to the flag of the United States of America to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Mr B here Mr Chapman here Mr brella Mr gakis Mrs Miller here Mr Pender here Mr cleberg here Mr Casio present Mr P here in accordance with the terms of the Sunshine Law adequate notice of this meeting was posted in all school buildings the administration building burough clerk's office Public Library three newspapers and tap into on January 8th 2024 please be advised there is no spoking on school school grounds inside or outside at any time please silence all electronic devices in pursuance of District policy number 0167 each statement made by a participant shall be limited to 3 minutes duration and no participant may speak more than once on the same topic thank you uh hend report Mr Man our uh ORD are running late so we're going to move that okay later um our first presentation tonight will be from our student representative report from May Abdul hakeim so Samir uh this evening is presenting all the information about what's good in South leville High School um Samir is the president of the freshman class and Samir enters the South clo School District in sixth grade but he's already made quite an impression on his teachers and administration but most of all from his fellow classmates voted him as uh president in the freshman year can you ready good evening Dr tany Miss Melisa and members of the board advate the Board of Education how are you doing good I'd like to thank all of you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the student body my name is Samir and I serve as president for the class of 2027 in addition to my roles as representative as class president I'm also a member of the Freshman Basketball team and will be joining our track program this spring the winter sports season is off to a great start our our girls and boys basketball teams are having a great year our winter track team recently won their divisional relays our bowling teams are rolling through their season and our wrestling teams has been highlighted by Eva timara who just this past weekend won her second straight GMC girls wrestling title where she was also honored as outstanding wrestler for their lower weights the student support has been amazing students have been attending our sports events home or away trying their best to make our students employers and Staff feel great in times that could be intense the atmosphere of Vibes have been through the roof as we hope to keep the same energy for the rest of our season the behavior of our students have been tremendous so far and we hope it stays that way for the remainder of the Year our education comes first so to be able to have a great education while also being respect respectful and responsible to our teachers and other students is always a great sign of a healthy environment schoolwide our 2024 yearbook is near is near in completion seniors recently voted on SE relatives and pictures were taken over the last week yearbooks can still be purchased on the Johnston's website if anyone is interested our music program has been well so far recently taken a trip to our our elementary schools to perform before our winter break our annual door decoration competition was Splendid having multiple different designs being portrayed around our school to our school this shows gross as we came together to show our creative minds schoolwide the SPs drama club will be presenting the musical Freaky Friday the weekend of March 22nd our cast staff and crew are already working hard to make it another amazing production thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you tonight on the happenings of the high school I'm looking forward to a very successful rest of the year and looking and looking forward to report back in June thank you all a great job we have another presentation uh this evening moving along with highlighting what uh wonderful things are happening in our school district tonight we have a presentation from uh rley Elementary School our principal and vice principal are here Mr cin and uh Chris Casio vice principal going to come up and they're going to do a presentation on the importance of community service and I can't help but notice we have a few of our riy students in the audience as well so thank you for coming I hope I see you on the film hold up oh no I'm going to embarrass you come on stand over come make by myself I promise you didn't have to talk but you're going to come stand here look pretty come on so when I first got to South planfield it was very evident hit the button which one there we go much better when I first got to South planfield it was very evident the importance of community and it was something that I took to heart when I started here and when I got to Riley I was fortunate enough to work with such amazing children and their efforts in improving the school Community uh our student council does activities almost by weekly they promote a positive culture in the building they are trying to create that sense of Pride and community at Riley and on top of that we're trying to instill that sense of private Community outside of the school and one of those things that is near due to their hearts is being partnered with one of our local senior care facilities and our student council has been taking monthly trips over to the senior care facility to work with the residents and kind of bring a little bit of happiness and joy to their life um and having a positive impact on theirs as well so I'm going to stop talking and we're going to let you see our little presentation we put together for thisday before you do that would somebody just hit the light so that we can make sure we can get a nice view of that hi we are the student council from R school and I want to tell you a project we do we go to the nursing home to give back to the community the reason we go that there is because we want to make residents happy and do activities with them like sing songs and just talk to them after we leave from there we feel really happy and nice about it but but we also feel kind of sad because we're [Music] leaving um the reason we go to the senior center is because we like making the residents like happy and not just like like CU like they don't like some of them don't really have people that actually like go there to visit them so when we go there it makes them feel like more happy about [Music] it the last thing we did was we made mini Santa Claus and before we left we were sing Christmas songs we were starting to singing then the residents started singing with us we were singing mostly some um good Christmas songs we s Rolph those reindeer in [Music] F we were nervous because it was a new experience and we didn't know what the people at the nursing home would be like oh my favorite thing was when we to the Santa arts and crafts my my favorite thing was is meeting new people oh wa but ha what what what is your favorite part of doing it my favorite part about it was kind of getting to interact with them and doing activities with them you learned from it that it doesn't matter if people are different and you should always help [Music] people no no matter what we learn to accept everybody and learn to be [Music] kind my favorite thing about going is probably just like seeing them happy and it's nice to see them smile and it just makes us feel really [Music] [Music] good [Music] that was really beautiful that was beautiful to see you smile but to see the residents in the uh in the nursing home you really I'm sure made their day maybe their week maybe their month you're doing an amazing job an absolutely amazing job come on so we can shake hands she amazing great job on the Day of Service yeah great job that was beautiful awesome job fantastic great job thank you taking care of good job good job we're going to put that up on our on our website tomorrow okay no BR thank you great job thanks everybody hey guys all right we have um another recognition tonight you've noticed in the past we've had our athletes attend one of our meetings and uh we we love having them here but unfortunately what happens is we have so many talented athletes that many of them aren't able to come because they uh they uh participate in more than one sport so what we're going to do is we acknowledged our athletes in the school and uh gave them a certificate acknowledging all their hard work and everything that they did during their season but we just wanted to say a special congratulations to all of our athletes from our um from our spring uh from our fall season I'm sorry uh our football fields hockey uh boys cross country girls cross country gymnastics boys soccer girls soccer and volleyball all of our athletes are absolutely amazing and they've all been acknowledging their school so we just wanted to uh acknowledge them here at one of our our board meetings and thank them for U making our after school activities and our Sports something that we all want to be a part of and participate and and go and see them so thank you so much and um thank you very much great job that that that was really really touching Ser really nice congratulations Year great job on report um moving on actually we just have public comenda items [Music] only um board [Applause] comments um I also just want to say great job by our Riley school students it was so heartwarming to see how happy those seniors were to have the kids um interact with them and be with them even if it was for a short time um and just want to say congratulations to all our athletes and coaches who receiv received Awards and honors um you know great job by by everyone and Samir you did a wonderful job tonight um thank you for youred information and uh good job reporting thank you so much uh great job to our uh fall athletes that have uh received recognition and good luck to all of our winter athletes uh Samir you're a freshman the sky is the limit you can keep running from here um and I just want to say while our uh Ry school students are here um Riley School holds a special place in my heart cuz that's my elementary school um but that was amazing um this is what it's all about at the end of the day um how you can touch the lives of other people and I think you guys are making a tremendous impact at such a young age keep going thank you kind of duplicative but you guys killed it you did a great job Riley school what you guys are doing there please continue doing that kind of stuff your entire lifetime don't just do it now you know how good it makes you feel to go over there and do that now that feeling never goes away continue to do great stuff like that and nice things like that for people and you'll be very very happy uh you guys did a great job um Administration R you guys thanks for doing that that's fantastic you know where'd you go right across the street Complete Care Complete Care okay um congratulations to all the athletes um you know uh great job to everybody there and uh that's it any others okay seeing none inter session is off pursu to open public Med act that the board meets and close sessions at this time this disc confidential matters pertaining to personnel and attorney privilege resolve that the resolve that the matters discussing post session shall be made public as soon as the confidentially no longer resist can I have a motion to accept motion I have a second second all in favor I I oppose okay we're going to the exact I will say 15 point that's about it okay thank you okay back uh in session do I have a motion to approve the agenda so moov second Mr both yes Mr Chapman yes Mr Barella yes Mrs Miller yes Mr Pender yes Mr cleberg yes Mr Caso yes Mr fi yes we will now have the presentation of the 2223 R report yes thank you live I'm here tonight to present the F year 2023 comprehensive annual finan report and also the auditor management report uh these are two reports required by the state of New Jersey uh the first report I like to talk about is the order management report that's your smaller of two reports uh in here there are certain sections that the state requires us to look at like your ASA your purchasing uh your controls on payroll and if we not anything we'll have a finding and recommendation in this report uh this past year we did have one finding recommendation that I'd like to go through uh had to deal with your purchasing uh the finding reads our examination and purchases over the bit threshold disclosed two instances where vendors were paid in excess of amount Ed by resolution of the governing body and the recommendation reads that the vendor not be paid in excess of amount Ed by resolution of the governing body uh involv inst is there was an award of a resolution to for contracts but we want using these same vendors for for later on in the year for additional Services whenever you do that you should pass a second resolution noting that you're using the vendor for additional Services uh that was our only finding and recommendation for the orderers manag report uh the annual comprehensive financial report the lar of the two reports these are your financial statements your not to your financial statements and then subsidiary schedules that the Department of Education requires uh in here we have our opinion on your audit uh you either have a modified opinion or unmodified opinion a modified opinion would be if we had any issues with any of the numbers that we got uh from the business office uh I'm happy to report this this past year we have an unmodified report so that means you have a clean opinion Al all the numbers in the ACT We Believe are fairly fairly stated um from a financial standpoint the general uh the general fund start the year out with a little over $12.8 million surplus and end of the year a little over 8.4 uh the main driver of your Surplus uh being reduced was that you guys use your capital reserve money and you use your uh pance Reserve help fun projects during the year um are there any specific questions anybody has on either the two reports okay thank you very much thank you apprciate it okay we are now going to move right into our regular meeting um and we go to item number four public hearing for lease purchase to finance or roof Replacements at Roosevelt School and Le Tobias administration building do I have any public comments on that board member discussion seeing none can I have a motion to approve the calendar for meeting schedule come second call please Mr both yes Mr Chapman yes Mr Pella yes M Miller yes Mr Pender yes Mr tberg yes Mr Casio yes Mr P yes super attend report thank you Mr P uh this evening I have to uh do the presentation of student safety data system report for period one um we have from South lville High School 23 reported kids four were confirmed uh all with uh gender investigated by uh principal John pascolo we have two for uh race investigated by Dana ceru we have two for ancestry and origin investigated by uh Sean flat we have two for sexual orientation two for mental physical or sensory disability and two for other distinguishing characteristics the middle school had three reported hips one confirmed um it was a type of race or color grand school had nine hibs reported three were confirmed other distinguishing characteristics investigated by Jetta strahorn Franklin had five reported hips one confirmed race or color uh investigated by Tama GRE dup and two four other distinguishing characteristics investigated by Rua Wu and Shannon kuchi Kennedy had no reported cases of hip Riley had no reported cases of hip and Roosevelt had four reported cases of Hib with zero confirmed thank you thank you very good can I have a motion to approve the minutes what comments genda it I'm sorry comments on agenda items only public sorry sorry Victoria okay see you should come up with something have a resolution approve you have a motion to approve the prior board me uh second discussion V please Mr both yes Mr Chapman uh yes I stain on a Mr frella yes Mrs Miller yes Mr Pender yes on a abstain on B Mr suberg yes Mr Casio yes Mr pen yes the motion for curriculum a through e hello second discussion roll call please Mr both yes Mr Chapman yes Mr fella yes Mr Miller yes Mr pther yes Mr cleberg yes Mr Casio yes Mr P yes have a motion on your policy a so second discussion roll call please Mr both yes Mr Chapman yes Mr frella yes Mrs Lillard Mr Pender yes Mr cber yes Mr Casio yes Mr P yes and I have a motion for personnel a through e second discussion R call Mr both yes Mr Chapman yes Mr Pella yes Mrs Miller yes Mr Pender yes Mr suberg yes CIO yes Mr F yes the finance a through W can I have a motion second discussion what a z Z oh yes I did who Z sorry move second thank you okay any questions on uh X Y and Z that was good that was good see I have a call please Mr both yes Mr Chapman yes Mr Barella yes Mrs Miller yes Mr Pender yes Mr cleberg yes Mr Casio yes Mr yes public comments on any item see none board member comments um yeah I would just like to uh compliment uh uh the uh Tom wi and his crew for getting the schools cleaned up you know doing a great great job and um you know there's a lot of uh it's funny you you see on social media a lot of critics out there a lot of keyboard Warriors out there you knowum Jing all over and you know having their their comments their their ill-informed comments about what it's like to try to determine whether it's going to be a delayed opening whether it's going to be a snow day what the circumstance is going to be and you know I think that people just think that it's oh well you know whatever and they don't realize you know the the the discussion the input the weather reports the superintendent you know paying attention to what's going on showing up here in a dist at 7:00 in the morning driving around to make sure the facilities are up to speed I mean it's a lot that goes on and what's also not seen and not known is there were 92 employees uh on uh Tuesday who took the day off so we didn't have 92 people 92 employees who weren't here so that's something else that has to go into consideration I just wish that the public would understand that and not believe that these decisions are made you know just off the cuff and willy-nilly I'm telling you there's a lot of thought and uh Dr Le Shack's first and foremost um driver is always she says to us the kids being safe and you know the answer isn't if you don't think it's safe call a snow day the answer is no we're going to make it safe in the morning so we're going to delay the school being opened for an hour and a half or two hours whatever it is so that's how the process kind of works so I just wanted to put that out there so that you know all the people who uh who like to jump onto the social media and be critical about it understand a little bit more about the process that goes on thank you just want to add on to a little bit about what Doug said and I agree with you D um it's not a health or Skelter type of decision that's made um in addition to that if anybody had bothered to watch the news report you would have seen that the majority of schools in Central and North uh New Jersey had delayed opening if not you know being shut down completely in fact nen had sent out a text message to all of us and I responded to her because I happened to be at a meeting with North and Central uh New Jersey districts at that exact moment she sent it out and everybody was sitting there saying we've called you know delay opening delay opening delay opening what are you doing until late opening we're going to call out in the morning we're going to call out at night so I let her know what was going on as far as the rest of the um the state at least from Central to Northern so you know nothing is is just made off of a wi because she felt like you know delayed openings she really does have the safety of not only the kids but the staff members as well so um you know hopefully everybody takes that under consideration and it's a little Kinder in the future I'll I'll be doing the same thing Friday Thursday night and Friday okay here you go uh I don't want to beat a dead horse but I actually had basically the same exact thing that I wanted to say I just wanted to say thank you to Tom thank you to uh Dr tany um our Administration our teachers our families for keeping our students safe I mean um you see comments about people saying I wonder if the superintendant there in the morning when when it's snowing or when the roads are icy yeah she is there she's the first one there often times um so Tom's the first one Tom's the first one I apologize but then Dr tany as well um Tom cleans her Tom's here at like 3 in the morning let's face Tom doesn't go home so I don't know if we consider that um but I just want to say thank you to everyone who uh who who continues to prioritize the safety of the uh of the students um because yeah the the weather can everybody just wants to go home when there's a couple snow a couple inches of snow but in reality it's we're there's definitely a thought process that goes into all of this it's not like we're just sending students out there to to get covered in snow and get taken away by this now there's detailed and so I just want to say thank that's all if listen if we're if we're if we're thanking people I'd really like to to just let the public know too it isn't just a decision that's made um in in my office I have multiple conversations with um the police department with our DPW uh Tom is on the phone with DPW we prepare prior so you know I'm getting updates I was getting updates about what the roads were like starting at 3:00 in the morning um and they just keep going I get them from all the police officers are out there uh Chief Papa uh letting me know and again uh the DPW they also did a fine job anything that we would call please make sure sure you know I would drive down the road this one's not done I'd make the phone call can you please reach out to the DPW get the uh get the salting done on this so you know it's I really do appreciate everything that everybody's saying and Tom and his crew did an amazing an absolutely amazing job I just want to to you know thank our DPW and also our Police Department that is very involved and lets us know what's happening and you know how the streets are and what's going on so so you know any other board member very good seeing none can I have a motion to adjourn motion all favor thank [Music] you