to a meeting of the Board of Education of Somerset Hills please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public media consistent with the open public meetings act an advanced notice required therein has been provided this is a meeting of the Board of Education of Somerset Hills at which formal action may be taken the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda roll call please Mr Baker here miss Ballard here miss Cooper here Mrs D gr pre here miss gills here Mr Joyce Miss Nathans here Mrs Santoro here Mrs Ry here and Mrs fenda here okay executive session the open public meetings act authorizes a public body to exclude the public from the portion of a meeting at which specifi topics are to be discussed under circumstances where the public consideration of such topics will clearly endanger the public or where the personal privacy or guaranteed rights of individuals whose activities or Affairs are to be discussed would be clearly in danger of unwarranted invas and the matters about to be presented for discussion clearly meet the circumstances test of such act that the Board of Education of Somerset Hills now adjourns its public session to reconvene an executive session for the purpose of discussing the following Personnel student matters contracts negotiations and litigations can I please have a motion to go into executive session miss Cooper and a second Miss Ry okay thank you okay as we've got some more people filtering in good even evening everybody and if I could ask you all to rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all for joining us this evening and I am going at this time to hand it over to Dr brochel for the report of the superintendent thank you Mrs frienda uh we're going to start off with our student Representatives uh from the middle school and the high school we're going to start with our middle school students and they are representing our softball and our baseball program uh over at the Middle School uh Abby Ren is uh a speaker um as is a good friend Luke so we're going to invite them up and um ladies first good evening my name is Abby Ren and I'm a seventh grad at BMS I play center field on the BMS softball team we currently have 10 members on our team our coaches are coach struble and Coach M Nera this is my second year on the school softball team and both years have been amazing so far practices began March 5th where only four people came but since then we have gotten more and more people to sign up and show up to practice I'm really happy to see how many people love the sport as much as I do and people new to softball are excited for the season to start I'm looking forward to seeing our new players trying out a sport that I love and hopefully winning all season long I'm excited for new challenges and to overcome them with my fellow teammates I hope to see us improve even more as the season continues last year was a blast which makes me even more excited for this season also going on at the middle school is a fifth and sixth grade Musical they'll be performing 101 Dalmatian Junior the students in the cast have been working very hard on this production learning lines choreography and staging we also have a stage crew have been busy all learning all the tech including how to work with our brand new digitally controlled sound system this show will be performed Thursday and Friday night now I'm going to turn this over to Luke my name is Luke saxel and I'm in eighth grade at BMS I play Short Stop on our baseball team we currently have 17 members on the team and our coaches are coach Malik and Coach infusino I've been playing baseball for over 10 years now and this is my third and final year at BMS practices began Wednesday March 6th where only pitchers and catchers reported to practice Monday March 11th the entire team came to practice and we started the season off strong WR I'm looking forward to getting ready for high school baseball as this is my last year at BMS I will use this year to practice and improve as well as helping my teammates improve in the process this year I be I hope to become a more prepared for the high schools of high school the more prepared for the challenges of high school baseball and have a successful last season in my middle school baseball career last year's team was a life-changing experience for my teammates and me and even though we lost a tough game in the championship it was a season that we'll always remember this season we hope to build on that thanks for listening and have a good night thank you so much Abby and Luke and best of luck to you this season uh wishing you well and certainly looking forward to catching a few games of yours uh we have our student speakers from the high school Gabrielle and Madison are here tonight good evening I'm Madison your student representative for BHS spring sports are gearing up at BHS with official practices starting tomorrow many of the sports like both lacrosse teams have already started captains practices though the spring Sports trips to Florida are coming up with the boys lacrosse team and softball team leaving next week and the baseball the following week the St Balck fundraiser just took place at BHS which was the first one yet sophan and Aura parente organized the event in honor of Campbell Hoy who tragically passed away due to Childhood Cancer but would have graduated uated along with the class of 2024 the event had many students and faculty members shaved their heads and it raised over $20,000 Tuesday and Wednesday of this week the juniors partook in the NJ GPA testing this is a standardized test that they need to graduate the sophomores will also be taking the PS the PSAT 10 tomorrow thank [Music] you hi um I'm Gabrielle deola the other student representative um so in the first weekend of March BH theater Department performed Joseph an Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat the initial in school show showing of The First Act offered students the opportunity to get excited about all the hard work theater members had put into the musical their Productions after were also a major success bringing the audience bringing into the audience students faculty in the community on March 5th girlup hosted guest speakers from ING or the Islamic Network group and invited other student leader groups at BHS to attend the panel featured a Jewish American and a Muslim American who both shared their respective obstacles that these groups face in America and how we can combat anti-Semitism and Muslim hate students from BHS left for Harvard model Congress last week of March and came back professional and accomplished delegates a total of four BHS students won the competitive best delegate award including ardin AO PR NES thope Killian schogger and John toer to add to the many exciting events for students this pack this past weekend was a senior fashion show where a great deal of students participated either showing off to Ric clothing items from local businesses or helping out behind the scenes host by Logan Richie Milo dobo and our very own doc Ferrara it was a truly memorable and fun night thank you thank you Gabrielle and Madison [Music] next on the agenda for tonight is a series of recognitions for the winner track team uh as a unit uh and also um three recognitions for some student athletes who've done um some particularly noteworthy work um in the sectional championships for um group two uh so we're first going to uh call up ayya Johnson Aya so aa's a high jumper um Paul Walter I'm sorry Paul Walter um and um no come on you you're not uh-uh if you're going to pull Vault that high you you got to you have to be embarrassed a little bit right so uh AA won the njsa North two group two winner track sectional Championship uh as I said in the pole ball and tonight the Somerset Hills Board of Education gives special honor and commodation uh to Aya uh because she performs at the highest athletic level uh with effort responsibility and certainly a positive attitude uh we have a resolution here that reads whereas AA Johnson is part of the Bernards High School winter track team and has distinguished herself as a true champion of whom we can all be proud whereas AA Johnson was named P Vault sectional Champion with an achievement of an 8ot jump now therefore be a resolved by the Somerset Hills Board of Education that the members of the Board of Education hereby commend AA Johnson for her strong athletic accomplishments talent and skill for the honor of being crowned sectional Champion by the New Jersey state inter Scholastic Athletic Association when the Somerset Hills Board of Education adjourns on this day it does so in honor of achievements earned by Aya the Board of Education secretaries directed to have this resolution reflected in the permanent minutes of the Somerset Hills Board of Education on this day Aya congratulations well we have a second Honore uh for winning the njsa north 2 group 2 winter track sectional championship and that is John Richardson it's John [Applause] here so um we do have a resolution here for you as well John uh giving honor and commodation uh for your athletic accomplishments uh John was named sectional champion uh for the 1600 meter run with a time of 4 minutes and 24 seconds and at 800 M run with a time of 2 minutes and two seconds which is significantly quicker than what I could do right um it's resolved by the Summerset Hill Board of Education that the members hereby commend you John for your athletic accomp accomplishments your talent your skill and for being honored and crowned as a sectional Champion by the New Jersey State athletic association congratulations [Music] John we have a third Honore tonight who could not be with us his name is Trevor Sardis and Trevor uh was also a sectional champion in the high jump he jumped 5 feet 10 in and we certainly uh congratulate joh uh Trevor uh as well for this accomplishment [Music] we're going to honor a coach here coach Alyssa Samson um come on [Applause] up she always has the biggest smile and she is uh involved in a lot of great things uh at the high school uh she does a lot of great work uh with our Runners and um she was a coach here for The Boys winner track team and as a team as a unit they won the njsiaa North 2 group 2 sectional Championship so uh this is a big deal uh for the district Alyssa and it's a big deal for you and we have a resolution for you you're welcome um uh there's a specific part of this resolution that I will read aloud in the interest of time it says where as Alysa Samson is a part of an athletic leadership team whose shared goal is to afford every student athlete the opportunity to learn and to work in a highly competitive setting and uh you do it well you do it beautifully and uh we're going to resolve tonight that the Somerset Hills Board of Education hereby commend you for Leading The Boys winner track team to the sectional Championship congratulations thank and we're going to call Matt finst up is Matt here um okay so Matt did some great things too with with Coach Samson and he was also a coach with the team and um uh we have a resolution uh that will be in the minutes as well so we will get that uh to him Eileen shimone I don't think she's here okay so uh she has a resolution also that we will get to her that is part of okay now we are going to honor uh the team itself um many of whom were able to be uh here tonight um Although our first uh Honore is not able to um and that would be Zachary baral um so we have a resolution here that I'm going to read once for the whole team uh resolution honoring uh the particular team member's name uh for winning the njsiaa north 2 group 2 winner track sectional Championship um the Somerset Hills Board of Education gives special honor and commodation to those who perform at the highest level with great effort great responsibility and a positive attitude uh these particular members were a part of the Bernards High School winter track team and they have distinguished themselves as true champions of whom we can all be proud now therefore be it resolved by the board uh that the members of the board hereby commend the particular team member uh for their strong athletic accomplishments talent and skill and for the honor of being crowned sectional Champion by the New Jersey state inner inter Scholastic Athletic Association when the Somerset Hills Board of Education adjourns on this day it does so in honor of these teammates and the board of education secretary is directed to have this resolution reflected in the permanent minutes of the Somerset Hills Board of Education on March 13th 2024 our second Honore uh on the team is Julian [Applause] bunk congratulations thank you well done Preston Chen [Music] Benjamin [Applause] Connell Dean [Applause] Connell Milo consola kusuna Carson [Applause] Crane Sean [Applause] cross Samuel Deutsch Michael [Music] [Applause] douly ree [Applause] Donahue Ari Dory could not be with us tonight we can clap though also unable to be with us tonight is Jacob [Applause] dubout also able to be unable to be with us tonight is Maxwell fredman Hudson George Sean Griffin is able to be with us tonight conratulations Matthew [Applause] Holier Cody King un unable to be with us tonight is Aiden K Daniel Nathans is unable to be with us tonight but I'll give hints to his mom Jaden Phillips Daniel [Applause] Richardson unable to be with us tonight was John [Music] Tober and our last Honore for the team is Brody Watt one last round of applause for all the honores tonight what you all accomplished certainly is a big feat and uh I'm glad that it won't be forgotten congratulations we're going to make a transition uh bit of a transition here to uh talk about um some of the news coming out of the district in the last month or so [Music] [Music] [Music] y the high school speakers spoke to this but over 900 people attended the High School production of Joseph in the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat performers at Bernard's high school did not disappoint in large part due to the student uh to to the 40 student actors tech crew stage crew pit Orchestra and faculty advisers uh we have uh this article that's on the screen now up on the news section of the district website Lauren OD day's classroom at Bedwell Elementary School turned into a hospital recently this past month students were dressed as medical staff and use math manipulatives to build arrays and review the distributive property in mathematics with their patients they also performs performed sentence surgery as they took simple sentences and combined them into compound and complex sentences students read read mystery stories and made diagnosises using evidence to support their prediction it was another great day in Somerset Hills and another great example of Somerset Hills teachers making learning [Music] engaging four high school students recently had their own light bulb moment on a bus ride home from a science technology engineering and math stem for short competition uh in short they just knew they had to host their own stem competition uh the high school students organized and ran their very own stem competition and I was joined um by parent Lucian speri who's a civil engineer uh Mr Bob Baker a board of education member and an engineer uh Mrs Santoro uh who's a board member and a parent of a future engineer um and we were all guest judges uh it was a tremendous day um the day was only enhanced uh as the entire event was run by students was run by students planned by students executed by students and um it took great pleasure being directed by students uh all day long as far as uh where to go uh how to exercise um our judging rubrics and how to work through uh this competition it was a full day event uh it was very very well planned very well attended uh by six other school districts and um it was just great to see to model research skills to our third grade students at Bedwell teachers Beth Ruden Sarah mcshain Laura oday and Ali Thomas encourage students to explore a variety of resources including books and websites to learn about different Native American cultures essential questions guided their learning what are some of the fundamental beliefs of Native American cultures in what ways are Native American cultures similar and different students used critical thinking made evidence-based inferences and discussed life skills such as problem solving and perseverance they took notes they organized their research and had many interesting discussions with their classmates the fiscal year audit was covered uh in a press release as highlighted last month uh with a clean audit from our uh Auditors as they audited our uh the FIS uh 2023 fiscal year it was covered by the high school but Bears repeating on the evening of March 7th uh last week the Somerset Hills Community gathered at the high school for a special event to raise money for a very special reason in honor of Campbell Hoy uh the Campbell's butterflies Club began 10 years ago by Caitlyn and Carolyn Hoy uh whose younger sister died from a rare brain and spine cancer her death was felt throughout the community and still is her Legacy lives on uh and has for this past decade through events and fundraising led by team Campbell foundation and Campbell's butterflies all with monies being donated to Childhood Cancer Research this fall after the flutterflies went dormant for several years two of Cam's friends approached flutterflies advisor Janice O'Brien with an interest in restarting the club andelora and Sophia parente uh suggested hosting a St bald's event at the high school St baldricks is a nationally recognized Foundation that has a mission uh to overcome Childhood Cancer and their head shaving events are held all over the United States to raise money for Grants and for research uh this year during the entirety of the school year the parente sisters organized the fundraiser with the help of Mrs O'Brien as well as high school teachers Kelly Clark and Heather hunkley uh they sought out volunteers willing to have their heads or beard shaved and went to local establishments who all uh garnered their financial support it was a special event last uh Thursday night uh students friends family and um members of the Somerset Hills Community um came United they remembered Campbell and were part of something important the combination of the community's presence the combination of the community's time donations Etc had a positive influence or positive impact on the outcome and one uh that has the potential to evoke change in the lives of children uh who Valiant battle battle cancer um Mr O'Brien did share with us that uh the event so far has raised over $23,000 and um that's a big deal and uh it's an event that I guess uh continues to raise money over the next six months through online donations uh through the St baldrick's website um although Campbell was a member of the class of 2024 and she lost her cancel batter she definitely lives on in our hearts so uh certainly as we move through the spring you will see uh pin Wheels in front of Ott and uh you know as we continue to remember her and uh we had a host of people about 25 folks who got their head shaved beard shaved and uh or who donated uh their time um last Thursday night and uh really was an empowering uh event uh for me personally we have our um everyday Hero at the high school Mary trop uh she is the kind of person who has thought of everything before you ask your question she's intelligent she's wise and she's enthusiastic she puts forth 110% uh with the intention of not only making an activity enjoyable and fruitful for herself uh but for everybody that she's with uh you ask her to jump and she ask how high um so it's great to see uh people like Mary being recognized and it's great to see that she is the March uh everyday Hero at the high school so um yeah so that culminates the um the news uh from the district which is uh actually it doesn't culminate the news we have um we're trying to finish out our um our news updates with some visual work uh and we do have some some artwork from two of the High School courses uh that's up on the screen from our uh art 2 and art three honors courses uh they're doing uh water painting and architecture um in those classes and we have a research design project that's pixelated uh from uh Alexander Christian uh that's in our advanced placement Art and Design uh course and so uh these uh this artwork does adorn our hallways and it certainly is very very impressive [Applause] we're going to move on and uh give uh the high level uh overview to the board regarding our uh tenative budget recommendation uh the board did indulge me and I appreciate that very much on uh Saturday morning uh regarding uh the development of our budget for the 2425 school year so that's fiscal year 25 and uh one of the things that I'll remind the board is that we have um kind of like the scales that we need to balance here between fiscally responsible and uh enhancing our uh program here uh educationally uh we're driven by a mission uh to provide authentic learning experiences that are balanced for each student uh we want them to be Innovative uh we want them to contribute to an Engaged Community we want them to be thoughtful and we want them to think kind of outside of the Somerset Hills you know in the application of our different curricula and programs and making sure that our scales between being fiscally responsib responsible and um enhancing our outcomes uh really is important uh we started um with budget priorities uh those priorities included um infrastructure and oper operations uh which are spoken to uh through Transportation through our District Operations technology Communications and security that's kind of the foundation of our work here uh we had a desire to enhance our programming here uh so inside of the budget you'll see athletic opportunities you'll see new courses uh for students inside of our curriculum you'll see curriculum development and also professional development to um contribute to teaching and learning in the classroom and uh you'll also see a budget that maintains class sizes introduces bilingual and um language learning disabilities programming uh enhances our academic support programming and grows our advanced placement courses uh as well uh we're projecting to serve 1628 students and um the enrollment that we are projecting is at is uh laid out on the screen uh we are seeing initially uh about the same um amount of kids are spread out a little differently um as far as our projections go for this year uh or for next year in comparison to this year we do have a significant increase in kindergarten uh incoming kindergarten for next year um and that um that does warrant um some modification in our budget uh as well uh we have 165 multilingual Learners 300 Special Education students uh we have prek special ed students and preschool disabled students as well uh that we all serve in our district that comprise 1,628 students all of which are spoken to uh in this budget uh from a high level uh in the area of curriculum and instruction we have um allocated Monies to uh support uh math at the K5 level in terms of some of our I resources uh we have enhancements to our AP programming in physics and Calculus BC uh in Algebra 2 continuing we have uh training and contracted services to support professional development across the grade levels in math um similarly we have curriculum uh enhancements and development uh for K12 math as well as additional I ready diagnostic assessment uh funding allocated for middle school math in the area of social studies uh particularly in our advanced placement courses there are curriculum updates to to AP Psychology AP economics and AP Human Geography which is a new course for the 2425 school year at the high school in the area of English language arts uh there's a standard revision uh standard revisions come from the New Jersey Department of Education as um codified by the State Board of Education so our role here in that process is to revise our curriculum so it is reflective of what those standards are are um there's some curriculum development uh for I ready reading assessment uh funding and there's also teacher training contracted Services uh in the area of literacy as well we have a host of curriculum writing that we will be engaged in in order to maintain compliance with uh new math standards and new language arts standards that were set forth by the uh State Board of Education and we'll be revising our ESL uh curriculum as well uh we have new courses uh we're linking our work at Bedwell in the area of the related arts to our strategic plan and we are ramping up for any and all um updates to our um trienal um accountability program um that we engage with um through the Department of Education more professional development uh in the area of math is being budgeted uh in addition to some diagnostic Assessments in language arts we have contracted services in uh language arts math um certainly uh with a new bilingual program that we are implementing at Bedwell uh in addition we have social emotional learning professional development called capturing kids hearts that will take place at uh the middle school and uh we have some money allocated for additional teacher training and professional development textbooks are in um they come in cycles and uh we have some Replacements and some adoptions for new textbooks in a host of areas in our advanced placement um course modules in in addition to Algebra 2 uh bilingual and some visual Performing Arts um at the high school our curriculum budget is 386,000 50 which reflects a $6,550 increase over the current [Music] year it's important to note that um the investment that the board um will be adopting is a significant one it's an important one and it ensures that there's alignment between the goals of the board it ensures that there's line alignment between your strategic plan to our end results in at the classroom level that directly impacts kids um it's very important as far as driving student achievement it's very important as far as driving growth um and opportunities for kids so just wanted to point that out our student services department uh has multiple goals you know certainly want we want to increase our efficiency uh decrease costs and increase quality uh at the end of the day we want to we want to host as many kids on site on our turf in our schools with their peers uh as possible um while increasing uh our efficiency to to educate them and we want to create programs that supports all students uh this budget certainly um does do that um we uh have budgeted for uh language and learning disabilities program curriculum and professional development uh annually we we budget for translation services uh we have have a program or or a vendor called car soless that we budget for every year care soless um immediately connects families and kids uh with mental health Mental Health Services and providers in an expedited fashion one of the um terrible outgrowths uh that the pandemic provided to school districts and families and and just communities in general uh was a very shallow pool of opportunities for families and kids to access uh Mental Health Resources care soless connects any child in the district to uh an immediate um third party to begin uh Mental Health Services any staff member uh in the district and any family of any child in the district can utilize Care soless by going to our website and it's completely uh independent of the district and um those needs will be um expedited uh in short order uh we have software to manage our IEP and 504 uh programs as well as uh testing kits and protocols for a child study team uh we have a district behaviorist uh assisted technology we budget for one-on-one nursing uh medical evaluations we have a random drug testing policy in the district for high school students uh who participate in extracurricular activities or park on campus or who opt in uh we have bilingual evaluations and um we also budget for home instruction uh the 2425 budget in um for our student services department is 7,877 473 and that's an increase of $182,300 in the area of personnel uh we are able to support a special education teacher uh at Bedwell in this budget it's a language and learning disabilities program uh we're also able to budget for two PA professionals uh we are able to budget for a bilingual teacher at uh Bedwell uh we're able to budget for a academic support math teacher at Bedwell and we're bringing on a fifth kindergarten section at Bedwell what that will do is that will maintain class sizes at around uh 17 to 18 kids per class um at the middle school and at the high school we are starting a wrestling program down at the middle school this budget does account for two coaches uh a head coach for wrestling and an assistant coach uh the high school uh will have a third girls volleyball team uh so we're going to host a freshman team in addition to a varsity and a JV team and the high school will have uh four permanent building based substitutes that will be contracted for the entirety of the school year um to serve here uh at the high school at the district level uh we will uh be able to ensure full coverage of all of our uh all three of our schools with a special law enforcement officer uh currently we have one officer that splits between the Middle School and Bedwell uh this will allow for full coverage it's a contract with the Bernardsville Police Department uh this budget also uh allows us to enhance and to improve our forward-facing Comm Communications and image with the public in the community uh we have an additional member for the instructional Tech or for the um it Department um their primary uh responsibility will be um to have uh skills in um web design and a web master um and um I'm certain that that will um allow us to engage in our communication plan work and have a significant enhancement in our forward- facing um web it and information available to the public uh as far as the school district and all of our schools goes uh we have an additional support uh person at the uh will be housed at the OT building we will centralize our registration processes and we will also uh use that position um to um enhance some of the operational items inside of the district uh we will enhance um some dedicated Communications uh we will also use this particular uh position to enhance um some of our auditing processes as well inside the business department um residency and uh some other uh critical functions that um that are in need of enhancement uh at the district level uh we will be covering uh 120 additional students in comparison to this current school year in the budget uh we will be covering uh what's what's known as hazardous Roots uh for those students uh that live in Burnville and live in a hazardous route um we are able to cover about 120 additional kids in order to do that uh we need additional drivers uh of which we've advertised or we're budgeting for two and we're also budgeting for uh true Transportation Transportation AIDS as well and uh lastly in the area of personnel we are retitling a supervisor position due to enhanced um responsibilities with uh some of the new programs found inside of the budget um facilities and operations we at Bedwell um if any of you if you've been there recently um cell service is at a premium there so we are installing a cell booster um the middle school is uh in the process of uh procuring um new equipment for some outdated equipment uh floor polisher and auto scrubbers uh we are replacing the track at the high school uh that will begin um a few hours after we graduate from what I'm told um we are planning on being able to uh be completed by the time preseason practices start in August um there is money allocated for lower field enhancements uh predominantly baseball softball but the the entire uh lower field will be enhanced um in particular uh will be a regrading project um in order to um make those fields more playable and um more Nimble uh when it rains and um you know moving forward through uh those Seasons uh lastly in the area of facilities and operations we are upgrading the stage lighting in the Performing Arts Center at the high school we have a lease purchase in our budget we will be uh we have three lease lease purchases um 129 passenger bus uh is uh part of a lease purchase as our Chromebooks and staff [Music] computers I'm going to bring up Mr Marco here to give uh the board a review of some financials thank you Dr b um now that you've seen all the components of the budget I'm going to give you a financial overview of what all of the numbers um add up to so the first slide we're going to go over the revenues um budgeted fund balance an increase of 11.7% capital reserve a decrease of 21% and that's just because in comparison to last year we're doing less projects um local tax levy we're seeing an increase of 2.5% uh just want to remind the board that the total tax levy is a combination of local tax and The Debt Service tax so we'll get to the tax impact in the next couple of slides um tuition we're showing a decrease of 4.6 this is predominantly the tuition that we received from Bedminster and we're seeing an a decrease in enrollment which translates to less tuition money um other we've seen an increase of 77.1 this basically um is a combination of miscellaneous Revenue interest revenue semi- revenue subscription busing transportation revenue and Facilities rental the high increas is predominantly due to the fact that we are renting our facilities more and we are getting some Transportation Revenue with some other districts that we're able to accommodate and lastly the big component is just a way of reclassing how we take in the revenue from Bedminster which is basically a reimbursement for their transportation cost um with the total with the total local funds increase of 1.1% uh we also saw this year a slight increase in state aid in all three categories and that brings us with the total general fund increase of 1.4% uh special Revenue funds we're seeing a dramatic decrease of 60.5% uh that's just because this year we are not budgeting the Esser and the ARP funds which are the grants that receive from the pandemic so we're going back to uh budgeting only our typical IDE idea and title funds and that's why you see that significant decrease there The Debt Service rund represents the repayment of our bonds um as our bonds are uh coming due and um this is our last year we're applying our fund balance from the 2015 referendum so you see that uh fund balance of 114,000 and also if you recall we refunded a 12 2012 Bond several years back so we're still seeing some Savings in there so the total debt service fund is a decrease of 3.6% with the total revenue budget although we are increasing a lot of categories because of our decrease in um capital reserve withdrawal and the special Revenue funds we're actually seeing a slight overall decrease of 6% just for visual um to see to show you where all our revenues are coming from as you can see predominantly most of our revenues are coming from the local tax levy going to our expenses um the current expense we're proposing an increase of 2.5% and capital outlay a decrease of 19.3 this Capital outlay expense is the capital withdrawal funds plus about $70,000 of our maintenance projects that's budgeted in the um general fund to give you that minus 19 and again the total General funds matching the revenue side is an increase of 1.4% special Revenue funds same as um as the revenue it's on the same side and Debt Service fund minus 3.6 again with the total expenses matching the total revenues a total decrease of 6% and again another pie chart to show you how we break out the EXP expenses as you can see the biggest component of our expense is basically salaries and benefits combin that make up $3 33.9 million of our budget representing 76% of our budget um the other category let me just go to the other category is 12% uh special ed is generally the same transportation is generally the same I do want to point out that although we have expanded our transportation services to accommodate more Transportation by buying buses and bringing in more drivers the total number bottom line for transportation has not increased in the last several years and that is because we're just reshi our contracted service amount to hire our own drivers um which you know that's not always the case that the contractor Services save you money but the way our trend is going for Transportation uh we have seen that it's better for us to have drivers on site as our drivers uh we can manage them better and service more people in our district um and then the other portion is the 12% which basically um represents everything else but you see there which uh is we're talking about utilities school supplies curriculum all that comes out of that little pie of 12% um and within that 12% 2% of that is our utility to run the buildings so 10% is what is considered our discretionary funds to summarize the tax impact um although we are raising more than 2% in general fund because of the Savings in our debt service fund you see that our total tax levy is flat at 2% tax levy by Town um this is the amount that I'm proposing that will be the School portion of your taxes so in Burnsville it's 29 m347 1 Far Hills 1, 97138 and Pac Gladstone 6,776 7:30 keep in mind that this is a calendar year calculation we are our budget is based on school year which starts uh July 1 and goes to 6:30 my slides got wonky yeah I don't know what happened I apologize the rates got really wonky here so this this is the estimated School tax rate um if you can follow me Bernardsville is at 1.88 for $0000 Far Hills is 0.442 and Pac Gladstone is 0.823 so what this means is if you own a house either in Bernardsville peac Gladstone Far Hills if you could see the bottom example piece if you own a $600,000 home what you want to do is multiply that by your tax rate and divide that by 100 and the amount you see there for example for Far Hills $2,652 is the portion of your school tax in your tax bill um there's other components of your property tax which is the municipality County uh County open space local open space and other but the Regional School tax portion is what um is calculated based on our figures and again these are just estimated preliminary once uh we receive final assessment values from town and everybody does a calculation it'll all be finalized but it should probably be in the same ballpark okay I'm now I'm going to turn it over to Dr B for wrap up thank you Mr Marco uh so we were able to deliver a host of priorities inside of this budget that do tie into goals and strategic plans uh we're able to deliver an assurance of class sizes in kindergarten we're able to deliver on uh academic support needs to be able to deliver um multiple layers of support we're able to deliver on our uh multilingual Learners um they will have a bilingual program available to them uh at Bedwell there's a new program in special education we're able to deliver in this budget this budget certainly speaks to supporting curriculum instruction and professional development uh we're able to deliver on uh the importance of Safety and Security uh in all of our facilities and uh we're able to deliver on uh Transportation um by hosting additional hazardous roofs again we are Guided by the goals of the board and we believe that this budget speaks to all those goals and we believe that this budget uh has a fair balance in a sense that there are a host of different areas from um our infrastructure our operations our academics our academic support and our extracurricular opportunities for kids all while um functioning inside of a fiscally uh responsible um budget so uh we have a budget cycle here so tonight uh what is in front of the board is an authorization uh for the administration to forward our budget up to the County Office of Education uh they will essentially review the budget they will uh talk with Mrs DeMarco uh or myself or both of us in all likelihood regarding any questions that arise and then uh there is a a a budget hearing set on April 24th 2024 at 7:30 p.m. uh during our regular public meeting uh there will be an official hearing there for the board to consider into adopt um Mrs fenda that does um finish my report for the evening okay I'm just going to turn it over to Mr gr pre for a moment for the recognition of a retiree whereas Karen Silva has been employed from 1992 through June 2024 as a teacher and whereas she exemplified expertise commitment and professionalism in her duties and now therefore be it resolved that the somerset Hill School District and Board of Education recognize Karen Silva's retirement effective July 1st 2024 and extend her congratulations and best wishes for a happy healthy and enjoyable retirement okay thank you yes we wish Miss Silva well and in her retirement for sure um I would like to thank Dr brochel Mr Marco um Dr Butler um Miss gransky who is not here this evening for um really what was I think um an extraordinary inaug inaugural budget Retreat which was exceptionally beneficial to this board and has led us into a uh proposed budget recommendation this evening um with just a a a really firm understanding and a really firm grasp on how we are aligning um budgetary allocation in alignment with that which we're trying to achieve so just a huge note of gratitude um I would also just like to beg the Indulgence of the public for one brief moment in front of opening public comments um Miss skills had requested to me the ability at the top of the meeting to deliver remarks that um had been halted as a result of an unexpected adjournment uh last month so at this time I would like to um see if there is a motion to allow Miss gills to deliver those remarks at this time [Music] okay seeing no motion we will then U move to allow Miss gills to resume those remarks during the normal course of supplement sorry I didn't I didn't ask that of you yes you sent me it was in an email that you expected to be able to I could address it in supplemental that no you said it that you would expect given the my misunderstanding I never expected to do in the beginning yeah that that was actually what you wrote in the email so I wanted to make sure that we okay that was not what I meant to write then okay but thank you thank you okay so now public comments um we very much welcome input from the Public Public comments are welcome at this time on any actionable agenda item towards the end of the meeting there is a second public forum on any topic please state your name and address comments are limited to 3 minutes at 3 minutes you will be interrupted and asked to pause to allow any other members of the public who would like to speak an opportunity to do so an individual May return to the podium to complete their statement after everyone else has had an opportunity to speak for a total of two times at the podium please understand that our public forums are not structured as a question and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board in instances where the board feels there is an a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent May address the comment in accordance with New Jersey statute the board will not discuss matters regarding specific Personnel public comments will be limited to 30 minutes a reminder for all parties in attendance to remain respectful and that there should be no interaction between the speaker and the audience no members of the audience should interfere with or interrupt the speaker's comment we thank you in advance for your input and as always I will direct you to Mr Marco's timer so that speakers can keep track of where they are in their three minute cycle so at the present time I would like to open um the actionable agenda public comments I'm Pitney Lloyd Road I was at this Saturday morning hearing and and it was very interesting I did have to leave early so I'm not sure if this was addressed do you still do the senior year at Fairley Dickinson program um where students who have fulfilled all their requirements can take courses at Fairley Dickinson when my daughters went I paid tuition for them there um but it was a wonderful program because they a number one when they did well were automatically accepted at fdu so they had a fall back second thing was they learned that they could actually do college work so the pressure on them both of them um was unbelievably less than most students senior year and I highly endorsed the program but I didn't hear anything about it in the curriculum I also didn't know if there was a fee that the high school ever had to pay I was never aware of that if it was true if they had to to participate in this program but I highly endorse [Music] it okay thank you very much is there anybody else who would like to make a comment on actionable agenda items at this time no okay can I get a motion to close public comments Please Mr andoro uh Miss Nathans thank you very much and at this time then I would like to move on to ask for a motion to approve the minutes from our executive session and public meeting session from last month can I get a motion Miss Ry and a second Miss Santoro and is there any discussion nope okay then roll call please Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D gr pre yes Miss gills yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs S Coro yes Mrs Ry yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carries okay thank you we will then move on to the report of the finance committee Mr Baker thank you um the finance committee met on March 6 for about 45 minutes we talked about seven seven different topics um one of the topics was the um five-year Educational Services agreement with with Bedminster we um the our administrative team and Bedminster administrative team re reviewed the five-year Educational Services plan and um made some slight changes there's nothing major and that will be voted on tonight on resolution number 16 um second item we talked about was our food service um um I guess the corre correct word for it is a surplus over the pandemic year we've grown up uh some money in Surplus in the food service and we can't we can't spend that any place else um in the schools except for food service so we need to buy some kitchen equipment and the big item is the dishwasher in the middle school that and we're get a steamer and a mobile heater so it's about $80,000 we're going to spend and we have to get bids on that because it's a Fally federally supported program um uh next item we discussed was the uh special um police officer contract with the burre of Burnsville we're going to approve that tonight on resolution number 13 um we've increased the hour hour rate up to $40 an hour for the two officers from now until uh the fall then we'll have a third officer um that will be budgeted in the new budget do that Dr broch will explain to us uh just a few moments ago that's item 13 um we also had a presentation of a draft it's a demographic and enrollment projection report which is also looked at the construction of of new buildings in the three towns you know we're building a lot of apartment ments um around the three towns to see how that would impact enrollment so the um so the demographic person because our enrollments going down and these apartments being built in the long range for the next 5 years it will not have a meaningful impact on our enrollment we can certainly handle the extra children that coming in because the birth rate has fallen Bas Bas based on the people that are still here um so that will be presented in the future to to the full board and the public um we we talked about a change order at the media center and I'm going to leave that up to Mrs Santoro because that's an item that will be voted on by the under the fno portion of the meeting and the last item we talked about was to bank cap um which I think is important for the public to know um because I read a article about burner's Township just is using a bank cap and we're using Bank cap too our bank caps are much much smaller it's about 174,000 and that's because we didn't spend that money years ago um and and this board has always been hesitant to use Bank cap because we don't want to go over the 2% to the taxpayer um but because our bonds are going down as Mrs DeMarco showed with the with the data on the screen we're going to keep it at 2% so this is a perfect time to use our we have $190,000 of Bank cap if you don't use it it goes away in in two to three years so we have 20,000 left we could use next year if we so so desire so that's part of um resolution number five which is resolution number five also includes the budget on not going to go through what Dr brel just did there but we spent a lot of time talking about that how we change the revenue change the expenses to make sure we got to to the 2% and that's under number five and in there is the is the capital projects so with that I'm I'm going to turn it over back to Mrs frienda and that's the end of my report okay thank you Mr Baker um uh so then at this time I would like to ask ask for a motion to approve action items number one through 16 on the agenda so I'll make a motion for one and Cooper second okay discussion no I think we covered a lot of grounds in finance so far um okay so then roll call please Mr Marco Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D grume yes Miss gills yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs r yes Mr Baker yes and Mrs fena yes motion carries okay and now we will be moving on to the report of the facilities and operations committee miss anoro all right thank you so facilities and operations met on March 6th at 6:15 and all committee members were in attendance um as often we have touched on a lot of the items that we discussed in either Finance or Dr bro's report but I will just highlight a couple things that haven't been talked about um Mr Baker referenced the BMS Media Center change order um so tonight we are recommending the committee is recommending that the board approve a change order for um HVAC work for two of the breakout rooms that have been built in the excuse me um the New Media Center the air flow to these rooms and is not sufficient so we need to add a damper to correct the problem the work will be completed over spring break so we'll have no impact on the students and it will cost us $894,000 59 um we've kind of touched on this um over the past several months and a little bit in the budget but we will be utilizing 250,000 from our 2425 capital budget to remediate the lower fields um we are going to work on better pitching those and regrading it so there the water doesn't pull as we're having issues with currently so um we just kind of finalized that discussion and that is memorialized now in the budget and lastly we had a request from the Burnville fire company to use our facilities on June 8th for a firemen competition and um we are to do that the administration is recommending the use of Bedwell facilities for a variety of reasons but also because it is pretty close to high school graduation so we want to um offer the Bedwell um campus for that competition and other than that um that is what we discussed so thank you I will turn it back over to you Mrs Brenda thank you uh so then at this time May has to have a motion to approve action items number one through four on the agenda I'll make the Moe Miss Sor on a second Miss R okay is there any discussion okay seeing none roll call please miss Cooper yes Mrs D gr pre yes but it's stting in number one from report Miss gills yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes and Mrs fenda yes motion carries okay thank you um moving on to the report of the curriculum committee Miss Cooper thank you uh the curriculum committee met Thursday February 29th for two hours all committee members were in attendance and we were joined by Dr brochel Dr Butler Dr ederton and Miss Galo we began the meeting with the discussion of the K through 12 math curriculum led by Dr ederton she first reviewed a summary of the revisions to the math standards that will be incorporated into the curriculum over the summer key revisions to the curriculum included changes to math indicators in grades K through five elementary standards involving money data liter literacy standards changes to standards involving fractions and visual fraction models changing perspectives on the balance between accuracy and efficiency and a revised progression in Concepts from grade 8 through 12 in the high school curriculum a key change relates to the balance of topics in Algebra 2 and pre-calculus in 2016 content usually taught in pre-calculus was moved to Algebra 2 but but the consensus was that this shift made Algebra 2 too overloaded with content and as of 2024 this content will be transitioned back into pre-calculus um next Dr ederton provided a broad overview of each of the components of the math curriculum in Bedwell the middle school and high school an area of interest to the committee was her presentation on instructional time in math at the three schools currently at bedwall children receive 60 Minutes of math instruction daily at the middle school students only receive 43 minutes of math instruction daily in grades 5 through 8 with 43 minutes of extra instruction every third day in grade six and seven in the high school students receive a minimum of 36 minutes of instruction 3 days in every 4day cycle according to Dr ederon our middle school students receive considerably few few instructional minutes in math compared to middle school students in neighboring districts um where they typically receive at least an hour of math instruction per day the committee generally agreed that increasing math instructional time at BMS is important however this could be a challenge du the rigidity of the master schedule at the middle school still it's a priority for the committee which recommended that the administration consider a changes to the master schedule to enable additional instructional time in math uh we then transitioned into a discussion of the resources available for math support specifically at Bedwell Dr ederton indicated that Bedwell only has the resources available to provide math support to general education students who need additional support in grades 2 through four students in first grade who are struggling in math are currently not receiving these services and that academic support staff serving grades 2 through four is stretch thin the committee agreed that finding additional support for these stud students is a priority for the 2024 to 2025 Academic Year and since our committee meet met two weeks ago Dr brochel has incorporated funds for an additional future to provide this support in next year's budget and thank you we really happy about that uh regarding math the math lab record running it the Middle School Dr Butler indicated that the additional funding for this support will be needed to keep it running given that the ARP funds used to support it will end this year the committee members supported efforts to find additional funding for this program um then committee members reiterated the their concerns about challenges related to geometry and Algebra 2 instruction in the high school every year a disproportionate number of students who have previously excelled in honors algebra in the Middle School struggle and honors geometry and honors Algebra 2 in at the high school and many switched to the accelerated track this these challenges often increased the difficulty of the transition to the high school for many students to identify Trends and potential factors contributing to these Trends the committee sought data on historical achievement among 8th through 10th graders in the honter track the frequency of schedule changes the appropriateness of academic placements and the extent to which the math curriculum at the middle school is align with the math curriculum at the high school we're also interested in the administration's perspectives on the number of students placed in the honors track at the middle school next um Miss Graal joined the meeting to discuss the two-day capturing kids Hearts program that many uh Middle School teachers and administrators participated in last month the goal of the two-day program was to help the faculty members who attended develop a shared language an understanding to promote Excellency through intentional awareness she and Dr Butler raved about the program and believed that additional training by capturing kids hearts for the entire BMS staff would be useful given the social struggles that often characterize the middle school years and that the greatest number of hibs occur at at the middle school ultimately the goal of the program is to train staff members to connect with students and their peers more consistently and effectively and to build more productive relationships within the building the committee then approved all field tip trip and professional development requests regarding future topics like next month will be continue to discuss Al and geometry achievement and progression by considering data data uh on on historical outcomes and we'll also uh discuss the potential benefits and challenges related to instruction in American Sign Language at the high school and that concludes my report okay thank you very much Mr Cooper um at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to approve action items number 1 through seven on the agenda I'll make the motion M Cooper and a second Miss Ballard and discussion seeing an onor roll call please Mrs D Grande yes Miss gills yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Soro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carries okay thank you um and now we will move on to the report of the Personnel committee Mr Grand pray the policy and Personnel committee met on February 29th for just over over an hour and 15 minutes in regards to Personnel um we discussed the review process for the chief School administrator um with the board um and reminding all of us that we do need to complete our reviews as they come du um and additionally we had a discussion about the process of Staff renewals going into the spring as this will be our first time doing this with Dr brochel so determining how he wanted to move that process forward with um the committee and the board um we also had a review of the tentative agenda for March 13th where we all are now I believe that is it in regards to Personnel okay thank you um then I would like to currently ask for a motion to approve action items number one through eight on the agenda Mr Grand pray and a second miss nethan any discussion okay Mr Marco call Mr Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D Grande yes Miss gills yes Miss Nathans yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carries okay thank you Mr Grand Pre right back to you for policy okay that was the bigger part of our meeting um we started off the meeting with Dr Nigel present with us as well and he updated us um with the committee to the committee on the student Focus feedback groups that he had recently had um the largest concern from the students that came up in the potential of revisions of this policy was um in regard to to lack of consistent instruction and the students requested options to be considered for in school instruction as well um if there was a challenge with the substance abuse policy um there was also discussion from the committee in relation to the range of drugs and if there would be differentiation at all in terms of the type of drug and the severity in discipline um and we were reminded all current New Jersey laws and possibilities to ensure consequences and instruction opportunities are still being investigated a revised draft of this policy will return to the committee when it is prepared and the committee continues to support the reduction of drugs and alcohol in school and to have balanced consequences and instruction opportunities that would be on par with our peer districts um we also discuss discussed 15 different policies which I'm not going to read you all of them but they are listed in the agenda for you they're in first reading tonight um the policy alert did focus on updating policies and regulations in regard to managing for equity and education and updating to include um retitling and clarification for the protected categories and streamlining their reference as protected categories across the policies and regulations two of the policies did have requests for revisions prior to coming here tonight 1630 had wording that was revised to reflect Equitable hiring practices with the intent that we will be hiring the best candidate free from any discrimination 22 2260s wording was revised to reflect a consistency and terminology throughout the policy on gender expression versus sex or gender as there was a discrepancy at that time in the policy and we wanted to ensure consistency in the way that we reference um these things um all other policies were reviewed without any changes we then went on to have a discussion in regard to bylaw 0164 the discussion among the committee was raised in regards to outstanding policies and regulations and the committee does have 0164 that has been technically suspended for about a year and a half in relation to a change order that occurred at that time um in the process of meetings um board members had also reached out to the policy committee um pre beforehand to discuss why this was still in suspension it is felt that this bylaw is due for a relook and for us to consider removing it at some point soon from suspension but we did feel that the full board was need to have this discussion and that it would be need should be brought up here in public and request that all board members do provide feedback on this policy please email me with your feedback and our intent is is that during our April meeting we will work on potential revisions from consensus to the board to then bring it back for review um and discussion amongst the board hopefully at our May meeting if we can get to consensus by that point um additionally we had a discussion about Robert's Rules and the details of Robert's Rules and reminding all of us that we do follow Robert's Rules and we should be ensuring that we are remaining within compliance at all meetings that is the end in regards to policy okay thank you then at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to approve action item number one on the agenda Mr gr pray a second Miss R and any discussion yes Miss kills I think this is when you instructed me to speak told you it was your right okay thank you Mr Baker moved to adjourn the February board meeting while I had the floor chairperson Sam frienda quickly gel the meeting to a close cutting my remarks short almost mid-sentence according to Robert's Rules of Order which our bylaws unconditionally adopt such a motion is explicitly prohibited while another member is speaking this rule is unequivocal it is designed to ensure that all voices within our discussions are heard and respected equally the alternative as we witnessed last month undermines his fundamental principle following the meeting seeking to understand how such an oversight could have transpired and what steps could rectify it I approached their chairperson frienda for clarification not once not twice but three times I initially brought up the matter during a policy committee meeting where Sam cited unspecified bylaws or policy as justification for adjourning the meeting while I was speaking subsequently her screen went blank and she muted her microphone leaving the issue hanging the policy committee chair superintendent brochel and other attending members were unable to provide any rationale for chairperson friend's action leaving the decision without a clear basis or support I next emailed Sam per Provisions njsa 18on 12-4 point1 subsection J and because of the outcry from many minority District families who expressed their dismay after viewing the meeting footage I included super roel superintendent roel in these communication I again presented a straightforward question was the motion to adjourn in alignment with our rules if so why if not how do we Rectify this oversight reasonably I requested the specific citation as I had provided in support of my contention that the meeting was was improperly adjourned if the chair's decision was incorrect acknowledging this mistake and informing the public is crucial in maintaining our community's trust in our ability to govern with fairness and transparency yet how do we rectify the problem when the chair refuses to answer a simple question of parliamentary procedure without open debate during the meeting which she demanded conversely if the motion was proper clarification within this forum would indeed bolster public confidence in our adherence to procedural Norms but how does that excuse responding to a legitimate inquiry regarding parliamentary protocol from a board member to the chair I don't understand the steadfast refusal to answer a binary question without the need for public consideration either we did or we didn't violate Robert's Rules responding in private and public is not mutually exclusive I I must emphasize the significance of the Optics of this incident and the ensuing distress among many in the district's minority communities in a moment that extended Beyond procedural error to symbolize a broader issue an all-white Bo board halted its only minority member from addressing the harassment and intimidation faced by a minority family exasperated by the use of digital communication and social media this act irrespective of its procedural standing has potentially conveyed to our minority families that their concerns are of lesser importance and that their representation on this board can be disregarded especially when it aims to shed light on social injustices the ensuing disappointment and discouragement felt by many particularly those from minity backgrounds underscores the imperative not only to adhere to procedural rules but also to be con conscientious of the ramifications of our actions our dedication to inclusivity fairness and representation is measured not solely by our policies but also by our conduct we must respect every voice and ensure that no voice is silenced prematurely it's imperative that our actions in governance authentically reflect the values of inclusivity and support what we supposedly Champion guaranteeing that every member of our community regardless of background of relief has an equal stake in shaping the educational landscape and future for our children thank you okay so if I may before I dig into the Litany of things that have been raised here the thing that is most necessary for me to address is your insistence that you are the only minority that sits at this board table yes the the rest of us are white indeed with the exclusion of um Mr Marco although not a voting an elected board member she is our board secretary she's responsible for a large portion of our correspondence she takes the minutes for our meeting she is intimately involved in all meeting um procedures while I recognize I'm white I am very much a minority I a Jewish woman in this community and the fact that you continually disregard my minority status and you continue to try to own that Minority status on this board to occupy a moral High Ground that the rest of us cannot possibly understand or attain access to is not only insulting but actually discriminatory so I would request I'm will not be interrupted I would actually request that moving forward that simply because I am white that my minority status as a Jewish woman not continually be neglected additionally I am not going to speak for the rest of the board here because I have not pulled them on their background and whether they hold minority status but the presumption that you are the only minority member of this board without verifying that information is again un unfair and and insulting so I just wanted to to address this constant um assertion of minority status minority persecution minority discrimination you are not the only minority at this table so I I I'm going to leave that there additionally your initial email to me regarding your inquiries copied Mrs sanero you referenced Mr Baker you referenced Miss Ry in addition to that there were members here that voted all in favor to adjourn the meeting and as I explained to you that constituted a majority of the board and I would not discuss this matter with you via email containing the conversation to myself and you because given the people that you implicated in this conversation it was only right to give them the opportunity to engage in this discussion so while you have picked and chosen the parts of the email exchanges that you are citing that is not reality um you have then said that during um policy committee I referenced vague bylaws and um policies that is not what I said what I said was that it was my understanding of Robert's Rules of Order and adjournment that when there is an open motion an actionable on an actionable agenda item and there is active discussion taking place that I that an adj German would not be entertained but at that time being that there was no active motion there was no active discussion and um there was nothing being discussed Germaine to board business that I believed according to my understanding of parliamentary procedure and let me be clear for the public I am not a parliamentarian Robert's Rules of orders is a 633 page document with an extraordinary amount of nuance that seeks to explain and cover any potential question that could possibly come into play from the public so admittedly I have absolutely no claim to fully understanding parliamentary procedure in its details I would actually Hazard to Guess that the most experienced members do not have that and would need to have Refreshers and access to this information regularly um if in fact I entertained a um irregular or a an emotion to adjourn that should not have been um entertained then I most certainly own that that action however like I said that was not my understanding at the time I did reach out to New Jersey school boards Association for clarification and there does seem to be a little Nuance in gray area here as I it there there did seem to be some support regarding you were not you were not conducting board business at the time um and you there was nothing germane to board business being discussed I fully accept that that may not be the only interpretation and that there are certainly um varying degrees of interpretation on that matter so to that end I am to what can we do about this I am more than happy to have a schedule additional training on polic parliamentary procedure and Robert Rules of Order additionally there is the option of having a parliamentarian um voted on we can discuss that policy that can be referred back to policy if we feel that it is necessary to um assign a board parliamentarian to make sure that we are conducting ourselves with um Fidelity and that the massive document that is Robert's Rules and the strict adherence to it is um you know better maintained um but again there was no bad intent there was no um looking to silence minorities or minority community members excuse me Sam you cannot begin to Fathom how I felt I understand now with your explanation that you consider yourself a minority oh no I don't consider myself I am a minority I can finish because I let you finish and that you are but my minority status stands out in this District as as we have a large minority population that mirrors my ethnicity we're near 30% I don't understand how we are now grading minority status because I have heard from this board that the staff should reflect the students ethnicities so if it's important enough for that why isn't it important enough for us and at that committee meeting you did say it could be interrupted during an actionable agenda the portion but then you have to start again at that next meeting where it was interrupted not wild discussion is taking place but not you could not address the supplemental portion of the meeting you you were honest about that you weren't certain about that and I've researched it it you can't stop someone from speaking during supplemental and when you stop me from speaking as a minority and we have close to 30% minority population in our district that mirrors my ethnicity how do you think that makes them feel we talk about inclusion and equity and diversity but as soon as the Hispanic starts talking and they don't like what she's saying we shut her down no no no no no I'm sorry that is my that is my interpretation and that is my lived experience You can disagree but you can't get into my mind and the experience is I have had through my 54 years fair enough syia but I think we need to unpack some of this because we need to be able to express what our experience is through the last couple months of this so to say that you weren't afforded an opportunity in supplementary matters to speak is incorrect because prior to the adjournment you spoke for 9 minutes and then the meeting was adjourned when you announced you were going to reread your statements from the previous month in our February meeting you spoke for 6 minutes your husband F January meeting no February sorry January January meeting you spoke for six meeting minutes your husband SP spoke for 6 minutes you then spoke for another 4 minutes in supplementary matter prior to that as you disclosed at the podium you had emailed the entire board not me I didn't get it okay well but you admit it like you you explained why well cuz you didn't wrong email address cuz I have a different email address from the rest of the board so just so everyone's aware because I didn't get any of information yeah so you so so let's start that that was in December January December you sent us the email yes multiple emails and videos in January you spoke February you spoke again you have had ample opportunity you have provided the same information in each iteration and you have not been silenced the meeting was adjourned because you were going to reread what had already been stated there was no new information you are rereading it in your own words so we have heard you the public has heard you I also want to note that upon the initial receipt of this information the board inquired as to whether the topics being discussed were board business and we were advised all together by our attorney that they were not and that there were certainly avenues that you could pursue these topics outside of the boardroom but this is not a board topic which has been stated over and over so we are now going into our third month of this and to see that you have been silenced and silenced by this board as a minority is absurd and insulting and I will also say that people are being silenced when supplementary matters is being used for board members to speak directly to people that have come out and made public comment which you did in the last meeting there are many things that each one of us want to respond to but we never do we sit here and we listen which is what our job is and you violated our policy in supplementary matters last month when you by name directed commentary based on what people that have come out to speak at this Podium said so you know I I just need to be very clear you have not been silenced as a board member you have not been silenced as a member of the community when you stood at the podium and spoke you have not been silenced as a minority I want to know what it is you asking of this board because this is not a board matter and we need to move forward so we can focus on all the wonderful work that our Administration and this board is tring to I I say one more thing because if anybody is calling into question Mrs Brenda's leadership what she has endured for the past two months and before that and maintained her role as board president to the best of her ability following all procedures and protocols o every single person to speak when she is being personally attacked on a non board issue I I just if you question somebody's ability to lead in those circumstances she has remained composed she has given everybody ample opportunity to speak at her own personal expense and so I I I I the questioning of her leadership or trying to shut people down is it it is okay stating facts is not an you've already been heard a Mr Baker would like an opportunity to speak I'm shut up again I'm EXC Robert rules that's Robert that's Robert's Rules gets a chance to before someone gets to speak again okay this afternoon I dug out my Roberts rule trading we all have in 2020 not everybody was here by Gwen thoron and then I took an one-hour webinar by the New Jersey school board organization on Robert's Rules of Order and here's some important items I'm going to relay to the board and the public Robert's Rules or parliamentary uh procedures are guidelines not the law very important the purpose of the rules are to get the meeting to run efficiently without controversy and get it through to the end and all board business completed second uh next item is it's the chairman or or the board president's job to control the meeting go through all the Motions to the end also all board members are not supposed to criticize other board members at any time very important I'm not criticizing anybody here okay I could but I'm not um there is a thing in there called there's a lot of different kinds of motions I'm not going to go through them all but there's a privileged motion section in there that has adjournment all right so there's a privilege second for adjournment I also want to go back since I've been on the board the longest supplementary matters is not a required part of the agenda it's been in there for long as I've been there and it's always been a happy time talk about things that are coming up what's board members should know about what they should maybe learn about there's there's a 5k next week at oph there's something at the library it's a happy time it's not never been controversial never been to lay out your your grievances about anything if you if there's something as should go through the agenda if we get like we're talking about policy now which is appropriate this is an appropriate time to talk about a policy issue so I I agree so everybody's interpretation for this what happened that people were talking about is a little gray I will agree with that okay but my interpretation and other people's interpretation it was a valid thing to do because it was going to be a a repetition and we've all heard it before it's just if you don't have six votes you're wasting our time I always tell board members that you can try to convince like if we're if we're going to change the policy on supplementary matters we need to have six board members who agree what we're going to do if you don't if you can't get that happen then move on if I have an idea that nobody likes I move on I don't keep bringing it up time and time again so that's all I'm going to say on this issue and that's end of it thank you Nathan yeah I'm sorry um so I had never seen supplementary matters on any kind of board agenda that I've ever attended whether it's at Bedminster and and other nonprofits um but you guys had it so and it worked and whatever let it go it's become very contentious and so I did actually reach out to Gwen Thorton just to find out you know do other boards have this how does this supposed to work um what she said is that it is supposed to be used for announcements and general information sharing I've gone to a training um but that she has seen other boards um that did have it when it has been been used improperly because it's it's not best practice as a place to bring up new business or other grievances or other matters so her suggestion was for people to kind of look at it and maybe we look at having a new business section so people have an opportunity if there's actionable work that we want to discuss but I agree supplementary matters has now been taken over by a place and it it has for on and off for like six months so even before Sylvia you were on on the board um people would come and kind of give speeches um and personally I always kind of felt held hostage because it wasn't a place where you we're having debate and that's what the board is supposed to have is a time to have an opportunity to kind of go back and forth so I will give my my comment doctor to miss Grand Pre about what I would like to see USA happen because I don't think it's being used properly and it's it's derailing what we're trying to do here so thank you anyone else with Mr gr I I agree with that um and that's why between your emails as well as what we were hearing from other board members I would like to relook at the policy because I do feel that it is being used at this point in effect fashion that we're choosing um to use it in and it's not productive um for the way that we're working on our board meetings and we're trying to move the agenda forward to be honest I think it's beginning to be an area where the public is coming to watch that and they miss everything else that we're doing which is a whole lot more important I appreciate what you both have been going through through this process because you both have your own sides to stories and we've all heard pieces of both of those I by no means feel like I am a part of this story but I also do believe that it is not a board story it is not board business I appreciate if you want to continue to move this forward but I ask that you please do it in private and allow us to move forward with the board business of the district and I wanted to clarify two things which you said about the policy and procedure meeting hopefully I won't get myself in trouble in this process but you asked if any of us did have an answer to whether rit's rules were used or not we did discuss that we thought we used them to the best of our ability but the policy and person committee was to go back and to double check Robert's Rules no one said we didn't know if we followed them which was the impression of what you just said the other thing that you said I'm not done speaking no no but you guys didn't say I'm not done speaking you're not supposed to be interrupting other board members that you got we follow Robert's Rules we do but we said we could clarify and do followup and we all could use some further training in appropriate use of Robert's Rules you also just stated that we were told we should be hiring to reflect the minority status of our District our goal is to always put Educators in front of our students that represent our students because they need Role Models they need role models from every aspect of their lives but our number one goal is to put the best educator in front of our students regardless of their status we will never discriminate but we will always hire the best educator so please don't say that we're changing our hiring practices to hire to our minority status um okay I just need to check if there's anybody else who would like to comment yes Miss Ry before I was elected um a former board member Janice virtue told me you learn a lot more by listening than by talking I tend not to talk in public meetings I do a lot in committee now for three months Miss gills has been sharing information with the board first in private and then again the community in public the gist of Miss Gill's concern is that because of among other things and this is a fraud matter I agree something Miss Brenda's husband said to Mrs Clark Emory who is here this evening via text because of what someone else said to Mrs Clark Emery that Mrs frienda should resign I Am Not My Brother's Keeper if someone else says something then it's not coming out of my mouth it's coming out of their mouth and you can ascribe ill intent and say well husbands know what wives are doing no no they don't that's all I have to say about that I'm here to tell you that when this all came I first consulted with Gwen thoron who is supposed to be the person there to guide our board she has Myriad years of service on the State Board of Education and I asked her does this rise to a board matter should we be dealing with this as a board because I want to do the best job that I can on this board she said unequivocally no this is not a board matter I then consulted with our board attorney he gave me the same answer and I always follow lines of communication to find out not just one person but more than one person I read everything and I read everything that you sent Miss gills I will admit when you opra the video of Mrs Clark Emory T talking to the police I did not watch that if Mrs Clark Amery had asked me to watch it I would have watched it I compared it to my husband well it's a it's a difficult comparison but I wasn't going to do it because it was a private matter if you had asked me to watch it I would have watched it and if you'd like to send me an email I'll be happy to do it in the end people from the State Board of Education are board attorney all of them said this is not a board related matter I am satisfied that no action needs to be taken by the board and Miss gills if you disagree I invite you to bring a motion to the board so that we can put the motion to a public vote and be done with this thank you resp I just want to I just want to clarify that there's nobody else at the table I don't know if what I said counted as something but I just said about the Roberts oh no no oh no I just wanted to add my uh remarks I couldn't agree with most of the board other people who spoken um more um and you know you've emailed us you read your remarks in January you read them you Tred you repeated them in February now you're bringing it up again now we the reason why we're not engaging with you is not to silence you where you've spoken for some time um well the reason why we're not we're not engaging is because this concern has nothing to do with our students or the staff or the operation of our district we need to move on and I and I also just want to I mean just metion reiterate Heather's comments about uh how Mrs frienda has oper has handled herself in the past few months I mean she is among the most hardest working most knowledgeable most dedicated public servants I've ever met and very few people know policy and are is committed to serving all students with the mo utmost Integrity as she is and she's such an outstanding leader and she's exemplified true leadership during her entire tenure on the board and on her many many years of service at the HSA so and just just look at the way she's conducted herself in the past two meetings in the face of ugly and personal attacks even though her character was repeatedly called into question so I just wanted to re I think it's time for us to move on from this okay is that it may I address some of the things that were said you may speak okay first of all giving someone facts is not an attack to say that did you want to say something I I would like to say that you commented on Mrs friend's facial expressions that is is not facts that is a personal attack okay well then I apologize if you took that as a personal attack not take it as again Sy you commented on her personal facial expression that is personal and saying if I offended you I'm sorry well certainly but you offended me thing and I listed the four texts that your husband sent and that you acknowledged knowing then that's not an attack that's laying out facts I'm sorry I'm sorry as much as I do not want to um as much as I do not want to get in the Weeds on a personal matter there's a point of clarification that I need to make here is that I acknowledged knowing that my husband sent the text I did not acknowledge that I knew when he sent them it was brought to my attention after the fact so I just want to be clear on that point of Distinction here and again I am not looking to litigate a personal matter but I never said that I knew he was sending those text messages you were notified on November 1st the text continued until November 2nd and at our December 12th meeting with Dr brochel Dr brochel said this was board business and now it's private business but the New Jersey Code of Ethics still deals with private Behavior especially with social media texts are considered did you want to say something I did I just would like you to cite the item in the code of ethics that pertains here but I don't want to start going through it Michael is not private citizen that's the difference the code of ethics outlines of different ways in you know what our responsibilities are and the ways in which I'm just wondering the items going to have time if you want me if you want to give me time and then I'll address it in supplemental but I don't want to be shut down again in supplemental okay this is point of order's we're talking about no no you're not going to shut me down again Point order we're talking how do you think that that appears to other people in in our community when you won't let a minority who was targeted and you're laughing and here's the person who was targeted laughing her face receive text messages that threaten your life and laugh I did not over the so we know that policy not what you don't like about what we don't it's not what I don't like it's what I don't like what she did this is our trust and our transparency I mean there there is no participation from the public during board discussion we self police we are a self- policing body that that is accurate private matters are covered by the New Jersey Code of Conduct board business I was told by Dr broel on December 12th was this this was board business then in January I was advised by the attorney that I had to deliver my my remarks as a private citizen which turned out to not be accurate or the case no I said to you and and with your Indulgence please I said to you that you were concerned about violating the ethics act I said to you if you're concerned about violating the ethics act go behind the PO Podium and speak as a member of the public you have an absolute right to do so and I that's what I said to you supplemental word has a disclaimer that any any comments made by a board member does not represent the board and that was a great great Ploy because I got up there and I was interrupted every 3 minutes so my remarks were not given in a cohesive manner that's why I wanted to deliver them in February uninterrupted and concisely as as giving giving again giving facts is not an attack or criticism and this does not interfere with board business just see the target Bel to receive this the Targets in our audience look at her and tell her she was wrong for feeling targeted for being told her soul was being sought and she should file that she was told to get a real no participation from the public during board discussion how many times have minorities been forced out of their communities and a white privileged male is telling her move get a realtor and on De on November 3rd or November 4th she spoke with you Sam and you said if you want to dis this ad I will post it for you on my campaign Facebook page that is an ethical violation even if you say it's private that's a violation that's all okay so syvia I'm going to ask you again what is it because I want to hopefully be able to move forward what is that you want from the board well the board will never ever ask her to step down as president because I emailed you I sent the video I sent my correspondence with Mr Weiss and on January 3rd after you received the videos you reelected her president seeing the fear in Holly's face reporting it to the police that she was in fear for her life and that's why she was there I I don't know how you don't feel she thankful for that well I'm going I'm going to I'm going to interrupt at this moment and I would encourage you at this time to please file ethical violations against me don't worry about it okay I would I encourage you to take that route additionally given the egregious nature that you continue to report regarding my husband's Behavior who is not a member of this board I also encourage you and any other member of the public so inclined to please seek out the appropriate legal venue to litigate this whatever it may be whether it is civil electoral criminal as you have alluded to at this point I would implore you to do that because again this is not a board matter this is monopolizing the time of this board and just for clarity sake no I know what I have done and what I have not done I know my reasons for doing the things that I have done and I know that I have conducted myself in my role as a board member and in my role as board president in adherence with all policy and all expectations as are outlined in a New Jersey school boards Association role of the president presentation um so no I'm not going to resign because I do not feel like I have an any way violated my my responsibilities as a board member or board president so if we could possibly move on and take this to the appropriate venues we will move on I just want it noted that I brought this in house first so and I followed the the chain of command and I was told by our chief administrated administrator officer that this was a board matter and you sat there and agree and then in January it became a private matter so I I have no plan to bring this up again after this meeting I just think the way I was shut down was disrespectful and you can never understand how that feels coming from my perspective from my background and how that makes the rest of the community feel that they have no voice cu the voice on the board that represents them I represent everybody but they feel a kinship she she shut down period thank you and I am just going to reiterate while I take your point about representation in our community that repeatedly insinuating that I am acting in a way that in any way targets you as a minority or anyone as a minority is absolutely patently untrue and it is an absolute absolutely I'm going to I'm going to use the word repugnant in terms of you are calling into question my character you are calling into question my reputation you are calling into question my identity I am also I am also a minority and for you to continue down this path I understand the minority space that you that you occupy but I occupy a space and being disregarded is absolutely completely insulting and I will always include you when I speak of minorities always always but you speak about Community representation and how will this make the people in this community who fall under this category feel or how do you think it makes the Hispanics feeli when the one Hispanic on the board was shut down not good I can tell you that and I didn't attack your character I laid out the facts if it's inconvenient I'm sorry okay I I'm going to move I'm GNA move this along I'm so sorry Felicia um I just want to clarify Sylvia in all fairness you were not shut down last week the comments you were going to make were already in our record they had been noted they're there and I'm just please don't roll your eyes at me I didn't roll your eyes I should and I do find it hard to understand I think it's bold to claim I I I appreciate your kinship with the folks in our community but to to to represent that everyone in the community agrees with what you're doing and what's happening here and that that's what's happening feels egregious to me I didn't make that assertion I didn't say the whole Community agrees with me never said that okay well the record the that's fine shut down you weren't shut down how do you think that's how it comes across the op Val and how do you think it makes the minority population that some of whom send their children to our school I understand you've said it multiple times and I think it's time to move on because we've spent I can't feel shut down you can feel however you want but your your the the statements that you made are in the record and as a new member chopped up as a new member of the board it's very difficult to sit here and go through this when I see all the work that needs to be done the children all of them that need to be represented it's this is a waste of time and I would like to move forward are doing the work though this doesn't interrupt our work and that's why I addressed it in supplemental at the risk at the risk of being condemned I think that as the chair at this time it is appropriate for us to move along and call um for R have roll call for a vote now thank you Mrs Ry I'm sorry what are we voting uh approval approv policy policy number one policy number one okay yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs T grume yes Miss gills yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carries okay um yeah okay at this time we are going to open public comments public comments are welcome at this time on any topic toic please state your name and address comments are limited to 3 minutes at 3 minutes you will be interrupted and asked to pause to allow any other members of the public who would like to speak an opportunity to do so an individual May return to the podium to complete their statement after everyone else has had an opportunity to speak for a total of two times at the podium please understand that our public forums are not structured as a question and answer session but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board and instances where the board feels feels there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or the superintendent May address the comment in accordance with New Jersey statute the board will not discuss matters regarding specific Personnel a reminder for all parties in attendance to remain respectful and that there should be no interaction between the speaker and the audience no members of the audience should interfere with or interrupt the speaker's comments we thank you in advance for your input and again I refer you to Mr DeMarco's timer and so that you can be aware of the time remaining on your comments and understand when I will be intervening thank you hi James emry um Holly's husband 31 Locust Drive what I was going to say I I'm flabbergasted I'm I'm just flabbergasted testimony as to why you might consider stepping down as president Miss Brenda you haven't been able to diffuse this you just admitted it yourself for three months uh Miss gills is claiming to be a minority not claiming she is and she's exercising that right you're going around the room beating up on her diffuse the bomb roll your eyes you just accused her of rolling your eyes you squinted at me knock it off that's childish it's ridiculous it's immature give her her due and by the way thank you for sticking up for Holly Miss gills that took a lot of Courage it took moral character moral character thank you Holly for kindly going to miss frienda and asking if there's anything that you could do to diffuse that situation to apologize to her something that you weren't even part of what did you do did you apologize did you exercise any humility I don't think you did I didn't see anything well I'm glad you did I'm glad you did your husband certainly didn't those are the type of things you know in a community like this back in the day us guys you know we would have walked over to the friend's house knocked on the door what are you doing picking on a woman Mr frienda we didn't do that it's humility that's all look I appreciate you taking the hot seat but diffuse this thing step up not don't bring people in here to mutually admire you we are already we already love you you're the President right thank you thank you for your [Applause] comment hi uh my name is Kelly Hunt I live on Balentine Road I have uh two sons at Bedwell um I just wanted to say thank you for all that you do I understand that you are all volunteers and this can be a very stressful job uh but it's a very important job uh for our community and for our kids um I noticed when you were discussing the budget all the incredible um improvements that you guys are making the thoughtful um additions uh and educational opportunities for our kids um and they are just so lucky for all the hard work You' put in and added those um uh I wanted to highlight um some really wonderful things that happened at bedwall um just last week uh our students um are so lucky they have teachers who go above and beyond for our students last Monday March 5th the bed Bedwell fourth graders kicked off their Battle of the books our fourth graders were so lucky because Mr T's band consisting of Mr thurow Mrs lonard Miss brutin Mr Nunan um and with a starring guest vocals by Mr kriy helped them celebrate the event uh these teachers took time in their uh personal time to practice um songs specific to the theme of Battle of the books um and then they used their um free period to perform for our students and it was just absolutely um so exciting and just so touching to see the dedication with which they celebrated um with our students uh later in the week um Bedwell hosted a a truly wonderful story night um again we had teachers willing to donate their time and make this event special for our students in this case we had Mrs Leonard again Mr thurow again Mrs McShane and Mrs bore um unless you're there it would be just impossible for me to describe to you how magical this evening was um but as a member of the HSA I just want to to mention how endlessly grateful um I am that when we ask for their help our teachers are always so willing and generous with their time again thank you for everything that you do thank you very much anybody else hi uh Chris capgro for Lloyd Road um I just wanted to thank the administration and the board for heating the call of the community for uh supplementing the budget going forward for uh not only the wrestling program for which I push for and I know many of the members of the community support it but all the additional um activities and uh supplemental curricula that was put in place and going forward uh to make it a much more robust and uh uh worthy school district for people that live live in this community to consider uh moving their children from private schools to public schools which I think is uh a trend that you don't typically see um today and you know I think that this these type of improvements if they're continued will bring back uh more of a community here within the within our greater region so I I want to thank everyone for making those efforts it makes a difference thank you very much Dr brochel this is actually a couple of questions for you um the um I know we T just voted tonight that we're getting $2,000 back on the U Middle School media are we going to use that maybe to get this online system going again it it' be kind of helpful because I've had a few parents ask me about that and the second thing policy 2200 that's getting adopted tonight um there's a specific provision in there and this deals with um uh the curriculum it says a a super I'm sorry not the curriculum says a superintendent or zni shall develop a procedure to address and eliminate any possible bias in the curriculum are you going to be the one that's going to be handling that or you going to have a design KN for that have design okay and then are you going to share that with the you know the procedures or is that something that's made public or sure what I can do is I can review the regulation for 2200 okay which is really kind of the how a policy is implemented I can I'll revie them report out oh okay cool all right thanks thank you is there anyone else that would like to make a public comment at this time there there is someone thank you hi Annie fante um I have three kids all in the high school now and honestly Kelly when you were getting almost choked up up here talking about your experience at bed while I started thinking about mine my oldest is now a senior Mrs Ballard you know him very well um but I've been coming to these board meetings honestly since my oldest was in first grade um and I have always admired obviously everything that you all do and I have to say it's never been as contentious as it is now and so I just would really encourage you and I know that even during that supplemental um or the policy part um you were talking about moving forward starting fresh so I'm I'm really really happy to hear that especially because one of my biggest concerns is that the amount of time and emotion that you all have experienced over the past 3 months it really makes me nervous that other people that are willing and able to serve our community are going to be reluctant to because they're going to be afraid they're going to be attacked and so I really am hopeful I'm really hopeful that you're able to do that um because that's really it really is important so that's all thank you thank you okay [Music] yes hi Janice 80 um [Music] 26 46-3 post kennel Road um I didn't really prepare anything but I just wanted to say I thank you all for the work that you do it's tough um but very much appreciated um and I just wanted to say that um I know some of you on the board and I know some of you in the audience and I really hope that we can all somehow come together as a community to focus on the things that are most important to us all here which is the children and the education of children and and if people are upset of what people say then yes it's it's it you know apologies aboard but also um there has to be a moment of time to say this matter is personal it needs to go through the the correct channels to correct it um and the board of education has their own responsibilities they're not the Beall end all of all quarrels or um mean tweets or anything like that I I just hope we can all come together as a community and focus on the real purpose of this uh Board of Education and that's the children thank you thank you very much is there anybody else at this [Music] time I don't know if you can see me my name is Maryanne r 18 Windwood Road I believe the goals of the Boe is in serving every student unfortunately in today's current climate your mission is being derailed disrupted and devalued and as a community we cannot allow this to happen there is just too much to stake it is disheartening to start the beginning of every Boe meeting with positive news from our superintendent only to end the evenings in such a Negative Place president Sam frienda leads by example by ethically serving our community for over a decade whether as an HSA board member Chef trustee or Boe member she has always tried to do the right thing for her family and her friends for her community and for every student regardless of race ethnicity religion or gender she is committed to all the students in the district all of them I have seen her lead with passion and conviction firsthand for over a decade I've been an involved parent volunteer I had the privilege to work beside Sam at bedwell's AG a board and as our co-president at BMS together we witness parents struggling to connect with our community within this District in 2017 we proposed that a bilingual aison role be created at each H HSA board at every school and we recruited committed parents bilingual parents minority parents who with the support of our administrators specifically Michael catell we're successful in creating an inclusive bilingual parent community that meets the needs of our students in this District to this day for anyone to call into question Sam's Integrity they need to look at themselves and what they have done to create such divisiveness and disruption in a community filled with people who are committed as Sam it is clear to me that those looking to tear down the reputation of our Boe president are not looking to serve our community for good and do not care to see people theyve been elected to serve with as Unique Individuals with Humanity they do not wish to work collaboratively and have their own agenda frankly to waste precious time on a subject that is not even a Boe matter is incredibly inefficient so I implore you to stop the disruption get to work because our kids deserve better thank you thank you is there anyone else that would like to speak at this time I'm Barbara py 28-2 Lloyd Road and I just wish that I'm sorry would be a portion of every one of yours vocabulary this could have been stopped a long time ago if you all were just willing to say I'm sorry for who did what wrong and remember our kids need to know that what's the first thing you do when your kids have a squabble with a neighbor's kid or something like that you pull them in and you say okay let's talk this out and let's say we're sorry you failed to do this as a board and I'm sorry because it has really escalated too much so I hope in the future you will keep those words as being sacred because they are and also I hope that Jewish people are not in the minority I have a sign in my front yard I have two of them in a m matter of fact I support Israel but I don't think of Jewish people as being in the minority which is good women yes but not [Music] [Applause] Jewish hi I'm Karen Shephard Cath C sheeper uh ambar place in Bernardsville you haven't seen me in over a year I used to come on a regular basis to the meetings to uh say some words um regarding uh CRT and Dei so you may recognize me I'm just been listening I just want to say this because I I feel I hear so many good people saying good things and good people being upset with each other and I'm just thinking I was sitting here and a lady behind me was upset with me cuz I had turned around to look at her and had a very unhappy look on her face and I just thought you know this is bullying I I don't think just kids bully I think grown-ups bully too I think there's one thing that I don't know if this will help at all is I like to help um find a way where there's an exit door from this room to a room where the board can speak to these things have sort of a procedure I don't I don't know maybe you do have it but I don't think it was used a whole lot also that word expectation I think everybody has expectations and some of them are over the top granted some of them aren't but that's such a good word to hold on to when you're talking with other people that feel differently about things than you do I guess oh in Robert's rules um it's a necessary evil however it's a wonderful thing when people know the rules I don't think it's a bad thing if if someone's gone out and uh like Mr Baker and taken a look at them cuz that's cohesiveness if everybody can agree to do that I bet you there are a whole bunch of other things too um that's it thanks thank you okay is there anyone else that would like to speak at this time [Music] I'd like to use this opportunity for Miss frienda to publicly apologize to Holly the floor is yours you're not willing to publicly apologize I'd like to then read a text from Mike frienda to Holly I'm coming the internet is forever twitching and deleting everything won't help websites robotex or commercial bank accounts to pay for all this I've been in touch with a cyber investigator digital forensics investigator private investigator I like to throw money at problems to make them go away once I have the receips I may give people a chance to gravel for forgiveness short of that I'm coming for Souls might want to go ahead and reach out to your lawyer and your realtor again miss frienda I'm going to give you the opportunity would you like to apologize for Mike Fender's comments to Holly your competitor and the race which I think you won by one vote again the floor is you said you've apologized but I'm giving you the opportunity right now to publicly apologize for the comments from your husband that I just read let the record is this on let the record show Miss frienda is unwilling to apologize for the comments that I just read which in any case I mean I I I know a lot of people support you but how would you like it if you got a text like that a little unsettling against your candidate your opponent in a race that you won by one vote now certainly I think you should resign from this because again you're in a position that you to adjudicate HB issues which again your husband made a very terrible threat against your candidate that you only won by one vote now I think you should resign because you've been in this role for a very long time and this Schoolboard the school rankings continue to slip the test scores continue to slip you're not doing a good job and I agree with you the children deserve better we're paying a lot of taxes and now I think we're ranked 65th in the state we dropped 150 ranking position Nationwide Bob US News and World reports were dropping so again you're all patting each other on the back but I agree with you the children deserve better and this ain't it Mr brochel you want to talk about lights I know you can have conversations back and forth about the LED lights but I know you're still supporting religious persecution right you're still you're still on that everybody else right again the opportunity here was to apologize and let the record show she refused to do it again step down we deserve [Applause] better hi Alison lbr attend Steven Street um just a few things I actually wasn't even planning on speaking because I have to write everything out as I am not a public speaker but um I couldn't sitay here and not say something uh there are a few things that a woman should never have to do and apologize for her husband is number one number two say Sam has done nothing wrong so everybody can keep getting up here and asking her to apologize but until she does something wrong she does not have to apologize um Sam I beg of you do not resign this board is stronger and better with your leadership I 100% know that you are in it for our children all of this chaos around you I don't know how you do it but you've done an amazing job and I appreciate you I appr appreciate what you do for my children um and one other thing I think that we are doing a huge disservice to not recognize that Jewish women are part of the minorities because they are um and we keep coming up with this whole thing Holly about um what happened prior to the election and the things that were said about Sam that were not true I just wonder have you looked into who is behind that website thank you yeah we did thank you is there anybody else Holly Emory 31 Locust Drive yes we absolutely did look at it and if you read the letter that I posted on Sam's Facebook it was there that we did unfortunately me being up here shouldn't be for this Sylvia gills did something that not many do which is stand up for someone who has been threatened sadly just to make it clear the Tex the police all that is true running for bard of Ed last year sadly opened up something for both Sam frienda and I to something extremely malicious never in a million years did I think that this community would be so divided as we all witnessed over the past few months I'm asking the board and the community to not let this unfortunate incident related to The Campaign and the elections be a further distraction to the primary mission of the district which is to provide an authentic and balanced learning experience for each student by harnessing the power of innovation and an Engaged Community to create thoughtful and impactful Global Citizens which is our children may we remind ourselves as the Board of Education parents teachers and all adult members of our community that we need to lead by example for the students of this District respecting one another working together despite differing viewpoints not tolerating bullying of individuals or groups supporting each other when the going gets tough so that we can strive to be the best that we can as individuals and as a community our district is extremely fortunate to now have Dr roel at the helm this leadership from day one has been a breath of fresh air and his relationship with building skills are exemplary My Hope Is that within remaining 3 months left of the current school year our board will be able to laser focus on furthering the great work that Dr brochel has initiated additionally over the next three months I would love to see the board be able to focus on the implementation of the policies and programs working with our teachers to help each of our students every one of them reach their maximum potential while continuing to become a more robust Innovative and high achieving school district is there anyone else like Jim Emory 31 Locust Drive um I I I just want to add that uh to temper when I got up here before I was a little emotional um we we appreciate we appreciate you all we appreciate you you you are in the hot seat okay um we appreciate you um and uh uh you know we we do appreciate the comments uh by by Miss A and others who are suggesting that you know we should all get over this and come together um uh this minority thing uh you know if uh if my my black father-in-law uh and I gotten an argument and I brought up something about feeling like a minority or anything I'd be kicked out of the house you don't know what you don't know what you don't know right um I'm white obviously um uh we we don't know what it's like to be a minority we don't um and so I think that in in that situation if we can take anything away from it this is a white Town basically um we we have two ears let's just listen more I think that I think that the weaker the weaker person in in a situation like this is is the minority I don't mean weaker in a in a not as muscular way but um and so I think that I think that we need to um just double down on you know uh getting around that situation and that person in that moment so uh as for my family we're we're we're moving on um we we uh we have beautiful kids they've been taught well they've gotten great opportunities through this school system and it's because of what you guys do and and and and the superintendent and all the teachers we have here so I hope this really puts an end to this whole thing guys thank [Applause] you okay um can I get a motion to close at this time the public comments yes Miss R and Mr Grand prey um in listening to the comments it is not our practice to engage in back and forth or question and answer so I I I just want to be clear while someone is speaking I am never going to engage with them while public comments is open um but regarding an apology um although I have not um it has been my practice not to address this because it is a personal matter Miss emry and I shared a number of conversations one of which was tearful we discussed the things we needed to discuss I not going to make a public spectacle of that okay at this time I am going to move into supplementary matters the views and opinions that are may be expressed by individual members of the Somerset Hills Board of Education during supplementary matters are solely those of individual board members and do not reflect the views opinions policies regulations Andor positions of the Somerset Hills Board of Education and or any other individual members of the board does anybody have anything for supplementary matters uh okay Miss Ry you're up first thank you I would like to apologize and I was going to do so before excided uh by Mrs long to think about apologizing in that as a member of the board I should never have directly addressed from this seat a member of the public and I'd like to apologize for doing that she can do it thank you okay is there anybody else Mr I just want to add one exciting thing which is personal for me as well but also thankful to the board for supporting um which was not brought up by the student Representatives but tomorrow the band leaves for Orlando to perform um and that is something we have not seen since preco so it is a wonderful thing that we were able to bring back I have oh sorry sorry I don't remember his speaker's name I think it was Mrs long um on Valentine um she gave us credit for doing uh for the budget all we did was approve it and we went to a ret uh they we called it a retreat on Saturday and we it was it was explained to us in great detail which was incredibly helpful but we don't deserve that credit Jenny Dr Dr brochel Dr Butler the heads of departments they are the ones who deserve that credit because they are the ones who constructed that budget all we did was listen to the presentation and approve it so the credit really belongs to those individuals thank you minimize the hard work of I think we absolutely play a role in budget decisions we give talk about our priorities we discuss it every month in committee what our priorities are is it's it's kind of baffling that you think that we have no role in budget I don't think our role is as big as as encompassing as what they have to work through with the numbers I I I don't think it's comparable if you asked me to compile what they compiled on Saturday for the presentation no way I couldn't do it I don't know who else on this board could do Mr Baker um but I don't know who else could do it that was really comprehensive and I give them credit for doing that and I thank them and and I definitely deser believe that they deserve all the CR but we to say that we have no is just I didn't say Okay um I'm can I okay all right oh oh okay two items to touch on one we heard in the um news that I just want to express my gratitude for the invitation to the full board for the stem competition it is it was an experience that reminds you why you are here I was honored with a complete lack of engineering experience they brought brought me along and I believe I did us uh proud and I'm hoping enough to be invited back again and I would highly encourage everyone to do it the kids that ran this program from start to finish the Poise the expertise I just cannot speak enough and I know Bob Dr brochel and some others it was a wonderful day so I just want to give them credit and Applause and they are a wonderful group of kids that are already making this District proud and I know will go forth from here and and really you know just make this District proud and it's a credit to uh Mr cook who organizes it I just really cannot say enough about that experience and again please invite us back because I'm I'm there next year um and then the last thing I tried to touch on last month I just love this program that's r through the county um and want to make sure everybody checks your emails the unsung hero award which will be on March 18th if your calendar allows we are all invited to the program it's going to honor 14 students that make outstanding contributions but may sometimes be overlooked by other traditional forms of recognition and this has been going on Dr Butler for how many for at least five six years now our school district nominates one student they will be honored um and it is just an incredible program so I encourage the public and um board members to take a look at it I think we probably would likely have to RSVP um for dinner and thank you to everyone who contributed um this year they are going to give each honory a um gift so that's it thank you is there anybody else for supplementary matters no okay well then at this time I would like to ask for a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn and a second I Mr Grand Pre all in favor have a good night everyone Grande