##VIDEO ID:PwNmwW9wC2g## public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public body to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the beler board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time in place thereof posted With The Star Ledger The Express Times and submitted to the town clerk of the town of beler on January 19th 2024 please stand for the flag salute flag of United States stand naice the mission of the beler school district is to celebrate our past and Empower our future while focusing on the four cornerstones of the district tradition Excellence academics and Community we strive to build confidence and promote collaboration we encourage an equal partnership with our students and staff as well as its community members we Empower everyone to develop the best version of themselves the beler school district is committed to shaping students into Global Citizens who take Initiative for their success and contribute to the continued Excellence of the district our students are leaders in the decision-making process of their education and will be prepared to excel in the 21st century Society we'll now do roll call Mr Blum here Dr zith here Mrs Duckworth here Mrs Mr bone here Mr scottt Mrs Stefan here Mrs wner Mr chiarelli here Mrs Gardella here and Mrs ratham on the agenda you'll see the results of the November 5th 2024 School Board election at that time we had uh three people elected for threeyear terms Tyler wner Robert zith Carolyn cbone we had a two-year unexpired term uh where we have a new board member joining us tonight Virginia Walton and we had a one-year term unexpired that was up for election but we had a failure failure to elect so we will be um still accepting any resumés for anyone who's interested in that position the board will be doing interviews and appointing at the January regular business meeting which the date will be set in a few minutes so at this time I'd like to administer the oath of office to our elected members and if you could come join us I'm just see here too okay there one do we need to stand we do right so if I could have the new members please stand or the new and reelected members yes we fig I state your name do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the United States and this state in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God under the authority of the people so help me God I state your name I Virginia Walton do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education for office of the member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified and I am not disqual as a voter pursuant to rs1 1941 voter pursuant to rs1 19-4 D1 nor disqualified nor disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense due to a conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 18a 12-1 listed in njs 18a 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God according to the best of my ability so help me God and then if you could please sign where it says signature a board member and pass those in to me that would be great thank you at this time I would like to take nominations for the position of president of the Board of Education I'd nominate Melissa Duckworth second do I have any other nominations do can I get a motion to close the nominations for president motion second all in favor I opposed exensions then we'll vote on Melissa Duckworth for president all in favor I I any opposed exensions and my part is over thanks okay I need a nomination for vice president any nominations for vice president second anybody any others no okay so I need um everybody all in favor of Maryann stefin say I I I any nose any abstentions no okay marann all you all right so that was there there okay so now we are looking on the 2025 board committee appointments did everybody get Mrs walon did you get a copy of this I did not okay mbody on this got one yeah it's updated Tex's now there's extra one over here too Yep this look at that this what Tyler always wanted yes I know now the ficial okay we'll let you slide okay okay you have to take the paper off for it to stand up now we got to remember are we bringing them with us'll take okay cool cuz I'll forget sign maybe yes you share the same newer for sure a job well done so I'll save you one 2025 first thing off our thing check did something okay so everybody should have the sheet that was passed around we're looking at um some new structure to committees before we all met as single committees and as needed sometimes people met multiple times a week or you know every week all month long so we're looking at a structure that's different where we make grouped um committees where everybody would be on one committee except for um things like negotiation instructional Council would still be their own separate committees because they don't meet on a regular basis and they meet multiple times some years and not other years so that's what we were looking at and this is what Mr kruba had put together for us you should have all got an email with this and there's just been a little change to it yeah I just took into account we we started talking about this back in November there was a couple of discussion items so um on the original version we had personnel and curriculum lumped into the same committee separated those two since those are are ones that tend to um have a little more substance to them and then technology got pushed up uh into number one with curcum policy so then you remember the idea would be that we all meet on the same night uh in different rooms so we're not uh in danger of having a quorum and then there can be some there'll be admin administrative liaison for each group and then I'll be able to jump in on each one of the Committees and if we can get everybody's choices or top two choices to Melissa by maybe Friday we'd like to actually try to start to meet next week so we're not delayed beyond the 22nd that's okay because we definitely need to meet Finance next week we're got to start with the budget process questions okay so how many will we be on one one one okay and then you might be on like negotiations or one of the other ones forget those two for right now just look at top three the top three you just want us to rank them one two three but the main ones yeah any questions or comments on that structure we're going to try the structure you just let us know which one you'd like to be on like I think what Mr bow said were you rank them one two and three email yeah or you can tell me tonight before we leave yeah you know but any questions or comments on the structure itself I mean is there any yeah so child study team um generally got discussed during curriculum um so sort of sits there but I think it needs to be a little more of a focus Point than it has been um in transportation has generally Fallen under Finance I mean obviously we don't have a whole lot of Transportation it's just for athletics and field trips and things of that nature so it's not a huge piece of that so it's basically instead of having seven all individual committees we're having three main committees those will be separate so it'll be people will be double you know will be doing some people will be doing two yeah just in general just so you like a Committee Member we I'll still put the the agenda together send it out like I do for every commit every every meeting ahead of time and then we'll elect the chair the chair will be responsible for the notes making sure they go out in a timely fashion and the idea would be to try to have these meetings approximately two weeks ahead of the board meeting as much as we can there are some months that that's going to be a little bit more difficult but for the most part we should be a we're going to keep these on Wednesday night right keep on Wednesday night to be consistent with with our meeting night any other questions concerns um we haven't discussed that we can probably discuss that in each indidual committee as much as imp I mean you could but as much as in person is going to be better I have I mean the policy changed because of covid being expired I have to go back and check and see what it says I know for sure we can't do public meetings virtually I'd have to go back and look at committee meeting poliy okay do we have to approve this no we'll just we'll just run with it we just have the new structure and we'll see how it goes yep okay okay all right so that brings us to agenda items right huh yeah we're here to agenda items yeah um so I have to have a motion for consent or I'm just doing it's all of them one through four okay all right so all of our agenda items will be all on the same vote it's going to be the um reorganization so I need a motion for item numbers 1 through four motion any questions alter well they don't print anymore right they haven't changed the law right they have temporarily changed the law yes temporarily allows printing but doesn't yet allow not to right so that's why I added into the motion that we are utilizing online advertising as Allowed by law so it'll probably be on new jersey.com instead of in the actual start Ledger or The Express Times that goes in our advertisement that we that similar to the notice of meeting that we read that we usually um provide the advertisement to the town clerk um and other places that's the new law came out in the New Jersey school board's report if anybody read it just a couple weeks ago because of so many of the newspapers going out of print and all starting yeah so the new law did just come out it was in one of the New Jersey school board update blasts weekly blasts recognizes it's an issue see what they do I any other questions on one through four no so roll call please Mr Blum Dr zith yes Mrs Duckworth yes Mrs cbone yes Mrs stefen yes Mrs wner yes Mr chiarelli yes Mrs Gardella yes Mrs ratham yes and Mrs Walton yes and it's m Walton not M Walton okay so we are on to continuing business I'll just comment real quick on regionalization study we had a meeting last night we did you were able to join was that yeah did you hear hear the basketball game no I just saw I just saw iPhone I assumed it was you um I realized it wasn't on mute at first um I going to I I'll give a more in-depth report at the 202nd meeting but the report is just about out done the only hangup right now is they're waiting on some clarification about state aid and how that will be impacted so um Mark magiar who is the sort of the finance Guru of the study uh is setting up a meeting with the commissioner of Education to get a ruling but the report is basically finished it's a 250 page report um it should be in the hands of the steering committee hopefully by the end of January um it's all going to depend on when they Comm meet with the commissioner it's a matter of uh adding one more page and then the idea would be to give the steering committee maybe about two weeks to take a look at it see if there's any changes that they would recommend and then get it to the rest of the boards hopefully sometime mid to late February that's the the goal right now um Dr Green gave a pretty extensive update last night which I'll go into I think on the 22nd um he's going to send some talking points and kind of where we are with that but we're very close to the end of that and then the only other thing is there's still no update from Third Street obviously when we last met in December was pretty close to break and not a lot of work uh got done out of the Department of that over that time so still waiting to hear from that any other continuing business no okay public participation anybody huh new business oh sorry new business any new bu business I missed it it was at the top no okay public participation that was quick oops hello everyone my name is Marley stansky I live at four Woods Edge Court belador New Jersey before I State my concerns I wanted to share some I wanted to share some information with the board I have some packets I'm the parent of Ellis stansky Ella is a 2024 beler high school graduate and a 2022 Girl Scout Gold Award recipient I'm here speaking on behalf of my daughter Ella regrets she is unable to attend tonight she is currently on a college sponsored activity I'd like to present the Board of Education background information pertaining to my concerns in 2022 Ella recognized the need in the community and constructed her gold Girl Scout Gold Award Project based on that need Ella's project was called the cedar seller it was a clothing swap to assist those in our community who need clothing or hit hard times families swapped items of clothing but those in need could take items even without donating meeting the repurposing of clothing items and accessories also reduced clutter in our landfills Ella's project was held in the Bader high school on May 22nd 2022 no other project of this nature had ever been implemented at Bader High School Ellis project was a huge success and families from multiple towns benefited from Ellis project 's project goal was for it to become a comprehensive event in towns across the state and extending Flash Forward nine months later Mrs Bader the beler high school environment Club adviser implemented the exact same project with the exact same wording Mrs Bader calls her project the cedar swap we were initially thrilled when we heard about Mrs Bader's efforts and assumed Mrs Bader was sustaining Ellis Girl Scout project which is a Girl Scout requirement Mrs Bader was aware that Ella had coordinated the same project in the Community 9 months earlier with the assistance of the Girl Scout council we requested that Mrs Bader include a notation on the environmental Club advertisements crediting Ella so that her project could be sustained Flash Forward to present day after two years of Ella and I speaking to Administration calling and emailing Mrs Bader has not acknowledged Ellis Girl Scout project in any way Ellis Girl Scout project has been swallowed up and forgotten four members of the Girl Scout of America advisory committee Judy stall Lisa Davis Mary Ellen day and Lori Coleman sent correspondents to the board School Board District ad excuse me to the badier School District administration on December 12th notifying the administration of this Injustice Judy stall Girl Scout councilwoman stated that the correspondence the Girl Scout Gold Award like the eagle scout award requires sustainability ensuring the Project's impact continues Beyond its original implementation since Ella was the original creator of this project acknowledging her efforts by including a notation on the environmental club's propaganda is the civic-minded thing to do we were hoping Ella would be acknowledged on the environmental club's December social media posts but that was not the case instead Mrs Bader requested to review a final copy of Ella's Girl Scout project from Council which was provided by Judy stall through this termoil the Bader Administration has remained silent which has been extremely disheartening I leave you with this thought all decisions are based on values what is the value system at Bader high school if students achievements were valued and continually encouraged supported and recognized this situation would not be happening what is the value system that is guiding our Administration think about this our Administration by their silence is allowing a teacher to execute a project without without acknowledging the hard work of a Girl Scout the Creator is this the type of environment we want to expose our children to where teachers compete with students for credit I brought this matter to your attention to to assist in rectifying this situation and to sure it never happens to another girl scout or student again thank you very much for your time thank you any other public participation my name is Rachel Baris nicolopoulos I live in White Township New Jersey the young girl scout that she's talking about was one of my Girl Scouts I would like to correct Miss sty in that boy scout projects do not have to be sustainable Girl Scout projects do Girl Scout projects are 100% more difficult than Boy Scout Eagle Award projects and that boy scouts get to include man hours so if all of you help a Boy Scout he gets to count all your hours Girl Scouts it's individual hours a Girl Scout in my troop if any of you know my kids I held my Girl Scouts to the same standards they not only had to do 80 hours I had to make them do 120 because I know hours don't get counted so I wanted to make sure that they had more than enough Girl Scout projects have to have an original idea it has to affect the local community the national community and the Global Effect it has to be sustainable there's only 5.4% of all Girl Scouts that are eligible for it and only approximately 3.5 Girl Scouts that earn a gold award Ella stansky not only but also Dian bold are one of four girls from this high school that I know that earned the trifecta which means they earned their bronze their silver and their gold Awards this school has done nothing to recognize them but Ellis danky's was totally her idea to have a simple change in warning if you want to change it to Cedar swap based on Girl Scout Gold Award project Cedar Cella by Ella stansky that would have covered it but instead you have a teacher which I don't understand because I would hope any of you as parents want your kids to do better I would hope if you're an educator you want the people that you are educating to bring this country this world the society into a better place as opposed to saying you know what bump you I got your idea hey it's copyright infringement who cares what are you going to do you were only 17 not only that only 1.7% of the Girl Scouts like Miss stansky Miss bold or the two miss nicolopoulos that have earned the trifecta award there's only 1.7 of your Girl Scouts in the entire country that have earned all three of those Awards I just find it totally astonishing astonishing that anybody would want to take credit for something that I mean like the credit that I got was seeing Ella actually get it and trust me that's not easy and I could tell you now the person who had to deal with my daughter because I couldn't do it because I was her mother and her leader so I had to have her co-leader deal with it it's a lot of work I sat with Miss stansky for hours while she did her research and everything else and all the people who helped her all those hours didn't count because if they did she put in well over a, hours because everybody who collected clothes helped sorted them sent them out by age re bagged them deliver them to daysack afterwards and to whichever other place the American Red Cross and things because at the time they were going overseas also to help people like the girl did the work why are we taking credit for it she did it I just don't understand I mean we have the proof you have an attorney back there does she need to sue the school to get a credit that's all I have to say I find it totally astonishing and upsetting that Educators would do that thank you hi all um I'll apologize in advance I'm in denial that I need reading glasses so bear with me my name is Mara du I reside in badier New Jersey I would like to read a December 12th 2024 letter on behalf of Judy stall member of the Girl Scout of America advisory committee this letter was emailed to each board member on January 6 2025 Miss Bader Mr kruba and Mr carabinas I have been following the recent Facebook posts about the holiday swap currently running at badier high school and I am thrilled to see this wonderful initiative continuing into its third year as you may know this project was originally created and launched by LS Dany BHS class of 2024 in 2022 as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award project which she called Cedar swap at the time Ella's Innovative idea was supported by the safe club which is formerly known as Green Dot under the guidance of Mrs Gaton I understand that that the environmental Club led by Miss Bader has now taken this project which is fantastic I'm writing as an active Girl Scout volunteer and a member of the Gold Award advisory committee for Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey along with my colleagues Lisa Davis Mary Ellen day and Lori Coleman who have no affiliation with BHS or at sending districts I had the privilege of guiding Ella during the development of her Gold Award project the Gold Award like the eagle scout award requires sustainability ensuring the Project's impact continues Beyond its original implementation during our meeting with Ella in October 2022 she shared that her project would be sustained through badier High School however we are concerned that recent Communications about the holiday swap have not acknowledged Ella's foundational role in starting this initiative as an example another BHS alumni Tracy kefir class of 2017 completed her gold gold award project in partnership with the High School athletic department while her project originally included a sustainable web link on the BHS Athletics page this recognition seems to have been lost over time due to changes in administration within the athletic department we believe it is important to maintain recognition of Gold Award projects as public acknowledgement of these accomplishments inspires young women to pursue ambitious goals and develop his leaders recognition also highlights the value of these projects which while not always permanent structures are impactful and deserve visibility comparable to e Eagle Scouts projects we kindly request that future communications or advertisements by the environmental Club about the holiday swap include a brief acknowledgement of Ellis danky's contribution noting that her 2022 Girl Scout Gold Award project Cedar swap was the origin of the idea for a school-based swap such recognition would celebrate Ella's hard work and Leadership while encouraging others to Aspire to similar achievements thank you for considering this request and for supporting the remarkable young leaders at BHS Judy stall BHS parent classes of 2016 and 2018 parent to Gold Award Girl Scout and Eagle Scout and just as a side note because I found this really interesting um just to kind of read back your mission statement what the school was you know in trying to do we strive to build confidence and promote collaboration how are you collaborating if you're taking the idea from a child and taking credit of it I'm all about beefing up resumés but I think we can all agree that this is ridiculous we're not asking for somebody to skyrite Something in the sky saying Ellis sty congratulations it's a blurb on a piece of paper and I think that that's easily to achieve thank you any other public participation my name is Vicky Davenport um before Christmas break we had tyus called on us I I'm sorry um so right before Christmas break I had dius called on us and to say I'm not sure why it's beyond me like I have send two special needs children to the school district every day I am nothing but Cooperative with you guys I do everything that you guys tell me to I ask for the assist assessments through the child team like I'm supposed to I took her to the Child Development Center I had her diagnosed for 2 years I didn't get any teacher to actually write back or fill out the questionnaire for my daughter to get her properly diagnosed and each of those co-pays was $60 a piece so when I say like I'm really digging out of my own pocket for this and not getting support or help I'm really done with this but apparently I neglect and starve my child if you know anything about autism they are little people I love my kids dearly but they're picky um and it was quite obvious that it was done by somebody at this school who does not know me at all because I cooked for two years before my kids were legally of age to take to pixon I cooked every meal for them 100% every common allergy free three meals a day every day for two years until she could take a medication just so she would not not be uncomfortable at school as well as my son who also said since we have had life is called on us um my daughter has been having increased separation anxiety I spent Christmas break with a six-year-old following me around like a lost puppy um she has had nightmares see anxiety um I don't find it fair that there was no protocol in place for this like it was obviously it was a substitute because they didn't know anything about me or my child they clearly didn't know that I have two children with special needs or why my child is even in this classroom she's in um Mr Kupa you obviously know which class she's in um for the rest of you who don't know my daughter they made a behavioral classroom for my for children like my daughter um can I legally you're kind of like dancing a dance okay focus on your child you'll be okay so here's the thing my daughter is in this class because she suffers from Special Needs she is autistic slightly um there are other kids in the school who would probably benefit as well um but anyway the class is for kids who you know they can't focus in a big classroom with a lot of kids and obviously 18 kids in a Kindergarten class that's a lot of noise for even me and I'm old um she can't fun function in a big classroom so she needs a little classroom um she has issues with noise and sounds and everything else so while these kids in this classroom they have behavior problems they are not bad kids if this classroom didn't exist I'm sure we'd have more kids out of um anyways I don't feel like my daughter is very welcomed in this class right now because I have somebody who is telling me that I clearly don't take care of my child when I have taken her repeatedly and paid well out of pocket to have her put on medication which is why I'm starving her because she doesn't want to eat a full lunch and also you guys apparently changed lunch people is my kids are telling me their school lunch does not taste like it used to so I'm not sure what that's about was in the same company for a while so I thought so but they're complaining that it tastes different I don't know why but I was very proud of what my daughter picked she picked an apple she packed her lunch herself she's autistic she was the proudest thing in the world and then I have D is called on me I'm sorry but it was an apple she also had money on her lunch card and now I'm sure and some of this there's like the No No Child hungry act I'm sure the school does something similar like if the kid doesn't have a lunch or they're hungry you will get them a lunch why wasn't that offered before tyus was called on us I don't find this right and it's two special needs kids coming to a school and if I'm not comfortable sending one kid I'm really not going to be comfortable sending the second kid who has a more severe diagnosis um and also with the child study team I asked for my son to have an FBA done which is a functional behavioral analysis A bunch of people get together from the child study team to evaluate my kid and say this is the list of things we need to do for him why has it taken eight months and three child study team people and I still don't have that done because when I originally asked for it it was Janine Adler at the last meeting last year um but I will say after three months my daughter's is finally done thank you guys very much I'm just asking for if you could put a protocol in place because if the teacher had just talked to Mrs Mar she would have said something she may not have been able to disclose my daughter's diagnosis or that she's on medication but she could have reassured the person the teacher that my daughter was fine that everything was okay and I am close with Mrs March my kids are on medications I do have to communicate with her so this is something that could have been avoided in three weeks of nightmares and my poor kid following me it it's just it's not okay could we please put in a protocol that you maybe I get mandatory reporting and I get that if you think it's bad you need to report it trust me I understand but I feel like you guys need to have some call for like if it's a substitute to not be able to just call on their own free will they need to do a little bit of research of some nature first because this was extremely unnecessary stress on a little kid and these feelings are big enough for six-year-olds let alone an autistic six-year-old thank you very much guys thank you any other public participation Joe Roth beler resident member of the Town Council I just have two things I'd like to share with you um several weeks ago as part of your planning meetings you talked about creating a a uh Communications Group or communication thing I hope you don't lose that I think that's a great idea and I hope somebody continues to pursue that but along that line I just want to let you know that we get together with all the organizations in town about once a quarter maybe a little bit less three times a year it's informal the town it's not an official meeting I just invite all the organizations and clubs about 42 different ones and we get to together and talk about Mutual problems tell each other what's going on share ideas and that sort of thing so as you pursue this Communications Group I think to plug that in with our little uh get together would be wonderful especially from your side of things from all the organizations that do need fundraisers you know when we have our groups the easier it is for us to make contact with them and invite them to participate the better it would be for everybody so I wanted to let you know that uh superintendent crew is a uh attend it himself uh from time to time as schedule permits but if uh he can pass that on to someone I think that would be very helpful to all of you uh number two um the mayor in her uh uh wisdom has decided to restack the the liaison assignments uh for the council members for 2025 and so I willon no longer be your primary liaison uh with the Town Council uh your liaison is going to be U Miss Tammy cop uh many of you probably know Tammy from around town but she's very active uh she's in the uh Heritage group and the environmental commission uh the shade tree commission and other things has comes up and in a free free time she's uh winding down a career with another school district in New Jersey where she functioned in an administrative capacity so he's very familiar what goes on there and you'll be in great hands thank you for tolerating me for the last 12 months um I will be second seat to her so I'm going to pop in once in a while because I just love you guys you know thank you very much thank you Joe thank you for all your nights here any other public participation 22nd on the 22nd the meeting on the 22 second we're going to discuss it not today any other public participation no all right can I have a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor I I any nose any abstentions okay thank you everyone for coming tonight and we will meet back here on the 22nd okay have a good night