good evening uh notice is hereby given that in accordance with the open public meetings act chapter 23 231 the laws of 1975 notice of this meeting has been sent out to all School offices officially designated newspapers filed with the Township Clerk and posted in the Board of Education Office 4 hours in advance of this meeting roll call please certain Mr here Mrs here Mrs Austin here Mrs burkowitz here Mrs Pinelli here flag salute please as you can see Mr osini is not here tonight so um I will be giving a brief president's report um tonight we welcome Steven Fogerty our board attorney he's here to give a presentation on school governance and the role of a board member so we welcome him tonight um Mrs sori will discuss this a little further in her superintendent report um and also misso will present the 2024 2025 tenative or technical budget for approval tonight um and that's it for my report uh committee reports uh buildings and grounds Mrs burwitz I have nothing for tonight but our next meeting is June 11th uh Communications and policy Mr White uh there's a number of uh policies that are on the agenda for the first reading this evening okay anything for curriculum and Technology uh nothing for tonight thanks okay um Finance um since we're having a uh a presentation on the technical budget um I will uh pass that off until later um negotiations anything on negotiations no okay Personnel Miss Austin nothing to report okay thank you um we have the committing schedule me uh meeting schedule below our next meeting is April 9th uh 6 o' that will be curriculum and Technology um the River Edge Board of Education is committed to encouraging the citizens of river and the employees of the Rivervale School District to speak directly to board trustees in order to facilitate this communication residents and employees are requested to one sign in before speaking two to maintain an appropriate sense of decorum and three to limit their remarks to no more than 5 minutes the board will also take under advisement the written comments and opinions of non-residents that are submitted to the board secretary being mindful of its responsibility to maintain the orderly cont conduct of meetings the board retains the right to rule on such matters as the speaker's right to address the board as well as the appropriateness of the subject being presented the board's decision in such matters is final the board also recommends all members of the public that while it subscribes without reservation to the principle of keeping the community informed by policy and law it cannot allow public discussion of personnel matters nor can trustees comment on any current or pending litigation if a matter concerning an employee of the Rivervale Public Schools is of Interest or concern to a resident the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal or the superintendent of schools by telephone letter or email I I will open the meeting to public comments at 7:07 anyone wishing to make a public comment seeing none I will um close to public comments at 7:08 okay um superintendence report great thank you uh good evening everyone as our president or um what we call you tonight um we have Mr Fogerty here today to give a presentation on school ethics board governance and the role of a board member uh Mr Fogerty does uh various presentations on different topics he does presentations for New Jersey school boards New Jersey Association of school administrators New Jersey association association of school business officials and many others so uh please welcome step Fogerty and I'm going to pass it over to you if uh you were ready thank you you're [Music] welcome got it thank you uh good evening everybody um so yes I am here tonight to talk to you about school ethics and board governance and the role of a board member and I would like to tell you that this is the most exciting presentation that I give but uh I would be disingenuous in making that representation although I will try to make this as uh as interesting and as uh provocative as I can within reason um so um when we talk about school ethics um really what we're talking about is the role of a board member and the role of administration and how we interact with the public and essentially when you look at all of this what it really deals with are the guard rails that we are expected to remain within in terms of how we function as board members and when I get finish with these presentations I often will hear from board members that it appears that once you get elected to public office office that your rights are significantly restrained that really uh it was uh uh it was far different and uh probably uh uh probably you had much uh greater flexibility in terms of your free speech rights your ability to express your opinion as the people in the audience now have uh they have the ability uh to come up and uh to sit and to speak with you and talk to you and express their opinions they even have the right to express their opinions about Personnel they have the right to express their opinions about our curriculum they have the right to express opinions about their supervisors and administrators and yet we as board members once we are elected we no longer have those same rights our ability to do all those things is significantly restrained and it's restrained by the code of ethics for Schoolboard members so what I'm going to talk to you about is your role the code of ethics free speech talk to you about recusal which is a concept that uh is uh has always existed but is getting a lot more attention now with New Jersey school boards and so I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the difference between a recusal and an exstension um with regard to um what when board members are voting on issues over which they may be conflicted so let's start first with um what is our Authority so once we're elected to the board our Authority is div is derived by Statute uh the legislature has said that there are certain things that we can do and certain things that we cannot do and what they've said we can do is that which they have given us express authority to do you have the ability to uh make policy uh to um uh to establish uh uh the governance for your school district the management of your schools uh your employees uh to determine uh uh to determine uh for example um uh how your school districts will operate uh What uh what the FI how the finance of the school district will be determined so all of those things are within your Authority because the legislature has given you that Authority by Statute and conversely you don't have any implied Authority and so you don't have the ability to decide that you're going to run a business in the school district you don't have the ability to establish a franchise of McDonald's or Chick-fil-A you couldn't do that even though it would be a terrific Revenue source for the school district you don't have the ability to do that because the legislature hasn't given you you the authority to do that uh so as long as it's consistent with title 18a you have the ability to do it but suffice it to say that what you're talking about is the proper conduct of your employees your Administration uh the equipment that's necessary and the maintenance that's necessary for your schools um and uh your Authority is then limited uh by those statutes so you also do things like approved curriculum uh pursuant to the New Jersey student learning standards you adopt a budget you've got your tentative budget tonight uh you're going to adopt that budget and that budget is intended to allow you to essentially keep the wheels on the bus uh to provide for a third and efficient education hire the necessary certified Personnel uh with a recommendation of the superintendent you develop policies for the management of your school district um none of these things uh are are done in isolation all of those things require the recommendation of the superintendent of schools there's only one exception with regard to Personnel that doesn't require the recommendation of the superintendent and that is where uh the superintendent has made a decision to non-renew an employee that happens every may5th superintendent decides which non-tenure teachers will get contracts uh for the following school year and for those employees who are not tenure eligible who have annual employment contracts superintendent also decides on May 15th whether they will be reemployed for the following school year now if that employee comes before the board and says I think that this decision is incorrect um I'm entitled to an informal appearance before the board and I try to convince you uh that the superintendent has made a mistake that you should offer me a contract for the following school year that is the one and only time that the board can make a Personnel decision without the recommendation of the superintendent the idea behind that is there was a time when the superintendent did recommend me for employment so that recommendation was the initial recommendation now the board has the ability to uh to essentially Trump the superintendent's decision if they decide based on that informal appearance uh that I that uh that you've been convinced that I should be offered a contract um so when do we act we act at board meetings um we know that seems simple straightforward we're here you have an agenda you're going to be acting on certain things uh uh at at a board meeting and so you wonder you know why is this significant it's significant because we need to be mindful that we cannot act outside of a board meeting and so we are governed by something called the open public meetings act opma uh which says that we have to conduct our business in in the public we have to be transparent there are only certain things that we are allowed to go into executive session uh to discuss but more importantly what we need to be concerned about is that we are not conducting official business outside of a quorum uh in violation of the open public meetings act so when with that happen for example let's say that there is a there there is an item on the agenda we get that we get that agenda in advance of a public meeting and now there's chatter among board members board members begin to email one another text one another and you're talking about hiring a principal perhaps and so you're trying to take the temperature of other board members in terms of the candidate that's being recommended maybe you've even had the ability to see that candidate's resumee and you've formed an opinion about whether or not you're going to vote in favor of the superintendent's recommendation because keep in mind that the superintendent you need the superintendent's recommendation doesn't mean that you have to accept it it simply means it simply means that that recommendation must come to you before you make a decision so in any event assume for purposes of of of my example that board members are beginning to email one another and say what do you think about the candidate have you reviewed the resume once that conversation takes place in real time and we are soliciting responses from one another we have violated the open public meetings act and that violation of the open public meetings act has to be taken seriously because it's not within the jurisdiction of the commissioner of Education it's not an issue that's going to be addressed by an administrative law judge violations of the open public meetings act or within the jurisdiction of the Burton County prosecutor's office so it actually becomes a prosecution if there's a violation of the open public meetings act so we need to be careful with that you also want to keep in mind that with regard to those those Communications that we might be having with each other they may those Communications may very well be subject to access under the open public records act so we also have this this this law that says that every document that is transmitted Among Us is a government record there are no exceptions so whenever we are communicating with one another whether it's by email or text message or it is in some other written form that document is a government record whether or not somebody has access to that record depends upon the content of the record so there are many exceptions but I want you to keep in mind that what you put in writing may very well be subject to access under the uh under the open public records act so we only function when we when when there is a quorum of the board and in terms of the Administration keep in mind that um uh our responsibility we hear this often is to make policy develop plans evaluate the outcomes more importantly what we hear all the time what you're going to hear from me what you're going to hear in terms of in terms of uh uh your your own um the requirement that that you participate whether you've done that online or in terms of your training as board members what you will hear often is that we should not be administering the schools that is the responsibility of the superintendent and is also the responsibility of those to whom the superintendent delegates those responsibilities too um no board member H can exercise administrative responsibility with respect to the schools or as an or issue an individual command for the services of a School employee so it would not be appropriate ever for a board member to call up one of our principles and ask for information it wouldn't be appropriate for a single board member to direct the superintendent to undertake some responsibility that would require that she dedicate time and resources or the business administrator that can only happen if the board itself decides that they want that particular thing to be accomplished and that we as a board will benefit from whatever uh uh from from whatever that request uh may be so what it also means is that and it's a trap for the uny it also means that you know we can't even do something that you know would otherwise seem to be auditory which seemed to be you know maybe serve a legitimate purpose you go into one of the schools and you're walking down the corridor and you see that there's debris there or you go into a restroom and you think and you see that the restroom is that the restroom is not clean um you wouldn't have the ability even assuming that there was a custodian or a maintenance employee standing right outside that door you wouldn't have the ability as a board member to say go in and clean that bathroom clean that hallway you wouldn't have the ability to direct the principal to do something you do not have the ability to direct or or to command any employee to do anything what do you do in that situation you refer it to the superintendent you refer it to the superintendent or the business administrator they then would follow through on whatever that request is um also with regard to access you know in terms of our access to school our access to the schools as board members we have no greater access than any other member of the public so even though you're elected officials you're board members you walk into a school everybody knows you're a board member uh usually the question is why are you there it always raises concern and suspicion just keep in mind that you're often there as a parent you're often walk going into the school but you're always a board member the point of this is and your board policy says that board members have to conduct themselves the same as any other visitor to the school we sign in we identify ourselves we give our identification we get our uh we we get our badges so that we can move throughout the school no different from any other visitor to our to to our schools and of course you as a board you delegate responsibilities to your administrative officials superintendent essentially um is responsible for all operational recommendations in the school district and of course your business administrator has the keys to the kingdom your business administrator is responsible for making sure that we have the finances to do all of the things that you have uh that you have identified by way of policy plan and the day-to-day operations of our schools so it's often said that our relationship with the administration uh should be cooperative and not adversarial what does that mean very simply that if we have questions if there's something on the agenda that we have questions about uh we should really get that information in advance of the meetings uh that does two things one it makes sure that you can make an informed decision as board members that you get the information that you need in order to make a decision it also means that our administrators are are are not are not are not caught off guard and don't have the ability to provide you with the information that you may need to make the decision it simply works better if in fact you get the agenda you have questions legitimately you need to resolve those questions you ask for that information from the superintendent or the business administrator and if they don't have it readily available they certainly can obtain it or they can CCT it or uh they can provide you with whatever you need um complaints so you have a uh you have a board policy but it's also part of the code of ethics and you see throughout these uh throughout these slides that not only am I identifying the code of ethics I'm identifying your board policies so kind of a belt and suspenders but yes your policies mirror the code of ethics and in some respects before I leave you tonight you'll see that you've gone even beyond what the code of ethics requires with regard to your conduct as board members uh but keep in mind that complaints we don't have the ability as individual board members to resolve a complaint and you get them all the time it doesn't matter where you are uh you may be at a supermarket you may be on the soccer field you may be in the parking lot you may be in one of the schools and you and and somebody's got a complaint or let's say they're here tonight and you've got a large audience and they're ready to storm the best deal and they want a remedy we as a board can't grant that remedy until the superintendent has an opportunity to investigate it resolve it and only if the superintendent is not able to resolve that issue can we as a board take it up and provide a uh uh and provide a board remedy to that situation so code of ethics also specifically requires that we support our District staff including our Administration quote unquote I will support and protect School personnel the proper performance of their duties and so what that means very simply is that we would violate that code of ethics if there was evidence that a board member took deliberate action which resulted in undermining opposing compromising or harming School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties essentially um if we have a discussion here we can have a robust discussion uh with regard to uh uh any issue coming before us in terms of a p a Personnel recommendation um or any issue actually with regard to uh our Administration but once the board makes the decision we should not as board members be going out to the public and uh saying anything that would be considered NE uh negative or derogatory uh about our teachers about our administrators about our educational support Personnel we should not be doing that if we have an issue with someone then that issue is brought to the attention of the superintendent they are given a r notice R notice means very simply that we have the ability to talk about that employee in executive session that is not something that should take place uh in the public discourse um also doesn't mean that you can't disagree with your superintendent there may be times hardly ever I'm sure but where there may be disagreement and if there's disagreement you have a robust discussion here and what I want you to keep in mind is whether we're talking about that or we're talking about posting on social media or we're talking about any kind of written communication you know when it happens outside of a board meeting that's when there is the potential for us to get into difficulty and so if it happens here generally speaking you've got qualified immunity you have a discussion here you're protected you're protected by the fact that you're elected officials you're allowed to have an open and free discourse it can be robust and and and all of that you do essentially with impunity it's once you do that outside of a board meeting that you run the risk not only of of a ethics complaint but you also run the risk that potentially worse than that a lawsuit in which it's been alleged that you have invade that that you have invaded somebody's privacy or you've disclosed something of a confidential nature um so we're a unit not a collection of individuals members are expected to share opinions but the board elects a single course of action by a majority vote and once we elect a single course of action by a majority vote even assuming that we do it holding our nose or we're disgruntled about it um uh uh once the board makes a decision uh we need to respect that decision also keep in mind that the president alone speaks on behalf of the board uh uh president can ask for other board members input members of the public speak to the president they speak to the board they don't speak to the audience uh our board policy says that no board member by virtue of their office shall exercise any administ administrative responsibility with respect to the operation of the school and of course as I've already said to you we as a as members of the board have no supervisory Authority oops okay confidentiality big issue um there are many things that we discuss in executive session we discuss school security we dis we discuss the students that are enrolled in the school district we discuss harassment intimidation and bullying matters we discuss Personnel matters we sometimes discuss Personnel matters which are uh uh uh which which are often uh um um the most personal things that individuals experience it maybe sickness it may be uh it it it may be um uh the illness of a family member it may be bement it may be an uh it may be an employee that has a mental health issue uh or a substance abuse issue so we often discuss things that are highly sensitive in executive session and those uh uh the Privacy rights held by those individuals whether they're students or staff members they are considered sacrosanct and so we can't discuss that outside of an executive session with anybody and even an inadvertent disclosure of something involving a student or something involving one of our employees that is that is sensitive and highly confidential uh potentially has the consequence of of a lawsuit uh if we disclose something about a student you know we violate potentially federal and state law family education rights Privacy Act furpa uh protects the privacy of students and of course all of our employees uh have are entitled to the protection uh of uh of the common law right of privacy and uh disclosing it would be an invasion of privacy the other reason that that is important is not only in terms of the school ethics act but it also has the possibility to compromise the board and to Prejudice the board because if there is a lawsuit in which a student's family has alleged that we have violated their privacy rights or an employee has alleged that we have VI that we have violated their privacy rights you know then there are issues with regard to whether your conduct is indemnified or not as a board member keep in mind that as elected officials you're indemnified and held harmless for anything that you do in the course and scope of your elected duties if you do something outside the course and scope of your elected duties then arguably there may not be insurance cover insurance coverage for that and you may not be indemnified and held harmless you never want to put yourself in that position and I never want you to be in that position which is why this issue of confidentiality is really so important um so Personnel matters I've talked about that student matter matters and of course negotiations uh are also confidential and only a proper subject for executive session so code of ethics um code of e ethics has two components uh code of ethics is actually within the jurisdiction of the school ethics commission the school ethics commission is appointed by the governor and the code of ethics has one component which is called prohib hited acts and the other uh which is called the code of ethics for school board members so what are what is the difference so prohibited acts would be if you used your position to gain some personal Advantage generally financial and the allegation is that it has the appearance that the public trust has been violated so if you were to use your position to gain a privilege for yourself or a family member or a friend to get somebody a job to get them a contract in the school schol District that kind of of an allegation that would be a prohibited Act and the other the uh the second part of the school ethics Act deals with the code of ethics for school board members which essentially sets forth the requirements that I've been talking about in terms of how we conduct ourselves as board members now the other distinction with regard to the two that is important is how these cases are handled so if you are alleged to have committed a violation that is a prohibited act used your position to gain an unwarranted Advantage um those cases are prosecuted by the Attorney General so if that complaint is filed against you then the Attorney General prosecutes you at uh uh with regard to the alleged violation that is a prohibited act if it is a Code of Ethics VI if it if it is a a code of ethics violation that is prosecuted by the person who files the complaint so who can file a complaint anybody could file a complaint against us so um it could be a member of this community a member outside it could be someone outside of this community it could be one of our employees suffice it to say that the only entity that cannot file a complaint under the school ethics Act is the board of education so we cannot file as a board a complaint against one of our members if we felt that one of our members had had committed um had done something that was in violation of the school ethics act then we would have to step back as a board member and file that complaint as an individual taxpayer um but again the distinction between the two is that if it is you're alleged to have a to have committed a prohibited act that is prosecuted by the attorney general and if it is a Code of Ethics violation it is prosecuted by the individual who files the complaint so I've told you that you're indemnified and held harmless for anything that you do in the course and scope of your elected office if you are alleged to have taken private action that is in conflict with the Board of Education you may not be entitled to that indemnification now we carry insurance and we carry insurance that protects all of you it protects all of our employees and that insurance in seeps if in fact uh you have uh if in fact you have Alle if in fact you are alleged to have done something wrong but you have it's it's alleged that you have done something wrong in your official capacity as a board member if on the other hand it is alleged as you can see in this Norwood Board of Education case if it is alleged that you have done something wrong that has Prejudice the board but you have done it in a private capacity then as you can see you may not be entitled to indemnification that is also a place you never want to find yourself in because what that means is that you're retaining your own attorney you're defending yourself you don't have any recourse to our insurance and you don't have any recourse to me or to any other attorney and in this case the uh the uh the uh allegation was that this board member was involved in an ad in an organization that advocated for children with special needs and that she was actually advocating uh and that she was actually actually advocating and soliciting uh from uh parents in her own community so that was a private action had the potential to Prejudice the board obviously because it would have been an adversarial relationship between that board member and the board so it was determined that she was not entitled to indemnification of her legal fees so these are all of the uh provisions of the code of ethics itself I'm not going to go through all of these because I've highlighted them for you um in terms of the ones that are the most important but I've put I've obviously laid this out for you so that you can see what each of these provisions of the code of ethics actually are and I want to talk about where you see the limitations of the code of ethics so the most obvious place that you see the limitations and the restrictions that are placed upon you as board members is with regard to Personnel decisions so the code of ethics says that you are required that that that you're expected to appoint the best qualified Personnel after consideration of the recommendation of the superintendent and as I said if the superintendent makes a recommendation and you don't agree with it you can vote no superintendent has to go back to the well bring you back another candidate what that means very simply is that you cannot Leap Frog over her and bring forward your own candidate you can say we don't agree with your recommendation please go back and bring somebody else to us uh for consideration you also cannot withhold approval for hiring of a candidate uh for arbitrary or capricious reasons hasn't really been litigated very much not really tested in terms of what that means uh but what what what I suspect that that actually does mean is let's say for example that the superintendent was recommending somebody for a contract and that contract would give that employee tenure and you as a board you as a board member are philosophically opposed to tenure you don't believe that tenur should exist for employees that their that the their uh renewal of their contract should be based solely on marit you couldn't withhold your uh uh your approval of that recommendation for that reason because one it would be arbitrary and capricious and two it would also violate state law because the legislature has said that you know after that magical period employees get tenure so you've got to respect that um and the the other the other issue that comes up is what involvement of any should you have in the hiring process so I want to start by saying that there is no uh there is actually no legal prohibition against board members being involved in the hiring process but the restrictions that are placed on you are so significant that most board members do not involve themselves in the hiring process but for the superintendent and the school business administrator and when I say that the restrictions that are placed on you are so significant what I mean is this first the superintendent has to agree that you'll be involved in the hiring process secondly it's not interactive so if you're involved in that process it means that you sit in on the interview process you cannot engage you cannot make recommendations you really have no involvement in the process and so you know essentially you're a potted plant in in in in terms of that entire process it doesn't seem to really have much utility so the better view I think is the one that the school ethics takes uh School ethics commission takes which is you know what let's the superintendent bring you those recommendations you have the opportunity to review resumés uh to look at background material in order to make a decision and if you're not happy with that decision then you can ask the superintendent to bring back another candidate so examples of violations of the code of ethics uh directing School Personnel uh or becoming directly involved uh in the day-to-day operations or the administration of the school taking deliberate action which undermines uh our school Personnel in the performance of their duties or attempting to resolve a complaint or conducting an in an investigation or an inquiry into that complaint uh before referring it to the superintendent those would all be examples of violations and I will tell you that when you look at the school ethics decisions if you go on their website those are all the areas where complaints have been filed against board members and there has been a finding based on the facts in in those cases that they have violated the code of ethics it is because they investigate complaints on their own they attempt to resolve the complaint on their own uh or because they've become directly in uh uh directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the school district basically where they've overstepped so in addition to uh adjudicating complaints if a complaint is filed with the school ethics commission uh they determine whether there's probable cause for the complaint if there is they send it to an administr ministrative law judge uh there is a hearing before an administrative law judge the administrative law judge makes a recommended decision goes back to the school ethics commission they decide whether they uh they want to affirm it or modify it or reverse it they make a decision and then it goes to the commissioner of Education only as to the Penalty and the penalty can be a private reprimand or a public reprimand or a censure or in the worst case it could be a suspension or a removal but the only issue that the commissioner decides is the penalty they also do something called they also issue something called advisory opinions so if there's something that you want to be involved in and you're not sure whether or not you can do it you'll see an advisory opinion here in just a few minutes where board members were concerned about the morale in the district they were concerned about the turnover they were wondering what was causing it they were talking to the superintendent they weren't satisfied with the superintendent's responses and they said you know what we we think that a couple of us would like to sit on uh sit in on exit interviews and have the opportunity to actually speak to our personnel and find out why are they leaving River Veil to go to another school district they didn't know whether they could do that what they were concerned about was would that be essentially getting involved in the day-to-day operation of the school district so they asked for an advisory opinion from the school ethics commission you get that you get that request in by the 10th of the month you usually will get it and you will usually get an advisory opinion by the following month they're actually pretty good about reviewing these and getting you that advice it's essentially the purpose is to kind of give you advice to guide you before you misstep and find yourself on the other end of an Ethics complaint so there it is advisory opinion board members wanted to be involved in the inter in the interview and interviewing Personnel they wanted to know if they could be on this uh uh interview committee established by the superintendent and again uh uh uh the the answer is uh that uh uh board members can't conduct the interviews they can only offer observations and assessments uh so these were board members that wanted to know what are the limits uh what are the restrictions placed on us if we do want to be involved in the interview process they they requested an advisory opinion and that's the opinion that was given by the school ethics commission now keep in mind it's an advisory opinion um it's uh and it is it means it's just that it's not an adjudication of a complaint but it's really intend to give you advice uh so that you don't uh run the risk of having an Ethics complaint filed against you so advisory opinion board member wanted to know whether uh uh she could volunteer for school theatrical volunteer for school theatrical Productions by assisting with casting rehearsals and lighting and she wanted to know whether or not if she did that it would violate uh the code of ethics uh the school ethics commission gave her an advisory opinion and they said that that role that role that she was cont contemplating would require the board member to give direct orders to school personnel and students and to engage in responsibilities that were ex within the exclusive domain of school Personnel so the answer was on advice of the school ethics commission you cannot do that next advisor your opinion can a volunteer uh uh can someone volunteer to be the leader of a school club that meets on school grounds being in a position of oversight and authority over students is beyond the scope of policymaking planning and appraisal so again thumbs down that was that that that level of involvement was uh was too significant it's got to be passive it can't be direct so can a volunteer construct sets for the School Musical plays that was fine because there was no direct supervision of students or staff also fine assisting the marching band by building props repairing equipment and loading and unloading equipment um all of that was permitted they went on to there there was an advisory opin requested as to whether or not you can serve on a local Educational Foundation and the school ethics commission has said that with regard to your involvement with organizations outside of the board and that would be the Ed Foundation the PTO or the PTA home and School Association booster clubs you can do all of that you could be an officer or a trustee with those associations as long as anything coming before the river Veil board from those associations you abstain or recuse yourself from that discussion and from voting on that so if one of those organizations wanted to use our facilities they wanted to do they wanted to have a Tricky Tray you know they wanted to have a raffle in one of our schools that comes before the board you're a trustee or you're involved in that organization you would have to refrain and abstain from voting on uh on on those requests um can you work the chains as a volunteer in a high school football game thumbs up you're not super supervising anybody other than the chains so uh no uh no no possibility of a violation of the school ethics act so have this case in Anglewood Cliffs that was uh just recently decided you know here we had a board member uh and the board member was in executive session on four different occasions uh this was uh harassment intimidation and bullying case involving her child uh she mistakenly believed that she could be an executive session uh to hear the cases to hear the appeals to hear the superintendent's recommendation as long as she didn't vote on it so she mistakenly believed that she could abstain from voting on the recommendation of the superintendent when it came to the board publicly but that she was permitted to be in the executive session to hear the confidential discussion uh that involved her daughter and she got that all wrong obviously so if you have a conflict and it involves your children or you have a conflict uh because uh you have a personal relationship with some matter coming before the board then you need to recuse yourself and the difference between a recusal and an exstension is that if you have a conflict that pre that that that um prevents you from voting on something then then you should not be an executive session you should not participate in that discussion even in the public meeting when it comes before the board that is a recusal essentially you remove yourself from that entire process and abstention is when you simply can't make up your mind about how you want to vote on something and so the resolution comes before you superintendent makes a recommendation to you the business administrator makes a recommendation you've listened to all of the competing arguments and you're just not in a position to to to vote Yes or no you simply can't make up your mind about how you want to vote on that or maybe there's something that you feel uncomfortable about not a direct conflict but something that you simply want to abstain on you don't have enough information you don't feel that you can make an informed decision that's an exstension so uh in this next case a board member wanted to have a Unity walk on school grounds sounds like a great idea right get everybody together uh you know uh uh obviously uh good for morale good for the community uh she decided to do this on her own uh she used her uh her District sponsored email in order to send out the invitations to tell everybody when it was going to take place uh uh basically organized the entire Unity walk um and never had the authority of the board to do that uh she was reprimanded uh for essentially compromising the board why compromising the board because you have all these people now coming onto your campus uh nobody was aware that that was even going to happen there's a potential for liability somebody gets injured do we have enough security you know all of the above uh so it doesn't matter how laudatory the purpose may be we as individual board members do not have any Authority as individuals that Authority must be derived from the board as a unit so um um respecting uh our employees you can see that in this case the board member was censured made accusations against the superintendent that the superintendent was acting disingenuously uh that the superintendent changed the time of graduation for personal reasons uh had the potential to compromise the board board uh also uh this board member was cont contacting staff members directly using text messages and text messaging our employees is never acceptable you know we tell we have an acceptable use policy in the district that applies to our employees we tell them not to text message with students or parents not to use that as a mode of communication we shouldn't use that as a mode of communication either and the other trap for the uny and I'm seeing this time and again now and that is where I'm out of board meeting and board members are texting and they may be texting to make sure that their kids got home on time or that they got dinner or that uh uh or or that there's something that they're concerned about they've got a sick a sick family member that they're checking in on the problem is that people in the audience don't know that and so the next morning we're faced with an Oprah request and someone has said I want I want all of the text messages between uh uh Miss Austin and Miss Asser and you're caught by surprised so what happens then uh you've got to produce the text messages I have to look at them we have to decide decide what the content is not telling you that you're going to have access that the person is going to have access to that information what I am saying is that you need to be mindful that text messages are government records under the open public records act and it allows for somebody to go on a fishing Expedition so this last case this Wingfield case this is a case out of uh the orange School District they're an executive session the NFL wants to come in they want to televise they want to use the schools facilities uh uh uh for a promotional for the National Football League you got a board member that's so excited about this so excited that the NFL is coming is going to use their fields gets out of the executive session and told everybody he met that the NFL was coming to use the fields and uh of the orange school district uh that deal went South board member violated the executive session found himself on the other end of an Ethics complaint so superintendent of middle sex County was found to have violated the ethics rules when she approved a list of substitute teachers that included her son and um um the Monroe Township superintendent uh uh her fa failure to recuse herself on the recommendation of her child's employment constitute using her position to secure an unwarranted privilege or advantage that's a prohibited act and unfortunately the school ethics commission is not forgiving about this so even where you say it was buried in the agenda I didn't see it I didn't know that my relative was going to be uh that my relative was going to be recommended for appointment they're going to find that that is a violation of the school ethics act and worse that it is a uh prohibited act which means prosecution by the Attorney General's office now something new has happened recently this was a case that was decided within the last several months and it was a case um out of Jersey City so what happened in this case is that there was a lawsuit and the superintendent had filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education and had named several of the board members individually um and alleged that it was a unhealthy working environment suffice it to say the lawsuit was filed the lawsuit was settled and as part of the settlement of that lawsuit the individual board members who were named were required to sign off on that settlement agreement and so they said to the board attorney who was sitting there are we allowed to vote on this and are we allowed to sign off on the settlement agreement and the board attorney said yes you can advice of councel and somebody filed an Ethics complaint against them for having voted to approve the settlement and for having signed off on the settlement documents and so for the first time because I've already said to you that the School ethics commission is unforgiving even if you make an innocent mistake they're going to hold you responsible for that as a violation of of the school ethics act but for the first time the court was was the the the court was called upon to decide whether or not there is an advice of council defense and so it went all the way up to the appell division because interestingly enough both the school ethics commission and the commissioner and the administrative law judge all said it was a violation of the school ethics act went up to the Appel division the Appel division said not so fast these board members relied upon the advice of their attorney they asked for that advice at a board meeting the attorney gave them the advice told them that they could go ahead and vote on this and sign off on those documents they are entitled to that defense and as long as they can prove that those were the facts that actually unfolded uh they may very well have been found technically to to have violated the school ethics act but no penalty can be imposed upon them so that's an important decision first time we have a decision that allows that that recognizes the advice of council defense so free speech in the act so it's often said that board members do not lose their first amendment rights when they become board members but those rights are uh uh not without limitation there are restrictions and there are restrictions whenever you are speaking publicly whether it is on social media speaking on social media whether you are speaking publicly uh to uh members of the community you are giving a speech you're expressing an opinion you're going to a zoning board meeting you're going to a mayor and council meeting suffice it to say that all of that is speech you have an obligation under the school ethics act if you are going to speak speak about board business and that's what I want to emphasize about board member about board business if you're going to a planning board meeting and you're talking about the application that's before the planning board that's not board business um unless of course you say that you believe that that application would interfere with the health and wellness of our students that it would create traffic congestion that it would cause a problem at one of our schools once you begin to speak about those kinds of concerns then there is the potential for a violation with regard to you expressing an opinion that appears to be the opinion of the river Veil Board of Education so what you have to do is you have to self-identify and what that means is I have to say before I express my opinion about anything about any board business I have to say my name is Steven Fogerty I'm a member of the river Veil Board of Education and what I'm about to say post publish communicate is my own opinion it is neither authorized by the board nor am I expressing an opin the opinion of the board so you are actually required to do all of that before you can express an opinion of and about board business so couple cases here uh board members use General disclaimers on their Facebook pages didn't violate the code of ethics we're not required to put the disclaimer on every post however it's got to be there so if you've got a social media page I'm not a big fan of that for board members by the way because I think it is a trap for the uny I think even where you post something with thumbs up or thumbs down that is speech you're expressing an opinion about something and you need to be careful about it but the important part of this is you if you're going to do that you need to indicate on that post that that that your Communications on that post are your in are is an expression of your individual opin opinion and that you are not speaking on behalf of the river Vil Board of Education so you can see in that uh uh the Conan case uh barasi case board members who had controversial and inflammatory statements um calling the governor a tyrannical POS encourag teachers to leave the njaa um uh memes about unmasking in schools uh calling discussions about gender identity a sick war on children uh without disclaimers were found were were were were were found not to have violated the code of ethics so here's the point here that is pretty incendiary right I mean it's offensive to many people but what the school ethics commission has said over and over again we're not the civility police we are not the civility police and we are not going to regulate a board member's speech unless they are speaking above and about board business none of that was above and about board business so you see all of the these ethics complaints being filed because board members have said something that is political in nature or they have said something about the transgender policy or they have said or or they have said something about the uh the The Mask requirements during the pandemic the school ethics commission has no interest in any of that because again those th those are not an expression of opinions or statements about board uh about board business so what's the balance um the balance is that if you're going to express your opinion you make sure that you self-identify and even if you self-identify you need to make sure that the information you're giving is factual and that it does not violate any other provision of the code of ethics or your board policies and so even though you're self-identifying that is not a licensed to kill it doesn't mean that you can violate somebody's privacy it doesn't mean that you can misstate uh uh that that you can misstate uh um any fact uh uh uh concerning the school district uh doesn't mean that you could misstate uh the Appropriations in our school budget uh uh doesn't mean that uh you it certainly doesn't mean that you could disclose anything that would be an executive session discussion so again um it's not a license to uh to say whatever you like you're still held within the restrictions of the code of ethics so and you have a policy that goes well beyond uh what the school ethics uh what the school ethics act actually requires of us so you have and I compliment you for this because you're among only a minority of school districts that have done this and you have social media guidelines and you expect board members when they are elected to the board that they are going to adhere to this and so you can see that um you go on to say that you won't make defamatory statements about the Board of Education School District employees uh you will not disclose confidential information um uh you will not solicit uh any business or organization um you will not be disrespectful so you can see that while the school ethics commission is not the civility police you have decided that you are and that's important because a complaint that's filed with the school ethics commission alleging that you have not acted with civility there would be no jurisdiction for them to adjudicate that but you as a board could adjudicate it and you could make a decision that if you felt that one of your board members had had transgress this in a way that was serious enough you could actually yourself as a board you could publicly censure that board member so you've decided that you are going to police police the conduct of your own members and that's a good thing so there's the disclaimer that's what you're expected to use I've laid it out there for you uh if you are going to post on social media uh um that should be there and if you had a campaign website before you were elected to the board once you're elected the best practice is you take that down because that sends mixed messages and could be misunderstood and you could find yourself inadvertently being on the on the other side of a complaint conflicts of interest and recusal I've talked to you about that but just a little bit about negotiations you have here if you um have a spouse or a family member that's a member of the njaa American Federation of teachers if you have a spouse or a family member that is an administrator member of the principls and supervisors Association or the njasa um then you need to be aware that you're there may be restrictions uh that are imposed on you with regard to contract negotiations um and those restrictions are laid out for you right here so if in fact you have a spouse or a dependent child or any relative and they work in another school district and they're a member of the njaa or the PSA or the njasa and you uh have a question about what you can be involved in and what you can do with regard to negotiations with regard to our various uh um uh associations so whether it is the uh the um uh the Teachers Association the administrators Association uh support staff if you have a question about what you whether you can participate in negotiations vote to ratify the contract or whether or not it implicates your ability to participate in issues involving the superintendent uh contract employment all of those issues that's laid out for you right here and the school ethics commission went round and round about this over the course of a decade I think they finally have it right that's the current state of the law you are done with me questions M Ro in being a CL parent volunteering so I think that as long as you are fulfilling the role that any other parent would fulfill as a class parent I think that's fine and I don't think there's any uh uh uh I don't think there's any possibility that that would be um uh that that would be considered to um supervise direct involvement day-to-day operations of the school um and and as far as supervision I would say that I mean there's always some supervision that goes along with being a class parent but I think I think where the bright line would be that you could not be delegated the responsibility to supervise students without a teacher being there or uh an administrator being there but being a class parent is fine um there's no reason for board members to shy away from that any other questions thank you oh thank you Mr Fogerty for oh oh sorry um say a board member wanted to use a teacher in the district to tutor their child is that okay to communicate with that teacher so the answer is yes um I mean the we have policies and I'm sure you have a policy with regard to tutoring so your I mean your relationship with that teacher would be as a parent and presumably uh that individual would be tutoring your child um usually policies indicate that um you know that tutors can't be the the child's teacher so there's some restrictions with regard to that um however if you are engaging one of our teachers to be a tutor for your child you may very well have to recuse yourself if anything comes before the the board involving that individual teacher now so for example if the association brought a grievance on behalf of that teacher for some reason uh or if that teacher was subject to some kind of uh performance review and that came before the board for an executive session discussion you would have to recuse yourself from that because you have a personal relationship um but again uh you're not um you're not engaging in anything that any other parent wouldn't have the ability to engage in perfect thank you you're welcome well thank you again for your presentation and for outlining um the rights and responsibilities of us as board members so thank you okay um thank you Stephen you're welcome to stay for the rest but I'm sure you uh have seen plenty of board meetings for your time thanks ni to see everybody me too okay now we'll move on to the board secretary's report okay very quickly uh just a reminder that um you need to complete your mandated trainings and also um your ethic statements we're we're almost there we almost have everybody so thank you that's all I have to report for tonight okay um may I have a motion to move General resolutions [Music] G1 through G3 make a motion and second I'll second and discussion roll call please certainly Mrs ass yes Mrs Austin yes Mrs burkowitz yes Mrs uh Mr White yes Mrs pelli yes um may I have a motion to move business resolutions B1 through B7 I'll move it second any discussion roll call please certainly Mrs Austin yes Mr White yes Mrs Berkowitz yes Mrs assour yes Mrs Pinelli yes may have a motion to move uh Personnel resolutions P1 through p8 I'll make motion and I'll second and discussion any discussion okay uh roll call please certainly Mrs burwitz yes Mr White yes Mrs Austin yes Mrs assor yes Mrs Pinelli yes um River Rivervale board of education is committed to encouraging the citizens of Rivervale and employees of the Rivervale School District to speak directly to board trustees in order to facilitate this communication residents and employees are requested to one sign in before speaking two to maintain an appropriate sense of decorum and three to limit their remarks to no more than 5 minutes the board will also take under advisement the written comments and opinions of non-residents that are submitted to the board secretary being mindful of its responsibility to maintain the orderly conduct of meetings the board retains the right to rule on such matters as the speaker's right to address the board as well as the appropriateness of the subject being presented the board's decision in such matters is final the board also reminds all members of the public that while it subscribes without reservation to the principle of keeping the community informed by policy and law it cannot allow public discussion of personnel matters nor can trustees comment on any current or pending litigation if a matter concerning an employee of the river Veil schools is of Interest or concern to a resident the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal or the superintendent of schools by telephone letter or email um I'm I will open the meeting to public comments at 8:09 any comments okay then I will close the meeting to public comments at 809 um any old business I think we have new business right okay we have new business I'm I'm just going to run quick and and grab a piece of paper from my office e e e all right I didn't want anyone to hear that I thought I printed this out earlier but if you'd like to PR there should be one in your in your book but I'm not positive okay so tonight we're going to talk about the board of education's proposed tentative 2425 budget and just to give a little background thank you first of all to the finance committee who's been fantastic and suffered through all of my torturous um comments and and process and I know you all have this down better than I do so thank you we started the process in October and we are now here on the 19th of March and going to be presenting to the board a tenative budget so that tomorrow I can submit this budget to the county office and what that involves is not just a bunch of paperwork so there is a portal which we need to populate and we send information to the county on program and education and on enrollment and on facts and figures and what they'll do is they will take all of that and they'll review it and then they will say to us whether or not we've met all of the regulations and the criteria dotted all our eyes and crossed all of our tees once that comes back to us then we publish what is our public hearing where we present our budget to the public that public hearing is scheduled for May 7th at that meeting is when the board adopts the final budget so that's the overall process so while the board would be adopting a tentative budget it's not typical that we make changes but in some cases there may be a reason to necessitate a change at the public hearing so in terms of where we're at the budget is a revenue cap so typically speaking it's a 2% cap on the tax levy from year to year there are a few exceptions in some cases where districts have additional enrollment there allows additional capacity they can raise their tax levy above the 2% in uh our case for this particular year because the health benefit costs exceeded what the state had um allowed us in a calculation the health benefits for 2024 for January through dece December it was an increase of 11.67 of 6 sorry 11.76% for NJ direct 10 it's an increase increase of 1198 for NJ direct 15 it's 3.13% for the New Jersey Health um Educators plan and it's an increase of 12.51% for the Garden State Health Plan so as you're hearing these numbers it's obviously in excess of the 2% tax levy that we have to comply with so there are some provisions and some allowances based on a calculation that would allow us to go above that cap and that calculation works out to be 124,000 $892 in which would be a permissible health benefit waiver um the board has not increased their budget tax levy to tax levy over 2% in over 10 years the the board has been extremely fiscally responsible we are all challenged with inflation and Rising costs and um it is my recommendation to the finance committee and to the Board of Education that the board go above the 2% this year in order to accommodate for some of these rather large expenditures which would be health benefits transportation we had a a a nice increase I shouldn't say nice we had a hefty increase in our property insurance which is part of what comes with putting 9500 Square ft on the middle school we also have in this proposed budget an additional custodian to help with maintaining that space other than that there are no additional staff members that are being added um we have all the program that the board holds near and dear and the superintendent has recommended there will be no Cuts so the recommendation is for the tax levy increase to go to 2.99% however because as I had explained at the last board meeting the new development in town has has allowed for additional ratables to be incorporated into the Township's budget and the way that the tax rate is applied and spread throughout the taxpayers it's an additional $68 million typically you get an increase of a million or two $68 million so what the 2.99% increase on the tax levy equates to for the school board of Rivervale is a decrease of $75.64 for the year so you are exceeding the 2% which is permissible based on the adjustments that have been calculated but because of this new additional ratables you're going to see a decrease does that make sense to everybody okay so just again to give you some additional highlights in this budget we have 19 out of District special ed children and we also have seen a major increase in transportation due to the pandemic that unfortunately has not gone down and we're also seeing as I mentioned property insurance that is just a worldwide issue with all of the natural disasters that we all have been faced with so these are items that are out of our control and um those are some of the big ticket items in and the reason why we are looking to go over the 2% for the first time in 10 years does anybody have any question questions yes yes I do um first thank you sounds like you all did a lot of hard work um for argument sake if we if the board decided to not approve it and not to go over the 2% cap what would be uh one or two items that would be first to bring us back down to that number if that question makes sense to the 2% correct well you would have to cut over $200,000 so we would have to review and prepare a list of priorities and what would make up that $200,000 to bring back okay but that would include things like current programs uh maybe busing for sports uh maybe Personnel issues everything on table okay thank you anybody else questions comments and again as I said remember this is going to the county office there is still time we could have a wonderful opportunity and some billionaire could donate to Rivervale and we could get all of this Revenue stream and we could bring that budget back down however this is the current state that we're in right now and we have have to submit a budget to the county office that is meeting the thorough and efficient standards and that's what we're doing anyone else so really it's just three things that are kind of bringing this up it's the health benefits the property taxes and the busing yes along with salaries right but those things haven't really gone up well like the like these so the current teachers contract is expiring at the end of this year that contract was a 2.9% increase so one okay would think that there going to be looking for over 2% in their contract negotiations so that's another giant piece of the budget and also just as a fact when it comes to students in special education whether they move into District or they're identified and they have to have certain programs those sometimes come with costs that we have not been able to identify and then we have to make sure that we have some money set aside so that we're not again looking to make cuts to the general education program and sometimes we we we benefit in terms of um the health benefit from the state it runs on a calendar year it's January through December number so what I know is that I have the current health benefit rates which I read to you through December of 2024 I'm projecting based on help from our professionals that it's going to be a 10% increase for the following year [Music] however if I had a crystal ball I really wish I could tell you but there have been times I'm put it out there where it has come in on a on a more positive rate but based on the past couple of years and experience those rates have only been going up rather than going down and our health benefit line is $4 million out of 28 million so you can see how that and it's unpredictable because we could end up hiring some somebody who's sign um single and they meet somebody and they get married and they have a family and you go from a single coverage to family coverage so if you cut things way too close that's where you could potentially have to make Cuts in the middle of the year with your budgets right all right thank you you're welcome so there is a motion under new business Madam president yes um notice is hereby given that in accordance with the open public meetings act chapter 231 the laws of 1975 notice of this meeting has been sent to All School offices officially designated newspapers file with the Township Clerk and posted in the Board of Education Office 48 hours in advance of this meeting um may I have a motion to move resolution new business one through new business five please all motion a second second any further discussion no um roll call please certainly Mrs assor yes Mrs Austin yes Mrs burkowitz yes Mr White yes Mrs Pinelli yes uh we are not going into closed session right okay uh may I have a motion motion to adjourn second I'll second okay thank you everyone for coming out have a good evening