the dendel Township Board of Education is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act notice of this meeting was provided to the Daily Record and orar Ledger or mors county has been delivered to the Township Clerk and has been posted on the bulletin board of the board of education office and at each of the school buildings in the district roll call please de deore here Mrs adalis here Dr Aruna datass here Mr Cass here Mr Anderson here Mr Capello here Mr Kim here all right we'll go right into the Pledge of Allegiance okay looks like we have a number of special presentations coming up uh March 11th is the preliminary budget uh I'm sure we'll hear that through comments so uh superintendent's comments please okay um next year's njsba conference if you want to note is October 21 through October 24 we did account for that when we planned our board meetings um we very excited to announce that we have our we selected a student from valy viiew to be our unsung hero and that will be done at um County College of Mars on Wednesday March 20th at 5:30 pm it's the world Awards presentation you're all invited I emailed the uh information you today but you may have already received it from school boards and um our fine recipient will be Mark Jean Louie and this is a great kid I mean uh he's one of our he's literally the best basketball player I've seen come out of here in a while and just a great kid um when we played Madison in the final he was like like Unstoppable there was nobody even close to being able to guard him or anything and um he played a great game just talk to him he just always such a nice kid with a big smile on his face I was happy that he was the one that that was awarded also our Mars County Superintendent's Association leadership Award winner which will who who will be honored in May that's not something that the boards invited to that's with superintendent and principles we do it every year in May and his name is Quinton Fitzpatrick so two really nice kids that are going to be awarded some um get some recognition coming up in March in May and that's it for my um for my uh comments except for I did update that major concerns document I added a fifth thing that is important and if you get a chance take a look at it if anybody has questions please make sure you know to reach out and uh and let me know if you want to talk about it it was in the last email that I sent on Friday with my report and that's it for my comments thank you Dr Forte uh Dr Cullis super assistant superintendent's comments please kindergarten registration is open so if you know anyone in your neighborhood or if in your family please encourage them to go to denville.org and pre register for kindergarten for the 2425 school year we currently have 144 students registered Lake View we have 64 Riverview 48 nine in the flex zone and 23 in preschool that U will be placed at a later time we started our celebration of re Across America week today with have many celebrations going on around uh the district including many guest readers uh including some in this room and our mayor so hopefully you'll get to participate in some of those celebrations this concludes assistant superintendent report thank you Dr CIS Miss Kowski um business administrator comments please two comments if you are um intending to attend the anung Hero please let me know and I can register you the other comment is the county or the Department of Education has updated the calendar uh for the budget 2425 and our original April 22nd board meeting needs to be rescheduled to accommodate the public hearing the next available day that we are um suggesting is April 29th so we will change the April 22nd to April 29 for the public budget 2425 if anyone has any um objections we can um work work it out after the meeting and uh if not we can advertise for the April 29th public hearing do we want to settle that now and just make sure all the board members are available on the 29th I check my calendar it should be good okay for me a roll call just in case just to make sure let's do that okay yeah it looks like we're all good then so uh let's make it official April 29th then thank you um Miss Koski did we did you get all the submissions for the uh Financial uh disclosure documents that were required by all board members just missing one okay great all right um at this point at 7:36 PM we'll open a public discussion seeing no one in the chambers is there anyone online line that we see no no one online okay and at 7:36 we'll go ahead and close uh open public comment section and let's go straight into Old business action to be taken um Dino can you take us through old business please I'd be happy to if there are no objections I move to approve items a b and c uh a is the reports from January 2024 B are education reports of student enrollment the health office and one HIV case and C are the minutes from our January meetings I'll second thank you Mr Cass thank you Mr Capello any questions or comments roll call please de deore yes Mrs idelis yes Dr Aruna datass yes to everything except c i abstain from the minutes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson uh yes to everything I abstain on uh C3 Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes okay moving on to new business action to be taken uh Dr reij tosson can you take us through Section A personnel please yes if there is uh no objection I'd like to move uh items A1 through p in the addendum and there are uh several for uh borded in placements there is uh couple of resignations and uh then there are several items items two through 11 several of which is uh family uh leback Family Med medical leave uh approvals and uh there is a job description for student support services and also cybar deide bar for uh registered Behavior technician and um that should be it I'll second thank you questions or comments roll call please deore yes Mrs sidellis yes Dr Aruna datass yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes okay uh moving on to through the agenda instruction and program Dr Moore can you take us through do that please uh yes I'd like to uh move the following uh resolutions under uh instruction and program workshops and expenses is number one a through G uh number two is tuition reimbursement for school nurse three is the uh approval of the attached field trips and four is the approval of a student um to observe at Riverview Elementary School uh Dr Moore we have an item on the agenda number two please number five is another student to uh um complete an observation at lak View Elementary School thank you Dr Moore do we have a second second all right thank you drason uh questions or comments roll call please Dr yes Mrs sidellis yes Dr Aruna datass yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes uh section c Finance Mr uh Anderson if you could take us through that please sure if there are no objections I'd like to move under Finance items one through eight is a block uh excuse me 1 through nine is a block uh including a donation uh dend to some of our uh Grant applications um submission acceptance of our grant for the student Development Association in New Jersey doe in the amount of 38,45 uh the approval of the attached nonresident uh tuition agreement uh board approved the attached standard operating procedures and internal controls uh as well as another donation and an award to Denville or excuse me Delta Dental for a two-year contract uh and then the district placement uh for student uh as per IEP and then finally uh board approv the uh checklist can I get a second please I'll second thank you questions or comments I just would like to thank everyone who's making donations to the district so greatly appreciate roll call please Dr Mo yes Mrs sellis yes Dr Aruna datass yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes uh Mr Cass um before you we take us through operations is your mic working okay Mr Anderson if we could thank you Dr uh Mr Cass if you could take us through operations please I'll be glad to just you got hold it down I was holding it down it's defective trust me okay under operations we're going to start with uh number 1.1 Transportation uh a resolution for the purchase of school vehicles with Reserve funds I think this is very important to help school districts out with uh uh a very expensive purchase when the times when it comes up time to purchase some school buses so anyhow I'm going to read that for the record here whereas current New Jersey statue requires districts to use current budget operating funds to purchase school buses and whereas this means that districts are not allowed to purchase school buses using funds from capital reserve accounts and whereas districts Who are ineligible for grants and subsidies are unable to purchase electric school buses because they are cost prohibitive and recognizing that the current New Jersey statute allows districts to use school buses weight exceeding 25,000 pounds for up to 15 years and recognizing that other New Jersey public entities such as Municipal governments are currently able to purchase Vehicles using capital reserve accounts and whereas the dble Board of Education requests that school districts be allowed to purchase vehicles for student transportation that includes and not restricted to Electric school buses using funds from capital reserve accounts whereas the delegate assembly is the official policy making body of the New Jersey school boards Association and whereas education related policies resulting from prior delegate assembly and board of directors actions are codified in the New Jersey School Board Association Manual of positions and policies on education and now therefore be at resolve that the demo Board of Education proposes the following new policy language for adoption by the delegate assembly and the inclusion in nsp's manual positions and policies on education and section 3100 budget planning preparation and adoption under the account's heading the New Jersey School Board Association believes that all districts should be permitted to use funds from C Reserve accounts for the purchase of vehicles for student transportation that includes and not restricted to Electric school buses resolve that this resolution will be placed on the agenda for consideration at the May 18th 2024 assembly I don't know if you wanted to uh have comments on that now before I go on to the other things since it's a isolated and very important item yeah Mr Cass if we can just finish the uh second part of the agenda item we'll get a second and then we'll open for discussion thank you sir okay under building and grounds uh um we have three items so I'll refer you to the addendum also uh 2.1 is that the board approved to award Lich Corporation for the remediation of asbest removal and pipe instulation at Lake VI Elementary School in the amount of $9,250 item 2.2 is to approve the initial submissions of the Department of Education for the riverie elementary school toilet room facility project the district is not seeking Debt Service Aid therefore the project is considered considered other capital projects and then the whereas the project is to be requireed to be submitted to the State Department of Education the Denville Board of Education authorizes the business administrator to amend and submit amendments to the district's laor rage facilities plan item 2.3 I'm asking the board to approve the initial submission to the Department of Education for the riview elementary school sidewalk project the districts is not seeking de service Aid therefore the project is considered other capital projects whereas the project is required to be submitted to the state to Department of Education the dble board Abed authorizes the business administrator to amend and submit amendments to the district's longrange facilities plan I'll second thank you uh questions or comments yeah I had a comment on the uh the resolution and you did a great job on this um after rereading it a few times there um I'm just wondering if if we should um on the uh purchase vehicle for student transportation that includes not restricted to Electric school buses I think that's really a a key item there that we have flexibility and when this recent coal snap um that we've had throughout the country especially in the uh the northern states like Minnesota and Michigan and I believe Maine too uh there were several articles out there they've had a real tough uh time with their electric school buses with the um the breaking down during runs because of the uh the battery is being you know just just running low very quickly because of the cold weather and also not taking them longer to charge and everything so um that that is an issue with those school buses that hasn't been uh really fully addressed yet so I I just think that you know we got to give all the Schoolboard flexibility on what type of vehicles suit them best thank you Don I appreciate those comments yeah I just wanted to add um yeah Mr Kim thank you for uh taking the lead on this and putting this together I think it's really important as I'm it sounds like everybody else does for sure um one thing I just wanted to bring up um Steve and I ran into our uh assemblyman Brian Bergen last week and we mentioned that we were working on this he suggested after we approve this tonight we send him the language uh he would be open to seeing if they could you know get a bill sponsor or at least start the process um and that way maybe we can come at it by two directions if they have a bill that's working its way through committee and school boards is advocating for it it might be helpful so I would just suggest that we do that after we approve this tonight I have that on my list and I I'll email it I'll copy um James and uh cliff on it when it gets set I I would Echo the the thanks to Mr Kim for pulling this together I think we we often think about legislative things as huge big things to me this seems like a small Common Sense thing right I mean nothing small in the legislature let's start with that but um nonetheless I think relatively speaking this is a very common sense thing and I appreciate your the way you've gone about it working with school boards and getting the resolution pulled together um I think we've said as generally as a board we don't like to put resolutions together that really just are a statement this is more than a statement this is action we're asking to be taken and and we feel like this can move forward pretty quickly so thank you for pulling it together I appreciate all the thanks uh I want to Echo the thanks to those who helped me with this like Dino you helped me with some of the language here Don you made some comments early on as well so and especially dearis dearis and I sat for like an hour or two um working through some of these things as well so uh I just hope that this sort of exemplifies um that we could do more you know in committee meetings if something comes up you know should we ask school boards who is one of the largest um board Lobby groups or Lobby groups on behalf of boards of Education I to say uh and so they have the money to you know talk to the legislators so we just have to ask them what to say and this seems like a no-brainer so yeah especially with the budget coming up and some of the difficulties maybe this can give Miss ksku some some uh aid but I don't know if we can have this in time but uh thank you uh any other questions or comments roll call please D Mo yes Mrs idelis yes Dr Arun tassen yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes and that takes us right into the good of the cause um any items for the good of the cause from board members I add something for uh the classroom space just want to let you know that um to if we want to do a some type of a study on Nicole drive for the feasibility of a new building there will be two fees that we'll need to that will need to pay one of them is to EI for $188,000 for them to conduct a study but before that we need to increase this survey to a higher level survey including topography the one we the one we ordered for that 27 acres is like that typical kind that blocks out where the property is he needs the topography as well so that that's another 14,000 so I put it on the agenda for finance to talk about and uh I but I just I found out today I just wanted to share it with everybody so you all know thank you um could you also ask some to look at feasibility on um transportation or like garage being there as well is that something that you looked at that was actually in it yeah the garage to fantastic thank you um I just had one quick question looking at the board report uh do we have a date yet for the inp uh meeting like the committee meeting do we know when that's going to be the document is blank that's why I was asking thank you we have a finance meeting this Thursday after we get our state aid numbers we have a finance meeting Thursday to go over the budget and if we don't get our state aid numbers on time because there's 48 hours after Tuesday night then we'll move the meeting because there's no reason to have the meeting until we have the information uh I just wanted to throw out a few things um as we discussed during the uh School space considerations the number for January was uh a student enrollment was 1,700 um I modified the numbers that I previously reported because I realized out of out a district placement would wouldn't be appropriate to be included in these numbers so we're at 1,700 and Dr grip's projection as a reminder of 1675 to 1735 uh as um uh Dr Forte mentioned the unsung heroes uh ceremony I went to it last year I thought it was a fantastic ceremony uh just it is long but it is open to uh all board members so um I volunteered to help out with that ceremony so I'll be there uh regardless and um the delegate assembly since we did pass this resolution um I I would love to see one or um more additional board members um go to the delegate assembly uh which will be at Mercer County College on Saturday May 18th from 9 to 12 so if there are any other board members that are available um we could maybe commute our um car pull down and attend that together so anything else for the good of the cause okay yes I I did have one thing I yes please Mr I'm the the asan for the riview PTA so I was uh at the meeting and Dr Forte did just a great giving everybody an overview of what was going on in the uh the district um very well attended this is my second Tour of Duty with with that PTA they do a phenomenal job as do all the ptas and um I just remind uh for those you do that that may you know work for a company are able to do donations they got their Tricky Tray coming up and that's a big fundraiser for all the PTA so I know a lot of sports organizations contribute gift certificates and things like that and a lot of Corporations do so um and the other thing that um tagging back to Steve's presentation was the uh the that we have woodworking at the middle school no power tools so safety is very important but uh I I told the PTA I I said this really touches me personally because uh in seventh grade that was my first a in in school in woodworking Mr anger's class so it's uh so must have been the family genius my uh one Uncle who was a u a uh Carpenter Master Carpenter in the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II he didn't serve because he had to uh get those ships uh built and get them out to sea how how about these for the highlights I have congratulations to the to U the two w winners from the middle school and a reminder that March 11th we will have the preliminary budget presentation for 2425 yeah that looks good to me if there are no other comments from the board members uh we'll go ahead to the second section of public comments uh we'll open it up at 7:56 p.m. no one on the computer either okay no one online and no one in the chamber so we'll close public comments at 7:56 p.m. it looks like uh there's a need for an executive session for so Mrs zelis if you could uh take us through that please sure I move to convene an executive session in accordance with Section 8 of the open public meetings act the purpose of this closed session will be to discuss I believe uh negotiations legal security or some student or Personnel issues uh minutes of the session will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists second yes hi any Nays any absens extensions okay we are an executive at 7:57 p.m. there will be no further voting after the executive session so we'll be adjourning uh the meeting immediately after that so thank you