yesi yesan yes thank you so much yeah