back you and welcome welcome to the ready to Township Board of Education meeting this meeting is being held in compliance with the open public meetings act and is open to the media and Public Notices were du posted and the meeting is advertised in the hunterton county Democrat and Courier News formal action may be taken maybe we get a roll call please M depento here M Fury here M mener here M Peach here M borski here M Ryan here M wolf here C here you stand for the [Music] FL the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all good evening everyone welcome uh thank you for your help with putting out more folding chairs this evening we appreciate it uh tonight the Board of Education and the public are going to learn more about what makes up our budget from various departments the these departments include the curriculum pupil Services technology Transportation facilities Administration and Personnel along with Benefits departments the budget timeline for the 2425 school year began back in October when Mr B asked each department and School principal to develop their budgets all budgets were due in December when Mr Bo and I then had the opportunity to sit down and discuss budget recommendations and priorities with each department manager and supervisor in principle in January Mr bow and I projected budget revenues expenditures and remedied any shortfalls in some cases departments were asked to review their budgets once again on February 6th we presented the budget to the finance committee that includes many of the items that you'll hear about tonight our state aid numbers are due to be released the week of February 26th after that we will review the final adjustments with the final finance committee and present a tenative budget to the board and the public on March 12th once our budget is tentatively approved it will go to the county office for approval the board will then approve a final Budget on April 30th so we're about Midway through our budget timeline so this evening uh I'd like to begin by welcoming our curriculum Department to review and highlight some of the items that are in their budget thank you Dr BR good evening I'm Dr Brown I'm the supervisor of humanities and I'll be walking you through a portion of the curriculum Department's budget starting with new initiatives so multiple textbook series across our grade levels require updates so we're planning to we're anticipating launching multiple new textbooks next year reading grades K to2 science 6 to8 Spanish 6 to8 Chinese 6 to8 and then a revised math teacher manual K gr 5 we're also anticipating a handwriting pilot in order to explore potential handwriting materials for grades e through three those are all of our brand new initiatives and then the next section would be reoccurring items these are the items that are in our budget from year to year so the first one would be Mentor leveled and otable tax we budget for money for our libraries and book rooms every year in order to keep them updated and then also to increase our decodable collection so that the students have appropriate materials practice theonics skills in do you have any questions before I hand you to Dr Brown I'm just going to interrupt for the board um forgot to make mention of this if you go into the Boe portal if you log in uh you'll be able to follow along with each budget presentation if you look at there's a synopsis page and you can review that synopsis page so everything Dr Brown just discussed is on that one page synopsis if you really want to there's probably anywhere from a 10 to 15 page handout with the itemized budget attached to that as well so you can also go through that each department would be able to answer any questions that you might have about that as well yep I'll do my best to speak into the microphone thank you thank you Dr BR any questions no good evening everyone Mr s pouch um going through our recurring items that will remain in the budget are our primary resources for health which is currently the great body shop we also have money allotted for curriculum writing this summer largely directed at the new uh New Jersey student learning standards for Math and Ela um also included in the highlights our professional development for our supervisory team so for the three supervisors there are conferences that we often attend yearly and also the professional organizations both at the state and National level that keep the supervisors AR breast of all their uh specific content areas questions about those recurring items or anything else all right and Miss car walk us through some of the uh professional development process hi I'm Sher prow um we our budgeted for district level staff training this is training that our Ela science P Health technology conventions and General District that the supervisors uh would promote that our staff attends we also have budgeted for building level staff training and that is based building base that the principles can make the decision with the supervisor determing determining things that our staff would like to attend uh we have budgeted again for reoccurring for our teacher Academy program um that is the same as it has been within just hourly increase as contractual um and that's why the increases are there for that as well as the inservice days and Parent Academy facilitation we did increase the facilitation for Parent Academy a little bit this is our second year doing it this year so there's a little bit of a bump up for that uh based on the turnout for last year which was there any questions the rest of that yes um just go through what are the professional organizations that the professional organizations are memberships that the curriculum supervisors belong to um to help us stay current with the trends of everything that's going on what are they what are they [Music] specifically so on page two of the five page document um we have uh New Jersey principles and supervisors Association for the uh supervisor of humanities um I might have to have talk talk to those I don't recognize all those letters um for myself for the math and science there's a National Organization for science teachers as well as the National Council for mathematics and for me it's the YY membership which is the science and technology clarify which is the five page docum uh it's starts with uh General current expenses uh and a 300 line on the first page oh I see it's page one5 or page two five of the first DOC nine page document with five page I got it thank you perfect thanks so I belong to the international literacy Association actfl is a World Language Association the Arts educators of new New Jersey um nme is a music association and then ncss is the National Council of social studies and then we have a subscription for Audible for me so that I can preview the books before they go into the book there any other questions question going back to the going back to the debl L item is that for supplement materials or is that specific to the ELA curriculum we have with the series they have something called jump procreators which are decodables but certain students need more time in a in a specific skill on a decodable than others so we have them supplemental ones that are focused on different fonic skills and we have maybe five or six different series because each series will only come with one book for the skill so if you don't get short a with your first one through then we need to supplement the fors and that's why we're continually to continuing to supplement those decodables the way when we first started book rooms if you remember back that far every year we would just buy more and more until we felt like we had enough to be able to offer our students in appropriate selection so we're still working on the decota BS although now we have a good we have a a good a number of series for intervention teachers to use and our like K and one teachers to use so now what more of the grades if the students haven't quite gotten the phonic skills by after first grade now TOS thank you is there any special excuse me line items for the new preschool and if so is it in this budget or is it separate for preschool I believe that would be Mrs be okay that's correct Mrs Mrs beel um her department has the preschool budget but remember the preschool uh funding budget timeline is a little a little bit different than the typical budget timeline so we won't know about our state aid until March after likely after our tenative budget is approved so anything we talked about today will not include preschool Stacy I don't want to speak you're out there somewhere do you have some preschool things in your budget I don't everything goes yeah so we have to wait for fun 20 okay thank you anything else thank you the next budget presentation is the technology budget presentation um for board members if you go back into the Boe portal portal and then click on technology budget uh presentation and I'll invite Jim milsk hi everyone my name is jki I'm the it coordinator um just want to give a brief overview and synopsis of our technology budget this year technology budget continues to focus on refresh cycles for infrastructure Hardware to meet and and enhance performance and facility security needs phase one of our planed network switch upgrade and video camera upgrade were completed over the summer through the beginning of the school year so that phase is now completed the district has also successfully transitioned to an externally hosted Cisco webx phone platform uh with on-site integration into our existing intercom system we will now department will now transition into phase 2 and three infrastructure upgrades over the next 2 to three years we're going to focus on network switching um which are up for refresh Cycles access point refreshes um there are also some video camera and software enhancements that we're looking to implement that provide some additional protection and learning capability um and we're also looking to further expand upon the Sisco WebEx and for cap which allows our full system to tie to other humanties um Phase 2 and three will continue to provide the district with an updated environment to meet the needs of emergency emerging curriculum initiatives and needs for increased bandwidth as well as future facility security requirements also list a breakdown of some of these um major initiatives and what we be focusing questions thank you very much the next hand out is the pupil Services budget presentation I'll invite Mr Tumo and M to talk with us we're going to behave ourselves tonight now now now um I'm style I'm director of people Services Supervisor this is the first year that Anthony and I are actually we're we're really a team uh last year Anthony presented under instruction and curriculum um this year we are officially a team we're in offices together and we develop the budget together so if you take a look um in our department we really have no new initiatives or anything new to the budget however what you will see is we have upgraded our um professional development for our um for our uh staff because um our staff had very specific needs nurses our ESL teachers our speech therapists they all have different PD needs that aren't necessarily offered through the district um uh PD that Sher was speaking about prior so we've really beefed up our our PD Anthony yeah so um School counseling um department so we have a couple recurring items here I'll just go through really quickly um our uh we'll do um New Jersey cap as well which is do that again so grades three five and eight uh 3 five and seven team team cap will be grade seven um for counselors uh conferences you'll you'll see a couple things there so New Jersey school counselor Association um they do a conference every year so budgeting for that for six counselors um as well as the American school counselor um Association um they do an annual conference and we budget for two of the counselors to attend um again you'll see Department PD workshops and that's any individual ones that they would like to choose to go to um I put in there some uh District supplies um as well as just general supplies of materials some of the um some of the items that have no impact on our budget that all sended through IDE which which is a separate Grant is some of our out of out of District tuition again we've put in some professional development um for example uh one of the areas we are we have been working on is getting teachers trained in Wilson so this year we have another teacher going through the certification for level one next year I have budgeted for two of our teachers to move forward for level two training um which comes in about $112,000 um and then also through our um our sers and ARP as our employee assistance program any questions Stacey can I ask two questions can you just give an overview of all of the Departments that fall under P services for the board can you how long do you have how quickly can you do it they are there so underneath so underneath our department are our nurses School counseling our um our English language Services all of child study team speech and language Behavioral Services occupational therapy Physical Therapy Section 504 um special speci special education and anything else that doesn't fit any El and well and preschool but preschool preschool is a separate um is is a separate budget Al together um with our with our preschool disabilities um programs that do not fall under the preschool expansion we do have Ida funding for that and then also we have money where I have included in our department supplies and material um for our preschool disabilities programs that are that is not funded underneath the um the expansion all right good thank you does anybody have any questions for St before she runs away the next budget presentation is in the handout is our facilities budget presentation on by Mr R good evening I'm Don race the director of of facilities District um you can see our our projected budget for next year there has been some slight increases from that from the current budget I just want to highlight a couple things here uh we are in the second year of our custodio con clean services for nighttime that is a two-year contract the next C you'll see is Security Services which is our wonderful SRS we have in our building and our shared service we have with the township there is some increase there and that Al that includes salary increases for our officers for next school year we just started July 1st we will begin a new trash and recycling service contract with with with our current current provider for public services um our general our part of the general liability fund our water management compliance or water testing services uh you'll see there's some increases in paper products and cleaning supplies for stodal staff there has been some increases of raw materials there we'll see Natural Energy natural gas there has been some some fluctuations in the national gas prices for gas production uh that's a so was based on stock market so you know it could be it could be one or2 dollar difference every time they uh it comes through uh and electric and solar we have seen increases in electric generation as well um and also now we are in year six with our current PPA with our solar solar company now so there's been some slight increases in that cost as well um with the district it's not on it's not on the synopsis sheet but this summer we will be expanding our the district solar system in in the buildings along with our current expanding the three buildings we already have Poss bring solar to White House White House school as well so that will definitely over the next year and also this year we're also uh rolling out I'm working with a software company to bring out a new energy monitoring software program for us to use in the district uh which are working with them to go back and enter all the data we had from our previous software company we had so it'll be we're just going to basically pick up where left off all of that so hopefully this time next year you know we'll be able to report some of those reductions as we start generating our own own electricity run and paying for for it generated um and then last thing on here is just uh we do an annual drinking water lead test we do this annually for policy year 2425 will be a Department of Education reporting year which we'll have to report all our findings anything did the mediation wies to the Department of Education um and then lastly I just have a couple capital projects that's not funded by our local tax levy which is the RMS main office Renovations which includes some Roofing and some HC Replacements we're looking to upgrade the indoor Communications for our First Responders so they'll have better Communications inside the building and then also in RMS we're looking at creating the classroom lighting to LEDs which through our recent qack walks and everything was a recommendation that we bring up the light levels of classrooms in the middle school we do have a lot of interior classrooms in the middle school so that's it questions the solar expenses what that's for the installation of the panels or no well this will be a PPA agreement like we currently have we will not pay for any of the installation or any of the equipment we will just be buying the the electricity that's generated through that equipment okay then eventually eventually right our current PPA is over at the end of the 15E period the new will likely be the same there will be a couple options there whe we can buy the equipment from the Solar Company or if we decide not to keep the solar equipment we can have them take it all out okay now just trying to understand the um $74,000 difference on the line one just explain that that's for is that for [Music] cleaning yes the custodial Services yes yes that's our nighttime cleaning services that's the increase no the 70 decrease no actually that number should be the same as it was this this current that was a twoyear that was a twoe on the line he's looking at is the um the first one the maintenance Reserve Pro projects list 261 yeah that's that's a reduction from last year that's $74,000 decrease from the projects that we're currently doing in this okay thank you the um the projects not funded by the tax levy yes how are they funded through capital the next budget presentation is from Transportation Miss Co hi everyone I'm Marcy Cole I am the uh supervisor of Transportation um our transportation department consists of an in-house operation with a supervisor um a dispatcher clerk mechanic 20 bus drivers um we are shared services with Branchburg Board of Education um with a dispatcher and a mechanic and bus drivers uh we are shared services with 100 ESC for our special education out of District routes um we have 30 school buses in our Fleet uh we cover routes to and from school field trips Athletics and in office mail um we deliver breakfast and lunches to ours for the for our preschoolers um and as always our department goal is for the um Safe Transportation and um Safe Transportation for students despite our bus driver shortage um then you'll see down below the just list of our recurring items in our budget from year to year um gas and Diesel um a new bus with cameras um parts for the school buses our general liability insurance um non-warranty work that needs to be down on the buses um our garage rental from Branchburg um for of Ed our ESC management fund fees that is for the the special education added District routes um Outsource contracted routes that's for the routes from 100 ESC and our a in L um for private school transportation any questions thank you the next two presentations are Administration and uh Personnel Mr good evening everyone um so first want to go over Central Administration so if you pull up the administration budget um not too much to highlight new here there's strategic planning we're entering the last year of our strategic plan so we will start to embark on a new strategic plan uh document which will uh involve the public as well as board and other stakeholders so you'll see about $4,500 in strategic plan money uh for meals events um and other uh Communications like Refreshments um the other big new item is the Hayden Township Communications agreement so there was a presentation made um at edtech relating to a new Communications initiative to better communicate with the public um as well as uh critical stakeholders especially now that the Readington news is no longer publishing so the district is evaluating the best ways to reach uh all stakeholders in town uh not simply the parents uh through East which they receive weekly from our principles and staff uh and then a lot of recurring items which uh will forever be in the budget which is primarily legal fees and general liability insurance again audit fees uh computer software for substitutes and so forth um then you have professional development for or bed members um as well as Dr part myself U mandatory uh n uh School boards fees which are in statute and uh General supplies copers things like that um things that have no impact to the budget that I want to highlight uh that our offices do is first low income assistance so we coordinate with social services in town as well as the HSA um school counselors and nurses are critical to this as well as the staff to identify children in need and families in need um so some things we do is provide um free Chromebooks and fees field trips are paid for uh we coordinated with food pantry health and dental uh internet assistance before and after care clothing backpacks uh School suppli wies the HSA helps with the holiday shop as well as Book Fairs provide money to low-income families um all this for free so it's just a nice thing that um District does um with everyone's assistance another big thing that we do is Grant rate so you'll see we have Ida Esser a lot of acronyms federal grants but we also do a lot of local grants so we'll have teaching staff principles administrat come up with ideas that they have um and we investigate whether or not we can apply for those grants they may be 5,000 they might be 10,000 um one we just applied for last week was to get an electric School Bus uh that's through the federal government um and Senator Booker uh wrote us a recommendation for that so hopefully we get that that's worth $230,000 uh if we receive that we're also going to be applying for State grant for electric buses which would be about 250,000 per vehicle uh plus the charger um we also do sustainable Jersey um and we do a local Farm Grant so uh people from the township as well as staff may have remembered um last um green uh day that we had Earth Day this past spring we had a farmers market at Three Bridges um that was through a grant so we didn't have to pay any money to hold that local farmers came out uh we set up tables we gave away food to the staff and students that were able to attend um so nice um things that we're able to do for free uh I also in my office hold retirement and financial planning to staff members that want it um we usually do one-on-one meetings um so that way you know I can help them out as best I can uh cafeteria Services um this is um something we provide brece now so in the pandemic times we were delivering Wheels to families directly um now that we back we instituted a breakfast program so now we do lunch and breakfast at every school further there was a recommendation to expand um breakfast and lunch on half days at H Brook in the Middle School uh that was through teaching staff members that row up uh and highlighted the need for that and uh with support of principal Charleston and principal nro we now have meals on half days at H Brook and RMS for the first time in 15 years um which is great because our low-income population is around 14% so about one in uh children in the district are uh summer enrichment uh Miss Ogden and Miss cyle have been uh instrumental in getting that program back on track uh we were running a negative in that for several years um and now now that program is in the positive uh and that provides opportunities in the summer for uh families to get to know kindergarten orientation middle school as well as other uh cooking club and other uh new initiatives we're actually going to be probably doing curriculum writing for that this summer to integrate uh stem and other math English into those programs and lastly uh for Central Administration uh preschool so I know we touched on that a little bit um preschool is a separate budget it's state funded um but I would be remissed if we did not mention that three and four year-olds can go to um preschool for free through the district we're one of few in the State uh that offer that and um essentially if your child turns three um you can register with the district I believe next week this this um should know that because signs for that um but uh really well deserved initiative any questions on Central Administration um my other section is personnel and benefits so um big disclaimer here we have not R anyone that's in the audience behind me so you must uh any comments until executive session and even in executive session uh we have to talk generically um but I'm going to go over high level and then if you have questions I would tell you to wait until executive session later on um some uh new initiatives there's two main documents that you have in your uh folder uh first is the total budget major modifications if you open that up that's a onepage summary of the entire budget and the major changes to the budget so the finance committee went through that in detail and that details every single thing that is changed at a level probably of 20 grand or more uh impacting the budget secondly there's a u document that's called personnel and benefits that document is about 38 pages long um so it's lengthy but there's a onepage summary on that as well I would tell you to just look at the one page summary and then if you have questions on the details um reach out to the individually that's a lot of lines to go um but some recurring items that we have accounted for is um RTA salaries going up so we reached a fiveyear agreement with RTE um so those are accounted for in the budget on align salary increases are in there as well as an increase for rtaa which is the administration Association which we're currently negotiation uh other big item in there is health benefits so health benefits is becoming very expensive across the state uh our current health benefits run around $5 million and the increases last year were about 9% and we're projecting about a 9% increase this year if you think about that in terms of dollar amounts it's about a million dollars that increases over the past two years uh further there's been some uh changes in state law that have shifted the burden of the cost to District rather than staff members uh which is great for the staff members including myself who switched to uh the new plan to save money um but on the flip side uh the district is absorbing those additional costs so I want to highlight that number to you attension other benefits that we pay for is tension we contribute to tension system uh so for all pers members uh we contributed this past year $700,000 um next year I'm Pro in around $785,000 that will contribute to the state pension um we also have uh other benefits in there such as workers comp Dental unemployment insurance substitutes are in there as well with leave of absence coverage stiens um extended school year as well as overtime and the only other things I will highlight is that we still have some Esser money that expires in September so we will be doing some Mental Health services with that money through a little bit of next school year so I'm to highlight that and uh ESL elll which is English language Learners uh we get uh title money througha for that and that allows us to buy um supplies and services for uh those students to learn English that population grew uh pretty dramatically in the past three years um and uh has since stabilized in the past year uh but we have Federal money to help support um getting the resources through those families um any generic questions on Personnel or benefits and I can talk about benefits in with yeah can you just explain the addition of the behavioral health counselor um so just at a high level behavioral health counselor this past um year which is public information has been funded through the Federal grant um so that position is currently funded through Esser Esser is eclipsing so there is discussion the Personnel committee if you look at the private Personnel committee then it's about that position as well as other initiatives that are funded through federal grants this person's already here which yes that person that person is right here and um all fun fing through federal grants uh is covered by Sr um until it expires in September so everything that was funded through Sr is being evaluated in the current budget to see if we can either absorb it into the local tax levy or if um you need to shift to something that's more cost effective because the federal grants are expiring from the pandemic could you just explain that there's a big increase in the salaries in the maintenance department yes so that's another public one I would say for other Personnel matters we should discuss their executive but for M's Department we have that in public minutes uh where the MS Department um received adjustments to their salaries this past January or December if I'm not recall I think it might have been December um where um there was some shifting of personnel that um to get their salaries of market value but also because there is a shortage of Labor in the marketing totality so there is movement of Staff going from one District to another and one of the big focuses of the district is retention recruitment so we're focusing on uh there was a big recruitment committee that uh formed last year with initiatives to try to retain staff long term um so we've been doing a lot of programs for that one of uh the aspects of that was um adjusting maintenance salaries to try to keep the knowledge level of that staff here um to hopefully uh reduce um the cost of having to Outsource uh maintenance on our air conditioning uh as well as other things in the district the one nice thing about Readington that I'll highlight too is that we had air conditioning in almost every part of our building um compared to other counties how many people are we talking about um want to say five thank you any other questions thank you very much uh does anyone have questions for before we move on to the the rest of our agenda questions about any other the attachments uh or any of the budget items in general while the supervisors uh are here as well budget and there's more to come so next board meeting will be the tenative budget approval we'll take everything that you heard tonight and put it into like 10 slides budget presentation as a as an overview for you no okay thank you Dr thank you I just want to thank everyone who presented tonight in your presentation I had read through the documents prior to tonight and I appreciate the time that you put in uh and the thought that it took to create a good budget for our kids you know it's it's definitely um you know providing effective instruction and certainly shows in the budgets that you guys created so thank you for that all right moving on to um board vacancy we do currently have a board vacancy and can you guys hear me in the back okay good we currently have a board vacancy and tonight we do plan on interviewing to fill the vacancy we are looking to um hopefully fill that for the next board meeting that's our plan so just wanted to mention that any questions great uh moving on to the next section we are now open to the public limit limited to action items on the agenda sorry that does work hi Carol hle Readington Township I saw Dr Moss is on the agenda tonight for approval uh so preemptively I just want to say congratulations to Dr Moss fingers crossed but I think it's a great choice and I just wanted to put that out there to the public to congratulate him my name is Michael from Township I'm here to talk about sorry the seat being filled yeah I'm not a big public speaker I'm trying I didn't see it um okay so Nepali was elected for the Border EV in November with 2,632 votes and um Jody uh betterman you know she to win the election and it's clear that the voters in Readington uh wanted to change on the board so my concern is that the board Bard B may repeat the same thing happened two years ago with the last board vacancy with um I say this wrong Eric uh swirling he ran for the as incumbent and lost during the interview process the board interviewed many qualified candidates and chose him to fill the vacancy vo are ready to chose not to have Mr swirling on the board due to you know his board record but he was uh brought back anyway so I asked the board not to ignore that voters Readington Again by bringing back Mrs better also question why we are here to begin with uh Mr Nepali posted in explanation on Facebook and it was it's uh it's trouble it's troubling she noted that prior to taking the O of office Dr her requested that the advisory opinion from the SEC you know Ethics Committee that uh stated that they can only act after the board member is sworn in the second advisory opinion was never requested why uh this attact issue with the prek involvement by the Board of Ed member came before sec in 2014 the SEC issued an advisor opinion that stated that the Board of Ed members would have to recuse themselves from any discussions about the prek program the opinion also uh advised the board attorney uh to discuss Board of head members any acts uh or Provisions that may be related uh okay the right to the school board attorney prepared a 17-page document describing her opinion on when Mrs Nepali would need to accuse herself and what act would be prohibited in her in her place of appointment while this was the opinion of the board attorney and it's not the SEC Mr apal stated that the do made clear that it would be very hard to do her job so she resigned from the board the next day uh what should have happened is a request for a second advisory opinion from the SEC de theal in the board we know exactly how proceed with the SEC would the SEC agree thatal students and District district students can not share the lunchroom she recess to rent it from speaking in staff meetings or answering parent questions um SEC is the only authority to decide if two children playing on a swing set is a dire conflict of interest of the board members and not the board attorney uh the board attorney should help the board navigate the process with the SEC not issue a 17 Page doc Mak Mr call choose between her ability to do her job and her board seat not to mention using taxpayer money to and resources to circumvent a process that is already in place I ask that you honor the will of the voters and do not bring back this veteran I also have to ask that you look closely what happened to this theal and prevent it from happening again the SEC exists to prevent this from happening and the failure to get an SEC advisory opinion is a failure on this board thank you anyse Mr PE there a comment from from Julie um I can the comment is I concur with the comment made public has spoken with their vote in November and someone who was not selected by the public voters should not be selected by the board that's the only comment thank you well all right yeah sure I just want to follow up on that um there was a reason why she was not voted in and so um that there was other people there's a reason why the Inc were not voted in and that people ran against them they were not happy with how they were voting and how they were trying to steer the direction of our school district uh so there's not just you know she's not the only one that has the same ideals that are running I just again would like to make sure that that the public their interest how they voted is taken a do account who you choose that they try and choose someone who uh would replace the same sort of uh ideals uh that sir can we have your name please okay thank you anyone else okay all right um next we have a we had two correspondents an email from JF regarding weather school closings and an email from MW regarding the board vacancy all right moving on uh to the resignation of chapoli which was effective January 25th can I get a motion move back second Caroline roll call please com sorry yeah can I comment sure I just wanted to say that out of respect for Christina that we probably should make it clear um that there wasn't an Ethics violation founded I just think there's a lot of misinformation out in the public and I think it's unfair it's I was going to say I I would agree there was no complaint filed so there was no violation found it was it was an attorney appended letter that Mrs Mrs Ryan is correct there was no violation because there was no complaint filed there was an attorney opinion letter to guide the board of Miss netor I just want to make a a comment about you know I had concerns about the way hear you and this is importante I had concerns about the way that this was handled um just from the standpoint of you know the board did not receive a letter from the attorney is and at the time it was sent after we found out about it I asked I asked the chair chairperson for it she immediately gave it to me was happy had already resigned and you know I I had I had expressed concerns that the advisory opinion was sought just because you know the board wasn't consulted before that that opinion was Sol and that request was withdrawn because Miss na is had this had to be on the board and then after she's on the board I was expecting The Advisory opinion would be sought but instead we heard nothing until after she resigned and I found out the attorneys had sent a you know sent a 17 Page Letter to miss napol so you know I'm not suggesting there was a perfect way to handle this the administration was concerned about conflict it's just I you know I think as board Council maybe it's the the fall of the law firm they they should have they should have copied us right I mean the board counsil I don't you know um I certainly don't mind the administration communicating with the attorneys on day-to-day issues without our approval know you can do that just you're talking about an issue of disqualifying someone a month before an election I think the attorney should have consulted the board as a whole before thank you I'd like to follow up some comments about that a couple things first of all what happened was absolutely nobody's fault you know Miss Napoli rant she got you know she went in July and she petitioned for a f like everyone all of us did back in July she didn't know then what was going to happen with preschool and it was just more of a timing issue than anything so you know it wasn't that she was told that she couldn't do it at all so I had several conversations with her and and it was completely her decision in fact I'm going to read a more formal statement about it if anyone has any questions you certainly can follow up with that but I I completely understand why and the time frame of everything and how it happened again it's not her fault that she's she's an employee where she is and she happened to win on the board and I wish personally and I told her that I wish she would have stayed on the board but it was her decision to leave so I'm going to read a statement regarding this uh there's been some confusion and rumors circulating around town regarding this napi's resignation from the board I wish to dispel any misinformation and set the record straight neither the board nor Dr Hart did anything to compel Miss nappy to resign from the board rather Dr Hart simply requested to know from our legal council the ethical limitations which existed for Miss napol given her potentially conflicting roles as a board member and a teacher in a preschool program that is deeply intertwined with the Readington School District that is part and parcel of his responsibilities as superintendent which is to quote to ensure that all aspects of the District operation comp comply with board policies and regulations state law and District contracts unquote obviously all of us want to ensure the efficiency and integrity of our board decision-making process which includes among other things ensuring that conflicted members do not vote and participate in matters where they are conflicted Dr Hart went to Great Lengths to ensure that he had all the facts correct regarding Miss Napoli's employment situation so that our legal council could offer offer an informed and accurate opinion that opinion was provided to miss napi and she ultimately chose to resign on her own valtion I also have to question the fact that people seem to know about this 16-page document which happened to be confidential no longer is apparently due to the confidential nature of the communication from our attorney I am not at Liberty to share its contents with you although someone did apparently however suffice it to say that nobody forced or intimated that Miss napi resigned in fact we did not even have the opportunity to discuss the opinion with her before she resign she did that suddenly on and on her own without any prompting from the board or Administration we wish Miss Napoli well and her future endeavors and we'll uh use our best efforts to find a suitable replacement in accordance with board policy so that's what happened if anyone has any questions please ask but the fact is that we hire you hire a board at attorney is not to protect any of us it's not to protect a student it's not to protect an employee the board attorney is hired to protect the district and that's what they did they wrote an opinion that happened to be 16 pages long my opinion was five pages long because I also had to be vetted everybody gets vetted that's just the process that's how it goes and you're told what you can and cannot vote on so people might be misinformed but that's what happened no one did anything wrong in our attorney did everything that they should have done any other questions I have one more question sure I guess the thing I'm unsure about is why wasn't that original letter resubmitted why did we now incur more attorney fees to receive another letter and what other letter would you mean letter we had a letter the original one that went to the SEC right right so why wasn't that original letter we submitt it could have been and and certainly Christina could have done it anybody we encourage so many more attorney fees to now get this other document well again you incur attorney fees to protect the district that's the reason you incur an attorney fee it's but we already paid the attorney to write an initial letter right so I just think that could have been resubmitted and we could have gotten information back and we still can I just we need to look at how we handle things going it was handled completely appropriately I appreciate what you're saying but and we still can so there's nothing wrong with the way it was handled but thank you anyone else can we um maybe take a look at policy 0143 and 0174 and just see if there's um a way for us to um improve upon it to make sure that should we be presented with a situation like this again that maybe there is a contact person before the board attorney is contacted to make sure that you know resources aren't um being utilized unnecessarily is there anything like we can add into these polic icies that would just you know almost like a check system like because I feel like it would it would have maybe been caught that said okay we received this letter um back from the SEC saying just resubmit it once she sworn in and instead of resubmitting it when she was sworn in it went back to the attorney and it almost seemed like um you know Christina here's a bunch of reasons why you can't stay instead of a meeting with maybe her St in Center uh Dr Hart and the attorney saying you know how do we work with you so you can stay I think that's where it was not handled I'm glad you said that because as you recall the meeting that we had we actually had it was a um orientation you were there and was there Christina was there I was there and Dr har and Jason were there and we actually encouraged Christina for that exact same thing that's what we said to her because the opinion and it's always money well spent in my opinion when you get an attorney's opinion you're doing doing it again because they're protecting the district so that is there's nothing better than spending money like that except for these good budgets everyone put together but um so so we decided and we told her that why don't you at least give it a few months to see what you can and cannot vote on we actually we actually encouraged her to do that honestly you heard us say that I didn't hear that part I didn't hear that part being said to her but I then the next day she received the large document we want we want to yes that is we wanted her to stay that is Cle but who made the decision to have the attorney send a letter directly to her instead of sing risor opinion why is that not a board decision I think that was the I I honestly don't know I think it was the attorney's decision is that to do that my recollection was that after the after the advisory opinion was denied there were about five or six additional advisory opin opinions that were in the sec's letter back to us and they call those advisory opinions instructive like while while we're denying your request right now please take a look at these These are instructed I sent those to our board attorney so initially we only had a handful two advisory opinions to take a look at then we had five or six more that they called instructive now this is just me speaking if they're calling it instructive they're saying before you come back to us look at these after that we talked um Dr ciello Mrs wolf and I talked with the board attorney and ultimately went I think Camille you talked to Christina and ultimately we were collaborative with her which direction should we go do we want to go back to the or should we go back to the attorney and I think ultimately when you talk to her and you had the conversation with me I don't want to put words in your mouth she ultimately agreed let's go and see what the attorney says so ultimately I believe it was the attorney that met with us and said I had these other advisory opinions I can put something together for you or we can go right to the SEC why don't you talk to Mrs napi and see what she thinks that is correct that is what happened yes what would have been wrong though with just emailing the board and saying here's what we're doing I'm not going to disclose that to anybody I can't do anything with it alone but I as a board member I have no idea what's going on what what board counsel is doing on this issue all I know is lley now says she felt intimidated by the attorneys you know I don't know everything that went on before but that's that's apparently the way she feels about the letter and I'm just suggesting if it's board counsel the board should know about what the attorney is doing the attorney should not be acting they should not be acting on their own well they shouldn't be acting just in response to the administration unless just a daytoday you know know running of the schools issue which this clearly was not well we can't get away from the fact that she was she would have been clearly conflicted in many ways and I think she realized that again it was not anybody's fault but she realized that there would be a lot of things she couldn't vote on there' be a lot of things that it would be uncomfortable her going to certain meetings and a lot of her day-to-day operation including uh being on the recess out out out in The Recess you know during lunchtime Etc and there were a lot of examples of how she would have to uh you know not do what she was doing you know so she thought about that and she you know there was something also that she wanted to apparently participate in in in her in her preschool and uh she didn't want to miss out on it we talked about this uh and and again I encouraged her to just try it out and she wanted to say but she said I'm just not I just don't there' be too many things she could speak for herself there'd be too many things that would be conflicted so it's not it's not even the process it's just the fact that that what happened is there's no question question that she would have been conflicted it it just was unfortunate in terms of timing really I I want I just want to say one other thing too when it comes to the sort of day-to-day operations of the district and and pardon me if I didn't make this clear to the board this is day-to-day operations you know there are board members when they sit on the board that may have conflicts and the administration goes directly to the board attorney to help us guide that board member and what he or she cannot do um I had one my wife's a teacher before we entered negotiations with the association I went to the board attorney and said give me a letter on when when and where I should be when we discuss salaries for the teachers I got a letter maybe it wasn't 16 pages long but I have a letter other board members have a letter or at least an email this was day-to-day operation so I I Randy I completely appreciate what you're saying and I I understand how this caught folks off guard but there are at least off the top of my head that I could think of in my six years here seven or eight board members that have all received a similar letter including myself as the superintendent of schools so I I appreciate it I would very we will be very mindful in the future but it really was very much day-to-day operations and I considered it part of our our role okay um may I get a roll call please M depento yes M Fury yes M mener yes Mr P no is borski yes is Ryan no M wolf yes yes okay moving on to approval of administrative Court of reports motion to adopt 1.01 to 1.03 Second Carol can I get a old call please this depento yes this fiori yes M Menor yes Mr Beach yes Mrs borski yes Mrs Ryan Yes Mrs W yes Dr y yes passes U moving on to approval of the minutes a motion to adopt 2.01 to 2.02 pleas this is the pinto yes this F yes this men Mr Peach M borski yes M ran yes yes Dr yes moving on to finance and Facilities a motion to adopt 3.01 to 3.13 move second Caroline and we have a committee report Finance the committee met on Tuesday February 6th at 8:30 in the morning we discussed the 2024 through 2025 budget budget timelines the timeline and process will reviewed highlighting the process begins in October and concludes with a vote on the budget at the April Board of Education meeting budget history and maximum tax levy the committee reviewed budget increases for the last 10 years and noted last year's budget increase was 2.6% banked cap the concept of Bank cap was reviewed including how to strategically utiliz Bank cap prior to its xre projected enrollment was reviewed previously expected increases related to new housing developments have not materialized as expected student needs across different categories such as special education General pop BL and related staffing needs were also taken into consideration Staffing in preschool the student to teacher ratio in classroom sizes and the associated budget implications were reviewed the committee agreed the goal of maintaining student teacher ratios is a priority preschool enrolement and Staffing were reviewed the program setup is on track with the plan and possible expansion pend approval major modifications in the 2425 budget a summary memo of the key changes in the proposed budget was presented salaries health benefits and pensions were the primary drivers of cost increases offset by savings across several C categories in the non-salary budget the committee discussed balancing utilization of the tax levy and Bank cap including trade-offs and longer term implications the committee reviewed two budget proposals ranging from a 2.6% to 3% increase using varying degrees of Bank cap after the tax levy is taken into account after discussion of both budget options the committee recommended pursuing the more conservative option of a tentative 2.6% increase this is based on Lower enrollment and budget pressure that is anticipated for next year the next step is to wait for state aid funding to be provided to the district summer 2024 capital projects and Reserve balances were reviewed the capital reserve is 3.7 million and additional maintenance reserve and emergency Reserve were discussed previous ly proposed construction projects were reviewed the total cost of the projects are 3.1 million and the main contributors to this cost are to enhance the RMS office roof and hbac a proposal to utilize funds from the maintenance reserve for security enhancements was discussed Finance agenda items for the upcoming meeting were discussed bills were available for review the next meeting is planned for March 8th of 8:30 a.m. thank you any questions or comment regarding the facilities oh any questions about that okay uh can we get a roll call please theint um Yes except for at Steam from 3.01 check number 063 667 $663 Mrs F yes Mrs mener yes Mr Peach yes m borski yes Mrs Ryan Yes W yes yes and moving on to education and Technology can you get a motion to adopt 4.01 to 4.03 Second Carolyn we have a committee report we do uh the edtech committee met on January 31st we had to reschedule date so we didn't get to meet in time for the last board meeting so finally got to meet uh thanks to this no uh the first item we discussed was summer enrichment Miss Ogden proposed updates to the summer enrichment program which will be held during the weeks of July 15th and July 22nd this year she is recommending creating different content in each course offering so students can attend both weeks in a summer as well as consecutive years without repeating content uh this came about through feedback from prior participants each course will have curriculum written for four sections there will be a supply list and recommended vendors list to make purchasing and facilitating easier for instructors the curriculum writing will be funded through registrations there is no impact to the budget summer enrichment is a self-funded program uh next we discuss board goals uh goal two improve the use of data to monitor progress and drive decisionmaking the board discussed a midyear I ready report and asked Administration to look into getting the report to compare year to year uh we also uh discussed goal four create the supports and structures for a Sharp clear focus on academic achievement for example remove barriers that take Focus away from education uh while continuing the integration of social emotional learning across the curriculum and providing Equitable access to mental health support as needed for our students and staff uh next we discuss the spring teacher Academy Mrs cryle gave an update on spring teachers Academy the course offerings have been coming together nicely list of facilitators will be approved at this uh meeting we discuss Parent Academy Mrs cryle also gave a report on night of discovery which is going to be held on March 20th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Holland Brook School this is a district second annual Parent Academy the purpose of Parent Academy is to Showcase what the district is doing and to build Partnerships with parents and community members so far there are 18 proposals for sessions from teacher facilitators and Community leaders there will be student performances a keynote speaker and refreshments provided by rtea in addition to the parent sessions uh next we discuss the March inservice day teacher facility approvals are on this agenda um and the uh inservice day is scheduled for March 15 next we discuss the curriculum Department tentative budget priorities uh for curriculum writing Miss pouch and Dr Brown gave overviews of the new math and language arts standards from the state this new curriculum will need to be approved in the September Board of Ed meeting uh it will come before the edtech committee in August many of the standards that were added by the state were already Incorporated in the district's curriculum documents so there should not be drastic changes for the departments in math uh within math the biggest update is separating out measurements as its own domain a new domain was called Data literacy uh within data literacy domain things like coins and bills were added in K through two our district was already teaching that uh in K to 5 the fluency standard will be revised to emphasize accuracy and efficiency instead of speed uh in 8th grade new standards will include radicals and irrational numbers fourth fifth and eighth grades had the most number of new standards but not huge changes from what the district was already teaching uh the ELA the new standard standards for language arts are broken down into language which is vocabulary phonic spelling grammar Reading Writing and speaking listening uh this district has already been incorporating most of these changes in the curriculum cursive writing is not in the new standards however the committee members recommended exploring if there's a way to incorporate it into the curriculum for third grade the district is looking into pilot programs for handwriting K through two and will'll also look into programs for cursive um we tabled the agenda item purchasing of new and revised curricular materials because we ran out of time so we'll discuss that in our next meeting and then lastly we discussed YMCA clubs uh for the the spring classes were open for registration I think they might be closed by now um that was at the time of our meeting uh most of the classes are at capacity there is one writing class at Holland BR school that may not have had enough participants to run um but they are very popular with parents uh and then the agenda items fundraisers curricular writing for summer enrichment in service uh day for um staff members and we scheduled our next meeting for February 29th 8:30 thank you any questions just quick question on the fundraisers spring test and phonathon is that a during school hours event or after school hours I don't have the answer for that I have the paperwork in my office somewhere um I'm going to look to Dr Moss who I'm sure that's the answer oh thank you any other questions can we get a roll call please M dto yes M furri yes M Menor yes Mr Peach yes M bori yes Ryan Yes M yes Dr yes moving on to personnel and we get a motion to adopt 5.01 to 5.17 so move Jennifer second car we have a Comm yes uh the committee met on February 9th at 8:45 a.m. reviewed Focus goal number one settle an agreement with the rtaa before the end of the school year and reviewed continued goal number six to set budget parameters that effectively plan for enrollment growth maintain the depth breath and quality of the educational and co-curricular program that are both sustainable and fiscally accountable to the community evaluating and assessing a redistricting plan to accommodate shifts in student population reviewed Staffing update the HBS principal search is complete uh Staffing requests and projections for 2024 to 2025 bus driver recruitment plan Personnel matters and agenda items hires resignations principal appointment other leaves and sens and the next meeting will be held on March 6th at 8:45 a.m. thank you any questions this can we get a roll call please is the PTO yes M Fury yes M mener yes M Peach yes M borski yes M Ryan yes yes yes I'd like to take a moment to introduce Dr Jonathan Moss as the new principal of Hollenberg School to start July 1st 2024 Dr Ross comes to us as the current Readington middle school vice principal and former health and PE teacher as the board knows the principal search process involved a round of screening interviews followed by a more in-depth interview with an advisory committee made up of teachers administrators a board member and an HSA member after the advisory committee the process included a data presentation along with a few interview questions from the small administrative committee at that time each candidate also had a chance to meet with a group of Hollen Brook students throughout this exhaustive search John impressed us with his Clear Vision for how he would operated School building he focused on student well-being his knowledge of the Danielson teacher evaluation model and the role he took in creating a culture of inquiry at the middle school in addition to all of this Dr Moss has established himself as a consistent stable and strong leadership presence in the middle school for both staff and students Alik the teachers and staff state that he is thoughtful and reliable in everything he does in fact during his interview Dr Moss referenced the phrase quote structure influences Behavior this tells us about his leadership style that he will have strong structures to ensure that staff and students perform and Achieve at their highest level further during his interview Dr Moss noted that quote without trust the mission of the school or the district just can't happen he stated that his first few months as the principal will mean that he must communicate and build trust what's nice about hiring an internal candidate is that I was able to see John live this philosophy when he covered Hollen Brook School last month in Mr nigro's absence he sent the staff a newsletter at the end of the week summarizing and communicated his week's experiences with the staff during the interview process all candidates were asked to submit a writing sample Dr Moss's task had him imagine what that he was sitting in his retirement dinner 20 years from now and that the superintendent of school was giving Dr Moss's retirement speech reflecting on his accomplishments as the HBS principal what would the superintendent say about Dr Moss in 20 years here are some of the things Dr Moss thought the superintendent would note quote Dr Moss brought staff and student recognition programs that highlighted the positives of the school Community also with the help of Mr Charleston he brought a therapy dog program to support student well-being at h on the academic side inquiry lessons were embedded for all grade levels passion projects were enhanced with when the community became part of that Dr Moss will leave a lasting Legacy at Hollen Brook School that I had a chance to interview students and they said this about Dr Moss that he was my favorite principal that he helped me through some difficult times Dr Moss always knew how to make me feel safe I will always remember Dr Moss for being a guest teacher one day where he taught me a lesson on conflict resolution and I Ed those skills to help me with a friend the list of reasons for selecting Dr Moss as the next principal of HBS could go on and on we certainly look forward to him serving ready in his new capacity and tonight we welcome Dr Moss and his family as he is approved as the next col School principal Dr Moss congratul good evening members of the Board of Education Dr Hart Mr bone esteemed colleagues parents and community members I'm honored and humbled to have been selected to continue my service to the rington school district accept the position of principal at Hen book school thank you for entrusting me with this responsibility and I can assure you that I share in this school's communities commitment to care for your children every day while providing them a positive learning environment in which they can Shine by conversations with District staff and families over the last nine years have brought me privileged insights into the core beliefs and values that underly the Readington School District with my goal of continuing tradition of Excellence here at Holland Brook I am committed to always exploring new ways to meet the needs of all students I'll be meeting with parents students and staff throughout the next few months to help identify specific goals in areas of the student achievement School climate and parent communication I look forward to bringing my knowledge experience and background from rington middle school to HBS my vision for HPS is centered on Innovation and preparing students for the future during my tenure as principal my commitment will be to build us School community that Embraces the whole child with a focus on developing a culture of iny and a love of learning I will collaborate with our dedicated staff to implement modern teaching methodologies and integrate more technology that engages all children in instructional activities that Peak curiosity creativity and Hands-On Minds on learning at this time I would like to thank some important people in my life who have helped me achieve this accomplishment first of all I'd like to express my gratitude to Dr Hart Mr Charleston and Mrs Moffett for their invaluable guidance and mentorship that has equipped me with the necessary tools to succeed in the school district secondly I'd like to express thanks to my wife Simone and family your unconditional love and support continue to motivate me to be the best person School leader that I can be and lastly I want to thank Readington Community I've called you home for the past nine years and I hope to call you home for many years to come I'm excited about the journey ahead and confident that with your support we can Elevate hollbrook to a to new heights my only promise is that I will work hard every day and allow my actions to tell the story of who I am and of my commitment to the school and its students in closing please know that my door is always open to you I heartedly welcome with conversation and positive input throughout this next school year and I look forward to celebrating our Collective successes during the 24 25 school year thank you again congratulations Dr I'm moving on to communication um can we get a motion to adopt 6.01 to 6.02 move B Caroline we did not have a meeting therefore there was no committee report so is there any questions any questions I just have a quick question we add back in a day that's no day not yet I didn't see any not yet uh we have a policy Communications meeting uh tomorrow and we have um options to consider for the school cab we'll bring that to you at the next 14 U because it's also only February 20th say let's hope it's like 60 for the next three months any other question question can we get a roll call please is Depo yes M fi yes M mener yes Mr Peach yes M borski yes Mrs Ryan Yes M wolf yes Dr yes pass moving on to unfinished business um board self evaluation um at the last board meeting we had a brief discussion about not only the superintendent evaluation timeline but also the uh board self- evaluation last year we had an evaluation tool that was provided to us by Judy Wilson who then did our retreat in July I just want to let the board know I did reach out to her she's willing to come back if we want to do that again uh other options include using the school boards tool which I think last year when we discussed this was a very long self-evaluation tool so I think we like the Streamline version that um Judy Wilson had uh so if you'd like me to I can continue to engage with her and talk to her about timeline for the self- evaluation and uh uh a board retreat potentially in July uh or I can investigate with the school board's Association I don't know if anybody has a preference but we can just let me know and we can move forward does anyone have a prer I do I would say I have a preference for the school board self- evaluation just because I really like the level of detail where they um you're assessing all different areas of the school board responsibilities I don't know how I I don't remember I feel like Jud Jude Wilson's was a few questions and that one I know it's very comprehensive but I felt as a new board member it gave me an idea of what to be looking for as the year went on so I like that model okay for something to try does anyone have any other thoughts about that you okay doing that I'm okay doing that well yeah I'm supportive of that I think what was helpful in the past there was like we got aggregate data so we saw the full results I just want to be sure that we can get that from that tool as well or if there's just a different we don't so that we I don't remember I feel like it was maybe just your personal data did we get accurate because few years last year we got aggregated using the other one which I thought was a benefit so I was wondering if we use theba tool if there's a way to still get to the same result with the more detail I can ask I'll look into it you look into it I'll talk to our uh school board's rep um so preference for the school board's Tool uh do we want to plan a retreat for July do we want to do we think that we might want to have someone either School boards or Judith Wilson come and do uh a retreat with us or review the results with us to set goals for the following School year and if so is there a preference on who I thought I think that's helpful you know just not only do it but then we can talk about it so I I would say yes to the retreat first of all are we okay with doing that with that suggested okay yes right I think it's good to actually try something a little different that's I think it's a good idea thank you and I do think we should um invite what's her name School boards or Judith yeah Judith right to kind of bring this information together after Retreat if everyone's okay with that yes all right we can talk about it thank you anything else all right um moving on to new business from the board the first is scheduling board tours yes uh so around this time every year uh now that the new board is seated um unless we want to wait until after we identify a candidate what we ordinarily do the first week of March is to board tours around the district um we usually do two days we pick an earlier building like Readington middle school and then we would tour for about an hour with Mr Charleston and move on example would be White House school and then tour the building with Dr D roza um and then we pick another day we would start at holl Brook and then go to Three Bridges um do we want to look at scheduling that now um for sometime in March usually we pick early March uh in the past we've done it around the read Across America week I think at White House School everybody got a book to read to a class which was kind of nice um if so the principales are aware that we would be talking about this tonight um I also think at the Middle School Mr Charleston and Mrs goodfella would love to maybe have you visit on a Thursday when the therapy dog is there because we've talked a lot about that um I know there are passion projects that are happening in fifth grade um here col Brook School so does anybody have preference of dates or do you want to give me some dates or weeks to look at so I can coordinate with the principles could you possibly send some options to us because I would know right now honestly does unless anyone has any dates that would not work want just get some dates you say and any blackout dates like dates that you're besides um I I would avoid the early dismissal days on March so I'll avoid those days and we can look I can email some sample dates hand yeah yeah great thank you thank you is that okay yes all right uh any questions about that moving on to uh the green committee we do have minutes there was a there was a green committee meeting and can we hear those minutes best thank you yeah absolutely um the green committee which is just me currently recruiting anyone would like to join Jo me um we met on February 7th um the way we structure our green committee minutes um it's based on the three pillars for green ribbon school so pillar one is reduce environmental impacting costs uh we talked about the solar array expansion update um Jason B gave an update on the district solar array Expansion Project attorney and board are finalizing proposal specifications uh town planning board um we're seeking town planning board approval public solicitation will begin on February 9th my do I feel like I'm February 7th is that right or was it March 9th I write that down incorrectly is that right solation February 9th yeah okay sorry I'm thinking I had my months wrong because everything has been rescheduled um so public solicitation was on February 9th uh review of proposals will happen in late March uh interviews will happen late March and early April those will be done in committee the full board will vote on the winning vendor on April 16th CSG law is our attorney they specialize in solar projects such as these um we also talked about the electrics for West grants Mr bone gave an update on the federal electric West Grant Senator Booker wrote a recommendation letter to help our chances in receiving federal funds state of New Jersey is also rolling out grants for electric School Bus the state Awards will be announced in June uh the committee discussed air quality in relation to Electric bus grants Miss Freeman and students are researching the air quality in Readington and offered to provide that data to Mr bone for grant writing services uh next we talked about RMS LED lighting and the main office Renovations with the hbac uh Mr bone gave an update on green capital projects that uh were being discussed in finance the district will fund LED lighting in classrooms at RMS this is in response to recommendations that came out of the most recent qac site visit uh TVs and White House School are fully LED throughout their buildings part of Holland Brook School and Readington Middle School have LED lights the ultimate goal is 100% LED lights in the near future the committee discussed the appropriate level of lighting necessary for educational spaces Miss Freeman offered to share the lighting assessment that RMS Eco ambassadors recently did did which were based on Empower schools guidelines U Mrs betterman mentioned that District policy 7460 energy conservation has guidelines for appropriate light levels uh for the RMS main office area which includes the wellness and counselers area uh it's being renovated to remove asbest and reconfigure the space sunlet areas will be created in the renovated areas and in addition roof mounted hbac systems above these spaces will be updated so they can tie into the existing systems with other buildings um pillar two which of course is cut off I think that is improve the health and wellness of schools uh students and staff um we wow that is really cut off I'm GNA try to do my best here oh this was that I don't have the policy number in front of me but the um 855 8505 thank you um it's a policy um for meals and other Foods I have I have up here to read the first coup sure you mind no it says wellness policy and Tool Mr B introduc policy Wellness nutrient standards for meals and other foods which was the last edited in 2017 okay I have it from there um he asked for committee members to review the policy and give suggestions on Wellness initiatives related to sustainability in the past this committee has suggested ideas such as utilizing Readington open space for field trips daily outdoor recess classroom activities School Gardens and outdoor classrooms and locally Source ingredients for school lunches also reducing food waste these ideas could potentially be included in that new wellness policy um food hubs and farm to school Mr Foster introduced an article entitled expanding local food access and building resilient food system he talked about Farm to school providers like those who attended the Earth Day celebration ation last year Mr bone mentioned that masio has been taking advantage of local suppliers such as Zone 7 uh that was requested by our district pillar three is provide Environmental Education uh the Water Watch committee and fourth grade field trip uh Miss pouch and Mrs orandi spoke of a partnership between Readington schools and Readington Township Water Watch committee Miss pouch and Mrs adari are working with Mrs orandi and Mrs husel Bush to design a new field trip for fourth grade students um it will coordinate with the fourth grade life science standards the idea is to visit a stream in Readington Township with water watch volunteers the Township's new environmental inventory will be used when designing this trip uh next we talk about the White House schoolyard habitat certification award um Mr bone congratulated White House school for their recent designation as a school life habitat from National Wildlife Federation this project was led by Dr doosa and Mrs Reen with the help of the HSA um we talked about the Strategic Focus action plan tracking document Mr B invited green committee members to review this document and be prepared for the May meeting with ideas for initiatives to tackle next year unfinished business Dr Hart mentioned uh that a press release for the Taiwan delegation visit is going out to local papers um new business was uh board vacancy that time period obviously is closed to um for interested applicants and then next Green committee is scheduled for Thursday May 9th thank you thanks question the LED lighting um do those have like dimmer switches yeah um do you know if they do for like students with sensory issues for the LED lights to be lowered if needed or is it just um so the LED lightings it depends on the type of um um project we do so in certain buildings we've done a retrofit which um has a different aspect than replacing an entire fixture panel um so and also the brightness and color can be determined based on the nature of the room setting so we look at different types of fixtures for the gym versus different classrooms um so we can certainly take that into account and we can also adjust it after the fact so um if something's too bright we can go back and have it redone again um usually it takes about a few weeks um for the lighting levels to settle so like when we first get put in it's like the sun um and there's a lot of like wow that's really bright um but then after a few weeks it sets into its permanent um brightness level and people become accustomed to it but if it's still too bright we can adjust it but there is no dimmer no okay any other questions at all thank you all right um moving on now we are open to the public for anything on or off the agenda good evening uh my name is Paul ner I'm the co-principal of the H Brook School I just wanted to thank you guys for approving a fantastic human being employ working with John Moss for many years now um I can now retire I was considering maturing it but I guess I my school's in great hands John I want you to notice all the H people behind you I counted there 17 of us here for you tonight this is a great school because of these people please always remember that Tom Curtis from White House station and I'm I'm shocked with the size of the audience I come to every board just about and usually there's three or four people there anamation so I've never understood that because you fig as a taxpayer you would want to know where your significant investment is going and people just don't show up who amazed anyhow my extra question has to do with Christina Napp so he indicated that people get I guess a document from the board attorney that I guess provides guidance where there could be conflicts of interest in activities that they may engage in so I guess my question would be um who is it this is guidance right from the attorney it's her opinion so who ultimately determines whether there has been a conflict with interest in an activity that a board member engaged in and uh who ultimately decides whether that actually happened or not and then lastly do the bylaws describe this process where is the process described what you know what happens how the process uh basically happens and what the ultimate R is that's my question thank you yeah thank you Mr Curtis and you're right you do come to every board meeting we do appreciate that honestly does anyone else have any any other comments or questions we answer that question anyone else okay so ultimately Mr Curtis the decision lies with the school ethics commission so the only way a conflict potentially exists is if a member of the public a member of the board someone files a complaint to the school ethics commission saying we believe that a conflict of interest occurred in this instance the school ethics commission would then in investigate that potential uh conflict so like we mentioned before there was nothing in any letter that went to any board member here or even Mrs nap that said there is a conflict there is a complaint nothing like that it was how to avoid the appearance of impropriety how to avoid the someone filing a complaint in some way shape or form so ultimately it lies with the school ethics commission and they're the ones who render a final decision and impose whatever intention s that's a state agency it is that's correct yeah and and I'll just say we have part two to your question um that we are bylaws and policies and regulations for the most part mirror state law and state statute so most of the um um conflict statutes are State driven and our policy yes and basically what we end up doing is uh Strauss Esme who is our consultant um reviews State Law changes and then um sends those uh changes of state law to the policy committee who reviews them and will um take action on areas of discretion that they can amend uh to the board's satisfaction before they adopt them um so even when something is mandated uh they review the language to see if there's um areas that they want to um modify that don't violate state law and uh so that way the protocols are adhere to based on the board's discretion um and that happens in the policy committee but there the specific uh bylaw and policy that relates to board ethics is 0142 uh it's right next to 0143 which is the appointment of a board member uh vacancy so it's right before the one that we're adhering to tonight um but most of it state law driven and the SEC which Dr Hart talked about as a commission um that's State nothing would happen unless um so that is correct so the that's I think Dr Hart mentioned that earlier that no complaint has been filed with the state um but any person at any time can file a complaint against um any board member or uh administrator for violating ethics and we all have to file disclosure statements um annually with the state that's publicly posted on our potential conflicts that people can uh publicly view thank you okay no other questions motion to um we're now going to move to Executive session and a motion to adopt the following resolution which is to adjourn to Executive session in accordance with the Sunshine Law uh to discuss two hi matters of personnel budget rtaa negotiations and to conduct board vacancies interviews uh board vacancy interviews for approximately 90 minutes at which time the board expects to return to public session where action will not be taken the matters discussed will be made public if and and when the circumstances requiring confidentiality no longer exist however it is not presently known when such circumstances will exist so move Beth can we get a call please MTO yes M fur yes M yes Beach yes borski yes Ryan Yes wolf yes yes thanks everybody