adequate notice of this meeting of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was given as required by the opland public meetings act as follows on January 8th 2024 notice of the Board of Education meeting schedule was sent to the Star Ledger the Cur a news and was also provided to all schools pto's pre PTO presidents the bhea president and posted at the administration building a copy was also provided to the public library and filed with the municipal clerk please stand for the pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr Kiri here miss Bradford here Dr forer here Mr Heyman here Mrs Jolly here Mrs Conor here miss Penna present Miss Stanley present Miss juttis hopefully I said that correctly and Mr Brown here at this time since the last meeting that we had we did not have a vote for a president nor for vice president and that motion was tabled this evening we're going to go and open floor for nominations for president and take votes uh I'd like to open the floor for nominations uh do we have a first and a second I would like to nominate Angela Penna for president well I just needed a first and second to open the floor sorry totally missed that that's okay um I've yes so moved do we have a second all in favor I at this time I'd like to open the floor well I'd like to have nominations for a president now I'd like to nominate Angela pennet for president okay and I'd like to nominate Mr P for president do we need a second on the nominations no we do not thank you no we do not okay um do we have any other nominations besides the two that were just brought to the floor okay see none can we I'm sorry um can we discuss and make a statement in favor and support or do we need to go straight to vote if You' like to make make a statement you're more than welcome too I would thank you um so I'm a little more prepared this time so I put some stuff down on paper um so as most of you are aware I have been um coming to the board of fed meetings for almost two years now um less maybe two meetings that I've missed um I've asked questions I've um you know in at the meetings and in emails and my decision in terms of who to support um for president is based on what I've observed and how Mrs con Mrs Penna voted as well as you know I guess in my opinion my view of the state of the district um while it's true that experience is important um it's not the sole defining aspect of leadership uh leadership is also being able to admit mistakes leadership is being able to provide support to a board member who's being falsely accused called out for not completing training or for not doing bills um and I'll let Mrs cona address that when she um when it's her turn to speak however even though um you know just a point about the training you know we have a board member who completed training and well and Beyond but that still doesn't um mean that you know there won't be any poor decision- making such as um you know as the the highly improper email that was circulated as well as a petition so um so I you know so everything you know I don't want to belittle Mrs penna's accomplishments um I but I you know just looking at the voting record you know I've observed that Mrs Pena um's votes to support changes in policy that restrict transparency um there's continue the seemingly unlimited use of the attorney there was uh support for a budget that I think uh was not really favorable with the teachers when it came to especially cutting supervisors um and I know there's a lot of work done behind the scenes that we're not privy to but at the end of the day it's the decisions that are made at these meetings right and that shape the direction of the district so um and I think that you know Miss spena was maybe well able to study the ship um and you know have orderly meetings it doesn't mean the ship's headed in the right direction so miss kanana as we said doesn't have as much board experience as Mrs Penna however she has demonstrated um leadership in ways I think that are important she's very thoughtful she's not afraid to ask tough questions in public um and I think even when her F fellow board members try to silence her uh she supports a budget that focuses on the students rather than on legal bills or administrative overhead her professional experience I think is actually a plus um and positions her to work well with any public officer either at the you know at the local County or state level um and you know in a personal note I ran for the Boe because I felt that you know change was needed and I think that um Mrs con's perspective um aligns to the changes I'd like to see for our district thank you anybody else like to provide comments sure um so Angela p um took the board leadership this uh past year and uh anytime you take leadership positions right there is a transition period where you have to get to know the role and uh get to know how to handle the board and how to handle the meetings and how to work together and I think Angela and Penna showed that she did that work that hard work this year and this year we have a really big year um we need to hire a new superintendent possibly an interim superintendent and that is a really big job um and we need somebody who one already has the experience in the position so that way we don't spend time just trying to get used to that um transition of leadership um we also know that Angela Penna has worked with the njsba very closely because of her role last year and also doing the board goals which means that Angela Penna had already spoken to the nsba about next steps for the superintendent search um knowing things like hey you know asking different areas that have already gone through superintendent searches well what have they done who have they used right Angela pen has already done some of that work right and she's already knows that the ngba costs more than sometimes a third party right and so some of these things this knowledge is needed this year in particular I also just think that um some of these uh ideas that we need change um is interesting because this has been a couple years of really big change for our district um and change is hard and sometimes it's uncomfortable and not everybody's going to like it but we have done a lot of change and change takes time right it takes a lot of time for us to make big changes and so I think that if we give Angela Penna time to continue in this role not only will we be able to do the superintendent search and do a good one because this is going to be hard right last meeting was a three-hour meeting for a reorg meeting that is not normal and superintendant will watch that right and they will have a hard time coming to our district right I think a resident said they're going to have to get combat pay finding a new superintendent is going to be a difficult job the ngba at the workshops this um fall they said say goodbye to your families when you're doing a superintendent search this is timec consuming for all of us but especially for the board president and we need the relationships that Angela Penna already has not only with the ngba but with our current superintendent with our assistant superintendent with the ba and with other organizations including the teachers union so this is an extremely important role and is an extremely important year so all of us could be board presidents right we're all leaders in some way right some of us are different right have different leadership qualities but all of us are here because we're leaders right but I believe Angela Penna is the right one for the district right because this isn't about Angela or dipy this is about what's best for the district and at this time I believe Angela Penna is the right one because of what we need to do this year thanks we have any of the comments from anyone else on the board hi I just want to say that um in the last year or in the the last two years we've seen a huge turnover in our district we've seen a lot of experienced teachers leave we've seen a lot of hiring take place and some of the questions that I have asked coming to this very meeting is how are we making these hiring decisions I think last year we gave the superintendent which was a pretty normal uh resolution to give her the power to you know pick um replacement uh teachers or somebody that needs to be h in the summer and we saw that two key administrative positions were hired within a span of 10 days and then some of the appointments that happened it felt like they were musical chairs we appointed somebody as to be in an administrative director position and within six weeks we also approved that person to move from that position to a different administrative position and these decisions were overseen I think the key role of a board of fed member is over oversight and when these items were questioned how did these hiring decisions happen within in summer when the superintendent had this power and who was involved in the interview process we got very ambiguous uh almost like cryptic answers as one board member was present one parent was involved and we the district is seeing the consequences of this so we want a leader who's transparent who walks the talk who doesn't let parents and the community uh speak up or Cuts them off and then says okay you thank you for your questions okay you're going to get an answer when via email nope didn't happen are we is there a backup process or a followup that okay I'm going to answer your questions at the next follow-up meeting never happened and the budget process we've been promised for the last three years I think two years leading up to Mrs penna's presidency that we are going to have a open public meeting and then literally people have to beg for it and we still didn't get it and last year I think at the tentative budget approval day was also when we also saw we have the least number of meetings leading up previously I think the board of fed used to have almost doubled the number of meetings that we have so when you reduce the number of meetings of course the agenda is going to be longer the meetings are going to run longer there's a lot more data that's thrown at us so that's not a sign of leadership so I think we need somebody who has the experience and the aptitude to handle this maybe give the other person a chance then I can be a vice president I'm I'm willing to consider that thank you so I just want to say that that a lot of that was misinformation and all hiring has to be a board decision not a board president or a a superintendent um for any major roles so even including the two board members that um are were on the board last year uh Mr forger and Mrs Gana had to vote for these roles as well because it's a whole board vote so if you're going to call out misinformation I think what you stated at the last riog meeting about the bills and her missing the meetings I would let dpy speak for speak to it herself to her record of how many months of bills did she review I think there was a lot of misinformation circulated by a retired teacher in the community and it is her right like Miss Bradford has every right to vouch for a candidate of her choice but there was no need to spread misinformation in an email about another board member that's not how we work together we all voted you all voted on board goals we were all going to collaborate together but that's not the collaboration you see when you send an email to the entire Community with misinformation thank you I'd like to just make a very quick statement so I started on the board last year um just for the record I've completed all the trainings that are required in my first year uh there's some Curiosity on the bill so yes I did probably 10 or 11 out of the last 12 months of last year I did go and review the bills in fact I did that this week as well um my measure of how effective a board member really is based not necessarily on the number of meetings but it is what I would be able to contribute towards moving forward and especially in 2024 the point about the you know superintendent search I think it's an important one um I also want to dispel the notion that somehow a board member who has a full full-time job is not able to take a leadership position because I cannot imagine ever thinking that anybody who's retired or is a stay-at-home parent uh doesn't work because raising a family running a household is it's a lot of work so I would never imagine you know trying to make that insinuation um just about myself I will say I have been respectful with all of the board member interactions that I've had over the year um I don't I don't go and chastise people if they vote you know differently from me all of us are independent all of us are on the board um I have been on the receiving end of some of that I will admit uh and it's not fun um on the flip side I recognize that when we vote as a board we don't go out and um you know make comments in the public in social media because we are to operate as a a unit and it doesn't help um us going out and after the board has made a decision going and second guessing so it's it's not something that's to anybody's benefit um we've gone through the board goals process you know we've talked about a lot of important aspects that we need to achieve as a board in 2024 uh and I would really like us to work together to get there um I believe there's always good healthy tension between the district and the board and I think it's to everybody's benefit thank you so I would just I'd like to just say a few things as well so there's been a little bit of misinformation talked about in terms of me having an issue not supporting a budget I supported the budget because that was hard work with the finance committee and it was a long process and it was the right thing to do because we worked very hard on the budget and we did what needed to be done um with regards to not being uh thoughtful I'm extremely thoughtful I've been very thoughtful in fact I have made an attempt over this year to go and above and beyond to meet one-on-one with a number of board members and that's not something that I needed to do but that was something that I felt was in the best interest of the board reaching out to the board members and finding out their concerns and their issues and they like could take it back to the superintendent and I've done that a lot I also wanted to just reiterate my skills yes experience is important I think it's very important I think being vice president president and being on chair of all committees is important you get to know how the board works you get to understand relationships and you get to know what needs to be done knowledge is also very important this is my fifth year I've been through the ranks I've been chair of committees I've been vice president and then I've been president commitment I think commitment is a huge part it's an extreme part and a number of board members acknowledged the commitment was important because I think having commitment to this board should be a priority and I have done that but also to mention apart from all of those things I looked up characteristics for a board president in the New Jersey school boards Association and underneath them are communication skills I have very good communication skills I communicate well with the superintendent with the business administrator with my board members and with the community I have a huge understanding of the roles and relationships of the board that's a characteristic for a board president balancing tasks and skills I do that I balanced the tasks that need to be done to make sure this board is running and help work with the superintendent and I do have good people skills I work well with people and I do have very I have excellent interpersonal skills and consensus skills I'm very good at when there's an issue reaching out to board members discussing things finding out what their concerns are and trying to have a discussion and then taking it to the superintendent if it's something that needs to be done these are all important aspects of a board president and like um um Miss Stanley said we all have leadership skills we all have leadership skills but I think it's extremely important in order to move this District forward and let's face it we're all here for one reason we're here for the students number one priority to put this District first before all our personal agendas and I think it's very important that we have somebody who's knowledgeable has good communication skills who's able to balance tasks who has knowledge commitment and I think I think I'm the person who can lead this District uh forward as board president thank you see we have no more comments we're going to take a vote for Mrs Penner it's nominated by Mrs Stanley uh Mrs akiri no Mrs Bradford yes Dr forger no Mr Heyman yes Mrs Jolly no Mrs Conor Mrs Penna yes and Mrs Stanley yes we have a 44 vote um motion fails at this time I'd like to take a vote for Mrs Conor for president Mrs akiri yes Mrs Bradford no Dr forger yes Mr Heyman no Mrs Jolly yes Mrs Connor yes Mrs Penna no and Mrs Stanley no motion fails with 44 TI this time I'd like to make motion for president again do we have someone to nominate on the flooor I would like to nominate Angela Penna again I would like to nominate dipti kanana this time I'll take a vote for Mrs Penna uh Mrs Ziri no Mrs Bradford yes Dr forager no Mr Heyman yes Mrs Jolly no Mrs Connor Mrs Penna yes and Mrs Stanley yes motion fails again we have a 44 tie we will take the vote for Mrs Connor Mrs kiry yes Mrs Bradford no Dr forger yes Mr Hyman no Mrs Jolly yes Mrs Connor yes Mrs Penna no and Mrs Stanley no motion fails we have a four4 tith this point I don't think that we're going to have someone nominated for president uh I would like to have a nomination for vice president unless you want to table it as you did at the last meeting um I would suggest that we table it I would agree with tbling the you who's making the motion you I'm making a motion to table it he Hanah I would second that motion all those in favor I do we have any Nays nay eight one oh motion passes yeah okay at this time in the event that we have no president or vice president is chosen which is the case then a temporary officer needs to be chosen to run this meeting only and only today do I have a nomination for someone to preside over this meeting in the absence of a president or vice president so I would like to suggest that the business administrator runs the meeting I I think first we would want to do is um have one of the board members and if no one seems to offer that then I would be another Choice okay and I believe one of the the bylaw I think 164 had stated so of attempting to put someone board member in place first to run the meeting and this is only for this meeting that is correct yeah and that's what that's what I have stated on the agenda so I'd like to nominate Tom forer for the role of the temporary officer to run this meeting okay so you're nominating uh Tom for J Mr jovic his last name is Dr forer I think we had forer forer sorry about that okay do we have any other nominations besides Dr for forger I'm saying that forer I'm sorry I would like to nominate Mr hman yeah Redford do we have any other nominations for a presiding officer okay seeing none we will take a vote for not the for forer forer I'm sorry let me just Mrs Ziri Tom yes that is correct yes Mrs Bradford no Dr forer forer yes Mr Heyman no Mrs Jolly yes Mrs Connor yes Mrs Penna no and Mrs Stanley no motion fails and we're having Mr Heyman vote for Mr Hyman Mrs akiri no Mrs Bradford yes Dr for uh forger no Mr Heyman yes Mrs Jolly yes Mrs Conor yes Mrs Penna yes and Mrs Stanley yes so just so I'm clear we had A's or Mrs Bradford Mr Heyman Mrs conell was a a I was a yes there was a yes okay 16 Mr car and Mr so 6 62 okay I just wanted I just wanted to make sure temperature being motion passes freezing all right Mr hman you're up make the motion sure no the side joke was as a presiding officer I said can he make the temperature in this room increase because it's literally freezing in here and he's like make a motion sorry so M just switch places do you need me to or do you want me to stay here you should go um Mr J can I just clarify this is just for this meeting that is just for this meeting I've stated it in the agenda so if we're in the same if we're in the same situation at February 8th meeting will we okay we'll go through it again you know at this I'm sorry but at this juncture I will be letting the county superintendent know uh what is a pro what has transpired this evening and I guess he will be making his notice to the board as the letter that he said the last time yeah can the temperature be like can you turn off the AC or something it's really cold in here I'll try to find someone than also I just like to remind board members please turn your mics on and and the board attorney too turn your mic on and speak into it so people at home could hear no I'm fine I just have a lot of things now what I'll were where do we start report of the student Representatives can we do that unanimously all right report of the student Representatives hi guys hey how are you good hello everyone our winter sports seasons have gone out to a hot and successful start as GL looks to match their impressive fall campaign with an even greater winter one the GL hockey team has gotten off to an impressive 12-1 start as they look to win their third straight State title the GL hockey athlete of the month is Junior Goldie Scott kappen coach Jensen said Scott has had a stellar start to to the year posting a 941 save percentage with two shutouts he has made some timely saves for us and is a big reason for our 12-1 record the boys basketball team is seven and four and the boys basketball athlete of the month is senior Patrick McGrath coach laugher said over the first month of the Season Patrick has averaged 17 points per game while guarding the other team's best player Patrick has carried the team through the first half of the Season by doing a little bit of everything on the court he handles the ball scores rebounds passes and defense the girls basketball team is six and five and the girls basketball athlete of the month is senior Sarah castrovinci leads the team in rebounds blocks and is second in points scored the boys swimming team is three and2 and the girls swimming team is 4- two the swimmer of the month is senior girls Captain Maddie Kenny coach Claus said Maddie is a key member of the swim team and between her great swimming and leadership in and out of the pool she plays a huge role in our success the boys fencing team is three and four and the girls fencing team is 0 and4 the fencing athlete of the month is senior Joe laosi coach Wang said Joe has had an amazing season so far with a 12-6 individual record in dual meets Joe has been leading his talented foil Squad to climb high towards their State title aspirations this Sunday Joe and his foil Squad will fence at the culo tournament against 50 other schools to buy for a state Squad Championship medal in the world's largest single gendered high school sports competition the wrestling team has an impressive 15-2 start to their season the wrestler athlete of the month is senior Christian Sabatino coach liberado said Christian is someone who has become a leader for wrestlers on and off the mat as he continues to motivate people around him to work harder and become successful over the last month he came in first place at the 100 Central High School individual winter Tournament Christian has gone 10 and0 in his last 10 matches including a huge win against a state qualifier from the 2022 23 wrestling season thank you good evening it's hard to believe that we are almost finished with a second marking period and halfway through the school year GL students are off to a very successful 2024 both academically and with Club activities recently a group of about 15 GL students traveled to Union County College to participate in a regional Science Olympiad competition with over 20 schools gl's team had a strong showing with finishes in the top third of all schools in attendance on January 10th the GL Club Council sponsored a mid-year Club fair to encourage students to sign up for more activities within the school additionally on January 11th there was a Winter concert in the glhs auditorium featuring the concert band Wind Ensemble and other performance groups the governor Livingston robotics team came in first place at their meet in Milbourne and they are currently placed ninth in all of New Jersey looking ahead the interact Club will be writing Valentine for veterans on January 25th and on January 23rd at 7M an eighth grade scheduling presentation will be held in GL in order to inform incoming freshmen and their families about course selection at Governor Livingston thank you thanks Olia thanks Jake any questions for student Representatives I I just want to say I attended the Super Saturday and the Friday night and it was just amazing to see the fencing team and I watched the uh Middle School basketball boys basketball and I tell you Mountainside has a fantastic player in number two Matteo and I look forward toing a few years where these two teams will come together and play here so it was really a great uh event uh that super Friday or Super Saturday and Friday too so well done to our athletes liia can you say again the date of the 8th grade uh scheduling was that 23rd um yeah that's January 23rd did you guys start making your schedules yet not yet how is the process now that you guys are a little bit more used to it for these eth graders that are coming in um it's definitely def not that bad especially once you get the hang of it and all of your recommendations are already in power school anyway so it's more just picking what you want to do okay feels like a good segue to the superintendent report maybe thank you Mr hman some of my thunder was stolen by our student reps that's okay um from Dr janco um this week the go counselors have been meeting with the sophomore students and introducing them to the career interest inventories last night Wednesday over 150 students students and parents came to GL for sophomore College and Career night hosted by the counseling department topics include Naviance summer programs post secondary planning and standardized testing after that immediately following that Miss Scott presented an introduction to the AP Capstone program currently as stated by our fabulous student reps is the season of course selections for 8th through 11th grade students teacher recom recommendations will be finalized in power school tomorrow January 19th next week all 8th and 11th grade students will be able to review their teacher recommendations and select courses it's already advertised stated again but I will state it once more uh e8th grade scheduling presentation for all students and parents um will be presented by Mr Nixon the GL principal and Dr josco um at GL Tuesday January 23r at 7M today Dr sanero myself had the pleasure of going down to CMS for a six sixth grade literary literary lunch um held in the uh Media Center which was fantastic 25 students students staff and community members attended to discuss uh the bestselling New York Times book thirst all the students were engaged in their discussions about the book through the entire period um they had short breaks for pizza and and water which was provided by our Ed foundation so thank you to Ed Foundation a big shout out I believe Dr seero after that um when we were down there started talking about maybe bringing it down to the fourth and fifth graders or maybe having them come up to the middle school for a literary review so a a lit lunch as they call them so that's something where we started talking to Fed Foundation about see if they would um sponsor food for that if we we can arrange that feel that works out and last but not least believe it or not it is board member recognition month so I have a little proclamation to to read take a sip of water it's long it's very long whereas the New Jersey Schools Board Association has declared 2024 January 2024 to be School Board recognition month a time when all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members and whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education is one of 580 local school boards in New Jersey which sets policies and overseas operations for public school districts and whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education Embraces the goal of highquality education for all New Jersey public school students and whereas New Jersey local school boards help determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 million children and pre kindergarten through 12th grade and whereas New Jersey New Jersey's approximately 5,000 local school board members who receive no renumeration for their services act as advocates for public school students as they work with administrators teachers and parents for the betterment of public school education and whereas School boards strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students including those with special needs and whereas Boards of Education provide accountability accountability to the public they communicate the needs of the School District to the public and they convey the school administration The public's expectations for the schools and whereas New Jersey can take pride in its schools which rank among the nation's best and key achievement indicators such as the national assessment of educational Pro progress scores and the preparation for college through advanced placement offering offerings and sat assessments now therefore be it resolved that the B that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education does hereby recognize the services of local Schoolboard members throughout New Jersey As We join Community Statewide and observing January 2024 as Schoolboard recognition month and be it further sorry about that resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education urges all New Jersey citizens to work with their local Boards of education and Public School staff to the advancement of our children's education so shout out to all of you on a personal note as someone who is a 17-year board member of my Township's School Board I take great pride and be in that school board in my opinion this is my opinion is Anthony jordano there's no greater or more important elected official in this state than all of you and I'm hopeful at some point we will Galvanize and we will build consensus and we will continue to move the district forward as you all have I believe in the short time I've been here you are very good people you have the best interest um of our students in our community in your hearts we just have to have a figure way to build consensus and move ourselves forward and I look forward to working with all so thank you for your volunteerism Mr Hyman I think we need to vote on that there's a suggestion that we should we should vote on that resolution yes yes resol a board resolution I just want might s in at the end okay would we vote on it now or we vote on a different point okay that sounds good so let's well first of all thank you yeah I'll make a motion I was going to see if there's any let's we we'll do that I was also see if there's any questions on on Anthony's report but hopefully we're we're okay there all right let's let's so we'll take a motion on voting on this resolution second who's the first I was I was looking for a motion that wasn't me is there a motion you first with the motion have a second I can second Pam second and a vote Voice vote would be fine all in favor all in favor there all in favor I I we have any knes motion passes thank you okay board Communications uh I have or sorry committee and Le reports I skipped I passed that we have none since we had no committees that were appointed from the last board meeting and no Thea on reports either um excuse me I do have one before uh the January 4th on January 2nd I attended the town hall meeting as the liaison and the Town Council welcome Margaret illis and Bill Machado as newly elected members and the Town Township uh Township committee members were established so that was before the January 4th meeting I guess you just went thanks scale board Communications Communications that I have is resignation letter from Dr vley had a correspondence regarding the reorganization meeting observance I had a correspondence regarding the compromise for president vice president had another correspondence for questions for board members regarding electronic devices we also had another correspondence regarding the um President and Vice President and concerns and also a correspondence regarding the chess club those are the correspondences that I have thanks AJ uh and back to you report of the business administrator last week we conducted uh budget meeting interviews with all staff uh that has been concluded uh we are reviewing the transportation Consultants report and looking at recommendations to implement new software review the policy of hazardous routes and subscription busing I've also met with the township and County officials to review Road improvements that came from the recommendations from the trans Transportation Consultants report uh Consultants to present at a future board meeting and that'll be fourth once we establish a president and vice president that concludes my business administrator's report Mr chairman I have a question for sure uh Mr jitz fire away Mr jitz um so the Transportation uh presentation that we were supposed to have has that been rescheduled or we're going to reschedule that once once we have a a president vice president in place to then move forward on when we want to conduct that um presentation and at what meeting okay thank you I didn't want to have the gentleman sitting here for close to an hour and a half waiting for us to conclude what we were doing so uh in the best interest of of him and his time uh that's why we decided to move a different uh meeting I understand and will that go through the finance committee again is that how it will be determined I guess that'll be determined once once we have elected uh President and Vice President uh in place okay and they can make that decision thank you sorry can I have a question on the transportation yeah so the so we do have a report from this Transportation consultant and it's if it's finalized I think I would request a copy of it the presentation can wait I don't um see the need for having a president and a vice president as I think some of my colleagues here have suggested irrespective of if we have a president or vice president we are going to proceed ahead with the CSA search um and the superintendent search that's business as usual we need to do that to run this District similarly subscription busing courtesy busing has been an issue and we've been promising to give numbers and disclose transparently what has happened and last at the last budget meeting I think in March in April we were told we'll start working on this and then one of the outcome was hiring a transportation consultant which was sometime in summer now this is January again and if the report is available I would like that report to be published on the district website and similar to superintendent search this is something that we need to be prepared for by the time in March when we have to approve the tentative budget so if we are going to start budgeting for busing and something's going to change because of the report that has come from this Transportation consultant I think we the board members should be able to review this report digest it if we have any questions go back to the consultant the public which is currently footing the bill for Courtesy busing and which is not an equitable solution at all and we don't know the numbers of how many courtesy busing students are there because that information has not come out from a finance committee or the president previously so I think that I request that this report be made public and available to board members and put on the District website Mr chairman can I speak please chair so Mr kry you know and you've been part of the coming to the audience one of the reasons for doing the transportation consultant was to make sure that we do it properly there was all sorts of misinformation last year about subscription busing and concerns about people getting busing that shouldn't the finance committee made it a priority to make sure that we were would do this properly so we all determined that we would bring in the consultant was was suggested uh consultant was brought in to do a presentation I think it's very important that the presentation is done to the community because I think the stakeholders need to see what our concerns are what our issues are and what needs to be determined so I do think it's a priority that we have a presentation yeah present I think we bought a consultant in to correct to do the study of our roads yes so I'm saying if the report is available I want that report to be made available because you need to address the chairman when you need to speak yeah I'm just I'm addressing I didn't address anybody I'm just saying to I was basically responding to I was my questions were to the business administrator you chose to answer them so I'm basically looking at you but if you want me to address my questions were on the I asked the chair if I could address your and then I'm saying my questions originally were for business administrator so if you could let the business administrator answer them that would be great my concern is instead of being very ambiguous and saying there's a lot of misinformation around the district has to provide these numbers on how many subscription busing students how many courtesy busing students are there in our district that is due by this depart that is basically mandated and we have to submit that report in October of every year all I'm asking the board administrator is I'm not even asking for the number you were the one I think in response to my question to AJ you responded that there's a lot of misinformation the best way to dispel misinformation or any ambiguity is if we have a report share it with the public the reason Mr jusovic said we cannot have a presentation is because we don't have a president or a vice president and I said in my S statement this is business as usual we need to be prepared by March budget session so why are we delaying the presentation and if you want to delay the presentation that's your prerogative I would like the report to be shared so we know what is in the report and I would like the numbers for subscription busing and courtesy busing in the district for the current school year to be disclosed at the earliest is it possible Mr jovic can can you jump in AJ maybe maybe just give us a sense of this the where that report is and then rough timing we haven't finalized the report we're meeting back with the Consultants again so we go over of the items that you've just discussed and finalized them so we can prepare to include the numbers that we confirm with him and discuss with them to include in our budget do you to size question do you envision so let's let's say we we figure out the president vice president in the next I'll make it up two to three weeks hypothetically maybe that's what we thinking at that point we'll proceed with trying to get the presentation scheduled correct again as I said I didn't want to have him here for an hour and a half utilizing his time and I think all we would all agree to that at this point so that was why he wasn't put on here tonight and hopefully that when we do have somebody in place we have a clear vision of what they want to do when they want to do it and it's it's amongst all the board members I'm sure that's going to be asked when they would want to have it done good dpy yeah thanks um so yes last December the finance committee did um get a preliminary report I want to say because it looks like they're still kind of you know finishing it off if I may make a suggestion and see how it you know works for you uh if we can get even the prelim uh report copy for us to even understand it's a lot of information that was provided that in that meeting so my thought is if the board can get a copy of the preliminary report um let's you know think positive think optimistic that in a couple weeks we will get to a place where we have a you know president in place um it will help everybody digest the information and come prepared with questions because I I'm just speaking from my experience being on the finance committee it was it was good information it was a lot to take in and then I had some follow-ups in my mind after the meeting so that would be my recommendation is let's take a look at let's get the information to the to the board members let's digest it and then we can come prepared and and and I I want to bring the information to you that's correct and that's why we want to speak with the consultant again next week to finalize those numbers and and finalize our discussion with questions that we had for him one quick followup is can we get the numbers that were submitted to the state for subscription and current courtesy busing for this year can we get that report to be put up on the district website this is the drrs report that goes to the Department of Ed so this State doesn't um put those two separately they don't have a separate thing for Courtesy busing and a separate thing for required busing they call it courtesy busing it's all one together I think the state uh drrs report is available on the department of Ed website if this is some this is some information that you were given previously based on some some data that we are not aware of because I have seen other districts I've in our district if they Club them I would like the board administrator or the district to explain to us why these numbers are clubbed I wasn't aware of this this is the first time I'm hearing about it so I would like AJ to so I don't want to continue on because we do need to get back to our agenda but um right when this came up last year and we had given numbers and people were very upset that the numbers were not the same as the states it's because the state does not have something called courtesy busing like we call Courtesy busing right we call it courtesy busing because we give it to people right the state their courtesy busing is required busing so for us our numbers are put together for that compared to the state was say AJ any other and I'll go to Tom anything else you want to add to that you're good okay Tom no I what she said what uh the gentle lady uh suggested the state actually does publish cacy busing that's everybody that um is not required to BU de bust and I think they also break out subscription busting but I can't remember for sure uh but I think the way to move forward here is actually to do what's called a special order on the agenda we set a specific time and just invite the consultant to come in and give their presentation they don't have to sit here through you know uh election of president vice president whatever we just set a time when that time comes then we take that up as a special order the rest of the stuff here is General business doesn't have specific time just follow Robert's Rules we can schedule them in I I think you said you were going to meet uh within a week or so why don't we say aim for the next meeting and just have them come in AJ do you any comments on timing of that do you do you are we at a place where you can we can look to pick a date and a specific time right now on our next meeting we're speaking about superintendent search that's a special meeting yeah if there needs to be anything added to it then we would need to advertise it as such got it so maybe we think of the ensuing meeting which I think is two weeks after that something like that it's a possibility unfortun um febrary 26 is febrary 26 is the meeting after that I thought that was the meeting the week after so if we have one February uary 8th would it be seven days later the 15th Oh I thought um Mr was suggesting the following I was I was asking if the next next scheduled meeting after the 28 meeting is a possibility yeah is that what you were thinking too Tom yeah I would sorry I would suggest I'm sorry it is February 23 yes yeah it's a little late but uh let's we want to keep this moving along I'm concerned uh I mean we need to make some decisions about courtesy busing and I don't want it to be a kind of you know we do nothing because we ran out of time we have we should kind of keep this moving along yeah I mean c can we maybe Endeavor to to have you confirm that AJ if that's if there's some reason after the conversation you guys plan to have next week if that's not possible let us know but otherwise can we Endeavor to put it on for 226 and I like the idea of a specific time if that's so go yeah so my thinking is February 26th is very close to march by when our tentative budget is almost being finalized so if we are going to budget a line item for transportation we need this report and the reasons being given for not even sharing the preliminary report is something needs to be finalized and it's next week that's last week of January so February 8th is a special meeting and it has superintendent search like Dr forager suggested we can have a special order let the let the transportation guy in come in pick a time maybe he can go first give us a presentation we get the report because AJ is meeting with him next week we get time it's it's a complex report and it's a complex decision for our district to make so I would like it to be added as an agenda item for February 8th if you would like me to move a motion I'm more than willing to do that just so is the so the question is is the board have consensus on that and if so are you saying we' need to advertise as such as part of the agenda for yes AJ would have to advertise that uh as soon as possible that the board will also be discussing the superintendent search and going over the um the transportation report as well that's correct whenever whenever we have a special meeting whatever is going to be said or conducted during that meeting it has to be advertised as such so originally we have this down as a superintendent search if we need to advertise it to add that to it I would need to do that that's all I need okay anyone anyone opposed to that timing wise 28 28 meeting adding as the 28 meeting go ahead typ to so the only I I guess we are assuming that the consultant is available and saying yes we're assuming a lot of things actually lot of things but yes so I suppose that before we advertise it that's all so if then okay are we good I think the board is in agreement if the consultant's available okay so then AJ tomorrow will reach out to him see if he's available February 8th and we'll send a notification to the board that they are and then we'll AJ re-advertise it does it have to say we're going to take action at the meeting anytime I have a board agenda the word may take action is always used whether or not we do it it's there okay as long as it doesn't say we were not taking action okay um moving on question mark yes good okay moving on uh comments from the public on agenda items I'm GNA do my best Angela Voice or Mike vce or Doug voice okay are we releasing this to this this they should stay I say it every time yeah could invoke some power and make him stay the whole time one regarding the air conditioning yeah I feel like it's getting hotter Mr is it I texted Mr romano and he had one of the custodians come up and move the uh lever over to bring the heat but what he explained to me was there's outside air being pulled in when it hit hits a certain temperature it will it will start to heat up I feel like I'm getting a little hotter but that's just me I run hot I'll get back to you yeah I don't know but they did the C came in and then moved over so like can retext again I'm come back off all right I'll keep moving uh during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only the board requests that individuals State their name in town of residence or School of attendance for the record all comments should be directed to the board president uh or the interim guy and depending upon the nature and complexity of the question it may or may not be answered during the meeting by the administration if so the response would occur after this public portion of the meeting has concluded although the board may not respond to all items raised during the public Forum all public comments will be considered the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from or adjournment of the meeting each speaker statement will be limited to 3 minutes in duration we have any comments on agenda items only I have no shot clock but if you want I can do it off my phone right there you go you get the shot clock uh I I really wasn't gonna to much of your surprise I really wasn't going to state your name oh John M Heist I'm so sorry y uh so I just the only thing I'm going to say is Jordan you are doing a fantastic job in the first I want to be 30 seconds I want to be really clear I want to be really clear about what's different here but Dr gordano you did a great job and acknowledging every board member is here for the right reasons and Jordan your your approach respect and deference even though I know you may not agree with what's going on here was really impressive that was really refreshing to see I want to thank you for showing it and modeling it thanks any other comments questions from the public agenda items only state your name and address hi my name is Chris Riley one dear Path Lane in Berkeley Heights um I'm trying to find the words uh very disappointing that um we've gone to round to without selecting a president and vice president um I think you all know it's not a great look for our town I'm worried about our reputation beyond our borders I know you also think of yourselves As Leaders now it's been a while since I checked the lead leadership manual but uh one of the key qualities of a leader is the ability to colle collaborate and to consensus build and that is clearly not happening with this board so I beseech Miss cona and Miss Penna to get together the two of you and have a conversation with one another since you both seem to have equal support and figure out how you can make this work and what your respective roles would be you can have a conversation with one another the two of you alone is not a quorum you can absolutely do that for the district as far as I'm concerned I think experience does matter a great deal and I would like to see you in a VP role learn the ropes for a year and then if you want to be president next year you know you can work that out with the board I would also leave the board with um one other comment and that is I hear a lot about the Need For Change well when I think about change I think about voters and um Miss Penna was the top voter vote getter in 2019 in a highly competitive race and again in 2022 the top vote getter in a another extremely competitive race race I think there was six or seven or eight eight people running and that was post full day kindergarten implementation redistricting and post covid top top vote getter and with no disrespect to miss jolly and Miss aery who've been very vocal you did not run in a competitive race you walked onto this board and um that's disappointing for other reasons that there weren't people in the community who felt either inspired or motivated to run for public office but I again when it comes to mandates for change I think I look to the votes and when I look to the votes um at least in 2022 um Miss Penna was the top vot vote getter I'll say that again and there's still a great deal of support from Miss pennet in this community but that all said I do think Miss cona and Mrs Penna you should talk to each other and try to figure out way to work this out thank you thanks Chris thank you hi uh Debbie varnerin 20 W AV excuse my voice I'm just getting over being sick um I've lived in this town for 17 years now and this is the first Board of Education meeting that I'm ever attended and it is because I am going to use some of the exact same words that Chris did I'm disappointed in every single one of you and for any of you to consider yourselves leaders you're fooling yourselves you're embarrassing our town and you are making it extremely difficult for us to get any qualified superintendent I was going to suggest the same thing that Chris suggested dipy I know you personally Angela I know you personally I probably know dipy more than I know you Angela you are both wonderful people you really are you're always smiling you're always happy you're always a delight to talk to there's no reason why you two cannot sit down and talk and work this out there isn't I know for time I should get a little bit of uh you know I'm very stuffy so I should get an additional 30 seconds okay you're good um another thing that I want to say is just smile people I mean you all look like you're like sitting on Thorns it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile smile look like you're here for something good you're all saying that you want to be here here but you look like this is the worst effing thing you've ever done in your life smile and make it seem like you want to be here gosh I'm gonna touch on the the vote um because I do follow the voting numbers and statistics for quite some time now um back in 2019 there were five people I think that that ran Angela Penna was position number five and she got the most votes that's unheard of everybody knows that they do something called you know stacking the ballot that I think some of us are familiar with where you just have a bunch of people throw their names in the Hat and then whoever doesn't get a good pallet position they fall off like what we've been seeing here the last couple of years um Angela Penna didn't fall off she got the most votes and the reason why people stack the vote that stack the ballot like that is because it's known that typically it's position one two or three that wins the board of election because people just go down the the line it says pick three one two three Angela was position number five and she okay I get in additional 30 seconds you get 30 seconds I've never been here before so this is making up 17 years first time long go ahead in that was in 2019 in 2022 there was eight people who ran Angela was position number two and again she got the most votes so to say that people want change people don't don't talk for the public the public talks at the polls and we voted to reelect Angela when she was being attacked daily daily all the horrific stuff that was going around the public still chose to ignore that and and vote her back in there's two other things I'm going to be quick and short seat assignments it's like who's against who I would highly suggest you guys splitting up Pamela Natasha Gail dipy don't it's like you guys are purposely situated to be against each other mix yourself up the other thing that I'm going to suggest and I am so sorry for going over time is get to know each other I worked for over 25 years for a nonprofit organization and I took a lot of leadership roles and um it wasn't fun it was it and being a woman that was backend infrastructure leader in it I was like the Rarity so I had to go in with a bunch of men and one of the things um that an executive coach told us to do was when there's friction and when you're not getting getting along with somebody go and have coffee with them go and have lunch with them and get to know them on a personal level because you'll realize that you're not that different you're not that far apart and try to find something else that you guys can get along with thank you for the extra time I'm sorry how much extra did I go over I'll give it about a minute that's okay sorry the new guy is obviously not doing his job well so you you but thank you it's okay Limited appearance anyway uh Aaron Jolly 60 orine Road Berkeley Heights Aaron short for me I'm sorry uh I just I know the uh resignation of Miss Lydia Kang is on the agenda I just want to speak on a personal note um speaking for me and on behalf of my sister as well and my entire family um Miss Kang uh was a it's a huge loss to this District uh I'm not completely aware of the reason she resigned um but I had her uh in e grade for an algebra one course uh my sister had her in seventh and eth grade and now she's here at the high school neither of us have her class but you know I go in and visit her every day and talk to her she has three of my Christmas cards now um so you know there's a designated one for her every year um she's uh she's a great teacher and uh like I said I don't know the reason she's resigning um but I want to uh take the time to on behalf of me and my entire family thank her uh for her time in this District uh and hope that you know together you guys can vote on you know a you know proper replacement and someone who has the correct qualifications uh to teach the uh you know the AP course that she teaches along with uh the financial literacy and uh other courses that she teaches so uh yeah thank you Miss Kang thank you hi everyone Debbie Terrero I'm at 170 Len pain I happen to actually be the BHP president and first of all I want to acknowledge Miss car Miss Jolly welcome to the board of education however anything sorts out I really hope for the betterment of the district that you guys can all get along over the course of the last two weeks I've received a number of phone calls of families with children and not children in the district and they were Gravely concerned about what's going on and so I'm speaking on behalf of them I am completely neutral whether it's Angela Penna or dpy kanana in terms of who takes over the presidency and vice president but I would say and encourage you all much like the other people have spoken about to try to talk to each other and work with each other because you are here to actually support our community I am very concerned that being that the new superintendent is going to be hired that we are going to have a difficult time trying to hire somebody and with all the noise and the fighting that's going on it's going to be very difficult to attract good talent so I encourage you all to really work together to try to make things better in this community Jordan I think you've done a wonderful job I haven't had an opportunity to meet with you but you've done a wonderful job so far so thank you everyone good luck and hopefully we can have a better year okay thank you run for office after this any other H comments agenda items only all right keep it moving we're gonna close the close the public session is that you're saying okay opposing public at 8:44 uh we're going to move to minutes now uh can I have a motion for resolution a all board members approval of board minutes uh approval of me minutes rather for December 14 uh regular and exec and this is also for January 4 regular session Mr chairman sorry I want to make a motion to amend the minutes for the reorg meeting from 4th of uh January 2024 and if it's okay I can pleas you know okay so uh the proposed amendment is um to reflect the accurate eyes and knees for roll call number five and roll call number six as listed in the minutes currently and it would essentially exactly change the ones that are listed as eyes were nay and the other way around both for roll call number five and roll call number six basically saying they're inverted does she need a second do need a second I I'll second that okay so we've got a motion to basically correct by inverting the eyes and the N so I also need to ask for Amendment so I don't know if I can add on to that Amendment or if we need to do separate Amendment no you have to do a separate Amendment okay we'll do this v on it take a second we have to dispose of this amendment then you can do I also think we need it to vote to move the motion first yes we should have yeah so Angela you want to move the motion and this is just my suggestion please don't take off my head when we when we're asking those questions I would refer them to to the board attorney as opposed to us just saying that we don't need to need to I think just my experience he's the one that's going to guide us so we don't trip up ourselves and just give us clarification it's all about the process of moving this meeting forward in a deliberate manner so making the motion the way Dr forer recommend it is fine um and as long as it's recorded in the in the record and as long as everyone has the opportunity to be heard and to deliberate and that's what's most important so I'm I join in with what Dr forer's recommendation okay so Angela do you want to move the minutes in I'll second yeah so moved and then we'll take the amendment okay so now we'll go to the amendment yes amendment was already it was already we have a second on it already Okay SI got the second any discussion on the amendment or questions yes we do roll call on that Amendment Voice vote will will suffice Voice vote would suffice okay all in favor of that as amended I do we have any n okay motion passes we have a an additional Amendment Pam yeah so unfortunately I was looking at it again um when it got resent and um it looks like the it says move motions um I'm just trying to find it m a through M and it's a through n it's even listed like n is the last one so it says resolution a through m in M that's correct because what happened at the Rog meeting yeah K happened to not be in there okay and that moved everything down so that's why it's now 8 amm and after I had a member of the board point out to me that that was missing I was then able to get the proper resolution on for this go around under the business section but it still hasn't enlisted on the Jan 4th because I remember when I moved it it was a through n during the meeting we were definitely missing it during the meeting that letter no we we did we did end in the meeting because I called uh when I when I tried to call it bring it back the original so on the Jan 4th when you go down it's a BC and it goes all the way down and N is on the last one yeah and even in the the one sent out today so it should be a through n so so my Amendment would be to add a through n also in here um it doesn't have the votes where the first time around when we move the motion it was voted down and then we we move to move the resolution again that part is missing is that just should we add that in um uh that is a good question I'm I'm trying to reiterate what yeah you know so at last meeting right it got voted down it failed four votes and then I asked to move it again and I got a second and then we revoted so the vote on here is the revote is it missing or not there it's not there the original vote not the original vote's not there the first the first four4 the first failed vote is not the first four four vote Anthony it failed four4 and then there was a discussion amongst the board that board members could vote individual resolutions and so we revoted and that's how it went through again I'll move to amend it and then we can add it in later there's there suggestion to if we want to consider do we want to table these minutes have have them amended just just the reor minutes just the reorg minutes the reor minutes to be revised and reposted for the next meeting a clean copy there'll be no confusion thank you so I'll move to table um the minutes for January 4th the reorg agenda a second on that or just want to do a a voice we need a second second second okay anyone all in favor of that or anyone the motion just State the motion the motion is to table table January 4th correct the reor but wait a minute did we did we approve exact for December 14 and regular did not we not yet not yet so we're still working on amendments correct so now there's been a there's been a motion to basically table table just the reorg Jan 4 c yeah C okay so that they can be put back for the Feb 8 meeting with the amendment that already went through and the additional changes that were just discussed okay so's let's have a vote on the table we're just going to do all in favor of tabling it yeah yeah yes then we'll vote on the then we'll vote on the other ones so all in favor with that with that a yes I I I okay any n okay so we're tabling that now can we move to a vote on the minutes for December 14th exec and regular so we had Mrs Penna that made the motion and we had a second by Mrs Stanley yeah correct Mrs Penna yes Mrs Stanley yes Mrs akiri um Iain December I wasn't here so Mrs Bradford yes Dr forer yes forer I'm sorry forer forer forer forer yes Mr Heyman yes Mrs Jolly I'll abstain since I wasn't on the board at the time Mrs Conor yes motion passes okay amend appointments next item resolution a for all board members can I have a motion I second it second got that AJ yes okay roll call Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Penna yes Mrs akiri yes Mrs Bradford yes Dr forer g g g yes we'll get there I'm sorry did you get me I'm a yes too but I didn't hear oh oh sorry wait on Tom what he's asking you for on asking for your vote amend annual appointment oh I I thought I said yes yes thank you Mr Hyman yes Mrs Jolly yes Miss Conor yes motion passes we're moving to Administration this is items a through f is and Frank all board members can I have a motion so move rord second second Angela questions comments um hi minut sorry so um I have a question on the approv professional development I think we see some of the B administrators on there and there are some amounts mentioned in the attachments uh if the board administrator can tell me if these are my if if these amounts match with their contracts like are these allowed amount on their contracts are we referring to e a approv professional development item a item a attachment a to yeah I think I need to I need to open let me my computer to check on the attachments yeah it's in the attachments it's some of the administrators have like $1,700 mentioned on them do you have any a copy of the attachments by any chance um since that's professional development uh Dr Gano would you have a better idea about that sure and I I'll get more specific uh Mr a with you tomorrow but anything that's on there is contractually um for the staff members so any any monetary numbers they put in as per the either the bhea or the bhaa contract but I I'll double check that for you if you have specific ones to let me know yeah I did H send an email I think um about um I think I have one for Curtis is the amount as per the contract because I don't I didn't get that I I mean I I didn't read it I didn't by God I opened it I didn't read it I'm sorry I apologize um I will find that out for you tomorrow but anything that's on there um is contractually is part of their contract right okay and and I will forward to the full board tomorrow uh the bhaa contract um because they don't have individual contracts and the bhea contract as well yeah I sorry you're good other questions are you okay all right Tom no I I did a little check on my own and as far as I can tell they were all within the limits but I'll defer to your expertise other questions Tom um no no not not on that okay I just wanted sorry um I just wanted to talk about the school calendar um I know for a few years some of us have fought to add other um holidays in and I know it's really hard and I know we have a teacher contract so we have to work with them um sometimes people think we can take days off easily but we can't because we do have this teacher contract so sometimes the days are set um by that contract but I do want to try to add more holidays um like Dali and um LUN New Year and I know that other districts around us have already started doing this and I do think we really really need to put this um as a priority in the coming future that we reflect um the student population and that they can spend time with their family um so I know we weren't able to do it this year but I hope um that by 2025 2026 we can look into this so that we can truly um reflect our um our students thanks Pam and I'll speak self to say that I'm I'm glad we're aligned with Mountainside for spring break for what it's worth I think there was a chance that that was not going to happen but hopefully that was never really a chance that that was going to happen so glad we're there in the calendar other questions one last question is the calendar in um sync with I know I saw that we were in sync with mountain side but are we in sync with the ucvts any idea can you speak to that Anthony sure so ucvts will not um public calendar I can't ucvts will wait you know most districts within the county have published the calendars and only then but I can say you know over the past in my experience over the last three years their Break um is usually it starts Good Friday and it goes the week after so if that is still the case I think we should be in sync okay that's great we're not fully synced with mountside for for what it's worth but at least with spring break we are I mean the the starting dates are not synced but they weren't this this year either it is what it is any other comments questions on a through F not we can go to go to roll call Miss Bradford yes to all Miss pen yes Miss Airi I'm a yes to everything all a to F but on the B the Hib report it's a no to two numbers should I give them to you so you're going to um vote no on two of the items on the Hib report okay which which numbers um it's 23970 2593 no no 2539 70 uncore G9 5 okay no 25 3970 okay uncore GH and the other one is 255 583 and that what what number was that again that's what agenda 2583 no no I'm saying what what res uh resolution number was that in administration B I'm approving under Administration the approved report of superintendent was okay B okay yeah in B no 2 253 970 2555 83 yes okay okay Dr for hold on forer forer yes forer I don't know what it is I got this mental block I'm sorry all right uh yes to a c d e and f and no to 253 3 970 underbar GH in B and 25583 underbar CMS in B and and yes to the rest of B thank you Mr Heyman yes to all Miss Jolly yes to all Mrs Conor Mrs Stanley yes motion passes okay moving to education this is uh items a through C all board members I have a motion I move I move a through C in education I'll second that comments questions under C the cyber security curriculum can I request that we got an email from Mr gardano can be document in the minutes that this resolution ution is being reintroduced as the curriculum guide was not approved previously I would have liked uh previously I think many moons ago when we had Donna fola she would when when an agenda item like this was put on the r nail was put on so this cyber security curriculum was already approved previously I think it's back on because it missed it was a the curriculum guide was missing it was something else I think another form was put in its place so if a rational is put on the agenda it's more clear to the public if I'm willing to I'm I'm voting yes on all this but I want this documented in the minutes specifically I don't know if i' have to make a motion for that we have to make a motion for that I you shouldn't have to now yeah long as long as you took it down and we'll record it in the minutes that will satisfy the security I it now I don't I no I I'm I'm going to say it right here it's it's in an email from Mr gardano on the reason for putting this on the agenda I want specifically that reason mentioned in the documents basically this was voted previously but it's back on the agenda because we did the previous vote did not vote on the curriculum guide right so so just just to clarify too Mr this was the course approval happened in December of 2022 excuse me it should have been put on and uh and which I thought was on uh the 10th of of of January 2023 it was never approved um when it came to my attention that was never approved um we put it on for the December board meeting what I gave the board to approve was the original course approval never the guide so that was my mistake so let the record stand what Mr K is saying is that was my mistake and and so we're putting the guide on the guide on now to be approved and I I would need just the rational for this curriculum to be included in with the attachment is that what we're saying as well yeah okay which is already documented in in that email which we have yeah yeah yeah yeah other comments questions on a or C I'm just gonna say that the band is going to a parade in this city hopefully at least that's their goal I don't know if you saw it on the um attachments um but that is really exciting so hopefully um they can get their all their people together and all their stuff ready because I think that's pretty exciting for our district all right uh can we get a roll call oh just and thank you to Mr Sullivan who's here tonight for everything that he does with our band it's awesome and to have them portrayed nationally on TV is going to be great at the St Patrick's State and I'll second that all right roll call Dr forager for that's interesting I get to go first yes to all Mr Kiri yes to all Miss Bradford yes to all Mr Heyman yes to all Miss jolly yes to all Miss Connor Miss Penna yes Miss Stanley yes motion passes moving to Personnel this is uh items a through R for all board members and then s through AE for Berkeley Heights only I have a motion so moved second second comments questions the second it was it was Mrs Jolly second DP so I would like go dipy then we'll go Angela i m Mr chairman I'd like to uh amend uh Personnel J resignation of staff to move the final date for Melissa barley to April 18th I'll second that can you repeat that your the the effective date on that is currently June 30th I I move to amend it to say the final date will be April 18th um I I have to defer to our attorney on that I'm not sure with a resignation date that was given by an employee to to do so under contract the you're accepting a resignation that was submitted with an effective date in the resignation if the board wanted to take action to terminate her before that would be a separate motion I mean you could make the motion I presume and and perhaps it would not I mean you're not if you if there's a determination to terminate Dr varley's contract that's a a deliberative decision that would be made you you don't do it by changing what has been stated as an effective date you would either accept her resignation as of June 30th or not accept her resignation you don't change the contents of her letter so if I may speak I think her we haven't seen the resignation letter even though the resignation is on um I don't know if any other board members have seen it I have asked for it I have not seen the resignation letter the public statement that was released by Dr warley during holidays in December said that it it is June 30th or it could be sooner based on the I think I I don't remember the exact words but basically she's in discussions on something so it was a little ambiguous and I know this role is very critical for our district so I haven't seen the resignation letter what does it if it if it mirrors the public statement that Dr warley released it basically said as of now it's June 30th but I'm in discussion on certain things and it can be sooner so I looked at her contract it says that she gets 60 days notice so based on the amended contract from September 2023 I saw 60 so if it's not correct I would like so all I'm saying is it's a very critical role and it's a very transitionary year for us so I want us to be proactive not reactive I don't want that ambiguity from an an employee saying I can leave if I find something else so I think we are we are basically amending it to be April 18 I don't think that's permissible I think you either pass the resolution or don't pass the resolution I also don't think you talk about Personnel issues in public pertaining to a superintendent who you may be very dissatisfied with but you don't discuss that in public when the superintendent's not here if there's not evidence that a resignation was submitted effective uh June 30 2024 then that's a reason not to pass the resolution perhaps this evening and or to table the resolution but again if the decision is made to terminate somebody that's an entirely different deliberative process to be taken by the board in a deliberative manner not by not by gimmick of changing what somebody has stated as the effective date of their resignation in addition there there's contractual matters that are in place as well yes it's not something you just do willy-nilly on the spot by changing a date you would either table it you would go back and discuss it or you know that's the proper procedure for addressing a manner like that maybe so we I'm not discussing anything Personnel related that's not public in this community her public statement was on the district website was on District social media and I'm not discussing anything that's privy just to the board members the resolution is up for everybody to see her public statement is up for everybody to see her public statement clearly said it's either June 30th or it could be sooner so there is an ambiguity there so I would like so if there is an ambiguity that we are allowing an employee to have and I think technically with this agenda like how we have done previously if we follow the standard operating procedures the resignation letter should have been in the attachments which is missing so we are flying in the dark here here we don't know what's in the resignation letter the public statement is ambiguous so that is the reason why I think this motion is on there to remove any ambiguity and say this is the date I've given my legal opinion I don't control the meeting I've given my legal opinion you're free to accept my legal opinion or not my legal opinion is is that that's not the manner in which you would address a dissatisfaction or a need to do something in a more expeditious manner by modifying what has been stated I understand what you're saying about ambiguity my legal recommendation would be that you either vote the accept the resignation or do not and or table the motion the the resolution or not and then address it and then present it for the next meeting in a more deliberative manner than just on the spot saying we we vote to change which is basically saying we're terminating somebody prior to the date at which they are prepared to sever their relation ship with the district contractually so to the chair I would like to say that's an improper motion and I do not want us to see voted on it the amendment the motion to amend to yes I don't think we should vote on it I think it's an improper motion because of these reasons that the attorney gave us and I would agree are we obligated to vote on the motion as it's been put forth uh or not necessarily I guess I'm looking down at either AJ or Council that's why I deferred to the attorney on this matter because again uh I I stated there's a contractual a contract that is in place and if you're a violation of a contract which extends to 6:30 then it's going to be a legal proceeding going forward and adding to more legal bills so um from from my perspective on what I just stated um I would say that you couldn't do anything like this without a proper discussion and then it's your decision as the presiding officer hearing the legal advice and hearing the decisions to make a decision whether you're going to allow a vote or whether you're not you're the presiding officer well we and we do have the right obviously as board members to not accept the resignation so whether we vote on this motion or not everyone has that right to say y or nay to the as listed 6:30 to accept resignation at all correct so that proceeds so um more comments let me uh question I think there's a way to uh withdraw a motion but I think you need permission of the assembly to do that right not with an improper motion it's not an improper motion but it is an improper motion according to Robert's Rule sorry I have are you trying to amend the motion or withdraw the motion I have the floor I take leave of the assembly to withdraw my motion that just takes a simple majority vote that that would be an effective way to get Beyond this issue at for the time being course all in favor of Tom I withdrawing the motion yeah any knes yes there was a first and a second for that Tom sorry Tom first withdraw his motion okay I can second s is seconding that all in favor of the withdrawal of that motion was there an A or we're good okay uh just one comment um Jordan is if if we have the designation letter which I think Dr warley said she has submitted it I think the public and the board deserves to see it so if you if it can be published that would be great I'm not I'm not opposed to that uh you didn't ask me personally but I haven't seen it either so if if that is possible I guess so we'll look back I received it today okay so if that can be shared with with the board that that would be just one clarification so the public statement was made the week of right after Christmas I think that's right and when I asked for did do we when the agenda was released for January 18th I asked do we have the the resignation letter it was answered with the same day yes but looks like we received it today on January 18th the board at the time did receive a resignation letter it was forwarded to the board okay email did you see it Mr maybe I'm thinking of two different things of a formal letter but are you is there a sorry but AJ is there a different letter we're talking about or is that you received today no no go ah D so I believe let me just clarify AJ has a formal signed letter from the superintendent is that correct because okay okay got it okay so can I goad so I was going to say we did receive that email I think it was the day after Christmas it is yes uh but beyond the email I don't think I have seen like a signed like a you know anything other than the email that's thought we were talking yeah yeah so that's what I I figured you were thinking of that I don't think we have seen anything beyond the email as a letter with the signature you know making it sort of formal if you will so Jordan I just like to clarify sure when Dr VY sent the email to me at the time as as board president I forwarded to the board that's correct so the board did receive the resignation letter they did see it I just want to clarify that we do need um like we have seen with other administrators we need a signed letter if you're voting on The Resolution today and that's that's not necessarily true you have a written expression of resignation in writing an email is sufficient written evidence of somebody's intent if you accept that intent that's been put in writing I'd like I do not believe somebody would be able to Prevail and say well I didn't give you a signature so you now have to I want to withdraw my resignation once the board votes to accept the resignation it's accepted and and if you have it in writing you have it in an email so with all due respect Mr Vel when we hire an administrator the contract is has to be reviewed and approved and signed by the county superintendent that's the contract and then at the receip of that contract the administrator signs and accepts it yes it's not done that's true right yes but you can't there's no there's there's you can't force somebody to continue to work after for you after they've given you documentation in writing conclusively evidencing their intent to resign as of an effective date and say sorry we're not going to accept any resignation ever from you unless we get something with a signature even though we have an email from you that is clearly from you acknowledged by you in public of your intent we're not going to accept it unless we get a signature from you go can I chime in so yeah I'm hearing the concern that Sai is Raising and I think it's a valid one because the the date is it's either you know the date in the letter or something earlier um I haven't seen that to be honest anywhere when somebody resigns it is here is the the date that you know as effective as of this date so I think there is a point there about um us just being aligned as a board as to what exactly is the date that we are approving right uh this year is a date that's sort of ambiguous in the email uh can I make motion to amend this particular item and separate out that specific line um what is it uh item J um just remove Dr varley's line item in there can we table that vote on the other items and I think we we just need as a team a conversation on what is the date because it's important like she is the most important person right now in terms of the district hierarchy so in other words leave the rest of item J intact remove Dr vley from the agenda is is the ask that's my motion that's the motion to amend item J on the agenda well you would table the Dr vley correct so your motion is to table um Dr Barley's resignation I I guess um do we have Clarity on on the date is the is the for we have till we have the clarity on the date so I suppose it's two things we you know can we just table the one item Miss con's point I would also know in here that I do see that Dr vley says tentative so that's a valid point yeah although she so I I but I do say that she does write to miss penis saying this letter and it does have an email signature but to your point about a tentative date being stated that is evidenced by the writing so so if we can just remove that item table only that item and move on with the others second on that motion second so we are not accepting a res designation by Dr vley we're tbling it is that correct that's the motion only if you pass the motion right so doesn't her contract dates don't in order for this to move forward doesn't it have to be approved I I find this I find this pretty embarrassing honestly I I just her letter was pretty clear I agree that she was doing the June 30th for the benefit of the district right that she was going to stick with us to the end of the school year unless we so choose and we found an interim sooner I think the letter is pretty clear on that now asking her to be more clear I think is fine but the need to actually table this I'm not sure I think just asking her to be specific on when she wants to leave and when we're prepared for that but I don't see how any of this helps the district I really really don't and I'm I'm um disheartened that that this is even in the conversation um because my conversation about Dr vley was going to be a thank you um for what she has done um for what she has put up with in our district um I don't think many superintendant could have dealt with some of the things that she dealt with and uh the way people treated her um it is not easy to be a woman in power as many of us here know um and it's um I think it was very difficult because she was brought in for Change and she made a lot of change happen we have full day kindergarten we also have Woodruff is now a much Fuller building it was it was quite empty um compared to what it is now and it's thriving under um Mrs Marley and we saw a huge difference in our early childhood education and curriculum by bringing Mrs kopaz in and um now Mrs seminario Dr seminario um to really focus on these young students and so I think we do need to thank her for her time she got us through covid which so many districts struggled with and we were able to do so I I just find this whole thing just really disheartening and I again I I want you to think about how we have to find a new superintendent and this is not um to the benefit of the district it really is not when we are trying to find a new superintendent go gasha if we if we table this then we have effectively halted our search for a superintendent that our February 8th meeting search for superintendent is is invalid because now we don't have a resignation of our superintendent and that was that was going to be my point Tasha so um I I did ask Dr vley for the letter because it wasn't in the attachments and she did forward it to me um and just in terms of the date um you know speaking strictly about the date um she did say she's tally setting my end date is June 30th however I wish to inform you that I'm currently pending negotiations with another entity and may this may necessitate a modification of the date so um point being is that you know if we're if we are thinking about the good of the district and potentially bringing someone in as an interim superintendent um we do need to be able to if we're interview and candidates to give somebody a date for when they can expect to you know to be hired we can't interview also and just say well it might be April it might be June we don't know um so I think that's also an important aspect of the tenative you know why I think it's important to have a set date so when we do look go and search we can give some a date for when they can start I mean my own personal take on some of this is that I it's not realistic that we're going to find full-time by April it's might be a pipe dream by June but that's maybe optimistic so I don't I don't know I don't know that those dates necessarily impact the the start date of someone new per se um I do think we should Endeavor tonight to at least get the engine going as I think I think we all agree at some point tonight um so I just want to say that we we often amend start dates um and leave dates often I mean there's people in here that we've already approved other times but we're doing a new date so this is not uncommon because you are working with multiple districts trying to get this moved so as Dr vley leaves and we bring someone new in even if it's an interm superintendent those dates will change based on their availability right that will always change so the idea that we we have to have a finalized date is is not accurate well and the resolution to accept it as of June 30 just establishes that it would not go beyond June 30th right that would be the last day regardless of what her intentions are beyond June 30th I think we also acknowledge that she put June 30th down there so we have to um allow her to if she wants to stay to the end of her contract to be allowed to do that so I think it's important that we recognize that um I'd also like to just uh Echo what Pam was saying oh I'd like to about what Pam was saying because I also found this all disheartening that we're talking about her end dat when she's specified that she's prepared to Stan to the end of her contract but I think we need to just mention I'd like to thank Dr VY uh for all that she's done for our school district during her tenure I I think we need to talk a little bit about that um as president this last year I actually got to to know a little bit better and I witnessed firsthand her commitment to the students the staff the teachers and she's always prioritized prioritized putting the students first and while doing that continuing to try and move the district forward she I know her tenure has been turbulent um and I'd like to focus on some of the things that she actually has accomplished while she was here P mentioned it f day kindergarten that was a huge task this District had been wanting fde kindergarten for the last 20 years and the reason I know this is because I was on the other side as a parent and I've attended multiple meetings wanting to have F their kindergarten and no body wanted to take on the challenge and she took that challenge head on and she knew that the only way to do that was to rely on the district so that we could make space for f day kindergarten and like Pam said f day kindergarten is flourishing we're having multiple people interested in moving to this District because we have F their kindergarten and the board supported her at the time pandemic when we had the pandemic we literally switched a button and the school went remote almost over so that's something she's got to be commended for when the state said that it was okay for the schools to come back Dr VY pushed and pushed to bring students back to in person learning and I know there was a lot of push back for her but she knew that for the benefit of the students that for their mental health that it was so much better to have students in person and she pushed she prioritized and championed Di initiatives because she wanted every student to feel safe when they came to school she focused on the Real Alignment of educa of Elementary education and she brought in like Miss Stanley said she brought in Educators like Miss copex who who focused on realigning our early our elementary education because as she said starting your education from fergate kindergarten right up through Elementary to your high school is where it needs to start there needs to be a focus on Early Education and she prioritized that so she also looked this year and I worked closely with her on the technology community at communications committee and I know Pam did she focused on building new infrastructure because we have old infrastructure we have challenges with our infrastructure and she focused on bringing building new infrastructure and these are just to say a few of the things that she's actually done so I think we need to commend her for all the work she's done I know she's had a turbulent uh tenure but I think we need to focus on the import things that she's done and I think we really need to commend her for it and I would just like to wish her the best and hope that she's happy in and in our future endeavors thanks Thomas we'll go Tom then Dy all right Tom yeah okay uh this makes me a little nervous about having no uh specific uh okay there's there's no specific specific uh notice requirement and we know she's in some sort of negotiations so it's possible to come back and say I'm out of here and what are we gonna do I I think I keep me honest here the contract does her contract does stipulate she owes us at least 60 days or is it 90 days notice at minimum 90 days yeah so she can't say I'm out of here but she can say I'm out of here in 90 days if that's accur by the contract is that right right yes have to look at the contract but most would provide for a 90-day notice of a contract of this duration I mean there could be a 60-day in there I don't have the contract in front of me right now but whatever the contract provides there is a requirement to provide a specific amount of notice Dy so does this uh does this uh December 27th letter constitute a 90day notice I read it to constitute more than a 90day notice I read it to constitute notice of not to continue beyond the end of her contract and to run out her contract potentially give notice that she will definitely not be working for the district beyond June 30th but that if whatever negotiation she's involved with materialized and she she wanted to come back to the board and say okay my contract requires I have to give you this amount of notes notice consider that I've given you now no I will give you the what I have to under my contract but I would like to invoke my contract rights to only give you that amount of not notice and not the six months notice that I provided okay so we might we could expect another notice if if she wants to otherwise it it's possible otherwise it runs to June 30th okay yeah do you have something Dy yeah I want to go back to my motion and withdraw it because this conversation I think is going in a different direction so motion to withdraw my last motion second on the withdrawal of that motion sure a second okay and just a Voice vote okay on that AJ all in favor of withdrawal of that motion hi hi any name okay yeah uh but I want to any n i I didn't hear any no good so just to reiterate like how everybody has their opinion they have experienced it I know many I know I I remember the very first board meeting that I attended as a young parent in this town was to ask for f day kindergarten so I wanted full day kindergarten I think I went on the the township forum and started a survey or a poll of sorts um I think I met a lot of young moms and then we came to Mr reinstein who was the president who asked us to go to an cly hand it was like running around running in circles but we all wanted F day kindergarten but the way it was done during pandemic without the Department of Education approval with violating the state laws on bidding not and then then it was done all in the name of equity look at our enrollment numbers we all have an attachment of enrollment numbers William wuff is flourishing in for as An Early Education Center but we have another school Hughes which is packed with packed classrooms it's the smallest Elementary School in our district while Mountain Park class sizes are less lower so where is the equity we were told wait for two years wait for three years the traffic this town was originally with our old original Town planners was planned to have neighborhood schools where children could walk and bike and I can vouch for it because I have seen many walk to William Woodruff now the entire district for their K22 students have either got to drive them or if you're if you're within two miles or somebody has or you have to take a bus the traffic in front of William Woodruff is really dangerous same thing with Snyder we we don't have any um sidewalks I was on the rescue squad if there was an emergency call on Brierwood in front of Woodruff during pickup or drop off there is no way for emergency responder vehicles to get to same thing on mkm so with all due respect we can commend her or we can be very honest about what this has done to our district and the traffic situation is not going to get any better we all wanted F day kindergarten but this was not the way to go down with it and the there is no equity we have pged we are packing students like sardines at Hughes there is a letter from the principal at Hughes and now there is no equity and we don't have any plans so this is my opinion and this is my experience and many parents can vouch for it so we need to look at it because this is something that we have to deal with it as a board and I raise this concern because I have seen other administrators resignation letters there has to be some clarity on when is it actually the end date so if we are going to at on the February 8th meeting if we're going to start talking about an interim what is the job posting going to look like when is the start date going to be for the interim is it going to be end of April end of May early June and let's not kid ourselves when are the superintendant good superintendant looking to be hired they want to come here at least two to three months before the school year starts by putting this date at the very end of the school year how are we going to go with our interview who is going to apply for us all the good superintendence will be taken so I want to know yeah so I will I'm not I'm willing to vote on this motion but with the comment I want it documented I think AJ is not here so I don't know if Mr gardano is taking minutes or who's taking minutes it's being recorded yes so some I want this documented in the meeting minutes that within 24 to 48 hours we request for a signed letter and we request for some clarity if it's possible thank you discussion is never in minutes just for True uh any any I think we can captain obious we're not we're not going to necessarily agree on on the the tenure of Dr barley positive negative here tonight but um can we are there other comments questions on on any other item uh under Personnel uh and then because it sounds like we've we're back to the an intact uh resolution no I'm not asking for my discussion points to be documented I want what is documented is I we we would like to request for a signed resignation letter like how we get from other administrators and that has to be shared that is what I'm requesting and if there can be some clarity on the end date that would be great I will check with the business office not business office check with the with the office the ladies in the office tomorrow to see if there's a letter somewhere and I will okay thank you are there comments questions Tom sorry I'm I keep missing you I've got bad angles here yeah IED I just want to make sure my vote is recorded correctly here because I uh I tried to amend Jay and then I withdrew it so I don't think I ever voted on Jay itself we didn't we didn't vote yet we didn't vote on on anything here yeah all right we just we we added and then pulled back twice go ahead dpy um I had a question on item J actually it's the same item uh I believe we have one um staff listed in here uh as resignation and I think the same staff member is back on agenda item E I was just warning to make sure that I'm reading this right um it's from the bottom second to last it's the same staff member resigning and then also being approved as substitute uh supplemental Personnel I just wanted to make sure that it's not an error no that's not an error any more comments questions sorry one more yeah uh we're creating the position um I think this is number um item R but actually I will double check the new agenda that we are creating the the 1 FTE position um I just wanted to confirm that it's s okay now it's s it used to be R now it's s yes um one once we approve it here that will be factored into the budget for next year I just wanted to confirm the the sequence yes that's not a position that's going away so yes we were we are in the process already factoring that into the budget preliminary talks um as Mr as AJ excuse me started we knew that was coming down the pike and that's GNA have to be factored then yes did you go a roll call or anything else let's good a roll call uh Mrs Penna Mrs Jolly yes to miss Airi yes to all Miss Bradford yes to all Dr for hold on I'm sorry about that Dr forger forer yeser more eager Mr Heyman yes sir on items a through r as in forer R Mrs Connor yes to all uh I will say conditional on us getting alignment on the date for Dr warley Mrs Stanley yes motion passes uh moving to business items uh a through F all board members uh and items G through H for Berkeley Heights can I have a motion um I just want to make a note and we've had this discussion and I I probably did not do this and realized this from before b as we discussed from before I know I believe I sent out statute according to B and I believe that we need to add the superintendent and and Treasurer to that resolution from our prior discussions if I'm not mistaken I'd like to add those on there to include in that resolution do you need a board member to motion as such or can we just add it right now I'm I'm doing it so we can add that right now I believe that's I can do that right i' be happy add the uh superintendent the president the according to as did you say the board president and the um it would be board secretary superintendent and Treasurer [Music] okay I think Chief School administrator also required that's super that's super okay state it again president of the board designation of board secretary superintendent and Treasurer to sign School warrants pursuing went to the statute uh the statute reads that it would be under 18a colon 19-1 if this is if this is to be consistent with the statute the statute provides that the warrant should be signed by either the president board president secretary and Treasurer or the treasurer so if you're going with the board secretary to be consistent with 18a 19-1 it should be board secretary board president and uh Treasurer and Treasurer so we and the board secretary you you are you serving as the who's the who's the treasurer for the district there's a gentleman uh that that does that okay so we removing superint superintendent and replacing it with a different different word wait a minute we have I think we need the superintendent the CSA or yeah you would keep the superintendent it would be the board secretary superintendent treasure treasure all three of them have to sign yeah so we need a motion to amend as such to add those three titles I got okay I'm writing this down you got secretary president treasure and super end no CSA as in superintendent Treasurer and secretary board secretary board secret not president no yeah but you want to make that motion no I'm not so sure about that wa Dr farer is looking at stat and but I can read the statute I have the statute here that I can read I can read the policy so okay you know uh board policy 171 duties of the board President and Vice President uh sign all School District warrants okay that's 171 duties of the treasur of school monies this policy 172 says uh these warrants are signed by president secretary and Treasurer right that's what I just read yeah and part number paragraph three says uh payroll warrants are signed by President superintendent and secretary and that sites uh 18a 19-9 and 19 10 the resolution isn't limited to just payroll so that's uh the resolution is for school warrants generally so they do include payroll warrants right yeah the way the resolution reads yes right so if if they include payroll warrants then we need to add the board president and the vice president according to 18a 19 hyphen 9 if the school warrants are holistically everything and they include payroll warrants then we have to go by njsa 18a colon 19-1 and 19-9 which has board President and Vice President sure go ahead Dy sorry Mr venzel can I ask a quick question here 18a can I just address the point made by missir referencing 18a colon 19-9 18a 19-9 does not reference warrants uh or the eight and your bylaw that had Mr jtz I think putting that on the agenda was based upon your bylaw but 18a col 19-9 just states that the payment of compensation of teachers and other employees may be made on the basis of payrolls certified by the president and Secretary of the board and the chief administrator yes so in a district which has a treasure go ahead go ahead so my question is if 18a 19-9 includes the president that's what we are asking so for I thought you said vice president I'm sorry I thought I heard you say vice president yeah president she did mention president because our policy has both of them but the state law has president so all we are saying is if we are amending the designation of signer for school warrants and they includes include payroll warrants we want four people on there we want the board secretary the board president the treasurer and the CSA four people to sign these warrants because these include payroll warrants well there isn't four there's three and I believe that that when you just read the statute it said either or correct we're going back to 18 which is what the resolution references 18a col 19-1 18a col 19-1 uh if you were modeling or ping the resolution after the language of the statute it says that money or funds of the board and the custody the secretary or treasurer of school money shall be expended by the secretary or treasurer of school monies by and only by warrants each made payable to the order of the person entitled to receive the amount thereof and specifying the object for which the warrant is issued signed by the president and Secretary of the Board of Education and the chief School administrator three president secretary of the board and chief School administrator or or by the treasurer of school monies as appropriate to the district so we need need to add board president on here as well a person to be in compliance with the statute yes so that's the motion we need Tom get all that I I'm I'm about ready to add all the board members to sign but first we have to move the motion before we can amend it yeah we have so I will move resolution a through f for all board members and move resolutions D through H for Berkeley Heights only thanks pen second on that second okay second Angela and then Tom do you want to make the motion on the amendment I'm going to have some amendments here but I I think we need to do these in order uh I'm sorry we didn't finish did we finish we okay what is the can you read the amendment uh the proposition b as amended I I will read it so I move to amend um under business B designation of signer for school warrants a designation of board secretary superintendent Treasurer and board president to sign School warrants pursuant to njsa 18191 Stanley you do not need the treasurer if you have the board president secretary would we like to remove the treasurer anyone no it has or I want it no but the statute says or it says board president board secretary or it says or president president and secretary and CSA CSA or Treasurer you don't need the treasurer with the board president CSA and board secretary all right so I will read it one more time designation of board secretary to sign uh sorry board secretary superintendent board president or Treasurer to sign School warrants pursuant to njsa 18a 19-1 I'll second that thank you okay need to vote on that or is that a do you want to the next thing would be to vote on the amendment yeah correct okay so let's let's take can we roll call on that or do you want Voice vote is fine okay all in favor that amendment I I I any needs yes yes nay or no no no nay I'm sorry that was a delay that was a delay that was yes okay did you have another amendment you wanted to make yeah uh I want to amend uh policy 131 in our bylaws uh I want to revert the whole thing back to the website version dated 2022 D 8-30 last Revis February 15 2001 so I think that's an improper motion since it's not on the agenda I'm sorry I still have the floor no I can I can object in a proper motion anytime according to Robert's Rule yeah what's there's nothing improper about it it's a it's a it's not on the agenda it's not on the agenda we're adopting policies right what number agend run B okay okay okay no you're talking about d d right d yeah reopt all policies bylaws and regulations before we adopt the policies I want to amend a few of them but also we would need to send that to a a policy committee because that's what we have since we don't have a board president sorry that's not true that is true true it is true okay can we address our questions and can the officer yeah finish your on okay so before we adopt 131 I I offered amendment to 131 that's all okay uh so the next thing would be to uh vote on that Amendment and then we could move on to other policies so just to clarify I mean my understanding with amend with policy amendments typically we would if there is an amendment it would be discussed and then that language goes back for first reading on an amended policy goes to policy committee and then it goes to the agenda for first reading and then back to be adopted at second reading that's how we do it that's how we change theend policies okay so so would and so then we're going to table 131 pending uh an answer from the policy committee is there right that's a motion that's Natasha were you going to add to that uh I was just going to ask a question so if um because it is read-option of all board policies and regulations um and if there are some policies that we are concerned with and as you know Dr forer is concerned with um is reverting to Prior version um an option simply because the prior versions had gone through um first and second reading they were previously approved appr D and so um by the board so now if you know I understand we can't amend the language of them but if we revert to back to something that was previously approved I just wanted to understand if that is a possibility you good K so I was on the policy committee and you can amend a policy committee um a policy in the committee at any time you can take it to the committee ask for a revision of it and then it would come to First reading and then second reading so this is unnecessary because we can adopt all the ones that we have and then if there's any question on any policy then it would go back to the policy committee for revision talked about it discussed then put up for first reading and second reading for final adoption well that's the that would be the recommended procedure to be to be operating in a deliberative fashion this not this motion that's on which was noted as being in your annual bylaws as being an annual that is a basically a a matter of what what is in the law is called comedy C miit Ty of of of your understanding as I had mentioned at the last meeting you're coming into an ongoing concern with a board that has had policies that have been approved by the board perhaps not this board but a board that was responsible for operating the district you have policies and Dr farger has noted you H you're not bound even by reopt the policies that have been duly adopted by this board in the course of business prior to this board um you're not saying you agree with all those policies you're adopting them that they were duly adopted in the course of business in ACC by the previous boards that have been responsible for the operation of the district pursuant to bylaw 131 you as a board have a right either through committee or even at a subsequent meeting to say okay we you you couldn't be bound let's say at your next meeting to say oh Dr farger you now want to bring up uh and uh an amendment by motion you can't now bring that up because you voted to re that can't be used against Dr forer that's the proper procedure would be to say let's let's talk about policy 131 at another meeting or at a committee or what have you the the the proor of motion of reopt all your policies is is is again it's you we're bringing it up because it was in your body law it's not in many bylaws today and not and not all districts do it at reorganization meetings it's not required for your policies to have been duly adopted and to remain effective until you as a board take deliberative action to change those policies if I if I may I just wanted just to um for those of you listening who may not understand why we're um pushing on this one um so the the policy was revised um to it's a policy dealing with um uh making policies actually and as the board that's one of our main functions or policy making body however the way that this um policy was amended it gives a lot it in injects the superintendent into the process where the superintendent can review any drafts prior to them coming to the board so it kind of we in that last Amendment it kind to to this policy I know it was approved the and second reading but it really takes away some of our board powers to make policy um and that it kind of puts in a filter by like by someone who's our employee in terms of what things come down the pike and what things we can review now I don't know if that was you know done in practice in the committee if that's you know the exact procedure that was followed but the way this policy reads we've kind of you know sered our power a little bit as a policy-making body by having that kind of filter in there obviously the the superintendent's input is is valuable but I don't think it should be um something that you know one person who works for us decides which Drafts come come to us can I add something to Natasha's Point sure again my biggest concern with this policy 131 is only the superintendent only the superintendent can recommend a change to a policy that's not accurate it's number we're we're we're talking right now about making amendments to to within within the process that we follow no no no the current reading the bylaw 131 yeah who its number I mean number one says a recommendation for a new or revised bylaw shall be recommended but to the board and or superintendent who who recommends it uh a board member has that ability sure this is our policy the board May suspend operation of which one yeah published or the a 30th no the current ver this is the published version right it does say that they should be submitted to the superintendent if that's if that's the question yeah can I just State something too about how policies and the superintendent's role in being delegated the responsibility by the board to manage the policy manual and to bring policies that come across the superintendent's desk by the policy services that many districts utilize the one that's most prominently utilized by most districts throughout the state is Strauss Esme New Jersey school boards also has a policy but the majority of boards use Strauss Esme the language in this policy doesn't make it right but it's consistent it's it's also not something that this board came up with on its own that language is is standard language in Strauss es policy and that language I submit if you were to survey the districts in Union County you would find probably that most of the districts have the language that's recommended by Strauss es policy 131 so it's not some hour grab or attempt that goes outside the process that is utilized by a lot of districts that utilize the stra smma reporting process I'm not saying it makes it right I'm not saying it makes it something the board has to agree to but it's not something that was just devised by this board right and I I'm on the policy committee so yes any board member can make it and Tom is on there too so he knows that we use Strauss Esme and we use the superintendent to tell us this is a mandated policy or this is a policy that we have input into we can change it so any policy can be made by a board member goes to the policy committee the superintendent can make an a recommendation or she cannot but she does not control the drafts that come into the committee the committee discusses it talks about it if we need to go back to her she will go to Strauss smme for us because we don't do that and ask any questions that we have then we will bring it back to the board for a first reading and then we look to discuss it and then it goes to a second reading reading so this is not giving our superintendent whoever he or she will be will be any type of power over our policy uh dpy do you want to say something and then I I found it so yeah so two quick points um so yes I believe stra asme does kind of uh you know publish these uh updates to a lot of school districts and interestingly enough that particular policy is on Berkeley Heights I think it's on Summit um it's it's it's not in New Providence it's not in Wang Hill so it depends on the individual District boards to make the determination if they want to take the language or the recommendation um and I think the the Crux of the conversation that we having right now is this resolution is is sort of reopt everything that's on the books right now and this is sort of an opportunity for anybody who wants to bring up a concern or say here are the things that we need to go back and revisit so I think it's it's a valid point that Tom's raising that particular policy 131 bullet point number four the way we have adopted it actually does give the superintendent the the position that Natasha was articulating so Point number four is all proposed under this policy Jordan if you want to go look at it looking uh it's Point number four all proposed new and revised bylaws policies and regul ation shall be submitted to the superintendent the superintendent or designate will review all new and revised drafts bylaws policies and regulations prior to the board receiving a draft of new or revised bylaws policies or regulations for board consideration if we are a policymaking body yeah I think we need to have we need to remove this language and that is the reason for the amendment and if you go on the district website into the policy book and there is a published version and there is an archived version and all that we are trying to do is going back to the archived version which did follow the process which went through the first reading and the second reading which doesn't have this point in there so we are willing to reopt all the policies and bylaws y provided this reverts back to an archived version and then we are all in sync we're all in compliance I mean my my thought is obviously we have no committees yet but that would be something that happens ideally quickly in a perfect world because I'm guessing there's other suggestions amendments to other policies that we may all you so good at yes pretty I'm pretty good yes every now and every now and again I think the way to do this similar to how we did board goals and other things would be to aggregate if we can do that aggregate all of the wish list changes to that committee quickly because that committee ideally would form I'm hoping at the next meeting I don't know if that's if that's uh because to me if we if we have a president vice president that's the time to do committees and have everything again with the right to make amendments across the year because we have that that right U that that's the way to do it that would be I think efficient but yeah all I agree with you all we're saying is if we can if we can switch back to archived version we can follow your process too we can go back to archived versions on couple of policies you can't amend a poliy without a first and second reading I'm not asking you I'm not asking with Jordan to make any amendments to policies I'm saying the published version went through the first and the second if you're asking for a prior version that's different language from what is currently on the books is that is that the question can we go back to a version that is which did follow the process that would require us to change the policy yes yeah and because some of these policies like um changing the policy is is the same thing that we're talking about it requires us to say okay we like AR so some of these policies 164 155 yeah were done during lame duck session one of them was actually approved at the very last meeting in December 2023 which was with an intent so all we are saying is we are a new board we are reopt everything we would like to go back to the previous versions of three policies and then we can talk to talk about them once a committee is formed because the these are the policies that we are going to abide by yeah I don't I I mean my my own personal in instinct is that it's it's a nonstarter because that still requires us to change the language to a prior version which is even if we take one word out it's it's a different version so we need to change it follow the process we should put it through committee corre and do it as a board and vote on it first and second that's how we've done everything else every other modification along the road with stress estimate we've done that tedious as it's been that's the way to do it versus I'm not sure there's another the other option is you could vote no obviously to to the policy as it is thank you were there other yes I I agree with what you're saying and any policy can be looked at and revised and I mean I know Tom and I were on the we would change sometimes just one word in a policy uh and then you know would have to be Dr Vol would then submit it or comma we would change a type of puncture yes so we have done that but that goes through our committee our policy committee yeah and and and I'm I'm not saying that there aren't things that we that we probably should change S I'm I'm not disagreeing with you there at all I think we should just do it if we can do it all in one Fell Swoop at least get the process going I think that's going to make while it'll be tedious for the first meeting of that uh policy committee it I think it puts us on on a good path Angela go ahead I just going to say I think we need to follow procedure it needs to go back to policy and we need to follow procedure the way we've done it and I believe that's the way to do it and go back to policy committee and I learned a lot being on that policy committee I went to Workshop some things on this and you know there is a procedure for doing it and Tom and I you know we followed it and uh you know and that that works I don't I don't think the uh policy committees even exist yet and I don't even know when they're going to exist it did not exist but all they can do is make recommendations and it they'll just come back to the board for adoption or no adoption so we can do that we can just for our first reading it'll come back yeah we can just we can do that right tonight but there's been there's been no details discussion is what I'm saying Tom of of all of the policy recommendations that will be made from all board members that's just my again my instinct you certainly don't have the right to not accept the read-option as is that's that's your these are you know I have some simple changes I'd like to okay so I made my amendment I think I had a second right what this needs to go through policy committee no that's that's just your opinion procedure that's how we've been doing now the Robert rules is I make a I make a motion to amend the policy okay and so my amendment was to revert it back to website version dated 20 2022 08-30 last Revis February 15 2001 so that's what we need to vote on tonight no because it's not okay proper procedure in our in our policies it says we need to have a first reading and a second reading no he's making an amendment I have not even seen right like so you you have not even presented me with that old policy right so again this needs to go through proper procedure before I can vote on it that is Robert's Rules and our own policies that that's not Robert's Rules true but it is how we've conducted business as long as you've been on the board we've always had a first and second reading fory Tom you've been on the policy committee for many years you understand how this works you're not recognized I have the floor I have my Amendment okay so the next step is for the chairman to call for a vote on the amendment that's it point of order chairman yeah I I I don't know how we can vote on something that we can't approve because it it we're voting on a we're voting for yeah we're voting for a policy change that has not been vetted by the this should be viewed as a first reading or or gone through or gone through this could be viewed as a first reading of a new policy but we haven't we haven't reviewed any language yeah all right you just call a vote because for the reasons you've stated uh presiding officer and Mr Dr farer can vote no Mr anyone else can vote no you've adopted these policies you do have a deliberative process set forth for adopting revising amending policies this read-option is again as I stated a matter of formality technically yes but you yes doesn't mean we don't have the right time to make amendments but we should do it the proper way it it might just take us two meetings to get there and and just as part of the formality we put this on as a read-option because of of the reorganization which is part of the procedure that has been followed here every year right and that's why the word read-option that's interesting okay other are there any other questions on on business and then we get to a roll call inclusive of whether so we're just going to vote right now on the amendment to 131 we're not going to vote on the amendment because we're not going to vote on amendment that that would require changing the language of policies that we have not reviewed as a board we also don't I mean there's no there's been no vetting of the language I don't think that's a prerogative to deny a vote I I think if it's not in line with our with with our policy and practice it is I think dipy wants to speak yeah so trying to navigate this and I suppose he's made a motion whoever wants to say yes could say yes no could say no and the motion will either move or it'll fail isn't that kind of the way it would be and then we would go back to whatever is the main agenda no technically we don't have to vote on every motion that's put forth we actually we've had that happened in the last meeting too we we we don't have to vote on every motion that's put forth if if it if it I guess my point is it's not something we could even do even if it did pass how do we vote to uh automatically change language of multiple policies without having vetted the policies the these were old uh policies that I think the Nuance sorry the Nuance is if we go back to a policy that was approved originally I think that's the point that uh Tom's been trying to make is that we wouldn't do something or we wouldn't go back to a version that never was ever approved by a Berkeley Height's Board of Education am I understanding the logic here Tom is you're not suggesting any new words your suggesting go back to the last archived version of a policy that was approved I would say there's also an argument that this violates the current policy 164 which is new business to uh modify a policy which was not on the agenda the on the agenda is a proor of vote on whether you approve vote to adopt or reopt if you want to make separate applications and separate meetings to abolish policies certainly your prerogative but you do have a b a bylaw 164 which states that new business which this constitutes new business modifying a policy you're not you don't have on the agenda modifying a policy you have reopt existing policies how is um if this board the new board after reorganization has not adopted or reopt any of the policies how are we going to abide by 0164 this was after I went back from the riok meeting everybody kept saying 164 asks for a 48 hour notice this board never voted to reopt the policies those were adopted at the last board meeting so right now you can't Quote us and limit us and say hey we have a policy 0164 we did not vote to abide by it that's the vote right now no this board is not authorized I mean I guess you could if you wanted to be completely non-deliberative the board is the motion is to reopt if the board doesn't reopt the policies the policies still are in effect and the and the district is still governed by those policies and then you have a responsible deliberative process for modifying your policies which has been mentioned by uh M Mr Heyman clearly set forth and so you have a process also for changing those which you have followed which this board has followed uh for doing that that's not on the agenda tonight and so 164 is an effect uh for this board until it's modified and the resolution is to reopt not to adopt I disagree I think the whole purpose of this resolution to reopt all policies and bylaws and so on is to allow this board to pick What policies it wants to have going forward we are not bound by any of the existing policies we are free to adopt and modify those policies tonight and go forward okay so I don't agree with this interpretation that somehow we can't change anything tonight um um you you yeah look you you obviously you have the right to vote no a 44 Vote or or or different would would not reopt but it would remain in place anything that's been on the books to date which would include our existing policy so ironically it probably is the same either way until we actually do the work of making changes to policy which we have the right to do and and and we should do with a committee um the just as with all due respect Mr vel's interpretation is not accurate the new board needs to reopt policies and bylaws that we will abide by and if we are not comfortable with the language on some of them we can exclude them from this from this amendment just and your you you need a five to three vote to exclude them amend but then if just because let's say you in your response just now you said you can you have a right to vote no yes if we vote no and if it's a 44 that doesn't automatically say that the policies are in effect no because the policies are not in effect because we as a board after reorganization in 2024 have decided not to adopt them so you can't just say that you're getting grandfathered in to these policies position is if you don't reopt the policies the district has no policies then that is the reason at the re that's your position okay V accordingly what what policies do we abide by as we sit right now is my question to the board the only thing that's in effect are state laws and Robert's Rules of Order until we adopt policies and we were supposed to reopt them at the rorc that has happened in this district for over two decades we which somehow even after a lot of back and forth for two weeks with four members asking for this particular resolution to be on was removed and then only after a lot of deliberation and checking with njsba was put back on and the reason it has been there with our district for the last two and a half decades is over 20 like two decades is because the new board gets to decide what policies they want to adopt by right now we we did not adopt them they're not in effect so I just just so I can clarify I'm sorry to C everyone off and I'm just a little confused so so if the stance is we have no policies in place then School shouldn't be open tomorrow this board meeting shouldn't have happened everything this board has voted on should not have taken place that's in essence what we're saying that's not the and and I'm not a lawyer and I'm not thank God but the essence of the law is some districts reopt them some districts don't it doesn't matter because the policies are in place to allow the district to continue to run I I would imagine that anyone at the county level anyone at school boards if you got an opinion any a legal opinion from school board's legal P attorney would be it's more an effect to say if it's 44 and you vote down this policies these posi still affect so we can still educate kids because if we're if that's your case then we have to close up school tomorrow Mr Gano with Mr Gano with all due respect I don't want you to put words in my mouth we are only talking about three policies not all of them we're saying we are willing to reopt all policies except three and those three policies are not going going to go with your scenarios of oh we can't open the schools tomorrow and if we followed protocol and what we have been doing for the last two and a half decades this resolution should have been on the reor agenda and what we have been seeing is a pattern of we we are allowed to ask questions we we get we Cote state laws we we basically go to the same njsba call the attorney line and then we get a revised agenda 4 hours or 3 hours before the meeting with some critical resolutions missing this is the second meeting that has happened and I want to put this on the record this is not okay that we get a packed agenda with open questions and missings or you know we have we just amended the designator of warrants I think this has been going back for the last three weeks so with all due respect we are not saying we are not going to adopt all the policies so please please don't spin it please don't put words into my mouth we're only talking about three policies thank you Mr chair I would recommend I I also just want to comment so um on H the classroom book kits um that is from our grant um that we got the high impact tutoring grant that I had talked about in the about we talked about um at the December meeting for the curriculum committee um so this is really exciting because this is all grant money and we're able to buy stuff not only for the tutoring kids but for other kids um so I ask that we uh push this forward um and it's very exciting for our schools okay um I want to go back to and just on that Pam was saying those kits that $117,000 from the grant that we don't have to have out of our budget is for our to keep we get to keep all that all those classroom kids okay so uh I'm still looking for a vote on my amendment to 131 I call for orders of the day to go back to the agenda that's that doesn't have any effect because orders of the day have to do with you want to go to some special order and there's no special order follow agenda we're on a motion so I ask that we call for are you saying we're not following the agenda yes we certainly are we're we're dealing with a through H Okay so readapt policies yeah I'm asking okay let's so we we'll see the motion through Tom let's let's take a mo we have we had a second let's vote on the motion on on one my amendment to 131 to 131 okay was it that's correct right basically to revert back to the prior policy prior version correct okay roll call no because I cannot vote on something that one I have not seen and two is illegal you you've seen it sorry you only pass version of it I don't know point of order you're only allowed to vote at this point once the voting starts there's no more to abstain you have the right to vote no or abstain I'm gonna abstain because this is not this is is no roll call so just so I'm clear who was the first and who was the second for that I just wanted to Tom made the motion I moved it yeah s did you second it yes just to right now just to modify the agenda to ad to to have the policies be reopt with bylaw 131 reverting back to no the the the this is an amendment to 131 13 you want to revert 131 to the most recently deal with that Amendment then we can go to the main motion which is to redu op all policies but again you're putting in a motion that is not on the agenda that you're adding an agenda item that's not subsumed policies we modified the warrant but the modifying of the warrant was within that warrant language under Robert's Rules of Order I don't know why there's any controversy here you have a policy you have a motion M motion is to adopt policies or reopt policies it's under d right technically and part of that is policy 131 if we're looking at all policies if I wanted to I could say I want to roll call vote on every single policy I'm not doing that I'm just saying let's deal with 131 and if the presiding officer agrees with us I think you need to we're going to get a roll call on it yeah yeah so the roll call started and who's next so I have the two and this is the revert policy 131 correct to the most recently approved yes version of it which I have August 11 specific and on the website it says 20228 08-30 Jordan I urge you not to do this because this is setting a president for bad behavior but it is the only I'll say is it is on our agenda for D technically right we can amend D we can amend a specific policy that would require but he's he's asking for an amendment under item D but again it's not on item D he's not amending item D but the blanket policy from item D fine but he's asking to amend a policy that needs a first and second reading by our own standards and it means a 48 hour thing and I haven't seen it so no I cannot vote on this and I think that you're making the wrong decision going against Council we we've technically seen it because we voted on it because we voted on the prior and so we voted on the update version so vote no no I don't know I voted on or not August August 11th 2022 maybe here I don't know but what I'm saying is I have it it is we're asking to revert Thomas are you asking to revert to 2022 or 2001 can you clarify the uh to to clarify uh what previous version are you asking on the website you know you go the little pull down list there's a published version and the next version that comes up is labeled 202208 30 and if you look at that actual policy it says last revised February 15 2001 but I wasn't given printing notice to be able to review this policy for myself right I have to go look at it now Dr farer also to miss Stanley's point I will note that you rely on Robert's Rules solely but I mean your bylaw does say that that this District governs its meetings by Robert's rules to the extent that they are not inconsistent with the statutes of New Jersey the rules of the State Board of Education or these bylaws so there is a question about Robert's Rules trumping your bylaws and the appropriateness of that well can I speak to that he it's a little unusual to be delving into further debate when we've started the roll call we would like the presiding officer to clarify are we having a rooll call are we not having a roll call we're roll calling on on on uh 131 yes right clarify which Pol as we stated the policy that is in effect was adopted August 11 2022 Dr a August 30th August oh I have I have her August 11 revised August 11 2022 that's what I have you're asking to to revert to the most recently the mo yeah the most recent uh version prior to AUST prior to August the current version so that would be February 15 2001 yes that's correct definitely not come on Tom you know this is wrong this is an improper motion and we are not following procedure the chair and call for a rle Mr hman while go to roll call Jordan h p vote no that's your right it's an abstain it's it's not illegal it's it will move us forward it'll move us forward Dr farger uh yes Mr Kiri yes Miss Bradford no Mr Heyman no Miss Jolly yes Mrs Conor Mrs Penna no and I'd like to state that this is an improper motion and we need to follow proper proper procedure so I don't want to vote voted no all right no you're you're voting no correct and Mrs Stanley I'm upating so I have one two three four four A's and I have three Nays with an exstension which the motion fails right what no I would think majority majority fav checking it okay so we have exension isn't isn't right an exstension is not a y or a a vote Char can we can you speak into the mic Mr V majority of the full board at exstension is a nay if you don't need a majority of the full board a majority of the quarum uh which is still eight uh would be required to pass so an exstension is a n it did not pass no exstension there is a a ruling and I can pull it up right now if you give me two minutes or we can take a five minute break I would like you to relocate it exstension should not be considered a yay or a nay you I I'm allowing the the board attorney to take five minutes and research it and I will find it take well Mr chairman what you actually have here is uh seven people voted for three and that's a quorum on this question and so and majority of the Quorum we're gonna make a motion for a five minute recess so that Council can look up what extension is up too so is there a second on the motion to recess second recess yeah motion for the recess yeah we're going to take a five minute recess to confirm conven in 5 minutes motion passed but she can make a motion put on the agenda ask to put on the agenda a motion to something sorry so what we've done is we' we we've it passes P three correct passes on the amendment of D yes correct okay now we're going to go to a vote unless there are other comments or questions we're missing Miss Airi I think okay when she comes back we're going to proceed with unless there are other comments or questions on business items a through f and g through h i i s we're back argue that's inconsistent but the chair unless are there other comments questions on a through F or G Mr when you out I just stated that yes the motion did pass thank you is this also a vote on ropion of curriculum or are we just voting on D it's we're we're before we roll call we're we're open on items a through H business a through H inclusive of the uh tweak to D okay I want to make an amendment I want to actually on E I want to move to postpone to the August regular meeting uh the adoption of uh the curriculum second that can you can you give us some color Tom um I can um because we we okay well she had her hand up first so go ahead so you made the motion I know but uh you have to be recognized to speak on the motion so we the current curriculums have been adopted on August 10th we've got this in writing from the business administrator for the current school year the curriculum has been adopted on August in 2023 so there is no need for us to reopt the curriculum because everything is have been adopted for 2023 2024 year so if we were going to and we got it in an email from the business administrator that if at all new curriculum has to come new curriculum is written in summer it will come up in summer and starting from next reorg Mr jusovic said that this would be we put on the reorg agenda but as of now our curriculum has been adopted on August 10th 2023 go ahead Tom I really think uh curriculum is closer to um school year kind of stuff and should be done in August um as we've always done and that gets a chance to fold in all of these summer curriculum writings that's right do you have a comments on this no no [Music] no for what my two cents is I'm an unting member all policies and all C have been adopted for the entire school year so to me it's if the board wants to not readopm just like readopm it I mean if they want to table it it's just it's these are just I've got okay but we have two new courses and we have new curriculum that sometimes get adopted during the school year so you know waiting till August to adopt a curriculum sometimes we need a new course like we just had tonight that was an a mistake or um like basically it was missed it wasn't a new course cyber security was approved in 2022 and it was just the curriculum guide that was missing and if there is a new course it can always come and we are not saying no to that so please don't put words into our mouth if there is a new course that needs to be adopted just call that out specifically the entire curriculum according to jich was reopt on August 10th 2023 for this current school year cyber security was not part of that though it correct for tonight it is right yeah yeah is there Tom so there's nothing new the simple thing that happened is it was just left off in August that's why we had to do it tonight and I don't think that should be used as some sort of precedent for doing everything in January it would actually be quite disruptive to uh try to adopt your curriculum in the middle of the school year what if the board came in in January and said no I don't want that course or something and it's always reopt not adopt I mean it could be very disruptive and it's makes more sense to me in my mind to just do it all in August so the motion is to table curriculum in August that's it actually called it's actually a postponement that's different than tabling so it's a postponement to an August regular meeting okay any comments or questions on it I don't understand how to postpone it because I I think it won't make a big difference but if a teacher has an idea to do an elective and it comes to the board with a great idea for an elective class we want to be able to have that freedom to put it in and write the proposal for the class write the curriculum it may not just fall at August but why why can't we do that yeah the the board can do just like with the policies the board could it's a read-option so so if they table it's not going to affect anything we do curriculum just like the read-option of the policies that one the policies are all affected for the school year so we're talking the same things we're talking it says if the board wants to the board could have on the read-option of board policies said let's move it till August again re and adopt them for that falling sque whenever wanted this board could have done that so it's not going to affect the curriculum if some teacher comes up you know same it's our same proc if a teacher comes up in the spring and says hey you know here's the process we have an idea that we'd like to um run another class for the following year they're going to bring that to me I'll bring it to the curriculum committee whenever that's formed we'll go through that process and that could be a oneoff of this but it's yeah that this tbling this or moving it as Tom said to to August is as as a move Point sorry so just real quick um our policy um4 actually does call for the um it says Board of Education shall at the organizational meeting so it feels like maybe this was not on the reorg meeting it's so they're moving it Forward while I do think it makes sense that curriculums get approved at um uh during the school year um right now this is as per policy it says approve the curriculum for all grades and in policy 154 so um annual motions and designations so you'd like to leave it in in general I have no issue leaving it okay okay so we've got a motion to postpone on the floor can we do a roll call on that motion is to postpone to the August regular meeting and I said regular because I think we have a special meeting yeah I'm distinguishing I just want to get this straight I'm putting it down now motion to postpone that was item adoption of the curriculum of all curricul postpone to the August regular meeting item e to August regular meeting yes Dr farer uh this is on the motion to post just and I just wrote that yes I have so many things in front of me so yes Miss Airi yes Miss Bradford no Mr Heyman no Mrs Jolly no Mrs Connor yes Mrs Penna Mrs Stanley no motion fails other comments questions on business before we go to roll call on all business 50 I just have a question on um I think this is item F the transportation contract with Sussex count Regional Cooperative um just to confirm the price that we see here does that uh give us some sort of benefit as a part of being um in the Cooperative the I think this is the pricing for the Transportation Route um what it is is they're having they have one student that is being transported and this is kind of like a what is the word I'm looking for here um kind of like a Cooperative with another school district to transport that child so that is what this it's sh a route sharing so it's a so it's a shared agreement with with the um other County yes because we didn't have any other routes to have that child put on okay and this was I believe it might have been coordinated through the Morris Union jointure if I'm not mistaken okay got it thank you I just have a quick question on classroom k which is H which grades is it for and do these include textbooks it this is going to be through K5 um I I don't know exactly what's going to be using it's going to use manipulatives I don't believe textbooks by can get that answer for you I'm almost positive it's not textbooks mostly for supplies that teachers need to use for intervention uh manipulat for students of that nature but I I will double check with the with the books but I'm almost I I'm pretty sure it's not books I don't H me 100% that may it may be some guided reading level books the teachers may use but it's really just for for supplies that teachers need to use for intervention to help students so I don't know off the top of my head Miss security Miss Jolly I I think that you had asked me about that do you have do you recall the response for that because I I think I got that from Mrs actually I think she did put an email hold on that's what I'm searching for right now I gota right here Mr J on and I think it was K to five if I'm not mistaken when I've seen the answer I know it's k for five again this is a grant I'm just asking a question what is included in the classroom kids do these include textbooks because a lot of parents are asking for textbooks and if they're there that's great I'll I'm voting yes on this it's just a clarification get a fre securing we both have we just got here we go oh I CL let me clarify math intervention materials for each 35 school that are being purchased with new high pack Grant funds um so I I I would assume materials could could be a batlo of if you can get back to me I I will specify for it Mr no problem thank you Tom yeah um on the standard operating procedures uh that's about a 97 page document and I haven't had a chance to and we just got it yesterday I think it's a lot of material to go through I will say what I've looked at looks fine but I'd like to little have a little more time to study it so I'm G to have to stain on that I think we got it last week but it is a long duck it was part of the original packet can double check that but are you sure tell you in a minute here yeah I thought that just came out yesterday see well I'm I'm I'm I'm not following what you're saying is you're saying something about the standard operating procedure procedures about a 97 page document you're right Tom you're right the the attachment came yesterday well are we if we were referring to that that resolution that was stated in the reorganization meeting that that resolution passed you just asked if you wanted to see the document and I provided it no it's it's actually part of this D roping standard operating procedures are you saying that's no longer part of d d d has standard operating procedures that's just for policies what what and I think standard operating procedures means for policies no we got a document basically how does the business office operate that's why under under the res the reorganization meeting that we did have I had a separate there for the um standard operating procedures to look at it revise it as what it should be through the county office it should be done once a year so this has to deal with policies and not with the standard operating procedures of the business office which are two different functions but you provided the document yesterday I provided that document yesterday at the request of Dr farger okay well because when we did this back at the riog meeting he had asked me to see that but I believe he may have not approved it I'd have to look at the meeting minutes but it was approved and you asked to see it and I provided it to you actually I provided it to the full board so this way everybody could see it I think Tom saying he's okay with it just it's long is all you're saying you're not an objection to it you're just saying you wish I'm not I just want to make clear I'm not really objecting to it and it's actually a very informative document for anybody that wants to know how things work here I want to just note the time yeah it is almost 11: we still have public comment and we need to move on so one quick comment is going forward if we can ensure that every resolution if they have an attachment I we would really appreciate if they if somebody does a check and a bance that all attachments are included in the original draft that is sent to us and then we don't get re revisions and a final agenda four hours to the meeting that's an only request may I just interject I I want to just say one thing and one of the reasons why we didn't able to get this because I was answering questions for the last three days and I'm trying to find out answers not only that I don't have I have to go and try to search those answers out from school boards the county office and several different different places so in order to answer the questions that you had proposed to me which I did get back to you on requires quite some time to do and getting people getting back to me and by finalizing all those questions and answers and getting them into the document which I did today for tonight's meeting does require time and I'd like to let everybody in this this room know that yeah so and and I appreciate it I appreciate you researching them all I'm saying is all I'm saying is for an effect meeting to happen if you are not able to get an answer 24 hours ahead to the meeting the same I'm expecting that that resolution be removed if you do not have answers like how you're expecting for new business a 48 hour rule you can't have it both ways I'm gonna say one thing at the Friday when it was sent out we had a long weekend we came back Tuesday we had a snow day I answered questions starting Tuesday so I got all the answers there if you don't want if you not satisfied all you have to do is let me know we'll take it off so I'm just trying to abide by what was put out there and the time frame that I had to get it done with a long weekend so just to clarify so if if I get a final revised agenda four hours or three hours before a meeting and if I'm not comfortable with the resolution and I send in an email saying I I I need more time to process this resolution based on the answers you gave me you will remove it off the is sorry hang hang on a second there there's there's there's the standard is not the same here this is this is my take but I also I'd love perspective on this it the the Board needs to conduct business so if there are things if we need to update the substitute list and if we if there's no but that's not any individual board members call if the superintendent whomever he or she is interim full-time needs to do things that that that cannot be held to the same standard as one of us saying look what I have in my bag I want you to approve it tonight so they they should not be the same thing there needs to be and I I'm with you it would be great to get things earlier but we need to we need to have the right for assistant assistant superintendent superintendent to say for the course of business this is when our meetings are here here's what we need to and it's not just a Berkeley height this is this is a I can tell you this happens Jordan I perfectly agree you can have final revisions for a substitute or a teacher or a replacement okay all I'm saying is since the reor since the reor can I no cuz has the floor Mr Mr Heyman who has the floor here finish your talk go ahead sorry yeah so if you can stop the thing so all I'm saying is since the reor we're seeing major resolutions at the riog meeting some of the resolutions that were on the original agenda were removed four hours prior to the meeting we could and then I sent a response back and I said how is this happening and there they were not removed off the agenda today I I I appreciate Mr jovic's work he gave back the answers but the final agenda came four hours before with some major changes all I'm saying is going forward we need 24 hours notice or as Mr jovic suggested if if I'm if a board member emails and says I do not want this resolution because this came in four hours before I think that's there are so 2:12 p.m. we received the final uh agenda there were there are 1 two three four five six seven updates uh and they include things like the approval of meting minutes which is revised so we're talking about words mend hiring certified staff approval substitute supplemental Personnel approve extra teaching period assignments approve interpreter stips this is a course of business so I that's is it major probably not that major but it is course of business I don't know if that's avoidable I I don't I don't think that it is I think we need to allow course of business to run I I hear you but I think we also need to be more flexible with the district than we even are with ourselves is there hand over here yes okay go so yes I just to clarify the things that um Miss Airi is alluding to is not what was happening on the agenda today today was adding substitute names changing dates of start dates and um most of that just needs to be done because like that they have to go out and say when did this person actually start when are they going to actually end right and they're waiting for those so it was to be determined and then it got slashed and put a date in that is not asking a lot of us and you like that needs to be you you need to be honest about that one um I also again it is 11 o'clock and we need to we need to vote yeah we're going around a circle I'd like to clarify that that then this because we're living in a world without a board leadership or committees or chair people no board member can just email the superintendent of the ba asking for things to be removed there has to be a process and I'm sure there is a there there is a there will be a process there has been process for for those things to happen or even you come to a board being hey like to a little more information on that can we remove that from the agenda t it's not that big of a deal just want to put that out there to everybody that wasn't suggested by me Mr giod can we go to can we go to a roll call unless there's was yeah yeah we're gonna we're going to go a roll call on business if that's okay so items a through H yes and then I have a motion by Mrs Stanley and a second by Mrs Penna uh Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Penna Mr Kiri yes to a um yes to b with an amendment that it includes the board president superintendent the board secretary or the treasurer um yes to c d uh yes to all policies and no to 155 and 164 I would like them to be reverted back to the previous versions so it's a no just say yes or no okay so a d is yes to all Pol reopt all policies and a no to policy 164 and policy 155 and a yes on um f g and H Miss Bradford Oh e is e is um I know so e and and E is actually I think I would abstain for it because the the curriculum has already been up approved so e is an abstain f g and H are yes everything is a yes except for B needs to be amended and D is a yes to everything except one policy 155 and 164 and if I can ask everybody if you just going to tell me nay that would be fine on on any of your resolutions this way I can just follow this what you're saying is e you're abstaining from B you wanted revisions and everything else passes no reopt of policies I'm saying I'm voting yes to all policies except for two and I'm giving you the policy number so so those two policies and that is item number B no d d d I'm sorry are 155 and 164 I have I have both of those thank you Mrs Bradford yes to all Dr farger okay uh no on policy 164 no on policy 155 abstain on standard operating procedures and standard operating procedures being e it's part of uh is it D or is it e that you're referring to standard operating procedures is part of D yes you're abstaining from D yes I'm abstaining on standard operating procedures and uh on E which is curriculum I'm saying no and then yes to everything else he he's only up aing to the standard operating he's reopt yes to all except 164 and what was 1645 policy 164 and 155 Mr Heyman I'm yes on items a through C I'm no on policy 131 as amended yes to the rest of reopt policies uh and yes on E andf Mrs jolly yes on a yes on B with the amendment uh yes on C uh d uh yes to all policies except 155 164 yes to e and f g and H all yes Mrs Conor yes on a yes on the amended uh B yes on C yes on D for all policies except 155 164 and the 131 Amendment already passed my understanding is that yes on E F G and H motion passes except for the policies 155 and 164 oh yes that's correct it's a tie okay move to finance I have a motion for items a through d d is in dog just give me one moment I've lost that page okay I'm I'm sorry I I had it all mixed up yes uh you you're making the motion so moved yes second Bradford comments questions I do have a question there is an open question on one of the the checks as it relates to coverage in the contract I don't know if you've had a moment to come back to us on that I haven't checked my email what what are you referring to there is one check number that covers uh it's 20 9413 we are waiting to hear if that is contractually covered if you remember the question I don't recall the question I think it's tuition reimbursement and the question was a particular tuition reimbursement is that covered under the bhe contract that question I I'm have to wait for the superintendent to to answer that question no problem that was my only open question can can you just give me the check number on that one 209 413 209 143 413 413 okay [Music] 9413 good a roll call uh quick thing if we are waiting on confirmation should we ask for this check to be resubmitted instead of voting no or abstaining from it we need information from the superintendent on if this is contractually so should we just remove this check and res submitted at the next board meeting well who did the Bills we all did we all did no no no no let's be clear the Bills take about an hour and a half to two hours minimum right going in the into the office for 10 to 15 minutes to look through some checks that you want to see is not doing the bills that's very very different and when people have to cover for you that means that's an hour and a half to two hours of their day when they have to cover when you don't go so yes going in and looking at the bills I give you credit for doing that every month but that is actually harassing our staff because it's more work for them and yes you can go in and look at checks but doing it every month just seems excessive but who did the Bills this month where they actually looked through every and checked it off for our um our staff who was the son I think it might be Tom no the is the question to the chair because the qu all questions need to go to the chair I don't know who was assigned I was named who did the Bills no no one was assigned because there was no committees no one did the bills no we had we had Dr farer right we had we had Mr Kiri and Mrs Connor yeah and we reviewed the bills and we had a question again reviewing the bills takes about an hour and a half minimum okay point of order here I'm not sure why we are debating on how much time did somebody SP we actually look through the bills or we just look through okay just to clarify I spent I think more than 3 hours I I I don't I don't think we need to sit here and validate or Justify this question about did somebody review the bills from the board the answer is yes three people went they spent their time reviewed it let's be respectful and make an insinuation but reviewing the bills is different than looking at specific things right reviewing the bills is actually looking at the numbers and making sure that they line up is this that's very very different I don't think it's a debate there's a motion to approve a through b AB C and D correct and I I think your remarks are out of order can we go to roll call for a through D no my qu you didn't answer my question Mr hman I'm saying we are willing to vote on everything there is a particular check number that we had an open question on yes and I'm saying instead of putting it up for vote and we abstaining or saying no and then it'll again get spun is can we because we we we did not get that required information table approv your question no remove this particular check number get the answer and then resubmit it at the next meeting that was my question yeah if we refuse to pay one bill that could have consequences if this is a student transportation type of thing and they're not paid this could have consequences on the students's ability to come go back and forth to school it's to make it to to provide Clarity it's a um reimbursement yeah I see it to an individual I imagine again I I would imagine at some point we all have to take a leap of faith and I I appreciate your question Mr K and that we should have had that answer for you guys ahead of time but but if if we're cutting the check and it's labeled under tuition reimbursement that means that course was probably already approved it went through the proper process I would imagine at my experience that the business office is not in the business of cutting checks and and and and putting on the things so I would imagine as the teacher who's who's trying to get that check or maybe or the staff member depending on that check possibly at a certain time I I think it would gum up the situation a little bit I going forward you right we should get those if you have a question about check we should be able to answer it when you're viewing the bills or something ahead of time but I I I my experience is I would imagine that's for tuition reimbursement that's contractually in the in in the contract I I I trust you Mr Jano but there is this concept of trust but verify and I'm being very respectful and I'm asking the presiding officer I want to pay this all I'm saying is there is pending information so instead of voting no or abstaining on this should we just remove this check number and put it on the next meeting my instinct is we should vote yes or no on it and if and if it if we get information that that is that this was cut for some reason inaccurately we have that ability to make changes keep me honest on this but again I'm I'm putting my trust that this was done in Full Faith along with every other how many hundreds of bills do I have to move an amend move a motion to remove this check because I would like to do that you have that right yes so I move to resubmit check number 209 413 can I get a second yeah I'll second it I I don't care for the wording though do you like to change the wording before you second it or you're seconding it as as is well we seconded it already guess I mean the wording should be we basically don't approve till tonight we don't approve it tonight but pending if pending receeded further information why would you not vote no tonight to that specific check if that's the case I don't like to do that you know you don't like to do it you're essentially doing that though by by we are just no how are we voting no on this we are saying we need more information by not voting yes you're voting no no not voting yes no I'm saying I do not want the check on the bill list because we don't have information so I'm saying we won't approve paying it if that were to go through so we're voting no that's your interpretation which I disagree with not paying equals not paying that's that's enough it can be resubmitted later you can resubmit it later sure okay so you've got your you've got a motion and we've got a second okay to to table that check right or to post resubmit it resubmit this check for payment at the next board meeting roll call this is on the motion AJ me a moment on the amendment is it uh Mr Kiri yes Dr farer yes Mrs Bradford no Mr Heyman no Mrs Jolly no Miss Conor yes Miss Penna no Miss Stanley no motion passes Amendment does not go the motion uh Amendment fails okay now can we get a roll call for a through D Mrs Penna Mrs Bradford yes to all Mr Kiri I'm abstaining from uh check number 209 346 209 395 209 396 and um no on 2093 35629 373 and abstaining from 209 413 do you want me to repeat that yes I've ran out I've ran out of space there um what are the check numbers again that you are not approving or abstaining from so I'm abstaining from my the reimbursement for my own fingerprinting I think I shouldn't do that so it's 20934 46 209 346 yes that's a finger printing reimbursement for myself then abstaining from 209 395 396 abstaining from 209 413 a no on 209 355 and no on 209 373 um and I think I'll abstain from the treasurers report from December because I wasn't on the board and the transfer report also is from December so that's an abstain the board secretary report is also an abstain so you have B you're abstaining from C you're abstaining from yes and D yes thank you Dr farer I'll stain on check number 209 413 and yes on everything else Mr Heyman yes toall Miss Jolly on a um I'm abstaining from 20941 and 209 413 and I feel I should abstain from BC andd as well um for not being on the board at the time Mrs Conor yes to everything in a except um abstain on check 209 413 yes to b c and d uh Mrs Stanley yes so 209 413 413 Mrs Charlie and Mr fer that's three and that is four so check number 209 413 is at a tie which would would mean that we would remove it from the bills list and everything else passes okay comments from the public on any topic for those who are still here I'm not going to read it again unless you really want me to hi Chris thanks for sticking around how you doing it's been painful but I'm still here and you got better words than that come on Riley one dear path um uh I don't know what's going on here folks but this is a hot mess and um is there some secret contest that you know we residents aren't aware of as to who thinks there's the smartest person in the room because that's what it looks like and I really kind of encourage you um to you know do what leaders are supposed to do again I go back to my original comments about building consensus and collaborating because good luck getting a budget passed okay if uh you spend this much time on what I perceive is to be a lot of form overissue form over substance types of issues particularly from two board members who have completely monopolized this meeting um now that is your right okay but as far as checks go I would just remind the board that you do have a full audit that is performed every year by public accountants you have a system of internal control that that accountant reviews and relies on okay they test that system of internal controls with compliance and substit testing you have every right to supplement that by looking at you know maybe a you know a sample of bills primarily to educate yourself as to how the business operates but I board members are spending time looking at individual checks I think it's probably more important for you to be looking at you know what's the process you know who approved that check what is it for so as far as I'm concerned this is your right to you know get deep in the the Weeds on this stuff but from this resident's perspective there's nothing that you have accomplished tonight that has helped to move student outcomes in this District forward except just incredible bickering which is so embarrassing I'm actually upset listening to you M and I expect more as a residents I really do my other comment which I originally sat here to share with you is and Jordan you gave a prior resident extra time so please don't cut me off I'm almost done I think I've earned it um there's been a lot of conversation about legal bills and how we don't want to spend all this money on legal bills and I'm right with you but after witnessing this you know what show tonight and last week you absolutely cannot function without an attorney you are you're incapable of functioning without an attorney present at every meeting I I don't even know how you'd be able to vote on resolutions without I don't know you don't have a name so I mean I I don't like legal bills any more than anybody else does and one less comment about Dr varley's contract boy if I was Dr vley I would have simply sent you all a resignation letter saying that as of June 30th she is leaving and she does not intend to go beyond her contract and you spent I don't know how much time in the weeds on that one because she didn't have to tell you she was going to leave okay potentially before that date she's actually doing us a at the District of favor by letting us know so we could start a process earlier rather than later she could have just given you your n her 90day notice but she didn't do that so I don't even know what that whole conversation was about except a colossal waste of board time you guys you guys better get your act together and fix this okay this is this is you're not going to be able to pass a budget if you keep this up that's all I have to say thank you thanks Chris hi am niiko Sol I'm the vice president of the bhea I have a question for direct questions to you Mr hman you can direct them to me thank you not sure I can answer them all but sure it's a clarifying question so we're just asking about the check does that impact a member of the bhea and what was the AL of the check because the bhe has an agreement with the Board of Education regarding tuition reimbursement to help teachers Advance their skills and and gain abilities and degrees to improve education so that's our two questions again what is the outcome of the check and does that check impact um one of our members thank you okay thanks for your question we'll we'll we'll address it any other anyone else who made it to the end all right do you want it or AJ do you want to address the the two question send that I would send that to Mr Jess witz I'm not sure I I didn't look at the name the name's not on the check is it I don't recall I don't recall the person's name off the top of my head um I I would imagine it's it's probably bhaa staff person we can find out for you tomorrow we get back to you Mr gardano I think I think it's a it's a non-teaching staff and that was our question the reason for abstaining Okay the reason four board members I wanted to vote Yes on it the only clarifying question that we asked was the exact same question Mr Sullivan and the vice president for bhea asked we asked the administration is this person on a bhea contract if it is we were willing to vote Yes right we did not get a yes or a no if we had that answer we wouldn't have abstained thank you no thank you I have a question so Mr J was if that is a bhea employee what is the implication of having that check removed in terms of contract until an answer is sort uh would be put on the Bill's list for next month but isn't there some kind of contract in place I don't have any of that information on off the top of my head at the moment okay I just want to clarify we don't have those contracts and I think Mr jovic offered to share the contracts with the new board members and everybody tomorrow thank you just closing public comment need a time check on that or it is 11 24 there you go in the East uh new business which we actually have a couple of items do we want to tackle these items now them or do we want to take one I just have um the the top one I think pretty much answers one of the residents questions about the audit report so I would like to take like couple minutes to explain that so that was a question Sai about the auto report uh the timing of it correct any extens question yeah basically um if you can let me open my computer because give me a minute so the question was regarding the state law on the audit report we had uh prior legislation that required that audit reports be due um within certain months which would put us after the fiscal year closed so which would put us on December 1st or November 30th and I think there was proposed legislation which was signed I think on the 18 I based on the email from Mr jovic that we had got um this was oh I don't have the complete email here from Mr jovic it was signed on the 16th or the 18th and we the audit is due on January 10th it was signed January 16th January 16th yes so there was an amendment in place and our district auditor before this was signed for all practical purposes audit was due on December 1st so audit report was due in the district with all those checks and balances on December 1st and as we speak on January 18th we don't have an audit report so and I checked and we have been emailing the ba and he's been very helpful with us we also shared information that for Union County Westfield New Providence and other districts have already submitted them New Providence actually had an audit report presentation and a meeting in December and the governor in his veto message said he's not willing to push the date to January 31st it's due on January 10th and we need to use the information from the audit report in the budget development process so our questions and the reason why it's on the new business is how are we going to we do we have a permission to delay and I think the answer is there shot on staff but that doesn't give us a reason to delay our audit report and what are we go are we going to is there going to be an impact on qac so I just want to I know whatever has happened has happened and I don't want to hop on it but maybe for future for the next school year whoever is the auditor we basically ask him based on this new legislation that was signed on January 16th that we abide by the rules and we get it within the stipulated time that is due and if we can get a date I know it's getting finalized by next week but that doesn't give me a date it's a TBD so if I can get a date that would be great thank you from the auditor of course as I stated earlier um and I've checked down at the state they said that they have about 49% of their audits have been submitted one thing has been plaguing the whole entire State and I'll say State and has been plaguing them since covid is that not only do we have shortage on teachers shortage on bus drivers shorters on Aid on AIDS in a district all over people don't want to be accountants there's a there's a there's a shortage on those as well so there are people that are not fulfilling their oblig well I shouldn't say obligations but having to fill vacant spots within the firm and there's roughly about five to probably 10 firms out in the state of New Jersey that perform these audits so I'm just letting you know that's one of the issues that are plaguing this and has been going on for a few years other things at this point was and as I've asked the auditor we've had a turnover in the business office and we started to audit later than usual and did not receive some of the key items until December unfortunately we had the same issues with many with some of our other districts so I'm letting you know that as well that's I just wanted to add that what was the last part they've been having some of the same issues with some other clients because with they've had some turnovers in the business office if you can move the remaining two new business items to the next meeting I'm fine with you know sure so those were questions about legal spending and then annual professional appointments that expired right as long as you can commit that these will get translated over to new business or old business technically for the next board meeting it's a special board meeting so I don't know how that's going to work out but do you want it at the next regular meeting which will be on the 26th no I want it at the next meeting which is February 8th so and I have to advertise it as such along with the transportation that is why I'm asking yes thank you any other new business questions Dy my question is um can we maybe get a better understanding of how we will initiate the CSA search process and the format of the next meeting honestly uh what things do we need to come prepared with or can you just I've I've sent out an email regarding that as well letting you know that I have collected I started it the day that I came back from vacation I solicit Ed proposals from five search firms I've also was able to get an interim list of superintendent I informed the board about that and let them know that that you'll have that come uh the February 8th meeting is that five plus njsba or four plus njsba or just five firms no four plus School boards okay Angela yeah will we for the special meeting will there be an exec session or would just be a regular meeting special meeting or it's obviously depending on whether we have president or vice president that point my sense is we we wouldn't need a president vice president to have an exec necessarily but um I'll leave it to you guys leave it to the I think according to our policies that we just reopt it we can have an exec session with a temporary presiding officer like you so all I'm looking for is Direction because without a president vice president that's what we need but hopefully we can have need not to start with exact you would need to start with the depending upon what happens out of the County office you may need to invoke your other policy and start with the election of a presiding officer so you wouldn't be able to start with ex or shouldn't start with EXA uh so may I make a suggestion because I think we have advertised all our meetings and even the special board meeting to start at 7:30 I think we need to advertise that it's going to start sooner because based on what happened today we need to start the public session of the meeting at 6:30 that way if we have an answer or if you're going to vote again then we can go into exec at the end of the meeting or something so can an announcement be made to the newspapers and stuff thank you yes that'll be done um that completely slipped my mind over the course of of the three days of doing what I was doing as I stated earlier so that was my fault completely and did not realize it and plus having that snow day on Tuesday didn't help anything else new business otherwise I'll take a motion to adjourn so I moved all in favor second second second second who's the second that was dpy all in favor yes yes I