uh we ready to goit wait until the uh our picture comes up where's Tom he gone what about Tom Lewis okay okay e that's got to come off it roll it okay okay good evening this is a public meeting of the Board of Education of Clark Public Schools adequate notice of this meeting has been given accordance with PL 1975 chapter 231 and that a special notice was made in conformance with section 13 of the ACT can I get a motion to return to public Mr smoral by Miss Gro all in favor all right with that can we just raise for the pledge rise for the pledge to the flag of the United States of America to the rep for it stands one nation to God indivisible okay all call please M zones here Mr Binger here Mr B here Mr breedy here M Guerrero here M Harrison here miss Hickman here Mr Lewis Mr smoral and Mr duno here have nine board members who have a quum all right so at this time we're going to hear the presentation of the 2223 school year audit good evening everybody uh my name is Andrew parenti I'm a partner with Lurch Vincy and Bliss uh we've completed your annual audit for the year end in June 30th 2023 uh the board members each receive two reports uh the larger report is called the annual comprehensive financial report the smaller report is the auditor's management report included in the auditor management report would be any findings or recommendations if any um every school district in the state of New Jersey is required to file both of these reports on an annual basis um your annual comprehensive financial report is primarily made up of four sections um the first section would be an introductory section which is prepared by the school district a brief narrative um the second section would be the management discussion and Analysis which is your financial statements in a in a narrative form the third section would be your financial section which is um an Auditor's opinion there are various financial statements and then there are footnotes to those financial statements and then the last section would be a statistical section which is uh miscellaneous statistics of both the municipality and a school district as I indicated there's an Auditor's opinion attached to your financials for June 30th 2023 that opinion is an unmodified opinion what that means is that your financial statements are fair Fa l stated and free material misstatement okay that's a clean opinion that's the opinion you want to receive on an annual basis what I'll briefly do is discuss the district's fund balance at June 30th 2023 uh the district ended the year with approximately approximately 9.6 million in fund balance that fund balance is reserved or restricted uh for a few different purposes which I'll briefly discuss um the first Reser reservation is um the district has set aside 2.2 million that will be utilized as a revenue Source when you prepare your 2425 budget um the district also reserved and and utilized 4.2 million of of that revenue of that fund balance in the 2324 school year the district has established a capital reserve in the amount of $924,000 there is a maintenance Reserve in the amount of 91,000 um and then the last piece of year fund fund balance would be your unassigned fund balance in the amount of 1.1 million and then as far as recommendations are concerned we had one recommendation and that was that program fees collected in the before and after school program be deposited in the timely manner there's any questions I'd be glad to address those at this point so I just like to say first of all Andrew thank you um for a comprehensive audit um as Andrew indicated uh we had one finding uh in the report which um we believe is a pretty easy fix on our end so um we feel good about how clean the audit was for all intensive purposes I want to thank Paul and his team for the work that they've done in order to keep our books as clean as they are um really appreciate it and Andrew thank you so much for coming tonight thank you thanks for having me okay moving on from there we'll do the approval of minutes from last month motion Miss aonis filed by Miss Hickman any questions or comments roll call please Motes yes Mr Ben Singa yes Mr bone yes Mr breedy yes Miss Carrero yes Miss Harrison yes M Hickman yes Mr smoral yes and Mr duners yes motion carried thank you at this time we'll open the floor to the public for agenda items only so if there's any items on the agenda that would like to be discussed now would be the time just come up state your name and address seeing none we'll move on to the next part of the meeting which is Personnel can I get a motion on items 1 through 17 and agenda number one see Mr Ben Sanga followed by Mr breedy any questions or comments roll call please zonis yes Mr Ben Singa yes Mr bone yes Mr breedy yes Mr Guerrero abstain on 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 12 15 16 yes on the rest including the addendum I may read it back M gerero 23 45 6 78 9 12 15 and 16 yes thank you that's correct Miss Harrison yes Miss Hickman yes Mr smurl yes and Mr duners yes motion carried thank you curriculum have items 18 and 19 can I get a motion Miss acalones followed by uh Miss Harrison any questions or comments roll call please acalones yes Mr benva yes Mr bone yes Mr greedy yes Mr Guerrero yes on 18 abstain on 19 Miss Harrison yes Miss hman yes Mr SML yes and Mr duners yes motion carried then we have board governance items 20 to 27 can make get a motion Mr Ben Sanga and Miss A any questions or comments roll call please zonis yes Mr beninger yes Mr bone yes Mr breedy yes M Guerrero abstain on 21 and 25 and yes on the rest M Harrison yes sikman yes Mr smurl yes and Mr duners yes motion carried and then we have items uh I'm sorry we have Finance items 28 to35 can I get a motion Mr smoral followed by Mr breedy any questions their comments roll call please M Colonus yes vinga yes Mr bone yes Mr breedy yes Mr Guerrero yes M Harrison yes Miss Hickman yes Mr uh Mr SML yes and Mr dunkers yes motion carried thank you and now uh that brings us to the report of the superintendent good evening and thank you Mr toners slot Mr vzo thank you for the 2223 audit which was so clean and our fin finance committee led by Mr smoral and Mr Bowman Mr BR as members for their guidance and ultimately the entire board on this evening's agenda we are approving the return of the Clark connects to the Past program which will run July 29th through August 2nd for our students who will be entering grades four to s in September and this is a more Humanities based program whereas Camp invention which is also running this summer is more stem based kindergarten registration is in the is in the process of being online through gen information regarding the registration is on our district and Elementary School websites and please do not hesitate to call either Elementary School FK or vrs with any questions our Princeton Review SAT prep classes began last week 25 students are in the Monday and Wednesday class while 13 students are in the Tuesday and Thursday class both in preparation for the March test there will be another class beginning in May in preparation for the June test with some open spots available looking back on the past few weeks and looking forward uh last Tuesday evening we had the alj curricular open house for our eighth grade students in their parents from Clark and Garwood um at this time our Honors Academy was officially introduced and Mrs Oliva Mrs py and Mr amle in their absence thank you for taking the lead with this exciting initiative um to meet our students needs to Carl HC School play Anything Goes will be this Thursday and Friday night at 7:00 p.m. and this Saturday afternoon at mat at 2 p.m. and lastly the Frankie Henley and Valley Road schools grades K to2 elementary math night took place last Wednesday evening looking forward President's Day will be Monday February 19th and schools will be closed for students and staff every district is required to report to the public twice yearly detailing the number of incidences of violence vandalism substances weapons and confirmed HIV cases that have been recorded for the given reporting period in this case we are looking at September 1st through December 31st 11 cases were reported for alj one violence one vandalism seven substances one weapon and one HIV confirmed one for Carl h k one Hib confirmed one for FK one violence and two for Valley Road School two Hib confirmed and I'd like to close with this week being national school counselor week and Mr amandola and his team both of counselors are sack and the support staff do a great job meeting our students needs thank you and have a great evening thank you Mr Rundy uh at this time we'll do report of the Committees if any Mr smor yes I just real quick wanted to just touch on the finance committee as as mentioned earlier we had a meeting to uh review the ordor report and to have some preliminary discussions uh regarding the upcoming budget um as to where we are and I just want to uh Express a special thanks to my uh co- finance committee members Bob bready and Scott B for all their help thank you Mr SML any Miss Harrison just from the curriculum uh committee I want to Echo what Mr Grande said about our school counselors um I think that they are often viewed as guidance counselors and that role has shifted um and I'm just really happy to be part of a team that supports our students and their mental health thank you m Harrison any other report of the Committees any unfinished or new business all right Abigail you're on thank you and good evening I'll begin with the many events happening at alj the first semester has come to an end and most students have begun their new elective classes the incoming class of 2028 and their families were given a tour of the school and introduced to their schedules on January 30th that same night certain students also learned about the new Honors Academy beginning next year at alj additionally the prom fashion show was held last Thursday th where students model dresses and suits in preparation for the prom season looking forward to February this week sophomores are taking their driver ed tests uh during school this Friday there will be a Valentine's gram sale during lunch and next Tuesday the 13th will be the National Honor Society induction Jenner at Shaka Max and country club alj sports have had a busy month with senior Joey Ortega's 100th career win in West wrestling and boys and girls basketball senior nights along with the ice hockey season being well underway moving on to the Middle School the come School play Anything Goes will be held the nights of February 8th and 9th it will also be performed February 10th at 2 p.m. and ticket information can be found on the com website many congratulations to the com Science Olympiad for qualifying for the state championship which will be held in March moving to sports the K Unified sports team will have its first home basketball game on February 22nd versus Bernard's Middle School finally the com PTA will host a candy Bingo night on February 22nd and more information will be available soon looking at the elementary schools Henley students were able to raise over $500 for the organization Alice's Lemonade Stand which fights Childhood Cancer students donated to the cause and enjoy dancing and lemonade at the annual cruising through the winter event Henley will also be celebrating heart health month in February participate in the American Heart association's Heart Health Challenge to raise funds students will participate in healthy heart activities during the month additionally the PTA is planning planning a sweetheart tea event where students will join favorite adults for cheats and games pretzels will be for sale after school on the 13th to celebrate the 100th day of school for Henley that is all I have for this month thank you thank you all right so at this time we'll open it up to the public for any non-agenda item so if you'd like to say anything about anything that's not on the agenda now would be your time come up state your name your address for the record you have three minutes Mr Dre I think you're the one bill dragy of 47 Post Road Clark New Jersey um I just like to say that uh governor governor Murphy with the Democratic legislature has really put a burden on all the schools in Jersey and I realize that a lot of you um are probably against against the stuff he did I would say probably 90% are against what governor the legislature did but uh there is still a a big problem because uh there might be uh some uh teachers um guance counselors that go along with that uh uh the transgender uh uh changing children that wanted to change their gender and they might and there might be some guidance counselors that uh might even advise a little child to um to do to do that to change their gender uh and there's nothing um if if another teacher finds out about that or another guidance counselor that that's this is happening she really can't do do much because of the law because it is loud and uh it's it's a real tragedy uh that she could persuade a child to say Uh I that she is is a a girl when she has boy body parts and uh convince that little girl maybe a 5-year-old even to do to uh to do something like maybe take some um hormones to uh facilitate that to uh make that person more like say a boy if she's really has girl body parts and uh the only recourse you have would be someone to uh uh secretively let the parents know about it uh because the law says that the parents should not be told about this especially if they thinks the if they think the parents would be against it and probably 99% of the parents would be against it uh it is a law right I brought this up before that a child cannot have an aspirin without getting the parents permission is that correct but yet uh a guidance counselor could convince a little 5-year-old that she is a boy uh and the parent cannot be told about this uh which is so ridiculous hi