##VIDEO ID:FyxAZ93QiCU## I would like to call this meeting to order this is a regular session of the booten Town board of education help with the purpose of transacting appropriate Bo business in compliance with chapter 231 laws of 1975 the notice of this meeting was advertised in the Mars County Del record copies of the agenda of this meeting were appropriately posted that made available to the public Mrs Bard here Mr brander here Mrs cavana here Mr Chen here Mrs Herman here Mr Johnson here Mrs McBride here Mr Mills Mrs nowi also present Mr superintendent principal I do not see our representative of M Lakes we have a quum okay please stand for the question I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Music] all and this time we have the first thing on our agenda is a presentation by Kathleen Asher from the New Jersey school boards Association and she's going to talk to us about negotiations this evening and this evening is she's on our our whiteboard and we'll pleas welcome uh Kath welcome I'm going to move thank you so much it's I I really appreciate you having us out tonight um and we hopefully uh you'll get some great information tonight and just know that uh we are here as an organization to assist you as you get into your your negotiations process um I know you're you're going into you're you're going you're facing an expiring teacher contract in June of 20 or 2025 um but but you are um you know you're in really great shape right now to be having this and and to be getting started right now so feel free to ask questions along the way um if there's anything uh that comes up that hits you just feel free to ask um and if anything you know we'll probably talk about 55 minutes I know you have a big agenda uh but then you know we can always come back or you know we can always talk uh offline at an at any point or Charlene can can arrange another uh exchange so with that I'm going to put up my power point right now hopefully we can okay is that visible to everyone y you're okay saying the presentation okay great thank you thank you uh just a disclaimer that you probably have heard at a lot of our presentations if you are uh that you have if you've attended um just a disclaimer that anything we talk about today is uh not to be construed as legal advice even though I'm an attorney I'm not your attorney and you I'm sure you have a great board attorney uh or you and or labor attorney who might be helping you throughout your negotiations that should always be the official voice uh for legal advice for your district and nothing that we talk about about today we'll talk about best practices and some processes and kind of the way things uh happen throughout the negotiations process but nothing uh should be taken uh no action should be taken by the district based on anything we talk about today okay with that um in the in the room how many people have been through negotiations before okay great okay so this will be kind of a blend we'll talk about um a little bit of nuts and bolts just about the process what the whole process looks like and then um you know we'll get a little bit more into to best practices and things like that but feel free on any side to to chime in with any any types of questions so this is what we call our Labor Relations cycle this is kind of the circular way in which the Labor Relations World Works in school district world and it is a it's a circle it's really the the accurate way to portray it because you will start out at one phase uh and you will get to the contract ratification phase and at that point you will move into the and we'll get into more detail about this but then that contract Administration happens throughout the it really is an ongoing process because once you sign that contract and once uh everything goes through then your the folks back at your district and I'll have to make sure that every day that the contract gets administered it's really not an end process it's just kind of it shifts to a different focus and then before you know it it'll be time to uh engage in those face tof face negotiations again uh but with that uh just kind of understanding that uh the first phase in the Labor Relations cycle in in school district world is face to-face negotiations and it's very simply it's exactly what you think it is it is uh both sides both the union side and the management sitting down face to face now during Co we did do a little bit of of virtual negotiations uh different districts had different bits of success with it some people found it a little difficult most districts have gone back to face to face um because it really is kind of the way just in my opinion it's kind of the way it should be is is human beings in a room talking um and the process can get uh there can often be a lot of paper involved and and people needing to be at the kind of at the same place looking at the same things and it was it was a bit difficult to do that virtually but uh there's really no legal right or wrong you can you can do it virtually but again a lot of people just found it easier to to again go back to kind of being in a room together and everybody literally being on the same page just knowing because you are a lot of times following along in documents uh looking at very specific wording punctuation all those things um and sometimes when it's just a million blocks and and you're all looking at the same binder you know in your own cubicles that it it can get a little difficult to to maneuver uh but so so you will start with that face to-face negotiations generally it will start by one side either management or the union initiating the Labor Relations process when you know you have that upcoming expiration of a contract so either side can can start the process usually of very often it's the union who kind of writes a letter to the district and says we would like you know it's time for us to to start negotiations and then you will Begin by uh agreeing probably in all likelihood that there's really no reason to to not agree and you will then start uh to gather a few dates where you probably you know definitely want to schedule your first date and be clear about what is the expectation for that night and we'll we'll talk about that in a second um but it's it's very often um once you kind of get to that scheduling point if you it we seen that it's helpful for both sides to to put a few dates on the calendar just because very often it's it's so difficult with all of your other responsibilities on both sides to find dates where everyone is available so sometimes um scheduling the first date and then maybe even a few thereafter is not a bad idea and then if you have to change them change them but it's kind of a good faith practice on both sides to to maybe put a few dates together again just so everyone can kind of block those those times out so you will engage in these negotiations where you where what literally happens is you exchange changes to the current contract that you have so your 2022 to 2025 contract any changes that either side wants to make to that and that's your status quo that's where you start uh any proposals that will change anything in that contract will be what they say exchange the proposals will be exchanged so that's what you were doing so on that first night of or probably night of negotiations you will Pro you will want to decide ahead of time kind of what that first night's going to look like some districts have kind of a just a meet and greet other districts want to get right down to business there's no right or wrong uh there is a lot to be said for that kind of good faith back first night where uh everyone's just kind of learning who the players are going to be and just kind of having a Goodwill type scenario there's also you can you can agree that night that you were going to exchange maybe your first set of proposals uh maybe you agree to exchange them a little bit before that night so that you can maybe sit down and and go through a few articles and get started again there's really no right or wrong you can look at um other folks have already been through this process you can kind of have a sense of of how you have done it in the past what has worked and what has not worked and then again there's no legal requirements one way the other what happens at first night but it is something that both parties should agree to uh you will then uh depending on on kind of how that night goes you will probably also agree to what they call a set of ground rules and I'll talk about those later but those are usually kind of a set of uh agreements that both sides make as to how the the the progression of the negotiations will go um things that are included are often maybe uh as I stated maybe a few dates out that we will meet so long uh so many times uh in the future with the following dates uh that we will always not these are just some examples we'll always notify the other side if we're going to bring people that have not been there before so say one meeting you want to bring uh you know an expert in a in a certain field uh at your District you want them to come in and give some some information for that you just want to let people know ahead attack both sides want to let either side know if someone new is coming to that to that negotiations which is very common it's just those are the kinds of things you would put in that uh in those uh beginning agreements uh you can agree to certain things like okay we're going to meet for a limit of 3 hours a night or you know we're not going to go past midnight or uh again no legal requirements one way or the other you can I I know some districts want to kind of get going and they keep going until um a certain point so maybe they want to get through 10 articles or five articles depending on what they are other districts and other negotiations are you know might limit it to two or three hours a night unless they're really unless both parties agree to that they want to keep going things like that uh also usually a topic of that is kind of um an agreement to to not go too terribly public with things that are going on at the negotiations table in general it's it's best to everyone's advantage to not you know go public during that uh make a lot of you know I make different announcements during the process obvious you can talk about procedure kind of where things are how many times you've met those sort of things but it's usually a good place to kind of get out there that no one should really kind of be seeking out the public or the or the Press um during that process because it is a an absolute uh something it is a discussion that you are one of the nine exceptions to the open public meetings act that while you're in that um negotiations phase you are uh certainly allowed and should be talking in in admin in executive session so that's perfectly fine and that's what you should be doing that's that's the way it should work um so you will engage in a certain number of face-to-face negotiations as long as you keep moving as long as both sides are actively kind of working toward a settlement there's no legal minimum or legal maximum to the number of face-to-face negotiations um and we're going to talk about some processes that are in place that are um there in case those face-to-face negotiations do not yield a settlement CU that's ultimately your goal go and that is something that happens it's it's very common that that sometimes there are outstanding issues during those the the fa those face tace uh portions of the negotiations uh there's nothing wrong with that it doesn't mean that anyone is being um you know oberious or or not cooperating very often it's just you know this this is a kind but adversarial process both sides are trying to get the best deal for their side and sometimes there are issues isues that that just can't be initially agreed to by either side and there are definitely things uh in the uh in an agency that we're going to talk about in a minute uh that are there to assist and and and is very common that they assist in these these processes um so you will get to if you get to through face to face and as long again as long as you are are moving toward and you feel like you are are making progress even if it's you know sometimes it may feel like small progress other nights you might have a lot of progress uh and it's difficult when you're in the middle of it but it is something that um as long as you feel that it is it is still moving and those face to- face negotiations are yielding even even small you know incremental uh settlement issues uh you would want to keep doing that if you get to a point at which it's just not you're having those face to-face nights and and you both sides or one side can feel as if there's really no movement and there's not going to be any movement if we meet 10 more times that is when uh one side or both sides can uh literally do what they say what they what they call declaring impass meaning you know you're just not moving it doesn't mean um you know people are it doesn't mean you can't have a robust discussion but it means literally we're both at our bottom lines and we cannot agree to anything and no one's going to sign off on those memorandums of agreement again very common it does not mean it is a failure it doesn't mean that anything bad has happened but obviously again it is adversarial so one side or both sides can declare what they call impass and that is an application process to an agency called the public employment relations commission that is an agency that sits um in but not of uh the Department of Treasury I believe um they are in downtown Trenton and what they do is in various forms they will Pro they will provide independent uh what they call a neutral or someone that's not involved with the Union not involved with the school district and they will provide different levels of what they call impass assistance in the form of mediation back finding or super conciliation so those are the three levels of assistance in school in school education world and that is um you those are all non-binding impass procedures that are that are provided and we we'll get into more detail about those in in a second but in in education in New Jersey there is no uh what they what you might hear uh in law enforcement or other state agency um some state agencies have what they call either binding arbitration or something where someone that neutral can actually come in and tell the parties what to agree with that does not exist in the in the labor code for school districts so no one can come in even though these neutrals are assisting you and make have recommendations for how you can settle how the parties can settle they cannot tell you what to do no contract will be can be mandated um which is a good thing because you are the players the union and the the board and the committee the negotiations committee are the people that should be making those DEC decisions and should be the ones that are that are U agreeing to what they want to agree me sometimes it may feel like it's taking a little longer but at the same time just remember that you you know the the real players are the ones that are making the decisions um for your school district and you want to be the ones in in charge of that and that's I I think that's a good thing in in labor law for for education in New Jersey uh so you will go through these impass procedures like I said there are three there's mediation fact finding and super conciliation no one has ever uh gotten to Super through super conciliation without a settlement so no one no district has ever gone into perpetuity without a contract so so rest assured that that process will yield a settlement it's also very rare that uh districts even go to super conciliation that third level excuse me just one minute sorry about that but uh super conciliation is very rare there's maybe one or two districts a year that even go to that level so it is a very successful uh impass process that exists for for school districts and it really is a very useful tool we'll talk about a little bit more but hopefully it will excuse me will not be seen as any type of a it should not be seen as a failure or or any type of issue if you have to go to impass it can be a very efficient use and and efficient tool to reach a settlement so the districts obvious you will reach a settlement it may not feel like it always in the middle but you you will both sides will go back to their constituency so the negotiations committee for the district will go back to the full board and have to seek their ratification and the union will have to do the same thing so both sides have to ultimately excuse me sorry uh even though they you have the bargaining authority to to engage in those everyday face-to-face negotiations uh you will both ultimately have to go back to your constituency full that for full contract ratification and uh that is just you you'll hear me throughout talk about why it is going to be so important for the board to be to the for the committee to be reporting back to the full board and keep that communication open it's also important for the union to be doing the same thing because you don't either side want doesn't want to get to a point where they go back and think everyone has a settlement and then their constituency isn't able to vote uh in favor of it and then you have to go back to the table that's just an awkward position for either side to have to be in so all wonderful things will happen you will reach a settlement you will ratify your contract and as I said before it will go to the folks back at your District to make sure that that contract is administered every day that the that the salaries get paid uh based on the new numbers that the health benefits continue that the proper PTO is allotted to everyone that everything in that that contract happens on a daily basis the way it is supposed to and it will happen I promise okay all right um just a couple things kind of what we're going to talk about next are um some of the tasks that can be undertaken to do a little bit of homework and you're doing uh uh right now you're doing one of the most important ones is getting some just some basic training um and then uh we're going to talk about the distinctions of the board versus the team and just some general advice uh we talk about negotiations because it is such an important topic um and it does represent about 80% plus or minus a little bit 80% of your budget is within the four corners of that contract so that why that's why it really is an important Endeavor it's while it can be a really timec consuming uh dedication of time it is also very rewarding and it's when you're there's a a really great feeling when you actually get to that settlement and as I said you I promise you you will get there but that's why it it is such an important committee to be on or such an important task uh because you really are between salaries and health benefits and all the other items that call in the the four corners of that contract uh your PTO all of your T you know things from tuition reimbursement and everything in between uh all those things really do add up to to probably about that much of your budget uh just some like I said U when you're getting ready and and you realize that you're going to you know that you have that expiring contract you're going to begin the process and and it as you're because you're taking this training now hopefully you'll you'll get some best practice of some things some homework that can be done and necessarily all done by board members that doesn't mean that you as board members have to be doing all this but kind of working on these things together with your administrators your business administrator is going to be really your best one of your best resources obviously your superintendent as well um but other folks back in your District that might be HR folks um but it really is a time when the board and the committee need to be discussing different types of things with the uh the committee and the and the administration so some things uh some tasks to be undertaken just because some of these are a little can take some time uh you want to be you know this is a really great time to be starting to look at these things uh but you want to be looking at your existing contracts and analyzing the ones that you have seeing you know just kind of refreshing all of the things if you've been on the committee before and you've been through negotiations before just kind of um refreshing all the things that are in there kind of recollecting how you got to where you are you know were there some things uh that were difficult to get to was it was the last cycle you know pretty smooth were there things that were outstanding um in 2022 when you you know were negotiating the last time um you know there were some the world was different than it is right now so you try to it's it's great to have people with some history as to the last negotiations that um Can can know uh you know what were the hot button topics now and then start to think about what your hot button topics are now they might be you know very different uh or they may be similar but it's a time to kind of get a a larger picture of of where the district wants to go like I said consult with your Administration that's always going to be important and to be Consulting with them through this entire process uh a good tool to to use is is also looking at the grievance history kind of seeing what things have been through the life of this this last contract what have come up as as issues for grievances if you do have them because this is your time this is both sides time to I kind of call their holiday list this is the time to fix things that may be taking up the administration's time uh and Grievances and this is a time to fix just language that may uh have been leading to misinterpretation or misunderstanding or or this is really a you know the time to it to make those changes and to hopefully be able to clear up any type of administrative uh things taking up administrative time that don't necessarily have to uh obviously there's lots of things taking their time but sometimes you know with some language um and some some discussion between both parties you can you can clear up some things that have been issues so that either side doesn't have to be you know dealing with things in the grievance realm uh costing out your contract is always a good thing to do and your your business administrator can can assist you with that but just to get an understanding of what the contract what your past contract has cost you and to look at what uh a a future contract also to kind of get an idea uh because that's what you're going to be doing along the way while you're negotiating is is getting an idea of what that contract is going to cost you I lik in it to when you buy a house you you you know kind of what your payment's going to be for the mortgage but you also have to have you know there's a lot of other things that go into it there's your taxes there's your mortgage insurance there's uh you know having some money aside for the when the when the HVAC system goes or the roof that you thought was fine is not is not fine um so to have an idea of exactly what it is that contract cost you um is a good idea to to to have because pretty much everything in that contract even if it seems sort of nonfinancial probably has a cost to it even things like um you know PTO having someone you know have a vacation day or a sick day has a cost to it it has a cost you know if that person needs to be replaced there's there's there's costs associated with a lot of things that aren't always you know super screaming fin finan um but that's where costing out that contract is helpful um analyzing your salary guide that that Grid in the back that tells every you know throughout the pendency of that contract what every person uh who is in that unit uh that is aligned to the union is is going to get in various in their years of service which is usually aligned to um and getting an idea of um where the district would like to um see that salary guide get to remember the salary guide is a 50/50 proposition it belongs to both sides um so either side can kind of that's that's usually kind of the second part after negotiations and after you agree to a salary uh increase amount you go back and then you kind of the salary guide is done kind of as a part two but everything both the contract itself and the salary guide have to be approved before you would go back and have that contract ratified uh but again there's a lot of good stuff in the salary guide depending on what the board's goals are and that can be whether uh you know do you need teacher retention do you need uh teacher do you need uh new teachers coming in are you trying to to obtain new teachers what it is do you need to attract what do you need to you know are you losing teachers at a certain time just things you want to think of because all that information is even though it looks kind of like this big GD U there's a lot of things in there that can help the district and the union meet their goals um but the district needs to know what those goals are going forward so that they have an idea of what their Sal their proposal for a salary gu guide will look like uh you will also want to look at external factors and we can U there'll be a few slides about that that I'll talk about in a moment um and some information just to kind of go through especially if you're going to go to impass um you're going to eventually have to if if you do eventually you would have to kind of paint a picture for that neutral whether that's it's the mediator the FactFinder the super conciliator and you're going to have to teach them about your district and what it is because they really aren't going to know too much about your District um and you're going to have to teach them about you know your municipality and and what's going on in your district and in your Workforce and labor issues and all kinds of things that that they're going to want to know about um so this is a good time to kind of be looking at that as well just in in case you need it uh decide whether you're going to consult with experts uh either side can pretty much have anyone that they want assist them in negotiations neither side can tell either side who they can and cannot have have uh at neg at the negotiations table but uh the only caveat to that is obviously board members that have conflicts through their you know that whether there's a a fam familiar relationship with someone in the district or outside the district that may be in that same Union you would want to discuss that with your board attorney but otherwise both sides are able to have as many uh or as few you know people Consultants experts labor attorney that's that's the decision of each side to to decide uh you can look at comparative data and I'll show you how you can as school board members um find a lot of the comparative data that we have that we keep uh on record for you uh look at your negotiations history again you have folks that have been through this process before so that's always really helpful uh to kind of go through and and again make kind of notes to yourself and be able to explain to the to the committee going forward uh kind of reasoning for for why you may have gotten to certain places in some of the Articles it's always an invaluable process um and then lastly just understand the impath procedure we we started to talk about that a little bit um but I will talk just a little bit more about that in a few slides but all good stuff to kind of start thinking about getting ready again reading that contract uh and just kind of refamiliarizing yourself with what is in it what is not in it uh can be really helpful okay some of these um we've gone through but just to to kind of expand on test the analyze existing contract and contracts just some things you want to look at um are illegal language and by illegal I don't mean criminal language I just mean language that where this the a maybe a law has come into existence that didn't exist before or maybe a law has changed so for example um districts that uh had negotiated a previous contract under chapter 78 for example for insurance purposes for health insurance purposes uh once chapter 44 came into play that statute it became a new law so that new contract had to reflect chapter 44 law not chapter 78 law so that's just an idea of what well we're saying illegal language it just means the law has changed not that there's anything nefarious going on but like I said before when you look at your grievance history are there things that are ambiguous are there things that people are confused about on either side uh are there things that becom the subject of grievances when they could be easily easily fixed with some change language um anything just ill advised sometimes really people sometimes think it's a good idea to agree to more like really broad language and sometimes it's not helpful always in a contract and maybe having a little bit more uh specific language can be helpful and it just you know maybe have some definitions to something just again if you're seeing that there's there's problems or potential grievance issues in certain articles it's always a good time to to fix language and just to also to look out for any kind of costly Provisions those are the things that uh often you know is just helpful to look at when you're looking at your existing contract uh we talked about some of these before look at your grievance history cost out your contract uh costing out the contract remember um to and and you again you won't be doing this as board members per se crunching the numbers um but things to think about and terms you're going to hear during the process uh will be the cost of salary so literally the cost of what everyone's salary is going to be during every year of that contract should be cost out we can assist you with that at New Jersey school boards uh the cost of increment you always want to be you always want to remember that people are going to move on the salary guide every year they don't just stay stagnant so you want to always cost out those increments as well cost of benefits that is you know that's just becoming such a a big issue now and for many years just because the costs have gotten so high so um any kind of research that either side can do with regard to um you know speaking with your insurance carrier and seeing what uh kind of ways any ways to to in you know lower the costs and to be something to agree to be able to agree to things um having to do with the cost of benefits you just it's so hard to to know looking forward where you're going to be but it's the best you can do is to just be knowledgeable about where things are in the future and to kind of get as much advice from like I said from folks like insurance carriers and things like that about where they think the industry might be going and then just watch for hidden costs not so hidden cost like I said there's some things sometimes in the contract that doesn't seem Financial but it it may end up being something that could cost money just things to look out for just skipping through a couple of these but um you can uh as Schoolboard members you can look to our website and our Labor Relations page our website has recently changed we did a an upgrade to make it a lot more searchable and a lot more user friendly but we have uh a lot of great information on our website that is uh based on uh our receiving the actual contracts from school districts and we have a staff that uh that's what they do they you know they they literally get these contracts in they seek out the contracts to try to get as many so that we can give you the best information that we have and that we are able to then Pro give that to you so you have an idea of things going on in the universe that you can take back with you during negotiations as well as um you know if you ever have to go to impass a lot of times uh kind of data related to uh settlements past settlements things like that can be helpful to in in that process just some when I talked about external factors just some things that are always good to look at uh again especially if you go to impass um you're going to have to school that that neutral in in these areas but a lot of great uh New Jersey has great websites uh with regard to um the New Jersey State Department of Labor has a lot of great information so does the National Bureau of Labor Statistics things like unemployment cost of living foreclosures all those things economic data can really help educate uh both sides uh and a neutral if if you come to it uh that can be very valuable at mitigation and fact finding and that uh to have out of that information with No Agenda can be helpful to to show the the both sides you know where a a settlement may actually you know be helpful um or you know where be be attain able looking at kind of data like this um Can can often be helpful in an AR in an argument going back and forth uh some of the comparative data that we can help you with is we do have information on teacher settlement rates uh health benefits kind of where the lay of the land is uh on health benefits salary guides uh temporary leaves uh work time we track things like that um in our current negotiations data section uh which again as Schoolboard members you are are welcome to use at your you know as much as you want uh you would have use your login and your password and you have access to all of these Pages uh this is our new Labor Relations page just so you kind of get an idea of what it looks like it's a lot more searchable it's a lot more user friendly um not that are you know I love our old one too but U if if you go on to our website at www.njsp.org uh and go to under uh and just type in labor relations because it is searchable uh you will get to this page it'll give you a lot of great information uh it also gives you access to our negotiations data portal which will allow you to uh actually generate reports with regard to different data points that that we have available and that is available 247 so if you are at the negotiations table and you want to pull that information you are you know able to do that we always had staff that were able to to help you kind of 9 to5 or a little bit longer than that um but we were requests for data reports had to go through our staff and the staff would generate them and provide them to you but this way uh there is that service that you can use 24/7 if you're at the table or or uh in need of information at that point you can you can generate these reports at will and there is on that website um it's pretty user friendly but there is a a video on how to use that report generator as well as a kind of a handbook that can assist you and if you need any assistance uh with that we can always help you with that too but it's really really pretty self uh very easy to use this is just an idea of what that looks like when you get to that page for the data report generator these are the things that you can uh kind of narrow down if you want to to look at different settlement rates you can look at different counties you can look at different uh groups that are comp comparable to your District so if you want to look uh at certain size districts or only you know districts that in all likelihood you want to look at districts that are you know comp comparable to yours uh you are able to do that you can select certain groups uh you can also select certain District Factor groups and you can narrow all of those things down and and either create a printable PDF or a spreadsheet and they have been we've been getting a lot of great feedback about that that particular uh device but if you want to you know if you need more information on that we'd be happy to assist you with that we did talk about uh impass just a to to kind of give it a little more detail um once you again declare impass you will go to to that uh area that public employment relations commission that agency that assists and provides neutral assistance and you will go to uh the first level is mediation it's a pretty informal stage uh usually where a mediator will kind of introduce themselves and take both sides separately uh and get an idea of where there are outstanding issues and kind of remember that you all the things that you have agreed to are not going to go to mediation you don't have to start over you will just go to mediation for anything that is outstanding or anything where you can't quite come to a settlement uh that mediator uh will take both sides like I said they will try to to find a way in which to recommend a settlement try to they're they're very good at because they're out in the field they're very good at providing kind of places to meet in the middle they're good at finding at exploring where um kind of what's going on in other universes to get an idea of what out in the field is happening in other districts um and they will do what they call a recommendation uh ultimately but there's no minimum or maximum amount of sessions that you have to go to if you go to your first mediation session and sometimes that's enough to just kind of um you know get both parties to a different place or just kind of get another set of um ideas about where a potential settlement can happen um very often you know the union and the the and management can settle in in mediation that's very common that you know within a session or two um but if you do kind of go through the whole mediation process uh the mediator will issue a a recommendation again nothing is binding in any of these three levels uh and they will issue a report and it's nothing it it's nothing judgmental it's nothing it's just saying where they think that the uh where areas of settlement can happen again both sides can take that as they want they can agree to it they can modify it they can reject it it cannot be forced upon the parties if mediation does not yield a settlement again not a failure it just means you need a little more assistance you will go to the next session the next level which is fact finding and fact finding is a little more it's it's going to be a little more robust it's going to be a little more formal uh there's generally testimony taken and that's where having kind of that data and kind of being able to paint a story about your district and the surrounding municipality and those types of things and just in kind of giving the uh FactFinder picture of what your district is is experiencing is really helpful um so that will be uh again a little more intense probably be scheduled the sessions will be pretty close together that FactFinder is going to want to really you know it will be a little bit more intense as far as reaching a settlement uh you again no minimum or mediate or maximum amount of times that you have to appear as long as things are kind of moving that FactFinder you know will probably very gladly have you come back uh but ultimately they will will issue a report again and it will be a recommendation and again it not judgmental there's there's it doesn't talk about either side being you know any type of cooperation or anything like that it's not meant to do that it's meant to be just about areas where they think that the parties can settle and just something to keep in mind that fact finding report U if it is if if you see fact finding through to the end uh that report does become public 10 days after the uh fact finding report is issued to the party so with 10 days of that it then goes uh it becomes a public document doesn't mean perk doesn't come out and you know do a an email blast or put it on their website but it is something that becomes a public document just to keep in mind but again it's really a helpful process uh if fact finding does not yield a settlement like I said it's really really rare that school districts go to super conciliation but one or two May per year go during covid and a couple years after that nobody went to Super conciliation because there were a lot of of uh settlements going on a lot of people agreed to one years one or two year agreements just to sort of get through what they had to get through and kind of you know agreed to to more robust or longer contracts later on uh super conciliation is pretty robust it's going to be a series of very close together meetings in all likelihood with this neutral um and it will be you know pretty pretty quick turnaround at at that point they are going to get you to a settlement and like I said nobody's ever gotten out of that with without a settlement and it will happen and again if that report also if you go to full super conciliation to to the point at which the report is issued it does become public 10 days after it is sent to the parties just reminder nothing is binding without the agreement of both sides so even if these are very strongly worded uh reports and and recommendations nothing is binding on E either side until the parties agreed to it okay um just some distinctions now between the role of the full board versus the committee and again full board by full board uh we mean anyone that is not any board member that is not all board members except for those that have a conflict and you would already know if you have a conflict going forward uh but the full board is responsible for providing training for the team hopefully there is a you know a training period for which the full board kind of sets out the expectations of the team let them know what their parameters are uh what they can and cannot agree to kind of given them there has to be enough uh Authority given to the team to be able to go to these face-to-face negotiations and be able to agree to to certain things uh but it's also understandable that sometimes you get into that negotiations and and things that maybe you thought of a few months ago those parameters do need to change and that's where the committee should go back to the full board and say okay this is kind of where we thought we could go and this for you know for the following reasons uh we probably need to look at these again and that's where that communication is really so important uh but establish the the full board should be establishing bargaining parameters established goals based on your District goals and and anything else that you you want to see come out of that contract and determine priorities the team should also know what kind of things are important and what kind of other things um are things that we would like and and but maybe you know we can have some wiggle room in those so good to to kind of globally look at the whole contract and then create your wish list from there uh that full board is delegating the authority to the team like I said to do that day-to-day face-to-face negotiations and have the authority to do that the full Board gets the say on whether or not to hire a professional whether that be a um you know you may be having your board attorney assist you with this you may uh there there are labor attorneys that a district can hire uh that just would be limited to your negotiations there are Consultants all kinds of professionals that you could agree to have if if you feel the need um you can do it throughout the process doesn't mean if you did if you start out with somebody or you don't start out with a professional doesn't mean you can't bring someone on board you absolutely can um but that is a full board decision not a committee decision and then obviously ratifying the agreement is for the full board to do uh just some things to do in preparation kind of of that of those those beginning meetings when you when you have your schedule worked out um some things to to select a team and the roles uh and there are some roles that are just just things that uh you know other districts have told us have been successful uh obviously you probably want to have a chief spokesperson that will speak on behalf of the of management you will and you know and likely the union will do the exact same thing uh it doesn't mean other people can't speak it just means it's generally helpful to have one spokesperson to do the main communicating uh you may want to have someone in charge of you know on your on the the committee uh to be in charge of communications uh you may have a legal you know someone uh whether what kind of professional you have uh you have someone looking over the legal issues um you want to create your work rule meetings your things that so that you can use the negotiations times efficiently uh you may want to have someone you know or group of persons in in charge of costing out the contract with the business administrator uh creating a priority list can be really helpful as far as knowing what things you can't like I said you know there may be things that are more important than others things that you can accept things that you can't accept things that you you know absolutely want to get out of negotiations and that's a perfectly you know great thing to do is to create that priority list and then create a you know whatever ranking system may work for you so that everyone is so it is abundantly clear to everyone that uh what it is are the you know where those ranks fall uh draft proposals with proposal tracking sheets can be helpful like I said at the beginning um sometimes there is a lot of paper or electronic uh documents going back and forth so it is helpful to keep notes and draft proposals as far as when you are exchanging those proposals um you know what was exchanged at meeting one what was exchanged at meeting two what was exchanged at meeting three um and just because you have you know certain things on a on a certain agenda to be to be discussed at a at a negotiation session doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be resolved that night so sometimes you know if there's three or four weeks in between sessions it's difficult to to remember everything that was agreed to at the last time so kind of a a tracking sheet or some sort of way in which to follow the process and to to track the changes as you go along uh conduct team meetings it's it can be a good idea for and sometimes the parties you know if you have a great relationship this is really helpful to kind of have an agenda and it doesn't mean you have to stick to the agenda it's not um you know it doesn't have to be a strict use but you can create uh an idea so that people are both sides are prepared coming into a meeting about kind of the things you're going to look at what articles are we going to look at tonight and uh just so people can be prepared so that you're and also so that you're not you know just jumping sometimes it happens when you're talking about a an article someone will talk about another one and you kind of jump but if you have a little bit of a an agenda structure you know kind kind of how to to bring it back bring the discussions back if it if it goes off a little bit in a spider whip uh also adopting team goals can be can be really important again that should reflect the district's goals and the goals of the negotiations uh talked about the initiation of bargaining like I said one side often the union will you know initiate the the uh bargaining process uh based on the perk timeline and the party's agreement so this is you know this is this is hot negotiations time for the for contracts expiring on June 30th for a lot of districts um and then where selecting a place uh a lot of I mean most times it's open at a at a school district building uh agreed to by the parties but there's no legal requirement of where it has to be so any place that can be you know accommodate everything that that needs to be done uh it can be a school district office it can be you know in in one of the schools it can be you know at at another place there's no legal requirement where it is but it is something that has to be agreed to by both sides I'll just some things to think about about conduct for the negotiations uh it is a process it does take some time and it is not something that's going to be done in one or two meetings in all likelihood uh it'd be great if it did but in all likelihood it won't and it is a process and you kind of get into the idea that it is going to take some time and that it should take some time because again we're talking about 80 plus% of your budget um um it is a process it should take time uh and both sides should be prepared and engaged it's not something to rush through obviously you want to be efficient no one wants to be dilatory or or you know not efficiently use the time of those meetings but it is something that again can take time and should take time to a certain degree it's always helpful for both sides to be on time for meetings to always both sides be honest with one another obviously you're you know it's a negotiation and you're not going to necessarily talk about your body bottom line during the first meeting um that there is a a skill to that but it also doesn't mean that you have to at no point should either side be dishonest with either side again there's a strategy to you know getting to a certain area but all uh honesty needs to be at the foundation of that even though you were ultimately you know you're on two different sides but but if one side loses the respect of the other uh that's never going to help the process uh treat all participants with respect uh sometimes it you know it is an emot it can be an emotional issue obviously it should there's a lot of important things in that contract um but at no point should this become not you know not cordial uh where people are not treated with respect um if it's if it gets to something where there's an emotional you know aspect to it there's nothing wrong with taking time outs there's nothing wrong with even you know maybe tonight is not the night for us to finish this you know we need to you know regroup and that's perfectly fine no legal anything against that um but just uh it's better than you know something evolving into something that it shouldn't uh and it's always always think of every negotiations it's your time to create a good bargaining history hopefully you do um have a good bargaining history but you know if if there have been issues in the past it's always a good time at at that first night um again deciding whether if you're going to have a a real working meeting or if you're just going to have a meet and greet to kind of this is going to be uh our start to a great bargaining history moving forward again just some more best practices they sound you know really commonplace but it's good things to keep in mind because again there is a lot to it to this process but be prepared study proposals and know them one have one spokesperson just to kind of keep things efficient it's very difficult sometimes when multiple people are speaking for other folks to hear uh and and not they may not be able to hear everything that is going on so it's good to to again have that one spokesperson just so that uh for that reason to just keep it so that everyone can can hear and focus limit external Communications uh appoint maybe a manager of the team which isn't necessarily the spokesperson but maybe kind of the organizer of the team organizing proposals organizing certain things um there's because there is a lot going on and it just it could be that person that is making sure what proposals have gone out out what are the changes what H has happened at each meeting uh it's it's good to have someone kind of doing that as well as someone who may not be the spokesperson uh be committed to the team and the purpose keep a good bargaining history that's the main goal because you're going to be at this again in 3 four or five years depending on on what kind of what your uh contract you decide on uh but you are going to be back doing that you know pretty soon it'll feel faster than you you you'll swear you just got done and and just settled and it'll be time to do it again um but again remain professional control the pace of the negotiations it is a process and it is okay to be thorough and to make sure that both sides understand what is what is happening during that process uh for the first meeting just kind of things to expect if you have not been through the process it will often be the introduction of the teams like I said there's no legal requirement of what you do or do not do at that first meeting but it should be agreed to ahead of time just so either side you know one side isn't prepared to sit there for 3 hours and go through proposals when the other side is not you would not you know have somebody you would not want either side to to have a different expectation of what that night's going to look like again good time to establish your ground rules to schedule additional meetings going out and then the introduction of proposals if you're going to do that maybe you've done it you know maybe you did a simultanous exchange a week before and if you're going to have kind of a working meeting and then that's a good time to to maybe decide on what proposals you're going to talk about that night but again it's really just a matter of historically how you've done it what has worked what has not worked and just have a the important part is that both sides understand what that what that night's going to look like U meeting schedule and is something to decide uh in your ground rules again frequency what are we looking at are we looking at every two weeks are we looking at you know every 3 weeks uh if you're you know start to meet in December it's always you know difficult around the holidays toine days so maybe just an understanding sometimes it can be a good faith that you know we're not going to meet the last two weeks of December just because we have so much going on and uh you know reorg is going to be the first week of January uh but we'll you know this is what we're looking at these are dates and times potentially and excuse me like how long we're looking to to spend on an evening and if there's any limits that either side would like uh limits on new proposals so very often the just there will be an agreement as far as okay by the third meeting or by the fourth meeting no new topics can be exchanged EXC me just one minute that's not to say both sides cannot um you know that you have to have agreements to anything it just means that no new topics will be you know exchanged after the third meeting or the fourth meeting whatever that agreement is no legal requirements either way but you just don't want to have constantly that that potential that a new proposal could come up at meeting 6 when you think that night was the night that you were going to you know sign off on that memorandum of agreement um and again not to say if something comes up that you can't discuss it but you want to generally have an idea of when you will stop exchanging new topics for proposals uh just have set procedures it's a good time to to set the procedures for tenative agreements so how are we going to like each night are we going to sign off on the pages that we've agreed to and what that's going to look like uh agreement uh an agreement for the entire agreement so what do we do when we feel that's the night you know we're going to agree to everything are we going to sit down and go through every page both sides initial which is very common but again what that night's going to look like in advance uh if there's any changes to any of those you know meeting schedules or who again like I said before who's going to be at that meeting um please you know you would agree that you know a week in advance that either side will say okay we're bring in a consultant or we're bringing an expert in x uh you would just want to you know give each other that that uh respect and then generally you would agree to some sort of uh blackout for Communications in certain respects it's usually a a very good faith effort to begin with and just say you know we're not going to run out to the Press uh or the public about everything we're doing we you know we would certainly answer questions with regard to very uh but we're not going to get into the the meat of what we're talking about at negotiations and then just lastly this is a template sample calendar that a lot of people find to be helpful and it is uh just you can obviously tweak it to uh your own you know the folks you have on your committee and any tasks and assignments but it gives you kind of an idea of the order in which things can be helpful uh to keep you on track because again it's not something you just want to do kind of a week before your first night of negotiations it gives you idea of things to start working on um and who might be this again this is nothing legal this is just saying kind of who uh may or may not be someone that would be good at the uh you know leading that particular assignment but this has been uh a really helpful tool to just kind of obviously if you have your own that's that's perfectly fine uh but this is can give you an idea of just things that you might might be working at at certain point okay with that that is that is about I'm happy to take any questions at all if there there are any this is our contact information uh you're welcome to call us at any time um there's my email our uh salary guide expert is Kurt rage our associate director of Labor Relations and memberships uh and our two business data analysts are the ones that really uh input all of that data that we get from your contracts and then have created that that all the different information that we can get back to you as board members so you're welcome to email them uh at any point and if you get get into certain areas during negotiations you think something would be you know some kind of data point would be helpful we would be really happy to help you with that so with that if there's any questions again I know you have a lot to get to tonight but I'm happy to answer [Music] anything are these slides available to us you know we send run slides for us to look at after tonight I think I did send them I sent a a PDF um I've heard that when when I sent the PowerPoint it's it's hard for some people to get so I did it in a PDF um but if if anyone needs it or if if it didn't come through let me know I'll happy to get it to you do you have it yes we we got it just before the meeting so we're good I'll distribute it after the meeting thank you perfect perfect anything else and again we're we're here we're not going anywhere so if you anything comes up we're happy to talk to you thank you so much hey thank you very much thank you thank thank you for inviting us we really appreciate it and good luck with everything good luck with your meeting and happy thank you so thank you so finally okay with that we will continue our on to our regular meeting agenda we do not have a student representative this evening so that brings us to board motions one through three we have one another oh I'm sorry yeah that's [Music] sry number four my apologies Mr we before we get to the regular uh to the thing I just presentation on the new District website by Mr herner um so good evening everybody thank you for having me um I just wanted to take a quick moment to kind of showcase our new District website um it'll be live sometime in January we is still kind of going through making sure anything um you I um to I can get this at home so going through the migration is not like a really easy process um it was an 8 we kind of 1 hour per week kind of thing um but I do have to say that the migration went very smoothly um because the companies that our current website is in really good shape really good organization so a big thank you to Catherine for maintaining it and keeping it up the gate um which really made the transition really smooth um so really we went with ap a lot of districts are using it um and we don't really have much to choose in terms of template um but some of the things that we is that the website is now full screen um the current website is kind of sealed in um and the way the template is so most of these menu icons are very similar to what we have this top bar up here um so the things that I added was like our district I put like an Administration page um and employment opportunities we got to move some stuff around um we add a department so we kind of streamline it we move special services went for business office Transportation I move the technology page um and we move athletic and curriculum on one Department instead of a being in um Board of ad is really not much at things um some of the stuff that we did a little differently was that um I know photos and part of the reason for that was um to make this page it was a little different I know we're still missing some photos we get those um and then you the you the height the other thing a little differently is the board meeting recordings um I broke them out kind of the way this is so people easily able to see them um there is an archive here as well which I created one for each one since I was here since I started recoring them we started doing it um a littleit more here again agendas and minutes self-explanatory there you click them and they come up with a list and I put them in order from last meeting to the earliest so July will be at the bottom and then June will be at the top um for parents not much really change all this information still here um for students again uh we move some stuff around with pretty much any Student Activity the canas loging clever and student hand over there for them and we did add a course staff one which is just quick link for faculty G that's kind of like a One-Stop shop we thought it be easier um the other thing I want to point out is at the top get menu bar they called a quick Link Bar that was something that um we kind of customized for ourselves um so we thought it' be helpful for the easy access to a par portal Ham's portal the staff directory and the vertical backpack so um that's kind of many bar and the top quick link um if you do scroll down there some more links here um again the link veral backpack the school calendar employment opportunities kind of all the quick things that people can easily get to on the front um scrolling down you have the news section so this is very similar to our current website and the new section as well just a different layout um and then we also have a live feed which is a little new um the live feed how it works is it doesn't it's not like a live feed from like a Facebook or Instagram it's more just for the website um so I put some stuff up here this is again like just kind of for demoing and showcasing purposes some of this is outdated we just wanted to give you a look of what it would look like once you start using it and they start um kind of being put up here so live feed is more for like don't forget to accept the backpack short things when the news will be um like you can see Catherine putting some stuff up there too just you can get an idea of what the these articles look like um put links and stuff like that um so scrolling down a little further um we have an event um I call portlet but AF has another name for it um very similar to our current website we had this custom design for us kind of so the goal was to make it a little bigger so there's more information for people to read in here versus it being really condensed and not info you just go after to scroll um you can EAS do it from here and then you can get it and this connect to Google Calendar so it makes it um easy there at the bottom we'll have we have an app now from app so I work with them we designed the app I had it published to the App Store and the Google Play Store um so those are available to download the website goes live and we just have legal information that we must have on the bottom um you know the website so I know I spoke kind of quickly um whether are there any questions is there anything you may want to see je on the website um while I a question so are the page for the teachers email and contact information on on my phone that often times does not show up right like missing L is that different yeah so I can show you so the um staff directory looks kind of like this um so I had it built out um where you can search for a staff member um you can also select a department like wanted uh you know like f fad you'll find the FID teach here I just felt that' be easier you can see their email your name and title and are there still teacher websites on this teacher websites are on canvas now so you log into the canas parent portal and then um you will see the student the web only student course so will that view be the same on the app as well yeah okay yeah so the app just kind of scales things differently yeah and very mobile friendly as well so everything kind of lays nicely I was going to ask this is responsive the website what you're on okay yeah actually I'm sorry kind of cool is when you edit web pages you can actually see what they look like before you publish them on a tablet forit landscape you can see it format yeah cuz it doesn't always the other one didn't work to well on certain devices yeah that's great similar thought the calendar have always been kind of separate you had a you said you have a Google Calendar now and then there's the district calendar which has like the holidays and vacations does that Encompass both so um whatever so currently the website is now um linked to Google Calendar so whatever calendar was linked is put here I'm link it to Google Calendar because the staff have access to it from the Google account so it just makes it easy to one place to put everything so you're not like remembering to put stuff um on the easier and hits the only event you have like typical calar veh you know the other webet has as well in the past if we had like an emergency meeting it was It was kind of ugly but we were Blaster over the front of the is there still some ability to do that or yeah or some some update do be meeting yeah so mrini and I were kind of playing around with it so it's either a banner up top or like an actual popup yes and you have the option you'll pop up like every time you click on a page within the website or it's just wanting done okay depending how urgent be um and then just real quick um AP also does a emergency notifications um so I know right now we're using School messenger for that so we'll be transitioning um sometime in January over to the new notification system um and it'll connect with our student information Genesis and pull all student and parent contact info like your emails phone numbers so that if there was a school closing that c things after backpack they will all go out through this as well and bus they give a buses running late um and also the dynamic list so if there's a change in geneses it will sink overnight here so a kid would change a bux it would know the kids Lo crage and then we'll put them in the appropriate list same if we got a new kid enrolled or a kid left it would remove them or add them to the left on a night they s so any other questions for when does it go live um I want to say like beginning of January or sometime middle to beginning we originally were going to have it set for tomorrow I believe to go live yeah but because of the timing of the holiday and some transition issues we decid to hold off for the first because we still as we're building this out we still had some uh St blocks and uh we want to make sure all before it go live probably it looks great thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you and with that we will and thank you very much for the presentation uh excellent I'm looking forward to seeing that in January and that brings us to we do not have a student representative this evening so we will move to Bo's motions 1 through three may have any motion please I'll move is there a second second any questions comments or discussion if not the questions on the adoption of board business motions 1 through three all those in favor say I I anyone oppose say no I'm abstaining from2 any other exensions and other thank you and that brings us to administrative reports starting with the business business administrative report secretary's report Mr Murray okay just a couple of items we have the uh we spoke about it before the application for state school aid or the asssa which is the October 15th uh snapshot the enrollment as we reported on the ASA is 394 students at Rockway Valley School the current 8th grade class has 38 students and will hopefully be replaced by a larger kindergarten uh class as we're working out on our projections and the enrollment Trend appears to be moving in an upward Direction in future years as those smaller classes you know move out uh being replaced by larger classes the facility committee U met prior to this evening's meeting to review the summer roof project which is on the evening's agenda for approval and the roof area that we are considering is as I mentioned uh previously is in the hallway down here from room 20 which is near the fish tank all the way down to the parking lot so that covers a lot of the area that we we're having uh you know some ongoing leaks that that'll cover that um and it's approximately 177,000 ft the 2025 26 tentative budget schedule or budget um we're working on it currently and it continues uh to progress along the deadline for the staff to return their budgets is December 19th right before they break so I'll take all that information process to get the budget rolling and uh finally there have been no Dr Drone sightings in recent weeks on or school property so I think we've covered all the basics and that is the end of my report thank you can we ask more about the Dr no just for sure that we go to the superintendent report Mr PR thank you uh on December 2nd we had our first monthly meeting where the community uh came in and had an informal chat with me please join Jo me for the next session on January 6th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the RVs library right here on December 10th uh we had teachers and an administrator attend a free seminar called literacy leaders uh the presenter was Tom Marshall a nationally known consultant author and literacy coach uh these literacy sessions included visiting classes and seeing strategies and Concepts in action this is an attempt to move our literacy instruction forward districtwide um Susan a Brier Cliff middle school computer teacher of Mountain Lakes who also happens to be their district cvas coordinator has offered to stop by RVs and provide a couple of short professional development sessions on canvas thank you to miss m for offering her time and expertise and thank you to Mr Eric Carlson briercliff Middle School principal for his flexibility and Dr Brad Seagull Mountain Lake superintendent for his support last week we had our seventh and eighth grade dance which was well attended and good time was had by all a lot of energy there uh and we also had our upper grade fifth and sixth grade music concerts last week I'd just like to take uh the time to thank our music teachers and uh note that research supports uh education with music and that study suggests AC academic social and emotional benefits so those of you in the community thank you very much for your support of the Arts I'd like to also make one note of Correction our preschool open housee is Tuesday January 7th with a snow date of Wednesday January 8th not uh the open house meeting on Wednesday to 8th I'd also like to publicly thank all of our parent volunteers who help our lunch program classroom celebration and after school activities in particular our HSA and the boot and Township Ed Foundation thank you to our teachers and students for outstanding effort to raise awareness and food for those in need during this holiday season and I also like to publicly thank our booten Township board members for their time and continued dedication to the staff and students I wish you all a very happy healthy and peaceful holiday break and special thanks once again to Katherine bickerton and John Gartner for their work on the website so thank you and uh I'd like to wish Mr gner Good Luck eyes new Endeavors thank you and that concludes my report thank you very much and with that you've all seen the nurses report the student attendance report and the staff report and that brings us to accommodations Mr patini thank you congratulations to three talented RVs musicians Zoe fate Nan ja and Marco Sarah who auditioned for the north Jersey area band on a recent Saturday morning in order to be accepted the student prepared the student prepared a solo a series of scales and a site read and site read a piece in front of two judges all the students were successful Zoe earned fifth chair in the flute section naon ear earned 10th chair in the clarinet section and Marco earned second chair on the Mallet in the percussion section congratulations to those students thank you to the HSA for providing the shopping opportunity for our students the holiday shop Boutique was a huge hit the opportunity to shop independently and choose something unique for the special people in their lives is priceless and shout out to Mrs cntz for managing the store congratulations to Mrs Bartell and Mrs kovar and all the RVs music students on two fantastic holiday programs audiences were very impressed with the level of musicans ship of our students and the feedback has been outstanding here's a spotlight on student work for November congratulations to our preschoolers Arthur oror and Carter Winters kindergarten Nina katanzaro Gavin Coleman Cooper Feldman Delany Hamlin and rosley Aon and Maxwell cetti first grade Colin Cortez Willa tar and John tacus second grade Kade Haggard Lonnie hay Byron marwitz Colin Ramic and pip uh pip Snipes third grade Evelyn Chen Jack Lang and Audrey lowski let's talk about Flying high in fourth grade November congratulations to Katherine catcha bave deing mcandrew Carolyn tacus Dante Vari Caleb duza and Olivia field this certificate is awarded each month to recognize students to display a variety of outstanding character and their achievements within the classroom and the Falcons of the month for November congratulations to in fifth grade Zachary Gusman sixth grade CA shreer seventh grade Caitlyn seminario and 8ighth grade Ella B uh Bergie Falcons of the month are students that exhibit a dedication to learning leadership skills great attitude and strong character traits who promote a positive School climate and that concludes the commendations thank you very much great thank you and that brings us to correspondence 1 and two which you've also had a chance to read and after that it's open session number one the first public commentary will will be limited to agenda items only the second public comment period will be open topic please be mindful that public comment periods are available to enable the public to get comments and feedback to the board personal matters and day-to-day operations not appropriate subjects for board meetings these can always be most effectively resolved with the appropriate staff members or administrators according to the chain of command concept questions may be directed to the appropriate School Personnel or board through email please state your name and address for the record comments or to 5 minutes anyone from the public wish to address the board on agenda item there being no one to do so we'll move on to our Lees on reports starting with the Mountain Lakes boort of education and Mrs hery is not here but she has left finally left me some notes to read for you uh many heartfelt messages were delivered to Alex fera and outgoing board members Erin Tucker and Megan ler Vol Ball Mania takes place this Friday Mr Henry highlighted the full achievements for the Performing Arts Mr Wallace highlighted the athletic programs and recognized girl the girls soccer team uh for group one state champions three times in a row is in a row six straight sectional win 21 to3 head coach Sean Mor mizi Shay Suter State ranked in career saves and 352 saves in two years cross country girls North one group one sectional Championship ships second time in a row uh the team also won the sportsmanship award by peers and other teams uh Seven Girls made all conference volleyball team made the States football had a great run one Cross Country Coach Vicky Allison will be inducted into the New Jersey Scholastic association's coaching Hall of Fame recognized on January 12th 2025 nth the 9th and Mountain Lakes coach to be included in the Hall of Fame the board discussed the long range facilities prioritization plan uh over $30 million for upgrades to the buildings existing infrastructure not improvements the high school hbac roof window electrical deal with existing solar panels on the roof um sure okay some additional things for Wildwood and uh and some also some work at rer cliff and wildwood reading some notes toight with some abbreviation so please bear with me Ant anticipating revenue of 1.5 million surplus primly due to revenue of non-resident and sale of two school buses budgeting started early to take advantage of Mr F's expertise and that concludes this her's report and that brings us to the New Jersey school boards Association thank you and that brings us to moris County Schools association yes moris County had their last meeting on Wednesday December 4th at Morristown um the meeting program was about creating an effective board culture governance collaboration and mentorship there are some presentations in the Morris County Schoolboard folder that we all share one to highlight is that a Rockway Township they did a nice presentation on um comparing the role of superintendent versus the role of the board member from different angles and perspectives I think they did a nice job on that bar I know you were there too um I really like that one um also the M Hill Township Board of Education was presented with the Carly Larson Master board certification for cing to us um there is also a number of retiring board members acknowledge as well as incoming um so that's basically to wrap up there the next meeting is on February 4th um this is the one I think I mention every year because it's their all virtual so if you would like to try out one of our meeting to do so from comfort of your home February 5th is your day thank you great thank you and that brings us to the Educational Services Commission of Morris County their meeting was held on I believe it was last Wednesday December 11th I attended a meeting um I would say it was just routine business nothing extraordinary to report and and that brings us to the township special education parent advisory group I believe so I'm filling in for Alicia we had a presentation on December 5th by Megan beerley who's a school psychologist and a parent advocate she discussed the key differences between an IEP which is an individualized education Pro Plan and a 504 plan and let's see our next event is January 14th um in conjunction with mount lak cpad the event will be at 7:30 p.m. at our United Methodist Church 38 Valley Road Township and then we have solidified a date also with mountain lakes's carry jento to do a transition to Mountain Lakes um from 8th grade on what that transition is like from a special ed standpoint that's it for now great thank you I can say the presentation uh was attended by I think several board members as well it was an excellent presentation and that brings us to the bo Township Education Foundation uh nostal updates mov night tomorrow going get moved in [Music] res the be thank you and that brings us to the Rockway Valley Home and School Association there's been no meetings and how Okay a few updates uh Santa will be coming to town with the boot and Township Fire Department on Sunday December 22nd from noon to 3: listen for the fire truck sirens in your neighborhood to see Santa the 2025 recycling calendar for curbside pickup and the recycling Depot will be published in this week's newsletter and will also be on the township website Christmas trees will be accepted at the recycling Depot on January 11th and January 25th also also scout troop 69 will be providing tree pickup service for a donation see the newsletter for details the 2025 Township organizational meeting will be held on Monday January 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the Mountain Lakes high school media center and if you haven't already signed up for the weekly Township newsletter you can sign up at www.tin township.com newsletters over a thousand subscribers receive the Weekly Newsletter and that's my update great thank you and that brings us to the boot and township Green Team me somewh regular but we'll wait until January to hear more from them and that concludes our and reports and that now we're just to fac facilities transportation and the facilities committee met just before this meeting yes we just met literally right before this meeting um John teed it up a little bit before there is a summer roof project there are three motions on tonight's agenda the scope of the project is 177,000 square ft of roof um and there are three motions the first one is to hire the architect who will um do the project the second motion is to allow the architect to submit drawings down to Trenton on our behalf and then the third motion is to hire the contractor for the project this is these are the only three motions on the agenda this evening great thank you and with that may have a motion for facilities motions one through three is there a second Mr Mar has to call that any questions comments for discussion and if not question on the adoption of fail motions 1 through three this all in favor say I I anyone oppos to say no any exensions and that brings us to finance I believe there we did not get a chance to meet but the finance uh agenda was very much standard so there was really nothing much to read on we did discuss in our previous meeting the group project so I think we're all in agreement with facility great thank you and with that may have a motion for Finance motions 1 through 7 I'll move is there a second Mr yes and are there any questions comments or discussion if not the questions on the adoption of Finance motions 1 through 7 all those in favor say I I anyone oppos say no any extensions and that brings us to Personnel the Personnel committee met recently yes we met on December 13th we approved Mr marner's resignation they we have appointed a new technology manager we have appointed a new interim director of special ed and then we discuss which is on the agenda this evening an increase in rate for substitute teachers that's it great thank you that may have any motion for personal motions one through six is there a second second any other questions comments or discussion if not the questions on the adoption of personal motions 1 through six this is a roll call Mrs B yes Mr Brandon yes Mrs Cabana yes Mr Chen yes Mr Johnson yes Mrs McBride yes Mr Mills yes motion car great thank you and that brings us to program the program committee met yesterday morning um and we discussed several things we discussed our the current math program at Rockway Valley and the various uh options available to our 8th grade students in our articulation with Mountain Lakes High School we discussed ort Gillingham training and dates uh for that training is is being finalized and will be shortly for our staff uh we also discussed a few other things um some possible after school things something called Hometown hobbies that our superintendent is working on where committee members are invited to share uh Hobbies or skills under Ken supervision because they're not teachers so he would be present you for those things and also one of the Motions on our agenda program motion number two uh regarding Sun learning LLC a vendor that is been used for Learning and lesson plan design and with that I have a motion for program motions one through two I'll move is there a second I'll second any questions comments or discussion if not the questions on the adoption of program motions one and two all those in favor say I I any anyone oppos say no any extensions and finally that brings us to policy yes the policies is on for first read to um I had sent a quick update we had a meeting on December 2nd um the first two policies there was some updated um language that was added into the uh current policies um under policy 5113 attendance there was uh content added um for State excused absences for civic Civic events um um and then again on the other the last two 6114 and 6140 um there was some new content and some language changes all with the critical policies being adopted okay thank you so the policies for first reading are there if there's any questions or comments U reach out please to Mr Scana um one last thing uh our governance committee doesn't have a home on our agenda we'll have to figure that out because relatively new committee but they met on December 9th and we uh used the um guess the model agenda that New Jersey school board's has for for governance committees we discussed a whole lot of things uh two pages were there but don't worry I would't take long to read it uh we discussed superintendent valuations and basically you know we just discussed the process of how that works uh and you just discussed the best way to accomplish each step of it in May or June so we're not crunched up at the June meeting we discussed board self- evaluations which are were used to be required then they were optional they're still optional but they're a best practice and then there's the discussion of should it be done in December or May Since we're evaluting ourselves on our you know our board and also accomplishing board goals it seem to make more sense to do it around the same time as the superintend um evaluation because we're evaluating what how we met our board goals which are based on school year not calendar year um we discussed new member orientation briefly we're going to we put that off to the Future because we don't really have any new board members coming in but we want to sort of get just sort of um see what we give out to our new board members like make a list of the items in the packet and look at this New Jersey sample packet and look at I think we got a a sample from the mar School District who also did a presentation at the last Mars County School boards meeting we discussed board professional development um and what I can do what I've done in the past and maybe I'll do again um we'll send down um an email with the programs they offer and ask you to rank them and see if we can get some stuff lined up for January February before Charli schedule gets uh booked um also we discussed um I guess where we are in our board professional development there's uh board board we as you know we did accomplish our board certification and we did accomplish our Carol lson certification during Co we let some credits expire and we no longer have those we have to if we want to have those designations we have to go through the process again so we may have the distinction of being maybe the first board to get it twice I'm not sure we'll ask on that but uh word certification requires 16 credits we currently have 13.4 actually as after after the last presentation we now have 14 14 and a half credits so we only need one and a half more credits so if we schedule two more presentations uh in the beginning of the year we'll have our board certification coming up by spring so uh we're going to try to work towards that and because it's one of our board goals P we I know we for board certification yeah there's board certification then there's the Carol box certification which is yeah so many I guess more credits beyond that we'll address that when we get to the 60 credits we'll keep us in suspense for that and uh New Jersey school boards has on their website an annual Board calendar sample and we reviewed that for there's various things that we automatically do already but we just took a look at that to see if there's anything in the upcoming meetings that we have to be aware of you know there's certain things that have to be done certain time of the year we I think we all do a great job between all of us to have our agenda with those things um board leadership development we discussed like whoever you know if anyone wants to be a board president or vice president um please you know look you know look at the uh opportunity training opportunities available in the New Jersey school boards um if you're interested um I'm happy to help anyone you know look at those options um board goals we re U looked at our board goals we have six goals this year we really put on a lot of goals um we just went over them briefly of you know where we are like go one you know I think when we look at the the agenda facil the facilities committee will be working on on that uh goal too um guess I should have the goals in front of me so we can know what they are right goal to um the governance committee is going to take a look at the Strategic plan the fiveyear Strategic plan and glean any board goals that are in there uh that we might you know continue to look at over the next couple of years while that plan is in in effect uh goal three we accomplished and and we're very happy we got the our negotiations with now Lake we're very pleased and happy with the results with that and we are are you know we have met that goal this year we were pleased with that uh number four was complete remaining steps to earn njsp board certification award I just gave an update on that number five is provide the suent with support needed for a successful transition hopefully we're doing that yes I'm not sure how to quantify it but we but we'll figure out a way but hopefully we are and uh plan for to initiate negotiations with the ETA to reach a successful agreement usually that starts December January so we're on track with that we gave we had training for how to do that for our newer members this evening and that that should go smoothly and I'll stop talking I'm almost done board bylaw uh we also was on the example agenda for governance we they're R in the series 99000 and the policy 9000 Series um it is a policy committee thing but we figured since there's a governance committee we'll take a look at them we'll dig in see what we have look see what school boards has discuss if you know anything needs to be updated or not and come up with a recommendation and then bring it to the policy committee to look at before it comes to the board and that is the conclusion of my governance committee report and I want my page that brings us to yes P Open Session number two the second public comment period will be open to any topic please be mindful that public comment periods are available to enable the public to get comments and feedback to the board personal matters and day-to-day operations are not appropriate subject for board meetings these can always be most effectively resolved with the appropriate staff members or administrators according to the chat of command concept questions may be directed to the appropriate School Personnel Board through email please state your name and address for the record of all comments so minutes would anyone from the follow wish to address the word on any matter thank you very much hi I'm joanow and 158 Lake Drive for Mountain Lakes and I thank you very much for giving me a chance to come and speak with you tonight um I look forward to this meeting I do every year because it's my opportunity to stand here and say thank you and there's a lot to say thank you for this year in particular I come because each year I am overwhelmed with the representative botin Township sends to Mountain Lakes to serve as a member on our board um every year you exemplify what it means to represent your students and your faculty and your town in the person you send us and Mrs hermy is a champion in that she um she never misses an opportunity to find something to talk about in Bon Township that is outstanding and her excitement about it her Pride about it is infectious and it's so helpful to us in Mountain Lakes to join her in her celebration of that um I was very happy to come here and say that tonight but this year has been uh an interesting year for all of us working together to come to a new send receive agreement added a layer to Mrs hermes's work and candidly our work as well with all of you in all of your work it was something that was incredibly important to me our board and I could tell Mrs hermy and your board through all of our conversations Mrs hermy maintained such a professionalism and a positivity and a willingness to work together that I'm sure she brought back to you and and um really became an important part of how we worked to try to find Solutions I I I hope you felt that from us as well through her because I felt it from her about all of you I I really mean sincerely when I say not only thank you to Mrs hermy but this year in particular thank you to all of you I think it's important and very meaningful that we're maintaining the relationships between our districts our kids are worth that together and I'm glad we did that together but that's only a part of my night my my my biggest moment here is really I'm sorry Mrs hery isn't here to hear me say this but to thank her for her double service two meetings though double what she does she does a great job so thank you to all of you but specifically thank you to her and Happ thank you thank you very very much thank you and likewise uh you know you know we thank you and your your board and your district for all all of your support and you know and reaching you know our great agreement between our two two communities where you couldn't be happier that you know of moving forward and having a you know continuing our our wonderful relationship you know lots of great you know met lots of great people over the many years on your board including now and you know thank you so much we so appreciate it and that is there anyone else in the public that wishes to work there being no one uh close the open Open session is certain any old distance to come before the board I can really quickly I guess that'll be new bus any new business to come before the board I just want to say a thank you to Mr Gartner again I know we wish you the best you always did a great job keeping us up to date current district is definitely better off as we here so thank you very much thank thank you I think we'll have we we'll see you for another meeting or two I think in January yeah in January yes great so we'll look forward to seeing you one or two more times thank you I agree and is there any other new business that come before for the board and um so the new business I'll bring for is I sent an email out um since the board is not turning over um um we're all going to be the same folks next year I um try to send out an email I've been trying to send that an email before the new year asking you all to um look at the committee assignments and Le on assignments um typically the board um votes on the Le on assignments um at the January reorg meeting if we can as much as we can I think we used to you know get your opinions and do the February meeting but we've been doing really good the last several years of just taking care of employes on appointments you know at at the January meeting so just keep all those in mind and you know discuss you know with whomever you might want to those assignments and then the committee assignments who um I'm never presump whoever the board president maybe in January will you know the board president you know the board creates the Committees and then the board president assigns committees um I had the the the you know I guess the um pleasure of doing so I Tred take everyone's you know um rankings of where they want to be I have a crazy spreadsheet we ranked them one through six and I crunch all the numbers and I try to get everyone where they want to be it's sometimes not easy because there's ties and you have to break ties and you have to come up with you know Fair ways to break ties but anyway um we arm wrestle yes arm wrestle strength best of right so um so please take a look at those um you know and um if you respond to me I will pass them along to whomever the board new board president is and uh you know it's good to have them in advance if you can January it the oh that's right sorry so January the two me and there's regular mid January 18 we doing the um Theon and January re yes the important ones mainly are the Mountain Lakes representative you have to take care of so they they can swear in on their end and then some of the other that's normal time 7:30 right on the 7:30 so that's not that one more important business will be conducted on we're going to do the Committees yeah yeah so so please take a look at those and if you haven't responded please please do and you know that way um Head Start can be gotten on the figuring the head all out and and as soon you know if we're if we're lucky when we uh either at right after that meeting we could all set our first meetings while we're all sitting in the same room and so that way we'll have the continuity and you know and then once those committees meet for that first meeting they can plan their calendar out from the rest of the year you know so that would be great if we can get close to that and the regular meeting's done on 15th so the 8 Wednesday the 8th is the year 15 18 it's Saturday one week apart yeah we we haven't set the we haven't set that one we're only through the re meeting be the2 yeah yeah I think you're right 22nd 2 okay we'll we'll approve that once it's all settled at that meeting at the reor meeting the annual calendar okay there is a personel meeting for and policy on the six yes and other than that is there any other new business that can before the board and do we have anything for close don't wow okay well with that um I would like to wish everyone a happy holiday thank you for coming and enjoy you know the welld deserved time with your love with your family and friends and with that may have a motion to adjourn I'll move is there a second those in favor say I I