welcome everyone to the May 14th Workshop meeting thank you for joining us um I have no uh president report this evening so we will move on to the superintendent report W yes good evening everyone thank you um I have a a few things to discuss tonight we have our special our special education resources and transition fair tomorrow from 3 to 6: p.m. this is a new initiative that we have our first time ever we think it's going to be great uh service for our students and families and we also have the one aasa night of fine and Performing Arts coming up on May 16th and an art show at 4:30 and the art show at 6:30 I'm sorry the art show is at 4:30 the concert is at 6:30 we have the OTS spring band concert coming up on May 16th at 7M and our Junior Prom is this Saturday night on May 18th so all good things coming up um later on in the agenda we have resolution uh for a proclamation for special education week and um I think this is a great thing that we are declaring and proclaiming this as special education week um Ocean Township High School has a number of you want to read that under my uh okay the pro I'm not goingon to read the proclamation just talking about a few other things in addition to the to the um transition Fair we are have our elementary students are exploring newly received books courtesy of our SEPTA organization we did have our SEPTA Awards event last week which was wonderful um and we um have a number of different things going on throughout the district and as Mrs Gilman said she will read the proclamation later on in the agenda and then finally um on under my report I have the um School self assessment for determining grades under the anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act the official release of the grades for the 2022 202 23 school year have been released by the department of Ed we discussed all of these this summer in my report this summer I presented to the board and to the public how we assessed ourselves each school and what we were submitting to the doe and once the doe then releases it and it's called the official release I'm required to also notify you that it has been officially released and then we will put it up on our website this week and it will be there for the remainder for a year until we get the ones next year okay so that concludes my report at this time thank you School business administrator's report Mr Hastings uh I have no report Madam president okay thank you all right at this time we're going to move into public comment regarding agenda items all motions are posted on the District web website at this point in the meeting we will now conduct the first of two public comment sessions the first session will be open for public comments on agenda items only the second session will be at the end of the meeting and can be on any topic which would anyone from the public like to comment on any agenda item at this time anyone in the room Miss Hayes uh Alex Hayes Oak Hurst um so I'll sticking to agenda stuff only the $3 million project um I'm curious with the two track uh contractors the one that whose bid had to be thrown out because it sounds like they put the information on the wrong line which is fascinating to me and you have to now have the second highest bidder um it doesn't say anywhere in the documents what the difference is so um it would be interesting to know what the differences between those two bids um and also when you put contractor names like vmg they lost out and now MTB uh won the bid for a 3 million dooll roofing project I don't think um there's much transparency nor identification in who these contractors are I it's hard to look up who contractors are when they have names that are probably someone's initials um secondly uh let's see uh we still still don't put um names of like when people are resigning retirement we can't even put the names of summer school teachers on the agenda and most towns do that I don't know why this Board of Ed can't seem to ever put um the names on agendas we just put like resignation retirements um Tois facilities was not listed as a project extend expenditure so I was wondering if they will not be offering uh project extend at Tois I think it went fifth and sixth grade or something or if you know maybe they're just doing it another week um and then finally as the daughter of a physical therapist um I'm noticing that you're trying to get a new PTA or I'm sorry PT vendor um and I looked up the the PT place that you are trying to now uh contract with and they do not have a PT on their staff they have a PTA they have um OTS and speech and language they do not have a physical therapist and in the state of New Jersey a physical therapist is the one who can do evaluations not a PTA and their contract that is um drummed up here does not put in place if it will be a PTA doing some of the things things that they say they're going to be doing in evaluations or if it will be a PT um I actually showed that to my mother and she was like this is a little bit absurd perhaps they have other pts on staff but it's certainly not on their website that's it for now thank you thanks anyone else in the room could I just clarify we're awarding to the second lowest not the second highest thank you okay thank you like to know the difference thank you anyone else in the room have any public comment no uh Miss Conway anyone in the queue good evening Madam president there are no commenters in the queue at this point thank you Miss Conway all right at this time we will go on to the action items Mr Dalton sure I move to approve of minutes 7.1 7.2 second Mr Hastings yes thank you this is for the approval of 7172 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mrs mcgoverin yes Mr Schneider I abstain Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Paramus yes motion carries thank you Mr doton Personnel Miss McGovern yes I move to Mo move to approve items 8.1 to 8.13 which are all in public comment on content on the website do I may I have a second second this to approve 81 through 813 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dan yes Mrs Gilman yes to all but for my dear family members cypriano abelli and Jenna sirani I recuse myself thank you Mrs mcavan yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein um Yes except for 8.4 and 8.13 I recuse myself for my uh my wife's involvement in those two parts thank you Mr Paras yes motion carries right thank you very much financial management and Resource Services Mr Weinstein uh yes like to move to approve uh 9.1 to uh 9 9.6 and then we'll 12 9.7 to 911 we'll have a discussion second okay would anybody like to talk anything about 9.1 to 9.6 before we uh results yes Mr tarica thank you the doctrine and necessity a resolution why is that lot on the website for the agenda um it's essentially a walk-on item um this is a regularly scheduled meeting um and so items can be added added to the agenda um it's a matter that was under review um uh research and deliberation by my office up until uh yesterday afternoon so um after if presuming it passes it will be posted on the website for 30 days um as well as other locations uh that the board typically posts notice in accordance with your policy and the law and a copy of it again if it's passed will also be sent to the school ethics Commission in accordance with Board of policy and law so the public will not see this before the vote um we're at a public meeting now so the public will hear it when I read it oh you're going to read it yes I'm okay I'm sorry but even if I didn't read it the public is not entitled to you don't have to read every resolution um word for word um so you are entitled to walk on items at a regular meeting okay and I do have the intent was not to not be transparent just to pre preempt any um accusations or comments about that um as I indicated the matter is under review by legal council up until yesterday afternoon okay and I do have a second yes so um um to add to this and to add to the policy I don't know if this is the right time but I would like to make a motion to exclude in the indemnification policy that any board member that uses taxpayer District money to defend themselves against ethics charges and allegations that if the allegations are found true that they pay the district back I have a second save the taxpayers some money okay M Pres president the motion was properly moved is there a second seeing and hearing no second the motion dies next okay any other yes I'm sorry does this does this piece of paper that you're gonna read at some point take place of 9.6 on our agenda yes so I believe and correct me if I'm on Council we're going to vote or amend uh provided Mr Weinstein and the Govern approve the change 9.1 through 9.5 will then read and approve 9.6 which will be the doctrine we call this 9.6 a and then 9.6 can stay as written because you have do you have to do the doctrine before you vote on the indemnification okay and so we technically shouldn't even discuss the indentification until after we you vote on the invocation of the doctrine because technically there's a conflict um to extent there are five board members with the conflict you can't discuss the issue until after you kind of cure the conflict through this resolution okay so we're voting on 9.1 through 9.5 right now is that correct Mr Hastings if Mr Weinstein and you approve the adjustment to your uh your move second yes 95 second okay so this is 9.1 through 9.5 Mr Dalton yes M Dam yes Mrs Gilman I recuse myself from the use of facilities for ocean baseball and for wrestling and for Camp David and uh yes to Human Services and our lacrosse and all other items yes thank you Mrs McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Paramus yes motions carry okay so now we need to is there any discussion we need to read it should we do the indemnification first no Madam President we uh you the board uh needs to review and vote on the uh resolution to invoke the doctrine of necessity okay so we do that I'll explain that and then okay you can vote on the next one which is the indentification okay um so I'll just it's probably easier if I read it first um and then I'll try to explain it um to the best my ability in simplest terms um and I would just also just State for the record that this is not only in accordance with uh able law under Roberts WS of order and state statute but also your board bylaw 0163 um which deals with Quorum and specifically references uh when the board May invoke the doctrine of accessity namely when a majority of members on the board have a conflict um which would prohibit the board from taking action in this instance there are five board members that have a conflict by being named in an Ethics uh complaint um May 14 2024 doctrine of necessity resolution whereas the school ethics act njsa 18a 12-21 at SEC was enacted by the New Jersey state legislature to ensure and preserve public confidence in school board members and school administrators and to provide specific ethical standards to guide their conduct and whereas the school ethics commission has provided guidance in public advisory opinion 03- 98 regarding how a board should invoke the doctrine of necessity when a quorum of a board of education has conflicts of interest on a matter required to be voted upon and whereas the opinion set forth that when it is necessary for a board to invoke the doctrine necessity the board should State publicly that is doing so the reason that such action is necessary and the specific nature of the conflicts of interest and whereas in keeping with the legislative purpose as set forth in njsa 18a 1222a the school ethics commission views public disclosure of conflicts of interest to be Paramount when the Ocean Township Board of Education finds it necessary to invoke the doctrine of necessity whereas a majority of members the Board of Education have a conflict of interest in matters pertaining to the school ethics complaint filed by former board member Alex Hayes upon caption Hayes versus Gilman at SEC docket number c 40-24 now therefore be it resolved that the Ocean Township Board of Education does hereby invoke the doctrine of necessity for the reason of indemnifying slapp appointing legal counsel and that it must do so because of the conflicts of interest for board members Denise Paramus Irene Gilman Amy mcover John McCarthy and Jeffrey Weinstein who have a conflict due to each of them being named in the complaint filed by former board member Alex haes be it further resolved that the Ocean Township Board of Education is here with meeting the the requirement excuse me to read the resolution at a regularly scheduled public meeting will post it where it posts public notices for 30 days and will provide the school ethics commission with a copy of the resolution as required by the decision of the school ethics commission is there a motion I'll second I'll I'll make a motion that we approve this um resolution okay is there you need a second a second second is there any discussion about the contents I just have one quick question um I know that this is um conflict of interest on all of us but this doesn't have anything like um I Believe Miss tarell is on this complaint as well I know she's not a sitting board member right now but this doesn't mean that we can't um legally defend her name as well right uh correct so you have a separate resolution with respect to emth ification um there's a I'll look into legality of indentifying a former board member that's a separate issue this right here is to invoke it for the current sitting board member so that you can in fact vote uh to invoke this so you can then vote on this separate resolution for indication okay thank you for the clarification Mr Telo I have a question so there's six members with five sitting that doesn't have any issue with a quorum being for meeting with the attorney for meeting this is that's a separate issue um than what's before you right now um that's an open public means act issue and I don't know if whether or when five members will meet with their attorney but I would say that the open public meetings Act only prohibits five board members or more from meeting to discuss board business not board litigation that's a separate issue um but that's not really before you right now so hypothetically if the five of them had a meeting at the law office to discuss this case I don't know whether there would be a violation or not I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it but that's not before you right now nor is there any requirement that they all meet with the lawy at the same time so you're saying that even though it's about board business because that would be the indemnification would apply I'm I'm saying your hypothetical is somewhat irrelevant right now because there's no legal requirement for all five clients to meet with their lawyer at the same time so again that's not an issue that's before you this evening nor is a relevance to resolution well I mean just as a point of clarification though if they met with the attorney at five different times it would cost the taxpayers a lot more money because it is 300 an hour one could argue the complaint is costing the taxpayers dollars because the statute applies and entitles board members to uh be eligible for indemnification so would you rather us meet together or separate because we haven't met together nor have we done anything to you I'm speaking to Mr Right and I'm asking we're in conversation govern we could probably move on because that question as I mentioned three times isn't relevant to resolution I would respectfully um suggest you do a roll call Madam president okay Mr Hastings can you please call the role this is 9.6 the doctrine of necessity Mr doton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes do we excuse me do we have to ourselves from our yes for the doctrine Mr MCG yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Tarico abstaining Mr Weinstein reason excuse me have a reason to obain no you don't have yes thank you m parus yes motion carries okay so now so now we go back yes yeah so now yes for that 96 so this was 9.6 and then the next one is 9 6A which is for the indemnification um I think a question I'll just if I may pre preliminarily answer it question came up is whether board members should abstain from themselves um I would respectfully submit the answer is no you don't have to in this instance generally speaking let's say it's a New Jersey School Board Association conference and you're voting to approve the reimbursement for the hotel or the travel you would normally abstain from your name so to speak um in this instance respectfully because there are five sitting board members who are named in this complaint arguably even if you abstain from your name you still have an interest in the other four members which would therefore require you to abstain from them as well which obviates the necessity in the first place um and so in order to take this action to provide you as board members which you are legally entitled to under titled 18a and your board policy my legal opinion is that you can vote on this resolution to or in order to invoke indemnification um pursuant to statute is legally required action that can't be taken if you don't um so you may move on with the 9.6 which is the resolution to appoint uh David Rubin Esquire um at the hourly rate of $300 per hour which is a significantly discounted rate from his prevailing private sector rate based upon his uh skill and experience in this area um and further in accordance with policy 0148 and 18a 18 uh njsa 18a col 12-20 which again requires a board to indemnify board members for reasonable councel fees in connection with any civil or administrative legal proceeding which arise from any act or Omission arising out of and in the course of the performance of his or her duties as a board member be a further resolve that the Ocean Township Board Abed hereby authorizes the board to indemnify uh again Denise parames arene Gilman Amy McGovern John McCarthy Natalie toell and Jeffrey Weinstein in accordance with the terms of the letter of Engagement set forth by their legal counsel David V Rubin payable at the rate again $300 per hour and be a further resolved that the superintendent business administrator or their designate are authorized to execute any documents and payments in furtherance of this resolution um again as indicated it does reference a former board member just as if there was a former employee of the district um 99.9% of the time legally that those individuals are entitled to coverage and dentification or acts that arose during uh the course of their term or appointment with the school district okay someone to make a motion to uh um to move ahead with 9.6 a yeah or 96a 9.6 a yes yes 9.6 a Mr sorry about that thank you this is 9.6 a the indemnification Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mrs mcgoverin yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs pamas yes motion Carri okay we will now move on to the discussion items 9.7 through 9.11 does anyone have any questions well um Jeff is there anything you want to kind of talk through on any of these things yes so we've had a longstanding shared service agreement with uh deal school for both maintenance services uh field services and the lunch Services we uh received an email from them asking to renew those services for the coming school year uh so that is one item there on the agenda um we have a shared service agreement with long branch schools uh for bus repairs again that's been an ongoing relationship and again renewing it for the coming school year and we have renewals of bids that were put out uh for otpt services uh through assist of Technology services and uh nursing Services um I would also like to point out um uh the roofing project that we approved that was bid and opened um earlier this week I guess um maybe the end of last week um in the prior meetings this is through a rod Grant and the estimated cost of the project was approximately uh 4 point I'm sorry turn to that page it's approximately $4.6 million to do the roof projects that's the entire roof at uh at uh ocean Elementary and uh majority of the roof at Wayside so that was 4.6 million that was estimated uh the district is responsible for 60% of that through the rod Grant which was about 2.77 million um with the bid the bid total for both of those projects is $2.89 s million uh which reduces our uh out of pocket through the capital reserve account by$ 1.7 million uh or creates 1.7 so it's reduced by about a million dollars so we've saved a million out of our capital reserve on this particular project uh to MTP um Roofing which is their name um and um that also then gives us a little more flexibility in terms of the lighting and doing the lighting through our capital reserve uh so that we've you know effectively created an addition a saving of 1 million uh which can be put towards that other project so uh I think that's great news for us great thank you thank you for that clarification anyone else have any questions just uh Mr Hastings um MTB is that MTB that's on the njsda site on Steiner Avenue in Neptune City yes sir okay you just want to make sure uh vmg that that you mentioned uh as well um we can consulted our attorneys about their bid submission the error that they made on their bid unfortunately was not curable uh that was the legal advice we got and again vmg is their name I believe they're in Roselle um so unfortunately we couldn't move forward with them we notified them uh in a letter of the error and they accepted the U um reluctantly accepted the error and acknowledged that it was a correct um action by us so um be moving forward and the projects are scheduled to be completed over the summer question thank you okay um Miss wden we approve you know like um nurses and PTs and OTS throughout the year I mean for the year on a yearly basis the but for the most part our PT and OT um evaluations are normally done by our in in-house staffed people not our contracted people that's correct thank you okay any other questions no okay thank you Mr Taylor for your help with that much appreciated and thank you Mr Weinstein we will now move on to instruction education and Student Activities Miss Gilman thank you madam president move to approve 10.1 to 10.3 and then I'll read the resolution is there a second second anyone have any questions comments I just I find the research project fascinating I hope to learn more about that um I did too I think it's something that we all wonder about so absolutely uh we have one of our our staff members doing her doctoral disertation and she's in the study process where she's Gathering data and information for her study so that's what you see there 10.3 um the other items are our professional development items and our field trips as usual anyone I think move 10.4 but then you can read it say that again move 10.4 is also motion move them 10 through 10.4 and then if you'd like to read it after 10.1 through 10.4 through 10 okay we to approve 10.1 through 10.4 so maybe what you'd like to do you want to you said you wanted to read it would you like to read it right now well you can read it right now yeah you can right now is the time to do it thank you okay our resolution for special education week whereas 237,000 children receive special education instruction in New Jersey and whereas more than 15,000 special needs children are enrolled in preschool and early intervention programs in New Jersey and whereas thousands of parents teachers child study team members and school administrators give generously of their time and energy to support the learning needs of special education students and whereas since 198 5 New Jersey has proclaimed the second week in May each year as special education week in New Jersey and whereas the theme of special education week 2024 is diverse Learners Big Dreams and whereas the public school districts of New Jersey make a major contribution to the public welfare by preparing thousands of Exceptional Persons to participate as citizens of this state and as members of society therefore be it resolved that the District Board of Education recognizes the the students who have worked so hard and accomplished so much and thanks their parents and Educators who have provided support to these children and continue to look for ways to improve our schools to promote the achievement of all students thank you Miss Gilman you're welcome okay Mr Hastings for items 101 through 104 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mrs McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Paramus yes motions carry thank you m Gilman on negotiations do we have a report this evening um just that we met and we continue to meet our next meeting is on May 30th great thank you um is there any old business from the board is there any new business from the board Miss Gilman last Tuesday was the last meeting of the New Jersey school boards Association Mammoth County uh chapter and at that meeting our board member Amy McGovern was recognized for her 10 years of service and I just think we should all congratulate her for that so well done congratulations good job and I did send an email I apologize that the for some reason New Jersey Schoolboard emails are going to spam in my Gmail in my uh school account so I did do that and I've added them as a person so I did miss the email so I apologize I wasn't there but I am very thankful for them um honoring me and I'm thankful for for Miss Gilman for being there um in my absence so thank you proud proud to do it did you make a speech on our behalf no but I took the certificate thank you is that it that's it m gim okay any anyone else have any other new business okay at this time we will take any public comment from anyone in the room anyone Miss Hayes where do I start um I have probably like six comments so I'll just kind of go down my list and I see you might be getting out your timer but being that in uh previous meetings other folks were allowed to read off their entire um Pages without being stopped at the F minute Mark so I would hope the same respect and equal treatment would be given to myself as well chair has that discretion and she may or may not exercise it so have five minutes to be guided accordingly thank you sure um the agenda from yesterday did not have the teachers on it I understand every time there's a Schoolboard meeting at around 3 pm there's a new updated version so thanks for clarifying that Amy but it was not on there yesterday um and thank you for clarifying um Mr Dalton um the average person probably wouldn't know where to look for um you know the contractors for school but I appreciate your superint attendent expertise in trying to um solve that for me so I appreciate that um Mr uh Hastings if you could maybe call me tomorrow in addition to some of the questions the capital reserve being used for the um Stadium lights I have some questions about and the capital reserve um you know state law is extremely complicated and has all these different caveats and whatever so I'd love um if you can explain that a little bit better how we're using capital reserve fourth Stadium lights as one of the agenda items was um I was also wondering when um since we're in the business of educating public school students when the next schedule for um when you are scheduled to go over the state performance reports that were released like about a month ago or so when that will be brought up at a new um board meeting um I also had a question uh by tomorrow districts must notify non ten staff if they will be keeping their jobs for the upcoming year by tomorrow so I'm wondering how many non-tenured staff members are going to get that notification tomorrow that they won't be here anymore uh hate to lose staff and I would love to know what that number is um when I spoke I don't know if I tipped uh tipped anyone off or I'm glad that Mr Taylor is here about the doctrine of necessity because when I spoke to Mr Hastings about this um he had said that um the Schoolboard attorney had said everyone could vote so I'm glad to see you all um properly invoke the doctrine of necessity as I spoke to Mr Hastings about um it would be awesome if all Schoolboard members um acted according to State Schoolboard ethics um we might not be here where we are right now and spending money on attorneys and um I think that's it except for um how many how much time do I have left 238 okay s so um I do want to just bring up the um the resolution by the school ethics commission um in connection with c-56 23 um I'm just going to read it in my two minutes that I have here uh the school ethics commission found um on February 27th but there hasn't really been any um update to this but whereas at a special meeting on February 27th the commission discussed finding that the facts and circumstances presented in the complaint of 5623 and written statement would lead a p a reasonable person to believe that respondent Miss Gilman violated njsa 18a 24 24b njsa 1812 24 C in counts one two and 10 nja 18a 12.1 d nja 12-24 c njsa 24 I can't read this um H and I in count four and whereas at its special meeting on February 27th the school ethics commission discussed finding that respondent Weinstein violated njsa 18a 1224b and njsa 1224 C in counts a and 10 it's a mouthful sorry and whereas at the special meeting they discuss transmitting the within matter to the office of administrative law for a hearing to be held at a later date um now therefore be resolved yada yada um so it would be interesting to know if the district a has any comment on it and if um you have any um court dates if you have any um you know actual dates on the docket or if there's any update in terms of next appearances now that it'll be in front of a judge at the oal May so are you finished yeah but I I reserve an extra 30 seconds I suppose Reserve are you finished or not if if you're not finished then continue um I'm good I'm gonna sit down so you're finished yeah okay thank you um so as you know or should know the board upon the advice of council cannot and will not comment on pending litigation um and as also as you know or should know uh the eths complaint that you just referenced um is by and between individual members of the board not the board as as a whole um so there is no answer from this board to your question question at this time thank you okay is there anyone else in the room that has any public comment all right Miss Conway is there anyone in the queue no Madame President there is not thank you Mrs Conway okay this time I'd like to ask the board for a motion to adjourn motion may I please have a second second meeting is adjourned have a great night everyone thank you thank you thank you