##VIDEO ID:eCQI8ra0wAY## please rise for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the 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 uh we have some presentations I I just want to make notice that the school boards were supposed to be here and publicly go over the board uh goals and ethics but apparently she was outside with you guys and we were long into executive session so she left and we scheduled that for another uh another board meeting um I'd like to recognize uh our student person on the board Mill head come on up you guys can you guys hear my big mouth without the microphone okay um so first off this was a uh Eddie is such a great kid if you don't know him he was poised he is intelligent he is driven uh Eddie is going places in life uh is so ridiculously scheduled extracurricularly uh we are very proud of him he is everything about what township is all about so we wish you the best of luck thank you for hanging out with us you're awesome you're going to keep your uh you're going to keep your name tag and then here is a uh plaque in that represents you and your hard workor from September through June thank you that's good let's um let's grab a [Applause] picturein you got it Kevin okay awesome all right here we go oh okay great job good job big hand also want to take a second um and I want to recognize Kalisto tarabelli stand up she's our new student rep just say hi hello I see a proud mommy out [Laughter] there come on Junior oror s all right so you are going to join us uh in the upcoming months uh I know that Mr Anderson and I have met with you so so many proud things come and happening at the high school so round of applause that was a test Ralph if I could just real quickly um I just want to acknowledge Eddie you were such an amazing asset on the board you are a tireless advocate for your student body so thank you so much looking forward to seeing all the wonderful things you're going to do at College your dorm room's exceptional I saw it so good job Mom but sincerely congratulations and good luck and Kalisto really looking forward to working with you [Applause] congratulations okay presentation our health benefits Janine come on up guys yeah yeah um good evening my name is Jack mcdermit I'm a senior vice president with BR Brown we are the insurance broker for the health benefits for Washington count support of Education um with me today I have Brook frapwell and Ellen Heck who are on my team who have assisted your members through the transition we prepared a a presentation I was told to have 15 minutes I can probably beat that um because you were a little bit late in executive and I'm sure everybody's happy about that um but if if you look at the first first section is just about Brandon Brown there's some new board members on I want to give you a little bit of history on Brandon Brown we've been your broker on and off for more than 15 years uh this is about us number one broker in the state for public sector schools the second section is the team that assists the members of Washington Township Board of Education the third is really why we're here we're here because we moved from a marw New Jersey which is a fully insured product to something called the ship or school health insurance fund that Health Insurance Fund uses AER Health administrators which is a self-insured platform towards vendors that transition did not go as smoothly as we had hoped there were some issues um if you turn to this third section the recap you can see the timeline that we created for everybody April 30th was when the board decided to go with the ship census was given back and forth July 1 the transition went live there were members that were put in a wrong bucket within a maral that was corrected very quickly the main issue that we had was the vision benefit was built in correctly it was built on a reimbursement schedule versus a point of sell schedule the difference between those two reimbursement schedule you go to the doctor you pay the bill you then get reimbursed by the insurance C point of point of salale schedule is you go and you pay your co-pays and you walk out the door one thing I want to stress is everybody had health benefits everybody had this vision benefits it was just how you were going to go about getting those benefits there were some Card issues meral was trying so hard to get these cards out that they invert some wrong card down it doesn't matter the card I don't even have mine it's the member number D number so whatever card your members had that's the number that that matters um we then have gotten almost everything done the last piece and I'm going to turn it over to a maral who I brought the last piece was the deductible carryover credit and out of pocket max credit everything else is fine everything else has been completed every member has been reimbursed what they need to or is getting reimbursed what they need to the last piece is a deductible carryover credit that usually takes 45 to 60 days we're right within that time frame and I'm going to turn over to Mike mun who is the president ofal does the board have any questions for me I kept it under my 15 minutes I don't excuse me I don't have a question I just want to make a statement and I appreciate you being here and providing this because we've had several employees come up and um discuss their challenges so I just want to make one quick comment um you said everyone had benefits and they had them it was just the way they were being delivered but I just want to couch and say not everyone has the money to go to the eye doctor and put out that amount of money and wait to get reimbursed especially in the summer as a teacher so I just feel compelled to say that because I think it's an accurate statement you're right everyone had benefits I just I'm a product of a teacher's kid and in the summer you didn't ask really for much so I just want to make the statement to say you know I think that that should be acknowledged that it was obviously a miss and not everyone has those funds in the summer to do that there 100% yeah and we can actually go through and I can tell you how many we 27 people that have issues with Benefits yeah I agree with you well good evening I'm Mike Mo the president maral New Jersey I'm here because you've been such a longstanding customer with us for over 15 years at this point you better take one or two moves and I woulded obviously to come out today and reinforce the relationship that we have with both Brown and Brown as our as your broker and with you uh as a school district for us uh obviously anytime you make a change you hope for everything to go correctly uh in spite of it being a maral to maral it is two different platforms that they're on and that's the reason that everything has to be R transitioned over to the new platform so I'm here to say I'm sorry I'm here to say that we did resolve most of those issues as timely as quickly as we could and we value the relationship and we are here to make sure that the board is satisfied with the work that we've done along with the broker uh we've been working with for a good number of years to make sure that everything's resolved to your satisfaction at this point it's not uh to do whatever we on our end uh to make sure that we make that uh promise to both your uh school school board uh teachers and um employees and also to the board um itself so that's why I'm here tonight so we wanted to reinforce a relationship and make sure that you guys know we're committed to making this work and whatever we possibly need to do and I think we've done that on behalf of the board we've done that on behalf of all the members um that participated in help that more than glad to question so thank you so much nice to meet you um this is this is it was a rough transition so we want to acknowledge um that piece because there's really no getting around that I think Carol you did that very well um obviously we don't want to foresee a a transition in the future um obviously we want those types of things not just to happen I am under the impression and I'm being told that everything is underway for reimbursing anyone that's outstanding and I'm also being told that there is some form of a incentive that is is going to is going to there's an additional s provided to all the employees of the district that were on for July 1 so there's some form of a small gift card you know we're we're providing a gift card to each of the to each of the employees not only employees that were the 27 that called about division or had issues in your total population but everybody that's an employee of the district perfect and I I'm also told that that that gift card was more than their contribution which so nothing will make up for pain of suffering or or or appointments that were lost on on that on that end as I said you've been a longstanding customer for on and off 15 years we Valu the relationship we wanted to do what we need to do on our on on our side to make things right and obviously we value the relationship that we have with brown and brown we don't want to make them look bad either uh they've been your advocate for a number of years and they've been able to help you navigate and as we tried to help you navigate challenges of the expensive the expense of Health Care uh cost in in the state which is not easy no and and Sean I want to publicly thank you and your office and and Dawn who really has taken the lead on all of these to assist all of our employees so Dawn is a wonderful human being if you only speak to Dawn through an email next time you're here please say hello she is just a tremendous person um and lost a lot of time and sleep in in helping us through this so um just real quick um you mentioned there's 27 employees that were affected and I think correct me if I'm wrong I may not have heard it accurately um you said that most of those claims have been reimbursed would you mind at the next meeting or aen through Janine giving us an update as to when those claims are completely reimbursed so we know as a board 100% that would be great yeah and I I was actually hoping to have that today stilling process of completing those claims so I don't want to give you half information but yes and we'll have we'll have everything compiled for you on a like on a spreadsheet on a spreadsheet that's great so you can actually see date that came in and date that it was completed perfect that would be wonderful I appreciate it yeah I'll have that within a week two awesome all right thank you so much you welcome thank you for your time thank you thank you can I make a comment R yeah sure uh I just want to comment I want to thank you as well uh to you know owning up to this unfortunate situation and trying to help our team teachers but I want to make this point out point point this out as well uh I know that as a teacher teachers historically during the summer try to do a lot of their doctor's appointments during the summer so that they don't have to use their sick time they don't have to use their personal time and some of the feedback that I got that that people were trying to get appointments then they didn't they were told they didn't have insurance they they couldn't have the appointment so I just want to bring up the fact that this is going to have effect on us this school year in terms of people having to take off that go to their doctor's appointments that they weren't able to do is I just want to make that point out thanks thank you very much transition did not go as smoothly as we but it will be taken care of 100% you'll have that report thank you you I'm to give you the resolution to read for the second just making sure for what for now to go back so we have to talk about okay we're going to just finish you can use this okay uh a discussion item that I want to do and then unfortunately or fortunately for us we have to go back into executive session and I hope hopefully we won't be there that long but I want to go discussion items U on concept of charging for athletic events you going to do that or Mr Murphy yeah so Kev why don't you come on up to the microphone for those you who don't know uh Mr Murphy he is our incredible uh athletic director uh and assistant principal at the high school so one of the conversations that the board engaged in at the business committee was the concept of whether or not we wanted to entertain charging for games so would it be okay if I just paint the picture of what those notes were so everyone's on the same page or is that not necessary for the board no no go ahead do it you have do it okay all right so murf if I if I drive left or right just cut me off and and drive me straight all right so after about 1920 uh we did not charge for games uh right now there are districts that are emulating what we are doing uh the example that we have specifically that's about our size is the leny regional they do not charge for games and they really like it for those of you that don't know we currently do not charge for for games um on any level uh aside from aside from specific playoff games correct Mr Murphy yes that's correct so if you want to come to a football game you just come to the football game you still have to use our digital platform so uh Mr Murphy can account for every person he can do analytics uh we know who's you know who is in our our facility we control the number of tickets but right now we're not currently charging so when we stopped charging um Mr Murphy I think we increased by about 400 people at at those specific events correct about 20% increase in fans at events which are basketball basketball wrestling and football and you know the max that we can charge is $5 for adults and $3 for children uh the board at the at the committee discussed the concept of of categories within you know who should we charge or who shouldn't we charge you know you know so that was that was a conversation uh we will still be using our digital platform regardless of whether we charge or don't charge because we like the analytics uh we allow and that allows for accountability if we do decide to charge the business office is going to have to set up the accounting end of it um when we look at the the concept of charging uh Kev I think it's about approximate home football games and about 30 indoor games that would fall into that category correct correct and that would be the sports of football basketball wrestling correct we did have a conversation about soccer because there is a coners there's there's actually more people sometimes that attend soccer than any other uh but we did not like the concept of the open field concept because we really can't control it and where we got to in that conversation was we foresaw we foresaw disagreements with people who walked around versus not around and we actually want to put forth a positive culture and not one where we're chasing people to to pay a fee um there were varied opinions at the group about what to do with the money that was raised Kevin we seem to think that Allin the number was roughly around approximately $20,000 Allin on what we could we could generate um we definitely talked about not having cash because none of us felt comfortable at having cash uh at a at a at a gate Mr Murphy is there anything else I missed in that that's right spot on all right so where where it is to the board this is a board conversation and decision um I I would like to ask if it's if it's okay I'd like to ask Mr Murphy his opinion on this as the athletic director is everybody okay if I do that okay Mr Murphy thank you um thank you to the board members you know we met um with the business committee last week um you know we stumbled into this uh after covid it was 2020 uh one during the covid where we were limited to 50 people at events it had to be families with masked up um family members only and we did not charge at that time because of the covid situation we came out of covid and we did the same thing we followed that same procedure we saw an increase in school spirit we saw a a great outpouring of community support for our school district where folks would come out and and say hey this is a wonderful opportunity for me to come out to the game um and we just encouraged a really wholesome sense of community um we've witnessed students at the winter events uh where they would stay we would charge for JV and varsity at the same time because the games were concurrent and they would run back to back um students would stay and support their peers uh and it it was really wholesome that uh we created an environment where they felt welcome some students don't quite frankly have the ability to afford ticket and I know it's a minimum fee it was $2 at the time um just a good feeling a lot of folks came in um encourag the support we saw that with the increase um of the of the fans that the spectators that attended the event uh where we had charged previously uh it went over very well in in terms of the other schools that came to visit us and say wow I wish my district did it the lenpy district which incompasses shaune Cherokee senica and lenpy high school those four schools did it uh last year and they loved it and they're going to sign back up uh again this year that they are not charging for their athletic events uh for the lenpy Regional Schools so all in all it was a good Community Building Spirit uh allowing everybody to attend and take part uh in our events thank you I have a question if we charged could that money be put back into your program so you deal with the money that we charge for for the athletic programs so historically the money went into the general fund and we we talked about it with Mrs weeter um the athletic program never was a recipient of that direct money that was you know charge for athletic events but uh Mr Ross that would certainly be something that uh the board could decide if they chose so uh some school districts do do that um where the money's generated at athletic events goes back into the athletic budget correct Mr Ross a question good uh I think when I was at that meeting I think we talked about the Enterprise account if you did have an Enterprise account and that money went into that account uh can you give your opinion on that an Enterprise account you certainly would be uh one way that the board chose to go that direction uh that they would designate an account that would be dedicated to a certain cause um that take that money and spend that money uh as you know dedicated in the Enterprise account so uh that would be one direction that the board could choose to go to support uh and add more Revenue to uh a certain program yes how how would you use that money that's what I'm saying um well you know we'd always be able to use money um in in certain ways one would be we discussed at the business committee meeting uh using that money right currently right now we do not provide Championship jackets for teams that win um championships uh the booster clubs contribute greatly um in one one exchange our booster clubs are very very generous um in one way to say hey we support you um they know that booster clubs are primarily parents so in exchange for you know free admission um do they give more possibly um but in a sense we would use it for Championship jackets that would be one area that we discuss that would help right now right now we go out and try to fundraise uh the best we can for state championship jackets we don't really do anything with sectional or or Conference Championship jackets that would just be one example appreciate everything you do for the Athletics programs too thank you um question I know it's a it's a tough situation here because school spirit everybody loves going to the games we like the attendance uh we like having those stadiums full um on the other hand you know we we're faced with budget crisis here but you know some of the things we're talking about using the money like into an Enterprise fund where that money probably be using to pay for things that normally wouldn't be in the budget if they'd be an addition to the budget my question to you is would you rather have that extra money in the Enterprise fund to do things like that or would you rather have you know it open to the public to come without being charged um I'll I'll go I'll go with school spirit I'll go with Community spirit because I I see folks that come out to games um and and participate in events where you have you know 15 16 year olds playing sports um and who's coming out on a Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon to watch wrestlers or to watch um they know it's free they come out they stop in they leave they you know they just come in for a little bit of time to support the kids in our community um so I would I would opt in that area but that's a totally a board decision um if you choose to go back to where we had it um and then also move moving forward but what we found we kind of stumbled into because of Co so if there was a silver lining of Co the Silver Lining is you know what what are we about and this is education based Athletics we're not the Phillies um we're not the Eagles you know in terms of like season tickets and looking to do that it's education based Athletics and it's really afforded us an opportunity to share that gift with our community I was thinking the same thing I was wondering what the athletes would think the student athletes would they rather a jacket or would they rather the school spirit and and people there for them you know I don't know spirit so important so obviously I I'm not from Township right so in coming to my first legit Township game working here um it was an experience that I I I wasn't ready for and it was amazing and people that have that take it for granted or come from other places cuz I won't name names you can't put a price tag on what happens at our athletic events just like you can't put a price tag on Kevin who's amazing but you know when you put 3,000 people in the stands it's it's powerful there's a sense of spirit that's there and my fear and this is totally your decision my fear is this if we say to a kid you can't come to the game unless mommy or daddy connects their Visa card to an app what's going to happen when the kid comes a and doesn't have it and B what will the ramifications be and we won't know unless you do it but to me me on a Friday night with a student section that's bigger than any student section I've ever seen I don't know why we would I don't know why we would jeopardize that point you know if it's if it's money is money then I I guess I can understand it however when you're talking about $20,000 and then kids won't they won't be able to get in some of them because their mom or dad will be working or be out or working that second job or whatever that may be or they just missed each other in the night and didn't get the tick it it's just right now it's just it's something to weigh the the question of culture versus money if if I could real quick so Kevin thank you obviously for everything you do I don't think I've ever been at the high school where I haven't seen you somewhere on the ground so thank you for your hard work thank you um the only disconnect I see is that we have a whole another side of the non Athletics right so we have um we have dance concerts we have musicals we have the Pops concert we have plays and these are all events that parents and students have to pay an average of $10 I'm just going to say across the board to get into so if you're going to three of your child's shows times four it adds up I mean that's $120 right just right off the bat for one show so and the students readily come in and they pay the ticket Fe and those monies are absolutely critical to making sure that those programs run without them I don't think we would have a program I can't speak to it specifically I see you know Casey's in the room and I don't know if he could speak to it or wants to but I'm just going to say we just have to look at the other side because their school spirit absolutely in athletics I totally agree with you but there's also school spirit for the nonathletes of going and supporting your fellow student body in participating in shows and Pops concerts and dance so that's where I wrestle is that if we're going to make a no fee then we have to somehow help the visual performing art side of it be able to fund their programs so the students can show their school spirit in that venue so I would just like to see a sweeping move that if we're not going to charge for football games which I'm totally fine with I'm not for charging I just would like it to be consistently applied across the student body and if we're not going to charge for visual Performing Arts venue then we have to fund we have to help fund that that's Carol I totally 100% agree with that R uh I totally agree uh I think that uh you know there are parents and and people that would want to see our plays and and and it's being charged I think this it's an equity issue I think if we if we um if we go that route I I agree with Mrs Chiller we need to take a look at that and we need to make that free as well all right so I'm going to be the negative guy the doomday guy um yeah love to make it free um I think the other side of the coin is we do have budget shortfalls right we just felt that pain we're probably going to feel that pain again next year so that's the other side of the coin you you weigh that with how much is $177,000 $220,000 going to offset it but um if we do start making other things free as well now that cost is going up right uh so I do think we have to weigh that we are in tough fiscal times and we're going to continue to be in tough fiscal times so if we were to charge this is just my opinion if we were to charge I think using that money to offset some costs and not use it for additional costs and probably because we're using that kind of money in other programs that we charge for we should be looking at that just the times that we're in I wish we were flush with cash and we could make everything free for everybody I mean the question is Scott I don't think that's a bad point the when we charge for football games prior what were those funds used for I mean were they used for maintenance I imagine we have maintenance on the fields lights I mean right so there's a lot of cost right so don't bring that up don't do that so just to chime in the the way the athletic fees are accounted for and this is kind of standard um for every school it's part of your General in your the revenue portion of your budget you have miscellaneous revenues so it's you know you have some kind of budget but it can vary from year to year so it goes in as a revenue which you know the higher the revenue the more you can have in your budget and then at the end of the year depending on what you get whether in all your miscellaneous Revenue if it's over then you have some that ends up going into your Surplus so I haven't been in a school where um Athletics has been accounted for like um Miss Chilla was mentioning for drama that's a Student Activities it definitely wouldn't be an Enterprise fund because Enterprise funds you're supposed to set a fee that's going to pay for the entire cost of the program and it's accounted for separately it if it could be um put aside just for athletics it would have to be like a Student Activities fund so that's something I would review with our auditor to make sure um we had everything in place that we needed um Ralph yeah U if we are we going to vote on this tonight I I wasn't sure so it's just discussion entirely up to you the only thing that he's got to know you have to know one way or another our first game is SE 13th I'm sorry yeah I I I think it what's going to affect my vote is where that money's going to go if if we were to charge I want to see that money go to back to the kids not just in a big pot of money but somehow where the athletic director can see how that can actually go back to the kids and and they get something for it okay so that would be very important to my vote where's that money going that that it's a two a two-part thing here thanks I have a question with this is chill with the plays does so do you get a ticket or two if your child's in the play free no do senior citizens get it for a lesser price no do students get it for a lesser price no so that to me is something because I know Mr Murphy you told us that parents get tickets you have a senior citizen rate that's a little bit less when you charge senior citizens were free Mrs Bloom yes but we would so if we're going to do no matter what we do with that I think we need to think about in the weeks ahead for the Performing Arts and these other programs at least giving parents tickets two tickets and maybe having senior citizens and students at a reduced rate so let me just comment on it because I don't think it's a bad idea but I can't speak for the visual performing arts and what department I don't think they would be able to afford to do that and I say that not as a like speaking from a board member this is prior in being part of fundraising they would not be able to afford to do that so I just think it's a bigger it's a conversation to say again I'm not necessarily saying we have to charge for footballs I'm not I'm just saying that we have to look at athletes school spirit and nonathletes school spirit and there is definitely a disparity between those two so I can't speak to the very specifics of where the money should go and what I can't but I'm just I don't even want to vote on it tonight because right now I'm in my own head we're making a decision to not charge for perfect but we're still going to charge for all the drama events and that's necessary for them to keep functioning because in my opinion they're underfunded to begin with right they are so I'm just putting it out there I don't want to suggest we give discounts and free tickets because it won't work it's not going to work yeah Kevin I I'm surprised that you wouldn't want that money to go back into your fund to help the kids as opposed to be letting them in free because I understand that some booster clubs are bigger than others so they maybe can afford that those type of uh of of things for the kids but some sports all don't have booster clubs or may not have it or may not have it as big so I'm surprised that that you feel that way and again but I'm but I'm I'm with Mrs uh Baker I I'll I'm yes for it if it goes back into into uh the athletic individual Athletics for you to uh to to decide what it what it goes for and certainly very appreciative of that Mr Ross but you know again when you look at the dollar figures we're very grateful but we are fortunate enough to have boosters and you are absolutely 100% correct to say some booster clubs are bigger than others um and you know when you look at our funding we're very grateful for what the Board of Education gives us however ever it's not nearly enough of what we do in terms of Athletics 1,200 kids participating in athletics 30 Sports 85 different levels of sports so the money out there certainly but when you look at the the return on investment that Dr Hibbs you know in terms of the return of 175 back in $ 2020 um we're capped we're different than the Arts because school districts can do that we're capped by the West Jersey football league five and three ticket price where the Arts can charge 15 and 10 I believe was for the play um and we're capped for basketball the Tri County conference caps us at $4 for an adult ticket $2 for a student ticket so our numbers are are a little different than the Arts in terms of what we can gain and net from that um but just being here for so long and seeing the value and again we stumbled into this after covid the value of what it meant to kids when they when you just welcome them in and they come into the event to watch their peers they probably weren't coming anyway but now it's free they're like oh let's go to the game and theme night's developed and just over the past four years there's more Spirit generated and as teams and the success of teams happen um we certainly realize the benefit of that would I would we realize the benefit of your generous offer to say hey this is something that that ticket value those the revenue generated would go to Athletics certainly we would benefit that so I'm kind of torn but I would never place the dollar over over a kid or a senior citizen or anybody that wanted to come into our events and I think that's a benefit and a credit to our school system and what the of education does providing that atmosphere that's second to none in New Jersey yeah okay Casey you want to say something good evening good evening everyone um I just wanted to speak on behalf of the visual Performing Arts when we start getting into that conversation there are many many layers to it um you know trying to be as simple as possible there's the curricular aspect and then there's the extracurricular aspect so for instance um you know student who's in we'll say CH in middle school you know when they're getting a grade for what they end up putting on we do not charge parents for that you know and so there are certain concerts during the year that literally they're free because they're a curricular experience now we have added over the years because we have the infrastructure that we have like a major Performing Art Center to go above and beyond AKA as Miss chill mentioned the Pops concert we do due charge for that event yes students are still getting a grade for it but that's above and beyond what we normally offer so we offer our parents opportunity to see their students perform for free which is important um but then we also give our students another experience by then using that money to offset lights professional musicians um enhance sound enhance um you know obviously our parent booster organization adds in so when we start having this discussion we just have to be very careful as to where that line is drawn um another great examples is when we brought the dance program into this District I want to say 2002 that dance program started completely self-funded and what I mean by that other than uh at the time the administration did hire a a dance instructor that entire program is pretty much self-funded so their concert at the end of the year they do one and it's huge 1500 people easily that helps offset their costs for Customs for the entire year we they do not get allocated pretty much if if all any kind of monies from our general budget each year like some of the other Performing Arts do those two dance teachers and those students fundraise a lot of money they're always selling apparel they're doing everything they can there they are also providing a lot of their costumes at times so just like sports families I'm sure they put out for their own equipment and whatnot there's a little bit of that too my point in trying to illustrate this is that we offer the things that we do but everything comes at a price right so we just have to imag we just have to think about where are we charging the students where are we charging um you know our Spectators to come and then we add in our musicals and our plays I see Mr Scardino here as well you know without putting him on the spot he doesn't not get a large budget you know um where things like rights for a show have to be offset by his ticket sales when if we want to pick to do a show um no different than in an Ela class we want to pick to use this particular book The District pays for that book you know and there are times most times where we don't pay for the book to do the musical that's all we got to hope we put people in the seats in order to offset that and so we're constantly funding ourselves as we go so you know obviously wasn't expecting to speak tonight I just want the board to understand that if we're going to a line we obviously we're two very different departments but we're trying to do the same thing we're trying to give our students an experience which is super important but then for us in the Arts and for Mr Murphy and Athletics we need the people to come cheer them on you know and I think we all the great example is the Olympic this year as a sporting event the big difference in the Olympics this year versus three years ago is there were spectators there because of Co there were not and we felt that in the Arts we had a huge Resurgence after we were able to bring people in we want to perform but we want to perform for an audience too so we just have to weigh those factors as we go forth uh with this discussion should it go any further thank you thanks Casey well I think you need an answer tonight right Kevin yes our first game is September 13th for football decision do you want us to put together we can put together a brief on all extracurriculars how we charge where the money goes we could submit that to you before the end of the week and then could have time to discuss that at next week and then mul that over to make an informed decision Dr hibs y can you also just I don't know if you'll have time to do this but also just there were some comments about I think U Mr corigliano brought it up about like in middle school and different venues they're paying for the lights right I I don't know if the I don't know if the football team is paying for the light like we're not charging right so I just want to understand the landscape I don't know if you'll have enough time to do all that but we just have we have some venues paying for lights we have others that are not it just seems like it's a little bit all over the place with what we as a board contribute to the programs and there's a little bit of inequity okay I'm I mean I'm comfortable to make a decision I mean I don't I don't want to see the kids have to have an app and then parents getting like crazy and trying to make sure the kid goes in and pays for it like I would love to see full stands and I think that the you know the student athletes and the student non-athletes work all summer and all year long to do that I'm just I would like to see what we pay for as a board what we contribute versus what's fundraising cuz if you're if we're saying lights and microphones and all of these things and then other parts of the district they're being paid for that just seems like a little a little off to me Kev can you wait till next week hang on sorry we can we can wait till next week bounce off you guys I think that analysis is great I think it's going to take a while now if just throw this out there if we did votee to charge and the money went into the general fund right once that money's in the general fund if I'm just going to use this example because it was brought up the board decided they wanted to pay for Championship jackets right could you make a transfer from that general fund to that fund so we could move that money it' be below the threshold of what would be allowed for transfers from accounts right it it would but You' you'd actually have to have another budget line item to transfer from so like when you when you draft the budget your Revenue projection drives what you have in each account so you'd have to come up with the money from somewhere else that's where that student fund would be yeah unless it was in a Student Activity fund but again that's not the norm so I I would have to talk to you know our auditor about that which I'm sure I could have an answer by next week so it wouldn't be easy to make a transfer like if we just voted now to put it in the general fund what we do with that money later on down the road would be difficult I I would say specifically for this year because the budget's already done without that projection next year if you said oh we're going to um budget an additional $50,000 let's say because we know we'll get that for athletics then you could increase what your Athletics line item you could put that in you could allocate it to Athletics for next year for next year next year next week next week no worries no worries is case is is it is it a feasible lift to break out all the Arts and what we pay in a week before we open I'm I'm an off I'm an office of one um I mean is it feel free we receive $2,000 a year uh that's been the same rate for the last 24 years I think um to run the program for the entire year can you come up to the sure come on so we receive $2,000 a year it's been the same rate for 24 years now um at the middle school level to run two major uh stage Productions plus a talent show uh just to give you an idea the rights and royalties for a musical along with if you're going to get the accompaniment music is over $2,000 itself so you pay for that out of the revenue that you we have to use the revenue to costume to rent uh wireless microphones to rent you know to purchase batteries to build the set to paint the set extra lights uh all those things I usually spend probably somewhere conservatively in a year around $112,000 and we get two have you asked for more we could ask but I don't know where it's going to come from well I agree if we're going to fund some athletic things you know we should be funding them too thank you so okay this this is going to end up being way bigger than probably what we could manage in this in this moment um I will I will can we all acknowledge that okay so um so then I guess yep and we're at the point where we either got to decide to charge right and have it go to the general fund and we can figure it out for next year or to not charge and we go about trying to figure this all out for next year yeah I I'll jump in just right away I think at this what is it it's August 20th to now Institute charging now to get parents aware and students aware of what they're going to have to download what app they're going to use and the first game September 13th I think it's something we have to revisit for next year just based on the time constraint I'm sure it's just one more thing that parents have to figure out we have to make sure it's effectively communicated then you're going to have kids show up that are used to being free then they're going to say what do you mean it's not free and then it's going to be a whole thing so I think that you know we have to communicate it out we we have Kalisto coming on the board soon this is a great topic for a student Board of Ed rep to kind of facilitate some discussion with your peers right so to me I would say no charge for this year because of the timing of it I just asked a ton of questions and probably put work on people that I probably shouldn't have but I'd like to see that analysis but in the interest of starting school I don't think that's feasible I'd like to see it discussed in the future and really plan and communicate it that's my opinion so I say no charge this year but we have to work out a plan I think for this year to talk about putting on these Productions cuz it's unfair that we continue to have the visual performing arts for those non-curricular activities to try to be supplemented by parents and others so my position is that we don't charge because the interest of time and I'd love to see Kalisto get some feedback from her peers I agree with you I agree I think I had the opportunity to listen last week week and to listen this week and as I hear that it's such a thing for students go and they might not have the money and I'm worried about the budget but for the sake of $20,000 until we figure this out I'd rather hold it to so so well nobody's put a motion on the table so it as it is we don't need a motion if we're not going to charge we don't need a motion let keep it the way it is until we have a time to yeah case and Kev let shoot for like a November conversation to have real real items so that we can talk about you know what Mr scard talked about about 24 years worth of $2,000 how how is that a thing um to to address those issues and see what we can do and the board can do everybody okay with that yes all right there we go thank you thank you app thanks guys Kev can you stay for a sec yep all right so he's gonna he's gonna punch me soon okay so the the other discussion item on here was naming uh the concept of naming the back Turf in honor of coach Tony ducas you want to take just a second and talk about that sure so uh coach Tony ducas is a teacher coach in Washington Township for over 30 years coach ducas taught history and driers education 1967 uh to 1997 he was a graduated of the University of Delaware where he was a quarterback on the football team for tubby Raymond graduated Woodbury High School but he spent his whole career here in Washington Township he coached our varsity football team for 16 years um he's 1970 team went undefeated 50 years ago we honored them in 2021 we couldn't do it during covid in 2020 so we brought them back and there's about 21 players that came back and they started to really talk about putting putting coach's name on the field and it's it's our back turfield right behind our Stadium which is state-ofthe-art turf field uh we refer to it as the the back tur field and the class 1970 football team in the class in 1971 started talking about hey let's get Tony ducas his name up on that field then we honored one of his championship teams from the early 80s subsequently last year and the same players different players came up different families the ducas family Tony unfortunately passed away a few years ago and uh his family um started to advocate for it and there's there's football members members of the football community members of our community um Mrs weter mentioned that Mr ducas taught her driver's education I just found out tonight that Mr ducas kicked Mr lucarini out of class I think think twice Mr lucarini um so that's that's an automatic for me now I'm just teasing Mr lucarini but with that being said you will not find a better gentleman he after he coached 16 years at Washington Township he continued to teach here um he went on to Rowan University where he helped lead them the two national championships um my first three years here early 2000s um coach ducas was back as a volunteer coach on our freshman football team uh it was an amazing staff we had judge Wallace you had uh Tony D Luc and the Freshman didn't even know he had 14-year-old guys out there and there're I'm like you have two legends coaching you right now um but it's fitting it's time I appreciate the board listening last week as we went into depth um coach great teacher great coach but the perfect gentleman and I think for our community to honor Tony ducas um by naming that back turfield in his honor would be just very very fitting have a motion to have to vote on that any discuss can we just agree to it or do we have to make a motion to vote on it make a motion uh I make a motion to name the back turfield in honor of Coach anony Lucas second discussion I guess we better get a roll call on that here we go Mrs Bloom yes Mrs chello yes Mr Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serano yes Mr M Baker yes Mr Ross yesk thank you very much and we're looking I've been in communication with the fam thank you we're looking at a a Saturday late in October uh to announce this and name the field and have a small ceremony but we'll get information to Dr hibs and to all board members uh to come out early later in October on a Saturday morning thank you very much appreciate it okay I need a motion to go back into exec inter session discussion yeah just discussion could could we uh do we want to go through this uh open it to the public first why would have do that on the agenda yeah we don't vote until uh we don't vote until h but there were other items that were on the executive agenda that we didn't discuss I get it but we we can open it to the public oh I mean we can move the agenda around talk the attorney that out way I would just I would just do the I would just do the conversation and then come back right I have a motion to go into executive session hey guys I know I know this is probably not popular totally understand it let me explain the why if if we don't do this now the board will not effectively be able to make some decisions so please bear with us they're going to try and do it as fast as possible and then we will come back out we're going to leave we're going leave we're leing yeah you guys stay and you can talk about us when we're gone a motion now we have we have to do a motion right you made the motion we need to votee on it we have all in favor I I SL down all right resolve that pursu through Section 8 of the open public me act the public shall be excluded from that portion of the meeting invol discussion of U Personnel attorney client Privileges and candidates for the vacancy of school board no no you're good e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all those in favor I okay okay back in and we'll pick up on the agenda where we left off which is uh school and community relations nothing for uh nothing for now more regular to come next week or next time old business I have a motion I'd like to make a motion and nominate Linda Hartong for the vacant board seat second soov second any other nominations we got to vote first or can I we vote first nomination first yeah Jim Arpino I'd like to nominate Jim Arpino for the vacant board seat second second okay anyone add anything else all right I guess we need to vote for one at a time discussion discussion any discussion okay uh I guess we're voting for Linda first is there is there there's a policy on this is there yeah policy 01 you we got just make sure we follow it so it's not challenged the first candate receiv the vote of majority of the remaining board members will will be appointed to the vacency got speak I wasn't talking publicly but I was just indicating that the first candidate who receives the votes of a majority of the remaining board members will be appointed for the vacancy purs the poliy just leave yeah I think you just got to Le it closer all I was doing was referencing the policy which indicates that the first candidate who receives a majority of the remaining board members votes is ultimately appointed to that seat that's directly from the policy to answer your question thanks yeah if either one receives a majority then the voting stops all right uh Lori we're going to call each individual and let see who they vote for so we don't no I'm sorry the roll call to be clear Lor a roll call will be conducted on the candidates in the order that they were nominated so the first candidate that was nominated was Linda we didn't have any discussion on all right Linda roll roll call so hold on so I'm going to make a roll call go ahead go ahead the roll call will be given and this is for Linda so a yes would be your supporter and a no would be you don't correct if she receives a majority of the process is done if she doesn't it's time next Mrs Baker no Mrs Bloom no Mrs Chilla yes Miss Deo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano no Mr Ross no four NOS four yes roll call for uh Mr alpino can I just ask who was the second to that the second okay and this is for James Arpino correct okay who was the second for that one that was Scott who was the second for Mr Arpino guys I second thanks Scott Mrs Bloom yes Mrs chill no M de Mayo no Mr Li Liberty no Mr Lindsay no Mr Serrano yes Mrs Baker yes Mr Ross yes so it's four again what's the next story Ral to answer your question The Next Step would be does anyone know when the 65 days is up it's um I think around the 23rd of August around August so if nothing happens at the next board meeting it will be incumbent on the county superintendent to appoint a candidate out of the list of candidates we're kind like that okay I think it was at the board meeting when Mr Tomac uh resigned that was when the 60 days would start 625 65 so maybe somebody can count them regardless if we're at 55 now the next board meeting is a week from now that would still be within the 65 days If no candidate is appointed it will go to the County Superintendent at day 65 we will be up to the County Superintendent at that point and there needs to be five votes for that correct this is that we need a majority okay y we need five votes actually we should somewhere else is not here yes okay any other old business some I have some old old business good yeah I'd like to um I'd like to give a shout out to uh some Washington Township graduates who were involved in the uh 2024 Olympics in Paris from July 26 through August 11th congratulations to 1984 Washington Township graduate 1993 Sports Hall of Fame Cheryl Reef she was the USA Women's Basketball coach then they won the gold medal uh Bell's Elementary School and Washington Township 20 2022 graduate Amy Wang who who was victorious in her Olympic debut at table tennis in the first match Washington Township 2004 high school graduate Erin bandorf who who um who was was involved with all of the uh track and field events for um C I think CB CBC Washington Township 2006 um Mark uh Bono executive director of global syndication operations for NBC achieving a significant Milestone uh internationally for the first time delivering uh content to 44 African countries uh both Erin and Mark were fortunate to have the have a former teacher Marty brashard to instruct them and motivate them as students in his teach TV production class uh both were involved with the TV production rewind informing uh the community of events uh by the way that was uh eron bandor for CBS thanks neat that we have so many people involved any other old business yeah uh we we previously discussed town halls and I I don't know where that's going or where that went but when's it when's our town hall going to be scheduled for Well here here's my here's my thought on it we've already got a committee an ad hot committee for the business and Pat's going to spearhead a another committee for commu Community input on curriculum and school business do I mean do we still need a town hall since we got these two I think we should okay then I'll organize it and bring it up at the next board meeting thank you okay okay um I have a motion to to open it to the public on agenda items only so move second any discussion all those in favor I opposed okay Mark Lopez good evening my name is Mark Lopez and I'm I'm a teacher at Orchard Valley Middle School and a proud wtea member I deliver this speech on behalf of myself and fellow employees in a concerted effort to address educational issues School matters of community interest and employee working conditions first I'd like to issue two apologies and Corrections with explanations my first apology is to superintendent Eric hibs whom in a previous speech I questioned about his timing of reaching out to the offices of senator Paul morard for funding advocacy after speaking with both the senator and his chief of staff I confirmed that superintendent Eric hibs did communicate with the chief of staff early on in the school budget process and later in the process had a zoom meeting with the senator the senator did confirm his belief that Township has been overfunded for years I still believe that the township family should have been notified earlier of the disputed budget crisis and that a community funding advocacy ption plan should have been initiated my second apology is to Elementary supervisor Gretchen Gerber I stated at a previous speech that Elementary art Elementary World Language were reduced neither of these were reduced at the April 30th board meeting a presentation of the budget uh crisis stated that 36 teachers and 55 support staff would be laid off neither at this board meeting nor any subsequent board meeting was there a presentation to the community as to how the township prek through2 program would be changing staff members prek through2 were all communicating amongst via phone calls texting emailing and inperson conversations trying to track and piece together what administration was doing behind closed doors when there is no transparency or stakeholder participation misinformation does spread second I'd like to thank the board of education for their corrected course as exhibited in their restoration of many of the positions originally stated to be cut lastly I would like to speak about the overwhelming number of changes that employees will be experiencing this school year all staff will be transitioning from Microsoft to Google products Power School to Genesis student information system and Marzano to the Danielson evaluation instrument the Middle School Employees will be expected to transition to a new Middle School schedule numerous Orchard Valley Middle School teachers will have grade level changes changes in what classes they teach additional class preparations added and physical classroom relocations I am one of the ovms teachers who will be experiencing all this previous it is overwhelming and it makes me wonder if all these changes truly all should be occurring at the exact same time I respectfully thank the board of education for their vol uner service to our community thank you the other yellow cards thank you sir appreciate that any no okay I motion to close to the public move second all in favor opposed okay all right moving on uh committee report HR negotiations Mrs Baker Personnel committee Personnel committee met we discussed um employees who were going to be raced there was an update on the health benefits new plan and we discussed new hires it okay business committee Mr Liberty yep all right we met on uh 14th um we spent a lot of time talking about the whole uh ticket charging issue as we all heard about so won't go over that one again um we talked about the naming of the field uh we did talk about the energy audit update we received draft reports for each building uh uh we're going to meet again so the business committee is going to meet again on Monday the 26th to uh get the preliminary results back start talking through that so that's moving forward um we did talk through the budget Community task force discussion uh so this is just a reminder everybody right we the board has approved us moving forward with the community task force um so it's open to the public there's a memo out uh it's we're still accepting people for that or people to um put in for that up until tomorrow so August 21st is the deadline and you'd need to give us a letter of intent which could be as simple as an email saying I want to participating this and I've got budget experience or just why you think you would be a good addition to that task force um if you have a resume it's and or a resume so you can attach the resume if you don't have a resume you know that shouldn't dissuade you so we'll be going through all those uh resumés and letter letters of intent on Monday the 26th as well hopefully we can um pick the committee members and then put forth a plan on moving that forward so as you all could he tonight I a lot of things for us to talk through like how we're going to generate money uh we talked through upcoming purchasing items and using some of the Cooperative agreements uh we talk through updates to the agreements for the uh police Leos and sro's um and uh talk through lunch prices um and the increase that will be there um and recommendations that are be going to the board for that increase temporary facilities approval and then um dealing with the rbac issue uh renaming of the turf fieldman uh also potential sponsorships for a scoreboard so we're looking at an option for a uh advertising type scoreboard so essentially we could essentially get the uh scoreboard replaced for free and potentially have it generate money for us in the future so more to come on that that could be a really good thing for us the one other thing I want to bring up we still have the open uh member seat I know uh Ralph you've been inviting Connie to that but uh I know Shawn has asked to be a part of that committee as well I would like to have Sean as part of that committee especially with the energy audit um and a lot of those topics affecting things like um trades and capital projects and things like that when we had Dave on there he was able to offer that uh perspective and a lot of input there I think Shan has similar perspective on that so I'd love to have him on the committee um something for you to consider I know you were thinking through that I don't know if you had an answer on that that's it okay IIA committee Mr Blue yes at our meeting we had myself Mrs chill Mr Ross Mrs Gerber misss Grimaldi Dr Nathan and Mr Dr Hibbs came in for a little bit of the meeting we discussed Miss gmali reported that there will be Miss grial report that there will be school-based mental health counseling available for students students in our programs at bsp and ESP programs newly housed at orcher Valley Middle School and our high school this year the course being off there the course being offered and I forget Dr Nathan what was the college that was offering the course in leadership yes yes can you say that loud okay there's new agreement with New Jersey City University to offer one course at this point for dual dual credit and it has to do with the ROC leadership class and it's open to anybody that wants to take it in the district we have a new system of getting your transcripts or your grades for alumni of the school district it's called the parchment transcript service Mrs G shared information about this to our committee um it should be starting in September of this year the company will process request for transcripts and graduation verification from their office a small fee will be charged for this service a prior request was made for a school-based research project and we did did a little bit more research and we talked to our lawyer the project will be by km and the information gathered in this project will be confidential that's one thing that we wanted to make sure is going to happen and it will not include any students in this project our board attorney reviewed it and we're ready to go with seeking an approval for that the course of study manual for the 2024 2025 school year has been updated and is ready for the new school year revisions have been made to ELA and math due to new or updated State Standards curriculum revisions or new courses in our new or existing Academy programs were also included in the course of study manual and lastly a list of our 2024 2025 field trips throughout the district are also being um presented for approval tonight and that's what we talked about in our committee uh policy committee Mr Sano thank you uh so we had our meeting on August was it August 6th August 12 give me a sec tell you sorry about that uh board members in attendance were Steve Serrano uh myself president Ralph Ross and Mrs Baker administrators and attendance Dr hibs director Sweeney and Dr Nathan 12 Mr thank you sir appreciate that forgot to put the date down uh artificial intelligence policy and regulation was one of the the items that we discussed student cell phone policy and regulation the valid dictorian policy and regulation is moving along and we'll be ready this school year Student Activities and communication we disc discuss the 2425 fall athletic schedules 2425 Ms fall field hockey schedule and 2425 Tri count conference spectator code of conduct the additional policies and regulations that we discussed policy 2200 curriculum content policy 3160 physical examination policy 4160 physical exam ination as well TB some tuberculosis test updates to that to those policies policy 5337 service animals policy 5350 student suicide intervention policy 8420 emergency crisis situation policy 8467 firearms and weapons policy 9181 volunteer athletic coaches and co-curricular activity advisors and assistance regulation 5511 dress code regulation 5530 substance abuse regulation 5600 student discipline and the last was regulation 2624 the grading system that's all Mr President thank you thank you thank you report of the superintendent uh yeah we only have uh one action item on there uh action item one the approval of the comprehensive Equity plan statement of assurance for 20 2025 a motion in a second and that motion so moved second discussion Mrs chello yes Mr Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs bloom yes Mr Ross yesrs motion it number one so move second discussion just quick little um a thank you for uh reviewing that I the addition that we made there in a non-disclosure is that now going to be made to any future form like is that a a form that'll be used going forward corre correct I mean it can be that wasn't contemplated but it certainly would make sense yeah I would I would suggest that totally agree Dr Nathan did you hear that okay thank you and glad we got to a resolution yet so absolutely research could be than thank you Dr Mr Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mrs Baker Mrs Bloom yes M chillo yes Mr R [Music] one to threey that's Miss policy policy first y policy one through five one through five policy number one through five motion so moved second discussion roll call hang on one second um I had a couple comments on these on that were addressed but on four the volunteer athletic one if you look at that one at the end it says optional then there's a note says delete this optional section but then that's where it says all volunteer athletic coaches or Co curricular activity assist must choose one or more of the following I think we have to choose one or more of those right like possess a teachers credential obtain criminal history check sign waiver I think I think it was supposed to be deleted wasn't it Sean it was we we the backg we can include that language I would like that to be included for the next read that personally I to see that just so it's saying that we do the criminal check and we get the uh no problem yep perfect not a problem any other discussion go call Mr Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes yes Mr Serano yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Miss chill yes Mr Mayo yes Mr Ross Yes Human Resources 1 through three yeah say it's okay that one I Student Activities I'm sorry 1 through three items number one through three on Student Activities some move second discussion roll call Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Mrs chello yes Mr too yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Ross yes may I ask a question we kind of skipped over our board goals are we doing that tonight or not That was supposed to be after the presentation that was with when uh Terry Lewis we going to do so we don't work on board goals then sorry next week board goals will be next week as well as District goals yes um okay I just thought it was this week I I'll provide you with the present goals and the goals that some of you asked for so I just I just want to say maybe if we could do it at the first work session I know personally I won't be here cuz I'll be sending off my daughter to college and I think there are others so I'm just going to ask can we do it at the work session to do word goals I'd like to be a part of the conversation but I won't be here next week when going to do work session next month it would be September 17th that I may have a conflict with that okay I mean can we do it tonight we can't we can't do it because we didn't meet with Miss Lewis she was here to provide an Ethics presentation oh okay she was going she was going to give us direction from last year I don't remember I sat here I don't wish she was not here last year I just want me to reach out to Terry Lewis and see what dates are best for her and then we can go from there yeah that's what I'm suggesting we do it we're going to use Terry Lewis our board representative I just know I won't be here in September and I really want to be part of that too I don't want to delay I just won't be here next I won't be here next week so whatever you guys want to do if you want to have the discussion is available yet yeah well fine I'm hoping she's here next week you all right that are you in no okay I think it's good to have because I think we're different opinions of what the B should be so I think having her here might be beneficial didn't he you next week I mean that assumes Terry Lewis is available yeah there a lot of assumptions a big assum that Terry will be here you're not okay with next week well Carol won't be here next week Carol she could submit whatever but I think it's really important I'm not the only one I'm not the only one that's going to be here right I won't be here Scott you mentioned you're not going to be here so we can do it I'm just saying I just want to be honest and say why I won't be here so if you don't if it doesn't matter I'm sorry but we'll have to postpone until September she okay that won't work for me but okay it won't work for about October we'll try we'll try and pick a date with most of when the board all board can be here just real quick I'm just going to jump in just there's nothing stopping us too from having a special meeting just on board goals in September once everyone gets back I mean it's usually we should give it its you know what I mean it's time so I don't know if that's possible too to have special meeting I needed to be an early reach out to special meeting that was your suggestion Carol yeah I mean if why you pick a date why don't you pick a date right now if Pat has a conflict with the work session then I don't think we should completely Discounter and say deps I'll check with Terry she when she's available and then we'll pick a time for special possible special in early September okay we got it okay Human Resources motion for items number 1 to 68 so moved second discussion roll call Mr Serrano yes to everything except 58 due to salary Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom um I'm yes to everything except for number 58 because of salary and the morale issue of that salary M cello yes to all Mr de Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Ross Yes except for number 58 because of salary that didn't pass right yes it did it did pass oh it did pass pass 58 did yes okay we okay yeah okay got gotta sorry can't um have something can I do something real quick I want to I want to celebrate Mike so good job than congratulations thank sorry I'll give him the Bro hug good that doesn't happen very often in life so that's pretty cool man H yeah that's a lot of love for you all right we good um real quick uh I'd like to make a motion uh under Human Resources I'd like to add an item number 69 to the Personnel agenda uh I'd like to vote and make a motion for for the superintendent personal Miracles like to make a motion to vote on that second discussion so this would be for the goals that are sent in that we discussed earlier in exec correct yes that is correct two s he said personal and personal yeah I'm sorry you want to clarify yeah you you did all right do I need to leave or I just no you don't need to leave you just yeah you just obain wel any discussion I I just wish that we would vote on it at the other time we just gave him to us so we could look at it a little more but roll call Mrs Baker abstain Mrs Bloom abstain Miss chello yes Miss de Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano abstain I'd like a little bit more time to view them Mr Ross Stay to more time four four V Carri stains don't count stains don't y okay good moving on okay moving on finance facilities motion to for approve number items number one to two so move second discussion roll call Mrs Bloom yes M Chilla yes Mr Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serano yes Mr Baker yes Mr Ross Yes special education no items uh negotiations not at this time new business any new business anybody I just have a question for Ari yeah Ari we have had petitions go through for school board members some of us on the board signed some of those petitions I would just like the public to hear whether or not that's something we should be doing shouldn't be doing and if we as a board things that we that we may be need a policy so that we don't do this I just want the public to know how it works well Pat all I can say is that it's not a legal conflict I can't tell you if you should be doing it or you shouldn't be doing it and I certainly can't tell you the board should have a policy I that's for you guys to decide hopefully that answers your question okay thank you um could could I ask I mean how many people other than me signed petitions this year yeah I did I did yeah I just for transparency okay anything else but no s okay a motion to open I just I have something for new business um I want to explore it in policy to talk about a policy um just in terms of when we solicit vendors to not have vendors have political contributions so I think it's something that we could if you could put in policy some kind of a criteria or scoring sheet when we look at the RFP can you whether or not they can like would we accept political donations or not and how we can fit that into our criteria just as a policy discussion sounds good that'd be awesome thank you you're welcome do me to email you absolutely another new business I just have a question on that um for the solicitor is a political donations uh within the wall is are you asking asking if they legal well well what was brought up is that we want to make a policy that if you make a political donation you're not going to be considered I'm just asking if it's the law it's not against the law uh as you all know I mean policies you know it doesn't have to be something that's dictated in the law to include it in your policy um that's really an internal discussion that you guys would have but no it's not against the law and just to clarify I wasn't saying that it's against the law I would just like the board to explore when we have rfps and we're using vendors the notion of exploring the concept of not having those vendors made political contributions we've made decisions recently and in the past on vendors who when we researched their political contributions that they were not I not going to say that they weren't selected but that was in favor that they didn't we recently just had that happen so I'm just saying I'd like to explore it in policy there's no illegal activity happening it's perfectly within the law to make a political contribution I just think that we should explore it as a board I feel like we mentioned doing that a couple years ago and I thought you were in favor of that a couple years ago Connie but I could be I could be wrong but I think nothing wrong with the conversation are we would it be will we be getner ourselves in any Contracting law issues if we put that as in a policy as it's a decision criteria and we'd have to say reportable right CU that's the only way you could track it I'll have to look into that I I don't have an answer for you right now but I I'll look into that much you any other new business a motion to open to the public so moved second all in favor I I need a roll call for that okay okay robs cardina Rob Scardino wtaa Executive Vice president good evening members of the Board of Education I come to you this evening as I'm afraid the lines of communication between the Washington Township Board of Education and the Washington Township Education Association have either been interrupted by Central Administration severed completely or are otherwise being ignored the wtea is attempting to schedule a grievance hearing at level three with the Board of Education in regard to a change in middle school schedule which is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement agement in fact the first attempt to schedule this hearing was sent on June 22nd by the wtea middle school vice president it was not responded to in addition my communication attempts uh to the board have not been answered by the board but have been answered by Dr hibs and Mr Sweeney which is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement as they are level two respondant and not level three which should be the board president this lack of communication alarms me as not only does it violate the collective bargaining agreement but we are about to move into bargaining and not only am I the grievance chair but I'm also the negotiations chair as well this does not farewell if the collective bargaining agreement is to be conducted in good faith and without the interference of central Administration the following is the most recent email I sent to board president Ross which Bears great importance to the board of education and the collective bargaining agreement between the Board of Education and the Washington Township Education Association Dear Mr Ross I am once again requesting a level three grievance Hearing in regard to the violation of agreement between the Washington Township Board of Education and the Washington Township Education Association article 7D which states that in the event that the board of elects to implement alternate scheduling at any level the board agrees to negotiate with the association the terms and conditions of employment for those employees participating in the program in addition article 20 2 d1d paragraph 4 States the current 2022 2023 Middle School schedule shall continue to be in force this too has been violated by the new Middle School schedule as I'm sure you're aware the association filed agreements in regard to the change in middle school schedule at level two which was denied on the basis that it should have been Le filed at level one prior to being sent at level two however article 3 E1 if in the Judgment of the association the grievance affects a group or class of employees the association May submit such a grievance in writing to the superintendent directly and the processing of such grievance shall be commenced at level two clearly the change in a schedule affects a group of employees and was correctly F filed at level two with the assistant superintendent as she is the party that is implementing the change in schedule it has also been suggested the association is now out of timelines the statement is also false and misleading as the grievance procedure clearly makes reference to the number of school days in article 3 C3 the contract states that if the grieved person is not satisfied with the disposition of his or her grievance at level two or if no decision has been rendered within 10 school days after the grievance was delivered to the superintendent or his or her design or after 15 days after the grievance was delivered to the superintendent or his or her designate whichever is less submit writing to the board president a request for a hearing before the board as the grievance was denied at the resumption of the school year and the new year has not started the association is still within timelines as the collective baring agreement clearly states multiple times throughout the grievance procedure school days not calendar days in addition in article 3 C2 it states that in the event that grievance shall be filed in such time that it cannot be processed through all the steps in the grievance procedure by the end of the school year and have left unresolved until the beginning of the following school year could result in irreparable harm to a party and interest the time limit set forth herein shall be reduced by mutual agreement so that the grievance procedure may be exhausted prior to the end of the school year or as soon thereafter as is practical again this language demonstrates that the association is still within the timelines and within their right to request a board hearing at level three therefore on behalf of the Washington Township Education Association I requesting a board hearing for the grievance regarding the change in middle school schedule as procedure states in the mutually agreed upon collective bargaining agreement which has been violated by assistant superintendent Dr Pamela Nathan by implementing a new Middle School schedule without first negotiating with the Washington Township Education Association thank you in advance for your attention to this matter this email request I apologize that was set at level three president Ross I just want to clarify if I can that your email address is R Ross boo. wtps.org correct are you having an issue with your email that I'm unaware of I we sent you a a something no not we you did not I talked to the administration that's adversarial there's no need no need to be like that so we're not hey we're not going to go back and forth okay I I'm I don't want to go back and forth but if there's a more effective way to communicate with you I would be more than happy to do that you got Mr Mr Scardino the only so you guys won't see the the communications and I'm not going to read the communication because that would be inappropriate but this is how it started hi Rob I hope this message finds you well I'm responding on behalf of President Ross that's not sends them collective bargaining agreement I I'm just reading hi Rob you want to Sol response send to me from that on I'll resp I would appreciate that you go is there anything else you want to address with that no you just address it I mean they without getting into the specifics of the grievance that aren't supposed to be talked about publicly pursuing to the contract that's the only possible thing that might have been violated there's nothing wrong with someone responding on behalf of the president I mean you guys could grieve that if you want but that's going to go nowhere I mean the response was clearly on behalf of the president I'm not sure why you feel compelled to bring it up there was an offer of a meeting and we could leave it at that I don't need to get into there was no offer of meeting there there was absolutely an offer of a meeting um we can leave it at that yeah there's an offer of meeting there's 100% there's 100% an offer of a meeting in paragraph three that I would be more than happy to discuss that after the meeting yeah and I think those you know we talk talk about good communication we we absolutely should have good communication we probably could iron that out without reading the intimacies of of a grievance in public which I think also goes against the contract Mr Scardino I apologize thank you Lan Clancy hi good evening um thank you for your time um just a real qu quick question do you have anything in line for discipline um I've been concerned because a couple of my granddaughter's friends have um mentioned what's happened in the past in the bathrooms with students um smoking um vaping um doing weed in the bathrooms that they will not use the bathrooms um and they're really concerned about this school year um also some things that have been happening where they've been fights and I I I Mr Anderson I he is awesome but I don't know if he's aware of all this and I know that they're very concerned about it so I'm just bringing it to your attention um it's not just my granddaughter it was a bunch of her friends boys and girls that came to me with their concerns just I overheard them discussing it and then I asked um um the other thing is that um discrepancy in the special ed um salaries specialized um assistant salaries um I'm concerned about that too there's an inequity we have people that have worked in this District that are qualified that don't even make up to number 58 number 63 so I'm just bringing that to your attention the other thing that's not on my card um I know that we hired the bush firm back when we hired you because they were no you claimed that you had no political contributions so I'm just concerned about what I'm hearing from many of the members of the community so I'm just bringing it to your attention that there is that concern and um I know it's not on my card but it's got to be out there thank you for your time thank you El Tom Balo I have a series of questions I'm going to send them over so you don't have to worry about writing them down um I I come up a lot and usually when I do it's about wanting things to be right just the right thing for the kids the right things for the community and the good thing is what I have here is no none of the people up here on this board were involved in what I'm going to bring forward Stacy you were on the board but I'm pretty confident you were not involved um this is going to go back it's funny we were talking about health benefits but 2021 we did an RFP for health benefits and my wife has been operating things since February and I don't know why it's taken so long to get them but I just worry about conflicts related to uh our attorney um what she oid showed that there were five biders for that contract um also we received an Oprah that the board president was asking Miss weter for advice on how to present the West um and what it ended up with and this is really odd to me the Board of Education recommends the award of RFP to the most responsive bidder Insurance Consulting Services LLC that's who got the bid now the first thing there I've been coming to a lot of board meetings I've done thousands of rsps myself and I've never seen the board recommend ever not one time um so it leads me that Oprah leads me to ask these questions and Dr hibs you have all of these um the only way I can see a board making a recommendation is if Administration doesn't recommend them because it was a bad bid bad RFP whatever but why did the recommendation come from the board and not Administration um M Rector I've heard you at other meetings talk about that you do rating forms for rfps and I'm going to assume you did it here and so what I'd like to know is did you use that process um if yes can you share the ranking there were five of them where did the person who got the company that got the bid where did they fall in that ranking I am going to bet they fell low because otherwise you would have recommended them um if they did not score well and the board is recommending it it just shows me that they want whoever they want to get the job which I would consider bid rigging is what I'm talking about here in that scenario I would seek legal guidance did the district ask for an opinion on this process if so what response did you get um the recommendation read by the board president said it went to the most responsive bidder again based on the rankings would you agree with that that's my question um another thing we opened we found out after that budget was approved there was a another uh a modification put in for a $400,000 increase in benefit cost um what caused the need for that increase in the budget line and and I'm going to assume you know all this because we've been opening stuff like crazy my wife um and did that increase in budget also lead to an increase in fee for that vendor who I think got the job from bid rigging So based on what I could piece together this looks like again clear bid call it what you want big rigging contract law violation you know you can call it whatever I have to believe that Miss wector and Dr hibs that you know you knew I might come here because of all the information I got so my question another question is did you make the board aware of this illegality potential because again that's all the assumptions I can't get everything sometimes now if you did my question for Mr Ross will be why didn't you bring this to the public if if you were I'm you can I'll I'll finish when I'm done um but you know assuming the assumptions I've drawn here are right and again I I I'm a good math guy and 1 plus one is two all day um there is corruption here and I want to know if you'll be reporting this to the state so thank you just for the records I wasn't on the board I wasn't I didn't I'm talking about right now if you're aware of what I brought forward like administr should brought and I think brought to the public yeah I I I have sent communication with regards to concerns on my Oprah with regards to the insurance for 21 2022 so that is not correct you've received correspondence from me since last year thank you okay um hold on one second I I don't want to be disingenuous because there was questions that were asked out of Mrs Clancy that I want to make sure at least we addressed the second piece was your opinion totally respect it we're trying just to operate that's really what we're trying to do uh Mr Anderson and his team um is fully aware of of the sometimes issues that happen at every High School including Washington Township High School we have redone the code of conduct uh at middle and high school levels to put more stringent measures in there for for kids that are are breaking some of our of our rules including you know the concept of what happens on phones including you know a multitude of other things so you know it's a it is something that we are aware of and that our team works very hard to address and support um so I don't want to think that I just didn't answer that one it just I want to make sure I address that piece for you okay Mr balero um we're going to we're going to address what we can um there's some things that we can't address um under advisement for right now of our conflict attorney but we're going to address what we can right here okay um as far as the RFP process we use a rating sheet that corresponds to the criteria that was in the RFP we did use the rating sheet um for that particular contract the rating um I don't have it in front of me so I don't know the exact numbers but the um the contractor that the person that was awarded the contract was the lowest out of the five and received approximately half the points of the other contractors um you are correct the the reason why the motion read that the Board of Ed recommended is because Administration um did not make the recommendation as far as the increase in the benefit cost um the original proposal that was given to us by the broker for the increase um we're normally given that around budget time so I was told it would be a 0% increase and built the tentative budget around that and then when um a a proposal was sent to me approximately April 1st that included a 2 to 4% increase I can't remember but it related to the $400,000 so um what we had to do at you probably remember from the budget process once you submit the tenative budget if you make any changes because the county is approving it you have to speak about it at the public hearing so in between the tenative budget and the public hearing um if you go back to the presentation you can see we had to increase the um in benefits line item and decrease in other areas um I don't know yeah I think the first the first question question was recommendations I think you hit that so if if you see that I mean typically my position recommends virtually everything on the agenda so if and I I was not here for this but if you see that the if it doesn't say the superintendent recommends that means the superintendent didn't recommend it so you're correct um we address the concept of the forms we address the concept of the ranking your fourth question if they did not score well and that led to the board ultimately making the recommendation did Administration seek guidance on this from the solic um I can't talk about that piece right now um nor can I talk about responses um and the reason why it's attorney client privilege just so you understand and it's not my attorney client privilege so if I would give an answer that was not released by the board then I I would have repercussions um if you're asking was it the most responsive bidder um if you're asking my opinion no um what caused the need to increase the budget line line item I think you explained that because um I don't know the answer to this did the increase in budget also mean the fees paid to Insurance did did the increase in the in the in the budget or the or the that 400 did it did it then increase the fee that a certain person would have collected um for that particular contract it it would because the proposed fee was a percentage of the contract um some some sometimes it's a flat fee sometimes it's a percentage so that particular one was a percentage I I did convey information to the Board of Education just a yeah tonight Y tonight and and understand that whatever I convey which I can't talk about it would have been executive session but nobody here had decision-making power over that and I can't answer 11 yet uh under advisement from conflict Council which is will you be reporting corruption to the state you are going to have the conflict Council come come right absolutely y next Tuesday okay Mr larini yeah let's cut that a Chase okay it's very obvious what's going on here um the broker that you're are referring to I believe was a gentleman by the name of milm he's the Democrat chair or he was the Democrat chair I don't I shared it with the the mayor in Washington Township he was deeply involved in School Board elections with schools first and uh Children First the political who have taken over this district and sank us into the bottom third which I as a resident I'm absolutely appalled at the teachers in this District I understand fighting for your rights for your contracts that makes sense even though a few years back it happened and nobody said a thing he all covered it up and unfortunately uh Rob your buddy had to go file agreements with the njaa and they agreed with him all right but that's beside the point the teachers are defending this this obvious uh decline in our uh ranking in our standing in the school system in the bottom third of the state that's what they're defending and they're guarant to you 20 years ago we weren't in the bottom third all right and they defended while this corruption is taking place and Dr Hibbs I don't care I like as a guy and all that but I don't want to hear about Conflict attorneys this attorney here can't answer the question because he's mym's attorney and milm uh from what I understand is under indictment on the Norcross thing and from what I also understand I may be wrong on this one uh there's still an unsealed uh indictment that hasn't been uh uncovered yet you know they haven't released yet so this whole thing is swirling and Baker Sano Bloom and Ralph you all are involved with that crowd and that's the end of the story and that's why you don't want it to come out Ralph because this guy got a contract and Mrs kmle was who another person who's running for the board who's also facing ethics charges still pending uh and from what we understand is rumored to be dating Mr Sano I don't know if that's true but all that she's running for the board in the oneyear seat this lady has a lot of audacity considering the fact that this is corruption if this occurred if this occurred this is Bid riging I already talked to a couple people who've been involved with the FBI numerous times in situations related to Washington Township and it is Bid rigging and that is a criminal offense and when you read about nor cross and you read about milm and all these players all they keep talking about is the criminal Enterprise here in South Jersey the criminal Enterprise and that's what you people are involved in okay if you're not allowing the public to know exactly what happened in this particular situation you are blocking the Public's interest and I think you're actually um perpetuating corruption in this town okay that's my own own opinion all right uh it's obvious that there's four people running for the board on one side and the public has to make up their mind if they want to continue this nonsense or there's four people running on the other side I don't even know who they are uh other than Mr Lindsay uh who absolutely deserves a vote for the board of education but other than that I don't even know who these people are I wouldn't know them if they walked by me and said hello to me but they're obviously people that are not interested in all this political nonsense you're all tied to this nonsense and from what I understand the donations for all your Robo calls and all your flyers and everything that went out Ralph and Sano I understand you still having file with elect I don't know if you're bound by law to do that but as a courtesy to the public since there's no public trust in this board of education because of the four of you in my humble opinion they you deserve or you the public deserves to know where you're getting this money and even if it's soft money Mrs chill's idea of uh cutting back uh you know rfps all people who who donate even if they donate to a a committee a pack that donates ultimately to you guys uh you know that gives money out for these campaigns they shouldn't be allowed to uh conduct business here in Washing Township we're in the bottom third I just want to let everybody know that the bottom third this kid came up here to five minutes ago he acts like we're in the in the top 100 we're changing this we're changing that we're changing this you better change something cuz you're losing thank you I I will respond I am not involved in any of that I don't even know the man that he's talking about from a Democrat Party and if this continues then maybe I need to look into What charges I can make because this is really going against my character and when we're when Mr lucarini wants to talk about our scores I've been keeping track of that he's talking about the new J about the US News and World Report is that the thing that he talks about let me see us news okay so if you look at that um I I looked at that and then I also looked at the ranking that we have from 2223 in our own school district and by that I mean our County and in our County there are 14 high schools we rank [Music] number one two six there but you have to remember gcit is 84.44% Township and then it goes down from there and I did talk at our last instructional Affairs meeting about testing scores and if you want to look at testing scores and really look at them carefully start in North Jersey and come down and come down and the farther down you come in counties the lower the test scores get so it has a socioeconomical impact as well as a school like ours that's trying to do our best so I want you to keep that in mind that it's just the way it is there may be a few in Burlington County that on what he was talking about tested pretty well but mostly we were in the ballpark of other other schools and if you get down further into Cumberland County or Salem County the scores are even lower than our scores so please keep that in mind when this specific way of judging schools is brought up at every school board meeting the socioeconomic end of Education cannot be forgotten and it's something we as a district I think are trying to work on because that do does matter when we're talking about test scores and once again anything he says about me is totally false I take total offense to it and when I think about politics I am seeing so much politics from both parties as far as school Board elections go years ago I came to meetings from maybe 2004 to 2009 I came to so many meetings that when I stopped coming to meetings pegged me and took me out to lunch to see I why I wasn't coming to any of more meetings and what I did at that point was I went because I had heard they were the same political things that we're talking about right now happening and I got to tell you when I attended those meeting for 5 years straight what I found was that once people got on the board for the most part or for what I could observe and I taught in the district at that time politics quickly disappeared even if they had backing from a party or another party once they got involved in education it went away and I feel that way with our board too I had no backing from anyway except $500 of my own money for signs for things that I passed out that my family passed out and I think I can go on my credibility and my character and my reputation and I don't feel it should have been attacked tonight nor at any other time nor by other people in the in the audience I was also asked what POS what petitions I signed as opposed to what other petitions were signed in a letter that was sent to me in that sign it was also referenced my daughter's name where she works I I was also told that my husband didn't tell the truth when he said my one daughter didn't work at Whitman the problem was that the question that Mr lucini was asking had to do with my daughter who teaches in South harison Township no she doesn't teach here my daughter Whitman does teach here and I'm going to tell you the name of each of my children so if anybody else wants to look up my family you won't have to look on LinkedIn I'll tell you the names of them and again I'm speaking for myself not for the board my oldest is Matthew blo he lives up in Massachusetts he is a PhD in Biochemistry and molecular biology and works for GE Health my second born is Nicole Elizabeth eshach she is a teacher in South Harrison Township my third born is Kristen Blom she teaches at Whitman Elementary School and my four fourth is Kira agilar she is a financial aid advisor at Rowan University and she also just came off a 2-year appointment as the financial person at one of our local home and school boards home school associations so if you have any other questions please feel free to ask me and don't give me the excuse that there have been other board members whose children have been attacked I wasn't on the board when that happened I didn't condone it and I don't know about you but I was always told don't tell me what somebody else did that does make it right so if it wasn't right to attack that person's children please don't mention my children who are grown with good characters as to what they can or cannot ask questions about or post on their own Facebook pages enough is enough politics right up here needs to stop and it's everywhere and it's both parties I'm just going to comment real quick sorry go ahead no I was just going to ask a question Dr he he sent Ron sent a I believe it was a legitimate email during the whole budget thing about his granddaughter being affected I just want to make sure she was she was good we shouldn't talk about okay well I'm sorry my apologies but everything everything so um I just want to address overall um about the rankings in general the way we as as a board can help improve rankings it starts with supporting our support staff our teachers our Administration or superintendent that's the way we start to get better I mean I think we have a lot of work to do as a board collectively but if we start to focus on those items of supporting recommendations asking Pat I think you'll agree this last IIA meeting it was a long one we asked a lot of questions about instructional Affairs things that we sought clarification on that's how we get better so I can look at the rankings there's tons of different parameters and metrics that goes into it and honestly can I say we're killing it no we're probably not killing it but I'm not going to point to the teachers or anyone else specifically now we just need to move on I don't think it's a teacher issue by any means at all I don't think it's anyone necessarily here we're moving on and the way we can move on is improve the communication which always seems to be an issue amongst the board and between everybody and start to support the recommendations participate in committee meetings make sure everyone that's supposed to be there is there and we're fully engaged we're reading things before meetings as best we can that's the way we get better I think we got better tonight we supported the recommendation for Mr destio to take the position it's a huge step forward as a board that we agreed on that next step is going to be looking at other like the open board seat so that's the way we it all collectively comes together to improve a school ranking it's not just the academics it's not just one thing or the next or who's looking at what ranking or not as far as politics go I'll comment I'm the least political person on this board I'm a register independent always have been my entire life never accepted a dollar for any campaign that I ever ran period and in terms of keeping politics off the board I think that's up to the people who are being political period so as far as my comments about political donations I'll say this I think if we can start to look at policies that keep politics off the board we get better so I think that's an e that's something that we can do as a board collectively period so I don't disagree with anything that you said I'm just saying I think that we as a board need to start owning it and start having really productive conversation about what we can do to help support Administration and teachers and support staff to get better that's it and I also think that when we say we support our superintendent it's just like when you're in a home and you have children when you support your children does it mean that you always say yes no it doesn't work that way just like when you ask somebody a question does it mean that their answer is going to be yes just because you ask them this board has a lot of work to do and I won't go into it because you can't until we have a special meeting but the three specific goals in addition to other ones that I want for our board is things like have that school board Calendar create one that we use and we adhere to next month every month of the year if you looked at when we went over our Board of Education goals at the last meeting we just said things like yeah I think we did that oh yeah I think well I have actual things that will measure that I have things that are going to be done and measure that we get training from the New Jersey School Board Association not just once I have a certain number of times per year and that then we hand in reports for the public to know what we learn from that training and my third one I have here is to encourage participation um in the community I know that that came up when people were talking about our budget that they don't see board members out in the public we are assigned to schools I'm asking that we not only do that but that we each attend three or four other maybe an orchestra concert a play whatever and that we document that and then bring it back and talk about here and that we be required to keep a log for those activities that we then hand in the end of the year and some of the train that we could could get are things like for example some of these will you'll think oh yeah they need that Robert's Rules of Order role and responsibilities of a board member conflict management skills improving superintendent relations School finances so if you listen to that list there are a lot of things that we could be doing as a board that have nothing to do with politics that would help us run better as a board and support our superintendent in ways that don't always mean saying yes but negotiating and coming up with what we think is the best decision for our district that's the board that's the role of a board member you come up and you do what you think is best it doesn't mean that you're going to agree with a political party the superintendent or anybody else you're going to have your own conscience you were you were voted in by citizens they're the ones that should take you out but you're trying to do what you think is best for our students I don't um I don't think Carol meant by supporting the superintendent means you said yes I just want to state that CU I can I that that's not what she meant I question that I question that that was just my question since there's a question I'm just going to say this real quickly I don't think it's about saying yes but when a superintendent puts a recommendation on the agenda that's vital and critical to the to the district functioning and there was plenty of you know plenty of um notice given to the board then I think we should say yes because we don't have an alternative solution this is this is not about saying yes to everything by any means I don't think we should be yes people but I don't think at this point that we have been yes people I think that if there's a critical hire we I know me do not have a superintendent certification last I check the only other person up here is Ralph that has a superintendent certification and I'm not going to make a decision that's going to damage or harm the district I'm not going to do that by any stretch so if he's going to put forth a recommendation and there's valid reasons why then I'm going to support the recommendation because if I'm not going to do that I'm putting the district at risk so when I make my decisions independently when I look at the agenda and I reveal and I ask questions those are the questions I ask myself and I say is this something that is critical vital something that he's explained I'm on Personnel so I usually have those detailed explanations Connie is the chairperson if you have questions about any Personnel hire that should go to Connie as well as the chairperson I haven't seen minutes in a while to really look at what personnel like usually the chairperson takes those minutes and reports out so I'm saying like if you're not informed that sinks but I'm just going to say this I'm not a and I don't think we're doing that here but I think we really need to take a hard look at our credentials and again there's only one other person on the board that has a superintendent CT and that's Ralph so I'm just saying I don't want to be catched as the yes person all right I don't I'm sorry if I made you feel that way my point was not that we shouldn't say yes to Eric my point was that it may not always be yes and I think the point that was brought out tonight in the in the audience was that it's 44 44 this idea of this 44 has got to stop but I'm not going to not vote for something because other people yeah like I you know I'm just saying it's it's a four four mentality I it's it's both sides it's just except for me with a side I don't care what the other four do we'll move on but thank you okay I want to uh comment to Mr bosero mentioned about the uh uh information that we were privy to uh relative to a previous decision that the board made uh I was just privy to that information or some of that information this evening I wasn't on the board I don't think any Stacy was the only one was on the board I said that what I said right but I think something like that has to be digested by the uh uh attorney to see exactly what we can say so I wasn't the president then that that information was just given to us this evening and we'll run it through our attorney and see how it goes okay col bolaro she she left she left okay haven't said that um motion to close to the public I move second all in favor we have to have a roll call that motion to uh journ uh just real quick uh I want to try to leave on a on like a positive note I want to congratulate again Mr detillo for your for your leadership and I really hope that you're going to lead our district forward with what you got you have a lot on your plate man no pressure but I know you got it so I'm going to end it on this congratulations again all those in favor e