good evening everyone welcome to the uh Workshop portion of our meeting tonight my board president's report is to introduce our attorney Mr Lester Taylor who will who's who's got the uh lucky job of giving us our board training this evening so I'd like to introduce Mr Taylor thank you madam president good evening uh board members it's a pleasure to be here with you all um in the interest of time I am going to uh try to uh get through this presentation as effici as possible um I have previously submitted through um mam superintendent and the business administrator a copy ofation which you'll see up here on the screen for board members in public to see pursuant to uh title 18a uh njsa 18a uh 122 18a 12- 24.1 excuse me as the code of ethics for board members um you are required to annually uh review the code of ethics um there will be a form that you will sign um at the end of the meeting certifying that you reviewed the code of ethics um and did this training and that will be kept on file um again we're going to try to be as efficient as possible you can follow along on the screen um you heard me just reference on slide two which is again the uh operative statute 18a 12-21 um generally speaking the code of ethics this is on page three I'm speaking to the cloud up here um who who's the white that's moving the slides from um pursuing to the code of ethics can you hear I just wanted to no no no we're good go ahead um again it's intended to ensure that board members as elected and in some districts appointed uh representatives of your local school districts hold the respect and confidence of the people um and it generally governs conflicts of interest uh for school officials school officials um are generally your uh Chief School administrator your business administrator your central office Personnel um but it also again applies to uh board members which is again at 18a 12- 24.1 um there are subsections a through J um in that statute and I also note that in your bylaws you have a bylaw that essentially mirrors the code of ethics um which if you um haven't read it you should because when you take that oath of office um you are basically swearing or affirming that you will be bound by all the policies that govern your school district um those policies are about the size of two or three phone books um so you don't have to memorize them word for word but you want to be generally familiar with them particularly as they pertain to the various committees you serve on and actions that come before you um General definitions on page four U school officials again administrators those are typically your high level employees uh board members elected or appointed uh officials uh serving on the board of education um and again your administrators those who are holding uh positions uh such as central office but also down into your buildings um as principles Etc they all have an obligation uh to comply with the code of ethics um some of these things we're going to go through um we don't have time this evening we don't have a full semester um to go through all the different Myriad issues challenges opportunities threats that can present themselves but we're going to try again to give a general 5,000 foot overview um on some issues that come up pretty frequently uh one of which are family members um there are Provisions in the code of ethics as well as the accountability regulations that uh Define family members and because nothing is simple in New Jersey you have different definitions different sections of the statute and or the code um and so you have entitled 18a a family member is generally a spouse dependent child um of a school official residing in the same household and then you've got relatives spouse natural adopted children parents and siblings that school official um pursuant to the administrative code is a much more exhaustive uh definition of of this is on page five a much more exhaustive definition of relative um which includes spouse civil union partner domestic Partners but then goes on almost like a bereavement Clause you were just talking about negotiations so you probably see bereavement when someone has a death in the family all the different categories that are covered by that and that's in that bottom paragraph um siblings Aunts Uncles stepparents um and then it goes on to talk about others and we'll talk about others in a little while because even if you're not related by blood or marriage um if you have certain uh uh personal friend relationships Etc that could very well be conflict of interest from an ethical St uh standpoint so on page six again the difference is that one definition is much more expansive than the other as I referenced um the one in titled 18a on page seven of the presentation um deals with uh immediate family members as it pertains to the school ethics act whereas the one entitled 6A the administrative code deals more so with your nepotism policies in your school district and that's why I say it's important to be familiar with the policies um in your District um now that being said because there's two different definitions as you'll see on page eight um they don't always make a difference um because the school ethics commission which is the body that has jurisdiction over ethics complaints has essentially co-mingled the two when dealing with complaints that come before it so it really doesn't matter which one you're kind of accused of they kind of all kind of fall into line or come into play um when looking at different scenarios of Ethics involving board members immediate family members and or others um bottom line is um that in referenced on page 10 the SEC School ethics commission has explained that others um while not defined by the school ethics Act is any individual and can be an other including people that fall within the definition of relative now what I often say is at school district you're you're more often than not the largest employer in town um you know very few communities have large factories and things like that anymore um and because you are a local um most times lifelong uh residents and and very active in your community and some of you have children and grandchildren and they actually have friends and all that kind of stuff um you know a lot of people in town and so it's probably impossible to not vote on uh hiring a staff member um hiring a vendor in some respects that you don't know in some respect and there's nothing illegal about that there's nothing unethical about that um The Challenge comes in is when you are ever in a position to give them some unwarranted advantage over some other qualified person that may or may not trigger the ethics issue um but if all things being equal nothing says you can't vote for those individuals with the exception of the family um and just generally speaking the superintendent is precluded by the code of ethics from recommending you as a board to hire any relative of hers um and or any relative of yours um the only difference is if that person was already employed prior to you getting the board um they are what's called grandfathered in so they are protected in their current job as well as other advancement within the district the superintendent can recommend um just jumping on to um page um uh 12 to give you some examples of others and some of these I've dealt with in in my 25 years practicing law representing school districts um an exsp spouse um sometimes you think you finally got rid of that person and guess what it still can create an ethical issue for you in your life as a board member um you're not that lucky right and so it really depends on on whether there are any more ties or binds um namely Financial is there child support um is there alimony are there other you know Financial entanglements so to speak um the general thing being your spouse your ex spouse is employed in the school district um or your exp spouse is employ applying for a job or something or is a vendor so the question would be we're divorced doesn't necessarily eliminate the conflicts the question is are there any other continuing obligations between the two um in those areas um cohabiting relationship I had a board member he probably about 75 years old um very active gentleman and his girlfriend worked in the school district they lived together um the question was well we just live together she's only my girlfriend I'm like you're too old to have a girlfriend let's screw up here right but the reality is um uh the question is it depends on similar to the marriage situation of what Financial entanglements there may be um and that situation extended also to that girlfriend's adult child who lived in the same house but also worked in the school district and whether there were any types of ethical issues and the reality is probably um because there was probably some incentive or motivation to to vote for a higher percentage on the contract so that person could help pay the cable bill in the house um so you have to be mindful of those types of situations um one exception to relatives um that school district can kind of carve out are for substitutes and certain stien positions um depending now it also gets into the weeds if the substitutes are full-time employees of the district versus contracted out through a third party V but one exception in the law tyly now since there's a shortage of substitutes and stien positions not all stien positions are filled by full-time employees in the district um you'll have community members Etc who may apply for certain coaching positions or what have you and so in those situations there are exceptions uh under the law for those individuals to be involved um board members if you have any questions or comments feel free to jump in um jumping to page 27 of the presentation um this is a issue that often comes up is money um in uh local elections um as a board member while you uh were a candidate for the positions you now hold it's a nonpartisan position um but there are certain fundraising uh efforts that board members can do um and are allowed to do pursuant to the election law enforcement Commission in the state of New Jersey um the general uh caveat or premise is that um you can't as a board member as an elected official uh solicit uh money in exchange for a vote um something in return they quit Pro Quil um so that's the general defining line to be careful of I will spare anyone any references to any current events um because you know there's a whole process for certain things you may have heard about the highest levels of politics in our state um but it's important to recognize that as a board member um you can solicit contributions to campaign but you got to be careful to make sure those solicitations are not in exchange for some wink and a nod agreement to do something uh in return uh similarly as a um subsection e of the uh code of ethics as well as 18a 12-24 um no elected member shall be prohibited from making inquiry for information on behalf of a constituent if no fee reward or other thing of value is promised to given to or accepted by the member or member of his or her immediate family directly or indirectly so again you're at shoppr right you're at my favorite store Pasco or somewhere else Starbucks and someone asked you about something um and you're a board member they think you're important they think you have power um your obligation as a board member pursuing to the code of ethics is to do one of two things refer that query to your board president who you elected to be your spokesperson and then in turn refer that to the chief School administrator the superintendent um you can't make any promises or assurances to anyone because you have no power as one board member but you can by all means uh uh get information and and relay information um not make promises about what's going to happen but study investigate and bring it to your Administration to look into whether something can um or can't happen through the appropriate channels whether they be Personnel policy Etc um one example jumping page 38 um of things that often comes up in in your role as a board member um uh gifts um I often say you know be before you were a board member people probably didn't offer you much now that you're a board member they may offer you certain things um like let's say going to a conference to learn about all that's great and and artificial intelligence for your school district let's say right sounds F fantastic and and and you might be retired and have some time in your hands and and would love to be somewhere warmer than here um but guess what if that is a current vendor or a prospective vendor you can't accept an all expense paid trip um to do a fact-f finding um type of initiative um there's a case up in Patterson from 2020 um on page 38 of the presentation uh uh where Mr Capers uh board member uh essentially accepted a all expenses paid trip from a company called Wu um that was telling some uh Financial strike that a technological platform or something um it sounded good um but the problem was the uh School ethics commission found that there were three violations uh based upon this board member compromising the board uh not confining um his actions to the board versus individual um and recognizing that again the authority rest with the full board and even though that vendor could have potentially done business the process was now tainted and they couldn't do it so you got to be careful those types of things um page 44 um this is a situation where as board members many of you will um do what you'll call your business administrator you'll call the superintendent or you may call the lawyer um to get an opinion um and in some respects some people not on this board of course but on other boards people have a very convenient way of asking questions to get the answer they want um so to speak um um and or sometimes unintentionally um they'll leave out certain key details and in many respects know what we do as lawyers um is very fat sensitive um you know the same question minus one word could be yes or no depending on the time of day and who ask it to speak um but there is in all seriousness a defense and advice of council defense that is set forth in another case that kind of came from Jersey City 2023 where there are four prerequisite factors so if you as a board member uh make a decision take action do or say something that was ultimately found to be wrong or inconsistent with the code of ethics there's a very fact sensitive uh four-prong analysis the court will look at which is whether the approval or advice was received prior to taking the action so you can't kind of conveniently ask after the fact um whether the individual who offered the advice or approval relied upon or possess the Authority or responsibility with regards to those ethical issues um sometimes people will call New Jersey Schoolboard Association great organization but guess what they're not your lawyer um you hire a lawyer that you really have a attorney client relationship with um number three the individual seeking the advice or approval made a full disclosure of all pertinent facts and circumstances that's up there with the selective kind of uh uh opinion shopping so to speak and number four is that the individual complied with the advice received including any restrictions that might be contained because sometimes you know I'll say yes you can do that if and the person just heard the yes um and so you have to be very careful be mindful of following the advice as well as any uh potential uh uh restrictions that might be associated with that advice from whether it be your Administration um and or your attorney uh jumping to page 53 yes M can we just go back to that one for a moment so I'm looking at the case in Jersey City and if all four factors so if a board member were to consult with you or speaking mic I'm sure I were to consult with you or Mr gross or our specialed attorney and ask for Council or ask for guidance and met those four prerequisites and then use that as a defense then the school ethics Council would mitigate the penalty or good good question so it may not um those the presence of those four factors may not U remove the violation or or sustaining that a violation occurred but it may very well mitigate um the penalty the school ethics commission is a board is a body um they have the power to uh censure uh rep reprimand is the most minor censure um suspend and or remove a board member um and so if action that arguably might warrant a suspension or removal there's a mitigating factor that they they in good faith relied upon the advice of a competent attorney Etc um and when you look at all the different facts and circumstances like wow we can see how reasonable Minds May differ well rather than the suspension it might be a sensal or reprimand um so that that could be what happens as long as those very four fact sensitive areas are present um um email reply all um page 53 of the um presentation uh board members you will often get uh Communications from your uh business office from your superintendent um transmitting information about the upom agenda the Personnel the finance the football field whatever the issue may be that needs to be discussed um there's nothing wrong there's nothing illegal about that um you may get an email from your board president um to all of you about something that's going to be on the agenda for tonight's meeting that we want to discuss or you want to discuss and have to deliberate on nothing illegal nothing wrong with that um The Challenge comes in when you hit reply all um if you hit reply all you're now essentially conducting a meeting um because there's now what's called two-way communication uh between board members and administrators about board business so you have to be very careful about hitting reply all particularly if there are certain members of the public who might be on some of these emails because now you might be compromising the board's position um on something that was just a FYI but your reply all might have some information that might be still of a deliberative nature so please be very careful with replying all to emails and recognize that under the open public records act um every document whether electronic or oldfashioned hard copy um is considered a government record and so every text message every tweet everything you write um privately think you think it's private to your colleague or to someone else about this board of education is considered a public record which may be subject to disclosure under Oprah the open public records and so just be mindful of the records that are being created the necessity for them and or the contents of them um because the question is will it look good on the front page of a newspaper um so you got to think think about that um jumping to page 58 I'm being very mindful of my time Madam president thank um board policy 0142 again that just your policy that generally uh uh mirrors the code of ethics uh jumping to page 62 um of the presentation we talked earlier about soliciting contributions and being mindful of of certain gifts um there are and there is an exception um generally speaking the new New Jersey school boards conference um the workshop is held in October every year um you'll see vendors there with their you know goods and services there's a lot of hospitality Suites and different events for them it is totally legal and ethical for you to be a guest and attend a a dinner um or a a reception Etc the general consensus or prohibition though is that it can't be just for you it can't be just for this board it has to be quote open to all unquote doesn't mean it has to be a thousand people there but it can't be limited to just you um and so just keep that in mind um again because there's a lot of situations where know you want to get information you want to develop relationships you want to meet people so you can bring resources information and programs back to your District um and just want to make sure that you as Vince Lombardi says and what it takes to be number one uh you know the rules you play by the rules and you win fair and square so you gotta be just be mindful of that for you football fans out there all right um jump into 66 um page 66 18a again 12- 24.1 um what does all this mean as a board member you must make decisions Guided by state law and board policy uh not bend the rules or ask others to bend the rules uh not base decisions on special interest agenda or what is best for your own family friends Etc political groups uh not become involved in the day-to-day administration of the school district um again you have a superintendent um for that you refer issues to her it's her job to kind of run with it um you'll often hear uh the board memb job is like the what what do we want um this administration's job is the how how to follow through on that and then how to do it in terms of managing expectations um in a way that's fiscally responsible responsible and feasible because if you want a big giant Ferris Bill well now you have to approve a budget that allows her to go out and buy one through the proper procurement methods so a lot of processes to go into that but that if that's what you want then by all means establish it and the Administration has to run with it um but it also has to be at least tied to your curriculum in some way shape or form um so someone with taxpayers to think we're buying Ferris wheels um work together as a board um we often say we don't have to like each other but we got to respect each other um so you want to work together collaboratively um as a board uh for the smooth and efficient operation of your schools um remember again that it's kind of like Voltron any cartoon fans anybody have kids out there remember Voltron like you you only have power when you come together um at a duly called public meeting um and so you have to recognize that you have no individual power to do anything on behalf of this district and in many respects you're going to get yourself in trouble and or compromise this district and make what might be very small situations a lot more expensive a lot more time consuming um I remember Woody woodpacker there it's always when he get in trouble and they would say if wood he had just gone to the police this would never happen right um and in many respects if board members had just not said anything um because they have no obligation to say anything and just bring it to the superintendent bring it to the board and then deal with it a lot of things might not happen um keep in mind for all of you gamblers out there your Pokerface um sometimes even by not saying something it's written all over your face um and people run with that because again you have a lot of trust uh in you respect in you you're very influential in your community and people will act and react based upon what you do what you say and what you don't do and say at certain times um do not discuss exactive session with anybody that includes your husband your wife your friends um if they're not on this board board they're not in this building um with all the respect to your teachers to your friends in the community um you are elected to represent them uh you have a legal and ethical obligation to keep things confidential unless and until the need for confidentiality no longer exists um and it's very important again that that ties into not undermining decisions of the board um this is a democratic process once a decision is made run with it um reality is you're going to be on The Winning Side losing side of some votes um but undermining decisions can create challenges for your Administration it can create challenges for the vendors you do business with the community you serve because it shows a lack of stability um and it could be an ethical issue so just try to keep that in mind um page 67 a couple of q&as here um board member went into a middle school unannounced took pictures of open windows in the classrooms then spoke to reporters regarding his concerns and gave pictures to the reporters anybody think it's a violation of the code of ethics yes yes okay answer is yes because we're we're streaming through this the answer is yes again um uh board members have an obligation to report issues so if you get a report the windows are broken the heat doesn't work the grass is not cut it's not your job to go and do these investigations um It's Your Role to bring it to the attention of the board and or the administration um now now again you can ask permission um and again I say that I'm highlighting the word uh permission because you're the board and you hire the superintendent and she quote unquote works for the board but technically you don't have the right to just go to a school without getting the permission in advance notice of the superintendent um who can fir frankly Grant or deny that permission depending on what else is going on that day or that week or that month um but also may want to create some type of organized tour with you a visit with you or quite frankly just might want to fix it rather than wasting time um waiting a week or two for everyone's schedules to to align so try to keep that in mind um board president sent a letter to the editor signed as board president which was reviewed by the board attorney but not reviewed and discussed with the other board members uh you think that's right or wrong right trick question because it spoke to the lawyer but didn't speak to you right um so board president is speaks on behalf of the board not him or herself um so the what the board President says has to be consistent with uh what the will of the board is the direction of the board keeping in mind matters of confidentiality Etc um next example board member made a statement to the Press during her re-election campaign um that quote she would uh Advocate a Cooperative approach rather than a confrontational one regarding the board's request for an investigation regarding the feasibility of withdrawing from a Regional School District uh do you think that's a violation you got election issues there you got some board issues what do you think the wear in public no one wants to be um come on these Educators here come on come on Dr D it depends on the context but you would hope that that the uh board member states that this is their personal opinion does not reflect upon the whole board good so there we go um that's the board member who went to his training um so why you um so one that was not a violation because it didn't compromise the board's interest um but number two um as reference whenever you give a statement um to the Press reporter ask you a question about something if you feel compelled to answer without referring that question to your board president which I would recommend you do if you feel compelled to ask without referring it to your superintendent which I would recommend you do um by all means please take my advice and say that these are your personal opinions not said on behalf of the Board of Education the Ocean Township Board of educ be specific um if you put something on your Facebook page um whoever uses Facebook still um or you put it on your LinkedIn page or you put it on your you know you tweet something you text something you write a letter to the editor it has to have that disclaimer um me be mindful that I'm handling a case now where a board member in North Jersey put the disclaimer but the deputy attorney general who's hand the case on behalf of the school ethics commission said yeah but that was a wink and a nod you kind of put it because you had to but everything that was in it was almost like in contravention of that disclaimer um so even in doing that you have to be careful and mindful of the words that you use the tone that you use in the context time and manner of the statement you use Madam president I'm almost done I'm going to jump to a few more slides I'm still within that 20 minutes you gave me um uh 0169 page 93 um of the um uh proposal package you have a policy about use of Technology um social networks Etc I'm again a little bit of Common Sense goes a long way um particularly if and when communicating uh with employees of the district um and or others than people other than board members or the administration uh just be mindful of uh the image that you are portraying um you know often say you look at Boards of privately held companies Costco Microsoft Etc you know you don't kind of see them airing at dirty laundry in public you want to be mindful that as well um with respect to the the differ that you uh represent um and then one of my favorite examples in this area on page 98 of the presentation package there was a case um camon Board of Education um District that I used to represent um this happened you know back we very had a very young uh board member uh he was proud agitator of every issue that you can imagine in a district um and they had some challenges academically educationally Etc in their District um uh this is December 2011 when the case was decided a few years after um uh uh the US government uh caught and killed Osama Bin lad um and this board member went to Facebook and said now if we could only do something about our local terrorists that destroys dreams and burns futures um that's what this person with a big old picture of their superintendent next to this quote um in a city that triggered a lot of activity on social media and and real or perceived threats about whether they were going out and get this person play frankly um and that created probably one of the first examples of when the law of school ethics caught up with the everchanging uh social media which is now way way past Facebook now um about what board members can and can't say um long story short that person was deemed to have violated the school ethics act um namely in that the board member as a board member you don't always have to agree with the superintendent or your administrator but you do have an oath and an ethical obligation to support them um and protect them in a proper performance of their duties doesn't mean that you agree with what they're doing it or how they're doing it but the proper performance is a key factor and there's an evaluation method and and process and is a Personnel process um all of which is confidential in nature that you have to address some of those issues um when dealing with or making comments about your school district um Andor your um uh Administration um Madam president I'm going to stop there um so that we are it's officially my clock shows 7:31 but we started about 7:10 I think it was okay it's okay board any questions have any questions there's two board members online I don't know Miss Conway are there any board members that have any questions I do not see any but let me just scan them one more time uh no nobody has has any questions mam have a question M Taro question but I'm not sure you're not coming across clear you can you hear me or you can't now now can that's much better go ahead I think grayan uh Miss T Rico's microphone is is going off and on let me try something okay yeah it seems like her microphone is muted and that's we can't hear her okay is there um I'm thinking is there a way that she can type the questions and uh maybe she can either email Mr Taylor or email me and I can email Mr Taylor I think she can um yes she uh yes she can certainly chat with the um board now um M Taro can you can you speak now I see you're not muted um yes she can she can certainly put that into the chat um if if she would like to go ahead okay why don't we take why don't we take Mr Schneider and then she can type her question in that's okay just buying you some time there Grace an Mr Taylor thank than you for the uh presentation it was very informative I have a question uh so the reply all is very clear it's been so muchat rmed in our heads on every uh every chance that we have some training and some um ethics discussions but I was curious just at a at a from a curiosity perspective so if you had five board members on an email would that also trigger that um ethic ethic issue uh so yes um so the board is comprised of nine members um in order for you to hold a meeting and order to constitute the Quorum you have to have a majority of the full membership which is five um so any communication that is to or from a majority or more board members essentially constitutes what's called a quorum um and so you got to be careful with the reply all but the law has also been interpreted um to prevent people from intentionally circumventing the law by having small meetings or small email chains of two or three board members here two or three board members there and then you kind of all come back together and have one conversation um so you got to be careful of that as well so it's not to trigger that's called rolling communication um you got to be careful of that um because again keep in mind these communications are also public records which may be disclosed under Oprah so even though no one can see your email all you got to do is open request from January 1st through March 31st to and from board member a and board member cdna and it will likely come up um and even if you send emails from your personal email your Gmail account I would encourage you um and I presume we all have do you have Ocean Township warmer if you have if you have school dist stre email accounts I would encourage you and advise you to use that email account for all board business um it makes it easier so that when op requests come in um for the administration to be able to quite frankly access them and determine what needs to be disclosed um it makes it easier if you're not on the board five years from now and we have to go back and try to find that information um but also makes it easier for you because just because it may be on your personal cell phone or your personal email address if it's about board business the the communication likely still may be determined to be a public record that has to be disclosed and while no one's going necessarily come in and look at all your searches you don't want to open up all your searches um so just use your board accounts thank you I I do have uh Miss tallarico's question and he she wants to know if board members need to follow advisory opinions from the SEC and can you share some guidance on this all right so advisory opinions are just said advisory um they're not binding um as a matter of law um they are advisory um now with that being said um any person of the public can request an advisory opinion from the school ethics commission um and if it's an issue that kind of comes up frequently or it might be of general public concern they may issue that advisory opinion um keeping in mind that advisory opinions as I mentioned earlier on simar to the advice that you asked for me for advice um is very fact sensitive um so every advisory opinion may not be directly on point with the facts in your District on that given day or time um but that being said if an advisory opinion says if there's tape on that carpet right there you can't pass go um I'm pointing to the tape on the floor right here um and you and you do that um then it just means that if you're found to have not only committed a violation of the code of ethics but ignored quote unquote this advisory opinion um and there's a presumption that you knew or shouldn't known about it let's say then the penalty may be worse key word is May um so rather than let's say a reprimand and might be a cent or vice versa so I'm not trying to downplay or mitigate um or or encourage any board member to ignore an advisory opinion um but I'm also making it very clear that an advisory opinion does not have the same force and effect of a law that is enacted by the legislature um that is interpreted by the Supreme Court Appel division Superior Court and Order Commission of Education okay thank you any other questions so I just want to clarify at the end of the day contacting school boards getting advisory opinions doing anything like that we should consult any of the answers to anything with our board attorney and get the board attorney's advice and that's really where we should stand since they know the ins and outs of our district better than School boards or advisory you know ethics commissions or whoever uh yeah so again the your school district and there's a statute that requires you to be a member of the New Jersey School Board Association and they're a fantastic organization with a wealth of knowledge and information um they have a service they have a team of lawyers um that work for the organization um they have an attorney of the day um that a board member and administrator can call I can call um bounce a question off of that person um 99.9999% of the time they're going to say check with your board attorney no matter what answer they give you to the question check with your turn um but what's also interesting I've had experiences and I've spoken to Carl tanksley who's the general counsel over there and others um like hey Carl why' you tell my board member they can do it do X he said oh well they asked me could they do it and it's pretty standard I'm like well did they tell you ab and the other de andf part of the story oh well no so then you have a board member coming to a board meeting I call school boards today they said you can't do that but you don't necessarily know if they gave them the full story um and it's important that to recognize that from an ethical standpoint on my end as your attorney I have an attorney client privileg relationship with in my firm as well as any other firm you contract with um where we're ethically bound there's a level of confidentiality so I would argue that quite frankly if a board member is seeking an opinion from a third- party professional um whether it be an accountant a a lawyer an engineer that does not have a legally bonding contract with you they may be uh uh committing an Ethics violation by disclosing confidential information end up itself so you got to be careful of that when you're Forum Shopping and opinion shopping um so might not always like the answer per se but you kind of got to deal with the hand you dealt with professionals that you hire okay thank you very much we so much appreciate you being here and I know it wasn't easy for you to be here tonight but thank you very much bless okay um with that we will move on to our superintendent report good evening everyone okay um again thank you Mr Taylor so nice to see everybody here tonight in a little extra red on a Tuesday I usually wear my red but I went with the white and blue tonight just to change it up but it's nice to see everyone um my report tonight is short but I do just want to say that the youth art show debuted last week and it was tremendous and it is up all month at the town library you can see the artwork from uh students of hours from all grade levels and I'd just like to thank the teachers who put in countless hours to make that uh art display as tremendous as it was and so I highly encourage you board members and public to take take some time to go see that art show over at the library also we had uh the Intermediate School had their play Mean Girls junr which was fantastic and the room was lit up in lights like a Starry Sky and it was really something to see um a great performance by those students I commend them and their advisers on a on a show of a great performance and this week we have the high school performance coming up on its heels mean girls uh they had student performances yesterday in school and the show kicks off this weekend Thursday Friday at 7 pm and Saturday at 2m also last Friday night we had the Hall of Fame induction the Alumni Hall of Fame and the athletic Hall of Fame I just would like to thank all of the Committees both committees and all of the people that devoted time to putting that event together uh particularly Mr Todd and his office staff who really did a a great deal of the work to put that event together was one of the most inspir inspirational nights we've had I think in a very long time to see the athletic success of our students and the credit that they give to the coaches and the parents and the the uh players their their friends their colleagues on the field who helped make them the athlet that they are they don't they don't often talk about the goal or the points but they talk about the experience and they talk about the bonding and the growing that they did as athletes on our Fields it was tremendous to see and then the alumni if I could just take a moment to say that this school district has borne such tremendous Talent it blows me away when I hear of these success stories just to give you a a small snippet we had two members of the class of 1969 inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday night um one Dr Bak Ira Bak who is a a a leader in paliative care and an author of the book dying well he is the point person on this in the fields of medicine and he's tremendous accomplishments and also his his classmate Chris malikowski was there as well and he's the co-founder of Nvidia a tech platform more or less helped AI become a reality um and also doing quite well in the stocks the last few years if you want to pay attention to that and to introduce them and in awe of them was their classmate who happens to be the executive producer of all of the Batman movies since Jack Nicholson's version and he was there in you know in all of their accomplishments so um and also in that class in our first round of uh alumni inductions was rodia Pearlman who is a graduate of the class of 1969 who wrote the code that let the internet be be built um I'm blown away I'm Blown Away by what this school district produces and how every single inductee credits real concrete examples of turning points in their lives at our high school with our teachers who set them on their path and it is just tremendous to hear and made me so very proud to be among the teachers that make this happen every single day and uh I just I just felt I had to mention the night it was it was tremendous absolutely yep okay so and also just coming up the rest of the month we have the one ofasa school glow dance is on March 15 the Tois student and staff basketball game is on the 20th The districtwide Innovation night is on the 2st OT Folly on the 22nd and the 14th which is two nights from now the most one coming up the soonest is the multilingual learner family fun night districtwide event for all of our families but the event is taking place at wanasa school so we encourage our families to come out for that that great event as well and that concludes my report thank you and I Echo your sentiments with the um with the Hall of Fame and the alumni it was an incredible night it was a room full of Pride and each and every um Hall of Fame that spoke up there it all boiled down to the teachers and they spoke about their teachers like you know they're their best friends and they talk to them all the time but they've always remained in the backs of their minds throughout their whole career so it was fascinating anyway thank you for your report and we will go on to um School business administrator's report Mr Hastings thank you madam president I just have one uh reminder for the board piggybacking off of Mr Taylor's presentation uh the ethics present is an annual requirement of the board it's something that we're qack on uh I've left a copy of the code of ethics for each board member and a signature on the back is required so that we can track and show that you've all taken these um taken Mr Taylor's uh review of the code of ethics and if at the end of the meeting or uh shortly thereafter uh just provide those back to us that'd be greatly appreciated wonderful thank you thank you okay with that we will move on to public comment regarding agenda items all motions are posted on the dist 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 and the second session will be at the end of the meeting and can be on any topic would anyone in the room I like to comment on any agenda items at this time no okay uh Mrs Conway is there anyone in the queue yes there is there's a Mr Jonathan shutman please go ahead yeah do you want me to talk uh yes please if you would like to make your comment the agenda items was uh in terms of job opportunities and applications so I had a question for the board and superintendent regarding all job opportunities how do you as an Administration or board vet for favoritism and seek Merit in Recruitment and hiring decisions related to this given appropriate credentials Andor experience required for that'll look at the rest of my comment uh required for the position what steps are taking be inclusive and diverse and recruit a diverse Workforce this would include individuals disabilities not limited to physical such as ambulatory site or hearing impair with individuals with autism or um learning disabilities with proper ADA accommodations or qualified credential incapable of doing the work you also have a copy of this I sent it as a chat message Mr shman um we no longer answer questions um at the meetings but if you wouldn't mind emailing our superintendent with the questions it was a little difficult to hear you as well we would greatly appreciate that can I have a comment Mr paramas I'm sorry may I make a comment yes absolutely I already sent a question in the chat okay it again um did you receive okay it's in the chat in a chat if you could send it if you could send it to miss welden's email that would be great okay my comment was also relevant to the ethics conversation and the uh agenda item on job opportunities yes thank you very much again um we just no longer answer questions at the board meetings thank you for your comment miss conways or anyone else yes our next commenter Madame President is Alex Hayes thank you thanks thanks for unmuting me can you hear me yes Alex Hayes from Oakhurst um sorry I wasn't able to make the alumni awards ceremony it seemed amazing being married to alumni I'm uh constantly impressed with some of the folks that have um done amazing and noteworthy things in this town and hearing the superintendent tonight speak about all those um incredible accomplishments of THS grads um I y'all need to um post about that more you need to publicize it more I saw the Nvidia post but it would be really fantastic for members of the community to see some of those profiles Miss Welden that you just talked about um because I didn't even know of the Batman connection or I think that guy actually spoke last year or something but if we could um put more profiles like that on our social media I think it'll get good leverage and will show more people in town uh the potential of our grads congratulations and best of luck to those at the middle school right now competing in the eighth grade dialogue it's rather unfortunate though that that was set over six months ago and this Schoolboard meeting is on the same night so unfortunately you Schoolboard members um can't you know see the eighth grade dialogue um I thought the ethics presentation was was very thorough and thank you to Mr Taylor I've never heard him speak so quickly so um I do appreciate the thoroughness um there's definitely some things that happened in the past three years you know that Mr Taylor read about tonight of things that you know should not happen but of course they did or vice versa so it was all fascinating just to reiterate I'd like to thank the jne for commenting on the advisory opinions and I just would like to mention to the current School members that when I provided public comment to the SEC in the fall and I mentioned how in November you know I made a motion while a Schoolboard member to follow all SEC advisory opinions that specifically dealt you know with Ocean Township uh and that was shot down meaning the board effectively endorsed not following advisory opinions the SEC chairman said and I quote school boards who do that do so at their own Peril so I hope this school board and each member takes that into consideration um loved um hearing the the thoroughness of what he had to say um and I have two questions so sorry I was reading some of my questions here of course it's fitting that some people get up and walk away um the suspension on the um agenda uh just wondering what union I know you're not going to answer this but what union or if none does the employee belong to and wondering if there were any registered Union grievances over that suspension um and you're approving two districts I mean two students going to outof District private schools tonight and then I think they're cancelling two others but they happened the initial out placements happened months ago like three and six months ago so I find it curious that we're only you're only approving it tonight it seems like quite a delay so I was just I hadn't seen that before ever so I was wondering what that delay was that's it for now thanks thank you Mrs Hayes and you know to email uh Miss Welden please on on your questions I already did thank you thank you anyone else Miss Conway no Madam president there are no further comments okay being none we will now move on to our action items Mr McCart move to approve items 7.1 through 7.3 second comments or questions this is items 7.1 through 7.3 Mr doton yes Mrs Dan yes Mrs Gilman Mr McCarthy yes Mrs McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein Mrs Paramus yes and Mrs Gilman we approving minutes do you yes thank you all right thank you Personnel Miss McGovern I move to approve items 8.1 and to 8.9 as discussed upstairs in executive session may I have a second second all items 8.1 through 8.9 any comments or questions Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs mcgoverin yes Mr Snider uh can I recuse myself since I was not part of the executive session certainly thank you Mr Delo recuse as well and Mrs Paras yes okay all it car thank you we will move on to financial management I'm gonna ask Mr McCarthy to take that being that Mr Weinstein is not here this evening I move to approve items 9.1 through 9.6 I'd like to present items 9.7 through 9.11 for discussion second thank you okay does anyone have any questions for 9.1 through 9.6 anything miss welin or Mr that you'd like to talk about sure uh Miss Conway if we could bring up the presentation on the adoption of the tenda budget thank you and the next slide please uh so i' just again like to review the process I know I've talked to the board about this a couple times already and sorry for being repetitive um but the process involved in approving the budget for 2025 school year uh tonight the board will be adopting or will be asking the board to adopt the tenative budget um once the board adopts attentive budget which is required to be done by the uh 20th of March uh the budget is then submitted to the county department of education for review the county will review that and get back to us with questions Andor comments on it uh may ask us to make some adjustments uh uh based on their review uh and then the board will formally adopt the final budget uh in a approximately a two-e window at the end of April beginning of May and we have a board meeting scheduled for April 30th at which time we will do a public presentation and adopt the final budget um again I'd like to just touch on our Aid we did receive our Aid numbers uh recently as you can see over the past several years the district has lost aid based on the S2 formula and the uh clawback of the state of of AIDS to districts that they feel may be overfunded um that Aid is clawed back and then red distributed throughout the state to districts that they feel are underfunded um our budget for 2025 and our state aid for 2025 has basically been flat you can see the only adjustment to our Aid was a slight increase uh in our categorical special education aid but again over the past six years the district has lost approximately $2 and A5 million do next slide please uh question often comes as to where the funding goes where does our money go how do we spend our money uh typically in uh across the state uh 2third to three4 of the budget for school districts is bent on salaries and benefits and that's no different here uh we have approximately 6% of our budget going on out of District tuition uh folks often ask about utilities uh but that's a relatively small portion of our budget uh which then leaves approximately 16% of the remaining funds uh in the other category which uh you know we could break out into instructional supplies and programs maintenance custodial Transportation technical technology infrastructure those sorts of things uh so again you can see uh that a significant portion of the budget again uh as is with most districts is salary and benefits and unfortunately with uh uh what's going on in healthcare and and the benefits world uh we've seen over the past several years significant increases in the cost of healthcare uh to districts across the state next slide please with the budget that's being proposed uh we put together a slide with the estimated impact of that increase on on taxes this represents just the school district portion of the municipal tax uh We've shown the impact based on a $500,000 home up through a million do home uh the average assessment uh uh is $847,500 increase in the average assessment um the total assessment across the township has increased 12% uh so you can see for the average assessed home uh year-over-year we're looking at an annual increase of approximately $161 or about $135 per month and with that I'd be happy to take any questions the board may have board have any questions Mr Schneider or uh Miss Taro okay are there any other questions um 9.1 through 9.6 so anything else that you'd like to mention yeah just just to you know recap after last week's meeting and our discussion around the budget uh Mr Hastings and I collaborated on the guidance we believe that we've receiving from the board and this this proposed preliminary budget demonstrates a 2.86 increase to the tax levy uh that would be us taking advantage of our Healthcare waiver um and we think that that is uh a best way to go with maintaining as many programs as we can and requests from our staff but providing a reasonable increase to the taxpayer and not going above that 3% which was discussed okay thank you Mr mccy I I would just like to make a comment uh if possible I think I think that we're in a tenuous situation with this budget um and I think that we are put in a position where there are two parties in this town that that we are not going to be able to please either of and I personally have struggled with this too on the on the backs of the the Hall of Fame event that we had last week you could not leave that room without thinking immediately that our teachers are the competitive advantage in our town they are without doubt and we are in a position now where we have to start looking at this budget every year and questioning what we're going to do uh and make a difficult decision I would argue that adopting a 2.86% budget in a year like this when we've seen massive increases in inflation increases in the Consumer Price Index that exceed this number I I would argue that we are actually adopting less than what would be a flat budget I would make that argument legitimately in an open form with people who understand Finance even better than I do um and I think it's a really difficult thing and I think that a lot of this and this is why I'm standing on this soap box and I apologize but a lot of this has to do with the S2 funding formula that we have and what aggravates me is the last time I looked at this budget we sent a letter home to our parents and we said to them that they needed to do something about this they needed to call the representation in Trenton to reexamine that formula and I have to give it to Senator gopal did put it he did put a bill through to try to examine that formula but it was shot down on the assembly floor and nothing came of it right we're here again this year in the S2 funding formula nothing is being done about it and I understand that a lot of people think that nobody has seen that formula but one of our board presidents did Jeffrey Jeff wi when he was a president did see that formula and he questioned the Department of Education on certain things with that formula that did not benefit this District we're going to be here again next year we really are and it's not an easy position to be in and so I bring this all up to say that I think more members of our our TOA of our town of every part of this this place where the big red is such a big thing need to understand that the man who created the big red who got inducted into the Hall of Fame was a teacher George Cony was a teacher in this District who created this beautiful thing that we have in this culture that we have and he was somebody who was a competitive Advantage for this district and made us who we are and we are going to be stuck back in this position next year if we don't start to lean on our representation in Trenton who this District showed up 71% to vote for this year so I intend on Monday believe it is Monday Monday to bring this up when we meet with our representation to try to get them to work with us to start to understand that they need to prioritize this this S2 funding formula but I I am pleading with the town and the other people who support this to also reach out to them and ask them to do that and I'm I'm sorry for the long diet tribe but I think it needs to be said because we're going to be we were here last year we're going to be back here again next year it's not an easy position to be in okay thank you okay um why don't we move 9.1 through 9.6 wait Brian I Brian has okay yeah sorry I just wanted to Echo what John said John you you hit all the points I was uh you know looking to make myself but uh when it comes to the the the election that just happened in November to your point big red showed up big time um for those uh Senate and assembly officials so we're hoping that they could come up big for us when when the time comes for both uh funding and then finding extra money for Grants to to help uh service some of the needs that we have in our community thank you Miss Gilman and to follow up um in speaking with some of the New Jersey school board members at the eighth grade dialogue they're very hopeful that the new school commissioner will be more forthcoming about the S2 formula so it's on everyone's mind and yeah I think we should keep the pressure on thank you okay maybe we should move 9.1 through 9.6 before we go into discussion we do have a motion in a second oh we do okay then you can yeah read the roll call thank you Madame President this is for item 9.1 through 9.6 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs mcgan yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Taro yeah and Mrs Paramus yes motion carries thank you okay discussion items 9.7 through 9.11 going to defer to you Mr Hastings there's anything you wanna talk about or mention yes I would just note that we have two grant opportunities that are uh on this agenda 9.6 and 911 uh I would also note that we're accepting the stabilization Aid uh which is is not what we asked for but um you know we'll move forward with that that amount of funding and uh be happy to take questions Gilman not questions but rather a comment and very hopeful that we get the uh invent to prevent Ranch because anything that will build confidence in girls so that they feel Brave and empowered just sounds like a program that would be beneficial to all especially our third and fourth grade elementary girls so I hope that is successful thank you anyone else what was um what was last year stabil stabilization wasn't it a million dollars was am I yes was a million doll the uh board um approved an application for I believe just over 2 million or maybe just under 2 million received about a million dollar this year we applied for just over two million and received uh, just under $177,000 in query why or how this came to be uh several things came came to the four one is that the governor has been regularly putting aside a a pot of money out of the budget to fund stabilization Aid uh and forging my numbers AR EXA but uh this year I believe they put aside about 20 to$ 25 million for that pot of money and they received requests to the tune of $60 million so this is the third year now so as districts have become more aware of this more aware of the process uh they're they're taking advantage of it um and then in asking um how they came to our number uh the comment was that upon reviewing requests they looked at the aid that was lost in the 20 24 school year and gave a percentage of that loss to districts so we lost approximately $60,000 last year and hence the award about 177,000 Which is less than any of the requests that we put in for do we know do we know how it Compares I understand that 60 million is the is the big number but I mean do we know how it compares to the other districts you received date um only anecdotally that some districts that that you would may be surprised that they received some Aid or more Aid and and other districts that were in the same boat as us in terms of being disappointed with their requests versus their reward or award Miss McGovern um I just I remember comments about stabilization Aid I don't know if it was last year or the year before um to your point about how many how much they got how much money was requested this year was that years a couple years past we've always taken advantage of putting it putting or we had put it in we were said no for a long time then it was like you guys really should put in for this so I think that there weren't a lot of districts because they were being told no say 10 years ago right that put in for it for a long time that in the last two or three years you know more and more people have put in and then I think people were seeing probably numbers like what we were getting and then it was like oh wait we really should put in for this you know so I don't know you know there could be that too that just so many more as you're saying 60 million I'm sure it would be very interesting and I don't need to know the number because you know um but I'm sure that the amount of school districts that put in over the last five years is very drastically different than what put in this year Monday another one all right anyone else just so I'm understanding so they said in their comment that they only looked at 2024's eight right yes they're looking at year by year only 2024 and how many years have we been doing the stabilization Aid or requesting for it uh I'm not familiar with what the district is done over time I believe this is the governor's third set aside for stabilization Aid okay I I find it's a year-over-year application looking at all the money that we've lost right has been $2 million but they're only looking at 2024 seems like something we should talk about and discuss because that doesn't seem like it's balancing out to me so if we could add that to the list for Monday thank you absolutely Mr McCarthy okay any other discussion Mr Schneider Mr Schneider just just I'm sitting here in a hotel room by myself so it's attempt at a bad joke but you know have we considered maybe changing our town name to nor by the Sea we we might have an opportunity to get a billion dollars okay anyone else okay with that we will move on to instruction education and Student Activities Miss Gilman thank you Madame President uh move to approve 10.1 10.2 and 10.3 is for discussion of our school field trips we need a second um I guess govern give it to govern this time sorry questions or comments on curriculum writing or PD for staff anything you want to add no just that this that time of the year again where we start to look at rewriting our curriculum so these is this is the first uh thing that comes before the board it's the request for the hours and then we'll post positions next after this any questions okay did I understand we're approving 10 one and 10 Two And discussing 10 three I'm sorry is up for it says discussion but we usually vote on the school trips I'm not sure does we do 10.1 through 10.3 as an approval yes it is nice to see so many trips thank you any comments or questions so this is approval of 10.1 through 10.3 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes M Taro yes and M Paras yes motion carries thank you Mrs Gilman and we will move on to policy Mrs Gilman thank you very much Madam president so the New Jersey state board of education has made some changes managing for equity and education in their policy and regulation they've retitled the act and J a6a colon 7 which provides rules governing Equity to each student and equal access to all programs and services Strauss Esme has uh removed a list of all protected categories throughout the policies and regulations that you had your first read of and they've replaced it with the words the protected categories listed in njac 6A C and 7-1 uh this avoids repeating the complete list of all protected categories in the policies or uh regulations now many of the policies uh you see are mandated with the m and some have been uh revised some are recommended for us uh for example policy 5842 has been revised and on advice to discuss with our board attorney how best to address the issue of equal access uh to all student organizations uh policy 2431 and regulation 2431 the treatment of concussions uh of course that's been mandated and the example of protected categories used to read for every one of these policies race color creed sex national origin marital status political or religious beliefs Family Social or cultural background or sexual orientation so now it will read any of the protected categories listed at njac 6A uh 7-1 1.1a so this is our first reading and uh at your leisure to look through them if you have any questions or comments you can forward them to me or any of our policy committee members and they will be up for our second reading wonderful does anyone have any questions I just thought of one thanking Mrs welding yesterday for taking my phone call um just on the concussion protocols I'm just I I'm not asking for an answer now but just wondering is there anything we need to change in our protocols and things that we're going to need to do that are going to yes and we'll we'll look over all of that with our athletic department and okay thanks and could I just also note that in speaking to stra SES today um they will also be changing uh some other language in terms of parents and legal Guardians and other sort of repetitive language in that uh in in various policies uh and the reason behind that is uh the board through its bylaw defines parent to include a number of other categories as well in terms of adoptive Foster legal Guardians those sorts of things so uh again you'll see some coming through over the next several months I suppose with that adjustment as well okay thank you M okay um with that we will move on to Old business is there old any old business go ahead we do have the legislative leis on meeting on Monday Zoom meeting will be with our Assembly women and our Senator I was shifted to an earlier time uh 9:45 a.m. so you have until midnight to give me any additional questions that you may have thank you anyone else St more question for Mr okay we're allowed to are we allowed to listen to that it's only the committee that tends you're going to give us a report but I will give a report back that is correct perfect thank you thorough minutes I trust your report yes that's board committee that's a board committee so you're good okay anyone else okay you don't see anybody's hand raised in the uh okay we will move on to new business is there any new business Gilman well this evening I had the uh the honor of attending the eighth grade dialogue sponsored by the mammoth County School boards Association and uh gave the greeting for everyone there and was very proud to have one of our Ocean Township students uh qualify for the dialogue and the students were asked questions about their school district what they found to be successful uh one of the most interesting questions I thought was if you were principal for the day what would you do and uh one of the respondents said I would go to the teachers and ask them what they want to make them happy wow that's pretty open that's list would be but it it was an honor and the students and their parents and their families were there in attendance and uh it it was facilitated by Dr Paul Christopher from Shore Regional and U everybody was discussing the same funding loss of funding budgetary concerns but it was all about the students for that night and much like the Hall of Fame it was a proud moment again for Ocean Township thank you for representing us you're welcome appreciate it um any other new business all right right now I'd like to open it up for public comment on any item anyone in the room have any public comment on any item no okay Miss con is there anyone in the queue sorry yes Madam president Rita Condon thank you Miss kolan Madame kolan please go ahead sorry I had to unmute myself hi Brey kolan Township devotion uh teacher and I'm just wanted to say that I noticed that you were commenting on all the field trips that you were approving and I thank you for approving them and I just attended as a chaperon uh a field trip with the e8th grade G and teers to The Bu Challenger Space Center and it was an amazing experience but I'm sad to say I believe based on budget cuts that that be happening next year or in future years so I didn't know if of Ed is willing to consider having parents pay for field trips like that fundraising that can be done but it was such an amazing experience I would hate to see that future g&t students could not participate in that thank you very much for your comment Miss Conway anyone else in the queue yes madame president Alex Hayes okay go on Mrs Hayes hi can you hear me yes never says that the uh like it says that you're unmuted very loud so sorry about that um I just had a comment for one thing Mr Schneider was talking about comparing us to Newark is a little bit apples to oranges I know you see newark's hundred million dollar and our pithy $177,000 um but just for point of reference last year alone Newark saw 1,000 1,000 more students added to their District roster so um you know we're losing students according to the state so that explains a little bit of that um I'm not so sure what else I can think about that comment um reling us to New York um the 2.86 that you guys are basically signing off on as a tax increase as the best way to go from Miss Welden I appreciate that you didn't keep it at 2.0 because then of course that would mean more Cuts but last week Miss Welden did say that um like if you guys didn't proceed with everything that was on the table which could have gone as high as 3.46 um that things would unfortunately have to be cut um but you know you guys couldn't say exactly what it is just yet and it all depends on you know many times retirements and in the spring and the summer how many retirements we get and then if the district will decide not to fill those retirements to save money but that will raise uh class sizes so um I do hope there will be more transparency down the line with what possibly is not going to happen because we are doing 2.86 and not a little bit higher that the superintendent had initially proposed um and thank you Mr Hastings for explaining um the difference between the legal guardian and then the parent and student because at first seeing Strauss SME nixing the legal guardian part um you know got my ears all twitched a little bit because I thought we were kind of disregarding that whole class of um parents to many students so thank you for explaining that our board policy's already kind of address that um I think that's it except my last comment will be we had um some amazing things going on at read Across America at every school um and we had what the two college football teams um it would be nice some year one year in the future if Schoolboard members would actually be invited into the schools and if you all could reach the students that would be awesome thanks thank you for your comments Mrs Hayes um is there anyone else Miss Conway no Madam president there are no further commenters okay thank you at this time I'd like to ask the board for a motion to adjourn please have a second Mr Dalton thank you have a great evening everyone