all right we'll uh go ahead and get the meeting started um we'll start with the flag salute I pled to the flag unit stes americe okay this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of Bernard's Township notice of the time and place of this meeting was provided and copies of that resolution were forward to the official newspapers as designated by the Board of Education to the Township Clerk and a copy of the notice was posted on the bulletin board of the Board of Ed offices in accordance with public law 1975 um chapter 231a and we're live streaming the meeting as well okay um next is the election results is just there for informational purposes and then the next item is the oath of office for the newly elected members so if you could bring your um written oath form to the center stage there and we'll uh read these in unison e for [Applause] okay and now that we have a board uh reconstituted uh do a roll call Mr salmon here miss white here miss light here miss Cado here miss mun here Mr monari here Mr Shaw here Mr Aman here and miss chipak here okay can I um call for nominations for president of the board yes Miss White I nominate Tim salmon is there a second on that nomination any other nominations I nominate kran light is there a second on that nomination that that was a second okay any other nominations motion to uh close nominations second on motion to close M mun okay um I guess we'll do a roll call on each uh nomination in the order in the order okay the first one to get a majority okay so um for the nomination president of Mr salmon uh we'll do a roll call um Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light no Miss Cado yes uh Miss mun yes Mr Molinari no uh Mr Shaw yes yeah but not yet I still have t right uh Mr Amin yes and Miss chipak yes okay we have we have a new board president and now you have to do all the Talking yeah your turn all right we're up to uh item eight here uh thank you very much everybody um glad to step into this role um uh we're up to item number eight election of board vice president uh motion or a nomination I should say Robin sorry I would like to nominate Jennifer white second Dave Dave or David okay um any other nominations chill I would like to nominate Miss light K any seconds Keith any other nominations vice president okay motion to close the nominations Robin second Keith we do a roll call on um Jen first right okay right right Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light no Miss Cado yes Miss mun yes Mr Molinari no Mr Shaw yes Mr Amin yes and Miss chipak no okay motion passes yeah motion passes uh Miss White is the Vice President congratulations Jen Jen take your Jen take your name plate extra candy um yeah okay right okay um congratulations Jen uh thank you to Keith and Nish for their service for the past year we really do appreciate it um the next item is the regular session agenda the first item there is the approval of the 2024 uh Board of Education meeting schedule this is done by vote Yes okay uh so uh oh does Jim just go right roll call do you have a motion okay motion to approve the meeting schedule Keith second Robin roll call Jim please okay uh Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light yes Miss curado abstain Miss mun yes Mr milari yes Mr Shaw yes Mr Amin yes and Miss chipak yes all right um so the schedule is Set uh we distributed the ethics act um we'll everybody got one so we'll just sign that and we'll give it to Jim before the night's over before you leave please just give that to Jim so you can collect them uh now we're up to uh student Representatives Natalie happy New Year they defer until she gets her partner to oh sorry about that on hold until uh Daniel shows up all right great uh superintendence report uh item 13 there is uh the Hib report can we have a motion for that please to approve the hi report Kirsten and second um seconds Keith great so uh Nick happy New Year what do you got happy New Year uh just the one item tonight and uh after you vote on that I've just got a couple other things to share thanks Jim roll call for the h report please Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light yes Ms curado abstain Miss mun yes Mr mulinari yes Mr Shaw abstain uh Mr Amin yes and Miss chipak yes okay uh so uh for starters welcome everyone uh Happy New Year hope everybody had a a nice uh holiday chance to get a little rest and relaxation and time with family and uh just uh looking forward to a good 2024 for everyone uh I wanted to start just by uh thanking Mr Molinari and Mr Amin for their service as board President and Vice president it was a pleasure getting to know you and work with you both and uh I want to welcome our newest board members uh Mr Shaw and miss curado so welcome congratulations and look forward to getting to know both of you and working with you uh and finally congratulations to Mr salmon and Miss White who uh have been miss white who switched seats on me it's going to take me a minute uh who who uh have been elected to take on more work so uh congratulations to you guys and and thanks uh for your willingness to take On th those extra duties and and uh work closely with me I appreciate that that's it thanks uh great so uh sorry I I lied sorry okay starting 2024 with a better memory than ever um I did want to just mention uh also that um the board had asked at the last meeting uh to have us work on a little bit more with respect to the um double tiered schedule for uh times so I I made a a little tweak to that um that we're working on just to give you a heads up I left a copy of that uh and for the benefit of the public the um the difference in the double tiered schedule that I shared with the board members um was trying to tighten up the uh time a little bit uh and start the uh second round of elementary schools Oak Street and Cedar Hill uh at 850 instead of 9:00 uh in order to do that I proposed moving the start time for the first two Mount Prospect and Cedar Hill to 7:55 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m. so a little adjustment there uh we are working on this with respect to bus routes trying to make sure that this is doable but this is our goal uh and I just wanted to share with you and let you know that we're working on it and I'll certainly be following up with uh committee meetings this month and again at the next board meeting but this is the little tweak uh that hopefully um helps make this a little bit more doable for everybody thanks can we just can we post this new updated thing to those section of the website that has all the studies and everything great okay um all right great uh so we're up to item 14 which is public comment on agenda items um please come up uh if you want to speak on any agenda items good evening um my name is Harry Carr I live at 65 Overlook Avenue I have two second graders in Cedar Hill first of all thank you all for what you do um it's a huge commitment to time so on behalf of the 4,000 plus children um I say thank you it's also why I'm here not just my twoo but I have to be honest I've done a lot of work on this whole issue of school start times and busing and I think the biggest disappointment for me is this started off as worrying about how much sleep high schoolers get and it's morphed it's no longer about that let's be honest it's about school bus and maybe saving busing costs which we're not even sure of I'd like to give you a couple of data points if I may because I actually I was at the BT connect meeting um I couldn't make the last board meeting but I listened to the whole thing and Mr markarian's presentation in preparation for tonight okay in 2012 and 13 um I wonder what you think the bus cost was for the school district it was $5.5 Million according to the proposed 2324 budget this year's cost is just under 5 million for transportation now admittedly even though the overall School budget's gone up 30% enrollments been down 20% but the fact is the number is really 4% of the whole school budget so that's kind of one data point um I throw at you and say this is really about saving money out busing it's not about the kids the second fact about that and I brought it up at BT connect um and the gentleman the chat school superintendent had to admit we have data or supposed science about onethird of the student population the high schoolers I think you have a fiduciary obligation to get science about the fact of what happens to the other two-thirds of the kids the chadam superintendent admitted he had no data he can't tell you what happens when you take now we're going to make the Cedar Hill kids and Mount Prospect kids go at 7:55 instead of 8:45 what is does that do to their sleep what impact does that have on their academics the reality is nobody in this room knows and yet we're going to move ahead on a $123 million budget to maybe save 700,000 which is speculative at best with all due respect if I heard Mr markarian's presentation right in the last board meeting the parent said status quo number one one and a half tiers number two the staff said status quo number one one and a half tiers number two and the students said one and a half excuse me status quo number one one and a half tiers number two and he said by the way this is not a vote this is not a democracy well we've proven that since we're moving forward with double tier how could that be honestly I don't understand how this board could actually embrace this without a bit of science on 2third of the students that you're supposed to represent I mean I have lots of information I'll tell you one other thing I went back in preparation for the BT connect meeting and looked at the last I be 30 more seconds there's nobody else here I'll ask a little bit of grace these are just simple facts I'm not railing against anyone um I went back and looked at the last 10 years worth of school budgets okay and in every year there's a page called major factors that affect the budget guess what was never on that list not once busing thank you very much thank you Mr Carr I think you said any anyone yes it is thank all right thank you um anybody else for public comment no okay we'll close public comment on agenda items um you want to go to a student representative since they're yeah Natalie you want to take it away yeah thank you so much hey guys Happy New Year's so I'm really excited excited to be back and especially to collaborate with the rest of the new board members tonight so I invited another student body uh member here here's our vice president this is Daniel spy to grasp better on how does overall the Boe meetings function and most importantly uh the potentially certain changes that are going to be coming up so Dan all yours yeah sure all right so thank you Natalie good evening everyone and good evening to the Board of Education thank you for having me tonight my name is Dan like Natalie said and I'm the schoolwide vice president I appreciate the productive meeting that we had last month between student government and the Boe and I look forward to having more in the future so a little bit about me outside of student gov I've held leadership roles and many other activities uh the ski team physics Club physics team Business Club future health professionals and I'm looking forward to attending more meetings when Natalie uh cannot be here to participate thanks Dan so overall when it comes to Student Activities let's just say a bit farewell to Acappella 2023 caroling season for this new year so The Echoes of their Angelic voices from our last Boe meeting honestly still linger so talk about talent and hard work so let's talk about Ridge Sports it's going Full Throttle the ridge stream team was ready to make waves against Bridgewater at 2:30 p.m. earlier today the boys basketball team had us all roaring at their TR in the in the Whitey dicket holiday classic in Livingston and tomorrow Ridge hockey takes on chadam so keep it up Ridge so it's not just about the sports it's obviously about the spirit that unites us the girls basketball team had a fantastic team bonding event and the rid ski team is hitting the slopes after their ice skating and Chin Fil-A Extravaganza Switching gears our forensics team is preparing for the yearly Ridge Invitational Tournament making extremely creative posters awards for their competitors championing and their event nationally this the spirit of Ridge band held December on December 5th was a hit spreading holiday cheer with classes like all I want for Christmas is you so make sure to take advantage of the band showcase happening the 31st of this month this fantastic showcase will feature High School Wind Ensemble members jazz band and a concert band this concert will also feature fifth grade and eighth grade bands playing with our high school counterparts so if you miss a show in person you can always catch Show online on the ridg Pack website as well as being active on their student LED social media accounts so kudos to all the clubs for also being active within their involvement throughout the year so for instance Bridge do something Paris pagette fundraiser the crafts club Holiday sale contributing 30% of their proceeds to World Central kitchen and the Culture Club bringing Rich students and staff holiday tune from around the world so mark your calendars for the AL for also the student government they're bringing up a talent show the next Wellness day so I know I'm for sure excited for that and lastly the schoolwide volleyball tournament went more than spectacular last Friday before the break seeing students design and decorate their team merch like Minions wearing pink wigs to also teachers going against each other it's something especially for the seniors to look back upon the students are also very pleased with the food menu I know I'm excited to eat the Jamaican menu for tomorrow in the spirit of new beginnings we hope you had a wonderful memories with your family and loved ones throughout the break thank you guys thanks Natalie thanks Dan uh any questions for Natalie or Dan no okay um we're up to approval of minutes item 15 uh does anybody have a motion Kirsten second Keith B call please Jim Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light yes Miss Cado abstain Mrs mun yes Mr Molinari yes Mr Shaw abstain Mr amim yes and Miss chipak yes great we're up to the finance committee report there is one item there can I have a motion for that Kirsten second Jen roll call please Jen Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light yes miss gado abin m mun yes Mr molinard yes Mr Shaw abstain Mr yes and Miss chipak yes great thanks um so we have all the committee reports um which I think generally will be pushed to the next um uh board meeting um so is there anything from Personnel that needs to be mentioned right now no um policy no curriculum that's me no we're meeting Thursday yes uh Wellness you have a report but we'll push it to the next next one um liaison committees anything for now no okay um and then okay great we're up to public comment on non-agenda items so if you want to make a public comment coment on anything that's on your mind um please step to the mic say your name and address and you have three minutes okay looks like there's no public comment on non-agenda items so we'll close that um second last item board Forum anybody have anything for board Forum yeah Robin um congratulations ation to you and Jen um I would like to request that when you were talking about forming committees that we consider going back to having four people assigned to each committee um I feel like it was a little bit chaotic on some of some of the three person committees um and I also feel like having four people gives more board members chance to have input and ask questions and have exposure um I think there's enough conflicts that people have that there's going to be alternates needed anyway you know even if there's four people assigned to a committee because we all are super busy so I don't think it's going to be a situation where no one else gets a chance to rotate through so that's just my opinion just gonna offer a slightly contrary opinion um I do like the three person the Committees especially since we expanded the number of committees last year um I feel it doesn't stretch board members quite as thin and it also gives different board members an opportunity to sit in on different committees and gain knowledge and also offer their input on be IT personnel Finance uh facilities not whatever committee standing sitting on um to you know give a different perspective on it I know I know myself I was on three two two committees last year but I benefited from sitting in on different committees when there were that three person they needed the fourth in so um and we did discuss this in policy as well so I'm in support of keeping three members on per on our committee I agree I second that yeah Jen um I agree with Rob and actually and wellness is a perfect example and chil can speak to this that you know sometimes things come up so on these Street person committees we've had a couple of times when at the last minute something came up and had I not been able to scramble to get somebody I would have only had two people at the meeting um I totally understand that people are stretched thin but I think that we have enough people on the board that are willing and able and I said this last year those of us who are able to do more than to great if you can't that's okay also um I feel like we tried this this past year and some committees were more successful than others I can say that people did not rotate through um the committee that I chaired right and so um in theory it's a nice idea to give everybody the chance but it just doesn't happen and we do have a new policy that we don't need to have alternates anymore I think we should keep that policy and when somebody can't come the chair can go you know through the lit go start at the top and you know you want to do it alphabetically I don't care how you do it but ask the first person on the list can you come if they can't you move to the next one and you keep track and you make sure everybody gets a chance to rotate through as opposed to having an alternate which is what we agreed upon um when we rewrote that policy last year so I would like to see four people back on every committee I also think that by not doing that you are are demonstrating that you don't think that the same committees are all as important and worthy of having four different voic voices be heard at every meeting and I think that that is really important there are nine of us and if we could get four people at every meeting I think that that is extremely helpful Jen I don't I don't necessarily have a an issue with that but we need to make sure that the policy of cycling people through is kept track of because there have been many a time that I've asked to be um at personnel and I've been repeatedly dismissed about it so this is my coming on third year in the board and I still hav is that on Personnel you did come to some Personnel meeting I was at one yeah yep you were invited to another one or two um that's the problem with four people committees if all four people are showing up there is no room for alternates I I could I I I don't have a strong preference either way but that's just one of the things to consider when there's four people on a committee and they're all coming you can't have a new person attend even if they want to yeah I think you know uh from my own personal perspective we I think we tried a lot of new things uh with committees last year we added the finance and operations committee which in my view was very successful to have that as a separate committee than Finance being on finance um I think if we maybe shake up the the the folks that are on finance and operations versus um I mean facilities operations versus Finance everybody will get some insight into those issues because we had like Kiron and Larry were were hearing a lot of the stuff multiple times so you know I think they kind of wanted to get through stuff and for me sitting on in finance I was like well I haven't really heard that so I wanted to in the background so there was a little bit of repetitiveness but I I like the idea of separating those because it worked out well with finance and operations uh facilities and operations really talking to Aramark and um who it's a barker and things like that so that that kind of took a lot off of finances plate and made the meetings I think more succinct um that was that was my view on the fac facilities and operations so I propose keeping that I I agree with that Tim I think it worked remarkably well last year yeah with that you've gotten a lot accomplished on facilities because of that yeah I think we also uh switched around the timing so like most of the Committees had been typically going in the morning from 9: to 11: um but for some folks that didn't work out because they had time so then we switched around timing and like modalities whether it was on Zoom or in person which sometimes works sometimes like Jen said like that might work for specific committees I'm thinking policy most where that might be most applicable where you could kind of Zoom that um whereas if you have a lot of folks in the room or something like curriculum maybe it's not as conducive to zoom um but we can you know talk about all of that as we build the committee so for for Janice and Dave um we'll go through and I'll talk to Nick about um how we're going to slot out the Committees and the timing and things like that but uh basically the way it would go is you know everybody will have a chance to say I want to be on these certain committees uh for the folks that have been around for a while uh the the incumbered board members they'll say you know I'd like to chair this or that um we'll take that into consideration and then obviously if anybody has any timing or modality concerns uh you know I'd like this to be earlier on Zoom I'm more flexible on Zoom but you know we can consider all of that and figure out how all the Committees will will shake out yeah I agree with what you're saying the one thing I think we did which I would suggest we do is let the chair the committee or the committee itself decide on the timing and the modal um and and um you know have some flexibility if if the committee feels it's it's oh yeah yeah I didn't mean I didn't mean like written in stone I just meant like you know if you if you say like I can never make a committee meeting from 9 to 12 then like obviously whatever that committee might be right if other people can make it then we'll kind of make it that way um yeah Jen I think we've always have tried the first meeting with the new committee the first usually thing we do is we we discussed does this time work is there a better time and you kind of come to consensus on that so I think that would work along with what you're suggesting yeah AG greate as long you know the more we can front run on that the better so it just doesn't lead to like more on the Fly change um great um all right that's that's all I have Nick do you have anything else sorry yeah if you want the policy committee to look at that then the Board needs to have a majority decision on whether or not to send that to policy well I think the policy already says it can be three or four so I think that would be up to the discretion of the you know board leadership who's assigning the Committees we left it flexible you know what I mean right so that it could go either way depending on what the board wants that year I guess TP typically the BW is actually um the president of the board selects the committee memb so that would be to your discretion when you select the various committees if you're going to do three or four yeah yeah I think also the other thing to consider that the three four I the Miss makes it there's good points on both sides right like so um I think there's also the factor of of the liaison committees like who's doing Somerset County Head Services who's doing Municipal Alliance like there's a lot of uh who's doing the PTO presidents CPAC um so there's other things to consider about you know loading people up potentially um so we'll um try to troubleshoot that offline I think is the best way to do that unless anybody has anything else right now committee structure organization Jen um I just know one thing that we kind of never got around to completing has to do with the board goals so I thought um in in retrospect maybe it's actually a good thing because maybe we should be doing this in January each year anyway because this is when we now have the people who will be here from January through December anyway so then you're not coming onto a board and you know f following the the um goals that you weren't part of creating so um I would like to recommend that we you know for January 22nd which is our next meeting that um we we finally get this done and vote on our Bo board goals and have them for the year so I don't know um if if you want us to send you you know our ideas or suggestions if if you could put something together um we could all then come ready to move forward yeah only reason I would say is to move to this first February meeting is to give Janice and Dave a chance to maybe like get a training from Gwen on I mean you already had your governance training right so um it might just be helpful to get a training a quick training from Gwen on uh who's from New Jersey school boards which is the the the lobby organization that represents all the school boards in the state of New Jersey she can tell you more about how District goals are different than board goals how boards construct goals how they evaluate them those sorts of things so it might be um better to move it to to the first week in February but it's a good idea to get that started and I like the timing idea we we could discuss it but not vote on it until February we could start discussing it next time oh yeah right yes right and then not vote on it until February yeah yeah good point all right anything else all right great motion to adjourn Kirsten second Keith everybody in favor all right great thank you everyone have a good night