e e e e e e e e let's go you're holding up to show okay we're going to go ahead and begin the uh kelan Board of Education tentative budget meeting for March 12th the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the kenon board ification has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Suburban Trends on January 21st 2024 Post in the public library and filed with bur clerk M Francisco will you call the board Please Mr Isa minger here Mrs Leonard here Mr Myers Mrs Pella here M Portman Mr Petrelli here Mrs Donaldson here okay close session will be at the end of the meeting please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance flag United States okay we don't have any routine matters or student rep or a superintendent update committees have not met there will be meeting next week so we're going to go down to petitions and hearings of citizens for agenda items there anybody has any comments or questions anything online nope okay so the main uh reason for this meeting is the tentative budget approval so that's under um finance and Facilities the first item here and it's to adopt the tentative budget for the school year so can I have a motion to approve approve the adoption so moved second second second thank you and let's open this up for discussion okay so just as you guys look through it we have already briefed this in our previous meeting um there will be an adjustment for healthc care cost of 242,4 um we're approving our normal you know uh maximum travel expenditures and then travel related reimbursements for the next school year as well um does anybody have anything else and the capital reserve yes and the cap Reserve as indicated here is for the um kinan School District share of the Stony Brook roof replacement which is we do 60% and we've got 40% in the funds the grants the rod Grant the total is like 2.2 million so anybody have any other discussion or questions on this tent budget what any of this means any no I'm good I do have a question and it's common knowled just for the public um what's the I know I saw it Go by in some discussion the average increase based on the average home it was something like let me find that I have that yeah is 57 yeah that's 579 and um the average increase is2 182 okay thank you for the average home in town assessed at 579 the increase would be 182 $182 all right any other discussion okay would you please pull board please sure Mr is merer yes Mrs Leonard yes Mrs Pella yes Mr Petrelli yes Mrs Donaldson yes okay uh Mike personnel and negotiations uh agenda items number one and two represent the personnel and negotiations committee's recommendations will be voted upon as a group um item number one as was discussed is the resignation of our softball Varsity head coach uh and then number two is the revised spring U both KH PRM coaches and volunteers list okay have a motion to approve motion second discussion um Dave maybe you could just go on the record as what we are doing with softball sure um okay so as we discussed last week and it's we've had some discussions through town our numbers in our softball program here have uh dwindled as of right now we do have eight student athletes registered seeing that we exhausted all avenues and um we went out for a co-op and we were fortunate enough that Lakeland Regional out of wanu offered us uh you know to join them and uh my office and Mr Rosado and the athletic office and superintendent of Lakeland Regional all jumped on that opportunity and uh we reached out to njac and njsa they gave us an emergency one-year uh Co-op agreement and um with that comes our team having to travel five days a week for practice Andor games Monday through Friday Saturdays we will leave that up to parents with their transportation but Monday through Friday to get them down there and um that's why also you see a resignation our uh former head coach teaches instructs at the middle school that schedule does not line up here in the high school so we had two High School teachers um throw their hats in the ring and were readily available and wanted to help our program and ensure that we had a successful season and so so that's the uh the one motion on the uh the attachment under number two B2 and uh we're looking forward to it that next week Lakeland Regional will have their public meeting on the 19th assuming everything goes right as we've discussed they'll pass a resolution then on the 21st in a special meeting in between our committee meetings we'll pass the resolution for the co-op and then on March 22nd next Friday the coaches Mr Rosado myself the team will be on a bus we're going to go down to Lakeland and do that that first meet and greet in the meantime our two coaches who we approve tonight as assistant coaches will assist because Lakeland Regional being the home team in the co-op they have the head coach and then we'll see where we are you know we'll take a deep breath we'll we'll look at it we disc had some discussions with Lakeland so far after if it's successful if we both deem it successful is this something we would like to continue in the future we don't know we'll find out um we're just very appreciative that our girls this year our players actually have a season uh and then at the same time we have 20 students uh student athletes in PRM so Mrs nasso and I have been in contact and we're approving three volunteer coaches to give her a hand and I know them all very well and they're vested and they have children in the program great kids great program excellent parents um given a hand given up their time to make sure that those numbers don't drop as we continue to grow our program back up into the high school and we'll see the future but it's you know it's and for those teams that didn't want take us I look forward to seeing them somewhere on a field I just look forward to them and that's that's softball and Mr Rosado has put out that communication to our softball parents so they have they know all of this so there's no misunderstanding that's great news that the numbers up here I'm are really um encouraging so that's awesome okay uh education Student Activities nothing policy nothing okay thank you for coming uh Committee of the whole uh we don't have anything executive session um so we do have to go into an executive session so can I have a motion to go Motion to go into close session sorry second okay um all in favor I I okay we're now e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e mhm you gota wait till after I start talking before you young right can we get can I get started or okay you guys ready you know we're going to do and we're going to do kind of the abbreviated version here right because we don't have any new members um so just as we talk about ethics and think about ethics just making sure that we can consider um what the state requires of us to be the minimum standards and that we would hold ourselves accountable to higher standards than that um so all of the ethics is based on the school ethic act um so this is essentially what separates us from volunteers um that being the fact that as elected public officials we have responsibilities to the public who elected us so those responsibilities are that we have to hold the respect and the confidence and then avoid conduct that's would be in violation of their public trust and then even conduct that might be a justifiable impression so even if there's nothing wrong but it creates that impression you know and I've had a board member say like I feel like I have a hand tied behind my back and I said you know what in a way you do but that's kind of what your responsibility is to the public as being an elected official and it's something that we're held accountable to all the time so these are all the components of the ACT but I'm just going to break it down um such that some of them apply to board members only so that would be the code ofth eics themselves and the mandatory training requirements and then the prohibited acts which used to be called conflicts of interest in the disclosure statements while they apply to board members they also apply to some administrators and you can see um what identifies those administrators who it would apply to so the enforcer of the ACT is the school ethics commission so it is a nine member board um so they're appointed by the governor for a three-year term it's two board members two administrators and the majority as five non-school officials so they essentially um meet once a month and they consider um requests from us school officials of advisory opinions and so what that is is if you are not sure if something would be a violation of the code of ethics or not you can ask them ask their opinion ahead of time so it would be before the act happened um you know the example I usually use is there was a district that had a high school senior elected to their board so here he is he's still in high school um so before he was seated his other board members are like what what happens if we're going to talk about one of his teachers or one of his friends or had you know some of the classes that he's in and had a whole list of things that they were thinking could be potential conflicts um and so the school ethics commission as they looked at that request said you know what we're not going to consider this senior the student to be any different than the rest of you whatever would be a conflict for you would be a conflict for this student you know would be the the same situation but again so that was the you know a group asking for an opinion before the situation occurred and then if the school ethics commission feels that the rest of us could benefit from that information um six of them can vote to agree to make it public um and then it is published on the school ethics commission website they take away all the identifying information but it's out there then and so kind of what the expectation is is that if we have a similar circumstance that before we would ask for an advisory opinion that we would first go look there to see if there's any information already out there so a lot of times when I get questions about things that's you know how I would address it sometimes is well there are these are the advisory opinions that would relate to what you were asking about um and then separate from the advisory opinions they can also act on ethics complaint so anyone can file a complaint you know it can be a board member staff member a member of the public um so while only a school official can ask for an advisory opinion anyone can file a complaint the only group that can't would be your board the kelon board as a body could not board members could but the board itself could not so would mentioned that that you know mandatory training is one of those things that is a requirement of board members only and you know we pretty much found that we're the only public officials in the state who have training that's mandatory but I guess when you consider the fact that you know the the precious group that we work with right that the importance of making sure that that we are getting all the information that we can um to enhance our governance work um so one of the things that has changed you know the change last year was that new board members now need to complete their training within the first 90 days of taking office um it was just thought that you know the importance of trying to get new people up to speed as as quickly as possible so even now if you were you know if you had a vacancy and were to appoint someone so you would you know they would still have to adhere to that same 90 days um but for your second year of governance two for your third year board service for governance three um those you still have the full year to complete the training and then every time you are reelected in the year following your reelection is when you would need to take governance for so even if you were on the board for 20 years and you've already taken it you know two or three four times however many you would still need to take it again each time in the year following your reelection it's legal update so it's something that will always be different um we know that we have to fill out disclosure statements providing information about any relatives or any potential Financial conflicts so for new school officials it's within 30 days from the start of from when you're taking office and for those of you that are returning it's the April 30th deadline I know we all got it what probably about a month ago or something right to be filled out um so the like I said the school ethics commission is the body that provides that oversight so if they think that a violation has taken place they just make a recommendation to the commissioner of education then it's up to the commissioner to oppose impose the penalty so the the least restrictive penalty is a reprimand which is kind of just like a verbal hands slab that kind of says yep you did something wrong you know please don't do it again um Centra is more formal there's a resolution that is read at the state level it's read at your board meeting and then all of those places that when you read your open public meetings act notice and all the places that you post your meeting notice it would be have to be posted there as well U members can also be suspended it's usually in 30-day increments or you can be removed from the board and you know it's pretty much almost impossible to get removed from the board usually for conduct reasons but if you don't complete your training don't fill out your disclosure statements those things can get you removed from the board um so these are the code of ethics themselves that like I said and so these apply to board members only so that the top part is the actual tenant of the you know of the code and then the bottom part is the standards like if someone were to file ethics charges against you and said you violated letter A they would the school ethics commission would compare the evidence to what's in the standard and then that's what they would use to determine whether you violated the code of ethics or not so you know as much as you hear people kind of saying well if I don't like the way this person treated me or if this person spoke you know essentially saying you know that's unethical what the school ethics commission is saying you know what we hold board members to Professional Standards so if someone violated ethics it's which one of these Professional Standards did they violate not just what didn't you like about what they said um so you know making sure that it's recognized that we are held accountable to these Professional Standards um so the first one here just hold us accountable to kind of being the the the state's representative at the local level so when the state has things that they would like implemented in your District this is what holds you accountable to that so before Co we were having a really hard time coming up with examples of how that might play out and then you know once all the executive orders and other things started coming down to districts of things that you had to implement at the local level that perhaps may not have been popular with the with the staff with the you know the community this is what is saying that held you accountable to making that happen this next one talks about um kind of what separates us sitting on this side of the board table of saying that as much as people can come to us with concerns about a particular situation a particular grade a particular school when you're sitting on this side of the board table the lens that you have to look through is to say okay I hear what you're saying but how does this impact every single student in the kelan school district because that's who I'm responsible for so when I make decisions that's the lens I have to look through so that's why the importance of the all children um next one starts helping Define our role the start the state says okay board this is your lane your lane is policymaking planning and Appraisal that's what you do and then saying that importantly you also need to consult those who have you know will be affected by them so that's why typically have two readings on a policy the first reading puts it out there now anybody who's going to be impacted by that policy can come back and say okay board just so you know this is how this policy impacts me before you would you know um adopt it after the second reading so you've given everyone that opportunity next one talks about um you know if you go to New Jersey school board's training you know pretty much this is our Mantra right that we don't run the schools we just make sure they're well-run and the way that we do that is through our previous slide of policymaking planning and Appraisal so if we're doing our governance work that's how we then are making sure that that the schools are well run and then this says importantly together with my fellow board members so recognizing that the way we make a difference on this board is how we help the kelon board be a stronger team so when I'm sitting at the board table how am I helping this board stay focused on student achievement how am I helping this group a stronger group and that's how I am helping to make a difference and be a better board member um this next one talks about you know that each one of us is individually responsible for the success of the board and this holds us accountable to not going off and making any personal promises or taking any private action in in a minute I'm going to show you a slide that has like all the cases from last year and in every single case letter e was what the person was found guilty to be about there may have been other things in addition to that but every single one had letter an e in it next one talks about to me this kind of goes back to all children that like regardless why you ran for the board if you think you have you know any particular Allegiance or any groups that you are tied to essentially saying once you get on the board that it's the students that should be the basis for your decision making um this one holds us accountable to confidentiality so we know that we're public body we do our work in public but the state has identified nine different reasons that we can go into executive session so this is what holds us accountable then to keeping that information confidential and sometimes as a board we really don't realize the the impact or the power of that information that we have because it's usually information about students about staff about the legal rights of the district so one of the the cases from last year there was a board member who um shared some confidential information about a student with their family someone on their family went on social media and posted some stuff about it and it ended up being extremely damaging and hurtful to the student so sometimes you really don't realize the implications of what can happen to that information you have if you don't keep it confidential the other thing that the state said is based on the level of information that you have um that if you say something about the school district it would be reasonable for the public to perceive that that must be true right based on the information that you have so this is what holds you accountable to providing accurate information um this one helps make clear that from the board's perspective we don't hire we don't fire so it's clarifying that we just approve or disapprove the recommendations of the chief School administrator um and that you know there is a hiring process in place a vetting process before someone comes to the board next one talks about the importance of and protecting School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties and this is all of the time so this is becoming more of an issue again with social media um you know there was a board member again last year who had a Blog and for whatever reason one of the favorite his favorite topics was one of the teachers in the district and was posting I don't know why we gave her tenure um like overstated her salary in there and just made all kinds of comments and finally the teacher had had enough and filed ethics charges against them so um and then this one helps clarify the fact that you know as much as people come up to us and approach us with issues that this is essentially saying that we are the court of last resort that the board cannot get involved until after failure of an administrative solution so even you know when people come to our meeting sometimes thinking that they're coming to the board meeting and that's going to fix or resolve their problem or hoping or expecting it will and this is essentially saying okay board we cannot get involved until they've gone through the whole chain of command they've gone through you know the every level of administrator then that's the only time then that when the board can get involved so we need to help people understand what is that chain of command who can best help you with this situation recognizing that we want you to get the help that you need and it's not me but I can help tell you who that can be so these are some of those cases from last year I'm not going to go through all them so I just wanted to show you like the the Alphabet letter in parentheses is then that what that tenant of code of ethics that was violated so I'm just going to go down to the third one um and in this situation there was um the district the students had MacBooks it was time for them to relook at their devices and you know time to switch them out so the superintendent put a a task force a committee together the committee came back made a Rec recommendation said we feel like we should continue to move forward and replace them with MacBooks again so this board member was not you know said well what about Chromebooks I I you know I think maybe we should be using Chromebooks so the board member on their own away from the board meeting then um started calling other districts started talking to other Bas and kind of saying what's your experience with Chromebooks how much did it cost when you bought them started calling vendors to ask for pricing about it um so essentially kind of taking right that that independent action um and effectuating plans like it said without consulting those who would be impacted by them so just kind of seeing how you can take that independent action beyond the board table um this one just wanted to show you the I guess the in this first one here that this this board member had two things that were brought against them but in the second one um they were the the Secretary of a local charity organization in town and every year I guess the chorus performed at an event that this charity had so the the board member in their role as the Secretary of this organization reached out to the principal and said okay you know our events coming up we'd like to have the chorus perform again and the principal said sorry can't do it this year so the board member instead of accepting that were going through the chain of command to get a response then texted the chorus teacher and kind of said like what Gibbs you know why why why aren't you guys doing this um so then someone filed ethics charges against the board member and so it essentially said that the request for an explanation from a subordinate was admin administering the schools gave the appearance that the board disagreed with the administration put the corus teacher in an uncomfortable situation and was tantamount to an investigation prior to referral to the superintendent so saying how you can take that just that that one maybe seemingly harmless action but if you really look at it and break it down and see all of the ways that kind of goes outside of your work um you know just helping explain that and then in the next one this is was the the Morris County District that wanted to change the name of Columbus Day to another name um you know and it got a lot of national attention well a couple members of the public you know asked there was a board member that made a walk-on resolution the rest of the board voted you know the board voted for the resolution it passed so these members of the public um said can we sit down with you can we go out to lunch and talk about why did you do this um so it turned out those same members of the public are the ones that filed ethics charges they were recording this conversation they had filed ethics charges against the board member out of all of the things that the the initial ethics charges were four most were dropped except for this incident of them going out to lunch and essentially kind of saying that this board member um said that it shouldn't be up to them to explain the rationale for what the board decided so while I may be the one that brought it to the board table it is the board at the board table that ultimately made the decision to move forward with it so if you have a question about the rationale of what the board did rather than asking me as an individual it should be up to the board in public for the board to EXP explain its rationale uhuh correct so how did it get so it the private citizens are the ones that filed the ethics charges so it essentially was holding this it's not the fact that they went out to launch it was the fact that they were taking accountability or you know considering it their responsibility to explain a decision that the board made and said that that decision should be explained at the board table so separate from the code of ethics which was you know board members only prohibited acts which like I said used to be called conflicts of interest are what also can apply to board members and administrators um so essentially saying there are times when you need to recuse yourself take yourself out of the situation if there's considered to be a benefit to you as a school official or to anyone in your uh a media family and I'll show you in just a minute how the state defines that and essentially it comes down to money like is there a business interest any kind of professional activity um any Financial involvement um and then the one we see most often is letter B which says are you using your position as a board members is anyone getting any unwarranted privileges advantages or employment as a result of you being a board member and they even take that beond saying just the immediate family member but saying that it can also extend to others so that if someone doesn't meet that definition but it's clear that someone's getting a privilege or an advantage as the result of you being a board member you can be found guilty um so this is a clarification that we just you know kind of learned this year of saying the difference between when you do have a conflict that instead of it used to be common for people to just abstain and say I'm going to abstain from the boat because I have a conflict essentially saying that you should clarify that and I'm going to recuse myself um if you think about abstaining I can abstain because I wasn't here last time or because I don't feel like voting or whatever but Rec when you say that you are recusing from the vote that makes it clear that you are not voting because you legally can't so the records can now reflect the fact that you have a legal reason why you are not able to vote and you know and one of the things that was also explained is like and you your attorney would need to clarify how it would work for you but like in one of the examples that our legal department gave us like let's say a vote could be 44 and one if someone abstains if you recuse yourself it would be four four and zero so um you know kind of making that distinction so this these are those definitions from the state then so immediate family members your spouse partner or dependent child residing in the same household relative you can see it's a much bigger broader definition and the state used to have a definition that was different than what's in your nepotism policy and said okay it doesn't make any sense to have different definitions of what's a relative so now they change theirs so that this matches what's in your nepotism policy so the only you know kind of like relative one step away that we see that's missing is cousin otherwise it seems like every other relative um is pretty much in there so this is just an example of an advisory opinion that you know somebody had said okay if so and so works in the district is that a conflict or not so the school ethics commission said you know what we're getting so many of these questions that we're just going to go through every single possible relative situation you could think of like this list is actually about two pages long and tell you yes or no whether it would be a conflict or not so that would be a way how an advisory opinion could be helpful to someone um who wasn't sure whether something would be a conflict um so the reason that this is important well is that from the board's perspective you can't hire the relative of a board member or of the chief School administrator the superintendent can't even recommend a relative of the board to be hired and if when you get on the board if the relative is already in the district um then from the administrator's perspective they wouldn't be able to exercise authority over the relative from the board's perspective you can't take part in any employment matters in the chain of command between your relative and the superintendent and if say that you know if the district was involved in a superintendent search and you had someone who had you know a relative working in the district they wouldn't be able to participate at all it also impacts negotiations so in this case um if you had a relative it doesn't matter who working in the district if they're related to you um you are not able to participate whatsoever in negotiations not able to vote on the contract you are out um if we take that immediate family member like let's say if you or your spouse or a dependent child living in your household was a teacher in another District then you are not able to be part of the negotiations committee but once the board is completely done negotiating they've got the memorandum of agreement they've got the salary guides they've got everything done so essentially saying it's too late for you to change the outcome in any way that you are able to vote on um you know to ratify the contract or not and then in that bigger broader definition of a relative which almost everyone in New Jersey has a relative somewhere right that works in a school district somewhere that essentially kind of saying that that that's fine so you can participate the only conflict might be is if your relative has heightened Union involvement that may be considered a conflict now I don't remember you guys do you have anyone who has any potential conflicts or not no actually it could matter so so do you work for a public District but you're not okay okay okay okay yep because sometimes you know so like in situations so I guess I'm not quite sure so like in situations in districts like let's say there is a union and I'm choosing not to be in it then saying would that be a conflict and saying you know what the benefits and the things I get even though I'm not in the union are a result of the work that the union has done on behalf of everyone else but in your case it's a whole completely separate environment so yeah yeah yep um so the other time that it may be a conflict for a board member is you know in some districts the the local union is very involved in board member campaigns and so if they were to contribute any Financial in contribution to your campaign that could potentially cause you to not be able to participate in negotiations so these are some of the advisory opinions or cases that are related to these conflicts of interest so I'm not going to go through these they're just here for your reading I just wanted to like kind of show the wording like in the first one under the advice and outcome of making it clear that when you need to recuse yourself from something that it's any in all matters related to whatever the subject is um and then in the third one just again use the wording of that there was a potential for a conflict actual or perceived so again goes back to that is there a perception um so this is one of the first times that we have seen information um that goes down to kind of the committee level of if a board member that has a relative that works in the district um essentially saying that from the school ethics commission it could impact what committees you're able to serve on so in this advisory opinion that was asked for the board president had a child who was an instructional assistant in the district and typically board presidents um you know boards give them the uity to assign the committee chairs assign the committee members serve on some of the Committees and they're saying that you can't choose the chair choose any committee members and can't be part of any committee that re remotely touches or directly relates to your family members employment and said including like Personnel negotiations instruction and finance there's not too many committees left right after they would take away all of those but we've never really seen advice before that would suggest that you can't even sit on any of these types of committees um here's a situation where there were um two separate occasions where a board member who had a conflict went into executive session so in the first one the the board had a vacancy on their board and so um one of the people that applied for the vacancy was the board member's husband so when the board went into executive session to discuss the people that had app applied for the vacancy the board member went into executive session while to have a discussion that would include talking about her husband um in another situation the the board president um had an immediate family member that had some kind of of an issue that required the board to you know have executive session discussions and because the this um family member was only identified by an an ID number the rest of the board had no IDE who they were talking about had no understanding had no knowledge that this person was an immediate family member of the board president so while they were having executive session discussions about this situation the board president went into executive session with the rest of the board um in both of these cases they said that they had spoken to the their board attorney um so essentially that the school ethics Commission in both cases gave them both a centure and said that when and a member with a conflict goes behind closed doors again that justifiable impression that could create a justifiable impression to the public that their trust is being violated and we say that if you have a conflict you have no more rights than any other member of the public so a member of the public would not be able to go into executive session with the board to have this conversation so you essentially gave yourself an unwarranted privilege or Advantage by going into executive session with the board when no one else that the public could do that um and then also said that your presence could chill or intimidate or sway the comments like if we're going to talk about your husband and you're sitting there I may you know we may not have the the same kind of conversation we would have if you weren't there right um and then said even though you may say you consulted the board attorney that we're all responsible for our own actions but one of the things that came out of this that said okay so we recognize then that a a defense like if someone does file charges against you what you can use as a defense would be an advice of councel that I followed the advice of the board attorney so then they essentially said okay then all four of these factors would have to have had you know be true that you asked ahead of time rather than asking the board attorney after you did it you know so kind of said you'd have to go through each one of these factors and said even if you did that you still could be found to be guilty but you may not get a penalty or you may get a reduced penalty as a result of this um terms of volunteering in schools just again wanted to emphasize the fact that in you know kind the school ethics commission said that in order for us to maintain that 30,000 foot view of the district and not be too actively involved or IM mesed in the goings on of the the schools that you know we need to kind of take that step back um so this kind of came about where there was a board member whose wife worked in the district she um helped she ran the school plays and so this board member used to help his wife with the plays so when you think about all the involvement and the contact time you have with staff and students and there was a budget and said like those are all things that would be too much in order for you to maintain that 30,000 foot view of the district so they said they'll look at what's your degree of involvement with staff and students and what's your degree of authority to give and receive orders and directions for staff and students um so kind of the example they gave is that it's okay to you know come and read on Dr Seuss day okay to sh on a field trip those types of things you know you may also be involved in other organizations like when I was on the the board I was the treasur of the high school booster club so every time the booster club would make a donation to the board I would have to recuse myself from that right just because of you know any kind of a conflict um and then also give the example of like a coach saying you know the W teams may use the school's facilities and you can be a coach of the rec team because that's a separate organization but you couldn't be a volunteer coach of the schools team so just kind of making that distinction um so this one was just kind of clarifying voting and just making sure that we you know consider that the superintendent is making recommendations for us there was a somebody that asked for an advisory opinion and when all of the the health and PE standards were were before us and this board member um and asked for an advisory opinion and said if I if I vote to refuse to implement them you know could I be considered in violation of ethics and they said if it was shown that a school official acted contrary to the laws rules and regulations promulgated by the State Board of Ed that they could be in violation of that letter a um so social media is an area that we've been seeing finally more guidance from the school ethics commission um so essentially telling us that you know we have our first amendment rights we don't violate it if we just merely engage in social media and said kind of what the uh what the deciding factor is could a member of the public perceive that you were speaking in your official capacity or pursuant to your official duties as a board member if someone is a member of the public could make that connection so saying if the speeching question does relate to the business of the board or its operations it's then reasonable to perceive that the speech that you're making is in your official capacity as a board member so you know the school ethics commission you know suggests we use a disclaimer they even gave us this language that you know we would use and the disclaimer essentially is just making it clear saying this is me I'm speaking you know by myself not on behalf of the board I'm not authorized to speak on behalf of the board so this is just adding that Clarity but then what the school ethics commission said is just because I use the disclaimer does that automatically protect me and essentially it says you know what you can't hide behind that your actions matter if you say something you've used a disclaimer and it's clear that based on the content a reasonable member of the public could perceive that you are speaking as a board member then said you've effectively rendered that disclaimer of No Force and effect it is no good so that's what matters um and said you don't have to use the exact language and if you didn't use one um you know that doesn't automatically make you guilty if you you know are not speaking about anything related to your official duties um so in this case there was somebody that asked for an advisory opinion and in this town there was a bunch of Facebook pages with stuff going on about the school districts so someone had said how about we just put them all together into one page and we'll call Q&A between the parents and the board and this board member volunteered to be the one that would be you know speaking for the board and answering those questions so again that the school ethics commission said okay the community is aware of your status as a board member and would likely attribute any statement from you as being in that capacity and then the the last sentence I thought you know was again pretty telling to it said even if you only ever provide links to publicly available information it's possible that would not immunize you from being the subject of an Ethics complaint so again just kind of really warning us to to stay out of that Lane right to really be careful um for people that are running for the board it's not uncommon to either have like a a board Facebook page a Board website and kind of saying once you get on the board you cannot have any kind of a social media or any kind of an account that identifies you as in your position as a board member so you could have a personal account but you can't have it here's me as the Board of Education member account um and then one of the things that also happened last year is there were like two or three different instances where people filed ethics charges against a board member because the things they posted were so terrible and just like so heinous against like different groups in the public um that the school ethics commission came back and said you know what like if we went through those letters a through J I really can't pinpoint any one of those that you said that you did wrong but that doesn't necessar make it okay um and saying you know that it has no place in the educational setting and then said really your final judge as a board member is the community and if the if the community does not want someone representing them in that way you know you could find yourself not being elected again so so just in terms of kind of finishing up here then with the ethics piece of it you know making sure we know who have conflicts making sure that you know the board attorney would be the one a lot of these things are subject to interpretation so the board attorney would be the one that would provide that clarification for you and then also the state said that um not knowing about something is not a good enough excuse if you if you did it so holding us accountable to keeping ourselves advised and updated so every Wednesday New Jersey school board puts out Schoolboard notes so that if there are any ethic ethical updates it would be included in there um then just in terms of kind of a close thought again it kind of goes back to you know the really kind of the the whole Importance of Being a board member and what that means and you know just kind of what an honor it is and making saying that when we don't um uphold our ethical standards that it compromises the district and subverts the Very purpose for which we're elected and that's to serve the needs of the school district and our students so essentially holding us accountable to saying we should be doing everything we can can to avoid that to you know make sure that we are working in the best interest of our students these are just links for you so I'm going to finish that one right and then pull up the um superintendent evaluation that says evation process okay so um in terms of evaluating the okay so you said no one has conflicts right so all of you will will be able to participate in the evaluation so you know kind of the important part of the evaluation is making sure from the board's perspective that we look at this is this is our opportunity right to have a meaningful conversation with the superintendent to to really have an impact on student achievement how can we help make sure that we're setting effective goals that we're holding the superintendent accountable that the whole purpose of this is to make sure that we're all working together to improve the quality of Education that we're providing for our students so as we look at this we you know first start from looking at what are the legal requirements so in in COD and statute is the fact that we have to evaluate the superintendent at least once a year has to be in writing you have to meet to discuss it has to be based on the goals and the objectives of the district the the responsibilities of the superintendent in the job description and any criteria Des prescribed by the State Board of B and we'll talk about that in just a minute then how we carry that out is saying okay we have to be done with all this work by July 1 has to include has to be written by a majority of the board's total membership and include areas of strength areas needing Improvement recommendations for growth how are our students doing and then we have to have a summary sitdown conference at the end and says it should include a majority of the board so you know if I had people say to me okay do we have to use New Jersey school board's tool we say no you don't all you really have to do is make sure that whatever you do is in compliance with this statute and code our tool just helps you do that so again we know that if anyone has a relative can't participate so you know one of the questions I've been asked is okay like so what happens if we don't do this if we don't get this done in time um so a few years ago the they changed some of the qac standards so one of the changes was that there is now six points associated with the board completing this process by July 1st so when the district is qag they're going to ask for assigned that that signature page of the evaluation and they're going to look to see what dates on there um and then one of the things that's been attracting a lot of conversation and attention lately is again there's it's also in code that new board members have to be trained on the superintendent evaluation process within their first six months of taking off office so the state is saying okay like what does that look like how are we going to be able to measure that or determine that so from New Jersey school board's process pretty much what we're saying is in order to check that box for qac taking governance one will fill that requirement but you know I was just talking to the mors county superintendent earlier this week and she's like well yeah maybe that checks the box but I don't know if that's really enough for boards to really be having like be able to effectively evaluate the superintendent if you just had that little small piece of it as opposed to doing what your board does and having training on the the process itself every years so um you know and it's important that we talk about it from being a process and so it starts on July 1 or you know when the the school year starts ends on June 30th um so that's typically why that goal setting happens um earlier in the summer um and that's you know the importance too of having a strategic plan right so now that strategic plan is going to guide what these District goals look like um and that you know so now we know that we are moving the district forward in a direction that is based on um feedback from our stakeholders so then you know we we've got the goals we're getting updates on our goals so now it's time then to start the evaluation process so one of the other things too that was talking to to the county superintendent about is well I I don't think very many boards and superintendents really sit down and have a conversation about the evaluation process like before we get started like does everyone have all the information you need do you have any questions board are are you good with how this is all happening you know and I just had a new superintendent say you know what he goes last year this is how I gave the board evidence and then it turns out they didn't like it or they didn't want it that way y okay good good so you know so we talked about the importance of goals and so this really then is how we are helping to make sure that the district is moving forward in you know in a meaningful Direction you know we say that we are focusing on like say four or five things that we think are so important that we're going to hold the superintendent accountable by putting them in its evaluation so again this goes back to evidence you know if we think about the fact that new board members especially when you start in January and the the year has started July one and now you're going to be asked to evaluate the superintendent how do I know how things are going how do I you know how can I effectively um evaluate the super superintendent and the way you can do that is based on evidence that's provided that the superintendent can demonstrate to you um the you know the the progress that's been made in these areas so the way that our tool is set up then is it provides the opportunity for the superintendent to put evidence right into the tool so that you as the board can click on it right while you are in there um to help you know inform um your evaluation so like I said our tool is divided into two sections the first one are the goals and then the second one are the leadership standards so the leadership standards are how we help identify those areas of strength identify where more growth is needed and it's important that it is based on Professional Standards so what used to be called the isck standards are now the Professional Standards for educational leaders their national standards so when we talked about prescribed by the State Board of Ed so the New Jersey state board EV ENT adopted these National leadership standards so that's why then they are the basis of the standards that are in the superintendent evaluation so our tool kind of essentially has three iterations so the first one is okay we're going to give everyone a chance to have their voice heard individually the superintendent each one of the board members then once those individual responses are done then we compile it into one anonymous document so that's kind of the second iteration and it's set up so that it happens automatically so like as soon as the first board member is done then this compiled document is started over here then when the second board member is done it gets added so that when the last board member is done that compilation is done and ready um and it's accessible you know to to the board president and then the third iteration and then is the like a template so that compiled report is everyone's opinions we say that based on all the work that a board does decisions and information the board you know moves forward with is based on the majority opinion so this compiled document that has everyone's opinions then is a working tool for the board that allows the board then to be able to help identify what that majority opinion is and then we take that majority opinion extract it out of there and um recorded in that template and then that annual performance report template is the superintendent's actual evaluation so that's the page that gets signed and dated um so the process starts with the superintendent logging in so probably a couple weeks ago or so we sent an email to all the superintendents in the state saying okay tools open ready you know whenever you want to get started um I haven't got any yet there was one superintendent last week that submitted I'm like oh you are the the first one he's like Charlene I screwed up I made a mistake I didn't mean to hit submit could you have could you have your it could you have your it send it back to me so so then so then once the superintendent hit submit then there's a 48 hour window built in so that they can go back in so like o should have said that forgot to put that in there and then once that 48 hours is up then a link is automatically sent to each board member you receive an email with the link for you to log in and complete the evaluation so this then is what that goals portion looks like so it starts out with the superintendent inputting the goals and then the superintendent can do a self assessment um was the goal achieved you feel that satisfactory progress was made or little or no progress was made and you know one of the things that we're seeing are more multi-year goals sometimes so even you know many times satisfactory progress made sometimes is the best that we can possibly do recognizing that in year one we had no intention of ever being able to accomplish this goal um so you know we would also need to look at it from that perspective and like I said the superintendent can either provide coms or com comments or evidence for the board and then when as the board member then when you log in you'll see the assessment that the superintendent provided the comments that the superintendent provided then your asked to give your own rating or assessment of the accomplishment of that goal and then you can also provide comments so one of the things I see often our board members um making comments as if you're speaking to the superintendent this is actually comments for you to make to your fellow board members to help them understand why you gave the rating that you did um and usually if you're like um you know think it's really great or think it's not as great that you know that's usually the times when you definitely need to provide comments just so that the rest of the board knows what you're thinking and you know one of the things that I can also kind of say as we look at this is when we're doing goals like a situation I had last year they I sat down with a board and like say I forgot I think the goal was something about a demographic study well the superintendent did everything he was supposed to but the board didn't like the outcome so like they dinged them on the goal and they're like wait a minute like you're supposed to be evaluating me on this was the goal this is what I said I was going to do in in the action plan to accomplish that goal I said everything I was going you know I did everything I was going to do so that's what you should be evaluating me on so as a board we need to be clear about that too that we are looking at the goal and looking at what was supposed to be done to accomplish that goal versus kind of you know our own thoughts around them I'm so so these are th those six um leadership standards that are in there um so you know a few years ago when we updated the tool these standards used to be very different like it used to be based on like functional lines of personnel like you know Finance facilities whatever and then we're like you know what the superintendent job is actually much more comprehensive and you really need to look at things like you know community of care professional capacity what kind of a climate and environment like those are all things that are important to this work so we need to make sure then that the superintendent is being evaluated on that and then also wanted to call your attention to the fact that one of the ratings possible is not observed so that if you are one of those new board members or someone who perhaps just has not seen something that recognize that we would like you to be able to complete the evaluation as much as you can but not feel compelled to evaluate something that you you know don't feel comfortable doing um so not observed is not considered a positive it's not a negative it's just you know what hey I didn't get a chance to see it so this is a sample of one of the standards then so again one of the things that we also did in the standards is created a kind of a unique definition for like what exemplary what proficient means um you know one of the things we're finding is that one board member and like two board members may think the superintendent kind of accomplish the same things but in my mind mind that was exemplary and and then in someone else's mind well that's what I expect them to do that's just proficient so we said you know we need to kind of help make sure that board members are on looking at this on the same page from the same way um and showing that you can also have links then in so you can see in the standards the superintendent doesn't do a self assessment of a rating like they did in the goals but they are able to provide um links for you to look at or evidence for you to look at um and then we ask the board members what we're really looking for is an overall rating on the standard but we do give you the opportunity or ask you to put like X's or marks in the box next to the indicators because we want to make sure you've read it and that you're thoughtful about it instead of just going down to the bottom and just clicking a box want to make sure that you've really thought about it so this is a way to kind of make that happen and then you also can provide you know comments again for each one of the standards so then once the board is done then this is you know then I set a flag in the system that says okay the the kelon board is done I send Gan an email and say okay you know you're you can log in now and you have access to the reports so then the board president is able to log in and see those compiled reports so this is a sample kind of what those compiled reports would look like so here's a sample where the eight board members were able to participate in the evaluation in this case in this goal the superintendent's rating was that it was Achi D six board members agreed one board member said satisfactory progress was made one said little or no progress was made and then the asteris are different board members commenting so that's how it separates you know so keeps everything Anonymous but you can see you know who different speakers were so now you can see with this being a working tool for the board how the board can help identify what the majority opinion feels about this particular goal the same would be true here first stand so this is taking a standard and compiling it so that you again can see how the board would think and then there would also be those same comments so then we're again we're continuing to kind of move through the progression and saying okay so now we've got these compiled reports that's everyone's opinions so now we need to pull out of it then what the what the majority opinion is and then complete that template now I guess and Jee maybe you can share how your board does it in many cases the board Pres president does like a working draft and then the rest of the board tweaks the draft is that how you do it okay yep that's the most efficient way to do it and so then that way everyone still has the chance to be heard and have their thoughts heard but at least you've got an effective starting place so then that template then helps the Board again stay in compliance it identifies the goals it D ofies strengths areas for growth Pro provides any overall summative comments the board wants um so this is what that template looks like so then for each goal the board would provide an overall rating or overall thought about whether the goal was achieved or not provide some supporting remarks and then do the same thing for each one of the standards um and then if when we look at those areas of strength areas of growth we want to keep it based on the standards we want to keep it based on professional things so we tie it then to th those Professional Standards and then there's an openend for the board to provide any summi of comments and then you can see where the signature lines are so this then is the superintendent's actual evaluation so then the last piece of this is having that um you know summary sitdown conference and so while statute says you know a majority of the board should be present it's our recommendation that the entire board should be there um and you know the document that the superintendent receives is based on the majority opinion but like in that goal example if I was that you know we saw those six board members thought it was achieved but two other board members have had different opinions or different ratings about it if I was one of those board members and let's say my opinion didn't make it in the majority opinion document I have the right to express my opinion verbally so that's why I would need to be at that summary conference so that I can express that so that's why never know who's going to be the minority opinion you know on anything so having all the board members there gives everyone the opportunity then to be heard um so and you know we say it's important that you give the evaluation to the superintendent a couple days ahead of time so that he can come to this um you know ready to have an informed conversation and I know some boards will tell me that sometimes the board president or a couple people might sit down with him first like that couple days ahead of time just to say okay here it is this is what's in it this is you know this is what we were thinking so then when you sit down with the board you know kind of there's no surprises then at that time so um so again it sounds like I'm preaching to the choir here but in terms of the importance of having a calendar or a way to you know kind of make sure that we are looking at this work um ahead of time and trying as best as possible to use our current board meetings so that we don't have to add any meetings to to do the steps that you know in the evaluation process so kind of saying like take that last meeting in June say okay that's when we're going to have our sitdown conference with the superintendent then let's back up and say okay well then by the May meeting we need to make sure we have that summary conference then that means that the board members have to be done by this day and that means the superintendent has to do his part by this day so kind of helping us understand when we need to complete parts of it um based on on you know the fact that we need to be done by July 1 so again just as we look at saying what makes for a good process making sure everyone's heard that we have you know moveed forward with the majority opinion but the minority voice can be heard that we're doing this to build a partnership and a relationship with the superintendent we're in compliance and all of that should importantly be a framework for making sure that we're working toward advancing our students um so in terms of final thoughts or considerations of thinking about this as you know that this is a full year right so we should be thinking about okay we're setting the goals when are we going to have progress updates on the goals you know when are we going to get started with our calendar so just thinking about this over a full year process um sometimes board members tend to get hung up on what's the latest and greatest thing that's happening at the time that we're filling out the evaluation as opposed to okay I got to be thinking about what do we start doing last July and thinking about all of that time as being just as important as what's going on right now um and then you know from the board's perspective saying as much as that the superintendent is you know providing us with evidence there might be things that you know say maybe something that comes across to you and you're like this is really great I'm going to save this and make sure that I acknowledge this in the superintendent's evaluation so perhaps having a way for you to retain evidence and then just continuing to make sure that all of us fulfill this responsibility by participating you one of the things that I will often find with you know I'm going back and forth with board presidents like okay like five done like we we got two to go let's get those last two like you know really trying to work to make sure that everyone does participate because this is really a meaningful way for your voice to be heard and it's also a much more meaningful document for the superintendent when all of the board members have been you know part of the process so that was it so just wanted to see if anyone had any questions for me okay e so I guess so I guess it's a couple things so one of the things that's important in what you were just talking about of situations when you're say you're getting external communication so the board should come to a consensus or an agreement and kind of develop a pro a protocol and say this is how we as a group have agreed that this is how we're going to handle this situation when when you know when when this comes before us so some boards have kind of started like almost memorializing it and saying okay when when we get an email this is the process or this is the steps me you don't have to quite be that formal but all of you should agree that this is how this is going to be handled um you know and it's typically you know most boards are in agreement that the board president is the the spokesperson um for the board so again just making sure that that you know that that's clear to everyone and that what they should what you should do when you find yourself in a situation where perhaps someone's asking you to be the spokesperson or trying to put you in that role making sure that you'd say you know I appreciate you asking me this but just so you know our policy our practice is that our board president is the spokesperson um and then in terms of board communication I mean we always have to be mindful of the fact that um that we are a public body so whenever a majority of the board is involved in conversation saying that it's okay like for email and things to be pushed out one way and like you said it can be informational type things but as soon as a majority of the board gets involved in a two-way communication so like that's why you always hear like don't hit reply all um just reply to whoever sent it so that you are avoiding getting involved in two-way communication um with the perception that that could be a meeting um and the public has the right to be part of it be involved in it and you're depriving them of that right the other thing we have to be mindful of too because I just had this happen the other day is that a board member put a bunch of confidential information in an email and you know and they're saying like hey like this could be operable like you you have to remember that you are a public official so kind of essentially say if you can't say it in public don't put it in you know in an email that again just kind of being mindful of all of those um kind of little nuances right of being a board member and being a public official so uhuh no that's but that's a safe okay any other questions okay well thank you everyone I it's inside sometimes it's outside so have a good night thank you again good to see you okay um correspondents do we have any correspondents nope anything online Jay or Matt no okay petitions hearings of citizens on agenda items do we have any questions no board member comments we just passed through that tonight we're good okay so and can I have a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor I and