s if everyone could take their seats we'll get started with the meeting might just talk a little louder I'm having kind of vocal this is okay the board met tonight in executive session we're now ready to start the public portion of our meeting uh we did have one written communication uh between since the last meeting which was November 7th uh that was from uh cotton Wright and it came in on November 29th um asking for the superintendent's job descript so we referred uh Miss Wright to the policy portion of our website where you can find that job description if that is of interest to you uh and then the president's report we have a bit of a president's report here so um I know our younger participants will sit patiently through it um first of all remembrances uh Tony czone was Mr Tony the crossing guard was a crossing guard for years at Lyndon Avenue School and and more recently transferred up into the uh the south end of town uh he passed away recently so our thoughts go out to Mr Tony's family uh I've been I've crossed the street with Mr Tony many times and he was lovely and uh we think of our crossing guards go out in all weather and keep our kids safe he was very representative of that group and then our condolences Barbara to you on the passing of your father-in-law Richard Murphy um also recently and we also note the passing of longtime Glenn Ridge resident and former former buo council member and active School volunteer Carolyn Ferguson who died very recently and uh since our last meeting so please remember all of those individuals uh who gave so much to this community remember them in your thoughts and now um it is my friend Tracy's last meeting and we are honoring her on this night of Celebration when we're celebrating many things um she's right retiring from the board after nine years of service and to say that we will miss Tracy is an understatement um since she's been on the board we have passed a bond issue Acquired and renovated Central School navigated the difficult Waters of the covid and postco environment and deliberated over and acted on the numerous issues that confront the board day by day and those are quite numerous and we also selected a superintendent together this man um a wonderful accomplishment Tracy thank you through all of that Tracy has shown intelligence and wisdom and above all Grace which is her greatest quality uh she has consistently demonstrated respect for and care for her fellow board members she's honed all of those qualities through her many years of Public Service um working as a home and school volunteer and officer at lyen Forest Ridgewood and the high school you used to have this sort of quadfecta till we got another school and she hasn't had a chance to be an officer of the central home and School Association yet but there's time um now with that Legacy of accomplishment behind her she's ready to start the new chapter in her career and in addition to my heartfelt thanks to Tracy I thank her husband Roland who's here tonight and her children for um the sacrifices that they've made when Tracy hasn't been able to be with them and for supporting her through this public service career um to celebrate Tracy's gifts and generosity which she has shared so abundantly with the Abed uh education Community we will also plant a tree in her honor when Spring weather warms up again so since I don't have quite enough words to praise Tracy I hope that my fellow board members will take this opportunity to do so so please Tracy I just I want to thank you for helping me so so much when I when I joined the board you were a real mentor to me and I I'm forever grateful thank you I just wanted to um recap something Betsy said about um caring for board members Tracy bakes unbelievably well I met her at uh Lyndon uh meet the board um you know one of the one of the nights where you meet the candidat meet the cand well it was it was the night where you meet with talk to your teachers and then the board comes so you can meet people on the board and so back then Tracy used to make a spread and I walked by and i' eat a cookie and go to meet with a teacher come back grab something else meet with a teacher by the third time I stopped and I was like who are you what would you do this for a living so that's how I met Tracy and then I've served on her served with her terms and um it's been a pleasure I'll say since I have her family here to her family thank you because um the family has to has to give a lot of um your family members time when they commit to something like this so thank you for giving her to us all this time um she was really a perfect uh board member um everything a board member should be and no more and no less um we will not be able to replace her um she was uh great to all of us and I hope uh to those of you who are on the the board for a number of years that you know you get another one like like she has been um and to the constituents she represented you better than really better than you know and better than you could have hoped and to Tracy we'll clear that up over [Music] time Tracy I want to Echo at all of um our colleagues sentiments um 23 years in total nine on the board you know the the remaining years on hsas and involved with the schools that's just like unbel unbelievable public service that you've done for Glend so we are going to miss you we love you and thank you for all that you do so I met Tracy even before I was on the board because I was the one of the coordinators of Grace and Tracy was liaison and she was just always incredibly accessible and gracious and had an open ear and all of those things that I perceived in her as that in that role have carried over and then some on the board and I just want to thank you for being sort of a model of graciousness and kindness to all of us in terms of how you treat everyone in the community and all of us and your appreciation respect for our teachers and everyone in the district Tracy it's been a pleasure to be on the board with you and we didn't serve on any committees together but I want to thank you for how the personal touches you put on things and the welcoming ways you made things when we all got together because it made it a lot more enjoyable and I appreciate your effort and I don't know what else I can add that hasn't been so eloquently said by everybody else here but I will just say having you know being a recent member to the board you were the model of of wel welcoming and and how to ease somebody into what can be a very challenging and and difficult role and I will always be grateful that I had a short period of time with you and I'm sure I share this with everybody else that we know that you're not too far thank you thank you and our colleague jaal we have a little something for you um because we know you love all things Horticultural and you'll have much more time for all things Horticultural now it's not a tree no the tree comes [Applause] later and I know that the superintendent has a few remarks too um would you like to make them now or wait till after the rest of the Pres report maybe making them now would be worth would be good idea certainly um I've known Tracy I go wow we go way back um she was a parent she was one of my home in school uh uh presidents um obviously she was part of the the board that selected me as uh superintendent so thank you very much um I want to thank her family I I know how many hours um that she has dedicated to this position and that's hours away from her family and that's always a difficult balance and and you've done a great job for me uh Tracy has just been a a symbol of kindness support and encouragement um and you know she's one of the reasons why I've exceeded um in this position because I've because she's been there as a sounding board for me um and um good and bad uh for it wasn't just uh me all you know roses and so forth um so I I just appreciate everything she's done uh to support me um the board has been better served because you've been a part of it and thank you very much Glen R is better because you're here okay um just a few more things superintendent search I hope that all of you have received the survey uh that we sent out if you haven't there's still time to fill it in uh the survey results will help us um formulate the qualities that we most uh look for in the next candidate and um as of tomorrow we will publish the the timeline for the superintendent search uh online so that everyone can see it we placed the first of the ads right after um our last board meeting um the ads are running in a whole host of um print sources online sources posted at um a professional association s schools of Education in the area uh we really cast a wide net we are starting to receive resumés uh and uh they're looking good I think we're in a very good place uh we'll be accepting applications for the superintendent job until the 3rd of January uh so for this time in the life of the superintendent search early relatively early we're doing very very well so if you're interested in the timeline please take a look at our we site starting tomorrow and it will be up um also um we have uh and we're hoping as we have said uh from the beginning that we will have a superintendent in place by the 1 of July when Mr uh Phillips leaves anything can and will happen in a superintendent search so there are no guarantees but at this point in time that is our our aim and finally for the Board of Ed uh one last thing that came up in um Communications committee I think we um talked about as part of our board goal scheduling um mini Retreats throughout the year to discuss in-depth uh ideas that we don't have time to get into in-depth during our regular meetings so if any of you feel like we need one uh coming right up in the next month or so of course we have the holidays so perhaps after the holidays uh and can think of a topic for that let me know and I'll I'll coate that information and get it out to everybody and that is the end of the president's report um I would say that in Tracy's honor and in honor of our other celebrants tonight we have Refreshments in the back so I hope that all of you we know that not all of you will stay for the entire board meeting because even though it's fascinating um we know that many of you have other commitments but do take advantage of the refreshments in the back of the room uh on your way or as as at the end of the meeting if you stay for that now superintendent's report we're going to start off with a little presentation from Forest Avenue school and I'm going to call our uh principal uh Mr Matthew Murphy hello thank you okay good evening everyone uh about once or twice a year superintendent uh Phillips invites uh farest Avenue School to a board meeting so that way uh we could tell you all a little bit about uh some fun things that are happening at our school so tonight we have a an extra special treat for you um but I want to give you this setup and tell you a little bit about uh what we're doing at at Forest so uh a couple of years ago uh phonics and pheic awareness were identified by teachers and administrators as a place where we really wanted to strengthen our program um so teachers and administrators came together uh and we conducted a search for a research-based um phonic program and just to uh take a quick step back there um phonic focuses on how sounds look and writing and pheic awareness uh is understanding that each word is comprised of a series of sounds uh most phonics instruction is written and most phic awareness instruction is oral um but the two are not exclusive of each other they actually go hand in hand uh complimenting each other nicely um so back to our search uh our search for a research-based program led us to a program called phonics first which was initially implemented in grades 1 through three um and this year expanded to kindergarten um and at that time when we were making that search uh we also had been dabbling uh with oral pheic awareness lessons at our prek and K level and we've now fully implemented uh a program named the hegr pheic awareness program which spans prek through grade two so these are two programs uh you are going to soon see more of uh I'm just going to give you a quick rundown of each of these programs the heg pheic awareness program at pre to grade 2 is designed to supplement our existing literacy curriculum with teacher modeling and scaffolded support in Reading spelling and writing as the students learn to hear sounds and and words uh and it includes phic awareness skills alphabet knowledge phon and graphine connections language awareness activities along with Rhymes Blends and phon isolation in initial middle and final sounds and words and our phonic first program our which we've been implementing for the last two years and get ready for these descriptive adjectives a multi-sensory systematic structured sequential phonics based research-based direct instruction approach to teach students systematic processes for decoding which is reading and encoding which is spelling it's rooted in the Orton Gillingham principles and contains numerous lessons which include reading spelling Concepts site word identification decoding and encoding practice and this was desirable because we had already had uh a number of teachers going through the full Orton Gillingham certification uh process uh with Fairley Dickinson uh in in District and lessons include structured syllabication study for decoding Mastery of multi- syllable words and skill development with vowels consonants diagraphs Blends magic e-word and many other layers of literacy skills so um usually I can come up and and kind of muddle through an explanation of of what we're doing uh at fars Avenue school but the teachers and I uh talked about it a little bit and we decided that the best thing that we could do would be to give you a demonstration so you could see it um and see it in action so we're very lucky uh tonight because we have some special guests um we have our teachers we have Mrs keski and Miss Millian who are going to be uh leading the charge in just a moment uh and we have our students with us we have Jackson Bradley we have Harrison trenin we have S Lee we have Madison Schneider we have geneveve hurry and we have have meline madow okay so thank you so much uh for coming out tonight and we have to thank our families too I know that they're busy it's the busiest time of year so thank you for coming out to support farest Avenue School so now I am more than happy to hand it off to our teachers so that they can show you what we do and I'm going to go change the slides right are you guys ready these are our Master phonics Friends by the way Michelle Michelle yes just make sure you keep the mic yes sorry there are some hand motions so I'll try to keep the mic up so like Mr Murphy said phonics verse is a pheic awareness and multisensory systematic approach to teaching phonics has a lot to do with oral sounds and putting those oral sounds into decoding and encoding words um and I put up here you may think that the English language is baffling but it has more rules to follow than you realize so that's what we spend a lot of our time time doing is teaching the rules why letters make certain sounds in certain words in certain places um we're just going to do a condensed version because this Pro process can go from anywhere from 20 minutes to 40 minutes so we've cut out some of the multi-century activities the sand trays are not here we didn't think you wanted sand in your beautiful new library um no fluffy boards but we'll do a lot of what we do every day um so Kaylin's going to start with a multi non multier sorry uh pheic awareness activity which is hegr and that focuses on spoken words and and spoken sounds manipulation do you hear it in the beginning the middle or the end middle good yeah don't raise your hand where do you hear St in sticker the beginning the middle or end good where do you hear SP in space good where do you hear cool in m in class good okay and the last activity is called deleting the initial phon name so you're going to get rid of the first sound in a word so if I say the word Flash without F what's left good if I say the word crane without C what's left if I say the word slow without s what's left and last one if I say the word smash without s what's left very good letter to sound then taking those sounds we say each sound individually and then we blend them in to words now the blending board is about the sounds and the rules and not necessarily making real sounds so you'll see nonsense words up here are you ready okay fingers up ready read ready read ready read ready read ready read good job then we go into what's called red word review um and this is when you have words that don't follow rules so some rules some words never follow the phonetic rules and those are rules that children have to learn by heart so we call them heart words or red words um there is a whole systematic process of when we teach red words so like for example the is a red word because the E is making the uh sound it doesn't make an e or an e so we have some red words and these ones they read and they spell and then there's there's a red word where they have to uh spell it based on just hearing the sound all right so loaders up all right ready for the words you can't see keep those loaders up your next red word is said a what and very good is when they can apply those skills that they've learned it's called dictation so we give them the word they say it pound and tap the sounds and then write it all right pencil's up Pounders ready your word is splint write it good job all right pencils up Pounders ready your second word is scrap pound it write it I'll just all right pencil's up Pounders ready your word is three pound it write it okay you think we could do one more all right pencils up Pounders ready your word is Squish pound it now while they're writing some of the words that we teach are taught as one phon so we just did three letter Blends last week so they use one finger to tap each phon name so like school would be one I sh they all go together all right good job guys and that is basically our program in a nutshell after we would do review we do introduction of the new sound for the week and then the process continues over and over and over again good job give yourselves a round of applause so I know that we have a lot on the agenda tonight um but to our students thank you so much for coming to our parents thanks for bringing our students out and thank you to our teachers let's give them one more round of applause you can you can take your materials and you can head home if you'd like thank you don't they're so cute they're so little but they're so accomplished please help yourselves to Refreshments on the way out grab a cookie grab a cookie for the to grab a cookie have a drink before you guys leave reward your hard work right yeah okay we're GNA move on as they are exiting and grabbing a snack uh are our next part of my report is the 25 years of service um I'm going to recognize the first individual and then I'm going to call up Mr Lawler Cu uh the other four are at the high school um the first uh individual I'm going to recognize is Bonnie rothenberger um Bonnie is has been a bus aid for us for 25 years uh which is amazing if you think about the amount of time she has spent on our buses um she has a unique shift where she works the morning for a couple hours and then she comes back and works the afternoon for a couple of hours and it just shows her dedication uh to this the students and and the district and uh she's certainly going to be difficult to replace with all that experience um um she has she earned her 25 years of service but she's also retiring this month so uh we want to wish her the best um unfortunately she could not make it tonight but um again just a remarkable 25 years and to have that consistency and to serve th those uh children on a daily basis both in the morning and afternoon just shows um where her heart is so we're certainly going to miss her and at this time I'm gonna invite Mr Lawler up right good evening everybody thank you Mr Phillips um this is truly a humbling task to try to capture Janine maryn and and Tia's 25 years of service in just a few sentences um just think about that for a moment 25 years let's think in uh we've had five US presidents in that time I've lost track of how many quarterbacks the Giants have started in 25 years um you've endured six principles and by next year you've outlasted five superintendents I hit a couple of those categories I get credit for that uh but perhaps the most important number are the hundreds and even thousands of students they have impacted over the past 25 years mentored guided encouraged and inspired so on behalf of the JHS leaders leadership team we thank you for your service and really really hope you're with us for many more and I'll start first with G Janine Deandrea she's a special education teacher uh she's a tireless advocate for our special needs students in the resource room co- teing or for the academic development classes she sets the standard for the program by tracking student progress communicating with parents and helping the students on our case load learn to advocate for themselves I've leaned into Janine these past couple of years to fill several open positions to the point every time and night I walk into our classroom she looks at me like what now what's next um everything from English 11 to 8th grade ELA it's a credit really to her work ethic Talent her versatility her range and really her commitment to helping students improve their literacy skills so we thank you Janine next is Marilyn Savio our media or library media specialist she has overseen this space for the past 25 years Mary Lyn is an integral part of our literacy program here at the middle high school she has every seventh and eighth grader throughout the year as a teacher of the Middle School research cycle classes where students are learning critical thinking skills evaluating The credibility of online sources and how to support arguments with evidence for the past three years Mary Ln has helped create the media center and literacy programs at Central School and lastly she's been a support for staff across the district serving in the role of gr President we thank you maryn all right next up an Malone teacher of Fine Arts at the Middle High School come on up an thank you congratulations thank you and's impact is far reaching don't go anywhere okay she works with students in grades 7 through 12 this includes all seventh and eighth graders in the Middle School cycle classes and then on both ends of the visual arts program from foundations to ap2d Art it's a credit to her versatility as an educ an art educator and recently she even picked up our Middle School yearbook class an is a leader in our building she mentors new teachers she helps with developing the annual budget which is not an easy task and comparing it to other departments where they're all Math teachers or social studies or English and is like the big umbrella right she is the program leader for our Visual and Performing Arts and computer science and the cad and engineering program so it's a very diverse group that she oversees and uh lastly one of the highlights of the year is the annual student art show in the spring which is across the street at the Women's Club if you haven't been um I highly recommend it uh your mind will really be blown by the work produced by our student artists and it's really ACC credits you an and the program you developed so thank you thank you [Applause] right and lastly I have the honor to recognize Tia gist our health and physical education teacher and athletic trainer uh Tia is a very familiar face come on up TIA [Applause] T is a familiar face at our events during all three of our athletic Seasons which includes the practices the games that's at night and on Saturdays um she's there to comfort our students when they get hurt on the field and this really goes beyond providing first aid and treating physical injuries um understanding the importance that Athletics play for our students um these injuries that sideline them can be devastating Tia is always there and available to lift their Spirits support their recovery plan and help them get back on their feet and perhaps what stands out the most to me is the welcoming environment that you create um there's always kids around after school as they prep for the practices in games and the trainers room is truly a safe space for our students so thank you take a cookie so uh you know I've been here a little bit longer than uh our 25 year uh service award winners so some of them I've taught with uh Tia uh uh was the trainer when I was coaching so I'd spent a lot of time with her after school um and was um at Ridgewood Avenue when I went over to Ridgewood Avenue to become the principal um uh obviously Marilyn and I have worked closely over the last several years as her with her being uh the president of the association and and Janine uh was one of my highers um so it it's it's great to see that um the the amount of work that put in the dedication and and to see them recognize for that so I I thank all each and every one of them um at this time uh we are um happy to introduce Paul Lurch from Lurch Vinci and Bliss they are our current Auditors um this year we um change our Auditors and it's always a good idea to make changes every so often to get a fresh set of eyes on on what we're doing and I'm sure um and look at um making sure we're doing the best procedures and practices to make ensure we're fiscally uh responsible so uh they're going to present uh a summary of their audit thank you right away my schedule uh is that on it's on that's live streaming so oh okay um so um so we were we were at the board office on Friday and we had gone through the exit conference um with the superintendent of course and and with the business administrator and we talked about uh the possibility of coming and doing a presentation and letting me know when you were available and today worked it worked in my schedule as well so I said let's do it because otherwise we'd probably be back sometime in January the end of January um so we have two reports just is this is nothing new from that respect um the larger of the two reports is the comprehensive annual financial report which is going to have the financial statements in it the footnotes the introductory section mdna statistical information the small of the two reports is the administrative report on findings that is set up and established by the state of New Jersey in its particular format it basically tells us what has to be audited and then we go through that progression and we identify whether or not we found any deficiencies through that whole process um so the good news is is that we spent uh a tremendous amount of time at at the school uh I think Barbara can tell you that um our team was there for probably better of two weeks um on site doing the audit work um and we actually um have good news to report uh we have a few minor items that we want to just present tonight but overall uh the audit was uh the district has run well uh we have unmodified opinions um so as far as deficiencies with internal controls or compliance and I'll talk a little bit about that there really aren't any there's one audit comment that we made in the report itself and we have a couple of suggestions to management typically I will tell you when we follow and come in as a new auditor it's not uncommon that we have double digits and and audit comments recommendations it's not uncommon it's typically what happens uh we do uh pride ourselves on doing a a very thorough job um and it typically shows but I will say though having said all of that and all the time that we spent going through the records and I know that barbar has indicated to me that we've asked for so much more in records than what has been done in the past um still after all of that you know when we go through this um to sit here and talk about one common I might as well jump to it now one common is is dealing with um coding of expenditures and it really dealt with the special Revenue fund so there's some grants and there's also the local um um Educational Foundation that provides money and it's just the object code so what's important for me as an auditor as we're going through an auditing grants are they allowable charges I mean that's the most important thing uh because we go through and we find that there's a charge and it's not allowable in accordance with the grant supplements well then we have issues so this was nothing more than having it in the wrong object code and I think from speaking with Barbara and I don't want to put words in her mouth but she was uh or didn't realize that when we deal with those other areas that we had to go down into the object code um not just the grand code as a as as opposed to just an allowable expense within a category um so I believe that is kind of new for Barbara at least from our perspective um I don't know what and I don't want to speak for the other Auditors but um you know we're doing that it's part of the requirements it's part of a chart of accounts and part of the testing that we have gone through um one of the other areas that we did make mention and that's really suggestions so the one item requires a corrective action plan and that's with the chart of accounts as we talked about with the special Revenue fund um and then the other item deals with Student Activities and Athletics so what we'll do is we'll go in and we'll test we'll test the revenue collection cycle we'll also test the expenditure cycle um and what we found is is that there were several instances where goods or services were ordered but yet they were not delivered to the schools they were delivered delivered to the individual who ordered them their their homes and it might have been something that evolved during co uh but clearly you know any of the expenditures any of the goods or supplies that are being ordered for Student Activity purposes should go to the schools um and then we did a test of Collections and when we did a test of collections um we're recommending that those deposits the receipts that are collected be deposited at least twice a week it's kind of a common sense kind of thing we don't want you know we're trying to safeguard assets right so it's really about making sure that the monies that are collected are being deposited and safeguarded on a timely basis so I feel that those two comments even though they I think they should be presented to the board but they don't rise to the level of having to do a formal correct your act active plan um so that those are the big things and I just want to talk a little bit about overall so as I indicated they're unmodified opinions right we have have basically three opinions the financial statements the single audit opinion and the governmental auditing standards uh the district was subject to a state and federal single audit that happens anytime you spend more than $750,000 in either state or federal proceeds so Glenn Ridge spent $ 11.2 million on state assistance support or from State assistance support and $1.9 million from federal programs and most of the federal programs really was dealing with the monies that were sent as of you know American Rescue plan Esser all of those programs which are really dwindling down because now we know that that money needs to be really spent by the end of September of 24 um so I don't know whether that's still going to trigger a single audit for you but it did so what does that mean it really means that you know we do our normal auditing process on the financial statements and then now we have to get into the compliant supplements of this single AIT of the grants themselves and that's when we get into whether the costs are allowable some grants have matching elements to them um and we go through that progression go through that process um and we have nothing to report otherwise it would have been reported in here so those expenditures were spent um as they should have been spent um the total amount of arer and Esser awards that the district received over the past three years just to give it in perspective was 2.4 milli million dollar so that's the amount of federal money that came through that covid American Rescue plan and and and what have you um local grants quite a bit of activity running through your your your special Revenue fund which is really great to see I mean you've got an active local community you know when I look and I go through this and I see you know $230,000 of revenues and expenses just on the local side um so that's tremendous and that that just shows a lot about the community itself um Capital Pro uh project fund the only thing you have left is obviously the last component piece of the HVAC in the high school the middle school right um so that's the piece that still has to be spent of $2.4 million and I don't want to bore you a new new uh governmental auditing standard practice which came into effect this year is um gby 96 which is subscription base reporting um and a couple years back we had to started to report the leases a different way and so now technology the right to use technology believe it or not has to be reported on your financial statements if it's material as an asset and a liability so we're really talking about Information Technology uh stuff that's that's developed that you're accessing via the cloud um and so um you know when we talk about leases those are physical items right either we either assets or uh or right to use a facility but now we're talking about intellectual property um so we had gone through that complete list this is brand new in the industry this year the the requirement had to be picked up in this audit um we talked to Barbara months ago went through the list with her um and really one of the main caveats is is that if those leases are 12 months or less they do not need to be reported in your financial statements so the majority of all of yours are 12 months or less uh so believe it or not there was no reporting or no effect on the financial statements but that's that's the latest and most recent uh governmental auditing standard um I just want to talk a little bit about Surplus so this is the first year that your unassigned Surplus now is restricted to 2% because of covid there was a change in the statute and allowed to go from 2% to 4% that really is your free balance balance right so that's that's that's the free cash that you were keeping on hand it's your Surplus um so 2% for the Glen Ridge uh public school system is about $750,000 but of course there's additional add-ons that we could do there's always exceptions to every single rule um and of course there are exceptions to that one too um so your unassigned fund balance actually was last year was 1.8 million it dropped now to $1.2 million so that differentiation or the the the Delta of the 18 versus one2 it just means excess money that it's either going to flow back into excess Surplus or it's going to flow back into capital reserve or maintenance Reserve whatever Direction the board wanted to take so as I kind of go through it and just quickly um and I'm only going to be and I think the board should only be cognizant of budgetary fund balance so if you were in the larger of the two reports I would go to exhibit C1 and I and I think it's worth taking a quick look at if you have it out um page 67 of the large report it's funny we we we we uh we when I say the auditing world we report fund balances three separate ways in these reports uh and that's evolved over the last 20 years um but for for the board it's really C1 it's budgetary basis this is what you develop your budget on um and now when I'm looking at exhibit C1 it's a comparison scheduled so if you were to go through this this would be your operating budget would you make modifications through it it's the operating expenses and what happened at the very end so if you look at the bottom of C1 under the actual column you can see that the net change actually fund balance went down 74,000 and went from 8.1 million to 7.4 million but what is it really comprised of so if I was to work from the bottom piece up of the 7.4 the unassigned of 2 million of I'm sorry 1 million 2011 that's what I was just discussing it used to be 2% of expenditure uh 4% now it's 2% so that's your free balance um of the 1.2 so it's actually down from the previous year for for the reason I gave you um then you have designated for Surplus or for subsequent year expenditures of 984 simply means that that's the amount that you're budgeting in your current budget so we're now in the 23 24 budget that's part of a revenue in that um budget document itself yearend incumbrances of 119,000 goods or services that were ordered but not yet delivered a prime example would be us right so the Board of Education contracted with with Lurch Vincy and Bliss to do the audit but we were not here to do the audit until after the year end school year ended so it's a reservation of equity it's not an accounts payable that's what this means and it kind of rolls over so we're just reserving the fund balance because we know we're going to have the expense down the road um unemployment 147 money set aside that's to be used for future unemployment expenses and then we get into the capital reserve component so the capital reserve component really we ended the year with $1.5 million the combination of the 546 and the $1 million so capital reserve is just as as it indicates it's money set aside for Capital needs of the district um and it's the goal really of most districts to try to utilize that money to do as many projects as you can which is what you are are are doing um so that capital reserve started at 2.2 million um deposited a million dollars in by your board resolution that you do in June and then withdrew basically $1.7 million 1.3 through the budget and another 350 by board resolution so we went from 2.2 to one to to 1. .5 in total Surplus in capital reserve and 546 is now being earmarked in 2324 so going forward if nothing happened you would end the year with $1 million in capital reserve Surplus then we come up and and we go through this progression and then once you fill up these particular buckets the reserves the incumbrances the very last component is is excess Surplus so last year's excess Surplus was $1,394 th000 that's being utilized as a revenue line item in your 2324 budget along with the 984 when we went through all of those particular exercises and we got to the finale the balance that's left is excess surplus of 2, 38,000 that will be designated as a revenue line item in your 2425 budget and really it's when you go through this you just you know and again this is really from the business administrator side um you know you're always trying to make sure that when we deal with the budget process that we're we're trying to avoid steep increases or decreases in the use of surplus right we want a smooth transition um so you went from last or the 23 24 budget of 1 Point um $1.8 million being utilized now when you start 24 25 you're going to have basically you know the 2 million dollar that you're going to be utilizing as an excess Surplus number um so that's kind of a summary of what I have tonight I don't know if anyone has any questions or not board members any questions this is a a very impressive audit thank you thank you yeah and again I think just in closing I think you know you should feel comfortable with the financial operations that's not just Barber it's it's it's the whole team obviously when I say that um but um it's it you know it's not the norm you know these audit reports that are clean like this with very few comments um it's just just it's not the norm so it's good to see overall do you think the two plus uh 2% Surplus requirement which we now have again um is adequate listen when I started doing this you know 30 years plus ago uh we were at six and we went to four and now we're at two um you know quite frankly you know uh I think the number could be higher right you know but we are getting exceptions to it right so 2% is 750 but really we're at $1.2 million sure yeah okay thank you any other questions were there um other than the it it subscription services for leases were there any other changes um this year that could impact us no that was a major issue that we had to deal with so uh um and I don't really foresee anything new coming up that's going to be major because that's really a major item just like the leases were major items that we had a to start reporting you know they they went away there's no such thing as an operating lease anymore you know so we have to start capitalizing everything um but this was the biggest issue now just because it's not in the audit report of 23 doesn't mean it won't show up in 24 because you know uh if you start going through and doing multiple year leases now and if those leases become material then we're going to have to report the asset and the liability but you know it's fluid any other questions from the board okay thank you so much Mr Lurch for for the speedy delivery of the audit and for taking the time with us tonight thank you and we appreciate the business dude thank you very much thank thank you have a great holiday everyone bye bye right and I have H several other items um to share uh shiong Jang our high school teacher was named the educator of the year in 2023 by the New Jersey Chinese teacher Association and they're having a a banquet uh this coming weekend as uh and she will be recognized at that banquet um and just to make everyone aware and it's on the agenda tonight uh she's also planning a trip with a group of students to China for this coming uh spring I want to recognize and and I'm always appreciative of the Glenn Ridge Education Foundation uh they held their Ashton felter AK on Thanksgiving Day uh just an unbeliev able event um with the amount of individuals in this community that are are volunteering to make sure that happens um the foundation puts a lot of time and effort um and are working closely with um Dan Murphy who's a councilman to put on the race and we get an unbelievable um turnout I believe there was 2700 Runners um at this last race um so it just it's it's amazing that um what this has developed I believe the first year that they had it was roughly around um 300 runners or something so uh and uh the proceeds benefit um the school system uh we are finally moving forward with the tutoring Grant um that was announced uh and we applied for it in early fall um we thought we were done with it once uh once we um uh accepted the grant but then we the state came out and said uh well we really forgot to tell you this component of it we had to go out for a request for proposal which takes uh roughly about 3 weeks from start to finish uh last week we opened up uh the proposals tonight we are uh awarding that Grant and we'll be able to move forward um just as a reminder this is a state Grant um and it's a grant targeted for third and fourth graders uh our program will include three sessions uh each session will include about 50 students 25 third graders 25 fourth graders and those sessions will last uh 6 weeks uh the students will meet three times a week and it will be a onetoone tutoring session for those students uh we have two staff members who are going to facilitate the program one of the staff members will be in charge of the third grade program one of the staff members will be in charge of the fourth grade program there will be some pre-testing and post testing and we're going to be using our map scores as a baseline um our Ridgewood Avenue students take map twice during the school year so we can see where they were before um and afterwards so there will be a lot of data driven as typically when you have grants um that will be produced and we can see the results and and we're very um excited to move forward with that uh the um on tonight's agenda is the the Board of Education um meeting dates um we it kind of runs a little opposite of the school year uh the we schedule our Board of Ed meetings by the calendar year so that is on there and I just want to wish everyone as this is our last meeting uh uh before the holidays hits hit so I want to wish everyone a happy holiday thank you and uh now it is time for the first public comment section session for uh public comments on agenda items only um probably the audience knows the protocols but I'll just remind you uh if you have a public comment step up to the lecture and sign in uh state your name affirm your glenrich residency if you are affiliated with any group let us know uh you have two minutes to speak if you have written materials please give them to Mrs Murphy for inclusion in the record um so does anyone have any questions or comments yes correct okay all right we will have the second public comment period at the end for non-agenda items or items pertaining to the running of the schools all right board members it's time for committee and liazon report so we'll start with our student representative um hello so we haven't had much going on lately but uh so winter sports started and they're underway now and also uh seniors are beginning to have their baby project so there's many crying babies around the school which is very fun and uh for next week the student C Council has planned a spirit week and there will be a prize for whichever grade shows the most school spirit and to end that week uh there will be a winter pep rally better known as Rider day okay thank you board members any questions okay Trisha you're up next you know what you're gonna have to skip me because I can't find my notes okay we'll move on to Heather and come back yeah sure uh the curriculum committee met at the end of November we heard about um new class offerings for next year at the high school um we heard about a program called love your lunch sort of accepting of diverse food cultures um we heard about efforts to um changes um to the IRS program that's intervention referral services at the elementary school um after to standardize the referral process and then using a tiered system we heard about a new program that's starting up the high school I think it's called Cash I don't remember what it stands for but it's mental health and starting with our athletic um student athletes who you know have many time commitments um as the starting point for that and then we also got an update on um the science curriculum is the one under review this year we heard about their review of the New Jersey State Testing results and looking at that exam okay tiisha did you find your notes or do we do we need to move on again um okay I think I'm good okay um no get me okay just from the previous meeting so the ridard AV home and school meeting didn't meet since our last meeting their next meeting will be the first Friday in January um the grace meeting was actually cancelled and Grace is is looking for parent volunteers to be engaged um because they are the leadership needs additional support in terms of getting the word out and and hosting meetings and events um just a brief update this weekend was the New Jersey school board um delegate assembly and that's when delegates from school board School boards throughout New Jersey come together to vote on resolutions um for the New Jersey school boards Association to kind of promote or incorporate into their own um policies and so something that we've talked about at pass board meetings was uh a proposal that the Essex School Board Association kind of put forth and that was the anti- book ban so this proposal was renamed as the selection of curricular and support materials um and it passed with 83% approval rating basically basically it it the njsba is adopting the language that it believes that all Boards of Education have the responsibility to ensure all instructional materials are age appropriate complement the district curriculum Andor student support programs facilitate critical thinking further learning and are congruent with local community preferences in light of this belief a board of education book selection process should only restrict access to or exclude a book or other learning materials from its curriculum library or other support resources following a process that evaluates the book or materials in a manner that is consistent with the Constitutional and statutory protections afforded individuals by the state the njsba believes that in support of this belief njsba will encourage local boards to consult with other educational organizations and local stakeholders in the selection of curricular and support materials while retaining its statutory authority over such decisions so that is the final um wrap up on something that we've discussed at sort of the board meeting since sep and it goes into NJ sba's policies and procedures manual thank you David the um uh Communications committee met uh week before last um Betsy uh mentioned a couple of things we discussed um and you'll see uh announcements on the website with respect to um Board of Ed sort of drop-ins on home and School Association meetings and other ways that uh we can make ourselves accessible to our constituents um the finance and Facilities committee met uh last week um we discussed the audit a bit few other items and uh the board I'm sorry the budget calendar uh will be posted on the website uh with the dates for the meetings um now that the meeting schedule is set the dates uh for the meetings at which the budget will be discussed and then voted upon so again check the website for those dates and it's a ways off and we'll keep you posted as we get closer and as we work our way through the process thank you Kristen the uh Lyndon home and school has not met but I do have a few updates uh from their leadership uh the fall Discovery was big success and planning is underway for the winter spring session their uh fall Lyon lunch session will continue through January uh second grade promotion committee um is underway with their fundraising they hosted a fundraiser this past weekend at the train station which featured a photo opportunity with Santa and a winter um background they also had doughnut decorating and other fun activities for um for kids and families um the fundraising will for second grade promotion will continue with Friday hot chocolate sales which kicked off last week and will continue through February um they also shared that um one of their favorite events of the year the lynon Winter concert is coming up on December 21st and finally Betsy I think this will make you smile last week all of the students got to plant bulbs outside of Lyndon thanks to no small part to two parents who dug practically I think a million holes for um for all the kids the students were given two bulbs to bring home and plant as well so with the chill outside Springfields years away but lynon will be bursting with color when it finally does arrive um with gas lamp after months of preparation and rehearsals the curtain is rising on the fall Gaslamp programs Mean Girls wrapped up in mid November and this weekend teen actors will take the stage in rent tickets are currently available for all four rent performances on gent players.org the season will include on December 16th with the kids workshop and Finding Nemo and looking forward a bit the sound of music is coming up in February this is a really fun um Community show with members of all ages so be on the lookout for more information in the new year and then finally the glenbridge visual art Association had a successful fundraising event this past Sunday at the glenbridge high school holiday market uh The Talented high school art students provided face painting as parents shopped Market the funds raised go directly to uh Glen Ridge High School Visual Art scholarships more fun events are in the works we welcome parents and neighbors interested in volunteering or donating to reach out to us at grv visual arts.com thank you do well um the Forest Avenue home and school does not meet in December their next meeting will be January uh 29th so I'm sure they're all focusing on all the holiday activities happening around the school um but trcy I wanted to tell you I uh found my notes from the high school meeting if you would like me to oh you Founders okay anyway I can uh that's all I have okay Anthony yes the uh gr has not met I think um with uh the Advent of fall Sports there's a lot of activity going on so I'm hoping Hing they're going to do another uh quarterly I think it's going to be quarterly meeting between graa the school board and the Town Council so okay thank you uh yes the personel and thank you the personnel and policy committee met on November 20th um we discussed the superintendent search um and Dirk kindly provided us with a chart showing um comparable districts and um the administrative load um in other districts which was sort of eye opening for for the committee um we also looked at the Personnel uh open positions um and those positions that are um Coming open because of leaves and we discussed uh overnight International trips and the chapon needed for those and lastly we discussed um the agreement that we are working towards with the graa for uh use of [Music] space the um Glen Ridge diversity and inclusion Association uh did not meet they will be holding another uh general meeting in January so uh I will report out at that time oh I'm sorry Tisha we're back back to you Trisha no worries um so the middle school high school um HSA me met on November 30th um Mr Lawler thank the parents and committee for the teacher nominations um he spoke a little bit about the YY Capstone program uh he gave us an um a brief update on the student student leadership program which um Mr Phoenix has started and their speaker series is starting in January and january/february um they're also they're also imple imp menting a I don't know if this is implementing or continuing on with it but for students who've been struggling after the first marking period the vice principal and the guidance counsel and meet and um to discuss some of those students and what they can do to help those students and then the principes and the teachers meet to discuss in order to help um those students who may have been struggling after the first marking period um he acknowledge the appointment of the new teachers um Mrs seoli and Mrs Faith aru scha middle school math teacher A R A UJ o I probably butchered the name apologies um Middle School um Miss o Donald Pinker spoke about the table talk Tuesdays um they were they went pretty well for the first time and just as a refresher this is an opportunity for some of the students who are used to sitting together in Middle Schools she shifted it around a little bit and um put those kids together by uh birthdays so to encourage more interaction with other schools and not be so clickish um so she actually um talked about maybe using some of their the um senior leadership students or student council to help facilitate that going forward they they'll try it again but the first pass was pretty good um there was an arena stem field trip I think between and now the Winter Dance is coming up on the 26th I think I guess of next year of January um and then um Mr Hill spoke about the Athletics uh um reiterating the girls tennis team how far they they went in their playoff season the football team having their first football win the marching band coming in third the first year of the girls volleyball team winning their first top tournament and that's great since this is our first year having a um volleyball team boys volleyball starts in the spring the captain's Workshop that will happen at um for the west exex division they have come guest speakers so that's for all the cap captains within the um West X6 I guess division which is coming up spirit week which I believe David already spoke about December 11th through the 13th cash which Heather already spoke about student athlete mental health program that's uh like really I was just really intrigued by that I'm I'm hoping you know we we as a a a district and a community have been through a lot with um some of our student athletes so I'm really hoping that this you know takes off and there was a math Honor Society induction a drama club performance coming out and then the Winter concert treasurers report the Holiday Market was coming up that on that Sunday so not sure how they did but I'm sure they did fine um we they thank the uh HSA for funding the bre breakfast for the seniors um also funding um National Education week and that's it okay thank you all right board members in your packet you have minutes from the meeting of November 7th exec session and regular uh meeting any comments or changes on those minutes okay um that being the case uh Tracy would you move the minutes uh yes I move M1 okay may have a second second second from Anthony um since there are no questions or comments Barbara would you call the role Miss hen wandi hi Mr Bonnet hi Mr Campbell hi Miss gotle hi Miss graah hi Miss O'Neal hi Miss Zay Auburn I Dr yarus Ramos Miss Ginsburg I motion carries okay administrative items David would you move the administrative items I move A1 through A6 uh yes may I have a second second second from JN board members any questions or comments on the administrative items okay you can now mark your calendars for all of those meetings since there are no questions or comments Barbara would you call the role Miss Aken wand hi Mr Bonnet hi Mr Campbell hi Miss gotle hi Miss Graham hi Miss O'Neal hi Miss Zan Auburn hi Dr Yaris Ramos Miss Ginsburg I motion carries Tracy in your last Act is Personnel chair would you move the Personnel items uh yes I move P1 through p15 and uh number of those items are on the addendum but I believe we also need to make a correction to P10 where the name was omitted um under coaches it's on my here's it's on some of the copies it's corrected on our copy that we received it just wasn't on this printed copy but the digital copy you have the correction great okay may I have a second second second from Anthony in keeping with our rules and the board members code of ethics all personel items are discussed an exact session if you have no objections board members uh we'll call the role Barbara Miss aen wandi I Mr Bonnet hi Mr Campbell hi Miss scle hi Miss Graham hi Miss O'Neal hi Miss St Auburn hi Dr yarus Ramos I miss Ginsburg I motion carries okay Heather would you move the curriculum item sure I move c one including the addition of the field trip to China on the addendum okay may have a second second second from Anthony any questions or comments on the curricular items okay Barbara would you call the role Miss Zim wand I Mr Bonnet hi Mr Campbell hi Miss gotle hi Miss Graham hi Miss O'Neal hi Miss Z Auburn I Dr yarus Ramos I miss Ginsburg I motion carries okay before we move the business items I draw your attention to those listed under B4 uh donations from the Glen Ridge Education Foundation books for Orton Gillingham certification program with uh mon um monetary values of $837 and $1,057 and also a donation from the wrestling booster club ass salt bike for the grhs wrestling program um in the amount of7 99 Derk what is an assault bike wondering how many assaults are we going to have it's an exercise bike okay that gets a little aggressive with you my goodness okay it Fights Back does it all right thanks to our generous donors uh even as they give us something that assaults us um David may I have a motion on the business items I move B1 through B8 including uh B2 and B3 on the addendum okay may I have a second I'll second do all du all uh any questions or comments other than those directed at the assault bike okay Barbara would you call the rooll Miss Zach and wand hi Mr Bonnet hi Mr Campbell hi Miss gotle hi Miss Graham hi Miss O'Neal hi Miss Z Auburn hi Dr yarus Ramos hi Miss ginso I motion carries okay we've come to the second public comment period for comments or questions on agenda or items other items pertaining to the running of the schools are there questions or comments yes step right up to the lect turn hi right thank you for letting me make uh please speak a little closer to the microphone there we go thank you hi my name is sua Patel I live in Glenn Ridge on Douglas Road uh I have one child in the school system in fourth grade at Raz and my concern is on behalf of many of the fourth grade uh parents many of whom are not here tonight but um the use of the um language learning Network in place of a live person to teach Spanish um I can speak for my son personally he's bored he finds that the zoom doesn't work accurately um and once it goes down it goes down they use uh they do activities there is a woman in the room I forget her name Miss SA miss starts with an S I don't know um but she knows a little bit of Spanish maybe the students might know more than she knows um the activities that they do aren't with the teacher from the learning language learning Network so that to me seems to be a problem like I think in many districts in in the US that might be okay but for what parents pay for taxes in Glen Ridge I don't think it's a lot to ask that there's a live teacher I um brought this up with um principal Donovan Dr Donovan and the email that I received said um there were two exchanges I had with him the first said that they're monitoring this um and that the bonus is that if this can people can ride this out and work out the king or you know when the Kings get worked out that children will be able to learn multiple languages which is absurd I mean it takes a long time to learn a language um my son right now is on du lingo teaching himself Chinese because he's not learning much more Spanish than he's learned when he was at Pilgrim which was many years ago um he misses the teacher that they had last year he thought she did a very nice job um so I then asked Dr Donovan is it a budget problem um can you not find a Spanish teacher to come teach live oh sorry that's okay you can finish that thought yeah okay so he said that um they did post the position and there were no responses and my response to that is well in this town you're telling me that if you hadn't raised it as a concern that there are not parents that would have been able to maybe help identify candidates so I don't know I I not I'm just just here to complain I I would like to open a dialogue and I don't know what the proper process is for that but well you're in you want to take that you're in the right place no no Dr Donovan's correct uh we had this posted very early um before the end of the school year the post ran several months we uh continued to post uh we did not get any applicants this is this is a little of our situation that the entire state is and certain certifications it's difficult to find individuals uh and World Language is one of them um we are in talks about next year and and we're we're hoping that we can find uh individuals who uh we we prefer the live model um if that's possible uh unfortunately it wasn't um and we had to to uh develop an alternative um and we signed a contract late in the summer um to provide uh some language experience for those students and I will say that um in line with what Mr Phillips said whenever I go to Trenton the Staffing shortages are at the top of the agenda for all districts and particularly World languages and many people find it ironic that we live in a state where we have so many speakers of world langu but yet we have a dir of teachers of world languages there is some um hope that there may be legislation to make certification a little bit easier in World languages which would increase the size of the pool so you know there's there's always room for Hope but we are caught in the same bind as as just about every other District so I'm I'm not sure if that helps but that's where we are so I think what I'm hearing is there's no plan to change if if personel I mean are you going to repost the position are you going to solicit um help from parents in town I don't know like I think Mr Phillips has summed up the situation um you know U there's not if people don't exist we can't invent them is what Clen Ridge is offering to pay competitive and are we good on the two minutes then yes yes um I think we've we've done the best we can to answer your question so thank you okay thanks uh good evening my name is Charlie Brin I live in Glen Ridge with two kids currently in the schools and one not and the reason why I wanted to rise tonight is because again we had four hibs on the uh agenda today and my good friend Phil Johnson the statistician who's not which I am not last week or last meeting introduced the concept that we are much lower in proportion to districts that we seem to monitor monitor ourselves against at all times so if we were at 4% last week even um English major me knows that we are at a lower percentage probably this week with four to zero and the ongoing questions which I feel like parents have asked I've personally asked is what what are the nature are there patterns are they repeat offenders are they repeat victims are these code of conduct do these later deemed code of conduct issues or are these all just silly what remediations are involved if any are involved were parents involved and what is Parental eny we track so much data in this school system we do which is wonderful and which is why we are successful but I feel we are not tracking some something that is detrimental to our school culture which I have to say I know is important to this board this board has a culture and climate committee which I don't believe I have heard from either I've not been here for the meeting or have not cot it online although we have quarterly an annual and semester presentations on Hib which our board attorney described quite differently something else there is nothing wrong with having a presentation of the status of bullying things that are not HEBs things that are arriving to the school the power of the bully is to make the victim feel helpless alone discredited and ultimately deserving their treatment if not responsible for it themselves last week I heard a comment in the room when I watched online I had to leave lateness is more of a problem in Glenridge than bullying that to me almost worked why do I bother oh it ends more on a positive note but I think you get the drift I would just like to if I could just add for my two seconds over for just to the comment is as we look towards a new superintendent and look towards a new kind of time to really have a new wind I really hope the board follows up on its own board retreat and Embraces Dr Elias's programs and talking about um a culture of social emotional learning thank you one of our goals as you know is to explore the national schools of character program but would you like to elaborate JK it off um we do report out on our numbers uh twice a year as far as hiip we talked about Trends the buildings have their individual um committees that where they're reviewed we've talked about uh whenever there's a uh a question about student conduct that there that um discipline happens under the code of conduct even if it was not uh determined in Hib um you know my comment about lateness was that our frequency not about the severity so please don't take it that way um we take this very serious uh as far as I think we as a district probably over investigate a lot of situations um because we want to make sure we're in depth and and that might explain some somewhat our numbers of when we're looking at nons substantiated to substantiate um so we we spend a lot of time and effort um you know from the investigation process um from my involvement um to Mr dewit's involvement um getting getting trained um um our anti-bullying specialist at the building level um and our administrators this is something that is uh uh a significant component of our job so please don't think that we take this lightly it certainly isn't the case sure I know the board sorry wanted to make sure that stuff that didn't end up as a Hib but was a code of conduct was tracked so that if there were Trends we would be notice them as well so that's been a concern I think of many of us on the board that it's still important even if it doesn't meet the requirements of an HIV and that we want to be aware in case something's happening over and over again that doesn't quite qualify and is addressed through code of conduct but just so we see there is Trends which I think Duke Durk alluded to but I just wanted to emphasize we find that important so basically everything you said we do we heard it and in my experience as a board member when you talk about knowing the effect of bullying on the individuals who are bullied in every discussion that I have ever heard about a substantiated or nons substantiated hi code of conduct offense the concern is for both the uh person who was injured and also that perpetrator because sometimes the perpetrator has been injured in the past so I have never heard non- concern for bullying victims or the bullies themselves and I have heard a great deal about specific in and the involvement of parents whose children are involved in those incidents um so the concern is there you we you hear sometimes in the reports the programs are there the watchfulness um faculty administrators counselors watching over students who are bullied or those who've been bullied in the past is there um that's not all reflected in statistics because the state makes up the for statistics but I can say as a board member since the Inception of the hip law the care and concern for those victims um and the perpetrators has increased um and the awareness has increased there's always room for improvement um but it is it is certainly there The Compassion is there um I think that you know statistics tell you one thing comparing our statistics to Montclair is not really an apt comparison but the Karen concern which cannot be compared is there other questions or comments okay if there are none they have a motion toour Motion sounds like by everyone