##VIDEO ID:tdWaF9uOqwc## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e everyone welcome to the September 16th Board of Education meeting would you all please rise with a flag solute folks we're going to take a moment of silence for uh Mr Thomas grman he was a former Board of Education member uh and a prominent figure in the township of bville volunteering on many other committees um so if you guys you could just take the moment of silence to reflect uh Mr Thomas Brown passed away okay everyone and we'll call the meeting to order Mr card to call the wall thank you madam president uh trustee dar here trusty M here trusty M here JY P here vice president D here president here the New Jersey old public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced noticea and to attend meetings of this board except where specifically Exempted by law at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the same advertise in the bble times also notice of this meeting has been mailed to the members of the Board of Education the borrow of clerk all elementary schools the middle school the high school home below Early Childhood Center and posted on the district website also this meetings being televised VI the district's YouTube and Facebook pages thank you okay we have a motion for the approval of the minutes from the August 19th meeting both closed and public session move second okay all those in favor okay and we're going to hear from our representative from the student government or organization candy dong welcome back to school um welcome back candy you take the lead thank you good morning everyone good evening everyone my name is Candy dong and I'm your student board representative in old news after a successful freshman orientation on August 28th where the Freshman received an opportunity to tour VHS and explore various clubs that they may be interested in Beville high school students started the year with great eagerness highlighting the seniors wearing their fun kid themed backpacks on the first day of school students will have the opportunity to donate those but backpacks to children in the community in need BHS students and members of the concert choire help pay tribute to all those affected by the tragic events of 911 by singing in the 911 memorial ceremony the sgo hosted the fall pep rally on Friday introducing the fall sports with members of the cheer Band drum major Color Guard boys and girls cross country girls tennis girls volleyball boys soccer girls soccer and football team it was a great pep rowy filled with outstanding performances and school spirit the senior class are having their first fundraisers selling chocolate boxes with an upcoming districtwide dress down day on the 27th in new news excitement comes to light as the homecoming games approaches on October 3rd followed by the homecoming game on October 4th we hope to see everyone at the game the Bubba Public School Green Fair will be held this Saturday September 21st from 11:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. thank you wow great thank you it sounds like everybody is happy to be back at high school and you guys hit the ground running thank you everyone and welcome back um okay uh from superintendent intern superintendent Mr parata thank you madam president uh first of all I'd like to commend the principls and staff for getting off to a great start on opening day I know there was a few little bumps that were in the road but they were taking care very quickly and I must say that everything ran pretty smoothly uh I'd also like to report that the month of October is fire prevention month it will start on October 7th and run through till October 22nd the fire department will be visiting our prease and elementary schools um at this time I'd like to call upon Mrs Nicole Shanklin along with some administrators that may be here to present the summer reading winners for 2024 sh [Music] I have the pleasure of introducing our 2020 4 Elementary summer reading challenge top readers collectively these students have read for thousands of minutes this summer and we are so proud of them for their efforts I want to also take the time to acknowledge each and every student who participated this year even if they are not being called up to the podium tonight your dedication this summer did not go unnoticed there are multitude of reasons why reading is beneficial not only does it allow the reader to explore new places and learn new skills but it also increases imagination strengthens vocabulary acquisition and so much more it's also proven to reduce stress which hopefully none of you have but in case you do anyway tonight we will be honoring three students per school there will be a top reader recognized from kindergarten to secondth grade a top reader from third and fourth grade and a top reader from fifth and sixth grade from each of those schools for these Awards we will honor them by school so I ask that the students accept their award and wait until I have called all three names from their school before sitting down I will begin with school number three and I also have the school number three principal here as well Mr puga Mal salur Jr [Applause] jelle Kal and Adam FZ okay School Number Four we have Zion [Applause] Oger Janette Taylor and Ariana Santiago [Applause] School number five we have Sienna bedo [Applause] Antonella ordones [Applause] Hera and Arya Karan [Applause] [Music] at school number seven we have Michael Roman Vladimir Alid and Ava Valente [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] School number eight we have Josiah lus [Applause] Jaden cames and Amy [Music] [Applause] Campbell right two more school go school number nine Leila Feliciano Serano and we actually had two sisters and I'm not sure if they were able to make it but uh Kaylee kadria and Chloe kadria [Applause] [Music] [Music] and last but certainly not least School number 10 uh with principal Calhoun we have Avery Aero Daniel Moran [Music] and Leah Casta [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you to all of our winners congratulations that concludes my report Madam president thank you very [Music] much Mr do you have report for sure I'll do Mr ens too uh first and foremost Mr Ean wanted to apologize couldn't be here this evening he's attending to some personal matters uh he is watching via the district's uh streaming platform platforms he's reviewed the agenda with the interim superintendent myself he approves all the resolutions being presented uh pertaining to Personnel uh purchasing and finance uh he certifi sufficient funds for the 2425 school year as authorized by the treasurer submission of the July 2024 treasurers report that's on the agenda for approval tonight and then lastly he wanted to mention uh that he is in communication with Mr Zara the executive County Superintendent of Schools regarding the board vacancy uh Mr Zara had a uh Health procedure uh over the past couple of days he's been in the hospital as soon as he gets out of the hospital uh he'll speak with Mr rean and he will let him know of his decision on who the uh the person will be to fill the board vacancy uh that's the end of Mr Ran's report uh just couple of uh items for myself uh just want to welcome back everybody uh staff and the students took a walk around buildings uh last week um hit all of them except for four and nine but uh it was great seeing everybody back lots of smiles on the teachers faces and the kids' faces so that was good um once again Mr tetta and Mr W wedling and their staff did an outstanding job over summer getting the schools ready uh for an opening of school a couple of weeks ago so big thank you to all of them um in regards to health benefits we're working with the Union Allen Associates are broker and Etna to schedule some to coordinate some dates so that Representatives can be in the building to speak to the staff uh in anticipation of the 111 turnover lunch applications always a touchy subject but just uh asking everybody that's in the audience everybody watching live and the board trustees up here please um mention to all your constituents your neighbors uh anybody in the community the importance of filling out the lunch applications and getting them in uh before the October 15th date um state aid e- rate funding meal reimbursements all are important in regards to lunch applications if you have any questions please reach out to Mrs pagley Roy at extension 1623 uh for those that don't know the annual income qualification rate was raised for the 2425 school year it was increased to 69,8 A8 for a family of four so uh the state has made it more eligible for people to qualify for free and redu so it's very [Music] important uh and then just one last thing just want to let the board know as I stated in the committee uh the Auditors have begun the June 30th 2024 audit uh doing some field work in regards to payroll uh they'll be in the office doing the majority of the work uh towards the end of September middle of October that's all I got for you tonight thank you Mr Paladin okay and we'll move on to uh remarks from citizens could we have a motion to open public participation so move okay and for the beginning of the year I just wanted to read the public comment content so that we're all aware remarks regarding agenda items that are relevant to the educational system a participant must sign in and be recognized by the presiding officer and must Pras comments by an announcement of his or her name municipality and group affiliation if appropriate the individual called shall proceed with a maximum of 3 minutes all statements should be directed to the president and the Board of Education no participant May address board members individually okay all right so welcome back Michael Sheldon you think everyone should just preprint those sign sheets put my name at the top I'm still kicking I'm going to be here um couple quick questions uh regarding agenda items firstly 1122 both Ruben rri and I um reached out to one another to see if we can make heads or tails out of one of the items underneath this agenda item uh in particular policy 7231 these are all uh there are several policies here they're all listed as first readings but 7231 says abolish gifts from vendors so what does this mean exactly um are now GI from vendors Fair gain and uh in the coming months and we expect all of the trustees to be uh driving brand new Lamborghinis and Porsches uh I just would like some clarification of exactly what what you're doing in regard to abolishing gifts from vendors uh 1239 says approve an agreement with Millennium strategies for online grant writing services but when you open up the detail with board dos it has tuition uh uh payments for two students whose initials are given I assume that's a typo but I just wanted to bring it to your attention so Mr Paladino or whoever can uh can fix that uh agenda item 12.60 uh which involves um hiring Jackie Communications to do public relations services for $160 an hour not to exceed $7,000 for the upcoming Academic Year as I'm sure everyone on the board knows um jaffy is also employed by the town hall political machine uh jaffy is one of the Town Hall political machines uh most significant campaign contributors and uh I I also don't think I need to remind everyone that at least few of the board members uh had their their individual campaigns largely funded by the same town hall political machine so it's my opinion that um in regard to this matter if you receive the line share of your camp pay money from the town hall you should probably recuse yourself from this particular item I think it will otherwise be a blatant conflict of interest uh there were some questions about checks I Mr Paladino mostly answered the first one I had about 0 91779 which is Allen Associates I didn't know what Allen Associates is do doing but they're apparently handling this insurance coverage change but one of the items listed underneath their checks is Bond renewal I didn't know what Bond what what does that mean Bond renewal for Allen Associates if that could be clarified and then finally there's a series of checks for mind ey Technologies uh for digital signs and uh all of the schools except the the Middle School school number three has a brand new sign so I understand why they're not included but it looks like all of the schools except the middle middle school high school isn't getting a new sign uh horn blower is getting a new sign uh most of these signs are $222,000 a piece the one for the high school 31,000 so I just would like some clarification here also the technology are these signs capable of displaying the same message districtwide in case there's an emergency the same message can be posted uniformly amongst all the schools are all of these signs individually operated and isolated so if that can be clarified I'd appreciate it thank you well I'm going to take the gifts from vendor's question if that's okay um to my knowledge Beville was never a Abid district and there's the the gifts from vendors policy is required for non AB districts and as much as I I too would like to be able to receive a Lamborghini por um it's it's uh it was recommended for abolition by um by the policy service that that provides gues to the or has no application at all to to this District so I wouldn't take even remotely you or Mr Rodriguez's suggestion that there's anything aate here it's just not something that our policy manuals required or should have in it according to St s policy company chair all right so I'll take care of the typ thank you Mr Sheldon uh Allen Associates is our broker of record for um all of our health benefits dental and prescription coverages the bond renewal is the bond that the board has uh for the business administrator and for the treasur of school monies and then M's ey if you remember about a month or two ago the board had approved the grant um forgive me I can't remember the name of it I'm getting old um that allowed us to purchase all brand new digital signs for most of the schools uh they've been delivered um they're actually in the the storage underneath my office uh the ground excuse me Mr Kell and Mr wedland staff we're going to slowly start uh installing them as the year goes on the high schools is the first one that'll get installed um they do have the ability to have their own highlights of what's going on within the school they also have the ability to have Universal um stuff go up in case there is an emergency they have the ability to be dimmed and they have the ability to be turned off 8 9:00 at night and then be turned back on 6 7 o' in the morning whatever works best for everybody involved Middle School the Middle School the middle school we were holding off because we didn't know where we were going to go with the whole Middle School development plan uh and we bar some parking garage so I didn't want to put a brand new sign in front of the middle school yet until we knew where we were going to go with that whole project um we also there's a resolution that one of the Architects was working on looking into moving the main office at the middle school for us um so there was that also too involved uh once I have a little bit a better idea of what's going on with the bond and the project then we'll we'll get the Middle School New sign thank you okay um and moving on to resolutions oh that's right can I have a motion to close public participation motion name and second all those in favor now moving on to resolutions and Personnel items suggested by the superintendent items 9.1 to items 9.47 do we have a motion so and a second all right Mr Paladino sure Mr trusty Dera yes trusty MSI yes trusty mise yes trusty P yes vice president yes president benini yes okay and resolutions curriculum and instructions item 10.1 motion second is there any discussion I'm hearing none trusty Dera yes tragi yes uh trusty mice yes trusty P yes vice president status yes president Ben yes all right and then resolutions board action and board policy suggested by the superintendent items 11.1 to item 11.32 motion second is there any discussion yes Madam Madam president okay uh okay I'm looking at 1119 the Diversity Health and Wellness manual I I had requested for the the name change on this because when I read through it there was nothing about diversity in it um and I think that the name should be changed completely I just really think that it should be like a resource book of some sort so I just wanted to clarify for that reason I'm going to be voting no on this thank you anyone else all right hearing none Mr Paladino please call the wrong try darl uh yes with every with the exception of 1119 you Ved I'm voting no uh trusty M yes with the exception of 1119 vote number uh trusty mon yes uh trusty P yes uh vice president dallis yes to all with the exception of 11 19 and president benine [Music] yes all right on uh resolutions purchasing and business services do we have a motion so move second right and that's items 12.1 so 12 Point 61 is there any discussion hearing none trusty DK yes trusty M yes trusty mice yes trust yes uh vice president dtis yes president Ben yes and resolution Finance items 13.1 to 13.7 Some Mo second and is there any discussion on finance heing none trusty Dar I yes with all except 13.4 which I'm going to vote no on truste M yes uh trust monice yes trusty P yes uh vice president dtis yes and president benam yes and we're moving on to remarks by citizens on anything and I will read again the public content since it's the first meeting this fall remarks regarding any items and issues that are relevant to the educational system a participant must sign in and be recognized by the presiding officer and must face face comments by an announcement of his or her name municipality and group ilation if appropriate the individual called shall proceed with a maximum of 5 minutes all statements should be directed to the president of the Board of Education no participant May address board members individually do we have a motion to open so move all those welcome back Mr Michael Shelton good evening again I'm moving a little more slowly than usual tonight I managed to badly hurt my left knee kicking the winning field goal with last night's chees and I I did hurt my left knee so I'm hopping a little bit so I apologize taking more time than usually get to the microphone um as far as agenda item 1119 is concerned um you just voted on it 33 tie so I assume that means that the motion doesn't carry that that new health Wellness diversity manual has not been approved and unless Mr Egan um intervenes um that will have to be further discussed and work upon by the board I just wanted to confirm that um 1130 was a new handbook uh for the middle school that was approved but what I would ask um this happens routinely most agenda items when there's a document or a manual or whatever it's not initially provided through board docs but usually even after the fact after the board approves it it those documents are not posted to board docs um which then puts people like me in the position of having to file open requests to gain that information which should be made readily publicly available and then you know we want the vious is that we don't get the information up front then I have to file an OP request and then the new agenda item basically is designed to intimidate and castigate people like me from following up and having to submit an open request to get information that should be automatically available to us so I you any argue that hundreds if not thousands of dollars are spent from business staff uh time to uh comply with those open requests you know just a weird situation I which I think we could all do a better job with transparency and reducing costs um sorry that Mr Regan um is in air with us tonight um after a four-year absence U he was at the last two meetings and I was hoping you know this could be a new era for for him I uh I hope uh that starting next month he's back here and that uh we don't see him absent um again for the next four years I I did want to ask him directly while he's on the deis about the the budget um how he um had to intervene back in May to approve the 6.4% tax increase when this board had uh essentially rejected the 10.2% increase that Dr TCO initially presented back in in March even though um as I've reiterated a thousand times Governor Murphy uh deliver on a campaign promise made years ago to fully fund our district for this Academic Year um but um I uh the there's also state law that limits um increases from year to year 2% I know there are exceptions to that rule but nevertheless I wanted Mr Egan to finally explain to all of us exactly what the rationale was for the 6.4% increase and also we might explain why as Dr SJ uh went on record back in May um she as chair of the finance committee had made multiple efforts to contact him both for email and phone calls and uh according to what she told us uh he never bothered return any of those phone calls or emails so I would like at some point hopefully soon an answer from Mr Egan about about these matters um Mr Paladino keeps telling me he has the opportunity why don't you have anything good to say about the district well prepare yourself for for the potential heart attack um last month Mr Rodriguez and I had questions about the U television purchase there were 70 uh TVs uh Smart TVs uh that uh were listed at Cost District about $63,000 I was curious I found an open request to get the specs and um uh Lo behold U looks like U Mr Paladino and the business Staff office uh got a really good deal on those TVs or Jeff too Jeff Jeff was also involved with that but the the uh the current retail rate for those TVs uh some companies are charging over $2,000 for each unit uh whereas the board is paying $88.99 so um U you know this technology is needed and I'm glad to see that uh we got a pretty good deal in the process I guess this is maybe the result of the consortiums or the competitive bidding that districts go through but in any case uh in this instance it looks like uh the uh monies were properly spent so um I was also going to ask if you any updates on the parking garage situation if uh you have any information you can share on that I would appreciate it thank you thank you Mr Shelton um we could we just want to make a comment about the handbooks the policies that coincide with the handbooks they can be found online so that it's just taking the policy and putting it in the hand box I also want to point out there's a comment this is released to your prior public comments just want to point out that campaign contributions are are never um require board members to to abstain there's a provision uh the school ethics act that specifically accepts campaign contributions from that so just because somebody receives a campaign contribution doesn't mean that they have to abstain I just want to make that sure that that's clear the board members in particular okay obviously that didn't happen I just want to make sure that that was okay and Jean Rodriguez Gillis welcome good evening and thank you for your dedication to bble um I just have a quick concern for the playground on the pre- playground at school 5 there's windows at the playground that are low and they're Rusty so I wanted to know if there was anything in place that was going to fix those PL uh Windows cuz knowing my son he's curious and he could like step on it and get hurt so I'm always thinking about my my child and all the other students safety um so that was my concern and again thank you for for your time and for the bubble beginners program thank you we have a motion to close public participation some all those in favor okay we're going to have uh comments by board members tonight we've had committee meetings it's a new school year we want to welcome everyone back so let's start with trustee lisis munz put me right in the hot seat well um I don't really have much to rep I just wanted to welcome everybody back thank our teachers and our staff and for for the work that they've done um um I have two more kids going through the system here uh two are out two are in um they've come back with so much uh feedback about the ways the buildings look and just they're like my eyes so uh they've come back with so much good news and and uh just want to thank you all congratulate the kids that received their recognition tonight and um that's it for me I hope everyone has a great night thank you thank you trustee Dr Lis massia um I too would like to welcome everybody back and for those who worked extremely hard over the summer getting the buildings ready to for opening day I know what a Monumental task it is I only worked um 11 days in my classroom getting it ready uh to open but um you know getting everything done is a big job so to the buildings and grounds people and the custodians and everybody that make everything shine and Sparkle and fix all the nooks crannies cracks and everything that keep the buildings up and running thank you for all that you do that you're the unsung heroes and the secretaries and everybody ad ministrator assistants who work so hard thank you for everything we can't do this without you so but welcome back to to all of you to the kids to the staff the teachers because you're why we're here here um my son is very very excited to now be up here in the high school as a freshman his favorite thing is Jim and lunch he's thrilled so um I wish everybody an extremely successful and productive school year and progress very good thank you and truste Michael [Music] darl good evening I I'd like to welcome everybody back to school and our first Board of Education meeting tonight uh all I can say is the summmer seem to be getting much shorter and shorter as the years go by as I noticed uh I would like to thank all of our grounds teams for getting all the schools ready on time for the first day of school the pressure was on and you all Rose magnificant magnificently to the challenge uh thank you for our fine teachers staff Paras bus drivers Administration administrators and everybody else I'm probably leaving off for doing all that you had to do for our students to be able to uh start the first day of school it's greatly appreciated thank you uh for operations we've had a very busy summer uh readying a bunch of new classrooms and fixing up bathrooms I believe to expand space in existing facilities that I know we've talked about before in these board meetings uh just because we want to use all the available space that we have to us in this Township uh this board is especially looking forward uh to working together with our Township Township manager to the council put in place this past uh June uh just we have a better relationship we know going forward we're going to have those uh community that hopefully lines of communication will be open up between the Board of Education and the township that we all learn uh and we can all work together uh thank you so much for coming tonight thank you great thank you Mr darl and truste Brenda PCO good evening all so summer we so short but welcome back to another school year and congratulations for all the students that work hard and you know what have a great great year again thank you thank you vice president Nicole Davis welcome back everyone I hope everyone had a smooth transition back to school my girls were actually excited this year I think that was the first um I just want to mention something very quickly last school year I mentioned doing a technology audit we use so many different types and companies of technology and we really have to look at all of this and figure out if we actually utilize all of it this has to be a priority um I have pretty high hopes that we can trim some of the fat off of this budget that way I believe we are throwing some money out the window in this area so please can we just get that done that's just my request and that's all I have good night everyone thank you thank you m stus okay welcome back to school everyone welcome back teachers Administration staff parents students it's so nice to see you it's it's so great to have summer but I I still think it's wonderful to have the start of the school year and and to see all of the kids back and into the rhythm of learning and being involved in clubs or Sports and many of the other activities um and with that said I just wanted to remind everyone that um you know it's a very busy year uh there's a lot going on if you're looking for something to do you definitely want to check out the the sports schedule which is online uh be in touch with that um you also want to help out there are many many fundraisers that the students are raising money for different causes so if you want to participate in something like that you should check that out um and this Saturday the uh fourth annual green fair right here at Belo High School which is a joint between the township Green teams and the school green teams um I just wanted to drop back to the Diversity Health and Wellness handbook and my take on the handbook is removing the word diversity is probably fine having a health and wellness handbook I think is is really important uh on the township level working with the township many communities are looking for their own health assessment um and working with the township we were third in line for a grant we are the top three we did not get the grant we will continue to try to get that Community Health assessment done but one of the things that I cited when I wrote that Grant was that the school district actually had something in place to assist the well-being of our students here at the high school and I thought that was pretty neat because While most other districts had something we really had something that was very extensive um other community assessments if you ever want to take a look I use the claras wellness uh Health assessment I use healthy New Jersey from 2020 I use the um County Essex County Health assessment report and I'm just going to give you some quick facts if you don't know this uh broken down into different communities but Belo um number one in the Essex County Health assessment the number one ailing thing for Belo believe it or not is mental health issues number two obesity and overweight and number three is cancer and if you go to some of the other assessments there it it changes so number one in another assessment might be the Obesity and overweight number two would be diabetes and we would be prenatal care so we know that that's with adults but we know that there is a lot going on with children and that certain things at home do affect our students when they come to school so I do appreciate having that link online and having that handbook um that's really all I have to say I wish you all very well I wish you all a lot of luck this year um hope to see you out there and I hope to see you for the green fair so with that said do we have a motion to close so move a second second okay uh just one more thing uh stay tuned I believe we are changing the date for the October meeting okay so everyone be aware of that have a good night