all right you are live M [Music] presid 26 we will start reading of the open public meeting statement which says the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public BS at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed an active in accordance with the provisions of this act Board of Education policy 0162 the Board of Education of the B of Bound Brook has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in the board office and at Bound Brook High School and other facts to The Courier News Bound Brook B cler South Bound Brook Board of Education and any person who requested individual notice and pay the required fee please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all Mr Ki aoll call please yes sir Mr Bell here Mr Dawson here miss gazino here Miss Carlton Mr zco here m m here Mr minhas Miss H here Mr bulmer here and Mr board president here you have a quarum present this evening thank you Mr gski we are up to item number 1.6 where we are inviting Gwen thoron back to the district to uh provide some training on ethics for our program tonight thank you very much it's a pleasure to be back I feel like I haven't been here in a week but it's good to be back so I'm here to do your annual ethics training um I know that this is something most of you have been through several times um so so I'm going to try to keep it uh and be as succinct as I can soon as I get this thing to work there we go um this is the obvious disclaimer which is this is meant as information it is not legal advice that you should seek from your board attorney I always um it is really about accountability to your public to your community um as publicly elected officials you entrusted with the care um of all of students of B Brook and ensuring that the Public's perception is that you are adhering to what is best for all students ensures that you maintain um that credibility in your community by being transparent um obviously this is something you regularly do but you want to make sure that you preserve that credibility and acting on in an ethical manner ensures that that continues to be the case so the school ethics Act was adopted to ensure the Board of Education members in fact have a code to follow um I keep waiting for our legislative brother and I think I say that to you every year down the street from us and Trenton um to adopt the same kind of code I'm not holding my breath after 20 plus years um but again it's to avoid any kind of conduct or public perception um that there are any kind of irregularities um the school ethics commission estab the school ethics Act established the SEC which is the school ethics commission um outlined what are prohibited acts for Board of Education members establish the code of ethics um 9 years after the school ethics Act was passed lays out your mandatory training and identifies um your requirement to provide a financial disclosure statement which you all have to do if you are not newly elected by April the 30th so if you haven't done yours yet please make sure that you do so because the SEC when they reauthorize the regulations to this act in the last year last January they have now spelled out specific penalties for failure to take both mandatory training as well as those folks who are Tardy on um filing their public Financial disclosure forms it's really simple to do them I you know I keep a copy year after year I've been filling them out for 20 years I go back to the days we had to fill them out in ink in duplicate sign both the originals and give them back now you can do it all online and hit a button that says I certifi this is true so if you just print it out you can copy the addresses of your employers and all of those things year after year without having to look them all up that's not illegal that's just smart Okay so that you don't have to go back and redo it year after year after year um so please make sure that you do that who is accountable Board of Education members all Charter School trustees um are responsible for abiding by the code of ethics as well as the mandatory training requirements so again they apply to both board members and trustees the code of ethics in terms of conflicts of interest and disclosure statements also appli to school administrators or anyone with an administrative certificate but that is different from the code of ethics piece of it okay um you probably remember this slide there are nine members to the SEC School ethics commission five citizens two board members two administrators um they serve for three-year terms although oftentimes they serve for more than three years because they are appointed by the governor who often times does not replace folks and they continue to serve um for a period of time but um and only five people can be from the same political party I think that's important to point out um because it maintains the nonpartisan nature of Board of Education Service okay there are two responsibilities they have jurisdiction over issuing advisory opinions as well as actual adjudicating actual ethics cases advisory opinions you can see but on a prospective basis if you think you may be facing a conflict of an issue that's going to come before the board that you have a potential conflict and you want to get definition around that you can write to the ethics commission ahead of time ask them to weigh in and they will let you know if it's a conflict or not um but it's only on a prospective basis you can't write them after you vote down it's a problem um so you need to make sure you think ahead if you have that potential um typically they hear about 85 different ethics cases I will tell you in the last year or so the majority of Ethics decisions which I'm sure if any of you've been reading them in Schoolboard notes have noticed they're pretty much around social media um it's taking up an inordinate amount of time on their behalf and so we have tried to um redouble our efforts to have board members understand what appropriate use of um social media is as a board member not as an individual citizen because no one's suggesting that you're not an individual c citizen but your behavior as a member of a board of education of course is bounded by the code of ethics and so you have to be aware of that as well okay um anyone can file an Ethics charge against a board of education member any member of the public another board member someone from another town um could file a charge against a board of education member we are seeing you may have seen it on YouTube this past week there was a board um in Middle sex County where they had someone come up from South Carolina to weigh in on a particular issue um which did not go well in the community um they told that person to go home um but nevertheless you know if that person chose to they could file an Ethics charge against the New Jersey Board of Education member so that's just something to keep in the back of your head mandatory training there's some changes as a result of the reauthorization of this so for new board members this year beginning this year you only have 90 days to take new board member orientation that runs out April the 7th so if you I don't think you have anyone in that circumstance but um if you know any new board members who are talking about the fact they haven't done it yet they need to do it ASAP so that they don't find themselves out of compliance in their first year um gov by the end of the second year of your board service you have to take gov to by the end of year three you have to take gov three by the end the first year of any subsequent term to your first because you all love sitting on the board so much that when you sit for multiple terms the first year of any subsequent term you have to take go for again and that really is around legal updates change to statutory laws new ethics cases that may have been adjudicated that might impact um what it is you do as a board of education okay the disclosure statements again you have as seated board members and you're not new you have um till April 30th if you're a brand new board member you have 30 days after the start of your term to file your financial disclosure statement or if you're just newly hired as hired as an administrator you have those same 30 days okay what are the penalties they can um Levy against a board member a reprimand which is exactly what it says it's what you do with your children stop don't do it again a centure which essentially is a little more formal a statement has to be read at in an open public meeting of the rebuke bought from the commissioner of your behavior um and then posted in the district for 30 days so that's a little more formal um they can suspend you for a specific period of time and or they can remove you permanently from the board if the behavior is so egregious as to Warrant that I have seen them do it in the past but they have not done it very often in the last 10 years or so but they do have that Authority they've used it less when I started this work a long time ago they had more removals than they do now okay here's the actual Cod code and I know your attorney's been through this so I'm not going to spend a great deal of time um but upholding and enforcing all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Education this has caused particular consternation when boards are faced with something that may not be popular in the public um where you may not want to adopt for for example a particular policy or give a test you may not remember but with the common core and they went to those series of tests and assessments there were some districts that they didn't want their students taking those assessments and they wanted to opt out but boards didn't have the luxury of allowing you to opt out because it was a state requirement that all stud students take those tests we're still facing that with New Jersey ask in some districts as well because they just don't want their students taking the assessments also F around HP as those standards changed and evolved and around the lgbtq AI um policy 5756 which is like tattooed across all of our brains um from hearing about it so much um so you are required as a board to follow all of those the ethics Comm actually did weigh in on a case and said you individually have the right to vote against it however if the full board failed to enforce it that would be an Ethics violation so it's sort of an interesting yeah um way of adjudicating that but that's what their decision was okay making uh your decisions in the interest of all students and not one segment of your student body or another not the football team or the cheerleaders or the AP students you have to make the decision in the best interest of all students regardless of who they are um and so that's something that's really not too hard to do confining your board actions to policymaking planning and appraisal and not running the schools on a day-to-day basis not administering the schools sometimes that's a challenge in some districts I know it's not here um and you should consult those who are going to be impacted by the decisions you make um oftentimes that comes through your faculty and through your Administration that consultation piece um but you need to be aware of it and this is you will not run the schools you will see that they are well-run they reiterated it sort of in two different components of the code but it is a significant piece um recognizing that the authority of the board resides in the all of you together collaboratively at a duly advertised meeting of the board like tonight you have that Authority but when you adjourn and go back out into your community you have no more Authority in your community than any other citizen in your community or any other citizen anywhere so you have no individual authority to have anyone act on behalf of the district no staff member not your superintendent the superintendent acts at the beest of the majority of the board um and not individuals okay refusing to surrender your independent judgment um to any kind of special interest or partisan political group um for the gain or to use the district for personal gain um again you know sort of the red line is is there any benefit that would Ur to me that is greater than would Ur to any other person in the district is sort of that guideline for making decisions around um when you make a decision or a judgment okay holding confidential all information that might needlessly harm students or staff anything that is conducted in confidential session or executive session must remain an executive session until the need for confidentiality has passed you have a policy that provides for how items once the confidentiality has passed for those items to become public and become part of the public record but until that time passes and you're there it won't become public there are some items that will never become public staff Personnel matters student matters will never become public because they have an alienable rate um to their privacy and confidentiality okay you're required to vote to the best qualified people after a recommendation from your executive um administrative officer from your superintendent that does not mean you have to vote Yes on every single appointment what it does mean is that if you're not going to approve a recommendation that your reasoning is not arbitrary or capricious and that is the legal standard for voting no okay um you will support and protect School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties um that simply means you can't stand on the sidelines of the lacrosse game anymore and criticize the coach in public you may have been able to do that before you became a board member um but you can't once you become a staff member again that doesn't mean if you see a a problem or you hear of something out there in the community um I say to board members all the time if it's no different than what they say the police say if you see something say something reach out to the superintendent if you're hearing things about a concern of the public public that you think needs to be addressed okay no surprises um but in the meantime you have to support your school Personnel in the proper performance of their duties you have to refer all complaints to the chief school administrative office officer your superintendent board members should not be investigating why bus 28 is laid every day and following it around the community and Reporting back to the superintendent I don't have to make these things up I've seen these things happen um that's not your responsibility you know you act only after an administrative solution has not been found the board is the court of last resort um and if you involve yourself early on in a dispute and it comes to the board you would have to recuse yourself and not participate and you don't want to find yourself in that situation what you can do and I've said this to you all a million of times is to give the public access by understanding what the chain of command looks like who do they need to talk to to get their concern or their issue addressed that doesn't mean necessarily resolved in the way they want it resolved but it's addressed so that someone has heard them someone has spoken to them um and and talked to them through whatever concern they have so the chain of command you generally say starts at the person with the person who is closest to where the issue exists so for example if it's a parent who is a concern about something in a child's classroom they would start with a child's teacher and if they weren't satisfied with the resolution from discussing it with the teacher they would go to the school principal or the vice principal and then they would go to the assistant superintendent and ultimately work their way up to the superintendent but not through you but what you need to do is be able to tell them who they need to talk to first you know if you have a problem with a coach you talk to the coach first then you talk to the athletic director then you talk to the vice principal or the high school principal whoever next in your particular configuration and so forth and so on till it would get to the administration so if you can give them access they can often times they will be able to have a solution to their problem and they know that they are being heard and oftentimes that's what they want now that doesn't mean that sometimes they still won't come to a board meeting and say no one's gotten back to me I wasn't satisfied but that doesn't mean that no one heard them it just may mean that they didn't necessarily have the solution that was optimal from their perspective but you want to make sure that that happens okay the chain of command for a board member sometimes staff inadvertently might come to you and suggest that there's a problem and actually be looking for you to solve their problem so as a board member what do you do well all of the employees in the school district have a process in place by virtue of their associations by which they can be they have an association that represents them they have building reps within their buildings they have agreements process whether it's administrators or its teachers um and so they know to not step outside of those lines and contact Port of Education members but sometimes they do um and if that happens you need to guide them gracefully back to you need to speak to your supervisor you need to speak to your possibly your union representative but there's nothing that I can individually do for you um because it's not different than dealing with parents you're not the problem solvers you can give them access tell them what they can do and then after that you need to notify the superintendent because staff does know better then to do that but sometimes it happens and they get frustrated okay so always let your superintendent know copy your board president it goes to no surprises so no one's ever surprised about what's going on in the district um we've included in this presentation a copy of a lot of the most recent cases um this is one um where someone copied and pasted a board email and have sent it off to the public and it had confidential information in it um again that's what I mean by social media I don't mean it's just they're out there on Twitter or they're out there on other stuff you have to be very careful um with how you use that um you know using your board email can give the impression that if you're going on social media that you're speaking as a board member and that's problematic you should never use your District email address to go on social media so if you want to go on social media um you need to use your personal email address and not your District email that's an important part okay um here's a case where a member contacted vendors and districts to get prices he thought he could get a better price than the business administration again that's way outside the role of a board of education member um this has happened before um I had a board member who went to the banks trying to get a better interest rate years and years ago for the district he wanted to get a higher interest rate on the Banks deposit so if you went to the depository whatever bank that was and tried to do that and the ethics commission has been pretty consistent in saying that's outside your lane as a board of education member if the board directs the business administrator to look for another bank or a different depository that's one thing that's the appropriate way to do it but not individually going out and dealing with vendors okay um so again you know making sure that you're staying within your guidelines and I'm not going to read through all of these cases I'm going to send you a copy of this um tomorrow this presentation so that if you would like to read them um you certainly can and I would encourage you to do that because the SEC has an expect the board members will be aware of their decisions as well as their public advisory decisions and work within those guidelines okay um but I'm not going to take all your time to do it today um because it it takes a great deal of time okay there are some areas where you have to recuse yourself because you may have family members um who are um have a business interest with the district and or some kind of financial or agreement with the District um again you have to be careful if that is the circumstance for you no discussion no vote you have to recuse yourself and I want to make this distinction sometimes board members will abstain and get confused between abstentions and recusals if there's a legal prohibition against your participation you must recuse if you feel you have you want to abstain for a particular reason meaning you don't have enough information not because it's politically difficult sometimes to vote on an item because you don't have enough information you can abstain but there is a difference between recusing and abstentions so it's when it's legally prohibited Behavior it's a recusal and if it's your choice it's not a legal prohibition against you're doing something you can abstain um but that's something that the SEC just was chatting about with all of us um most recently because they're concerned that it's not being characterized in which is not va's fault board members are not abiding by that distinction so you just need to be aware of it okay um and again you you can't take any gift or favor with intended to influence you that would be problematic um and you should not um acrew any benefit that is greater to any other member of the public and that's really that deciding line um to to think about it and so here is the piece around conflict and recusal recuse when it's a legally requirement to recuse to not vote not participate and that means you can't sit in executive session you can't discuss it at all and you can't vote okay if you're abstaining because it's not a legal conflict you you can sit in the discussion and you can hear everybody and then you can make a decision because it's not a legal legally prohibited item okay um your immediate family members and a relative um they have finally and I think I shared this with you and gave it to you last year um and I will send you this list separately as well a list of all of the conflicted family members you have ever met or may hope to meet that would cause a problem for you in the district you may know all of these folks um but it's a very comprehensive list and finally we can say with shy that's a conflict that's not a conflict so just be aware of that um in terms of hiring personnel if you have a relative that's already employed in the district you'll have to recuse yourself you can't participate in anything having to do with the terms and conditions of employment um or anything of that nature additionally if you have a family member employed in the district you are conflicted out of the superintendent's evaluation sending terms and conditions of employment of the superintendent and or if you were doing a search participating in search for a new superintendent I don't think any of you have that conflict but if I I do have boards that have to invoke the doctrine of necessity in order to just do a search or to be able to hire a superintendent because there's not a majority of the board that's not conflicted okay um so while it doesn't apply here um it's important your superintendent is prohibited by law to recommend the hiring of any relative of a board member once you become a board member now once you're off right that's a whole separate piece they can be recomended but as long as you on the board he can't and he can't hire his own family either by the way okay I know there that hurt but um that is prohibited as well in terms of collective bargaining um I know some of you are Educators um and so you're always asking about whether you can participate in negotiations um this is the go-to chart so if you are a board member and you can read the relationships um if your spouse your depend dependent child uh not your dependent your dependent child child who's not a dependent that's an expansion it used to just say dependent child um or a relative works in the district you can't participate in negotiations and you can't vote on the contract okay if you as a board member for yourself your spouse or dependent child works out of the district in a similar or the same Statewide Association because we do have njaa in most districts but we also have AFL CIO we have some districts that have Teamsters so they're similar unions so they just Clump them all together um you can't participate in negotiations but you can vote on the contract after all of the costs of the contract have been laid out meaning all the salary guides have been done apps and any other conflicts what are other conflicts if your family member who works in another district is a building rep an officer of the association or sits on the negotiations Committee of the district where they are teaching or working that's heightened Union activity then you can't vote so it's a little confusing but it's all on this slide and if you have any you know questions about it for any of you that have family members in that circumstance always check with your board attorney who will make sure that you stay within those lines appropriately okay as long as you can mount a negotiations committee you should be in good shape and if you had to you can invoke the doctor of necessity to approve a contract as well so that's not a problem okay um again you know here's something that's a little different that's just happened recently in the last couple of years the endorsement by the Teachers Association of a candidate used to conflict a new board member out of negotiations for the First full year of their service okay now they've said it's no longer an automatic kicking you out of negotiations you can stay in um depending but they've also we've seen instances some of these are not yet public decisions where they've been endorsed but now not only can they not participate in negotiations they can't sit on committees finance and Facilities mostly the finance component to that um in addition to the negotiations so they're sort of weaving their way down okay um these are all cases that have to do with conflicts and again I'm not going to take the time um to read through all of these because I know you have a busy meeting ahead with your students coming in um this is something that's particularly new um a board president who is conflicted his child's an instructional assistant in the district cannot choose any committee members okay so they're expanding how they're looking at these conflicts and the impact that they potentially have in the district a board member spouse is a 10-month employee in the technology department um the board member can't be involved in any and all matters related to Tech um directly or indirectly including Personnel negotiations and the finance committee so they are really expanding that look and and narrowing what board members can do um so again that's from result of the endorsement of the Teachers Association okay so it's a different it's a different thing um impact on Executive session we saw several instances where board members who have a family member employed in the school districts had in exec sessions where in some way they relatives were touched upon that's problematic whether it was an HIV situation for a child in a district or whether it was a relative who was an employee they could not sit in on the executive session for that discussion okay and so that you need to be aware of that volunteering really hasn't changed since the last time I gave you this presentation and that is um you can volunteer but you can't direct students or staff you can't take direction from students or staff and you should absolutely categorically not handle any kind of District monies that are coming in through your volunteer work and as I've said you know I used to run the school store when my kid was in second grade it was Nichols and for erasers and stickers and but now that would not be permitted right and you can't be a volunteer coach um in the district if you're a board of education member because it's repetitive contact with students and giving direction to students and so you can be a park and wreck coach Pop Warner coach but you can't be a boundbrook school district Vol even if you're a volunteer and not getting PA it doesn't matter um you can't do that okay um again you know you can um vote however you'd like but again you know you have to be aware of of what it is you're voting on and not violating um again this is the case where an individual refused to approve um the HP standards had the whole board done that it would have been a problem but individually the individual could vote no so you know a minority of aort could always vote no on that and you would still be in good shape but you need to be aware of it that's out there so um just being mindful again social media again tends to be the most problematic area my recommendation to all Board of Education members is stay off of it District business should be discussed at the board table that's where it's appropriate um your meetings are live they're available to your community the community can hear your discussion they had the right to hear those discussions now they can do it from home in the comfort of their home at their own time and place when they want to watch it um so there is really no reason to use social media but if you're going to just be mindful include a disclaimer that says this is my opinion solely represents me I'm not representing the board or its opinions um and you're just better Serve by not discussing District business on social media because just is um difficult once it's out there Additionally you know I have some board members have say to me well I I post because I I want them to come to the meetings and I want them then send them to your District website where accurate information is portrayed right where the upto-date information meeting dates school activities anything they need to see is going to be there drive them to those place not to your personal homepage they've also said that if you have a campaign page you created during the campaign for your election to the Board of Education after you're elected you cannot use your campaign page because it Le people to think um that you're speaking on behalf of the board okay um again I'm not going to read all of these cases um but again here's the disclaimer the following statements are made in my capacity as a private citizen um as and not in my capacity as a board education member they are not representative of the board it's individual members are solely represent my own personal opinions if you're going to do it make sure you include that does that give you 100% protection no they have said it depends on the content of your posts um and so you know I have board members that say to me but Gwen I put this I put the disclaimer up well yeah but then you spent 20 minutes talking about a staff member or 20 minutes talking about something that was an executive session you know so that disclaimer is not going to protection it's about the content which is why you know these cases are so fact specific um they trying to to make generalizations from them so my generalization is be smart don't do it again this is about the disclaimer um social media guidance you know they have said more than one time that the use of divisive language is antithetical to the reason that you sit on a board of education which is to benefit kids we would not want to read digits of language from our students on social media why we want to see it from adults if we don't okay just points to consider um we recommend that you develop a list of conflicts if you have folks that have that if it's appropriate um consult with your board attorney if you have any questions and continue to check Schoolboard notes we actually anytime we publish Schoolboard notes and there are new cases because they meet once a month we put all of that information in Schoolboard notes so it's always available to you okay so thank you for your attention as always it's a pleasure to be here I will see you in a couple of brief weeks um for meeting three of our strategic plan um I hope our members of the public as well as students um continue to come and attend because it was a really um wonderful meeting that we had the last time with their students and the community so I look forward to seeing you all then and hopefully the weather stays warm and sunny no more snow um and I will see see you then great it has all of the resources so if you want to read the cases dep and not just the summary you'll have access to those you're unmuted all right welcome everybody we're going to come back into session uh for those of you who are joining us for the uh superintendence report I'm happy to say that we can get right to that this evening so without further Ado Dr well good evening everybody Welcome to our February board meeting glad to see such a nice crowd come tonight get to welcome our students and our staff very special to us at this time I am going to call Mr Smith to recognize recognize my school all right good evening all right we have our first recipient of the Crusader citizen of the month for the high school we have Ashley Gonzalez [Applause] Lopez actuallyy here where are you Ashley come on come on Downy all right so Ashley has three siblings um Joanne inis and Isabella her favorite subjects in school are ESL um history and and art her favorite hobbies are basketball reading watching videos volleyball and singing and her future career plans she would like to study Pediatrics or Gynecology very [Applause] nice all right we're [Applause] good all right our next recipient is Ashley Farrell Ashley oh she's not going to be here but I'll read her information anyway her favorite subject in school is English Ashley has no siblings our favorite hobbies are cheerleading and competitive dance and unsure what her career plans are going to be but she definitely wants to go to a college or university so [Applause] all right we have uh Fabrizio Garita um is he here Fabrizio FAO has two siblings Marco and Francisco his favorite subject in school is Art and his favorite hobbies are uh talking on the phone phone playing video games and hanging out with friends and his future career career plans are to be a [Music] [Applause] veterian good [Applause] job and last but certainly not least we have Joseph bedya okay uh Joseph has one sibling Anna who also attends Bound Brook High School um his favorite subjects are biology and band favorite hobbies are photography and his future career plans are to join the Army and become an [Applause] ENT [Applause] [Applause] hello everyone the Community Middle School is proud to recognize as its first student of the month this evening Ava Huga AA is a seventh grader was nominated by her language arts teacher Miss kabian has three siblings favorite subject being physical education enjoys playing basketball and volleyball and when it grows up wants to be a doctor [Applause] good [Applause] job the next recipient from the Community Middle School Xavier Davis Xavier is in eighth grade and was nominated by his teacher Miss pish Xavier has one brother favorite subject being film favorite hobby is football and when Xavier grows up wants to become a [Applause] firefighter [Applause] next up from small school we have Miss [Applause] Carbone good evening everyone we are going out of order tonight and you'll see why at the end so we're going to start with our third grade student of the month and this is Lauren Vasquez Lauren are you [Applause] here I'm so proud of you all right Lauren was nominated by her teachers Miss civella and Miss glasman um Lauren has two siblings aiming and Adrien Lauren's favorite subject is math because you can multiply her favorite hobby is soccer and gaming and she said when I grow up I want to be a a cashier at Target [Applause] so [Applause] student of the month is our fifth grader Eric [Applause] alaro all right Eric is a fifth grader who was nominated by Miss Campell and Miss Sandler his ELA teachers Eric has one sister whose name is and she's in um eighth grade she's in eighth grade he also has a brother named and he's in um second second grade Eric's favorite subject in school is science all right and his favorite hobby is um watching my phone what watching your phone yeah okay watching his favorite hobby and when Eric grows up he would like to be a professional soccer player a professional soccer [Applause] player [Applause] okay for our third and fourth students of the month I present to you the oand family Daren is our sixth grade student of the month and Laura is our fourth grade student of the [Applause] month and I think we also need to give a cheer to Mom and Dad [Applause] because you guys want to help me all right Lara let's go first for you okay all right Lara is in fourth grade and she was nominated by her Math teachers Mr Mages in this right Lara has one sibling Daran in the sixth grade Lara loves because she loves to learn new information learn new information her favorite hobbies is she loves to dance dance and hang out with her friends when she gets older she wants to be like your mom a successful businesswoman like her [Applause] mom [Applause] ready yeah okay our sixth grade do you remember I'll help you I'll help you I'll our sixth grade student of the month is Daran oando he has one sister in fourth grade Lara Dar was nominated by his teachers Mr melisurgo and Miss Mullen daren's favorite subject is math math when Daren gets older he would like to I would like to be a video game programmer and get a job at Nintendo and daran's favorite hobby is H it out with my family do F things with them watching Mone and watch TV very good job I'm so proud of you come on take a [Applause] picture all right let's get S all right come on [Applause] sis good job great let's [Applause] a our first grade student of the month is Genesis R s [Applause] Gomez her fancy new haircut today Genesis is in first grade with Mrs Haw she has two sisters she loves to read her favorite hobby is basketball and she wants to be a [Applause] chef [Applause] congratulations our second grade student of the month is Alan Rodriguez Allan is in Mrs Patel's class he has two older siblings his favorite school subject is math he loves to play tag and video games especially Roblox and he wants to be a police officer [Applause] congratulations oh one more [Applause] congratulations and filling in for S is recognizing lont lont and students of okay I think uh our first student is Ian Ian [Applause] guys okay uh his teacher is Miss Christina he has one brother Jared his favorite school subject is math he loves to learn about new earth science topics by watching videos on the volcanos tornadoes baby animals and more Ian says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up to be big and strong and he was nominated by his teacher because he shows kindness to everyone teachers friends and other peers around him he is excelling in his academics so fast we can barely keep up he is a super student and deserves to be recognized [Applause] congratulations record can see and our prek student of the month is Arya [Applause] [Applause] Davis ARA is in Mrs Sanchez's class she likes to explore in the art center and toys and Game Center she enjoys working with numbers and counting Arya likes reading books creating art and playing with her friends she wants to be a police officer when she grows up and she was picked by her teacher because she is caring sweet polite and a very happy child who is eager to learn and does well in school she is affection oh sorry her affectionate smile brightens everyone's [Applause] [Applause] day [Applause] yes we did we did I'll call you [Applause] next let's have one last round of applause for all of our students of the month and parents next up I'd like to call misson for our employee of the [Applause] mon um hi I'm I'm so honored to do this tonight I have been so excited for this night for the past week when I heard that our very own Miss Guilford has won Employee of the Month um so I I wrote to nominate Miss Guilford for this for this award um because over the past year i' I've witnessed the incredible things that she has done in her classroom and for her team Miss guilford's passion for individualized instruction creative teaching methods and unwavering support for for each student's unique needs make her make her stand out as an outstanding educator Miss gilford's class is often in small groups working collaboratively Miss Guilford works with a regular ed teacher with oh I'm sorry Miss Guilford works with regular Ed and special education students alike to miss Guilford it doesn't matter if they have an IEP or not they are all her students and all people in her classroom deserve her expertise she shares a class with a coach to ensure that students all receive top tier education beyond the classroom Miss Guilford is an integral member of the third grade team she and her co-teacher are the most Senior Team in the win therefore her co- teer and she serve as models to the other teachers additionally Miss Gilford is a mentor to one of our novice teachers um and I'm going to tell you from experience I I know that all the teachers they go to miss Gilford and their co-teacher they trust her um they trust her as a confidant they trust her to give advice they trust what she does in the classroom and that says so much about what Miss Gilford does these efforts contribute significantly to the positive and inclusive atmosphere within our school it's funny Miss Gilford she you don't hear from her a lot she kind of does her own thing she flies under the radar but this flying is a fighter jet equivalent to the original Top Gun with Tom Cruz because that flying under the radar is pretty darn good I believe that recognizing Miss Gilford as teacher of the month would not only honor her as she deserves but it also shines a light on the importance of special education in our school and in our community thank you Miss Guilford for all you do come on [Applause] down your oh thank you to give you hug thank you for everything you did yes thank you to take picture take picture okay with all parents and students come on up to the stage to take a group that way please what up [Applause] everybody all right you are unmuted all right everybody we are going to reconvene uh we are up to item actually student report we have uh yes so we have a small report today um Mr Smith and I developed a new peer tutoring system uh the flyers for it were sent out this week and last week and we're expecting to begin connecting students hopefully by next week um tutoring has beun for the ngj GPA for the junior class and we'll continue until the exam comes two weeks from today I believe uh there will be a professional development day for student reps all over the county sometime in March and April I I don't remember the exact date to be honest and um for the winter teams boys basketball currently have their stage quarterfinal match about four minutes ago and their record is a 1610 the girls basketball team ended their season with a win loss record of 1510 wrestling has two athletes going to States in Atlantic City them being Del Ethan Del Cruz who's a freshman and L sportb who's a senior and four time Regional champion and for winter track and field uh in their first season back they have two athletes going to the meia Champions which is the level uh four Nationals those being Alana Landers who's a thrower and Mal the and sadly I didn't make [Music] mark thank you for a great report congratulations to all of our student athletes and coaches all right we are up to item number 4.1 these are committee reports we'll start with the education committee Mr dawon good evening Mr President we met several weeks ago there few topics on our agenda we talked about um using a modified schedule for the GPA we also talk about the high school course of studies being finalized and uh the process of using the Genesis software for inting uh teacher course recommendations for our students so very good and exciting work taking place at High School level to get all that work set up and underway that's great thank you Mr Dawson any questions on education committee all right here Mr okay we spent the majority of the time talking about strategic planning in our first meeting the one thing that I really want to point out we we kind of looked at the common themes of strengths and challenges and I found it fascinating that the biggest um strength that was throughout almost every common people left were about culture warmth of environment um by staff and administration um the second was actually the you utilization of datadriven instruction to improve achievement the reason that I'm written these up is I'm not making this up these really were the top two things because they are they are a perfect reflection of our board and District last two years they are exact the things that we are trying to achieve so as we move forward we obviously want to keep those things going um but it's good to see that the public at large does see those changes that we've been trying to make um we did spend quite a bit of time also talking about how to get people out to the next two meetings Dr Freeman um had some great ideas as the committee members and for those of you that attended the second meeting you saw that in action as we did have quite a bit more uh quite a few more people from all walks of life attend the second meeting so it is working we got a lot more people and for those of you out there we still we have one more meeting to go so we'd love to see even more people next time if possible um lastly we talked I talked briefly really to Lisa about her Athletics and extracurricular committee and it technically in the charter does fall under operations and she agreed that it it's it can probably go back to operations but we would still like to probably meet with Mr Steel once before each season begins so that probably means August November February but those months to be determined but we still meet them just to have updates before those Seasons begin and that was it for govern very good Mr B any questions here you let's move on to Human Resources okay um we have a few things on human resources not not a heck of a lot but one of the things that was discussed was the Maru health and that is mental health component and um we were informed that there are more and more people just registering it registering for it and that there has been positive feedback on it there's also um department and met and there is a streamlining of responsibilities um just to make like one for the interviewing process just the for the forms that are going out to candidates and then coming back and just procedures or signing contracts it's just getting uh more and more streamlined so that it's really the responsibility of a certain few rather than going from place to place um there was also a letter of intent which is really nice it it was when somebody comes into the district and is you know with the uh intent of joining the district just to welcome them into into the U District um HR continues with uh updating job descriptions policy and regulations that's something that's always ongoing and um our final thing is we were talking about negotiations and I see some from new faces back there hello hello um but you know what we have worked really I think very well with the found Education Association um it's been a a process it's been in my opinion it's been a respectful process and we are very very close so we're looking for for those updates and I'm sure that we'll be having another meeting just to make to finalize everything so I think that's all I have to report thank you Su for the members of the board I would point out that there actually is a version of an MOA with the BPA on tonight's agenda it's agenda 9.8 we will have a threee executive session just before we vote on item n in case any members not participate in negotiations have questions or would like to discuss it further otherwise we'll return to the table take care of business and thank you Su any questions on human res hearing none Mr Z on operations operations is usually busy this is a busy report it's actually because the me are always very interesting so when to talk about independent verification of remediation that was performed at lafette Mr Molina Andi updated the committee on the district solicitation two proposals to independently verify if the remediation work performed by pH construction to prevent the water seat to the new basement is satisfactory Mr will provide specifics to define the scope and U we'll verify everything Mr bmer has also provided to observe verification service Mr gorson you can chime in we also have a budget update and I wanted to say Bo is thanful for our administrative team working so diligently with the budget Mr gy informed the committee that all revenues have been estimated and appropriation C we are ahead of schedule prepared the last year I want to repeat that again ladies and gentlemen we are ahead of schedu compared the last and I want to give a shout out to our administrative team for that so thank you very very much um certain material estimates that remain including on the revenue side state a to from South Mr can you give a little bit update in relation to that please yes sir Mr Z we discussed some of the material update into the budget from the beginning Health um premiums are one of them the initial quote that we got from Horizon was a 17 a half% increase we talked about that the previous meeting that's because of claims experience um becoming negative and uh Dr Freeman and I requested that our health insurance brokers solicit alternative quotes from other carriers this would be like kind or better Insurance just of a different provider for example Etna instead of Horizon and we have one proposal from adna that came in at 9.6 which is about half of the proposed increase from Horizon so we are still negotiating all of these and um there'll be more to come on that one of the bigger estimates that we have in the budget right now is on the revenue side and that's State a those numbers are expected to be released on Thursday this is the last installment year under S2 which is an adjustment to the school funding Reform Act that brings districts like boundbrook who are underfunded for so long to full funding so this is the year where we should finally hit full funding according to the school funding formula and we received rable information from the township the ratables have gone up in town about 7% That's very favorable for the school tax rate and we'll have a lot more to come at the next meeting once we finalize everything after Thursday's release of State thank you sir appreciate we also had a ransomware update Mr morski updated the committee that the district was successful being granted a$2 deduc $250,000 deductible because the district was successful providing evidence of compliance with brother cation con a cyber policy again thank you if it wasn't for our administrative team we would have AER the committee was also informed last week that we received a check of 153,000 for Approved costs cost net of the deductible and also fund $3,383 of the cost not approved and uh it will be appealed to be reconsidered Mr do you want to add anything no that covers it we haven't heard anything about the appeal yet but we're confident that at least half or maybe the full amount will be covered with our class um our robotics club which we are so proud of uh the staff is requesting to use District truck robotics competitions uh advisers of wanted to use the U those like I said the computations Mr told the that our insurance worker suggested that the two advisers furnish him with the driver's license and the transcripts once reviewed and approve the two advisers beur of the activity committee recommended the action for resolution work has been submitted going on to District signage District signage is the committee spent the majority of the meeting discussed in this stle be fix small schol sign EV District signs the matter not be included we for addition um and again I know this is something that's going to affect all building So eventually this will be uh I think that it's good that we're putting some time into this and I think it's going to look phenomenal once it's actually reled finally um the operations commit recomended the disolution of the ad Haw committee and that the Future these related Athletics and co-curricular activities be included operation meeting agendas which me I'll have two more paragraphs to but other than that I just want to again thank for all of the our administrative team the incredible work on budget and all of the subse issues that we had tonight Mr President you have any questions you thank you Mr Z any questions from the members on operations the only comment that I would have because I president's announcements and it wasn't a part of the students report was I think there's a robot reveal coming up later this week for the robotics team as well so thday yeah Thursday thank you so this Thursday it's in the cafeteria correct yeah I think so I would just encourage any m interest attending to to do so of general watching to so we are up to item 4.5 the Somerset County Educational Services Commission that's me um it was a a quiet meeting really um there were three presentations at this um at the U Su CID Services Commission one was on the um 2023 audit the second was the uh presentation of the 2425 school year budget and the last presentation were for uh governors of the year uh the other thing that goes on at Somerset um ESC it's very similar to what goes here you know they one booking a calendar updating of policies um adoption of policies and in some cases um abolishing policies that are no longer current um and that really is it right thank you any questions for Su on Su County Ed Services Commission all righty uh thanks again for all the committee reports it seems like another good set of deliberations and discussions I appreciate with all full consideration of everything that the administration is asking for our feedback on and seems like we continue to just make progress at every possible opportunity so thank you all again at this point we are up to item 5.1 open to the public for agenda [Music] items so public participation in board meetings uh is in accordance with District policy 0167 or members of the public can sign in at the podium online WR their name address and group affiliation if um this particular comment session is for agenda items open um each participant May uh ask a question and participation is limited to three to five minutes in duration no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard any comments agenda items okay is there any questions online all right so we are up to item turn my microphone off sorry we're up to item number 6.1 be resol Board of Education upon recommendation of the superintendent approves the minutes for the following meetings executive meeting minutes of January 31st 2024 can I have a motion 6.2 and 6.3 my apologies so that is the minutes from our February 21st meeting as well which was our strategic planning meeting that's yeah and Fe and February 1 as well yeah thank you yeah think clear so 6.1 6.2 and 6.3 uh are being moved for approval can I have a motion motion thank you Mr B second second thank you any discussion all right call pleas yes sir Mr Ji I have Miss Carlton that's second on that is that corre that is correct I'm sorry yes Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes Mr yes M Carlton yes to 6.1 abstaining 6.2 and 6.3 thank you so not Mr zel yes Mr minhas yes Miss High yes Mr bmer yes and president yes motion passes thank you item 7.1 resolve that the superintendent commends for approval the resolutions as outlined the district Personnel resolutions this is 7.2 7.35 can I have a motion motion thank you Mr second second thank you Mr any discussion all right here Mr can over yes sir Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes m cazino yes Carlton yes except for items marked by asress than Mr zco yes Mr minhas yes Miss High yes Mr hmer yes Mr President yes motion pass thank you we up to item number 8.1 approval of District education resolutions resolve that b Board of Education approves the resolutions is outl District education resolutions this is 8.2 8.12 I have a motion motion thank you Mr dwon second second thank you Mr any discussion Mr Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes M yes Mr Carlton Yes except for items marked by as thank you Mr zco yes Mr Min yes m h yes Mr Palmer yes and Mr board president yes motion passes thank you at this time I would like to move to go into executive session or a motion to go into executive session to discuss contract negotiations motion thank you Mr B second second thank you Miss High all in favor any we are adjourned to Executive session have fun in there guys gooded thank you all right everybody we are back in session we are up to item 9.1 we resolved that the bound Board of Education appr the resolutions as outl action resolutions this is 9.2 922 can I have a motion motion thank you Mr B second second thank you miss any discussion thank you for the donation please turn sorry do your thank you oh sorry thank you for the donation of the B very [Music] generous on items 9.3 9.14 came at the phah construction work I was prepared to make a motion to table resolution on that until I was told that we could not not pay them because of order shot so I was suggest that I address the question to our board attorney as to why we not with yeah the um because the work has been done the architect signed off on it at this point really not a basis to in terms of some of the other remain items other ways that can be addressed separate part pay completed so we can certainly talk about some of the other options that cleaning up some of the other items are so sorry it's only because the architect sign off not a representative from the school district does that not need be included well I mean the architect yeah The Architects overseeing the project generally they certify that works to complet I think we also have a CEO if I'm not mistaken on the project most has been done baring you know just buch list items items that are covered by the performance and are and there's still some money not a lot but there's still some so I think the feedback for now is that we do not have grounds to withhold being the Bas on the situation that you're currently in however that does not mean we are without tools to address the situation and we can talk about what potential options includ go to Executive session minut thank you any other comments or questions on anything section all right call please yes sir Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes M Gazo yes M Carlton yes everything but 9913 9:14 and 9 22 133 14 and 22 Mr Z yes Mr menos yes m h yes Mr Palmer yes with reservations yes and Mr board president yes moot passes thank you we are now up to other matters to come for the board which none have been remitted and do business if any of the members wishes to speak on anything that was not on the agenda I think we have some audience members who want to [Music] [Applause] clap all right we're now up to item number 12 to the public for discussion I'll save everybody in trouble listen to me same Supply to minutes sure sign hello Lauren Paxton president of the Bound Brook Education Association I'm not up here for a discussion or ask questions I'm up here to thank you for the uh three-year contract uh this was a a two-year process to get here and you kind of stole my thunder before I actually wanted to say um that the two-year process we learned that this board is different than the old boards um we do have good conversations sometimes it's a tough conversation but it is more cordial and I'm not going to say I can't wait for the next round but at least I'm not afraid of the next round so thank you very [Applause] much no questions so we are now up to item number 13.1 move to to Executive session resolve B Board of Education enter executive session is allowed by njsa 104-1 for the purposes noted on the agenda number three four and have a motion I'm going to give the motion to misso and the second to Mr B all in favor I back all right you're unmuted all right welcome back we are up to it 14.1 education approves resolutions as outl approval of HIV cases under high school this is 14.2 and 14.1 have motion motion thank you Mr B second thank you Mr have Sir Mr Bell yes Mr Dawson yes M gazino yes M Carlton yes Mr suco yes Mr Minas yes m h yes Mr bumer yes and Mr board president yes motion pass thank you sir 15.1 we resolved that the B of Education approves the resolutions as out hi cases under M and elementary schools this is 15.2 and 15.3 can I have a motion motion thank you Mr second second thank you Mr M roll call please Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes M cazino yes M Carlton obain Mr zco yes Minos yes Miss H yes Mr bumer yes Mr board president yes motion passes we item 16.1 motion motion thank you Miss good night