we'd like to call this meeting to order and flag salute the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all you like to take a moment of silence and reflection for all of those In Harm's Way ADV we like to take a roll call please I said that too the notice requirements of the open um public meeting acts of the state of New Jersey have been satisfied by inclusion of the date time and place of this meeting in the notice of regular meetings adopted by the board on January 8th 2024 such schedule and notice of meetings is posted on the small building the Mount Olive Library the Board of Education offices and six schools was submitted to the Daily Record for publication on January 9th 2024 was filed with the clerk of Mount Olive Township on January 9th 2024 I direct this announcement we entered into the minutes of this meeting roll call please Mrs Aquino here Mrs Fenton here here Mrs Gerald here Mrs Melendez here Mrs here Mrs O'Neal here Mr orillo here Mr here um I'd like to take a mo U make a motion from the floor take a motion from the floor to go into close session for the purposes of discussion on personnel and agenda items second favor all in favor roll call all in favor um maybe five 10 minutes [Music] yeah don't okay something I call the meeting back to order may we have a roll call please thiso here here here here Mendez here Mrs o here here here um I do just ask when we are speaking that we speak um like slowly loudly and into the microphones we need to make sure that the um when the speakers are picking up all of our words I know I speak fast and that then we're able to have any accommodations needed uh met appropriately um I'd like to have Mr schach if you would um move the the approval of the minutes yes i' like to move the approval of the minutes uh 2.1 and 2.2 second any discussion item uh with regards to the minutes and we'll take a roll call then Mr Mrs aqu yes Mrs Fenton yes MRSA yes Mrs gereral yes Mrs Mendez yes yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr yes Mrs yes and do we have any Communications and petitions uh from the superintendent or for the board no no anyone else and that's a no and we will move on to any reports and discussions um do we have any student Liaisons hi on thank you all right good evening everyone and happy New Year unfortunately I'm the only one here tonight our other leaz on Gabby is in a basketball game right now so good luck to our manal basketball girls um I too also just came from a swim practice so I'm sorry for the wet hair but um in addition to basketball and swimming the rest of our winter sports are in full force right now many of our teams are approaching their Championship seasons and we are even hosting the Morris County wrestling tournament this weekend at our school so if anyone can come out and support that's Friday and Saturday um sorry for more updates on winter sports you can always check the marauder for Life newsletter sent out by our athletic director Miss sufle Miss sule has also began sending out notifications regarding spring physicals and registration for spring Sports so parents should be on the lookout for any upcoming important dates our music department is also in full swing currently and just this week alone we have the trim showcase on Wednesday and The Rock and Roll economy concert on Thursday it doesn't slow down in the following months with the district level concerts coming up in February and later the drama club spring production which should be after and this year that is the Rock of Ages in regards to academics we are now approaching the end of our second marking period and first semester which has recently been pushed to end on February 2nd as crazy as it is to think about this close the first semester means that scheduling time is coming back for next year any parents who need any information regarding scheduling can attend the parent club meeting tomorrow where Mr Felman will be presenting and informing parents on this process seniors and parents should also be on the lookout for cap and gown information which should be released at the beginning of February also yearbooks are still on sale so anyone still looking for one can purchase one now I also wanted to take a second to highlight our ethos program at the high school which not many parents know about but this is a program that um allows two students oops excuse me two staff members and 16 students to be recognized each month for different desirable qualities like enthusiasm hard work kindness um the way this works is Teachers can take the time to nominate students that they see um showing these desirable qualities that may often get overlooked so this is a really great program that helps to boost the morale of our students and staff and really celebrate behaviors that might otherwise go unnoticed currently we are in the process of um hosting our uh breakfast where we're going to be selecting one student of the semester from these recipients over the past few months so good luck to all students who received Awards as for other school activities our clubs are looking forward to a great second semester with many events planned our Key Club is going to be hosting their annual Easter egg hunt um Junior RC has many community service projects more has competitions and there are many unified activities student council in particular just attended the njc winter convention where our officers had the chance to share our own ideas and also gain ideas from other school student councils to bring to our school um we are also going to be hosting a winter pep rally this year which is in the middle of February um this is very exciting as it's been years since we've had a winter pep rally and we're going to be highlighting the achievements of our winter teams and their captains and also playing some fun games for our students another event that we're bringing back this year that we are very excited about is The Clash of classes what this is is a an ability for our grades to have some friendly competition in relays trivia and many other games so we're going to be looking to host that in March um we can't wait for everything else that this second semester has to bring and I just want to point out that if anyone is ever looking for any dates or other important information we encourage you to look at the M Mount ol High School website at the student calendar which has everything posted and updated any questions any questions from the board I do who's competing against who is it like freshman s um as far as I'm aware we do freshman against sophomore and Juniors and seniors and then the winners go against each other yeah F yep no no we have uh well thank you so much for that course thank you we have exciting uh events coming up and we will move on to superintendent report Dr B at this time I'm going to have our board attorney Mr ziner who's going to be presenting on um board ethics grab this off twists good evening everybody members of the board members of the administration members of the community uh I'm pleased to report this evening on the New Jersey school ethics act we touched upon it a littleit bit at our last meeting with our representative from the school boards Association but I'm going to get into a little more detail uh this evening with you so the New Jersey school ethics act um is a law in the state of New Jersey and it essentially governs the ethical does and don'ts for school officials and we'll talk in a minute about who is defined as a school official under the school ethics act um but I think the preamble to the school ethics Act is important and what it says is that in our representative form of government it's essential that conduct of me MERS of local Boards of education and local administrators hold the respect and the confidence of the people officials have to avoid conduct which is in violation of the public trust or which creates a justifiable impression among the public that such trust is being violated uh what that translates to mean is that board members have to avoid not only actual conflicts of interest but you also have to avoid What's called the appearance of impropriety if somebody's going to second guess whether your votes and actions are driven by the school district and the students and the community that you rep elected to represent or your own personal financial interests you need to take a step back you need to recuse yourself and perhaps request an opinion on that issue so the law requires that we annually discuss the school ethics act at a public meeting so this will check that box um who does the school ethics act apply to it not only applies to Board of Education members but it also applies to school administrators superintendent assistant superintendent ba high level administrators within the school district as well as officials from the New Jersey school boards Association the code of ethics which I handed out to everybody only applies to the conduct of Board of Education members so the school ethics Act is essentially broken down into two parts you have the prohibited acts those are the sections called conflicts of interest on this sheet here and again page two you flip it over those are the code of ethics Provisions that only applies to um board members so prohibited acts are things like board members shouldn't act in a manner where they have a direct you don't have page two oh I'm sorry it's double-sided it's in my folder there I'll grab it in a minute um so which section do you have you only have the conflicts okay I'll grab it in my folder there um the prohibited acts deals with conflicts of interest board members shouldn't act in any manner where they have a direct or indirect Financial matter uh that could impair their objectivity in other words if you have a conflict of interest you need to recuse yourself and accusal means not only um sitting quietly during the discussion but if it's a close session discussion literally picking yourself up and removing yourself from the discussion altoe so let's go through the various they're cited here in the PowerPoint let's go through the various code Provisions um section A says you're going to uh uphold and enforce all laws and rules and Orders of the State Board of Education and the courts I think that's pretty uh self- obvious as to what that is in terms of complying with law section B says you're supposed to make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of all children you're here for all the kids not a particular group of students but you're here for all students regardless of race religion Creed national origin and so forth um section c really defines what the role of a board of education member is you are a policymaking body so you're supposed to set policy for the district you're supposed to plan for the future in the of the district and Appraisal taking a step back saying how we're doing and so forth how do we set policy for the district we have a policy committee uh we use a company called Strauss Esme that generally gives us the framework of our policies however we have the ability to craft those policies as you all know to kind of meet the needs of the district some things are law some things are code we don't have a lot of flexibility but there are other provisions of our policies where we do have the ability to shape them uh to fit Mount Olive an example may be do we want to allow homeschool students to participate on our sports teams that's a policy-making decision that's not a a legal decision you have authority in those areas to make decisions um you're supposed to make policy after Consulting with individuals who will be affected by them how do we do that generally through our work on the various committees next um you will carry out your responsibility not to administer the schools but together with your fellow board members to see that they are well-run this is an area where board members oftentimes get themselves into trouble crossing the line between being a board member a policy maker versus running the day-to-day operations of the school district the day-to-day oper operations of the school district are in Dr Ban's good hands and her administrative team's good hands they run the day-to-day stuff we make sure the schools are not are well-run but we don't as board members run the schools does that make sense okay I think I just can you help me out there no that is not the end of it I think I just put something to power button thank you okay so if you go through the code it talks about what somebody has to prove to show a violation of each of these provisions and I'm going to highlight a couple of them so what does it mean for a board member to have violated the code and administered the schools it means that a board member gave a direct order to school Personnel or became directly involved in the day-to-day activities and functions that are those of the administration so here's a case example a case from delc Board of Education uh where the SEC referring to the school ethics commission found a violation where a board member uh asked for copies of s reports directly from the guidance secretary he shows up at the guidance office starts asking for reports uh he begin to do an inspection of the locker room during the school day and then goes on to tell the fizzed teachers how they should do a better job supervising the PE class so that's a clear example of a board member just getting way too in the weeds and administering the school district next you're going to recognize your Authority rests with the board and you're not going to make personal promises or take private action that could compromise the board as a board member you have authority to act here while you're at the day you vote you work through your various committees but once you step out of this room you do not have have authority to speak for the board or to act on behalf of the board and if you do it could be considered to be private action that could compromise the board and it doesn't actually have to compromise the board it's enough that it has the potential to compromise the Board of Education section F you're going to Sur refuse to surrender your independent judgment to special interest groups or partisan political groups or to use the school for gain for your own gain or for the gain of friends does that mean you can't advocate for a particular group no that does not mean you can't ad Advocate it's I want to highlight the word surrender your independent judgment where you're kind of not thinking about it clearly and objectively but you've actually kind of relinquished your authority to some other group that's where it becomes problematic next I talked about this uh last week confidentiality one of the most important functions of a board member you're going to come across a lot of confidential information and it's extremely important that you maintain the confidentiality confidentiality of that information for a lot of reasons section g also says you have an obligation to provide accurate information so you obviously can speak you're allowed to speak to your constituents and so forth but it's extremely important that you when you speak you provide accurate information as a board member so you can say for instance um I voted against the board budget this year um and the reasons why are whatever they are you can't say for instance I voted against the budget because we're adding eight new administrative positions in the district if in fact we're only adding four that's inaccurate that would be an Ethics violation um section F says I'm sorry section H says you will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel after considering the recommendation of the superintendent by law the superintendent makes all Personnel recommendations a board member cannot appoint a member in a school district without Dr Ban's recommendation and then the law goes on to say that board members shouldn't withhold their approval of Dr B's recommendations for arbitrary and capricious reasons so if you have a good reason not to support it that's fine but it shouldn't be an arbitrary reason um next you're going to support and protect School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties um does that mean we have to rubber stamp everything that comes our way from the administration no you're allowed to ask good questions and so forth but you're not allowed to publicly evaluate our staff in a public arena for instance you're not allowed to undermine oppose compromise or harm School Personnel in their proper performance of their duties in one area where board members sometimes get themselves into trouble is they'll go on Facebook and start badmouthing an administrator badmouthing a teacher that is not supporting and protecting School Personnel that could be an Ethics violation um section J I think is a good provision for board members this section says that you're supposed to refer complaints to the chief School administrator so when you're in the local local supermarket and a member of the public comes up to you and complains about this or complains about this that your job is to refer that to Dr ban as the superintendent of schools you're not supposed to act on that complaint on your own you could refer them to the chain of command certainly have you spoken to your teacher have you spoken to the principal of your school that is absolutely proper but at the end of the day you're not supposed to act on those complaints you're supposed to refer those to the superintendent so who can file a complaint if somebody believes that the ethics act or code of ethics has been violated and the answer is anybody anybody can file a complaint um the Board of Education as an entity cannot file a complaint but individual board members can file a complaint any member of the community can file a complaint and so forth and there's a six-month limitations period which means the complaint has to be filed within 6 months of the time that the alleged violation took place the school ethics commission is the only entity that can determine whether somebody's conduct violated the ACT uh we can request an advisory opinion from the school ethics commission if there's ever a question about whether you should engage in a particular course of action you can certainly ask me I've read pretty much all the decisions from the school ethics commission but you can also go to the school ethics commission and they will issue you a formal uh opinion about a particular course of conduct and tell you whether you can do it or not so if there's a violation what are the penalties a reprimand is a letter from the school ethics commission to the school official kind of slap on the wrist saying that you violated the ACT a centure is a resolution read at a public meeting admonishing a board member suspension is suspension from the board of education for a certain period of time and then the most serious case is removal removal from the Board of Education it's kind of few and far between where I've actually seen board members removed but it does happen more for repeat offenders than anything else um one of the questions I often get are what are my rights My Free Speech rights as a board member do I lose my free speech rights by being a board member and like I said before the answer is no you have a right to express your opinions on issues but you have to provide accurate information you can't disclose confidential information which has the ability to compromise the Board of Education um we shouldn't publicly criticize staff either because that's not supporting and protecting School Personnel um I refer you refer you to a couple of our policies that I want to highlight if you are going to speak about board of education issues if you're going to write a letter to the paper if you're somebody who likes to post on social media uh you have to make it very clear that you are speaking as an individual and you are not speaking on behalf of the Board of Education again that's where board members get themselves into trouble and you should use a disclaimer so everybody has a copy of the PowerPoint there in the uh the agenda but this is the disclaimer and I could email to anybody if they want but this is the disclaimer that the school ethics commission recommends that you include on your Communications whether you like to use x which was Twitter or Facebook or writing letters you have to say that the following statements are made in my capacity as a private citizen and not in my capacity as a board member and these statements are also not representative of the board or it's individual members and they solely represent my own individual opin opinion that way it's clear to everybody that you're speaking as Mrs Smith or Mr Jones as a individual not on behalf of the Mount Olive Township Board of Education okay soes anybody have any questions about that okay so every year as you know I like to do a little quiz I'm not going to call on anybody so don't get nervous but I I will ask you your opinions these are real cases from the school ethics commission and these are current cases that just came out this this past year so um tell me what you think of this was this a violation a board member violated section d and e uh D is you shouldn't uh under take any employment I'm sorry wrong section D is you will carry out your responsibility not to administer the schools and section e is recognizing your Authority represent uh rests with the board of education so do you think a board member violated those Provisions when she emailed A Chorus teacher from her private email account and texted her asking why the chorus and ban were not participating in the Uno Columbus Day event so this board member was a member of Unico it's a Columbus uh sorry it's an Italian-American organization and she was upset that the chorus the band and the chorus were not performing at her Unico event she emailed the teacher she texted the teacher the teacher responded she was very in in a bad spot he this teacher and basically said look the principal didn't want us to perform that's really all I can tell you and the teacher continued uh I'm sorry the board member continued to interrogate the teacher about it asking why they wouldn't be able to participate and really question the principal's directive to the teacher do you think that was a problem yes or no yes clearly a problem this board member was found to have violated both very tough spot and the thing you have to remember as a board member is you're always wearing that board member hat people always see you as a board member regardless of your other affiliations with different organizations so true that was a violation how about this a board member violated um the conflict of interest sections when she attended an executive session of the board while her husband's candidate for an open seat was being discussed so the board had a vacancy the board member's husband applied for the vacancy and this board member sat in on those discussions do you think that is a problem yes the board member clearly should have left the room she should not have participated she had a privilege and advantage that other spouses didn't have she was able to sit in on an interview involving her own spouse whereas nobody else could obviously how about this one a board member violated sections e and G of the code recognize your Authority rest with the board and section g confidentiality and providing accurate information when the board member forwarded an email she received from the superintendent of schools to the Town Council and to the mayor in those emails to the board the superintendent was informing the board some good news that perhaps the NFL was seeking to use the School Stadium the matter was not public and it was still being considered by the Board of Education this board member took it upon herself to forward the superintendent's email to the Town Council is that a problem yes yes clearly a problem confidential it shouldn't have been discussed it was still deliberative and so forth if somebody had opened that email we would have held it under the the deliberative privilege how about this one a board member who's a teacher in another district and a member of the nja can participate in negotiations with the teachers in the district where he's a member once there's a memorandum of agreement with salary guid so if you're a teacher in another school district can you participate in negotiations once there's a memorandum with the union and salary guides who thinks no who thinks yes the answer is somebody said it the answer is yes the school ethics commission has said that once there's a memorandum of agreement and the salary guides where we know everybody and how they're getting paid the board member who's an nja member a teacher for instance in another town can fully participate and that's an advisory by the way all these cases I'm citing today if you go to the New Jersey school ethics commission website you'll find these and I'm trying to boil some of these cases are 15 pages long boiling them down into one paragraph So if you want to read more about them you could certainly find them online how about this one a board member violated section c and e of the ACT when she emailed vendors falsely claiming that she was reaching out on behalf of the board and then requested price quotes for Chromebook she contacted ba from other districts St she was a member of the board and wanted to know about their experiences with Chromebooks so this board was considering buying Chromebooks she takes it upon herself to kind of do her own investigation by calling vendors calling vas from other districts nobody authorized her to do this was this a problem yes yes clearly a violation just a few more um how about this one a board member who as a member of the burrow Council would violate C of the ACT dealing with conflicts if she were to vote on a shared services agreement between the board and the township to employ an SRO do you think the board member whose husband is a council member should abstain from that sort of thing yes clearly yes true how about this one a board member violated a andf of the code a is upholding laws of the state um D is recognizing your responsibility is not to administer the schools and F is refusing to Surrender Your independent judgment so did a board member violate those sections when the board member along with three other unnamed board members voted no on a motion to approve the health and PE curriculum you see this a lot in the state lately resulting in a tie in a motion failing to carry thereby leaving the district out of compliance with the New Jersey learning standard somebody filed an Ethics charge against them saying you voted no to the health and PE curriculum now we don't have a health in PE curriculum that was an Ethics violation do you think that was an Ethics violation no it was not an Ethics violation it seems like a little bit of a trick question here but it was not an Ethics violation the ethics commission said board members have a right to vote you vote as board members you vote your conscious voting no if you don't agree with something is not an Ethics violation um last one a board member who's employed in a district as a bus driver is precluded from being V involved in all aspects of contract negotiations with the bus drivers nja in the district where he's aort board member even though the board member is a non-paying dues member of the same Association in the district where he works let me translate what this means you have a board member uh he's a bus driver in another District uh his other district is an nja affiliate but this board member who's a bus driver chooses not to be in the union you don't have to be in the union if you don't want to be you don't have to pay the dues he didn't pay the dues in his district so even though his terms of employment were governed by the nja and his collective bargaining agreement he was not technically in the union would he be precluded from participating in the bus driver negotiations where he was a board member what do you think yeah it was a conflict because basically what the school ethics commission said is even though he's not a dues paying member of the nja still the terms of his employment are governed by a Union contract that that governs him in particular so they said he um he really needs to not participate in the negotiations but like I said before once there's Ana with guides he can fully participate any questions thoughts con concerns okay thank you appreciate it anything else for the superintendent report Dr B and we will move on to Personnel committee Mr quino thank you the Personnel committee met today uh all committee members were present we touched on um we had a discussion about the nursing staff and how we'd like to add an additional High School um nurse and possibly a part-time nurse as a floater we also touched on leave pay replacement um and increasing that so that we can actually obtain more people to fill or leave Replacements and we also touched on non-renewal and also I just want to let the board know that obviously due to the bad weather we weren't able to meet in person last week so we met in person today right before this meeting so obviously you don't have minutes you will within the day or two just so you know any questions from the board or comments no thank you and move on to curriculum and Technology committee report uh Miss Fenton thank you so all attendant uh all committee members were present um and we had uh Mrs Huffman and Miss stac there and they provided us an in-depth update with respect to the programming for special services the updates highlighted the diverse program offered by the district across the um PRK through 12 Spectrum both directors highlighted the professional development offered and the Family Outreach opportunities any questions from the board none okay we will move on to finance and operations committee report Mrs fitzgeral EXC thank you um our committee also met on Tuesday January 16th all members were present uh we started by talking about the operations report where Mr Miller uh gave us an update on what was going on with operations in the district one of the things highlighted was um our fund power outage that we had in the district but that this gave us the opportunity to um uh highlight some things that needed to be changed and done we hired a contractor to do take care of some of those changes that needed made very quickly so we are ready when and if you know there's another but we're going to say that there should not be another power outage for another uh extended period of time we also uh received a security update for from Mr kifi including that we are the town has currently collected 52,000 just over $52,000 in fines for bus violations that's the town obviously again reminder that the town collects those violations and then um we also um received an update from miss showning that our um District's current copier lease is expiring in February if you've ever seen office space this is what it brings me it's like you guys have dealt with copers before um so it sounds like a small thing it's actually a very big thing so our new lease in the district for our copers is set to begin April 2024 that's the here obviously but we are going to get um new copers and very reliable services and uh Miss Shing has found a way to save the district about $55,000 at the same time so that is it for finance any questions from the board on with regards to the finance no we going quick and uh policy and governance um Miss Melendez yes we haven't met yet so there is no report at this oh wonderful and at that time do we have any board subcommittees and and our parent Association Liaisons who would like to um provide us with an updated report from their group come to the mic and just state your name we got a full house tonight yeah um just yeah a little closer into the mic is it picking up guys I can hear you yeah technical difficulties is this m this one I may have accidentally turned it off possibly I don't know I don't know there we go is that better yes all right thank you all right so sorry for the paper but I don't want to forget anything so my name is Amy Marini I am your new president of cpeg since Joanie or Jeanie has um has stepped up um so cpeg just for those that are not familiar with what it stands for it is the special education parent advisory group um we are code driven and the whole it's parent run um and we collaborate with the district on all aspects of special needs special education um anything that pertains to our special ed students so um I did want to mention that I geg did hear the parent that spoke at the last board meeting and we want to Echo and encourage all specialed parents in Mount whoa I'll just hold it um to join us and to contribute to our conversation because it's super important um we do meet on the second Tuesday of every month um we do meet via Zoom um because it's accessible we seem to have better attendance and so forth um and um I do um work with um special services to have it sent out via real time to our special parents as well as we have our own mailing list we are again seeking parent volunteers parent engagement is super duper important for our successful mission to work collaboratively with the district on any potential concerns within the district I did want to report on the last few months um to begin we're we're like ecstatic to hear that the district has taken um some of our initiatives and things that we have suggested and kind of running with it um some being some of the fairs that they're going to be running some of the things about just different awarenesses and other there's a lot there's a lot but it was very exciting to hear their report um earlier um in the school year um um as always we uh each meeting both Deb Huffman and Sharon stac report on the district's updates about special education across the district so I don't want to bore you with everything but U November's meeting was super exciting because we were able to have the New Jersey Council for on developmental disabilities join our meeting for a really robust conversation um following their presentation on bullying and de developmental disabilities in which uh the presenter Mr leam uh showed the council's lessons and presentation that they offer to the special education population because it is a bit different and a little bit more catered to the special ed abilities and so forth and it was very it was very eye openening for example um to have remind the students to keep their self-esteem High recognizing signs of bullying try to stick with your friends all of those different types of things that are important for any student but really something to drive home for our specialed population since he did say that they get targeted a bit more than any of the other students um which was you know as a parent Hard One to swallow um I'm happy to share the council's pamphlet on bullying and developmental disabilities it's on their website but I'm happy to send it to you guys if you would like it um we also had a conversation about the Citizens Academy that um Mr KY had shared with us and so we tried to come up with some ideas sorry Mr kify we were not successful um for the December meeting um to highlight inclusive schools week which was December 5th through the 9th we invited the district um to highlight the inclusive practices among our schools with each School represented um it was very interesting and in a very informative conversation to hear what is happening at the different buildings and and so forth and I think even for the buildings it was really helpful for them to have conversation among themselves to see how maybe they could take things from one another to to kind of build their their their different buildings and inclusive practices um we also had parent conversation about communication among the buildings for transition between elementary and middle school as well as communication between um parents had questions and kind of concerns about communication between all the staff members that work with the students in the different um in the different buildings uh unfortunately January's meeting was canceled due to my power being out and so um uh but I will be emailing out a survey shortly um to our mailing list to discuss uh and get everybody's feedback about how we can collaborate better with the district um and see if there's any glaring concerns out there and I did forget to say in the beginning that we work not on individual special needs concerns it's systemic concerns and so you know we try to have open parent conversation at the end of our meeting to open up the table to find out about because we won't find out about systemic issues unless individual parents share some of their concerns just because that's how you find out about systemic concerns um as the cpeg President on January 18th I um as a GU guest I attended the New Jersey special State special education advisory Council also known as cak so if you look back videos and heard genie talk about cak that's what it stands for um the meeting was I met virtually um where the Statewide representatives of both providers and receivers meet in accordance with the federal regulations of the of idea to discuss multiple areas of special education across the state um there were multiple presentations um and you know the one that was there were two that were really stuck out one was about um the educational uh technological experience in another District um as well um as an extremely extremely eye-opening um presentation um from an author um about uh her study addressing suicidal ideations of students with disabilities which was also quite terrifying and you know back to our bullying presentation um our next meeting is scheduled for February 13th that is it any questions any questions or comments from the board Amy needs help I do volunteers so so any parents out there ceg is looking for some volunteers to assist aming yep thank you thank you do we have any other parent um or board subcommittee reports leaon I have one Oh's I have um Kelly Huff was going to be here tonight and she can't from Mount Olive um middle school PTO but she sent me her updates and asked me to share with the board um first they just completed a Teachers Lounge uh redesign at the middle school as part of the school gift for um the Mount Olive Middle School it looks really good really good the um and that was their chosen gift for the year for the school um a lot of the proceeds from the tricky Trey obviously helped fund that um they are getting ready to launch their first ever scholarship scholar ship at Mount Olive middle school for a graduating high school senior so we'll hear more about that as we go along um speaking of volunteers they are really needing volunteers for things like eighth grade events for um year end events for students Etc but we're hearing this from a lot of the parent teacher organizations they are really hard up for volunteers so as much as we can to spread the word about that that would be helpful they have a Wizards game coming up March 24th it's a lot of fun I've been before um and that's one of their fundraisers as well and they are in the middle of spring assembly planning and Teacher Appreciation Week planning as well any questions for the Middle School questions from the board down thank you hi good evening everyone my name is Kelly antha Smith I am the recording secretary Secretary of the the PTA board for um Mountain View Elementary School so we just wanted to give some updates what we've been up to um this year we had a very busy first half of the year we want to thank all of the boards who came before us um because we are a brand new board all five of us so um we have been working very hard to continue the wonderful Traditions that those prior boards implemented and trained us on and really left us in a great place so we hit the ground running thanks to them um we conducted a very successful Fall Fest um several fundraisers including a mum sale and a card sale um our holiday Boutique was an enormous success we had many many many parent volunteers who stepped up and crafted made t-shirts um and did just a lot of homemade things to make the pricing um fair for our students and the quality of the items better instead of um going through a third party contractor and having like a huge markup so it was a wonderful success both um for the students to bring home great gifts to their families um but we also had um a very large profit we actually tripled our goal in profits so that is great for us um going into the spring with everything we have planned um we also hosted our annual holiday light celebration which was wonderful our fourth and fifth graders have been doing wonderful service projects as well as fundraising um they fundrais starting in fourth grade and continuing through fifth grade for just some fun fifth grade items to help reduce the cost of their field trips um potentially some extra goodies at the end of the year like an ice cream party or maybe a t-shirt you know depending on how those committees want to spend those funds um but we've also included some service projects this year they hosted a mitten and coat drive and we had a tree in the lobby and it was filled it was overflowing and those were given to to all guidance counselors actually not just in Mountain View but throughout the district um to share and spread with anyone who may know of a student in need or a family in need um We are continuing some standing traditions we are raising money for a Mountain View senior scholarship so anyone who attended Mountain View and is a graduating senior we will be making those Selections in the spring um but any of our proceeds for our upcoming um boys and girls dance um will go to that scholarship our boys and girls dance consists of we have a night for the girls and they bring their special person whether that be a parent an aunt an uncle a grandparent but that's their special person for the night and they get to spend that night dancing getting pictures some you know fun treats there um and family games and then we do the exact same setup for the boys and we do that in March um so those will be coming up in February March we're also planning some movie nights um thank you um Dr Bania for putting us in touch with how to get a license for that it we we're very appreciative to share that with anyone in the district who needs it um but we have um acquired the license to be able to show some movies um after school hours and get some of that energy and Cabin Fever out of all of our little ones um and finally we are planning um a large well let me take a step back of course teacher appreciation day is huge huge um we want to honor our teachers um that'll be coming up in May and then we're also planning a very fun way to end the year with a carnival setting um Family Fund day so there's lots of little fundraisers and big fundraisers in between and little events but that's kind of a big outlook on our year um we do meet the second Wednesday of every month it is open to anyone in the community who wants to attend you do not need to be um a member of our PTA um only if you want to vote do need to be a member but we encourage everyone to come and we also offer an in-person option as well as a virtual option and we also need parent volunteers at any time we will not turn you away and thank you uh Mr stachi because he comes to all of our meetings and we appreciate um his support and you know the back and forth information sharing so thank you very much have a lovely evening thank you Kelly yeah thank you Kelly um they may be a young new board but let me tell you something we see Cycles as you know come through sometimes very energetic sometimes passing this this new board down in Mount View I'm very excited about because they're very energetic and they're really on the ball and it was a pleasure they that we met virtually along with Dr banj too Dr banj he's all over the place Dr BJ yes but anyhow you do a great job and keep it up because and I'm I'm happy you came as as I asked you because you can give a report better than I can any other comments from the board do we have any other um parent leaz on here we go hello everybody I'm a little sh thank you hi sorry my name is Nikki odison I'm president of the PTO at tin Ro school I'm pinch hitting for Erica marceno tonight who usually does this report um as our Communications secretary um you'll know in just a couple minutes while she's up here normally instead of me but um we've been pretty busy heading into the second half of the school year I'm just going to really review what we've done uh the last month and going forward into the next couple of weeks uh we approved two recent grants one was for nurse Lily and one was for um and and for nurse Melissa um they asked us to help restock the nurse's Pantry so we provided an an emergency grant for them um if you've ever been near the nurse's office you know I mean I try to avoid it because they have so much going on in there but there are so many children who go through the nurse's office for a variety of reasons from you know tummy aches to boo boos to missing parents um they see it all they do it all um and uh they were asking for uh replenishment of snacks drinks spare clothes and such so uh we're working with Mr gillow on a long-term solution because this isn't ongoing need in our school um but hopefully right now you know this Band-Aid will bring them you know until we can come up with more of a permanent solution uh we also granted uh a fun Grant to uh Mr a and Mr at our gym teachers uh they hosted a jingle bell run for all of the students in the in the um in the school right before winter break and uh it ended with my son jack is in kindergarten and it ended with kindergarteners doing a jingle bell run through the hallway which was adorable if you got to see it on Twitter I'm sorry I still can't say x um I can't do it okay so uh over the course of the year we tried to surprise staff and students I try to mix it up a little bit we try to celebrate like national holidays some of like the more off the beaten path so we celebrated National rubber ducky day and we provided um scratch off tickets to staff where it said you're a winner or not a winner and then they got to report to the office um to miss Angela uh to retrieve their prize uh we also distributed 500 rubber ducks with fun facts to all the students we also celebrated this past Friday National Popcorn day um we figured how else could we you know rile up all the students uh on that early dismissal day and so we dropped off um bags of popcorn to um to all the classrooms and the teachers helped us distribute that thank you to the teachers I did clean out three shop rates so if you were shopping for popcorn last Friday I do apologize for that um we we distributed holiday gifts for staff at tints and the bus drivers as well we put together with the help of um of uh Kristen uh she always is um is wonderful about uh providing bus uh driver appreciation gifts three times throughout the year and we piggybacked on that we provided um baking kits for all 120 staff members at tin um our upcoming events steam night has been rescheduled it was supposed to be on Friday evening uh we had to reschedule for February 2nd we are expecting about 200 plus students in attendance plus their grown-ups uh this is a free event for all TRS families um I really want to thank Erica marcinko she has been working tirelessly on putting this event together it has so many moving parts and pieces to it um the first Lego League will be there Cub Scouts will be there with their um with their racetrack Mort is a scheduled to attend um we have a lot of TRS staff who are giving up their evening to spend the evening with us and um we hope to see many of you there um also we're hosting uh or we're partnering with dragon Den martial arts they're um they're providing for us free we're in turn using it as a fundraiser uh self-defense class on February 4th from 2:30 to 4: it's open to all adults and teens 13 or plus um they're going to go over some basic self-defense and uh deescalation strategies and techniques so if anybody's interested please check out our Facebook page our winter page program registration just opened up today if you're not familiar with our page program it stands for play and grow enrichment it's an after school enrichment program for tins Road School families it's run by the TRS staff um they put together their program they pick their topic uh they do you know all the all the course layout they gather all their materials uh meets for six weeks after school from 3:30 to 4:30 so there's no Transportation involved and we're very excited about offering seven classes this um this session we have yoga for the younger ones yoga K to 5 we have Lego Lego steam Robotics and en coding a Cricut craft class and uh an interal sports program as well so students can register for any of those programs they stay after school from 3:30 to 4:30 and then they just are picked up um we are partnering with the staff at tins this year uh Mrs White Mrs Barbara and Mrs Miller uh approached the PTO about putting together some tins Road School gives back programs so uh at our cookies and crafts of family event in December we had a station where families could go and make holiday cards and holiday ornaments and then the students at tins package those nicely and we dropped them off at maryart nursing home so that was one of the events that we did uh we have three more slotted for the year next up uh we're partnering partnering excuse me with nourish New Jersey to create breakfast bags and that'll take place on Friday February 23rd so families are invited um to come to the cafeteria for an hour and a half they're going to help us decorate and put together these breakfast bags for families in need in our community uh we also were just approved for March 9th for an apple G Apple bees Flapjack fundraiser um so this the Tin Road School staff is going to be uh serving up pancakes and bigan and all the goodies on March 9th will be advertising that as well and then that money raised at that event will be used toward future products uh projects for ttin gives back and then finally to round out the year we're looking at hosting in Alex's Lemonade Stand at our end of the year picnic on the playground so information will come uh will be coming up shortly with for that as well and last but not least as a kickoff to read Across America we're working with Mrs Capone and the rest of the Tin Road School staff on um on a mass reader event so the if you've seen the mass singer it's very similar the staff who are always down for doing something fun for the kids uh we'll read an excerpt from a book and a mask and then the kids will get to guess who they are and it's just a launch into read Across America which um Mrs Capone and the rest of the Tin Road School staff does a wonderful job with so that's kind of a sneaky peek at what's going on at tin this S Bus busier than some of us any any comments from the board no questions anyone else okay we'll move on uh president's report I do not have anything we will open up for public comments on action items and that is action items only um members of the community may comment on any action item prior to board discussion you will please state your name and address for the record please speak clearly into the mic um all comments must be respectfully presented abusive or obscene comments will not be tolerated do we have anybody no one all right we will close out public comments and we will move on to approval of monthly expenditures and reports um may we have a motion to move from U Mrs Melendez open the recommendation of the superintendent I present a motion to approve section 6.1 through 6.8 approval of monthly expenditures and reports second I a contest who's going to get it first I roll PA please Mrs Melendez yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr rillo Mr sorry yes Mr stachi uh I when I to say this one time whole year any time the name jod Bosch appears in anything I abstain yes I this is Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs nor um yes uh did you get Mrs O'Neal yes you did but I didn't say oh anything that I abstain from anything with the last name Mr Zill from and I had [Music] yes and we'll move on to Personnel uh action items and can we have a motion Mrs um Aquino yes upon the recommendation of the superintendent I'd like to move Personnel action items 7.1 through 7.25 second um roll call please this is aqu quino yes yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs O'Neal obain Mr orillo yes Mr stachi yes Mrs noris uh yes and we will move on to sorry my computer work uh curriculum and Technology action items do we have uh can I have a mo Mrs Fenton yes upon the uh recommendation of the superintendent I'd like to present 8.1 to 8.3 second uh any discussion uh on the items for 8.1 through 8.3 no we'll take a roll call please Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Fitzgerald yes Mrs Melendez uh yes abstaining anything that says Angela Sanchez Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes Mrs trach yes Mrs Aquino yes Mrs nor yes and we will take a motion for finance and operation action items from uh Mrs Fitz cherel upon the recommendation of the superintendent I'd like to make a motion to approve action items 9.1 through 9.3 than any discussion from the board no we'll take a roll call Miss Jones Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes Mr trach yes Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs noris yes and we'll move on to um administrative action items and I'll take a motion from Miss F figura upon recommendation of the superintendent I make a motion to approve items 10 .1 to 10.7 please do we have a second any discussion no we'll take a roll call Miss Jones Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs melindes yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes Mr yes Mrs Aquino yes M Fenton yes Mr um I will obain on 10.1 and on 10.4 and yes to everything else and we'll move to public comments uh students parents employees and community members May comment on any item and interest pertaining to the Mount Olive School District please state your name and address for the record please speak clearly into the mic all comments must be respectfully presented abusive or obscene comments will not be tolerated do excuse me Mrs Nares no no I did not abstain to 10.2 I'd like reflect that change what I don't know if I have 103 10.3 10.3 I really don't think so okay to be honest with you it's like voting for yourself to be the board president or vice president it's more ministerial it's not an issue okay we have someone for public comment just state your name and your address and speak close and clearly into the mic thank you hi Cindy 38 Indian Spring Road Bud Lake uh good evening uh this is my first Board of Ed meeting so excuse welcome uh so um I'm going to start with really just asking some questions and uh maybe you could enlighten me on on how educated you are on certain things so can you can anybody tell me what the ratio of students to teachers are in a gym class in the middle school so just so everybody knows uh P comment is not a so much a back and forth conversation um typically the public encouraged to you know give us some feedback and ask us questions um we may wait to the end should we uh wish to respond or direct to our superintendent um or we could we may get back to you with the responses okay well in order for me to be able to make my point it would be really good if you could just kind of help me out and tell me if you know what the ratio is what was that if you know what the ratio from students to teachers is in the Middle School in the gym class I think we would have to do a takeaway on that one not okay so let me help you it's 60 to2 okay that's a big number now I have your Hib policy that I've glanced over today um I think that you're all going to tell me that the student that has been accused of doing the quote unquote bullying or harassment is not within their right to have their parent present during their being questioned is that fair yes okay is it fair for the student to not answer the questions and ask for their parent to be present the law is very clear that when an administrator so the law is clear that when an administrator in the routine operation of a school district wants to speak to a student about an issue that occurred that the student does not have a right to have their parent present no the student does have a right to refuse and the student does have a right to express their discomfort and ask for somebody to be present to have as a witness an advocate for them they are allowed to ask for that yeah C look we can't make words come out of the student's mouth if the student doesn't want to respond that's their prerogative okay so I just want to make it clear for the record that the student can express their discomfort and ask for their parent to be present want you continue no i' I'd like a yes or no I ask question if the student is accused of something they are given due process in other words they're accused of X and then they're given an opportunity to respond to whatever it is you're accused of act we'd like to hear your side of the story if the student doesn't want to cooperate and says it's not a question of cooperation let me finish if the student doesn't want to cooperate if the student doesn't want to answer the question if the student says I feel more comfortable with somebody else that is the student's prerogative to say that it will then be up to the administration to decide how to proceed okay okay so what happens after the case let's say that the student is found guilty of said allegation is there remediation so if the student is found you're talking about guilty of a Hib yes yeah so if the student's found guilty of an HIV offense the parent will get a letter and after it's reported to the board the parent will then get a letter for the policy advising the parent that your child's been found guilty of a Hib uh and if the parent is not satisfied with that feels that due process perhaps has been violated or that the administration or the HIV specialist who investigated the case got it wrong their recourse is then to a file an appeal before the Board of Education or a committee to try to convince the board to essentially reverse the determination the board will then render a decision we'll send a written decision to the parent and then ultimately if the parent's not satisfied with that that they can go to the commissioner of Education to file a formal appeal so that's that's the process laid out in policy 5512 so in a room of 60 to2 if a student is accused and there are no teachers or any adults or educator in the realm of what the accused is saying you're taking the word of other students is that what I'm understanding look we're really this is really not supposed to express your express your viewpoint on what you think and we'll we'll certainly listen resp that's fine sure my son is now on his second Hib this is now again in a gym class where the teachers are nowhere to be found now 622 again big number my son has been a victim of being assaulted in this same gym class four times I have expressed this many times I have an email going back to May of last year expressing how my son has been punched in the face body slammed with teachers sometimes within feet away and nobody sees anything two doctor visits nobody sees anything and yet and still with all of my frustration I am not heard my son had a Hib in the fifth grade he had proof I had text messages I presented this proof this came back unfounded this child got away with saying horrible things to my son and to add insult to injury that same student was then put on the same team with my son in the sixth grade make matters worse not just the same team in the same class when I contacted the school guidance counselor immediately I was told there was nothing that they could do fast forward to this last Hib where my son expressed because he does not trust any of you because of these incidents and by the way it wasn't just the student it was one of your teachers who not only verbally abused my child but physically handled him I okay so my son told his vice principal I cannot answer your questions I do not want to write to write a written statement I need to have my mother here they refused and then suspended my son not because he was actually guilty but because they didn't have his side of the story so you have let my son know know that he does not matter on so many occasions and now he is involved in yet another Hib that is not even meeting the criteria of your definition with no adult witness because there is too many students and not enough Educators I have my hand on my heart every day wondering if my son is going to get body slammed again it happened just this year again he got slammed by some kid and the wind knocked out of him and then I've got to get my son to a doctor to make sure he's okay because he's clearly not safe in your hands so I know you don't want to answer any questions but Dr Bia can could you have a discussion at we've had a discussion we've met I've had a a school principal who I won't name tell me that I am my son's biggest [Music] problem and that it's none of my business what happens with with him while he's in school that came from one of your principles I mean like I said before in order for this issue to get before the board of education for its consideration you have to follow the process set forth in the policy which is to appeal if you feel that the decision was wrong you have a recourse to appeal I have been voicing and meeting for the better part of two years now I'm not interested in your appeals stop talking to me and start doing something about it thank you Dr B I'd just ask that there be a followup with yourself and Miss Bellow possibly too we have any other um comments from the public anyone else okay on that note we will move on to Old business for the board any members of the board May comment on any item or topic that was previously discussed by the board I just I just want to bring up one thing very quickly because we have a new board uh and this came up in our our finance committee meeting sometimes uh we have an emergency that arises we don't have the time to sign a purchase order for something something or what have you it has been understood by pass boards that whenever there is an emergency that arises we give the authority to the superintendent to remedy that situation so I'm asking for a uh a complete from the board a complete acceptance of that of that decision is there any way to possibly make sure that we have that in the a policy so that we make sure that there's no question about it that could definitely put into yeah I will check on that just just to make sure that we have won what our past practice has been and like you know Mr sty said in the event that you know the current practice um has there's an emergency or something occurs we still need those items to to move forward and then the correct me if I'm wrong the would then ratify whatever it was at the next meeting retroactive sure and those are just for purchase orders correct not in order to order the items not correct anyone else with old business anyone with new business members of the board May introduce any new item or topic of discussion for the board to consider no and we'll move on to board um and and Administration comments any board members um that have any comments on anything of Interest pertaining to Mount Olive school district and we can start I'll start at the end Mrs O'Neal I just I wish that Mom didn't leave I would have said Thank you to her for coming and sharing her concern because it's a concern of a lot of people and I think people think somehow you know everyone would know or something when they don't and um it it upsets me to hear mom that upset cuz we I get that upset about my kids but um so if she watches it I just want to say thank you for coming and saying what she said thank you um Mrs Fel nothing for me and Mrs Melendez surprising me nothing here Mrs so queen I'm just going right down nothing all right I'll jump over to Mr or Zillow nothing for me oh Mrs ferera nothing for me either Mr schach I have nothing oh Mrs Aquino misso Mrs F I have something oh a come on kidding really quick um I just want to say that I was accidentally at the high school during the uh drill when the lights went out um and I I was actually getting ready to leave but I decid to be nosy in stay and I want to say how impressed I was I walked around where all the what are we500 kids 1500 kids in the lobby and the cafeteria and it was amazing I had so much respect for those kids and the administrators I was I was truly in awe at how seamlessly that went off and I I just have to tell people that our staff is excellent the students were excellent it was just a really positive thing to see that many kids I know if I was that age that wouldn't have happened but these kids were very responsible that's all I have to say um last one of course all right I do have something to say I got I had the pleasure of spending um my weekend over at the high school for the we hosted the Middle School Mars County wrestling tournament but what was really amazing was while we had an early um dismissal on Friday the building was ready the you know the parking lot was cleared and we had you know parents and student athletes and officials from all over the county you know come and participate in our facilities were you know set up you know amazingly so that when you know you had from Mr Miller's staff you had the janitor staff you had Mr kfi's staff all coming together Miss Su you had volunteers but my favorite part would be to see that we had students that were volunteering we had other students that while they were you know maybe they didn't have a match what they would do is jump on the seat next to their coach and assist and cheer on their other teammates you know that's a sport that is a very individualized um you know sport it was a it's a wonderful thing to see when the kids are able to support one another in such a you know strong um you know enthusiastic manner um and you know was nothing but comments from everyone of the public about you know how well-run and how well behaved you know our students and our you know facilities and our staff and the parents that come out and volunteer I know we will be hosting this weekend the high school um wrestling tournament and even more effort goes into that so you know we hear some of our PTA parents it is you know the community and the parents we need the volunteers to come out and constantly help you know one another um and Mr stanbury let us know when you have another um night of a tour at the high school I heard it was pretty well attended over ents and students join us for the open on the 17 amazing and I just want to inter that the alumni panel program will be out on very shortly think there's a this Wednesday night is it there uh is it the course or Android the rock and roll Bradway not Brad a lot going on in our district for you know all of the you know students parents people of the community to come in you know see and participate see what you know the children and the staff are really putting you know their time and effort into Mr we used to have I don't know if we still do it a senior citizens day to come uh in our schools we still do that've done on and off over years it's always nice to one day they come and they you know come into rules and it's very nice they look forward to it we Haven done it for a while might want to think about that again I mean other than Bill bring some friends Bill all right we'll have to we'll have to put that on you know the items to discuss get more info on I think um I have nothing else um anyone else no so be it um I'd like to take a motion to recess into confidential uh session for the purpose of negotiations Personnel matters of attorney client privilege pending or anticipated litigation confidential pupil matters um any other real estate matters uh be it resolved that the matters discussed in confidential session will be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality no longer exists um may I take a motion second um any discussion any discussion give me the motion are we got a second any discuss discussion no um take a action we can do an all in favor I I I anyone oppos uh no action will be taken at that no we'll say action may be taken to cover okay um a roll call sorry I'm sorry like half asleep everyone Aquino here Mrs Fenton here here Gerald here Mendez here O'Neal here Mill here I'm here and I'd like to take a motion to adjourn so moved second second and roll call or all in favor hi hi any opposed and we're adjourned