the regular monthly meeting of April 18th 2024 was reconvened and called to order at 8:01 p.m. at Thomas Addison School room 19371 Fon Avenue Fon New Jersey there are eight members of the public in attendance can I have a roll call missel Mr baldowski here Mr B here Dr ber Miss Brown here movich present Mr Rosenberg here Mr spendel is absent miss yman here Mrs Mayhan present weire 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 meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the fair loan board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof distributed to the persons on the approved list posted in the Board of Education and administrative office and sent to the Bergen record on the Star Ledger the announcement posting for the regular monthly meeting along with the date place and time thereof was distributed on January 5th 202 24 please join me in the flag salute I pledge algi to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation God indivisible with lice for all we're going to start with our student rep reports we have michella joy from Memorial Middle Schools our student representative Dimitri Figaroa from TJ middle school as a student representative and Prima marang ganti our Farland high school student representative thank you guys so much for being here the floor is yours at Memorial and TJ students are preparing for njsla testing both Memorial and TJ begin testing upon return from spring break with the fifth and eighth grade science then all grades will take Ela and math the following week our thanks to fairon map supervisor Miss deusi and science supervisor Mr derusso as well as Math and Science teachers from both Memorial and TJ for hosting the district's first stem nights for students in grade five on April 17th with the sixth grade scheduled for May 1st the event was designed for family to be able to participate in three activities of their choice throughout the night we have some awesome news for Miss Wade Lake's Bridges classes at Memorial they have embarked on a fantastic pen pal project sending letters to special education class special education classes in all 50 states it's not just about writing skills it's a colorful journey across the map as they receive replies and color in each state a fun interactive way to learn about the country the inspiration for this project came from a life skills classroom in a Kansas now our students are eagerly anticipating letters from schools across the US excited to learn about the different regions and of course to find out which state they'll be coloring in next on their map our thanks to miss cosmi miss barnova miss Silverman Mr generosity and Mr Kirk for arranging visits by our Orchestra bands and course to Ms radburn and wpoint last week to promote our performing arts program our group will be leading our middle schoolers to performances at Bergen County for teen arts on May 17th spring concerts on May 20th and May 22nd and the Dorney High nodes Festival on June 6th during the month of April for autism acceptance month Memorial Middle School comes together to celebrate and support individuals with autism on world autism day April 2nd the school Community showed solidarity by wearing tie-dye shirts the enthusiasm is not just symbolic teachers and staff generously donate $5 each to wear tiedye with all proceeds benefiting FAS in autism programs within our district the spirit of EX cence and inclusion is further showcased through a door decorating contest revealing the incredible talent and creativity of our staff the door serve as a visual reminder of our commitment to understanding and supporting individuals with autism students voted for their favorite door this morning and the winner was announced this afternoon the winning class will receive a special surprise our thanks to Mrs yashari and Miss Demitri TJ's Arts teachers for their display of student work throughout the building in particular a mural of Annie Frank was recently been completed and a mural of Malala is currently in Pro in progress to honor the Palestine female education activist and winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize the youngest person to win the award at age 17 Memorial is teaming up with the Seeing Eye of Morristown for an epic fundraising Showdown the last few weeks the home rooms have been battling it out to raise the most money but this isn't your ordinary fundraiser it's our annual Penny power challenge home rooms work together to collect pennies while secretly sabotaging others with silver coins and bills each coin or dollar bill subtracts from a home room's Penny total the goal of this year's Penny CH Penny challenge is to have a fun while supporting is to have fun while supporting the Seeing Eye of Morristown to kick things off we had some special visitors on Monday April 1st two adorable black labs 6-year-old Harper and 11 week old vow showed us the amazing work they do to help others Trisha the representative from the Seeing Eye shared the rigorous training these pups undergo to become guide dogs one heartwarming story came from Paula Harper's mom who started losing her vision in her early 20s now at 71 years old Paula stays active by walking six to seven miles a day thanks to Harper it's stories like these that Inspire us to support the Seeing Eye in their mission one fundraising one fun our fundraising efforts will culminate in hoops for Humanity tomorrow where our winning teams will face off against the memorial teachers and staff it's sure to be a slam dunk of a fundraiser all right I wasn't here last month so these are new microphones are really cool so whoever's idea that was great job um all right so at ferland high school as we prepare to wrap up our year we've had um all our honor societies have their induction ceremonies already um it was great to see some of our board members present there so thank you to all of you who are there and Dr diio and um we this week we had our spring spirit week so our days this week included Barbie day touristy Tuesday dress like your favorite cartoon character Tea Time versus tea time which is dressed like a te like you're going to a tea party or like you're going for uh a golf tea time yeah and and apparel day tomorrow of course is our classic Spirit Week tradition and our favorite day has actually been today which was tea time vers tea time because we got to see our gym teachers dress up in dresses and Pearls handing out crumpets or biscuits biscuits and crumpets to all the students so definitely an eventful spirit week and the sgaa and the class councils are now preparing for their annual officer election C which means that everybody myself included will be replaced um which includes the Board of Education uh representative position um and especially for you two I really hope when you get to the high school you continue to uh run and be involved with Board of Education um and we are going to be having our elections in late May and our primaries in early May and we also have our class trips coming up on the class Council side um from grades 9 through 12 the freshmen I believe are going to Funplex sometime in May and the sophomores and juniors have their joint Dorney Park trip on June 2nd and the seniors are going to Six Flags on June on June 7th so on June 2nd is Dorney Park but we're going to Six Flags which is way better and and the mass drama club is putting on the production of Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights Dream from May 7th to May 11th and yes I will be there and um if you want a free ticket of course um please just reach out to one of the um advisers or to myself and we will of course arrange that for you you don't want to miss it because it was a lot of memorization on my part so please come and finally we have our marathon which is happening um June 2nd to June 3rd this is probably our biggest schoolwide fundraiser um of the year and I believe uh back when of course Mr baldowski was student was a student he explained to us at student dialogue that this was a huge thing um and uh we're obviously trying to make it as big as possible this year so we are looking forward Community sponsors so if any of you know of any businesses or any um local businesses or personal that would be interested in sponsoring Marathon please reach out to miss Stern who's a Student Activities coordinator her email address is M Stern Fairland schools.org and um last but not least we have our proms coming up Junior Prom was this past weekend with over 250 attendees reported which was amazing and of course our senior prom is May 29th and your board meeting is May 30th so unfortunately this will be my last last board meeting of the year um because I'm not sure I will be around on May 30th um and with that being said um I just want to thank each and every one of you on the board for listening to me give my Spiel every month since September um this has truly been a highlight of my month every every month and I really have the privilege of saying that I've had a personal conversation with most if not all of you on the board um each about something different of course uh some of you were uh regular student dialogue uh people know that um that this is something that means a lot to me and to be Board of Education representative has been a dream of mine since freshman year um I used to watch those online board meetings like they were reality TV and now I can't believe that I'm the one being watched like a reality TV star um so of course thank you thank you for all the work that you do um and the lessons that I learned here and how to talk to such amazing people who work tirelessly and I'm not just saying that I truly mean that that I see it I see it in the change that happens in the schools I see it in how you guys come to all the school events and if you're unable to make it you post on social media you tell your friends about it it doesn't go unnoticed and um it truly means a lot to be in a district where our well-being is prioritized because unfortunately not all school districts have such a strong Board of Education as ourself so thank you oh my college announcement Miss Brown's like staring me down I'm like did I say something wrong so um I'm very proud to say that I officially committed to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania I'll be pursuing my uh double Bachelor's in the honors program in economics and Industrial and systems engineering and my I'm doing an accelerated Masters at the same time in one year for financial engineering and I'm also on the pre-law track so it's going to be a rough five years but uh you know this isn't my last time I'll be back I'm only an hour and a half away if any uh crises occur you have my email so I'm only one phone call away and I'll be happy to come back to the place I call home and hopefully sitting on that side of the table soon so thank you all Mr Figaroa Mr Joy thank you so much Prima thank you so much for your time your effort and your commitment to our community and to your community and May the odds be ever in your favorite sounds like a really rough here okay Effie thank you um you guys are welcome to stay that being said it is 8:13 and I'd love to be home in my bed too so or doing homework I guess um so thank you guys for coming and being with us Dr diano superintendent comments good evening everyone um just uh a few points in the superintendent report this evening first uh continuously continuously grateful for the opportunities to be within our schools within our classrooms and meeting with our staff uh a lot of really great and exciting things happening uh over the past several weeks we've had a tremendous number of collaborative sessions to be able to discuss uh our staff renewal recommendations that we're preparing for um very excited about making those recommendations in the coming weeks to the board um our school scheduling for our middle schools and high school and our elementary schools for next year um and as well we most recently have been culminating some planning meetings for our summer construction and renovation project so there's a lot going on behind the scenes that will will come to fruition uh in the coming months and uh in addition to that we have been planning extensively as well uh with a number of different initiatives that we will be presenting on May 30th in uh at the board meeting on our state of our schools presentation which will Encompass uh feedback from our superintendent entry plan as well as our district and board goals and objectives in addition to that a number of the different topics and themes that have been priorities here in the school district which Encompass our gifted and talented in enrichment programs our Career and Technical education and vocations uh our multi-tiered systems of intervention and supports um you know looking at the work that's been done this year on coding and computer science survey that went out to our students in grades 5 through 12 on volunteer and community service hours uh as well as inquiring about our students interests around World Language so really quite an incredible amount ount of work that's happening um we're going to be very happy and pleased to report that culmination as as you all know it's an iterative process uh as part of any evolving organization we have a large number of initiatives that we give updates on and we continue with those initiatives in the subsequent year but at this point in time presenting in May allows us to really reflect on the work that's been done um the initiatives that have been set by the administration and by the Board of Education and it allows us to re set ourselves and have some meaningful discussion around what will happen next uh for the 2425 school year uh another uh initiative that I'm I'm very very pleased with and I'd like to uh just bring the board and the Public's attention to and there will be an email communication that goes out is around uh some updated revisions to our District web page around the hi investigation process and resources that are there that I think will be uh uh welcome addition and an enhancement to the work that already takes place in our school district than is communicated uh because it will provide resources for parents to really inform and educate them I'd like to thank Dr lactina and Our IT department our our anti-bullying Specialists and our building Administration and our District administration for all of the work that they do behind the scenes in order to manage those initiatives and to support every single child within our school district and then last but certainly not least we each year in the school calendar the board approves three snow slash emercy school closing days uh so that has been uh communicated that to the to the community that we have two remaining snow days emergency days and uh as part of our calendar those are given back if they remain uh in existence towards the end of May so that's Memorial Day weekend so the the district website has been updated um noting that Friday before Memorial Day which is the 24th of May and the Tuesday after Memorial Day which of course we're already closed for those are two uh school closing days that we will have that's been emailed already out to the community there is going to be another reminder that goes out tomorrow and another one in a few weeks I know that our school buildings are also communicating that out uh there's one little caveat and I hope that we don't have to tap into it but of course if between now and Memorial Day we have any other emergencies where we need to close school certainly we would have to make an adjustment to the calendar later on right so that's all noted on the board approved calendar um and uh and we're ready to go as far as uh making sure that we have that nice long weekend for everybody as we pull up long stretch here last stretch at the end of the school year so that's all I have for the superintendent report and I'll turn it over to our board president Miss Mayan so um this is the public comments on agenda items only please limit your questions at this time to agenda items please provide your name and municipality in which you reside and sign in comments are limited to 3 minutes this is not a dialogue between the speaker and the board all comments will be taken at once and when comments are complete the board president or District administration will respond as best they can the floor is open hi uh my name is Dave Mosher and I live in the radburn section of Fon and I'm a parent I'm sorry oh my question sorry uh yeah that's okay I thought you were addressing me yeah so sorry I'm Dave Mosher I'm in uh I live in the radburn section of Fon and I have an incoming kindergartener and a student to be third grader in radburn elementary school and I just want to First want to say uh thanks to the volunteers who are here um on the on the board uh I'm a fellow board member myself at uh the PTA uh for radburn so thank you for your service um and I did have a question about and just just to be clear I'm diving into a lot of the Boe stuff so I um am educating myself actively as in like the past week but I did have a question um about the and maybe this is for the treasure but there I noticed that there's a $29 million cash and Bank amount and I'm I'm curious like how that's handled um you know is there a way to make interest on that because I didn't see that reflected in the report so that could be a lot of funding that could help the uh the district um so that's I know nothing about you know I'm not a financial expert so that was one of my questions um and I'll leave it at that so yeah thank you and hello from radburn and what's up with the $29 million in cash thank you very much anyone else do we have anybody on the Google Doc we do not okay uh can I um sure I would love to respond to that question thank you so much I'm Danielle I'm the uh business administrator uh so that is is our um capital reserve that you're noting and um if you take a look at our well we had an audit presentation and then we also had a um budget presentation where we note that we are completing a districtwide um facility assessment right now and basically what that will do is with 10 schools it you know it sounds like it's a lot of money but in reality with you know prioritizing health and safety we also have educ needs for our students uh we're currently undergoing an additional enrollment analysis as well um so basically the that fund is developed for the capital enhancements of your district and we also have a long- range facility plan and that plan corresponds to how much money you have in that Reserve so we actually are um we actually don't have enough money to fund our long range facility plan which kind of sounds crazy when you look at that number uh but once we complete our districtwide facility assessment we'll have a comprehensive presentation that will kind of outline what our longterm plan and goal is for those funds oh and the interest uh so we actually have we do have earnings and interest that is gained and that is reflected in our bank reconciliations um but the district does have strict guidelines on how it can invest money so they use platforms such as New Jersey Cash management and those are all within the guidelines and compliance of how you can invest those Capital funds you're welcome seeing that there are no um questions on the G dock the floor is closed and um just prior to opening for board comment on agenda items only please note that we will be tbling three 3 a 224 minutes 37 minutes the regular monthly meeting from 3:14 um due to a technical glitch our um updates were not uploaded properly and so they will be tabled till the next meeting the floor is open Rosenberg hold on one second um I just wanted to congratulate morea brudy on her um retirement um more barudi is um I've come to know first as her kid scout leader many many years ago and then as a teacher in the um at Mills and um she's the one person who started like I believe started read Across America in the in our district and every year she she was the one who invited the board and Community leaders to read to the kids and um she just had an amazing Presence at um mils she wasn't doing as well this year and she missed it um because she was um on leave and um I spoken to her and I said oh is it going to happen because I finally can attend read Across America because I wasn't teaching and um she said I I certainly hope so and it did and um just like she would have wanted it to just like she wanted it to and she was just an incredible presence as a reading teacher at at Mills and I wish her a lot of uh Goodwill good goodness and her Gra and your retirement um and hope to see her around the community okay so I have a couple of questions my first question is um the before and after care did it go up from last year that's 9g and by how much my another question I have is does the district make a profit or breaks even on the before and after care and last thing is just a comment I looked at our attorney bills this month and unfortunately I can't vote in good conscience for them we the district spent $7,000 on responses to Oprah requests not just uh for writing letters I have done opra request in multiple school districts multiples manip most of the time it's written by the Oprah custodian not by the attorney every single response yes I'm sure if they have a question they can ask it that's fine but I don't think every single question every single letter should be written by our attorney for every response for the opras and therefore I'm not voting yes on uh comegno bills this month thank you anyone else Miss Brown um I just wanted to say that I'm very excited about the new elementary school teacher being added to West Morland um I was actually at the West Morland PTO meeting last night and where I was peppered with questions about board updates and um I got to see I think one of the cool parts of being on the board and being there was being able to see the excitement on parents' faces firsthand knowing that there's going to be a new section of second grade which is going to decrease the amount of students in the classrooms and increase the amount of time that that teacher is going to see those students um so I just wanted to thank you guys for listening to um Mr laglio and and for adding that uh wonderful addition to West Morland which I love so dear thank you okay um Mr Bowski if you can just take time um great I won't repeat everything that Michael had shared however I just wanted to give a special thanks to Mr Mrs brudy on 24 years of service as a teacher and intervention specialist you have had an incredible impact on the lives of our students and you are the reason that linky started reading so I am eternally grateful Mr Bowski I just want to make one simple comment um quickly to um to miss fic's point of the Oprah requests just so our community understands that legal fees are expensive um however this these bills include the review of over 2500 pages of redact um information for our Oprah requests and so um good work for them I mean that's a lot of work and a lot of reading um that I am sure a lot of uh law clerks were assigned at the office and so I do not envy them um but just to understand where those legal fees come from that is a lot of of review and redactions to ensure that the proper information is provided from the district thank you okay the floor is closed can I get a motion for 5 a C through e so moved second Miss manuso manuso can you please call the role Mr yes Mr B yay Dr berini Miss Brown yes Miss abstain on 5D and no on f33a and that's that's a no and the other five dsing on 5D no everything except I'm voting no for 33a Mr Rosenberg yes Miss yman I'm voting for everything except for 5D where it's no and everything Mrs Mayhan yes motion passes can I have a motion for 6A through D so moved second Miss yman thank you so much yes let's finish six and I'll go back to three I apologize so was Jean I'm Sorry Miss Brown and Mr lenberg for the that's correct so again right now we're going to vote on a 6 a through D Miss manuso can you call the role Mr balowski yes Mr bant I Dr berini Miss Brown yes Miss fich yes Mr Rosenberg yes Miss Yurman yes Mrs Mayhan yes motion passes we're gonna go back we are vot uh can I have a motion for 3A again we are now I'm telling you what we're going to vote on and what we're not what we are approving we are approving executive session 34 executive session three uh 44 special Action Personnel 44 some moved second thank you guys miss manuso can you call the role Mr baldowski yes Mr bant yes Dr berini yes Miss Brown yes Miss fich obstain on everything Mr Rosenberg yes Miss yman abstain on everything Mrs Mayhem yes motion passes can I have a motion for 7 a through F and seven H through J so moved second Miss manuso can you call the role Mr bski yes Mr Banta I Dr berini Miss Brown yes Miss fich so no on 782 said 7 J5 7 E6 and everything else yes 7 A2 7 J5 and 7 E6 Mr Rosenberg yes Miss yman yes Mrs Mayan yes motion passes can I have a motion for8 a through e some moved second Edie guys roll call Mr baldowski yes Mr Banta yay Dr balini m brown yes Miss fich yes Mr Rosenberg yes Miss yman yes Mrs Mayhan yes motion passes can I have a motion on nine a through through G Ed some moved second oh my questions were never answered you have a pending motion right now so let's address that and that was not nice okay roll call Mr baldowski yes Mr Banta I Dr berini m brown yes Miss fich we're in nine right yes yes Mr Rosenberg yes Miss Yurman yes Mrs Mayhan yes motion passes can I get a motion on 10 a through l so moved second roll call Mr baldowski yes yes Mr Banta yes Dr berini yes m brown yes Miss fich no on 10 C kamno bills and yes on everything yeah Mr Rosenberg yes Miss yman yes Mrs Mayhan yes motion passes this is the public comments can my questions be answered please because that's not right that's disrespectful sorry I just lost my train of thought so I just want to respond my apologies I am going to hold public comment I'm sorry Community we're just going to respond to the board comments and then we will move into public comment on non-agenda items uh Dr diano be happy to um so in regards to the legal bills as um as you all know I've been a superintendent of schools now for 10 years I've represented school districts that are a third of the size and spend more money in legal fees than fairon does um it's uh I'm very happy with the representation that we receive uh to Mr bossk's point in regards to open requests there's a great deal of redaction and a great deal of documents that have to be have we have to go through and that's the whole purpose of making sure that the process that we utilize and the services that we utilize um is engaged with legal counsel in order to make sure that it is done appropriately um and quite quite honestly for the amount of redactions and reviews quite efficiently um from a financial a fiscal standpoint as far as the question as I understand them or the comments um regarding before and after care I don't know if u m manuso has those answers at this time and if not we could certainly follow up we could look into that and we can report it back to the full board um and I think those were the only two questions um comments that are made does the district make a profit or that's connected to the the question right the before care and after care cost and relation to the profit so we could follow up with that and then we can end up sending a communication to the board once we go and have an opportunity to take a look at that okay thank you this is the public comments on non-agenda items only please limit your questions at this time to non-agenda items please provide your name and municipality in which you live and sign in comments are limited to 3 minutes this is not a dialogue between the speaker and the board all comments will be taken at once and when comments are complete the board president or District administration will respond as best they can the floor is open for non agenda items uh hello um I was originally planning to ask about the uh the survey that was for the students but I think we got the answer that it's going to be um reported on May sorry yeah my name is naor Mayor I'm a fair resident in the um Mills Area let's say um so that was my um original intention uh but since I'm here I'll want to use the time to um maybe share my personal story uh that it relates here so I have two boys uh one in high school one in middle school and my younger son um when he was in first and second grade he was struggling with uh with school and then on the second grade the end of second grade was recommended that he will be held for another year which we accepted uh and then um he kept struggling until we got to I think the seventh grade where we finally decided on our own to take him to um um see if he suffers from um ADHD which we suspected for all that time and we've been told that it's not the case here he's been diagnosed and I think sometime then he started to get medication and that changed his um his life and he's been doing very very well since then um what I'm trying to say I'm not trying to uh insinuate any uh wrongdoing I think uh the schools are here are amazing the staff the teachers everybody uh that's amazing um work and they were trying to accommodate him as much as possible I was very impressed with everything but there might be um lacking the right skills or tools to identify such a um situation or condition uh us as parents we only have two kids so it's uh um we don't know how to identify that um but we will really appreciate if or or think that the schools should be able to identify that I think his life would have been much much easier throughout the school and later we've been told by by the doctor that it was not necessary to hold him for another school and that didn't actually contribute anything to his progress all he needed is that uh medication uh just wanted to share it with you and hopefully you can act on that thank you very much are there any comments on the Google Doc no there are not okay Mr Mayor thank you for sharing your story with that okay with that the floor is closed um I will now open the floor for board comments um for other business mrich Miss yman okay so just to clarify my about my Oprah concern is that every single email that you have with a person who OAS doesn't have to be written by the attorney uh before uh we rece we have this firm all our email between the person oering and the person and the district was done by the Oprah custodian and I don't understand why we changed it it was never discussed with the board that's number one number two the name I asked this last board meeting and I was told I'm going to get back to um the answer will be given back to me I'm still waiting so my question again is what is the name of the vendor that is that is the only one that is that is that installs benches can I please get a response are there any other questions I'm driving I don't want them to be forgotten this time so that's why I'm I don't have to answer your question I don't have the answer to that off the top of my head but I could get it for you I don't have that I asked that last board meeting and this is the second time I'm asking for the same information okay I guess I'm going to make a motion today because this is four I would like to make a motion that for future Retreats especially if they're held on Saturday or when or in or if a board member is absent due to illness we will ensure that more detailed minutes are taken so that everybody who is ill or can come to the board meetings because of religious beliefs can I understand what has transpired and understand what are the new things that the board will be doing differently I'll that second that motion oh yes I also wanted to add one more thing to my motion wasn't done always have we can always have a motion during public comments always we have done this since the beginning it's been practice you certainly can but she didn't recognize her to allow her to go out of order off the agenda and make a separate motion it's however you'd like to handle it I'm going to recognize the motion because it has been P practice and we can discuss moving forward uh procedure will defer to our policy Committee of the whole um just as a point of order Madam president I would suggest we get a concise statement of the motion just so it's clear on on what is pending um so that would require again I guess a restatement of the motion as concise as possible and then miss urman as the second would have to consent to that okay I would like our board retreat minutes to be very detailed so that and our committee meeting uh minute should be detailed and all attachment that are given to the Committees should be also part of the minute minutes okay so if if I can restate it the motion is to make board retreat and board committee minutes more detailed and for all attachments from committees to be shared with board members yes yeah all board members all board MERS um Miss yerman do you consent with how that motion was worded yes a second okay yes okay um is there any discussion on the floor Michael I did not I was not able to attend the board retreat last uh last month but I was I was okay with the um minutes I received I also um am okay with the way the minutes are given from committee meetings so I will be voting no on the motion m brown um so part of the motion I just want clarification is that you want all of the minutes from the Committees shared with you no the motion is excuse me the motion is to make to to require that minutes from the board retreat and committee meetings be more detailed and that attachments provided to committee members at committee meetings be provided to all board members that's the motion that's pending even if they already are they're not the fin Google Drive the finance committee was Point yeah let's let's please not have interruptions back and forth so the the floor is Miss Brown so everything is already shared with us you want more details on I don't know I would refrain from yeah okay I I restated the motion I I can't speak to what the intent of the motion is okay so it's more detail for minutes for board retreat more detail for minutes for commit committee meetings and for any attachments provided to committee members we provided to all board members okay Dr berini thank you president I'm going to vote know for for two reasons one I don't know what more detailed means and that's not a definition there's no it doesn't say 100 words 200 words 450 words no spelling mistakes and the second concern I have is if a board member says it's not detailed enough what are the repercussions does the does the superintendent get yelled at I don't know so I can't vote Yes on something that there's not specifics in the in the motion Mr Banta as I was told at a uh Retreat or no some training collection they're minutes not hours okay um and everything is sent home before the meeting and then a uh summary is sent home after the meeting and if you can't come to a meeting that's fine all right it's nice to know if you're not going to come ahead of time but if you can't make it for whatever reason you know we all have personal lives that's fine but the way we do it now it works okay we we get we get the minutes after words we we get the attachments we get everything that goes from one committee to all the people so I'm going to vote no and plus you know you know no discussion's been had on this in any other committee and now we're doing this dropping bombs at the end of a meeting which I thought we were trying to get away from but that was discussed at The Retreat so um no it's it's it's it's a pointless motion Mr Bowski could you take the okay so I just want to note that meeting minutes are historical document that record key information um discussion points decisions and actions unlike a transcript which is a word for word record meeting minutes deliver accurate concise impartial accounts of an event so we are not um required to provide a transcript for um committee meetings for um meetings of both regular and executive um meetings and we certainly are not don't need to provide that to for a board Retreat that board retreat is historically um done on a Saturday it has been um I'm going to defer to Mr Banton Mr Rosenberg but I believe for at least the last 15 years um understandably Mr Rosenberg you are on vacation I do appreciate that there are other people who wable to attend but I will always ask that this information is provided to you well in advanced it was supposed to be in November no one stated anything but Mr Rosenberg that he was unable to attend and then when it was rescheduled for February as a result of the speaker inability to attend in November it was rescheduled again on a Saturday it is historically on a Saturday I understand that um there are situations however if you let us know then we can Pro you know then we can have a conversation if you do not identify and you do not show up or you are ill you have to understand that we can't stop a prescheduled um program and meeting and that you will be provided with the minutes which are a guide they are not going to be a transcript because a it's not required but B because it is a 4our long discussion that is supposed to be about learning and growing and Rapport building and that's really what it was um the public is always invited to attend I implore you to attend um it was a great morning and I'm looking forward to another one um anyone else Miss yman so I was unable to attend the board retreat because I was not feeling well but and I mentioned that um before the meeting um I found it a little difficult to really kind of embrace that District goals were done on at a meeting that it wasn't I didn't see it on the agenda I could be wrong I'm just gonna kind of leave that out there um but I think that's when parents who are involved in the school system would really want to have be able to hop on YouTube or F on TV and actually have you know Embrace what's being presented to us in in a district goal type scenario so being that it wasn't on the agenda and it wasn't it wasn't really totally spelled out the dialogue that's that was my only concern for that can you just clarify from me do you mean District goals or board goals whatever was discussed at the at the uh District goals I thought it was District goals so District goals were actually sent in advance um as prepared by Dr diio and I forwarded it to all of you and learned how to hyperlink and and did it um so those are actually sent in advance of the board retreat but I didn't see it on the agenda so I I can double check that for you yeah yeah I mean it was added later but it wasn't it wasn't on the agenda on the day of but I'm I'm leaving it as I think that it's not necessarily the board members but I think the public would have liked to either be able to come to the meeting knowing that was being presented or at least have a video that actually presents something that's really important that has never been at a retreat so that's that's just my comment on it thank you so much Miss fich so what started me all on this is I attended the education committee meeting and unfortunately what transpired in the concerns that board members had was not in any of the committee minutes um we talked in great length about community service not mentioned that it will it said I'm wrong it says it will be discussed in May but we discussed it in the me committee meeting and therefore it should have been said we had a long discussion and we're going to continue having this discussion in the finance committee meeting none of the attachments were attached I actually by the board question uh the board uh questions I actually asked if they could be attached but in for the longest time the the attachments that the committee members get not everybody gets and that means certain board members get one thing and certain board members another thing also for the board retreat we're we changed the way we did policy we are changing the way we doing certain things so that everybody's on the same page so that every single board member that couldn't attend or wasn't there for whatever reason will be everybody would know what's going on it would be very helpful if they said these we discussed a b and c and these are the new things that's going to happen we decided that we're going to have policy meetings this way we're going to have this this way so that everybody will be on the same page and I think that's helpful looking at the committee on the board retreat um minutes I was the one who the one who did not attend notice that the board goals were not and District goals were not even in the minutes and I that was one my number question number one on the board question and I brought it up to you the administration um but I was isn't even there but I'm the only one who read the minutes that noticed that so what I'm trying to say is I'm not saying I want a transcript but I would like to know that if there was a concern by committee members it will be notated on the minute all the attachments will be notated so then when I'm not I'm physically can't be in most of the committee meetings except uh education because of quum rules so I would like to be able to understand what transpired during those committee meetings what discussions obviously Personnel we cannot but education finance and other committees we should be able to write concerns that the members had or anything else so that when I look at it say oh that makes sense or I or at least or otherwise I'm thinking why didn't this they brought this up which probably was discussed and was answered but I don't know so it would be very helpful I'm not saying like transcript but I would like it more detailed where concerns were discussed attachments were there and if if the board decides to do something differently than they currently do it will be noted that we have a memorandum this is what we're going to do from now on I'm not asking for a lot here Mr Bowski thank you I won't reiterate too much of what Miss Mayan had said about a record transcript being too detailed or anything I simply want to note that uh so I do believe how we do it now um provides enough information and enough information that if you have a question um certainly call the chairperson we all have open dialogues between members here if you have a question if you couldn't make a meeting I am sure anybody any member on that committee would happily talk to any other member um I know with negotiations we don't keep uh detailed minutes because of the confidentiality of those types of committee meetings however when a members Miss is a negotiation meeting the chair or another member will connect with that member um to explain the concerns that were brought off so I I think how we're doing it is proper at the moment uh we keep a record of the highlights for more details call somebody that was there I will be voting no on this motion thank you louder please okay second um sorry uh Miss manuso can you call the rooll Mr no Mr n Dr ber m brown no no Miss fich yes Mr Rosenberg no no Miss yman yes Mrs Mayhem no no motion does not pass any other [Music] comments it was aake Mr Rosenberg um on Tuesday I attended The Pedestrian safety committee meeting um a lot of good discussion it was a pretty new uh committee um and it was the first time we met this year so we went over um how things are going with the new TR traffic patterns around the schools and it wasn't just a discussion about schools but obviously um because of the nature of schools and walking to school um it was um appropriate to talk about the schools um and one thing Captain L roza mentioned was that there's been seven pedestrians hit in Falon this year only one involved um a student so that was a that was a good thing um they feel that the light the lights that you press the lights are working um tonight today at the student Di OG meeting um as I said as we spoke at the um pedestrian safety committee meeting I asked the students how they think we should be um we could get the kids more on board I'm making sure that they press the uh the buttons making sure that they're being safe crossing the streets so I got some good feedback from from the students um and invited them to continue talking about about it um I there's two documents that the police made that Dr dionisio had sent out at the beginning of the year about bike safety and um student um and pedestrian safety as well as the uh officer I mean Captain L Roa mentioning that they're taking time in the lead classes to actually talk about pedestrian and bike safety also um to make sure because you know accidents are going are going to happen um but we want to keep it to the minimum you know and we want to keep our kids safe so um I if anyone has any ideas they could get involved they could talk to Captain L Roa they could contact me and um I'll be happy to uh answer thanks thank you so much for keeping our children safe Miss Yurman noted um I had one question about um the New Jersey Schoolboard Association conference and when that might be approved um because I know of other districts that have already approved it on their schedule on their agendas so that's one question and then I'd like to make a motion that um we our policies we've had maybe an hour and a half of policy since I've been on the board which is um year and a half um and I'd like to make a motion that we start doing at least the minimum of five policies that are outdated per Strauss Esme be done at each committee meeting if that's the structure that you talked about at the retreat which I don't know that because it wasn't detail but that's that's my um that was my feeling of that's what we're doing so um but at least a minimum of five policies because we've hardly done any at all and we were way behind even before I got on the board so my motion is to uh to bring it closer is to um at at the commit if we're doing it at the committee level that we address at least five policies per meeting at at the committee level so like uh education would address education policies uh buildings and grounds would address buildings and grounds but at least five at every meeting that we do that so that's my motion is there a second yes second just for for clarification it the motion is that each committee at each meeting review five policies at least five policies a minimum of f so each committee at each committee meeting review a minimum of five policies right and that's and that's with an assumption that we're not doing Committee of the whole which has been our past practice so it's a little o there's like there's some answers that I just don't know as a board member of What was decided at the retreat of how we were going to address that but I got the feeling that it was going to be at the committee level so that's so the policy of um policy is a policy of the whole and the discussion was that um to be able to get through as many policies as possible to update and review those policies would start in the committee that they fall under right for a review at which point they would then go to the policy of the whole because what was happening with past practices we were get we were um being provided with 10 15 policies and we were getting through one or two right correct so to be able to sit with the committee um everyone was provided an opportunity to share their interest for um small policies and everyone was given their first choice of policy with the exception of Mr Rosenberg um as at least one one committee and so if that if that was their passion that was their push then they would be able to have that first reads the wrong word because first read is out policy the whole but first review and then it would go to the first read of policy the whole right so I have no I don't have a concern I just wanted to you had asked you said you wanted more specific wanted to give you that yeah so I don't have any concern about that I'm just looking to have at least a minimum of five policies that are outdated so okay so we have a second I'm gonna open the floor Dr Bernini Mr Rosenberg I'm just a little concerned about having five per meeting I would ask Lisa if she might want to amend that to have the superintendent recommend to each committee which which policies need to review immediately so if it's just one policy one and one month it might be three in another month but to say five that we only have an hour whatever we have for the committee meetings are short5 minutes depending on the committee yeah so I would I would like if possible to change it to where what Dr dionio suggests that we need to get through right away and then we deal with those policies instead of just going through all of them F him give us the ones that we think he thinks are most important to do so I'm just asking you if you would modify that I would modify it based on the recommendation of our superintendent I think are you asking a question or you're saying that you would modify the motion to be that each committee would review policies at the committee meeting as recommended by the superintendent yes okay so every month I think that's what she means every month we have to do policy so the the amended motion would be that each committee review policies as recommended by the superintendent each month yes committee committee and would miss fich do you consent to the motion as amended yes okay so discussion on the amended motion discussion on the amended motion Mr Rosenberg okay I'm going to be voting no because I don't feel I feel that we're getting away again we're making motions during new business we're not doing it the proper way we're we're bringing things up at the last minute it's not fair to the administration it's not fair to Dr dionio to be doing this it's not fair to the board to be doing this we have an agenda for a reason um we have a way of doing stuff for a reason our committees don't meet every month um sometimes there might not be time in a committee meeting to do it I think we need to talk that this is a discussion that should continue at a board retreat or during a discussion maybe during during during open uh during public comments but not a motion during public comments um and I will be making a motion next month to not have motions during um public com I mean board comments thank you for letting us know ahead of time Miss vich as a board member we have two jobs evaluate the superintendent and to do policy that's our one of the our job is policy it's we haven't had a policy meeting in months and we supposed that's our job this is not administrations uh telling us oh we're micromanaging them this is our job our job is do policy we haven't done policy we have so many outdated policy doesn't look great and we we're not doing our job as board members that's the problem and let's talk about it let's talk about it we can talk about it until we turn blue but if you're not not doing your job as board members and we promise that we are that's wrong so if we vote no on this by saying we're I think every month we should be reviewing even one policy a month per we should be at least having couple policies a month to at least say let's update this let's update this this is our only job and we don't want to do it this doesn't make sense so I've been um Miss yman has brought up the policies one are we going to discuss and one are we going to discuss them for the past couple of months I have bring of also and nobody's doing anything about it so obviously she had to do a motion so I really would like us to think that we should be reviewing policy on a monthly basis thank you Dr Dania the floor is yours thank you so as the board knows um through my updates and through the board retreat and the conversations that we've had uh the board just recently met for the first time only a few weeks ago with the new board committees based on the new board's availability so I think we had some really productive conversations in fact we had three committee meetings that lasted nearly four hours we got a lot of work done and that led up to to a lot of time sensitive items that were on recent agendas and then even agenda items this evening and coming up on May 2nd so all that said as we've also discussed and I've shared with the board part of the new process to be more efficient and more Nimble as a board because I did go back and watch old board meetings and from my administrative seat the board of the whole policy process and I know that there's consensus here on it was not an effective process right which is indicative of why to miss F elovich's point we are behind on policies completely concur um Miss Tai in the department the Administration has conducted an audit through Strauss Esme our policy company we have a list of policies that require updates administratively myself and the rest of our administrative team we've begun to assess the policies that we also believe are important to review now even though they may be current from uh the Strauss Esme and and legislative standpoint statutory standpoint we believe that there are some needs that we have which is why we actually have them sated for our next committee meetings in May so we couldn't put those on for the first meeting because that we had because we had as you reviewed all of the agendas a lot of other items so our plan and my recommendation is two to three policies per committee um my recommendation to the board would be to caution you around uh how many policies you're going to do through motion because I think you may be taking something on that you will not be able to potentially deliver on because it is going to be a very cumbersome process so I I would just I would not want the board to be in a position to pass a motion that then if you have five per committee that's going to be 20 to 25 policies in one month and you know that there's a volume of information that I'm already sharing with the board from a level of transparency and trying to create a workflow and process and I think in the amount of short time that we've been working together we've all done a great job I think there's more that can be done and think the the process around developing policy is critically important I agree um so that's my recommendation is to try to put these forward to the board and I know that some of you are on more than one committee so I also want you to think about that as well because you could be discussing and reviewing and they're quite they're quite detailed the policies and I don't disagree it is the function of the board to carry through the policies um it's also you know as an Administration we want want to be able to support the board in that endeavor so uh to the extent that that helps you um you know I leave that with you to to help you decide how you want to proceed Mr uh Dr bertolini sorry that's okay whatever just don't call me other names um I thought this the last motion was there wasn't specific number it was just a recommendation of of you so I I think that clears up the problem of five a month if if you believe there's one one policy that needs to be brought to the committee that's what I think that's what the motion was the final motion okay it could be five it could be could be whatever what he whatever whatever whatever he wants us to get I believe correct right that is the motion on the floor okay Mr Bowski can you just um take time I don't believe that at Dr dionio and his administrative team since he has um come on board has given us any reason to question him stating in public this evening that this is moving forward without emotion we have to trust the man that we hired through a very rigorous interview process which took took a significant amount of time out of um our summer over several full weekends and I believe that if at any point he goes back on his word then we have a conversation but a I don't believe that's going to be happening and B we have to trust that we unan unanimously made a decision to allow Dr Dean nio to move this District forward and I believe that by making a motion of this nature we are potentially showing him that we don't trust that his um words are powerful and meaningful and um we teach our children every day that their words are powerful and meaningful and he is the person who you know is the head of role models in our district he's a role model to our staff he's a role model to our supervisors our administrators he's a role model to our students so we have to trust that his words are powerful and meaningful additionally I don't vote um don't have a policy on that so I'm going to move forward um so car a private conversation thank you so much it's noted um so I just want to also make note that I don't vote on motions when they are put forth without um prior discussion because I don't have time to research so regardless of whether I agree with this or not I will always be voting no um anyone else okay Miss Brown um I I agree with uh Miss Mayan I trust my my administrators and I trust the man who everybody else but me hired um but I I believe I he's never given us any reason to believe that he's not a man of his word so I am going to be voting no because I believe in him and believe in his process um can I have a roll call no nay Dr despite my complete confidence in the superintendent yes Miss Brown no Miss yes Mr Rosenberg no yes no motion does not pass any other um comment yeah I just want to make sure that that no one else has any questions uh Mr Bel board comments um simply wanted to highlight that uh we had a student dialogue this evening uh prima's last one I guess as student rep uh I have all confidence in her that she will end up on this side of the table one day um but it is not the last time we will hear from her as she is the senior class president so at graduation uh we will see her on stage so uh just highlighting that we should be attending all the graduations for that matter as well despite her calling Mr Rosenberg her favorite board member this evening I will look past that um I didn't even notice that during dialogue this evening and she did say during dialog oh Mr Bowski is gonna bring that up tonight so if she's watching reality TV we're adding some drama um I also wanted to highlight um the ability to attend the national or not the Honor Society inductions that have been happening over the past couple weeks I had uh the opportunity to attend a few um and it is wonderful to see not only so many students being recognized but so many students being recognized in multiple Fields they were not being inducted into one Honor Society it was multiple honor societies these students were being inducted into um and just a reminder as part of our board goals um is the effort to make an appearance to attend these types of events and so as graduation season comes up I encourage board members to join in um celebrating our students in graduations and moving up ceremonies uh in the coming months as they will be busy times but there will be many opportunities for us to attend so thank you and enjoy spring break that was my last note Miss Brown um I have a couple things I um again I was at the PTO meeting for West Morland and I'm excited to share with the board that Mrs daglio excitedly shared that a lot of the benches that we've been discussing um it that have been needed to be replaced or being replaced in the near future um and she thanked us for that and she's excited for that um and I also wanted to share that I'm also excited to start going to moving up ceremonies and graduations um and then I hope everyone can attend the West Morland one cuz my Jack is moving up um so I'm excited to do those things and I also wanted to shout out the um track and field team they had their senior day this week and I wasn't able to stay as long as I wanted to um because I was running my two children to their sporting events but I was able to um spend a little time watching them in action um as I was running to Lacrosse um and I just wanted to congratulate those seniors and all of the seniors um in the in their spring Sports um and just to thank you for your time and effort on the Falon fields and courts and that's it thank you Mr Rosenberg thank you did did anyone be I went once so did any thank you okay some people might get upset at me and I really don't care I think we have to watch out of a couple things first of all we could we could ask Administration to do stuff but we should not be talking about Administration um in a way that we're we're assessing the administration because that's not supposed to be done at a public meeting um I think we need to go back to thinking you know why we're here because it it seems to me like where we went backwards this meeting from what we were getting away from and we were working really really well together this year and now we're going back and forth and we're making motions during the meeting again we're we're saying stuff isn't getting done um there's reasons for everything last last year the biggest thing that we were charged to do is the biggest thing that we're charged to do which is which is um getting a hiring a superintendent and that's why some of the the meetings didn't occur that could have occurred um we should have policy meetings we should be keeping up on policies um and I'm glad to hear that we are going to be keeping up on policies um going forward and especially if they're there's an important policy that we have to um get done but we need to respect each other and we need to um really think about why we're here and the reason we're here is for the children of Falon and we've been doing a great job this year for the children of Falon and I just want to keep doing keep doing that job which I've done for 17 years now so I think I know a little bit of what I'm saying so thank you floor is closed we have upcoming meetings um a minute just a second guys I am on the wrong agenda my apologies I'm on the wrong agenda okay upcoming meetings include May 2nd 2024 our public hearing budget adoption which will be at 7:30 p.m. at Edison school here in room 19 on May 30th is our regular monthly meeting at 7:30 at Edison school here in room 19 and on June 20th is our regular monthly meeting at 7:30 Edison school here in room 19 are we going back and Clos okay motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second I was louder than Lisa we are adjourn the meeting at 9:25 PM everyone have a good night and enjoy your all in favor all opposed enjoy your spring break