I pledge to the flag the United States of Amer stands [Music] the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Cedar Grove board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be advertised by having the date time and place thereof posted on bulletin boards in the the district published Andor transmitted to the Verona Cedar Grove times and star Leger newspapers tap into online news filed with the Township Clerk and posted on the district's website can I have a roll call please Mr grandi here Mr marzulo here Mr pic here Mrs Keegan here Mrs Dora here good evening everybody good evening those here and those at home it's always awkward um at this time I'll open the meeting to public comment on agenda items only seeing there's nobody for agenda items only I move to close that sess that session section and move on to um committee reports so um we attend we had several committees this week in the last couple of week so we we will be hearing from the board meeting of the board members on um the outcomes there so we will start Miss Keegan I will let Mr Grande get the finance up the we okay Mr marula I am good Mr P speak Personnel Mr P I'm GNA let you speak for personnel guys answer yes or I certainly can do it but go ahead go for it I'll jump in um was a zoom meeting and then it was a meeting to upd that's on progress they've been making on some of the programs that they've been instituting within the district um more importantly I think from the public standpoint is that we have asked the curriculum committee and our principles to be president at one of the next couple public meetings to give us an update on their building goals and also on where we are in particular with our district goals I think we also that the U the parents should take note of especially at the primary level is that there will be a new um math series being adopted in the near future um for K to4 which the uh supervisors have done a lot of work on with the staff and the selection of this series is coming through the collaboration of the work with the supervisors the staff and the administration I'll move on to the Personnel aspect sure okay uh we also had a Personnel meeting on uh and that at that particular meeting m d i and and Mr Gro spoke about some important Personnel items one being that uh on the agenda please take note there will be a replacement um for the resignation of the guidance counselor at North End School I I do think that we also at our meeting discussed the difficulty they had in securing someone I was concerned about the length of time at which it took to put someone into this position but uh we have somebody that will be approved for for this evening um also we have some professional development conferences and field trips that our our professional staff are very active in they want to stay current they do stay current by getting out there and and moving forward with some of the trends that are that are helping them with our students in the classroom and turn King to our teachers another component of of our meeting had to do with uh take note there will be uh the approval of theing the head girl's cross coach and also there are several leads of absence and there other routine Personnel items that will be presented for approval by the superintend thank you Mr R so uh Cen and I uh met with Mike uh yesterday for our finance committee meeting um really the items that we we discussed were you know usual usual suspects um most of which are on today's agenda including revie the bill you know the bills list uh C and I asked you know multiple questions of of Mike all of which were you know which were addressed and and answered I believe to our SAT to my satisfaction I believe to to you also SE um Mike also walked us through a preliminary calendar for the uh for the preparation and the review of the annual budget that that whole process is a very um you know time consuming uh uh process uh so Mike began you know item you know laying out what that would look like uh especially given some of the key milestones and you know all the work that's involved so we talk a little bit about that and then lastly um we discussed a uh Transportation uh contract which is also on the agenda for this evening so that was a relatively quick meeting but those are the uh the items that we discussed great any questions discussions anything on any of the uh committee reports okay uh in the agenda as well tonight um um there's been some minor changes in the Committees uh for the upcoming uh calendar year um so just take you know we all have taken note of that already but just for the public there's been some minor changes uh but we'll continue to have representation at the uh School level FSA AP uh meetings so um tonight I want to welcome our student representative and I did exactly what I said I didn't want to do is I let you go first it's okay Miss G delaro did I say it right yes thank you welcome thank you for coming tonight of course um so we're primarily just um focusing on hitting the ground running for um lip sync so we just had our Deck the Halls fundraiser not fun well kind of fundraiser it's like a contest for the grades like decorate the hall or decorate the doors and um whichever grade one got to pick their theme first for lip sync and then that's taking place at the end at the beginning of March um um and it's just like a lip sync battle between grades and um then we're also like we're not really doing a January event or February event we're just really building up to liin because it's a big like event for the spring so we're having penny wars for the grades and it's basically just um that's more of a fundraiser where you have different jars for each grade and you want to you want your grade to have the least amount of money but you're still donating money to each class and whichever grade has the least amount of the least amount of money they get more practice time and more um I think they get to pick their order in the lip sync and I think that's kind of it we it's mostly just all lip sync Focus we're trying to get that back up great excellent we appreciate that update of and of course if there's anything that the board can do to support that please don't hesitate I will let you guys know thank you so as I always say you're free to stay or you're free to go okay thank you good good luck with the rest of the meeting I'm sorry be careful with the fog thank you you guys too no's ever St I don't take it personally though I'm that's okay thank you g thank you very much so all right I lost my whole train of thought all right so um obviously people at home and people here can see that superintendent Gro could not attend the meeting today so for the um uh when we get to the superintendent update Mr Dita will be providing if you have any update that uh in superintendent gr's uh absence okay because he had indicated that if there was anything he would have yeah yeah I asked him before he said he didn't have anything okay okay um as far as the board president update just a couple things um I you'll see on the the agenda as we move forward I want to just take a moment to uh thank my fellow board members that January is um National School Board member appreciation month and I just want to publicly say thank you for all the support and the help and everything that um you all do and the time that you give up for our community and our children and it's really a pleasure to work with all of you so thank you and I appreciate that um you we'll also see later on in on the agenda that we're going to get to we're going to be passing hopefully we're going to be voting on a resolution to approve a contract with school boards um that will work with us in collaboration with us and the community and overseeing um a superintendent search so uh that's later on in the agenda today um and there will be lots of information following today's meeting um that we're looking to push out both on our Board of Ed Facebook page as well as the District page that will um highlight the upcoming focus groups that will be geared towards the community and um requesting input so I encourage people to follow um the our district website our district website and um we're going to do our best to get it on our Facebook page as well um so does anybody have any uh anything further you want to add to that no okay so with that we will move on to our resolutions can I have a motion for G1 through g12 please so move second any discussion roll call please Mr Grandy yes Mr marzulo yes Mr Pac yes Mrs keigan yes Mrs Dora yes under superintendent report uh General Administration can I have please have a motion for H1 through H3 so moves second discussion roll call please Mr grandi yes Mr marzulo yes Mr Pac yes Mrs Keegan yes Mr Dora yes under Human Resources page 11 can I have a motion for i1 through i1 so move second any discussion roll call please Mr Grandy yes Mr marzulo yes Mr pic yes Mrs Keegan yes Mr Dora yes under special services page 17 we're on and I have a motion for J1 some move second any discuss question roll call please Mr grandi yes Mr marzulo yes Mr Pac yes Mrs Keegan yes Miss Dora yes okay at this point we open the meeting to the public perfect timing no no did we win how' we do good uh the Board of Ed recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters on community interests public participation shall be governed by the following rules please preface your comments by stating your name address Municipality of residents group affiliation please be mindful of your statement length keep each statement to a three minute limit participants may not speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard please direct all statements questions or inquiries to the presiding officer the presiding officer May interrupt Warn and or terminate a participant statement question or inquiry if it's too lengthy or is abusive of seen or may be def flammatory these rules may be waved if necessary to protect the privacy or to maintain an orderly operation of the board meeting there's a mic right there yep you could do yeah just state your name um Lisa cili 12 Dogwood Court um I just wanted to give the board I typed up a timeline if you could just pass it of email correspondence that I participated in since an incident that occurred on October 8th at Panther Park which I understand we cannot discuss the specifics of the incident um because as you all well know I did this job for over 10 years and I know the law very well so I'm not going to stand here and dispute or discuss the incident what is upsetting me is that we are now on day 65 of a hi that was filed by me on October 11th um I was told that there were complications mitigating factors um law enforcement had to conclude the case law enforcement concluded anything involving my son on October 12th and I have that writing so I understand that hi investigations may be delayed as several of mine were delayed when a student was incarcerated or in treatment or when the prosecutor's office was investigating and in the beginning when the delay occurred I was rationalizing in my mind well maybe there's stuff going on maybe they're interviewing the other boy about a matter that occurred prior to this incident which I addressed in my Hib as well um but I have had really zero communication and I'm not talking about the school because Mr Dort and Mr Chell have been extremely apologetic and saying that it's out of their hands and there's nothing that they can do to investigate it I understand that it's in the hands of the attorney and I have an attorney but what I'm really struggling with is until I emailed you'll see on the timeline I emailed multiple times over and over and over again my attorney Mr Gro everybody under the sun and got nowhere then my attorney emails and finally Mr edelsteine I guess exasperated with my annoying Behavior emails and says I want to interview your son tomorrow that's to me victimizing the victim like who does that to a working parent with three children we want to interview your son tomorrow well tomorrow didn't work my son had CCD tomorrow okay Saturday morning didn't work then the attorneys are trying to figure out a good time to interview my son at the expense of my son so 65 days later my son should not have to be interviewed about something that the police completely exonerated him of on October 12th so lies that were spread all over social media at the expense of my family at the emotional expense of my son extr ex anxiety and other things why would my son now have to be interviewed tomorrow because everybody decided to wake up and because I pestered everybody one too many times it just felt terrible so obviously the interview didn't occur holidays who's out of the country who's deathly ill um finally I told my attorney if this goes into 2024 my son is not being interviewed we we are not [Music] retraumatization and reasonable patient and reasonable got me nowhere Mr Zara gets back to me and tells me that the delay is due to scheduling confli s on my part hence the timeline there's no scheduling conflict I have medical professionals who will attest that my son will be submitting a written statement so I'm not even arguing about that because it is what it is but what I'm upset about is if Mr Gro would do this to someone who's clearly very well Tred I'm a paid advocate in other districts what are they going to do to the average citizen who doesn't know the law and who doesn't understand their rights all I'm asking for is communication and a reasonable explanation such as there's stuff going on with the other party that we can't talk about but that's what's delaying it somehow the delay landed in on me and that's why I'm here tonight is there is there any any way that we can get an answer on on that I'll give an answer to uh Mr kipus kipus okay Mr kipus is waiting on my son's written statement which I told him he will be getting when I'm done here fine and you should know if you don't that I told them that would be fine oh I do I have it it's it's in a huge file of printed emails but I just don't understand Mr Edelstein like I could accept any c i could even accept hey guess what we're not investigating it because it's really just a conflict and a fight that occurred between two boys no problem I could accept any solution any rational explanation except my scheduling inability to coordinate is the reason why we're on day 65 well look you know that I can't really talk about it in public but I have really never said to anyone that you were scheduling was the issue well Mr Gro put it in a in writing he you that I've never said Mr Gro said it was due to law enforcement not concluding the case which it was concluded thank God the juvenile officer reviewed footage at Panther and concluded an exonerated my son within 48 hours but law enforcement did not hold this up my scheduling did not hold this up I really can't imagine what could have held this up 65 days we have 10 school days to get it done you understand I can't discuss I do understand but I think but I want to tell you that I have never to anyone blamed you or your schedule well Mr Gro did and that I take issue with that because when I'm talking to Mr Zara about something that's been deeply affecting our family and other families since October 8th and then the rationale that he receives from Mr Gro is that it's due to law enforcement not concluding the case and inability to schedule he that wasn't a great answer I'll tell you what I have uh known Mr Zar for many many years me too he used to be my vice principal and I didn't know that you would filed compl with him but I'll give him a call thank you because he he asked me to reach back out to my attorney my attorney knows better than anyone how many times in a file and on that timeline that only I have pursued this hip only other parents have no one else has said a word about this I'll happy to call Jo thank you very upsetting to say the least thank you thank you Mrs Cil thank you hi tasiana fella 43 Shyer Harris I'm here tonight to speak with the board as well about a Hib incident which occurred or an alleged Hib incident that occurred on October 8th at Panther Park in which my son was involved and um a Hib was brought up against my son which similar to Mrs cassil son the police found that there was nothing existing um and I have yet to receive any any notification from Mr Gro or from the attorney saying where this is I am a teacher in Verona I've taught for 22 years I'm the peer mediator facilitator I help with Hib in my school as well I have experience Cedar Grove is completely out of compliance you're be well beyond the 10 days that's allotted and it's unacceptable now at this point four months past the time my son will not be called into a room and interviewed or asked questions about an incident that took place in October while he was standing around after after his football game he didn't do anything wrong the police found that he didn't do anything wrong there was video that showed he didn't do anything wrong the fact that this hasn't been concluded or brought to anybody's attention to say something's wrong with this process we have procedures on our website that follow state law I don't understand why hasn't nobody communicated with me except Mr CH who says it's out of my hands there's nothing I can do so that's why I am here tonight with Mrs Cil because something needs to be done it's unacceptable not only as a mother but as a teacher in a neighboring School District we all know that this is not okay thank you okay did you yeah oh yes yes I'm sorry before we move to the presentation is there any I mean I'm assuming nobody else wants to speak I went out of order but wasn't here yeah y see you thanks oh you have one yep yeah we have it okay thank you move out of this way stand was close uh first of all I would like to thank the board first of all for allowing me to present this proposal for our Deca uh New Jersey state Deca conference trip uh this is the second year that we've had a Deca Club at the high school last year we were very successful was for our first year we had 21 students this year we actually doubled in size we have 42 students which is phenomenal for school that is a group one our size School uh so we'll be going down to uh Atlantic City for the uh State Deca conference we went to the districts and several of our students qualified to go on to States uh and then several of the other students are going to be writing um 10 page papers or 20 Page papers to present down at the states if we do well down there then we can qualify for Nationals but we'll talk about that where we get there uh this is the same agenda as last year when we present it you can watch this video I know I'm I'm not going to show it now to waste any time um we're going to talk about uh advisor chaperon students accommodations pricing Transportation hotel and the itinerary um so the proposal is for seeking approval to attend the New Jersey Deca state conference at Harris in Atlantic City March 4th 5th and 6th students are competing against other schools in the entire state under their competition events uh these are all business events uh it's our second year of our club we have 19 students attending States this year uh this is the list as of now uh one or two of the students might change but this is pretty much what is in stone now so myself and Mrs McCarthy who are the advisers would be going uh we need two chaperon because the uh Deca guidelines dictate that we need one per 10 chapon I put uh miss m who's a teacher at the high school Mr Sweeney who's a counselor if Mr Sweeney cannot go uh I listed will Leonard who's also a teacher at the school as an alternate because the advisers have to work the events so we have to work the events that's why we need sh Thrones there to monitor the students uh we have six Juniors and as you can see sophomores and freshmen to have that many sophomores and freshmen going to States is is a very good sign uh this this this club is really really growing we've had uh several of our um students at the club you're at the club for am that right the at the high school we had a lot of our our current students bring their brothers and sisters up to the Texas Board uh and they're super excited about joining also so the accommodations are for two nights at Harris in Atlantic City uh $55 to7 $75 depending on how many students in a room it'll be either three or four students in the room um so price is calculated based on a number of students uh based on what we have raised so far the school year and plus what we have in our budget so registration for the DECA conference is $135 a person for each student and then based on the balance of the budget for the school year and the cost of what the transportation is going to be because uh I think it's going to be about $1,800 for the whole Transportation driving us down and then coming back to get us so we're looking roughly I don't think it's going to be 225 to 275 per student it's probably be closer to about $200 per student okay and they're all aware of that uh transportation to and from Cedar Gro I mean to lantic City from Cedar Grove will'll be leaving at noon so the students will be at school that Monday morning and then after lunch we'll be getting on the bus going down to Atlantic City to check in we have events at night uh and then the next day is are all the events for the competition and then we'll be leaving Wednesday morning about 11:00 after an award assembly and be back to school before the end of the day on Wednesday uh this is pretty much the itinerary which kind of I just said there's uh several events that are scheduled we also have several students that won separate and individual Awards uh at districts for for highest uh test score for being in the top three category for one of their events but they didn't qualify enough to get to to Estates so just to recap Monday March 4th we depart for Atlantic City Tuesday is the day of most of the events in the conference Wednesday we have our award suay morning and then we return back uh fundraising efforts raffle tickets uh canning at fresh grocery uh t-shirt sale uh and that's pretty much it are there any questions I know we kind it's kind of the same exact mirrored schedule as last year any questions yeah we're super happy with it and the kids are excited so it's all it matters and they're learning so oh yeah yeah so you know it's great I thank you for your time and uh have a good evening thank you good luck okay thank you good trip thank you okay um so announcement of future meetings next meeting will be on February 27 uh 6:30 will be close section with public at 7:30 and that'll be at the middle school and then the meeting after that would be March 19th uh 7:30 open meeting and that will be at the high school um this time we uh the board is going to return into Clos session but no action will be taken close Mee motion you can close well I close this portion of the public and uh motion toj adjourn into ex you have to give a reason oh um to discuss um contract contractual personel cont yeah all right meeting adjourned