e e e adequate notice of this meeting of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows on January 4th 2024 notice of the board of I know there it is on January 4th 2024 notice of the Board of Education meeting schedule was sent to the Star Ledger and The Courier News and was also provided to all schools PTO presidents and the bhe president and posted on the administration at the administration building a copy was also provided to the public library and filed with the municipal court please rise for the flag salute 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 secretary may we have a roll call please mford here here mrman Jolly here con here okay whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education seeks to adjourn to Executive session in full compliance with the open public meetings Act njsa 10 col 4-6 and whereas the open public meeting acts provide that a public body May exclude the public from that portion of the meeting at which it discusses matters related to those identified below matters rendered confidential by federal law state law or Court rule individual privacy collective bargaining agreements purchase or lease of real property if public interest should be adversely affected investment of public funds if public interest could be adversely affected tactics or techniques utilized in protecting Public Safety and property pending or anticipated litigation attorney client privilege Personnel employment matters affecting specific perspective or current employees be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education adjourns to Executive session to discuss matters related to students personnel and legal matters and be it further resolved that the minutes of the discussion of any these items will be disclosed to the public when matters have been determined and confidentiality is no longer applicable may I have a motion to enter into executive session seconded all in favor I opposed the time is 6:32 okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e um could we do that again could we have a motion to return to public session please okay was there a second second thank you vote Voice vote to return to public session any nay thank you returning to public session at 8:20 2m report of the Acting Superintendent Please Mr Nixon thank you Mrs Bradford and good evening everybody um for my superintendent's report this evening I want to just share a statement to the community about the head girls soccer coach position um since the June 10th board meeting both the board and I have received many Communications from the community regarding this topic uh I want to share with you that we hear your feedback we understand your feedback and we appreciate everybody who took the time to share feedback with us we've engaged in discussions and conducted both personnel and Athletics committee meetings uh to discuss our best path forward uh I would like the board and our school Community to know that I respect everyone's position on this topic and I want to thank Ms Clifton and the board of education for their willingness to have discussions regarding our next steps uh I'm hopeful that in the near future we will be able to move forward in a way that best supports our student athletes and uh thank you that concludes my superintendent report thank you I'm moving on to committee and Lea zon's reports um the board president conference with our newest board member Mrs Kelly hufnagel thank you for your time and following a discussion placed her on the committee and Lea's on assignments uh Miss hubn will be on Athletics mountains side negotiations and Leon liaison positions will be for the Berkeley Heights Recreation Commission Berkeley Heights environmental commission and Berkeley Heights diversity committee and Mrs huffnagel we talked about this is this correct thank you Town Council liaison the Berkeley Heights Town Council received a presentation from the chair of the recreation committee on the Lower Columbia lease the Berkeley Heights Education Foundation donated ice pops to accompany the video that Berkeley Heights Police Department created on ES scooter safety the video was shared in the district on Wednesday June 12th in grades 3 through 8 a thank you to the Berkeley Heights Police Department and Sergeant Trent fetus and Our Town Administrator Liza Viana and we also want to extend our grateful thank you to the bhef for their very generous Gifts of over $133,000 to our school district the update on the board goals continues and the board is near the completion of the evaluation of Dr vley the deadline is July 1 okay moving on to other committee reports Mr hman yeah I've got two for you I'll try to go quickly even though s likes the details so you know stop me as we go uh okay so technology committee um we met uh June 12th Wednesday June 12th uh Three core uh topics that we covered uh new Chromebook purchases which are which is are on tonight's agenda um the uh initial test ongoing test um thanks Jeremy of virtual participation at board meetings uh and phone system update um just high level on Chromebooks so they are on the agenda tonight uh total cost is about 202,000 um we're approving 470 uh new Chromebooks for the district um these are uh HP foris Chromebooks uh described by Jeremy as more rugged uh that can withstand more wear and tear um they come with a licensing and a three-year warranty uh and the vendor is going to pick up and repair some of these in batches part of the motivation for the replacement now is that old Chromebooks were not getting updates in security patches um the new Chromebooks again keep me honest to Jeremy if anything has changed will go first to uh Sixth and nth graders uh in September uh and the plan going forward is to seek future approval on these um uh on these Chromebooks and follow suit by giving um giving them to incoming Sixth and nth graders um there's some savings obviously longterm with some of the wear and tear that Jeremy walked us through as far as Zoom um obviously we've this is our technically our third meeting uh where we've gone to hybrid participation um we just we walked through at committee some of the challenges some of the updates uh uh what we've what we've navigated uh Jeremy is is juggling three different laptops so there's there's some complications with that but obviously I think we can all agree through uh through the three meetings um we we overcame some volume issues first time there were couple of incidents just um moderator was able to see certain hands and then some disappeared um but we we've certainly made some strides um Jeremy is is this this is the the first meeting today where we've actually gone to um being able to to do both both the live stream and and the interactive Zoom um and we we expect uh to at some point to be able to um Jeremy expects at some point to be able to have a a screen in here that would be dedicated uh Zoom um I think we have something on our agenda tonight for actually a larger screen there you go so yeah so we're so we're there um and hopefully this this will continue to uh to improve um and allow Germany to set this up in advance so so we're making modifications uh on the phone system um that's also uh on tonight's agenda um Jeremy had recommended a zoom Cloud option um which will replace the shortel on premises system uh we talked in a committee about four different options won't go through all the specifics but um some of the highlights of of the zoom Cloud recommendation uh includes compatibility uh with and and virtual scale of our existing emergency management system um Jeremy walked us through the 5G backup plan just in case of loss of Wi-Fi connectivity uhu between buildings um one of the one of the nice things that we talked about from a zoom pad perspective uh is that um anyone anyone who's not in the classroom would also get an office phone uh so that the zoom client allows it would allow for enablement of calls from the Zoom app from cell phones uh on a district number um which is nice especially for people who move between buildings uh so that that's uh technology um I can also handle Athletics if you'd like me to do that too okay um so Athletics excuse me Mrs com has a question oh yeah I'm sorry about that didn't mean to cut off questions questions and comments uh question on the Chromebooks yes do my best by the end of the year everybody has lost a key or two or more sure speak from experience here so as a part of this refresh is there some insurance is there something that covers that replacement you know are they on the hook to pay for new keyboards if or if they're covered by insurance that you know that they don't have to worry about it or maybe the first keyboard or the second any any insights on that I can give it a g but you're probably going to get it more accurate than I will yeah yeah so if it's like a single key then we can typically just take care of it without any charges really when there's like significant damage to it that we're looking that where we have to replace the entirety of the keyboard um what we're uh hoping to achieve longterm is to get enough of these Chromebooks under warranty that we can offer some sort of insurance to to families um so this way it's like a a fixed cost um and so on but um we're not at that point yet we don't have enough of the Chromebooks essentially this is year one of getting them under warranty um to be able to do that and so as as we get further into this plan where um more of our Chromebook Fleet is is we've we've got like a three-year warranty on them um then that can become like a real possibility any other questions technology oh yep sorry Kelly so what happens to the ones I got a senior a rising senior God bless him hopefully that thing lasts another year what happens to it at the end of that year do we get to return it for some kind of credit do we use it for key parts for broken ones in the future what happens to them sorry good question so we actually just collected uh Chromebooks from the seniors those go down to uh kindergarten through fifth grade and so an issue that we had with our current Chromebooks at kindergarten and first grade levels is they were no longer getting uh security updates like automatic updates from Google um which is one of the big advantages of the Chromebooks is that they get those um but only like those were so old that they weren't able to get those anymore and they were also no longer compatible they didn't meet the system requirements for um programs that we use like I ready so in getting the basically the new Chromebooks go to the sixth grade and Ninth Grade they will stay with those students throughout and then the eighth graders at the end of the year we collect those back and the 12th graders they get cycled down and you know and so right now what our our Tech team is doing is we've got a whole lot of Chromebooks um that we're going through cleaning repairing getting them ready to go back into those classrooms sounds very sustainable I like it other technology questions all right I'll jump into Athletics if that's okay we um we met this morning uh so Athletics committee uh was today four uh four core uh agenda topics um we we initially talked and spent most of the time talking about uh just gathering information for which which we'll share and have shared back with the board on the Lower Columbia conversation um so won't won't dig too much into it because it would take uh the rest of tonight but um a lot a lot of good fact finding and and that's all now been shared with the board um for further discussion uh we talked which was the primary primary and uh reason that we set this meeting was a discussion of sports participation fees uh which which went up to $200 this year already approved by the board but we just talked about um the sort of the the history on this uh and just aligning with with where those fees land from a budget perspective uh and I think mostly Mr Nixon had a great suggestion just trying to get a better handle on um who's paid the fees and and at what point in the year they've been paid and trying trying to ensure that there's more transparency around around those fees again um we're talking uh club fees Student Activity fees uh and athletic fees uh and and staying aligned there um we talked uh briefly about um the the vision for lights uh which which has been discussed here in this meeting lights uh at at our school here at GL um and just the updates included the fact that um there's a there's a variance that has now allowed at a Town Township level that allows uh us to pursue lights um new new technology was discussed so some from a from a spillage perspective uh that we we discussed would render the lights less of a concern with neighbors um the the netn net essentially is we asked AJ RBA um to to look to gather some quotes uh for uh lights and with that as as quotes would go um also asked uh AJ to look into uh Press Box uh and some possibilities there obviously the Press Box is something we've talked about in committee uh and as a board um so that that was it from a from a lights perspective then we also uh we did talk about um the latest update on uh the girl soccer coach uh which was largely just an update um from Mr Nixon on the Personnel committee earlier this week uh and that is the bulk of the report any questions on Athletics hey Mr hman will you share those minutes please with our our board U secretary for posting good okay Mrs Airi Mountainside so um the mountain side committee Le is on I think we we used to have the committee then it was off the committee list and then we got it back on I think we were told that we have to meet three times a year this was our second meeting we were hoping to meet in person um so that we can put a name to the face and get to know each other but um due to time constraints and scheduled conflicts we couldn't meet in person uh we discussed about um having combined activities from middle school level um and looking at combining our calendar scheduling and hoping that we have similar calendars similar breaks uh one one of the items that was raised as a concern was um because of the send receive and coming from the middle school students entering our GL there was a little bit of a concern about the collaborative consultative model that we have at Governor Livingston which um mountain side does not have they still have um integrated classrooms uh we moved to to to collaborative consultative which I think has only 50% um a special ed teacher is available only 50% of the time so this was brought to our attention by the Mountainside rep I did send an email to Mr Nixon it's on the new business today just to understand um the differences um the biggest concern was uh from Mountain Side parents what we what we were told was with the students entering into GL should there be because there's a there is not a dedicated special ed teacher for the entire length of the classroom and the cost that Berkeley Heights is charging Mountain Side um there were some basic concerns from the parents and I think we need to address that and the new business item today is just to understand this and then have like a maybe a town hall or do like a phased approach on how can we explain this to Mountain Side parents and also our our own District parents thank you Mrs Airi will you submit your written uh minutes then to the business administrative for publication any other committee reports yes Mrs Stanley the Personnel committee met on June 18th we also discussed the coaching position um that was voted down on June 10th um we we talked with Miss Anne Clifton and Mr Nixon and we gave our our recommendations to a ltic committee which had their meeting today then we had updates on our search for an interm assistant superintendent and our director of Elementary education which is on the agenda for tonight and then we are in discussion on the K through five steam teacher position and how to move forward with that for the school year of 24 25 we also had to discuss um some uh Middle School and High School teachers and then we had some questions about central office staff that is on the agenda for tonight there's one long-term Le leave replacement that is in the special education department we're increasing hours of one replacement staff to help another with a an issue and then we have central office staff resignation as well that is it for my Personnel committee Mrs Stanley will you submit those minutes please to our business thank you and I have also already done that too any questions on committee reports leaon he um business administrator report board Communications uh oh sorry board Communications yes I have a few uh first I have uh first one is request for clarification regarding recent incident revolving involving board member Mrs Stanley uh from Tom Yi and then I have nine others regarding the socer coach um those will be submitted with their names uh regarding that in correspondence and I have nine of those um the report of the business administrator I gave that on the 10th so I do not have one for this meeting thank you we are G we are now going to move on to comments from the public on agenda items we're going to deal with the public first and then we'll go to our online during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff were invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only the board requests that the individuals State their name town of residence or School of attendance for the record all comments should be directed to the board president 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 in the public form 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 the 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 statements continued disruptions may result in removal from or adjournment of that meeting each speaker statement both in person and online will be limited to three minutes in duration do we have anyone from the public speaking this evening seeing no oh yes so um my name is Kristen jabowski um I live in Berkeley Heights I just want to make a clarification that um yeah okay let the public and the um these are for comments on agenda items only so if it was talked about during the superintendent's address is is that on the agenda it's not on the agenda okay so we should talk about or the public thank you the second public comment please thank you okay seeing no other comments and participation we'll go to our online we have no public questions at this time is that correct Mr Nixon okay no public questions okay okay we will close our comment time now and we're going to go on to our minutes on our agenda resolution a for all born members may I have a motion okay Mrs Conor move a second a second discussion okay the resolution is approval of the meeting minutes um Mrs Bradford yes uh only one item is can we get these minutes as they are drafted because we get them in a big like all the minutes come at the same time and then there are some requests we made so as in when they are drafted could we get them sooner I'm sure as soon as we get caught up that would be possible thank you so resolve that the Board of Education approves the following minutes regular session May 7th 2024 regular session minutes May 20th 2024 executive session minutes May 2024 May 20th 2024 regular session minutes from May 30th 2024 executive session minutes from May 30th 2024 regular session minutes from June 10th 2024 and executive session minutes from June 10th 2024 any other discussion Mr secretary roll call vote Mrs Conor I'm G to give you the yeses and then everything else is in what you want to give me the nose that that makes easier okay no to C D E and g c d e and G that's right so you have a b f a and F you got it okay M huffel Mr Kiri it's a no Dr forer No Mr Hyman yes to Miss Jolly yes to a b and F Miss Stanley yes Miss Bradford yes to all four so it looks like I'll have a b and F are going to pass and the rest fail plus the other ones have been a tie between 44 um I believe that I'm correct on that one Mr side 44 that's what I believe okay so a b and F are the only meeting minutes that pass so Mr secretary these will be on the um next board agenda next board meeting for um August yes and I know I have comments from some if there are some to rectify those meeting minutes I would appreciate the comments I have some from some people so thank you very much okay moving on approve appointments resolution a all board members approve annual appointments resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education upon the recommendation of the Acting Superintendent and the school business administrator approved the following annual appointments for the 2425 school year may I have a motion for resolution a so moved a second second discussion I see no disc oh yes Mrs Mrs Ziri yeah um I just came back from from a law Forum yesterday conducted by njsba I think one of the other one of the missing annual appointments and is a title 9 coordinator for the district I'll send an email out and um that's something that they advise that every school district have a title n coordinator any other disc s Mr secretary vote on resolution Charlie yes Miss Conor yes Miss Kiri yes Dr forer yes Miss Hub Nagel yes Mr Heyman yes Miss Stanley yes Miss Bradford yes motion passes moving on to the administration section we need a motion to table under B case number sorry to table the number 26516 at this time that's not in the section it's not in the section no it's not it's not on the agenda yeah we need to add it yeah we need to add it yeah yes I'm sorry I have a correction we have a motion to add case number 26516 first we have to add CMS to the end underscore CMS underscore CMS correct do we have a motion to add that so moved a second second discussion I'm a little curious I think in exec it was decided we're going to table this until July that's our next motion we added then we oh right may I have a motion to table case 26510 6core CMS we need to we need to vote motion oh sorry you got to vote to add sorry Mr secretary going back motion to add roll call vote please Ive second yep I have it I have it Mrs Conor yes Miss Stanley yes Mr Kiri yes Dr for yes Miss hup Nagel yes Mr Hyman I obain miss Jolly yes Miss Bradford yes motion passes apologies for the confusion now we are going to go on to the motion to table case 2651 06 uncore CMS do I have a motion to table so moved second Mrs Jolly moved and Mrs Conor seconded discussion roll call vote Mrs Jolly yes Mrs Connor yes Mr Kiri yes Dr forer yes Mrs huffnagel yes Mr Heyman I'll abstain M Stanley abstained due to conflict Mrs Bradford yes motion passes okay moving on with Administration resolutions a through e all board members may I have a motion to move resolutions a through e all board members so moved second discussion Mr secretary roll call vote Mr Hyman uh I'm abstain on the under b266 575 for CMS and a yes to everything else said for B here p 66575 66575 okay yes yes and everything thank you very much Miss Stanley yes Miss Kiri say yes Dr forer yes Miss huffnagel yes Mrs Jolly yes Mrs Conor yes and Mrs Bradford yes motion passes moving on to education resolutions a through F all board members may I have a motion to move resolutions a through F all board members so moved second second second discussion um I have a question on B approve contracted Services yes Mrs Airi um there's a provider that I haven't seen before and it's defit I guess dfit T it's an AI tool for teachers to create differentiated reading materials and I thought uh we don't allow AI for students so is this like what's the reasoning or logic behind we don't have ai currently blocked we we allow AI we try and teach how to responsibly utilize AI um this is a tool that allows a lot of different creative uses of AI that is effective for supporting teachers with instruction okay um again sorry I didn't see this before and coming from this law Forum I I the advice given from njsba was we need to have some tools in place to identify any AI generated content and maybe have some sort of a policy around it so I was hoping maybe we should work on that and but is this the first time that this District in our district that we're planning to use this AI tool if you could just help sample the course uh we've used iFit for the past couple months so the teachers have used it um And in regards to the previous comment about like some websites that use AI students are not allowed to create accounts for because the website might be 13 and up and so they might not be perpect compliant for students below 13 really up through 8th grade um to be able to create accounts to to use those sites so there are some AI sites that would only be high school only and it's really for that perfect compliance um so but different has been used by teachers and available to them uh for for the past several months and this tool is only for the teachers this is not going to students this is only for the teachers that's correct um did was this looked at in the curriculum committee like if we have used it in the last couple of months did they get a report on did they recommend this I I can't speak to that not that I'm aware can we get a report like based on how it was you sure thank you any other discussion Mrs Kan I just have one quick question and this is about I think this is about link it I remember when we were talking about this in the finance committee uh through the budget process so where do say that this is just a portion of linkit that the district intends to use not the full Suite so we for the past couple years we've had a a much broader use of of linkit and I ready one of the things we've done to try and be financially responsible to the district is conduct a review of what aspects of both of those are actually being utilized and and which ones were being paid for but not being utilized um we've asked both vendors to revise their quotes to US based upon what we need to use from those things and that's why we've been able to um move it to the number that it is this year I mean I believe last year both were over about 75,000 so we've worked to try and reduce that cost right that's what I wanted to confirm that this number reflects the fact that we've taken the the time to just identify what we want to use and just choose those components correct thank you any other discussion Mr secretary roll call vote Miss huffnagel yes Miss Connor yes Miss Airi a yes Dr forer yes to all Mr Heyman yes Miss Charlie yes Miss Stanley yes Miss Bradford yes motion passes moving on to Personnel resolutions a through n all board members resolutions o0 through X Berkeley Heights only may I have a motion to move resolutions a through n all board members resolutions o0 through X Berkeley Heights only moved a second second discussion I have Mrs Conor I have a question on item W the establishment of the prism extracurricular Club can we understand what are the activities or the parameters that this club would operate under are parents going to be um able to participate or know what materials would be shared in the club or what activities are are planned for the club I would need to get to some more specifics and and share it with the board this is a club that um is being requested to become a a formal Club after after operating in an informal basis um so I can certainly ask Mr Kisa what some of the specific activities and um what if what if any of those activities are shared with parents in advance I can I can get that information for and curious if was this club going to uh discuss with within any committee structure or what is the process for a club to be established at the school within the district the process that we followed is that by in general we request that clubs operate informally from time to time there is a club that's requested that um is brand new and we request to fund it for you know a variety of reasons in general we request that clubs operate informally so that we can have um you know an idea of the effectiveness and the importance of it uh at that point there the Su um building principal makes a recommendation to the superintendent um and then we uh work with the bhea because as a as a stipended position it would a sideboard needs to be created um since positions are listed within their contract and then based upon um the recommendation of the principal to the superintendent we make the recommendations and bring them forward to the board thank you Stanley so I just wanted to thank uh CMS for now making these official clubs both the prism club and the unfiltered club we have uh Saga and unfiltered at GL I know both of these clubs have been working kind of informally at CMS and I'm excited to see them become full-on clubs and I just want to thank all the teachers who work with these kids and who are there for these kids and support these kids in their clubs um after school and and I I really really appreciate it um I know that we got to see uh The Saga um teacher L on I don't know what they call what did they call the teacher advis adviser the teacher adviser for Saga at the pride flag raising um earlier in the month so they do a lot for these students and they wanted to actually thank us the Saga Club wanted to thank us for approving one of their um uh field trips to westfields Pride uh weekend and they they said it made a really meaningful impact for those kids to see so many people um celebrating them and supporting them and I I just thought that that is what we do right is that's the purpose of the board is to support these students and I was really excited to share that with you guys Mrs Ziri yeah on um the agenda item W again um have we got given the age of students and I love the work that these clubs do at GL Mr ni some some of the reports I get and I think I have some of my friends kids who do a lot of work volunteer for this my only question here is given the age of kids in middle school when they enter their they could be 11 12 in sixth grade have we evaluated if this is an age appropriate club and given the special population that we have has a school psychologist okay this I can't speak to whether the school psychologist just has given any feedback into this or not but um Mr kisa's recommendation um supported this and and and spoke to some of that I can get some specifics and share them with you and how long have they been informally been in CMS my understanding is two years oh they have been run so children could have enrolled to these clubs in this enrolled or or attended a meeting okay thank you and can this go to like can we get some sort of a report to a committee or to the entire board on how what they have done and what's the feedback sure thank you any other discussion Mr secretary roll call vote Miss Stanley yes Mrs Conor yes to everything except W and X that's a a correct or those two everything else is a yes Mr Ki it's a yes to everything except a w and hold on a second c and x Dr forer uh no on CW andx and yes to the rest Miss HFF Nagel no to W yes to everything else Mr Hyman yes on items a through n as in Nancy Mrs Jolie I'm going to be yes to all except um I will abstain on W I'd like to get that additional information Miss Bradford yes to all so we have one two three Miss Bradford yes I would like to read from the code of ethics the second code of ethics says I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain Public School on agenda if this is not related to agenda I think you need to follow Robert's Rules thank you Mrs Ziri Mrs Stanley I will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed sex or social standing that is in the code of ethics for board members thank you so I have three that have had Nos and one exstension yes is it three three one exension correct well there's four there's four yeses yes three Nays and one exstension which means the W would pass correct correct so w passes now I have one two three X's X would then pass okay it looks like motion everything passes okay thank you moving on to business resolutions resolutions a through P all board members may I have a motion for under business resolutions a through P all board members motion so moved Mrs Jolly thank you second I'll second Mr Heyman thank you discussion Mrs so um under business um so item G um I'd like to have a little bit of a conversation about that so I know that last year um we moved about not about it was an exact amount of 1.5 million to capital reserve and then another 500,000 to I think maintenance Reserve um I think we knew that uh we were going to have a surplus again this year based on the uh board secretary's report so I you know and it's a good thing right that we have a surplus however I'm just curious as to like if we don't move this money right my understanding is that it would feed into the calculation for the 2% cap and um it will actually be um you know it would improve like uh the it would move into the following Year's budget as a um a tax relief uh amount similar to what we had you know this year as well so so unless we have like a specific plan for this money just simply putting it away in capital reserve doesn't really make sense to me considering that we moved so much money into capital reserve last year and um and even now we're moving 1.7 million back because it was unspent um on certain things that will'll hopefully come back this year so I guess I would like to understand like is there a plan for this money like does it need to be removed or can it be um used for tax relief in the following you know budget year I've made a note and the reason why I put this on here in case if there is extra money as I've stated in finance before that I'm trying to put money into Surplus and use it for tax relief if I do have any excess I have to have a resolution on at the end of June if there is any money that goes over that amount of money I can transfer any I can transfer monies into those cap Reserve or maintenance Reserve but I have to have a resolution on in June until the audit is complete and if there is money that that can be transferred it can be transferred until that audit is complete but I have to have an agenda on a resolution on there in order for that to happen and it has to be on for June now I don't have 1.5 I just put an arbitrary number of 750 and 100 if it if it can be moved and if you notice any surrounding area district has to do the same thing it's not only just Berkeley Heights well I'm not questioning that other districts do this and I know we did this last year um my only question is that based on the last board secretary's report as part of our attachments it looks to be that there will be like a 1.18 million um excess I mean we're basically through June so unless there's some significant incumbrance that's you know going to hit by the end of June that's going to be our about 1.18 million so you know and the resolution here says that we will move 750 of it into capital reserve and 100,000 of it into maintenance Reserve that that I may not even use any of it at all this is just in case I may have 150,000 to move into cap Reserve I'm just using that as a ceiling that's all I'm doing I guess so maybe at what point will we know what the amount is or at what point will you know what the am is when the audit is conducted so the audit then takes as far again as far as I understand the audit takes the um it calculates the uh excess Surplus right um over 2% amount and the and so whatever and the the amounts in the reserves are then um are used as part of that calculation to reduce the amount that would go into um tax relief so I guess maybe I'm confused and maybe you could help me like by having this resolution will the 750,000 be um part of the capital reserve that will be used in that calculation the 750 that is on here is just an arbitrary number and that's a ceiling that could go that that could be the ceiling that could be used I may not even use this whatsoever because I won't know until the audit is complete again that's the ceiling I could not have used no money or transferred none whatsoever it's too early to tell I don't have an order has to be completed again I'm I can only I can only move any monies uh into that cap Reserve or maintenance Reserve unless I put a resolution on at before the end of June so last year we had the same resolution it was for 1.5 million and it was indeed 1.5 million that get moved so I guess and I and maybe I I I don't know I think that um at least so if this is the resolutions on when will we know the amount that you decide and if we are not happy with the amount or if we don't think like how do we get to um I guess give an opinion as to or anything when the time comes I would probably consult with the finance committee when that time comes and when the order is complete which is when what what's the expected timing of the audit I don't know at the moment uh we're in June could be August could be September October I I don't currently know I haven't even I haven't even begun to have a conversation with the auditor about it so I really can't tell you it's a little premature at this point okay I'm I'm only at June so I really can't tell you I haven't had until I have that discussion with the auditor I I can't tell you that so maybe I can ask this question AJ what drives the decision so assuming that you do have um you know the 1.18 million in Surplus right that we have um at the end of the year what will drive the decision whether to put any money or the amount of money into um a capital reserve account let's say I have I don't know maybe $2 million left over I'm just giving an example if I wanted to put there maybe there's $100,000 over would we put into cap Reserve that's a possibility again I'd have that discussion in finance and let them know but I'd have to go through the whole um discussion with the Auditors because until I realize all my revenues realize all my expenditures see what was spent and not spent um I I I can't tell you that because we're not even there yet at this point we're only at June 20th so um what drove because we since we don't know how much is until we go through the audit like like how do you decide on the number that goes into the resolution right now I just took a guess at this point um if if if this if if I'm gonna be honest with you I just took a guess at this point there is nothing if if you don't want to take this we can take it off I don't have to put any money in this Reserve that simple so can can I ask this in a slightly different way sorry I was just to say what happens if we don't resolve this tonight that your question that was one of my questions if we don't if we don't we don't put it on nothing goes in there clean and simple your second question Mrs con my second question was it sounds like this will come to the finance committee in the second half of the year we could have a discussion on how much should go into the capital reserve is that the right understanding normally like when we had our uh our audit came in I believe we had a discussion in finance didn't we right I'm just trying to understand the timing because the auditor submitted their report in Feb this year February of 2024 if I remember right probably somewhere around there yeah so the timing that I think that's her question as well at what point is it going to be sometime in 2024 and I'm hearing it will be if the auditor gives us a report in 2024 is that fair I'm going to say it's going to be earlier Dr forer had brought that up yeah because he wanted to see that inside the contract I'm not gonna I'm GNA say that no Auditor in their right mind is going to put when an udit's going to be conducted because I've never seen that before I'm going to say it's going to be done earlier because there was influx in the business office so I'm going to say that the records will probably be getting to the auditor earlier until I have a conversation with the auditor I'm going to say it's going to be done I'm going to say somewhere August September October I don't know until I have that conversation um when we do I'll let I'll let you know and I'll let the finance committee know okay yes Dr forer I don't remember actually ever voting on the exact amount that we I mean we always establish this upper limit um but we never seem to vote on how much is that actually going to take place and from what accounts and for what purposes it's somehow just happens um so is that true that it'll just happen and we won't get to vote on it I've never seen a board vote on that amount of money no it's usually a a financial decision but again it's a discussed normally in the finance committee okay and the other thing is uh in the resolution mentions 18a colon 7 F-4 and I know that's an that's a uh statute that's been repealed so you might want to look at 18a colon 7 f-41 that's the that would be the correct reference so it may have been a typo the one was left off uh it could be a typo or maybe they ran out of Inc thank you any other discussion yeah Mrs Ziri so just from a general understanding the auditor looks at the numbers and the reports that are given from the business office correct that would be correct because that's how they they look at the financials to determine what we need or utilize if we have money to put into those reserves and um so once these reports are given and looking at some of for neighboring district and the state law and when the audit report has to be voted on by the board if it's done before in this current year like in December I think that's when New Providence did it would we get to will the business office share something with the like prior to us voting on it saying hey these are the reports we we giving to the auditor to look at and this is what has being blessed like a draft audit report or no well I would say and I just stated that we would have those those discussions in finance okay not the entire board well first those discussions go in committee first and then they go out to the board thank you any other discussion Mr secretary roll call vote Mrs Jolly yes to all except G you said g as in George G as in George Mr Hyman yes toall Mr Ki just bear with me here looking at an amended agenda it's yes to everything I'm abstaining from C no on E no on G the yes to rest of them so nay on E and G and abstain on C yes thank you Dr forer no I'm going to pass for now miss H Nagle no to C and G yes to everything else C and G and yes to everything else yes Mrs Conor abstain on C no to G yes to everything else Miss Stanley I'm a yes to all especially the donation from the Ed Foundation I know you mentioned it earlier but miss Bradford yes to all and again thank you to the bhf for the very generous donation back to you Dr farer okay uh no on E and G and yes to the rest okay so we have have one two three four five so G does not pass we have one two two e's on a n e pass we have one C two C's three C's they all pass G was the only thing that does not pass everything else passes thank you moving on to finance resolutions a through C all board members may I have a motion under Finance for Resolutions a through C all board members some of thank you Mr Heyman second I'll second it Mrs Ziri thank oh I'm sorry was that Mrs Ziri thank you discussion I see no discussion roll call vote Mr Hyman yes Mr Kiri yes to a and b no to C Dr forer yes to all Miss huffnagel yes to all Miss Jolly yes Miss Connor yes Miss Stanley yes Miss for yes motion passes we are now moving on to the public comments on any topic um I'm not going to read it again but because we're going to move on so we'll take our in-person comments first and then we'll go to our online remember we'll be limited to three minutes and please state your name good evening my name is Glenn Robertson I'm a resident of Scotch Plains um I'm here tonight to speak on on behal Coach roof I'm a Union County educator a union president and consultant for the njaa I came here to address the board and community of Berkeley Heights because there are a number of us in the Union County Educational Community that're concerned with the recent actions of this board when it comes time for a district to make Personnel changes there are statutes and past practices in place that dictate the procedure that should be followed for example if a certified educator wants to leave a district they must give 60 days notice or they are in danger of losing their license when a board of education wants to make Personnel changes to their staff they must act on the advice of their superintendent they don't have to agree with their superintendent but they have to act on advice of their superintendent this is to protect someone like a coach from being dismissed because a Community member is upset about their athletes playing time specifically Board of Ed members are prohibited by their code of ethics from making Personnel decisions and the absence of advice from their Administration earlier this month the board acted with near unanimity to dismiss coach ru from a position which he has held for 21 years the ones I did vote was conspicuous because earlier this year this same board was unable to agree on how they would be organized and decided to abgate that responsibility to the county superintendent in this instance however they were able to agree that a coach who had dedicated himself to the district with 21 years of unbroken service should be dismissed with no notice no investigation an impossible violation of an Ethics code they have sworn to uphold the coaching and larger educational community in Union County is a tight-knit community dedicated to the students and athletes in our care as well as vigorously defending our rights we are playing close attention to this process this board of education needs to do better thank you for your time thank you hi my name is Christen jaab Bowski I live in Berkeley Heights and as of September I will have two children at Governor Livingston high school um I am here today to speak for my daughter who is sitting in the front um and to speak for her because as i' my husband and I have tried to raise our kids when they see something that is not just that they speak up so instead of just saying this to her I'm trying to show her that this is what we should all do um I'm upset that after 21 years of coaching a team my coach Mike roof was told with no warning that he would not have a 22nd season he was made not made of aware of any complaints from last season was not told before the season 2023 season of any concerns that needed to be addressed or fixed during that season he is um every job has an improvement plan an employee is given a list of actions they must improve to meet expectations and standards expected by their employer in this case the Board of Education and clipton athletic director and also the principal however after 21 years Coach Ruth did not get this option he did not have any option he was told the day after and he was caught off guard I have heard concerns for that that numbers are a major concern for this program unfortunately adding volleyball a few years ago does lower the number of sports because girls choose to play other sports as well in the fall the cross country team for the girls did not have enough girls to actually have an entire team in the fall in the in the winter the number for basketball dropped drastically as well as our amazing state champions this year had lower numbers in baseball than any other Year my son who played at Columbia Middle School had 24 boys on his middle school team that play baseball so only nine people play and they did this to keep kids in the program it was a great opportunity for my son for all the 24 boys that were on the team and it kept all playing baseball nothing has happened to any of these other coaches Mike coach Mike roof is the only one that seems to be having an issue so I'm assuming that numbers really isn't the problem the soccer preseason starts in about six weeks I went on to nj. uh njschooljobs.com to look at how many school districts are actually currently looking for Soccer Coaches there are 20 plus assistant positions open and there are nine head coaching jobs available this would make make um Berkeley Heights 10 my concern is how we handle this situation is also going to impact for their coaches coming to Berkeley Heights and to Governor Livingston and coaching if they know how coach rof was treated why would you take a job why would you go to a school district that you know you could be fired without warning and without any conversation prior to the appointments I think that six weeks before preseason is horrible time in not only for the coach but for my daughter and her her her team members I have lived in this town since I was in kindergarten I'm a governor Livingston graduate I played soccer here I saw numbers e and flow the entire time that I was here my junior year there weren't any seniors that played because they didn't get a lot of playing time junior year they decided to work on their education instead this happens blaming it on the coach is not acceptable I also want to add one thing a middle school educator I feel that the the clubs that were voted on tonight are incredible clubs that middle school students should absolutely have because it is a way to feel included it it highlights diversity among them and I am astonished that anyone would actually vote against them thank you thank you any other iners hi Ruth jbang 41 Hamilton Avenue um I'm really disappointed in the vote that was just taken on the prism Club at the middle school um this this really like hurts my heart Middle School is a time that kids are really trying to find their groups find their friends find their community and where they fit in and you just just took an entire Community away from those kids I I I'm just so disappointed our message is about diversity and acceptance for all kids and that's what we try to teach the kids I don't understand what the example is you're trying to set I I think you guys can do better thank you any other public comments aen Pharaoh 258 Diamond Hill Road berley Heights I wanted to take a few moments to speak about the vote that just happened with Club W and X although X passed several people voted down X which I have a problem with coming on the heels of juneth which was yesterday I'd also like to say that W is having issues and what you did was you voted down clubs for kids I'm thinking because there was some funding involved but if we just take a step back see I went to Columbia High School and I was there when they had the MLK club and it was still fairly new Martin Luther King club that means that's the club for all the black people some brown people because everybody Brown is not the same brown and I'm not saying that to be disrespectful to anybody else in the room that's brown like I am I'm saying it to make a point which is there wasn't a lot of diversity inclusion or Equity back then so the fact that kids have a place now where they can speak freely unfiltered share their thoughts gives them a safe space both for children of color all color all nationalities and regardless of their sexual orientation when you shoot something like that down I guarantee excuse me I guarantee you you will have several children that will be on the verge of a crisis because you have taken away their safe space so when we vote on things let's not vote thinking of our own children because our own children might not be part of those clubs let's think about the children that actually need a space like that thanks thank you any other comments in person Mark Don 58 running me Road perkley Heights as I was driving here tonight I I know I sent you guys all an email of how I felt uh about Mr uh coach rof and Mr Ru the teacher uh for my daughter Grace Don who's a rising freshman and I said to myself what am I going to say when I came here and what I do want to say is there are that's my daughter right there and there are one two three four five and probably countless other young women that want to come up here and say something about Coach roof about how much they like him and how much they wanted him to stay as the coach and all I can say to you is please read my email the I have a daughter here that would love to play every sport Under the Sun but the soccer club that she chooses to play at wants her to specialize and as I said to her on the way here is winter optional she goes and plays soccer in the winter and that affects basketball and that affects if she wanted to play basketball and all these young women have made decisions like that so I just can't see this the numbers thing I see it as something else and my hope is that we all look at this and say all right how can we do better because I disagree the season starts next week not in six weeks there were plans for next week for soccer to start and you know I don't know where I don't know where that goes now um other than that I was I'm glad I showed up I was just as offended as everybody else about the clubs and uh it's a good life lesson for my 11-year-old um and but I do you know to leave on a high note I do want to thank Mrs Jolly who uh got lucky to give my daughter her diploma for uh uh graduating CMS and she can speak to you if you go and talk about Grace and how Grace was a a softball player and made a decision for soccer and basketball and she probably could have played softball so again my hope is that just reconsider the action taken and uh you know let's do better and see what we can do for Mr thank you thank you evening my name is Mike Simon uh resident of Berkeley Heights Klein Boulevard um I'm also here to speak on behalf of Coach rof um you I'd like to defend the him against the decision but we have no idea what the decision is based on um I know a lot of members of this board have run on um a platform of transparency but I don't see any transparency here um we're talking about a coach who's had over 20 years of dedication my daughter's played soccer for a lot of different coaches and no one has come close to the passion that coach rof has shown the dedication his love of his players and his Love of the Game and she's looked forward to playing for Coach rof ever since she was probably seven or eight going to his camps um being a ball girl at the varsity games going to watch his championship season in 2018 that's been her dream to play for him she loved him as a teacher she talked about soccer with him almost every week he would come up and ask about her how she was doing with her Club um giving her advice talking about her progress and to just take take this away from him is really despicable in my mind um you know just no reason given to make this decision there was actually the first coach uh Captain's practice was yesterday and these girls have no idea if they're even gonna have a coach or a team next year who that coach is going to be their summer um preseason League which coach Ru organizes for 12 schools what's going to happen with that we don't know and it was just shocking that this decision was made and there there's been no information at all as to whether or not he's going to be the coach again and you know I just feel like no consideration was given to the parents or players especially for what they want so I'm I'm just really shocked and upset by this decision and I hope um some more time is taken to read all of the emails that have come in and to make a more informed decision and I really hope to see coach roof on the soccer field this year thank you thank you well we will move to the online I see we have one person online can you hear me hello can you hear us yes I'm sorry it's first time I've done this remotely uh my full name is Robert Chan Chuli I don't know how that got to be Bob but Berkeley Heights is where I live first of all I I actually want to thank the board for having the the fortitude to um vote the way they did with respect to the soccer coach it's unfortunate that any communication issues that any parents might have I think would be more appropriately directed to the administration was not communicated well and as as much fault as I have with some people on the board this is not any of's fault this lies in my opinion on the administration and their communication with parents uh so I think you're talking to the wrong group anyway at the last meeting four board members voted to prevent the board from paying five particular invoices I checked afterward and those items included checks for our Consultants our attorneys and perhaps most notably the Berkeley Heights Police Department Miss Bradford my first question is to ask you to please pull the board members in order to explain the compelling reason that they each had in order to reject the recommendation of our school district's business administrator to approve the payment of those bills and secondly why they did not raise any issues when you called uh for discussion um second prior to moving that agenda item you had asked mrir whether she had reviewed the bills that week mrir said that she did but added nothing more therefore my second question is to ask whether you can please pull the four board members and asked them if they discussed privately which checks they were each going to vote against uniformly and secondly why they did not choose to have that discussion in public transparently with their board colleagues and finally my third question is to ask what service the check to the police department was in reference to thank you I'll try and actually I'm sending you these questions right now gaale so check your email thank you thank you I see no other hands online at this time okay we'll close our public comments Mr Nixon or um Mr Jess gitz do you have any comments on the legal bills I do not Mr Jessica witz doesn't either okay Mr jits were those bills on the agenda tonight I recall putting them on and I'm looking here and I don't see them so I don't know what happened happen to them I put them on personally and now I don't see them so I don't don't know what happened to them um Mr secretary could you review that for the agenda for next time we'll do thank you moving on now to new business I think Mrs akiri you had something for new business yes I did but I don't think it's on the agenda it's not listed on the agenda I was told by Mr jov which is going to be added um it was a discussion on collaborative consultative model based on the feedback we got from the mountain side um representative on our Mountain Side committee meeting if if you want to have the discussion we can Mrs Ziri would you recommend that we ask someone who's involved in that from our special services department to be part of that yeah sure it's it was basically um um it's been about 3 years I think we rolled that out in Berkeley Heights right after pandemic um there were two Zoom sessions that were done before we rolled it out um and I just wanted maybe if we can do it for the next board meeting or something if we can get a report on what what are the pros and cons and how did the roll out happen are we happy with it in middle school and high school um we we still have integrated classrooms in elementary where we have dedicated special ed teachers for the entire time of the class of instruction so if a special child needs help I think the teacher is available in the new model they're only available 50% of the time so I did check but I don't want to speak for the administration if they can tell us what was the main intent of moving to this model are there any cost Savings of not having a dedicated special ed teach for the entire length and my biggest question and concern is does this collaborative consultative model work with the the collaborative model for instruction in math and science so right after we rolled out collaborative consultative model we also rolled out the building thinking classrooms so we have whiteboards we have we assign groups um some of the feedback that we are hearing and I have shared it with the special services and with Mr Nixon is the Dooms can get noisy so do these two models work and given that there is a concern from Mountain Side what can we do can we like have a report from the department and look at these items thank you thank you we'll pass these questions on to our special services I'm sorry yeah just a quick followup I'm curious given the difference in the models that mountain side has for the middle school and then the students are here in GL possibly a different model do you know if there is little extra support for these students as a transition from sort of one way of learning in the classroom to perhaps something different do you know if there's like extra support that's provided I'm not I'm not specifically aware of anything provided U as part of that transition to to those students um the the question in this case was is not being raised by me specifically just just to clarify it it it's yeah but that said it is a discussion that's come up uh in Mountain Side just to try to get a better feel for to size point is is it working um costs if you go back we had a really nice presentation when it was first rolled out which I'm going to bot it but let's say three years ago two years ago something like that three I think right three years ago 2021 so so maybe the question would be go if we might be able to have sort of a an update like that I understand maybe that that needs sept requires a bit of time but um I think that would be healthy inclusive of of dy's question in terms of transition the other question that I have is does what does ucvts do because right after Middle School we send our students and mountain side also sends their students to the magnet so do they have collaborative consultative or do they have integrated classrooms and as a this is more as a parent than as a board member my biggest concern is if we have not in three years if we have not reduced the number of special ed teachers and it's the same and the spending in budget is also the same for special education from a teaching perspective maybe isn't it time for us to look at what has worked what has not worked and should we be in sync with mountain side especially coming to high school and now that we are continuing with this collaborative model I think we don't have Tech books for Science and Math we expect students to work in groups is it working for special Le population or not maybe send send out a survey of some sorts that would be great okay thank you I will reach out to the Mountainside Board of Education president and find out what they do to the magnet school also and then talk with our special services Personnel about doing another presentation okay doesn't look like we have anything else for new business so we have a motion to adjourn may we thank you Dr forer and Mrs huffnagel uh vote Voice vote I thank you all and this is a record for us before 9 944 thank you very much a good record yes thank you Mrs Sagel a good record