e e hi next for you I have a motion to resume public session [Music] V all in favor I any n or extensions no all right please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance can I get a motion under board policy 164 to approve Miss banda's virtual attendance for the meeting so moved second all in favor I I any n or extensions all right um and I'm going to now pass it off to our interm superintendent Dr Gorman good evening everybody I'll formally introduce myself a little bit more during my superintendence report um I am excited to have our guest presenter to work with our board Bo of Education um we are uh pleased to have David Nash Esquire director of legal education and National Outreach to conduct a um a training with the Board of Education just to give you a little preview and bio of of Mr Nash um he currently serves as director of legal education and National Outreach for the foundation of educational administration his responsibilities including coordinating the efforts of FAA to promote its wide array of professional learning courses events programs and he serves nationally um Mr Nash is also responsible for overseeing legal education through legal one and if you're an educator you've R in New Jersey you've run into Dave and his team with legal one um he nearly represents every school district um in New Jersey and most importantly and I'm sure he'll tell you he has also served as a member of a board of education for six years so not Al he is wearing different hats as he comes here and has the experiences um in my opinion to uh to provide this comprehensive training one of our uh one of our discussions with Dave going into this as we prepped him was that we would like to to be as interactive as we can with uh with members of the board um and um as transparent as we can be by having this portion of the board retreat in public so Dave I will turn it over to you so thank you very much I'm just um taking one moment to see if we have our technology she working okay I'll come I'll come this way see oh so um thank you for having me it's wonderful to have a chance to talk with all of you and to have the chance to talk through kind of the wide array of issues that come your way um on a regular basis um as you heard uh I am director of legal education and National Outreach um and it was a while ago but I have been in your shoes as a school board member um obviously the issues are constantly evolving that you take on as school board members uh so it's great to have a chance to talk together and I would love to you know make sure that we do turn this into a conversation technology still not quite cooperating there we go um all right so as we get ourselves started um I have to start with a disclaimer technically as I give you information and we talk um obviously we're touching on a wide range of legal issues um as we do that I'm not technically giving legal advice I'm giving you information um on a wide range of topics I might have to do this the oldfashioned way um all of you will have access to the Pres presentation materials is it all right so I think if I have a good line of sight that works excellent um all right so sorry I have to sort of um talk behind a couple of you um to make this work um but here's what we're going to walk through um in our time together um a wide range of issues that fall in your plate and as we do that thinking through uh some important responsibilities so I don't have to tell you uh there are some very important things that all of you um are charged with addressing on a regular basis and I think starting big picture um of course you are representatives of your community and and Community engagement is a huge part of your role as Schoolboard members um and I'm sure you have um heard a great deal about the wonderful things that are happening in Robinsville but you're also going to hear concerns and that's sort of a natural part of the job um it's important for all of you to do the work that you do to identify a vision um identify specific goals um promote a healthy environment and there's a lot that can happen with the school School Board to help Foster that healthy safe environment and then you've got a lot of particular jobs um adopting policy um approving the budget approving curriculum Staffing um oversight which is a very important function um and I think that sort of hits the large buckets um are there other large responsibilities that come to mind for folks here in your role at Schoolboard members I feel like those are basically the large categories um all right so I thought we'd start with a little bit of discussion of your policy that you have in place for a healthy workplace environment um it's not a mandated policy but most school districts have it in place and of course um it makes a lot of sense uh to signal to your community how important that healthy workplace environment is um and to the extent that you have a healthy environment where people feel respected and heard it obviously improves productivity um helps reduce absenteeism um helps reduce turnover and we know that Staffing is a huge challenge everywhere in the country and can have a major impact on your programs um as I talk about the healthy workplace environment policy that you have that policy does not come into play if somebody raises a discrimination claim against the school district District there's a different set of policies to deal with a claim that somebody may have been a victim of discrimination would you no I hate to put you to work but so um all of you have this PowerPoint um if we ever have anybody coming to you as a school board member and raising a concern um about being treated un fairly uh because of Any protected characteristic under under state or federal anti-discrimination law um that is a crucial area to make sure that we are formally and properly addressing in a timely fashion uh the New Jersey law against discrimination and a wide range of state and federal laws say that if a school board member or a school administrator um becomes aware of any claim of discrimination we have to make sure those issues are properly addressed for you in many ways um the responsibility is pretty straightforward to get that concern to the superintendent um and the superintendent will take it from there for the district it's important that those issues are uh properly investigated and addressed so there's a long list of characteristics um under federal law we do have some additional ones under state law that you see here including um a fairly new one that was added um that relates to to hair texture hair type hairstyle there was a terrible incident in a South Jersey school district a few years back where a student wrestler was told right before a wrestling match was about to begin you have to um allow us to cut your dreadlocks right here right now in front of everybody or you're going to Forfeit this match horrible situation to put that student athlete in student athlete didn't want to let his team down um allowed it to happen um but the attorney general made clear that that was a violation of the student civil rights the student should not have been treated that way and then New Jersey clarified the law so that there's no confusion going forward we cannot discriminate based on hair texture hair type hairstyle so um healthy workplace environment um does include trying to uh make sure that we honor um staff members and we treat them with dignity and respect respect uh we do see examples in New Jersey and around the country where that doesn't always happen uh where you have sometimes one staff member um being disrespectful and um undermining another staff member unfortunately it does happen from time to time uh your policy allows a process um to have those issues addressed um and we're talking about things like repeated malicious conduct not usually a one-time issue sometimes people have a bad day and they'll say something they regret moments later typically that's not going to be a violation of this policy although even a single incident could be so bad that it crosses that line ahead so um you could have issues of verbal abuse um and sometimes those issues could even occur if a staff member gets up at a board meeting and is being critical of a colleague and that could potentially create a situation that is crossing the line of the healthy workplace environment policy it doesn't necessarily have to be something that the staff member says between nine and three it could be something that staff member saying on social media um at a public board meeting in a wide array of categories that could potentially cross that line um you could have verbal or physical conduct that reasonable person might find threatening intimidating harassing the third bullet here is one that I think is probably the most common um if you see an employee trying to sabotage or undermine another employees work or performance um so we know that those things you know do happen in all sorts of workplaces uh but you do have a good protocol in place because of your policy to address that issue as I mentioned a single act typically is not enough um we're not all perfect sometimes we have a moment where somebody will say or do something uh that is not always as respectful as it should be but sometimes that act for example if it's a discriminatory comment um is so severe and egregious that it not only is triggering concerns here but is triggering concerns under our anti-discrimination laws um so typically we're talking about pattern of behavior for the healthy workplace environment policy um it's not to be confused with somebody not being happy with their assignment uh sometimes School leaders School administrators have to engage in um Progressive supervision of another staff member and they're simply doing their job they're assigning certain responsibilities uh potentially reprimanding an employee uh for not doing something uh they should have done or or behaving inappropriately assigning discipline directing an employee to act um to the extent that there is a complaint or push back um that is because of the legitimate exercise of supervisory Authority that's not a violation of the healthy workplace environment policy it still may be an issue that has to be worked through and addressed um but in order for the administrative team to function there will be times where assignments are given that perhaps uh somebody is not fully happy about uh but it's within their responsibilities so if there is a complaint under your Healthy workplace environment policy U it has to be addressed formally uh there has to be a written complaint so if somebody believes that they want to pursue an issue you can't simply uh verbally vent and um say follow this policy you have to take the time to put the concern in writing um that has to then be provided to the superintendent you need specific details what exactly is the complaint uh what who are the witnesses when were the dates and times what other information could help with the investigation so documentation on those issues is critical once a complaint is received um the district has to make sure that an investigation occurs uh superintendent or typically designate superintendent has a lot in his plate um designate typically um but it could be the superintendent who conducts the investigation um and every time we have a formal complaint we do need to have that formal investigation once the investigation's done um we have to make sure that there is no retaliation somebody shouldn't be retaliated against because in good faith they raised the concern that would have a chilling effect on the staff and the entire Community uh superintendent uh needs to inform the parties what happened as a result if no violation has occurred uh generally superintendent has a lot of discretion to determine how much information will be shared at that point and how to productively move forward if we have a violation of course parties have a right to know that uh they have a right to know the outcome what the findings were and um almost inevitably there are going to be some sort of remedial and probably preventive measures that'll have to be put into place uh to deal with those issues so you know obviously we don't want to get to this point um we want to address School climate in ways that don't lead folks to feel the need to file this kind of a formal complaint but the mechanism is there as far as school official ethics um a few strategies as we think about the uh code of ethics that board members um of course have to comply with it's one of the first trainings that you received um as a new board member so here's just some food for thought about ways to to um address ethics sort of big picture so um one strategy that uh is very helpful is planning time for school leaders and other staff to regularly come to board meetings um and give you information on major initiatives and to give you the opportunity to understand the impact of those major initiatives on key stakeholders including students uh parents and staff members um and I know that is an important part of of your meetings for folks to hear about the good work that's happening happening uh certainly it's important for you to have your pulse on the community if there is a sensitive issue that is being addressed um understanding that in advance of a board meeting and talking through how we can you know appropriately address that uh deal with heightened emotions that there might be give everybody an opportunity to express their views but make sure that U the meeting remains civil and we stay within our ethical role um having consistent protocols at board meetings is obviously very important right we want to make sure that everyone in the community feels valued feels like their voice is being heard as well as anyone else in the community so having consistent protocols for the amount of time that speakers have when they're presenting um obviously not in giving more or less time because we like the Viewpoint of the person who is uh speaking uh we want to avoid that um having standards for speakers um You probably do this but it's a good idea to bifurcate um public testimony you know you have issues on your agenda that you're going to vote on and giving the community the opportunity to comment on those issues um at the beginning of the meeting before uh a vote makes a lot of sense um and then the opportunity perhaps at the end of the meeting for more open-ended comments regarding the school district um if there are issues where you feel like the state of New Jersey any of you individually feel like the state of New Jersey has gotten um their priorities wrong and that happens every now and then um and we all have some strongly held views you know there are avenues for boards to pass resolutions to express their disagreement uh with a particular um new legal requirement that's coming down that are perfectly appropriate and many school communities will take advantage of that if they disagree with some guidance some statute some regulation uh that's a a productive way for your voice to be heard collectively as a board I think it's pretty clear that we can't choose the option of saying that we won't Implement a new law or a new requirements um because there is some disagree with agreement with it so obviously we do have a requirement to Faithfully implement the laws of the land um including those we might not agree with but there are ways to express uh that disagreement so keeping that pulse on the community um as I mentioned is critical so that we can anticipate you know perhaps um there will be a meeting where this room is overflowing and you might want to think about um how you tweak your protocols you know the three minutes or five minutes that you typically allow for a speaker might not work if you have 300 speakers and you might need to think through uh what is going going to be a feasible approach for that meeting but you want to think that through before the first Speaker before um you feel that we have to change the rules Midstream in the middle of a board meeting so important to kind of proactively think those issues through uh some other proactive strategies um having designated Personnel you know in many cases a board attorney um at a board meeting or superintendent or business administrator uh can help it's not an easy job uh being board president and um running that meeting I did spend time as a board president as well um thankless task to take on um but making sure that you have some support if you need it to figure out how to appropriately respond to issues that might be raised at that meeting so that the community is confident they're being heard the issues will be addressed but we're avoiding the temptation to respond on the spot and avoiding the temptation to perhaps comment um on things like performance issues uh for staff members uh which we obviously shouldn't do in the middle of a public meeting so other strategies uh privately conferring if there um are any individual board members who don't quite understand um any specific Provisions in the ethics rules um having board attorney or others come in and review um these are all good strategies the rules are complicated and the decisions that are coming down are con stantly sort of uh reifying and sometimes redefining what some of the rules mean so there's nothing wrong with the the need to understand how the rules are changing um one interesting case that all board members should be aware of is this case from the West Windsor uh School District um West Windsor Plainsboro so you know this was a case where uh you had a member of the uh public who who was upset uh with a particular employee in the district uh this member of the public thought that a particular coach had not been very nice to his daughter uh felt that the district should have taken action and perhaps um terminated the employment of that coach and expressed that view and then came back at another meeting and expressed that view and then came back every meeting for over a year and continued expressing that view um after many many many meetings of hearing those concerns um a board board president decided that you know you've had your say on this issue we've heard your concerns um and told that person that they could not continue raising that concern at a board meeting the person was allowed to speak for about 30 seconds um whereas other speakers were speaking between between five and seven minutes so when that speech was discontinued uh the parent was very upset ended up bringing legal action against the school district um and part of the school district's defense in the case was that you really can't sue the school district when a board president on his own decided to stop somebody from speaking and our state supreme court said in that situation when that decision of the board president is allowed to stand the board president is effectively acting for the district and the district can be held accountable for that decision by the board president to stop an individual from speaking unless that decision was immediately corrected and none of us are perfect um it might be that we're trying to make a good faith judgment call in that moment and perhaps we don't fully understand um a particular requirement in that moment so it's uh it should be okay to allow that feedback to come in from somebody else who could clarify what the rules are and when somebody is allowed to speak um that didn't happen in this case person um was cut off they sued they actually initi initially were awarded $100,000 for emotional distress because they were forced to stop speaking at a board meeting ultimately the state Supreme Court said well you haven't proved proven those damages um we're not convinced that you actually have $100,000 worth of Damages so they didn't get that but they did get attorney's fees which added up to an awful lot of money um for a situation that could have easily been corrected so you know I think um very likely in a situation like this the board president had good faith concerns you had somebody getting up meeting after meeting after meeting and criticizing a particular District employee when the district had made a judgment called that there was no need for disciplinary action involving that employee so very understandable Instinct for a board president to say we really can't keep hearing this over and over again it was an inappropriate decision um now it also would have been inappropriate and this didn't happen in this case uh for board members to publicly say I agree with you um and I think that this person should be terminated as a coach that's not the time in place uh for that type of an issue to be raised either so an important casee I think and lessons that we can learn from that case so when you have issues that are raised at board meeting you know there's a few Common Sense questions that uh you should think about was the critique if there is a critique of a staff member um was it done in public or in closed session um certainly there are appropriate times where you do have to as a board discuss employees but typically that would be a discussion in closed session the employee would have notice of that discussion would receive a rice notice um would have then the opportunity to say no I want that discussion in public would have the opportunity to request to be present for a closed session discussion although that's not a mandate you could you have that within your discretion um but it certainly shouldn't be something that's happening out there in the world without the employees permission um if you have speech at a meeting though that crosses certain lines then we have to act so our courts have said that if there is speech at a public board meeting that constitutes a true threat there is a specific credible threat of harm to anybody in that setting now there's an obligation to act now there's an obligation to stop that speech uh so true threats obviously cross that line um is speech involving factual allegations are there things being alleged that are not true uh to to the extent that we are talking about a criticism of a school leader um you know I work Under the Umbrella of the New Jersey principles and supervisor Association we're not thrilled when that happens but members of the public do have that right um I think it's important to you know make sure that we put that input into context um and you have lots of ways to um ask appropriate questions and gather additional information about that issue we don't don't necessarily want to assume all the information you received from that complaint is accurate um or attempt to act on that information at that board meeting so what if a um board member takes it upon himself or herself to stop someone from presenting because of their extreme political views do we think that would be okay that won't be okay unless the extreme political views involve some sort of a threat um um or explicit or inappropriate or lwd language you know unless we have some of those other situations that's not okay um board member or president responds on the spot and tries to set the record straight because something factually inaccurate was said I would avoid that temptation as well um You probably aren't going to have a constructive debate in that moment with the person who is expressing their view uh not the most constructive way to address that issue um comment on what the speaker is saying in a manner that's critical of either the superintendent or other School Employees as we mentioned not okay direct that specific actions be taken and I understand the Instinct perhaps to do that you find out that there is a roof leaking at a school and it hasn't been fixed for three weeks and your instinct is uh to say at that public meeting um I direct you to make sure this is fixed tomorrow perfectly understandable Instinct but that's not your role as an individual ual board member to direct hi David my question is um on the topic of extreme political views how do you balance that with something that could cross over into hate speech for example somebody comes up and uses a very disparaging language towards like lgbtq plus Community or something of that nature it's very disturbing when we um cross that line so there is a line where you may have a hate crime and that is something where you don't have to allow criminal activity to occur um and we could do a whole workshop on the difference between offensive speech and a crime um but I would talk with the board attorney about that if we have reason to believe we've crossed the line into um hate crime the board should act to stop that I will say there is some very disturbing hate speech that we have many cases on that our courts have said didn't cross that line and that's alarming right I I wish that wasn't the answer but that is the answer so there's a great deal that can be said that is quite offensive um until we cross the line of a hate crime uh which generally involves you know some very specific threats of physical harm or threats of harm um in addition to the offense of language so great question um I wish that there were some stronger controls that we had on that uh there is a degree of that that our courts have allowed at meetings but trying to make sure that you know we never feed into that is obviously very important right great question um sorry another question one other question very much ated um often when we see public comments by the community members the expectation by the community in many s in many places is that we do cater to those questions or we answer those questions you know once asked and sometimes you know because of the ethical and because of all this particular stuff we kind of remain silent however we do actually take those particular questions what's your recommendation of how we actually get back to the community members so I think it's very um important for the community to know that they are being heard um and there can be a standard answer that's provided um which could come from superintendent business administrator board attorney doesn't necessarily have to be board president um that um specific issues that are raised are referred to the superintendent and you know there will be a response from The District Administrative team but I wouldn't go beyond that because if you're promising a response by tomorrow that may not be feasible that may not be possible um it's reasonable to say that there will be a response um and that the issue has been heard and the administrative team will you know address the issue that's probably as far as you can safely go on that issue because the range of things that people could ask about is huge and many will take some real time to address so great question yeah I think on the same wavelength right A lot of times there's an expectation from the public of the community that we are directing and the job of the board is not to direct the job of the board is to really set policy and procedure what's the line of questioning versus directing because a lot of time in the line of questioning it can be perceived as directing and how do you recommend the board and or the community to make sure that you know we are careful of that line so it's a great question um not always a simple line but um to the extent that you're asking for information to be gathered to clarify an issue that has been raised you know that's appropriate questioning uh that that can occur um to the extent that you're saying that this specific action must be taken to remedy or address a situation you are directing at that point and that's not the role uh for individual board members um or even for the board as a whole to uh Direct in that way so if you had any particular um hypothetical examples we could certainly walk through those but information gathering and clarification um is certainly appropriate there's nothing wrong with uh asking questions um directing that we do any particular administrative action um is the sort of thing that would cross that line I think a specific question is especially on the budget time when there's a lot of question questions from the community around why aren't you doing this why aren't you doing that so I think at that point during that example a lot of then comes back to directing you should do this you should do that so I think there is that fine line of saying our job is not to run the school right and I think that's where especially in uh recent times a lot of the concerns have been raised where a lot of the a lot of these uh um recommendations end up being directive uh so I think it's it's another area and how are other areas other districts managing this or dealing with this yeah I mean um districts struggle with this you know human nature um is to solve problems and you know you're an elected official uh you want to uh respond to community concerns um trying to educate the community to see that the issue is being addressed the issue is being heard the administration is um looking at how to respond to that issue uh that really is your role to make sure that um the district is responsive to the community but not to be the responder on those issues um so if certainly if you run into an issue where um a concern has been raised and there is no response and there is no answer given you know that's where the board collectively can say we do need an answer to this issue that we're hearing not to say what the answer should be or what the action should be but we do need to have a response uh to a particular question it's called accountability and oversight um and you know that certainly is within your responsibilities um but you have to resist that temptation to roll up your sleeves and say this is the solution this is this is how we solve that problem um and to try to direct that right great all right Jump Ahead uh so you know we talked about this already but uh parameters for public comment uh you do have in your bylaws um sort of a presumptive three minute uh comment period um you do have the ability based on you know how large a turnout is to lengthen or shorten that uh for a particular meeting but you should do it at the start of the meeting not in the middle um consider limiting uh you could consider the total amount of time for public comment you know U it's not feasible to say that we're going to have a 12-h hour public comment um and putting some reasonable limits on that is okay um you can allow for extensions of total time for public comment but I wouldn't start doing that for individuals and sometimes you'll see uh somebody from the community uh sort of shout out I'm seeding my five minutes to this person and then somebody else do that and somebody else do that that's not really the way that process should work um that speaker has a set amount of time for that particular speaker and and that's really the way you want to work that okay no please for sign ups in advance is that a typical practice for other districts we again we just encourage people to come up to the so um I haven't uh looked at any data on that probably more districts just allow people to come up but if you are running into um a large number of meetings with a large number of speakers it helps you plan right if you have an idea how many people are going to speak so that you're not on the Fly again in the middle trying to adjust your timeline and you're treating everybody fairly so um different communities have you know different levels of community engagement and people coming out if you're seeing a large number that strategy makes a lot of sense I'm just gonna repeat my sure absolutely I should have repeated it sorry yeah so my question was um you know how popular is or how prevalent is the sign up in advance for uh public question in other districts and and you know the response was that probably a majority of districts don't do that but in districts where we're seeing a large turnout consistently at meetings it is a reasonable way to make sure everyone is treated fairly right absolutely um so as far as executive session um perfectly permissible for a lot of particular reasons to go into executive session it's just worth reminding folks you know there is is always a Temptation you're in executive session we're human and there's a temptation to raise another issue um there are particular reasons for boards to go into Clos session um you know for example something like a tenure hearing is not happening out there for the world to see that's a particular reason uh collective bargaining strategy is a specific reason um discussing particular issues regarding school security and safety where if we discuss those in public it could undermine your protocol calls uh would be a particular reason pending or anticipated litigation and addressing that is a particular reason um we just want to avoid the temptation to raise other issues uh while you're in that closed session you might have a legitimate concern that's been raised by the uh Community maybe about a particular staff member um obviously we cannot raise that unless that staff member has been notified in advance uh that they may be discussed in Clos session and their right to say no do that in public um has been honored and obviously we don't gossip right I mean again human nature um it's it's tempting sometimes to do that but we want to stay focused on what that agenda is for that executive session so as far as uh roles and responsibilities we can jump to the next slide um we have three sort of major areas of law that you want to think about conflict of interest law nepotism regulations and of course the school ethics act um and I can touch on each briefly so as far as a conflict of interest law um pretty clear that you cannot have any sort of a contract uh that would give you a financial interest um in any way with the school district that extends to yourself and family members and some very broad uh criteria that I'll show you for family members on that issue um nepotism regulation are very strong um now of course those regulations didn't come haven't always been in place so if we had somebody who was already employed uh by a school district we're not terminating anybody who was employed by the district uh because somebody is elected to a school board um we're grandfathering in existing folks uh but there are very stringent rules about hiring of somebody who is a close relative of a board member and those rules apply to superintendent as well and you can choose as a district to extend the nepotism rules to all School administrators uh so you could choose to extend them even further um you can see the really broad definition of what do we mean by a relative spouse civil union partner domestic partner parent child sibling Aunt uncle niece nephew um in-laws um half brother half sister uh so there's a pretty broad list of people that uh would fall into that category uh when we're considering those nepotism regulations a shorter uh list uh for some other Provisions under the school ethics act so School ethics act um makes sure that of course we're not doing anything that is just intended to benefit ourselves give unwarranted uh privileges to yourself or family members or others so that's true too the ethics rules do talk about um you know even somebody who's just a friend we don't want to give unwarranted unmerited benefits to anybody um because of a position that you have as Schoolboard member so the ethics act lays out core principles for school officials there's a whole set of Provisions that apply to all administrators and board members so we've got um a set of those rules in addition to those we have ones you can jump ahead um that are for individual board members one strategy if we are um not sure about what the rules are and how they would apply in a situation that I think more districts should use you can go to the school ethics commission and request an advisory opinion before um a line has been crossed if you're not quite sure will this issue cross that line um into a school ethics violation and perhaps it's a close question it's a complicated question ask for an advisory opinion uh uh you can get those from the school ethics commission and it's a good preventative strategy to make sure that we never cross those lines oh we can go past so code of conduct um obviously prohibits conflicts of interest un having unwarranted privileges or advantages or benefits direct or indirect Financial involvement that could reasonably be expected to impair the independence of judgment pretty Common Sense things we can jump past those um it does say that we shouldn't have any personal involvement that is or creates some benefit to an immediate family member as well um anything that might Prejudice your independence of judgment so you know you always want to be acting and making decisions simply based on the merits of the issue that's being brought and not because of any kind of a personal connection and obviously I think we've all been uh trained pretty well um about the dangers of accepting gifts you even very small gifts uh from potential vendors from those who might potentially benefit from the school district and sometimes uh those vendors aren't quite as careful and they're thinking and might happily want to give you some gifts and not let you know that this could cross an Ethics Line so the responsibility is always on you uh to recognize that potential conflict of interest um when we're thinking about this again it's um not just yourself it is family members so we can jump past this it sort of goes through that in more detail yes let's do that let's jump down um I'll tell you where keep going um keep keep going we'll we'll go to the so keep going we'll go to the social media section here we go so let me walk through a couple of cases that we can learn from when it comes to social media um and where you could cross a line as a board member um so here we had a board member um who made negative comments uh that were anti-muslim anti-sharia law in nature um specifically referred to a congresswoman um in a discriminatory manner um made those posts and they were out there for the world to see it was Private action of that individual board member but but you could imagine how that could compromise the board when that person is known in the community as a board member is posting uh those discriminatory comments on social media um testimony by Witnesses uh painted a picture of numerous phone calls to the to board staff um that were prompted sort of people from the community goated uh sometimes to support what this particular board member was saying and how that can obviously uh undermine the community it was it's not a to consider that students or families of students of Muslim faith in this case were fearful so those comments that somebody could make as a citizen that potentially somebody could make getting up at a board meeting if they are made by a board member and are discriminatory in nature and are crossing some of those lines uh that could compromise the board and and be an Ethics violation so important to recognize that there are additional limits um in some to some extent on your speech because of your role as a Schoolboard member and the potential that what you're saying could undermine um safety and health and in the community so here uh this was clearly an example of conduct that would cause members of the of the public to lose uh confidence and respect from the community create an unjustifiable impression that this was a community that supported um forms of discrimination that are clearly inappropriate under state and federal law so again these were comments that were not a crime didn't cross the line into hate crime but crossed the line into a school ethics violation that had been posted on social media another case um here we had comments that were being made that were you know beyond uh the individual's scope of as a board member so here we had uh board members email comments uh to a complaining parent um and the board member was using their board email address uh made those comments um responding to a particular parent um complaining about the District administration and that's where you could be goated into a school ethics violation as well um do you all have board email addresses to the extent that you are responding to and sub anely commenting on concerns that are brought to you beyond we are referring this to the superintendent if you go any further in your response in ways that either agree or disagree with the comment you're likely crossing the lines of the school ethics act so really important that we not do that so when we receive emails from the public it is Our obligation just to refer those emails to the administration and superintendent yes um and there's nothing wrong with saying to the public that this that I have referred this to the superintendent there is a problem if you say almost anything else that is construed as agreeing disagreeing um directing um certain actions to be taken um or somehow arguing uh with that person uh so once you get into any sort of a substantive conversation about the issue you've likely cross the lines of the school ethics act we can jump past that case that um here's another case where we had um somebody who wasn't happy about New Jersey's mask mandates and um as we were going through that there were people who had very strong feelings um on that issue um this person sent an email from their board email address to members of the legislature and this is where you can get yourself into hot water again um if you are expressing those views it's reasonable for someone to think that perhaps you're expressing them on behalf of the board when you're sending that from your board email address right if you're expressing your views as an individual disclaimers are critical to that process that you are not expressing um views of the board of education on a particular topic and that didn't happen in this case so that was a violation of the ethics act and we can jump past this case we um here we have another case where you had a board member who had a private business um you know certainly you can have a private business um but that board member Ed the opportunity of um of public meetings to let others know about his private tutoring business um and use their position as a board member and the audience that came with that uh to make folks aware of that role and clearly that's crossing the school Ethics Line as well so that's not okay and we can jump past that case so the US Supreme Court um just uh this year has laid out a test to help you think through comments that you might post on social media I wish it was a better test it's not very specific but this is what the Supreme Court came out with um is a person making comments um do they possess actual authority to speak on behalf of the school district um generally speaking you do not have that authority to speak on behalf of the school district um are you trying to indicate to the world that you are exercising that Authority when you speak on social media um so having very clear disclaimers if you are expressing your individual political views on a wide range of issues that could impact school districts um is critical and the US Supreme Court said that in this decision that a specific and the a school ethics commission has a model disclaimer that you can use a very specific disclaimer that allows the world to see you're not speaking as a board member or on behalf of the district but simply as a citizen is really incumbant um when we're making um political comments on social media for the world to see so um one issue that comes up sometimes is custom and usage uh do people think you have certain Authority have you perhaps given that impression that you have certain Authority and that could cross the line when it comes to social media speech the US Supreme Court test wasn't about is there a violation of the school ethics act it was about whether there could be civil litigation um against the school district um because of the comments of an individual board member so we've got all those ethics cases that I talked about on top of that there's the potential that the entire District could face liability based on comments that an individual board member is making Jump Ahead um so we can uh we can walk past that test as far as school officials and freedom of speech more broadly um there is a test for School Employees I think it's good for you to understand this test as well right so somebody who's an employee of the district um could get up and talk about uh policy or the budget uh there was a case from the 1960s where there was a school employee who thought the district's priorities weren't quite right and they spent too much money on Sports and not enough on academics um that debate has played out for a long time and that person got up and expressed those issues District tried to impose discipline US Supreme Court said that was within their rights as a citizen to express their views on that issue at a board meeting so there was a test laid out is the person speaking about a matter of general public concern as opposed to complaining about their colleague is the person speaking as a private citizen or during the course of their official duties they're coming to a board meeting at night and they're not um representing that they are speaking on behalf of the district um while they're making those comments and there's a third part to the test that I think is important are they saying things that undermine the close working relationships that we have to have for a school district to function so um there a couple quick examples that I think uh we should understand the uh security guard case the zinsky case you had somebody who was upset that a police officer in Philadelphia had been shot and killed certainly a matter of public concern and it could um be something that somebody's allowed to comment on they made comments about this um and didn't say they were speaking as a School employee they were on their own time making those comments not leaving that impression but the comment comments they made were racially charged comments uh that painted with a broad brush the types of people responsible for that kind of a killing and that crossed the line school districts saw those racially charged comments took action the person tried to sue and say their first amendment rights were being violated federal court said no they were not being violated because if you're going to use that sort of racially charged language as a School employee it's really impossible to come back to work the next day and have productive relationships there was another case involving a first grade teacher who had a very bad day came home from school posted on social media I feel like I'm a warden to Future criminals parents were not amused by those comments the school district was not amused uh the district brought tenure charges and that person was terminated because that single comment poisoned the well how do you go back and work with parents after you just called their kids future criminals um and that was somebody who had no prior discipline and they were subjected to 10year charges and ultimately termination based on that single comment so thinking through what we say on social media as Schoolboard members and School Employees is critical and a big part of what we think through is what impact will it have on the relationships that we need moving forward as a school district um so there's a high bar of course for a defamation claim um sometimes citizens can come up and say some things that are very critical um of board members or administrators and it is not easy uh to successfully sue in those cases without very specifically proving um the comments were false and the intent was malicious so it's not a simple standard to cross that line um there are strong protections and the First Amendment for political speech but as board members and as school leaders we do have to think through are we poisoning the well in the comments that we make I mentioned this case so we can jump past the bestler case um this was an interesting case you had a board member when we were still wearing masks at board meetings um who wore a rainbow mask another board member said that's political speech that's not okay an Ethics complaint was filed against the board m M for wearing a rainbow mask board member said I'm wearing this mask to signal that this is a safe Community uh for students who are part of the lgbtq plus community and the school ethics commission agreed so to the extent that you are engaging in speech that is affirming human rights some people might consider that political speech that is not crossing any lines for either a Schoolboard member um or for a teacher or administrator um the anchor that we have is U human rights and New Jersey has very specific legal protections and if we're signaling support for those protections and not um harm towards any particular category now we are within our rights so that was an interesting case where somebody was allowed to wear a rainbow mask um the state of New Jersey is dealing with some challenging issues regarding gender identity we do have a small number of districts that um had adopted policies that were inconsistent with guidance that had been provided by the New Jersey Department of Education the Attorney General um indicated that Not only was it inconsistent with that guidance it was inconsistent with the New Jersey law against discrimination those policies were going to require uh forced outing of students regarding gender identity um New Jersey was successful in having any District that tried to adopt that policy restrained from doing so we have seen a few districts that have revoked their policies entirely um but the Attorney General um is taking action to make sure that there is no policy in place that would violate the state law against discrimination and this um particular issue obviously has gotten a lot of national attention it is a very high stakes issue for kids and there's a huge Danger in that sort of an outing so that's just one example um of something that we should be aware of that we shouldn't be violating state law a board could pass a resolution if they disagreed with the state law that would be an appropriate way to express your views as opposed to proactively putting in place a policy that violated the law question yeah so let me um sum up um as we're thinking about these issues uh the code of ethics is a anchor that we always want to keep in mind um you certainly want to also keep in mind the role that you can play in helping a promote a healthy workplace environment um and even though of course we can't control um what members of the community come up and say at a board meeting the way we respond can have a huge impact on that healthy workplace environment and when we have uh concerns coming from the community um properly address um directing them through the superintendent is really the best way to make sure the community is heard but we're not crossing the line um questions that anybody has regarding anything that we've covered today I have one um in relation to uh filing a complaint um like a healthy workplace environment is there like a timeline for that investigative process there is this is not even a mandated State policy so it's a it's an optional policy that districts many have adopted including Robinsville so there is there is no specific timeline um you could put one in place my worry about putting in place a timeline where it's not mandated under state or federal law is that some investigations are much more complex than others right so um it probably isn't wise to say that for example that every investigation will be done in 10 school days most probably would but you might have a just a complicated set of issues that you're working through so usually we don't see a timeline with the health the workplace environment other questions just so if you know when when we receive emails we're supposed to forward those to the superintendent correct yes if there is a complaint of any regard about the superintendent do you still refer that complaint to the superintendent yes you're still going to the superintendent giving the superintendent the opportunity to respond to the issue and that's very clearly spelled out in the um regulations and in the case law um you know superintendent it's not uncommon for somebody to disagree with the with the superintendant on some issue they have the opportunity to respond to that complaint um even if it's directly about them absolutely other questions or comments thank you for all that you do I know how important and how challenging Your Role is I know how much time goes into this role um so thank you and anything that we can do to support you uh please let us know thank you so much for having me here all right uh board president's report so I want to thank everyone for joining us this evening for the July Board of Education meeting as we find ourselves at the midpoint of the summer recess I hope all are enjoying the well-deserved fres and relaxation I would like to extend a warm welcome to our interm superintendent Dr Jeff Gorman uh he'll introduce himself in a moment uh we are thrilled to have you with us and look forward to your leadership and guidance during this transitional period this summer we have several exciting events to look forward to including grand opening at the preschool and the dedication of our new flag pole these Milestones reflect our ongoing commitment to enhance our educational environment and Foster a sense of community Pride please be on the lookout for the invitation to these events we look forward to celebrating with the community and our Municipal Partners as many many of you know our search for a permanent superintendent is well underway the board is diligently reviewing all the candidates to ensure we find the best possible fit for our District's needs and aspirations thank you again for the community's support and dedication to our schools we look forward to a productive engaging meeting tonight and I'll now pass it over to the superintendent's report before we do that can we uh have a motion to and board retreat and move into uh a regular business so moved second second all in favor all I any or extensions good evening members of the Board of Education staff parents and community members it is my honor and privilege to present my first superintendent report since joining the Robinsville Public School District on July 1st since my arrival I've been thoroughly impressed by the outstanding commitment to improving the student experience by all stakeholders that I've met so far and it has been 13 days after as of today and I am counting um to that end let's Dive Right In it's my pleasure to graciously accept on behalf of the Board of Education a very generous donation from the baps charity wathon that will help to fund our re 180 Program for the district in the amount of $220,000 are members present for that presentation y okay good not good I want to meet them um and we will meet them we've actually uh spoken to them about having our summer administrators Retreat um at their uh facility so I'm looking forward to um uh entering that partnership and meeting the community furthermore I've been briefed on an incredible program that is brought to the district through the Mera County prosecutor's office led by detective Marlon Webb who is here with us with his partner Sunny the dog um their work with restorative circles is at the heart of effective peer mediation and conflict resolution practices they have developed our students as leaders in this area um it's my pleasure to introduce Lori rundo our director of K12 Counseling Services who will give you an overview of the program and recognize the adults and students that have taken this program to the next level in our schools Lori [Music] come here here does that work okay yes it does okay thank you um I wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks to Dr Gorman and the board of education for taking the time to recognize the impactful work of our restorative circles teams I can't fully Express the profound gratitude and pride I have for our dedicated Educators remarkable student leaders who have exceeded our expectations and of course our model and friend detective Marlon Webb alongside his K9 partner and therapy dog our love of Sunny we are also incredibly thankful to Mercer County's first assistant prosecutor Jennifer Downing mathys for her unwavering support of this important initiative I would also like to recognize Mr Paul gizo principal of pwn Road Middle School and also Miss Molly Avery principal of Robinsville high school for their support of restorative circles and seeing the value in this great work I will be in introducing our team soon because many were able to come tonight which I'm so excited for because they deserve public recognition but first I'd like to highlight detective Marlon Webb and his K9 partner Sunny who reached out to Robinsville School District in March of 2020 he knows we're talking about him March of 2023 they invited us into their pilot program the Mercer County Prosecutors youth inclusion program specifically designed to combat youth biases identity based exclusion and bullying detective web and sunny have truly immersed themselves in our school community and with sunny pretty much becoming a local celebrity in our hallways as he walks through the hallways crowds come through and detective Marlin kind of Fades off into the wall because he truly is sunny is part of our school community and of course so is detective web so at this time I'd like to recognize detective web and sunny he's always ready detective web to support all of our students eager to meet and engage any of our youth so thank you so much he truly should be recognized as a community leader and has truly become a partner and a good friend detective thank you Lori so uh as introduced this is sunny I know that none of you can even see me sunny is camouflaged for me actually right so I'm not even really here right now um but thank you for recognizing the work that we're doing I first want to say that it's really not myself or Lori or even Sunny that does the work it's actually your student leaders so during this pilot program which just as of about two months ago became an initiative right something we'll be doing throughout the entire County um with our schools we really wanted to work with our young people and helping them to resolve conflict on their own own and you know that's a a big part of what we do at the prosecutor's office being a law enforcement agency and the the head law enforcement agency for the county we want to work with young people before they ever have to interact with us in the juvenile justice system and so in this we kind of consider this kind of like a school-based adjustment system as opposed to a police or a school house I'm sorry what we call it um a Station House adjustment and so the work that we've done the young people have learned about story of Justice they have learned about conflict resolution they've learned about bias they've learned about what questions to ask how to ask questions and I'm going to send Sunny with Detective Mansour because he wants to steal the show Sergeant manour excuse me go ahead sunny but in being brief all the things that we've worked with with the young people imagine it looks kind of like what you're sitting in right now like a half circle but we're in a circle and in that Circle the young people facilitate the young people ask questions and the young people help to restore and to mend within your own School environment so it's not something that I come in and I do and say hey young people here's what you're G to do literally I'm just a guardrail Sunny's there to keep people happy to work through social emotional issues with people just by being there at their feet but it's really your student leaders who are represented here who really do the work so I want to applaud the student leaders and thank them for for the hard work that they've done the hard work you've done has been what's allowed me to go to other schools and share our best practices and I think since you've begun you were one of the initial three in the pilot we now have seven schools that we're working in and it's just it's going amazing so thank you very much I appreciate you student leaders and I appreciate the school Community for embracing us and and helping us in this work additionally I have asked one of our recent graduates adise Tessa um to share a few words on the student leader perspective and her experience Adis um hi my name is Adisa fessa again I'm a recent graduate of rollinsville high school and um just speaking as a person that just graduated I been in Robinsville since preschool my preschool is literally two minutes down the street from Robinsville High School I've been through preschool Sharon Pond and Renville high school and can I just say I think it's is it it is amazing that we have been able to implement this program here because as a um as a minority in the school district I've been welcomed with open arms by the student body and by students and staff but obviously there are some things that that are going to be missed by adults or some other peers and I think this program is really a learning opportunity for everybody involved to learn what it's like to be in minority in um predominantly white spaces or just how to become comfortable with being with people that are different from you and I'm just so honored to speak on behalf of a uh ethiopian-american woman's perspective and I'm glad I've been able to listen to other people's perspective from their backgrounds and their ethnicities and just be able to engage in a very constructive and restorative conversation um amongst peers and students that are younger than me because once you start to educ educate the youth or youth I'm youth but um people that are younger than me you Foster a growth of a very empathetic and socially intelligent generation and I just think this is a wonderful step in the right direction to just create a very welcoming School District in hopefully County State however um far this program goes so I'm honored to be a part of it and I I hope that it's successful down the road so without further Ado I'd like to introduce our restorative Circle team and I'll have you all come up and receive your leadership award and also take a photo off opportunity as well so I'd like to first introduce Miss Laney Potter school counselor at Pawn Road Middle School Miss Daisha Cruz school counselor at Robinsville High School Miss Joanne Walker also a Robinsville high school counselor not able to attend this evening but instrumental in our team these women work tirelessly behind the scenes from coordinating the actual timing the space making sure students are arriving where they need to be and then preparing the students that are participating to make sure they feel still prepared and welcomed they know what they're about to walk into because we want to create that safe space they also communicate with the family so they understand what they walk into and then really the key is in that followup so the counselors then will work with those students afterwards to see how they were feeling work with the families and see if we need to do any more further work in regards to their growth and development because it's truly about education and giving chance for opportunity to then restore and then we all grow from that and we become a stronger School community so I thank you so much they also participate in the circles as well so I can't thank you both enough for doing this great work with us and who truly make it happen as detective Webb has mentioned is our phenomenal student leaders who have learned alongside of us we learned from them and they were willing up to give up their own time to a classmate on a weekly basis to help and support them more importantly they created a warm welcoming f free of judgment to engage an authentic conversation surrounding really difficult topics and they did it absolutely beautifully I can't say how proud I am of them and I'm just thrilled that they were part of our team they have created a strong Foundation that we can't wait to them build upon for next year so our high school restorative Circle team students that are here please join me cor Butler Aiden Den Gavin Hopkins Daffy langang LeBron rose and a Tessa please join me and these were the originals so they then came to pawn Road Middle School in the beginning part of the school year and they did the resor of circle team here and then they helped us train our Middle School team and I'd love to introduce our Middle School team who has worked truly on the go really since the springtime on a weekly basis every Monday with Detective web and Miss Potter that's Toni kraga Austin Ruffin Maro salako and N Singh please join me they truly are remarkable so thank you so much for recognizing the restorative Circle team e e e e e okay I'd like to continue my superintendent report um that was a great start and very authentic and I'm really looking forward to um seeing the results and the impact that this program has in our on our students and our community um I think it's it could be very potentially powerful especially developing the capacity of our students um to help um with mediation and conflict and just reflective learning and uh and expanding our thoughts okay as per the New Jersey Department of Education mandate and our Board of Education policy 5512 um I'm obligated to give you a verbal report on all acts of vandalism violence harassment and in intimidation and bullying by each School in what we say is reporting period two which covers the time period of January 1st 2024 to June 30th 2024 uh the state indicates four different categories violence vandalism substances and weapons the state also requires that we report restrain incidents um so in between that time period at Sharon Elementary School we had um one student that was rest over a period of time several times at Pawn Road Middle School there was one incident involving vandalism and at Robinsville high school there are five incidents involving substances and one incident of violence Additionally the school district completed 17 HIV investigations during this time period out of those 17 investigations as we know today five were founded in meeting the definition set forth by the anti-bullying Bill of Rights uh the five that were founded were at our Middle School the district completed an extensive amount of proactive programs and resources to support student safety um for example we participate annually in um programs such as a week of respect violence and vandalism awareness week and Red Ribbon Week in addition to what we just um saw from our student leaders and our restorative circles the district focuses on character education and social emotional learning infused throughout the curriculum in Daily routines our school counselors facilitate peer groups provide class lessons and individual counseling sessions um and as you witness in partnership with the Robinsville Township Police and merca County prosecutor's office uh we hope to be as proactive and create this um safe learning environment for students to fail forward and adults as well lastly we're grateful that we have um Rutter's Behavioral Health school-based clinicians and effective School Solutions school-based clinicians within our schools to support students and their families um and that concludes this annual Hib report other learnings that I'm proud to give you during my first 13 days on the job include but are not limited to the following um I've uh I'm really impressed with the district coming in from the outside um our technology department is exceptionally well managed ensuring that our students and staff have access to the district tools and resources as you'll hear in our technology ad hoc committee report in sep September we will be fully onetoone learning device School District with our Chromebooks um that is um that's that's important and it's it has taken time and and I think we'll the students will only benefit the rewards from um this philosophy likewise our buildings and grounds department is working tirelessly to maintain and improve our facilities providing a safe and conducive learning environment for our students um I've gotten the chance to meet with our principles and toured the schools already um I've never seen a custodial crew so active and busy in July I'm really really impressed with the oversight um I got to meet um some of our our custodians and workers um they are passionate and committed to our schools in terms of academics I'm pleased to report that our curriculum is being diligently Rewritten and aligned with the new 2024 Ela and Mathematics standards um this effort ensures that our students receive the most upto-date and comprehensive of Education possible I've also been impressed by the dedication and experience of our principles central office administrators and support staff who bring a wealth of knowledge and Leadership to our district I'm eagerly work looking forward to meeting our teachers and students in September um and these These are really as authentic comments as I can give you coming from the outside you have a really strong operating school district um as my first impressions um and my initial assessment of the district are um one of the most exciting developments that I've been brought in on is the implementation of our new pre kindergarten program which will allow us to welcome 165 three and four year old students into our district uh Dr Lori Burns our new director of prek is working side by side with our administrative team to get up and running for a smooth spectacular opening and I and I believe it will truly be a spectacular opening in September over the next few months you'll get to meet and get to know Dr Burns and her team um to celebrate this Milestone we are planning a ribbon cutting ceremony for the launch of our pre kindergarten program in August we're securing a date and we'll communicate that out as soon as we have finalized Arrangements um this commitment by the Board of Education in the district represents a significant investment in early childhood education and we are thrilled to provide these Young Learners with a strong foundation for their future academic success U I've also had the pleasure to meeting with mayor freed and members of the Town Council our discussions focused on potential joint Partnerships and how we can support each other to better serve the community of Robinsville thank you for wel welcoming me authentically to your school district and your continued support and commitment to our students and staff I look forward to working together to build on these successes and to continue providing an exceptional education for all of our students Mr President that concludes my first superintendent report thank you Dr Gorman it's a pleasure to have you uh any leaz on reports um real quick the Mercer County School Board Association did put out their dates for a meetings um right now they have meeting sched for SE September 19th November 21st January 23rd March 20th and May 12th the meeting start at six o'clock and they run till about 8:30 thank you Jeff anything else not seeing any uh the business administrator business uh board secretary report Mr mccre that was Miss bandua just she fell off the call but she is watching so I just want to see if should I call her back in or not so um let me cover two items and then we can introduce that all right so two items first uh P carryover this is the preschool expansion act carry this is a preschool program we have about $700,000 to carry over from last year um we're asking to carry it over immediately and use it immediately uh we have some more things to buy for preschool plus when we expand the program for next year we want to be able to buy things early as opposed to waiting to July so we're asking for that to be done and it's on the agenda tonight we do have around 19 at least 19 on um um on a list U to come back uh so we do want to explain the program the other item I have is before we go to monthly resolutions we need to strike one item out um it's not the whole item it's the baps donation of 20,000 we actually wrote read 180 and Math 180 I don't want you to think it's both it's read 180 it would be double the cost for both programs so um so that's item C4 B3 on page 14 so when you do your resolution it's going to be read 180 only okay can you repeat that Nick what it's page 14 for the baps donation it is for read 180 okay so in our early discussions um proactive communication and transparency is a goal of the Board of Education um and to that end um we've uh worked with Nick and the team and uh I've gotten to pick up on some um personalities and um work ethic and characteristics of the team they are very um sharp efficient and Incredibly hardworking so we we'd like to bring you a series of um budget presentations and um I'll ask the board president to please limit our presentations to 10 minutes and that is our own internal joke to make sure that we stay sharp and focused and month by month we will hold Nick to those 10 minutes during his presentations we will present everything will be put on our website and as we go through the year um it's on my hope that our community has a full um view of our entire budget uh process for Robinsville um we will happily engage in questions and uh transparency with you and so no time like the present um Nick has his first 10 minute slot um and we will be off and running and also say is if you see us switch seats at Future meetings it's because I'm running the clock to make sure it's 10 minutes all right I'm going to hit it right now 10 minutes keeping myself honest so uh thank you um when we talked about doing this uh there was a lot it was a great ask from from board members we want more information how do we do budgets it is a little complicated it's not what is normally done um and it's a different process right it's a governmental budget process with Appropriations and authorizations and I I made an agenda and it was multiple pages I would it would be here for days uh I mean stuff that I've learned over a decade of experience um just not in school districts but in the military as well it's just too much in one gulp so we're going to be doing it right now it'll be more background information for you to do research we'll then start going into revenues liabilities uh ways to cut expenses what we have done what what we can do um Revenue generating ideas Partnerships and so forth and as we go through this information that when we do a budget time we're not shocked um so um there's our agenda and I just you can read the intent right we just spoke about that and as things gaining priority just tell us through the business committee or Dr Gorman and we'll bump something up to a higher priority and we can talk about that uh as well these are hyperlinks that we've already made uh to some of the files that I have as well as our websites we're going to be posting this uh as well um so we have a whole budget document section uh in that section we have prior budget presentations going back to 20156 state aid notices everyone asks how those numbers change and fluctuate um this was important during the whole public question so people could do their own research that goes back to 1314 all the userfriendly budgets I have from 201617 audits um you know for since 2007 and8 um we are also going to post a fact finding presentation um that was done in February uh or it was ready to present in February of 2023 um that document even though it is a a little bit old that document cost about $10,000 to make for fact finding so Mr Carri and I spent a lot of weekends working on it a lot of historical information it is well over I think a 100 slides we were going to spend hours presenting it you're more than welcome to go through it um it is some of the information is stale it is stale but you're going to see a pattern in there that oh my gosh like we knew some some things um and some of our bad uh projections came true um employee contracts so all the contracts will be posted uh including our our contracts as Administration uh Union contracts as well so you can look at those um some school districts post that we're going to be one of those as well we're going to post it all um there's no need to Oprah those documents they're all going to be posted um as they should be I have a comparisons as well uh extraordinary Aid this is state funded we actually got about 100 grand less than we were supposed to yes and so they funded it less even though our costs are going up um and we budget that so we budgeted a higher number it came down and remember I said you know I'm guessing how much money we're gon to have at the end of June 30th and that number just came out after the budget is over so that's why we say how much are we going to have her fund balance roll over to use the following year that has a play on it um federal grants our history of federal grants we have a trend of going down in federal grants not much but once again um we budget 85% so it's higher than we budget but lower almost every year um and you can see those charts as well and then taxpayers guide to educational spending I'm going to go more into that and how to look that up because a lot of the data that this board is asking for in the public is there it's outdated but it's there and you can see the trends um so how to research tges you L just Google tges and it'll take you plus we have the hyperlinks The Years start at 2023 that's actually 22 23 budget year right and it goes back I don't have it on the screenshot but there's about 15 years worth of data the state takes everyone's budgets and gives reports based on that so I clicked on 2023 the most recent hopefully in a month or so they'll post the 2024 numbers but I don't don't hold me to that but when those come out we'll be looking at them you can click by indicator State averages you can download the zip files and they also give you instructions how to read it and what they mean if you can read all that there are 21 indicators that Dave this decided that they'd be comparing to over 15 years and at the bottom is transportation efficiency and your district index Transportation efficiency is how efficient is your transportation department your buses since we have three tier busing we're very efficient in that um your indicators what your budget cost per kid what are your legal services we were just talking about that and you can pull up that info and what they typically do is they'll break it down by District size and GR groupings and then they'll give you actual spending and budgeted spending overall and I'll show you a screenshot of that and then you can see your ranking so when you hear people say oh we spend a lot on this and you're like uh no we don't or we don't spend enough and well actually we do spend a lot in that department and so you can look at those um but it's administrative costs equipment costs um you know how much is your Surplus and so forth so you can go go through those uh those numbers so here's a a screenshot um this is example eight Administration always people always ask you you know we have commentary from the public you're too many administrators well go take a look at the numbers so even though this is the 2023 budget numbers 2021 22 is actuals and almost all the time your budgeted number is going to be higher that's not just us that's everybody and recall what happened in 23 24 27 and a half staff positions were pulled so if you think your numbers are low or high at this point try to guess what it would be after all those reductions when most of our competitors received an increase in their budget okay so when you do this um it's already have a filter on it I I tell you to filter it we are a K12 school district, 181 to 3500 that is the number of students so obviously the more students you have you should be more efficient the less students you have there's a lot of overhead k8s cost less than k12's why because High School's expensive it's more expensive more clubs more Sports uh more specialized roles and uh different programs that are staff at different levels um so we have 74 like districts and it'll rank them one of 74 two of 74 and then you can see the cost in there per pupil and they do all that math for you eight minutes so um yeah any questions on that all right reg was this uh is this something new or is was this available all the while tges 15 years plus so when you ask us for reports we pull that when Dr wisuki and I make reports on on scores and testing I'll pull that and we'll pull it together and he'll pull test scores or I'll pull the userfriendly budgets that are more up to date but if once this gets updated we'll have that um as well in there so we're waiting for those updates uh yeah and you it takes a grain of salt too sometimes it's as good as you put the numbers in but you see trend lines so if you're if you're a number five and you're you know you comp parenting a six or seven you're in the same grouping but if you know it's completely different between one school or another it's a big thing now you can compare by County the the filter button is is there and you can go take a look at that yeah I think I think this is really good from a data perspective but you know data is always left to interpretation right I think uh the only concern that I have is you know if anyone is researching and coming back with the result of you know where we are from a ranking perspective how do we explain that particular stuff um I don't know if there is an answer to it I don't go and see our school district is number seven or number eight or number two what what are the reasons what are the what are the what is the context behind that I think some of that might be missing in here uh I think that is something that we need to think about on those indicators and have some answers when someone comes back with a question that's all thank you agreed yes any other questions for Nick I'm sorry uh the one the paa carry over 700 that's that's the preschool money that we're carrying over to the next year just want to clarify so that's last year's as in three weeks ago we didn't spend all two and a half or 2.7 million um and we'll carry that uh we made a lot of purchases a lot of POS are out there um and you're going to see it in the audit it's going to be inflating our money that rolls over because you know 800 Grand in playgrounds well they just started I had to roll that so we're rolled we rolled about a million and a half more than than we normally would just in purchase orders plus I'm asking for this as well so um it's it's sizable it's not normal that you do it in this way it is allowable but we have to go to the county and approve that so yeah thank you you're welcome any other questions for Nick Nick we gave you a challenge you exceed our expectations as usual thank you okay public comment on agenda item only have a motion to open um public comment for uh 3 minutes person for 30 minutes second all in favor I any n or extensions all right time will be allowed for public comment at this meeting members of the public wishing to address the board of education on agenda items must State their name municipality and the group if any they represent a member of the public shall not be permitted to speak until he or she is recognized by the presiding officer in accordance with District policy 0167 each comment shall be limited to 3 minutes no participant may speak more than once no dialogue between a speaker and the board and or superintendent shall extend the three minutes uh live streaming of the event shall be for viewing only uh although the board encourages public comment the presiding officer can interrupt Warn and or terminate participant statement question or inquiry when it is too lengthy and may also interrupt and warn a participant when the statement question or inquiry is abusive obscene or maybe defamatory inherence to the protoc established by the New Jersey Board uh boards Association the board will use this public comment period as an opportunity to listen to residing concerns I'm sorry to resident concerns but not to debate issues or to enter into question and answer period issues raised by members of the public may require review and investigation and may or may not be responded to by the board or superintendent during the meeting please come forward for p the comment on agenda items only good evening nin can Robinsville Mr Gorman welcome I have been a member of Robinsville Township for past 22 years both of my girls went to school here graduated and I've been very much involved for past 15 years seeing it all being there walked yelled screamed got yelled at and all of it and I want to welcome you and um I hope that we can have a very good relationship with the community of Robinsville that being said you said very wonderful thing about our community we are all very proud of it we've worked really hard I worked really hard on my end so I want to ask you what did you see as a person who just walked in that we need to work upon I know that we did very well in a lot of parts of it but I am much more interested to hear what you think that we should more work on and I would like you to share it with us not only with the board share it with the residents I like to know what we would be doing better and I know that you're not allowed to answer me now but I would appreciate after my three minutes if you could tell me anything you can and with that being said um I wanted to ask about is carry over 700,000 and you know Nick that I would ask so I'm sorry um can you explain it a little bit more because we said 2.7 million and then now we have 700,000 that we are going to carry over to the next year so I like to if you can explain it a little bit more my calculation is a little bit off and also about this tges um I didn't know this link or this place exist am I allowed to go in it am I allowed to link it and open it and look into it and check it because it's very very complicated I don't know if you're a if you're aware of a system named labor litics and EST Strada which is same thing that I see in here what I use in the hospital but this is very complicated and uh I wanted to know and the page that you had for hyperlink uh page that had a lot of stuff hyperlink am I allowed to go in there am I going to be able to see it uh Touch It Go in it look into it um I would appreciate if you could uh explain a little bit about that um and again um thank you very much uh for the um for coming in here and helping us out and also I wanted to thank uh whomever was involved with the uh inviting the first uh speaker that was very very interesting there was a lot of question that from the audience we could have asked him that about our board but unfortunately we never get a chance to question and it's only all of you and we cannot text you in the middle of it and say ask this so I hope the next time if we get a chance that we get a chance to ask our questions from the person who is talking about you and what you guys have to do thank you my three minutes is up Bridget formo I think it's been 26 years now or more that I've been a resident of robins so I just have a question with uh what the attorney um presented I might not have heard him correctly but I thought he said that if um a school board disagrees with a state mandate that you can pass a resolution but then I thought I also heard him say that you still have to implement it so I'm a little confused and I'm wondering where I can go to you know gain clarification um as to what a school board can in fact do when there's a supposed you know mandate or whatever comes down from the state that uh perhaps the community or the board is agreement with thank you any other public comment for agenda items okay not seeing any have a motion to close the first public comment session so moved second all in favor I any needs or extensions okay um can I have a motion to resolve the June uh regular board meeting minutes so moved second all in favor I I any needs or extensions okay committee reports at policy Miss Leman thank you we had a very efficient meeting um on the six 16 at 6 o' um we reviewed board reg board policies and regulations for board members responding to emails which we also got a brief overview about in the beginning of our meeting tonight um then the administration discussed additional Pathways for math placement um including using njsla data which will be coming back in August they also provide an additional option for this year for students in algebra one part one and two to work independently using the xl.com program and those students will be granted access to take the Algebra 1 final exam and depending on their score or however they do they may have access to higher level courses in the high school um I just want to make sure that I mentioned that the administrative team met with all the parents who contacted them there were seven um to discuss that process with them uh the preschool update the preschool projections wait list and classroom updates were provided um they discussed sending out a letter to preschool parents with a deadline for applying to the red program so that they can facilitate staffing needs and scheduling and then lastly we discussed updating the grading policy for um independent study and option two for students taking those classes at the high school um a recommendation was made to keep the courses on the students transcripts but removed the grading from their GPA actionable items for tonight included um the yearly update for the RPS emergency virtual remote instruction plan for 2425 and approving the agreement with Princeton University to participate the PD Network for the amount of $2,325 um in our upcoming meetings we're going to be discussing policy updates and and an I ready date of review which will take place at our next meeting which will be August 13th at 6 thank you thank you Miss Leman Personnel Dr Pi so like Tanya said we had a a full meeting as well so the meeting took place on July 16th at 7 o'clock right after at policy was concluded board members present were Jay Nadia Anthony and myself uh Dr Gorman Dr wusi Miss defasio and M Tremors were also in attendance uh we started the meeting by talking about our monthly Staffing spreadsheet led by Miss Tremor we also uh our second item was about our affirmative action officer we are making a switch from M Tremors to Dr wuki um Mr oosuki holds an administrative C so it's more appropriate and he will be completing the formal certification training um by in August our third topic on the agenda was the assistant director of student services search update um as of July 18th there have been a total of 40 applicants and we'll be moving forward with the first round interviews as well our fourth agenda topic was um discussing how to attract hard hard to fill areas such as physics and Mathematics sorry Science and Mathematics um and where we put different people on the guide in this competitive atmosphere for teachers our fifth agenda was exit interviews where we look to develop a formal process to interview uh employees who are leaving the district our sixth agenda topic was um about independent study at the high school so we received a number of independent study sections um we're contracted in the contract 15 uh we actually had 18 requests so the committee agreed on a one-time allowance um for three additional um students to take the independent study and our last agenda topic was Employee request so we reviewed the process for requesting the use of personal days that conflict with teacher and administrative contracts um example like personal days um right after a holiday our action items were um the monthly Staffing sheet approval that's on the agenda tonight and also the switch in District affirmative action officer that's it thank you Dr Pi uh business myself we met on July 15th um the first group of uh agenda items were maintenance of the facilities we uh we talked about the rhf uh rhs generators the H the AC units in uh pond in and Sharon we also reviewed the rod Grant That'll be uh leveraged to help pay for some of this as well and get a reimbursement um we also talked about the um the rhs stage the uh which is all covered by the rental fees associated with that property um the business the the board is going to try to have that a presentation for what is being done there to to highlight to the community what that renovation looks like it's a pretty big deal for the high school it's a huge renovation so we want to share that with the communi so everyone can see what that looks like um in here the upgrades in here are pretty large as well so you know those in the room can see it but we'll have a presentation for the community as well to see the upgrades for the board meetings um and the rhs uh flag pole um summer projects we we've been talking about the preschool and and getting the preschool ready um rhs has some other initiatives for um electricity internet uh Sharon Elementary School there's the cricket pitch uh that we're partnering with the uh Robinsville Cricket Association on um and then sorry we went over you know just the the how we're going to report the grants and everything and and and have that for the public so the public can see what grants the the district has and what they cover and when they will expire and what will happen potentially if they expire so we'll have a little more information for the the community on that um we talked about the board retreat and that was pretty much all the topics for there the board will the business me will now meet in August on the 19th any questions all right commun relations Mr Nandan thank you uh we met on July 9 2024 6 PM uh we discussed several topics the first one was engaging the community to paint the the prms cafeteria so we wanted to see if we can actually have a place where students can display their artwork uh Administration has taken an action to come back how that can be achieved the second topic was how do we involve students uh specifically on the school board I'm happy to actually say that Administration has taken not only an action but effective September we will have two student representatives to sit with the board during the meetings and deliver a student report of activities and student events um and I think there is also a plan to create superintendent student cabinet which have already started students from grades 5 to 12 will meet with the superintendent and the member of the cabinet every other month to discuss current topics and provide feedback we also discussed about the backpack drive and community events um happy to say that the Girl Scout Troop fundraised and will be providing 50 backpacks filled with school supplies to the district uh we are still discussing how um all the additional opportunities to participate in community events in engage in professional development and support local charities the next topic that we discussed was reviewing the district resource to supportal and Hib Jeff thank you very much for uh inviting laori randu dist District of sorry director of counseling and wellness uh we had a good discussion on HIV protocols that we have in place in procedures and explored additional opportunities for wellness and mental health to support resources we also uh continue to discuss engaging senior community members um in our school we have brainstormed some ideas and Administration has an action item to come back on how we can achieve um some of those and there is also an ongoing communication and transparency as another subject so we are discussing uh the discussion was on the need for the additional training for Community to improve communication efforts through parents Square the next meeting is scheduled for August 6 2024 thank you thank you Mr Nan any questions for Ru no um security um I unfortunately was not in attendance the last one I've asked Mr glot and he graciously accepted to review the notes thank you Peter so the committee met on July 2nd um we talked about various topics one being the um improvements as per the security audit that was conducted we received updates from our Police Department SRO uh we discussed about our antenna systems and looking to submit the grant uh for the system we also talked about the County Office of training a lot of discussion on matters related to um security which can't get into discussion but a lot of security related concerns as it pertains to technology vendor management ID badge management um we talked about our generators to ensure that the installation has started uh and last but not least to make sure there's a Refresh on our aeds um next meeting is scheduled for August 16th May potentially get pushed back due to U some scheduling conflicts and that's the update on security thank you thank you Mr clot any questions for Jay nope ad hoc special education hi hi Community um so Georgine Johnson and I met on Friday July 19th we usually hold our meetings the Friday before um our board meeting so we talk aled about an esy update we have 175 District students between Sharon and the rhs um program successfully running at both um the second is that we had an AED replacement we're replacing the aeds the heart monitoring system throughout our uh Robinsville with new devices and remote monitoring capabilities to enhance the safety of our facilities and support all the students um the preschool classes uh for special ed also are getting a refresh um in conjunction with the paa classroom supported by the influx of our preschool instructional supplies and furniture purchased with the Ida funds um our child study team is going to continue to work through the summer to ensure that all students are by being identified and supported this is the busiest time for special ed uh and so I know they're working extremely hard and the last thing we talked about is play unified unified advisers continue to meet and plan for successful clubs and crossb building interaction and inclusion for the upcoming school year this includes the Grant application and activity plan planning thank you thank you Mr Angel any questions for Amanda or comments nope last but not least technology Mr glot thank you Peter so we met on July 22nd uh we talked about a distributor and Tennis system and again similar to the security committee uh a lot of tiing with technology and security over here uh that we have submitted for the cops Grant uh and again the township is also be submitting for funding as well we talked about the updates that we needed to our system such as generators which has been completed as well as our unified power supply that has also been completed various summer initiatives which is upgrading our core infrastructure this is our technology infrastructure uh upgrading our firewalls for Safety and Security uh as uh Dr Gman talked about the bring your own device one to1 across dtic so very proud of the technology uh Team to getting that completed we also talk about replacing the um desktop for the teachers and the various Chrome groups in addition to that um we discuss about creating multiple wireless networks to accommodate the various device Ty as man I just talked about the a so this where they can effectively communicate as well as looking at various processes such as onboarding for both students and staff one of the areas we are always looking to see how can we save money so in this scen area we're saving thousands of dollars for ensuring that we're bringing on a part-time Tech maintenance so we don't have to Outsource up that work and that part-time person can work on that other areas um institution of multiactor authentication again this is security of our email infrastructure uh when school CHS other points of discussion that we talked about is looking at a backup for internet if there's an outage uh talking about our Bandit for the phone system and last but not least another area where as part of the security audit that was conducted we are going to have to invest in our physical security uh that's going to require a significant amount of investment upwards of $1.5 to $2 million um and this is coming out of a security audit that was conducted so the committee is going to be discussing more how can we effectively Safeguard our schools from a physical security perspective as well as making sure we're staying compliance so more to come on that in our future discussions thank you thank you m clot any questions comments for Jay not seeing anything uh monthly resolutions the superintendent recommends that the Board of Education approve the following action items a through C except for the one that Nick outlined for the second line of the baps contribution um any discussion around a through C can I have a motion to start the you want a motion motion to motion to motion to approve yeah I have a motion to approve the monthly resolutions so moved second discuss discussion I'm sorry Nick can you explain the $700,000 rollover yeah so like our normal budget um your year ends on June 30th um and you have money left over um just like a bank account it's left over what do you do with it in a school district or in government we're not allowed to touch it until July of the next budget year so two budget years you can't touch it so that money is Tech called a carryover sometimes it's called fund balance sometimes it's called legal reserves all this money uh we talk about how much is left over so of all the money that we were given slash allocated by the state um we spent a whole bunch of it as in paid people paid for equipment and then we cut a lot of purchase orders so we it's like cutting a check I promise to pay you down that money automatically rolls over the remainder is fund balance or carryover um and we're requesting it to be used now because I don't want to wait till July 1 of 2025 and when I say use it now we already purchased some school supplies for the preschool about $100,000 and a few other items plus we can also buy when we expand the program and figure out how many classrooms that's going to be we don't have to wait to next budget year especially when Furniture takes a while so it's a long answer it's just when you write it out and draw on the board it makes sense like this money you have to use it and it carries over same exact way about um carries over for other grants so Ida and Esa those grants we received last year you have sometimes it's literally $100 sometimes it's tens of thousands you couldn't spend it all or something happened you'll see me come in and put an amendment with Dr winki and the CH that we want this money to roll over and use it as well so you'll see us do those amendments in in November just want just want to clarify again like this is Grand's money this is not operating budget money which we are carrying this is preschool expansion Aid money it can only be used for preschool only preschool program only not taxpayer dollars this is the state aid for preschool I'm not giving myself a pay raise or I've heard that or hiring administrators it is preschool money we're already spending it uh with your Authority tomorrow I have to send it out to the county uh for approval and they'll send it back uh either denying or accepting it it's almost always accepted um and then we'll adjust from there but it has to be a formality normally this is done during the budget process but we can't wait once your program is completely set it'll follow its normal cycle any other discussion not see anything Nick Roll Call oh roll call Sorry Miss bandua absent Mr Gadi yes Miss Hill D'Angelo yes Mr Howard yes Miss Leman yes Mr nond yes Mr Ray yes Dr Pier yes and Mr Albert yes thank you everyone for supporting us okay fast forwarding to Old business any old business for discussion not seeing any any new business um Nick used only 8 minutes there's still 2 minutes left so the tges is accessible by the public it is not something locked down Nick it is absolutely accessible by everyone in the public literally Google tges nobody else has it it like I think New Jersey coined the term it will pop up number one and you can look at any school district just like other students your student scores and New Jersey school performance all public you can compare us to other schools and our grades all public unfiltered data and and Nick this is maintained by the state not by us maintained by the state so one more um you know I think it was a great presentation that we had earlier on the dos and don'ts and you know if it's a state mandate versus what can the individual School District do if there's an opportunity to um take that presentation and you know put it onto the website or share it with the community and um like any other parent you know they may be like a do and a don't and what if scenario if there's a lot of good scenarios that was present and I know we had great discussions on the responsibility of the board and the responsibility of the public and Etc so maybe we can share that with the community so there's awareness uh as well as making sure if there's any questions that are coming out of that if we can address that as well so I think I think it we have to ask the presenter if we're able to share that it's his presentation for these kind of settings um I know I know he's given us access I'm not sure how much access uh but we'll get that I will be sending it to the whole board it is ours for the board to view it is not public I mean he Presents Across the state New Jersey school boards this is his living um so but Nick normally with with legal one um there a requirement for sharing their presentations and maybe something you can clarify with Mr Nash is legal one just wants to make sure they're being given credit for the report because I've sat through numerous you know Nash presentations um and they always kind of give that disclaimer on it that um you know as long as you say it's from legal one kind of give them their shout out and their credit that they normally are very generous in sharing information and the reason why I just bring that up is I think it's also a very important thing to educate the community on these roles right and I think that part of our job um you know through probably through our community relations Is to make sure that information um what's going on even like the idea of like our meeting is a fishable right like people get to watch an open meeting take place it's not necessarily an interactive meeting where the whole Community is having a a joint session here so I think those those kind of things it's it's not intuitive for the public to know that um so I think any opportunity we have that we can share that information and be transparent with that is advantageous for us and yep and and any any other resources he would recommend when you follow up with him that we could share with the public that's that is online as well just not you know outside of his presentation but thank you Jeff that's that's a good point and and Nick the presentation that you actually went through with all the hyperlinks that will also be posted yes you can send it out the s'more as well we'll get you that slide deck any other new business one quick question when can the public expect it to be posted online uh it'll come out with the s'more that the community relations puts out thank you and then a lot of my hyperlinks um other the state ones are already live I mean it's a state mine I haven't double checked but as of yesterday we're updating most of them but the budget presentation the audits the state aid numbers that's been on for well over a year if not a couple of years I've had those up there and it's under business section in Department's business in our website and you'll see all the ones that we have and it's like how to do an open request how to what bids are out there you know and so forth so there's a lot of documentation thank you Nick any other new business not see anything public comment on school related matters can I have a motion open public comment on agenda and non agenda items for 30 minutes so moved second all in favor I any needs or exensions okay um I won't read the long statement again same same rules as before please come up to the microphone hi Julie Katana Robinsville New Jersey um thank you so much for your committee um presentation on education and um the math placement um I spoke last um board meeting and several other parents spoke as well because we do have concerns and our concerns really are with the process and how we got here and I would really welcome maybe at your next committee meet meeting you could maybe take a deeper dive and see how the process works and maybe look at maybe some of the flaws and how we can maybe address that for next time or in the future so thank you so much any additional public comment not see anything can I have a motion to close the second public comment so moved second all in favor any needs or extensions nichel criticized my inefficiency by not closing the meeting at the same time but I'll do it now can I have a motion to close the meeting so moved second all in favor I any n or extensions thank you everyone have a good evening