##VIDEO ID:d83bAyzSvfY## for order the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have an advanced notice of and attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Frankford Township Board of Education has caused advanced notice of this and general agenda to be submitted for publishing in the official newspapers as well as district and municipal offices on May 17 2024 this meet meeting may be recorded for subsequent subsequent public broad please stand for the I II to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible of members we have the election results from November 5th 2024 uh congratulations those who were elected Chelsea Mandy and Caitlyn at this point I'm going to ask all the new members including first is appointed for inter inter position uh to stand and raise your right hand and just repeat after me for your Oaths I state your name I do solemnly swear doly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I do solemnly swear do Solly swe swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of a board of education I'm not disqualified as a voter I'm not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs1 1941 pursuant to1 I will faithfully impartially and justly perform and I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me help me that thank you very much welcome to the [Applause] board I'd like to open the floor for nominations actually I'm sorry roll call roll call uhy J here Caitlyn Fredo here Kathleen Adam Jamie Armando here Chris Dexter here Charlene molar here Chelsea stole here John tiger here Jesse vaugh here okay I'll open the floor for nominations for Board of Education president in a second uh all in favor for Mandy J as president of the Board of Education hi nice nice have it I'll pass it over to you for a nomination of Vice President um I'll accept nominations for the Board of Education vice president Ka okay any other nominations all in favor say I I that's it that's it easy we have a delegate appointment for the New Jersey school boards Association would anybody like to be that all get gidy at once I'll do the county one I know you're not there yet but all right Kate Adam for the county anybody Nobody Does it sure I'll do it oh thanks Jamie say It's Gonna be Me okay so then we have our committees that we had last year um oh that's actually so last year our budget and finance committee was Jamie Armando Caitlyn Fredo Leif Anderson who's not here and pres the President says on every committee so um would Caitlyn and Jamie still like to be on finance yes um thing about finance committee just so everyone knows is that there are meetings during the business hours of the day and it's heavy between January and March a little bit yeah not too much in um would anybody else like to do that don't all jump up I can do it all right Chris deer Communications I think last year we had um Mandy Jamie Jesse and Jen and Jen is no longer here there wasn't much to do on Communications no I don't think we did I I'll still do it yeah I'll still do it we just keep those three facilities this is a big one guys this is going to be the sewer project that we have going on so Jesse Caitlyn Mandy and it was Jen is there anybody else that would that knows a lot about sewers that might again these there are meetings during business hours so that's also tough El want to do it I can do it if no one else Jamie would Jamie would love to learn about sewers pretty interesting policy and curriculum K and Charlene um I'd like to stay on that yeah they have good Insight on that facilities oh yeah um personnel and transportation it kind of rolls into negotiation Personnel negotiations so if you're conflicted you cannot be on it um so I think it was just me and Caitlyn um because the other board members have finished their terms on this committee um the only non-conflicted board members we have are Chelsea Chris and John tiger of me and Caitlyn John has expressed that he does not wish to be on negotiations he doesn't think that that would be his strong suit or maybe too strong of a suit would you be on it Chris Chelsea and I do just want to like it's uh it can be some a couple late nights it doesn't start until the fall and hopefully you're done by Christmas okay so do Chris and charlese Randy and Kay on that one tonight we are lucky enough to to have Miss oh I'm sorry Kelly just one thing yeah um board members if you checked your email today you got a lovely goodbye letter from Jen na so I just checked it earlier yeah you got to see it cute she did a really nice job um so we just wish her well and whatever comes next in her path she was great board member with a good thoughtful process um so uh happy for her her freedom of time jealous um so now we have our presentation we're lucky enough to have um Kelly Mitchell from the njsba she's the Field Services representative and she's going to do our annual review of um ethics yes so thank you all for having me today I put in your packet of you know the code of ethics itself uh an acknowledgement of receipt so Chris might need you to sign that and that over to him um there's also a calendar that shows you as a board member each month uh what you should be doing so it keeps you like super organized and then um on the other side you'll see that there's a presentation on roles and responsibilities we're just doing that as a little refresher as part of um the ethics presentation so we'll go through the ethics presentation and then we'll go ahead and do some slides on the roles and responsibilities of our board member um when we go through this uh you are required to have a discussion on the tenants of the code of ethics so we will be going around the room and reading uh the tenants of the code of ethics so just as a disclaimer this is um for informational purposes only certainly if you need any legal advice um you would consult your board any eal violations so when we talk about uh the ethics and the umbrella of the uh School ethics act we talk about the respect confidence of the people and so we talk about how to avoid conduct that would be in violation of the public trust and then also give the public a justifiable opinion that you are violating that trust so this is a common theme throughout of the code itself and it's just something that as a board member you should be very mindful of so when the legislative intent of the ACT they decide Ed that um we're going to go ahead and do this to ensure and preserve the public uh confidence so that guides us and gives us those minimum standards in that code of ethics of how we should conduct ourselves as board members and these are the provisions of the act itself so you can see here that the board members themselves are um under that provision of the code of ethics and the mandatory training um the code of Ethics is ad just to the board itself and that's why when we do superintendent searches we're um we're Bound by the code so we don't have any members of the public on those superintendent searches like when you just went through that because you're bound by the code of ethics and that confidentiality piece and then um all school officials have to be under the umbrella of the prohibitive acts and we'll talk about that as we go along and then those fun little disclosures that you're going to need to fill out very soon so the commission itself is nine members and there's five non-school officials uh two school board members and two School administrators and it's all appointed by the governor it's threee term right now there are two seats open for board members so if that's something that you desire to sit on the ethics commission which I would think is really compelling it' be kind of fun um I you could go ahead and uh just get in touch with your legislator and just let them know that you're interested in doing that but we do have two vacant seats right now now those um disclosures that we talked about if you're a new board member you'll need to do that in that first 30 days um if not you have to have until April 30th um to get that deadline in the commission is really strict on this so please make sure that you adhere by those deadlines because otherwise they can um stop your board service because of it so very very important good to know uh the mandatory training if you're a new board member you have 90 days in order to get that governance training done um we're having a weekend in January and we're also having a weekend in February uh there's no cost to the district and if you feel that you'd like to do that it's really very comprehensive that weekend and you get to know where numbers throughout the state um I think that it's a real benefit to like hit the ground running uh very easily um but if you cannot go to those that weekend um then you can do it online we have a live virtual uh component and then we also have one that's just online and you could do it at your leisure um so you would get in touch with Chris he's your ba and he would set you up for that uh governance 2 is for that second year uh term uh and that that covers policy and finance governance three is a student achievement piece and that's brand new so it's um super interesting all around that uh student achievement uh and labor relation so if you're on negotiation that'll be really interesting for you so if you could get that done a little bit earlier and then once you're reelected or reappointed so if you're coming back on the board you do still have to take that governance uh for uh training and that would be the first year of your service for for your new term um so any questions on this at all okay good so there's two components to the ethics commission and what they do so there's an advisory opinion and that's by any um member of like a school board or administrator they can ask for an advisory opinion and that's basically looking at in the future before something done would this be considered a possible violation of the court so that's you you would submit that to the ethics commission and they would come up with an opinion on that and it would take six members um to decide whether to make that public or not that opinion we have this little fun little uh policeman on here because a lot of times we get board members saying well the advisory opinions are just an opinion and um yes it is an opinion but when you think about it if a police officer said if you do this you could be considered um violating the law and become becoming arrested or get in trouble you wouldn't go against that guidance you wouldn't test that so just be mindful of that that yes it's an advisory opinion and um you know it would consider if you did do that a possible violation so just be mindful of that so in your packet I put some advisory opinions in there I think just um we don't have to read through all these but I just want to talk about number two uh because that's going to come into play in a couple of slides so um participating if you're a board member can you participate in negotiations if your aunt is uh in the district at all um but not a member of the union and um before there was some question on that and they went ahead and allowed that but now they're saying that the actual non um Union contracts are there's a linkage there and they feel that a lot of times with that linkage it's you know the the teachers union um maybe gets a potential raise or what have you and it sets the foundation for the non um unit so uh they're saying that you would have to recuse yourself from um being on that negotiations uh Team so just just be mindful of that that's a new advisory op um that just came out this year and here's a couple of others the um ethics complaint so anybody can uh go ahead and put in for an Ethics uh possible ethics violation um any member of the public they have 100 80-day window uh for putting in that um violation and uh but they do have to give factual evidence and we'll talk about what type of factual evidence in a couple of minutes but that state standard on the tenant they would have to have evidence to the fact that this is why the person violated that and also when the uh commission sits down to go over them they're looking at it and saying a reasonable person of the public would they feel that um they violated that uh code of ethics so that's what they look for when they sit down to go over those complaints themselves so there's all different penalties if uh you're found to be in violation of the um code of ethics there's a reprimand and that's basically saying that yes that was a violation um but it's just basically a slap on the wrist and saying you know what don't do that again then it goes down to uh cens and that is something that uh is read at a public meeting it's on uh the website for 30 days and it's a formal letter that of of disapproval of whatever violation that you did then there's a suspension and that's for a certain amount of days um an example of that is we had a board member that decided that it was a good idea to do a Blog put all the proper disclaimers on there did everything just about right but then um spoke poorly of a uh faculty member and that was the um violation it was that content piece that became a violation so that was a six-month um change of service and and uh you know have that suspension there and then there's a removal that's for something quite large uh that a violation somebody suspended on your board you just run your board with one last person yeah you don't fill a temporary vac so uh these are the codes code of ethics and and the tenants so what we're going to do is go around the room read them and talk a little bit about what they're all about um the standards piece we don't need to read that I just wanted to point that to you because that's actually what the commission looks at when they're determining if there was a violation of that uh specific unit so um just be mindful of that that's in your packet as well so uh we'll start with charine if you don't mind uh letter S I will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Education and court orders pertaining to schools desired changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures so letter A speaks to upholding those state laws so um when you just did your oath of office you're saying that you're going to go by the all the laws rules and regulations of the state that would be something that um maybe if there was a state mandate and uh the board went against that that would be in uh violation of letter A B I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed sex or social standing so when we're here as board members we're representing the entire community and we're looking for student achievement for all students so we have to make sure that we're not uh just sectioning off students for you know special interest or what have you uh any type of agenda so we have to be very mindful of that and if we deviated from not looking at all the students as a whole then we would be in violation of letter B I will confine my board action to policymaking planning and appraisal and I will help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them so letter C really speaks to exactly what you're supposed to be doing as a board member this is the role of a board member the policymaking planning and Appraisal that's it a lot of times board members feel that they're involved in a lot more of the going on the daytoday activity of school and that that's actually against the code of ethics so we're not rolling up our sleeves we just have that piece of oversight um and that balcony view so we're not down there with all the dancers on the Dance Floor we're just having that balcony view as an over so uh letter C would be going and deviating against um what your actual role as a board member is I will carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members to see that they're Well Done Right so that's what we were just talking about we're not rolling up our sleeves and getting involved we're just practicing that oversight piece um and just making sure that the schools are run well I will recognize that Authority rests with the Board of Education and will make no personal promises nor take any private action that may compromise the board yeah so we see a lot of violations with letter e um when a board member goes from campaign mode into board service and having that difficulty making that Crossing that bridge so uh a lot of times when you're running um and you're campaigning certain parties are supporting you and you know and that's all well and good but then once we become board members we have to be very very mindful that you know we can't make any uh personal promises and that you have no Authority as an individual the only Authority that you have is as a board of the whole so be very mindful of that especially when um community members will reach out to you and say you know I'm having a problem with this or that um that's a really a chain of command piece and we have to be mindful that we're not making any personal promises that we're going to fix uh somebody's situation individually so be very mindful of that with letter e we we have that um quite often and then there's a social media component to it as well that we'll talk about in a little bit that constantly uh causes a violation with letter I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest partisan political groups or to use the tools for personal gain or for the gain of friends right so when this is that same piece about the campaign mode and then becoming into board service is that where sometimes uh political parties will you know support you in your campaign and you know as board members we represent all parties all Community uh members and not just special interest groups so make sure that you understand that it's non-partisan your uh board service and please make sure that you understand that you're not supposed to be just one-sided with any special interest groups I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which if disclosed would needlessly endure individuals or the schools in all other matters I will provide accurate information and in concert with my fellow board members interpret to the staff staff and the aspirations of the community for our school so a lot of times we see violations with letter G is because when you go into executive session sometimes board members feel that it's okay to discuss it with somebody that they trust outside of that room and it's very very important that that confidentiality piece whatever happens in executive stays exactly there uh no spouses can have that kind of information any Partners nobody um except for those members that are in that room so what happens in executive stays in executive and that's really super important I will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer right so when we see a violation of letter H we um see that a board member feels that they take it upon themselves to recommend to the board somebody for a certain position the only person that can recommend uh somebody for a position is a superintendent so we need to be mindful of that I will support and protect School Personnel in proper performance of their duties right so when I talked about uh the gentleman with the blog um this was a direct violation of that going against U the support of the staff uh with their duties so um that's something that the social media tends to bring out in some board members so just be mindful that we can't speak for for that Ty on I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and will act on the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution right so letter J speaks very directly to chain of command so a lot of times you'll be in the grocery store and because we all know community members they'll come up and they'll say you know I'm having a problem with X Y and Z and you are supposed to be a barometer of the community and understand what's going on there but you can't fix anything on your own you have no authority to that so the best dialogue that you can have with that Community member is to get them to the lowest level of chain of command whether that be the teacher the building principal superintendent whatever that lowest level is is as a board member that's what you should be directing um the uh Community member to and um then also just let the superintendent know that you did do that dir in of of the Community member so then these are some of the cases um that came about with a violation um censored uh reprimand an example of that um this one uh was was quite interesting this was one of the only suspensions of last year and it was a 15-year board member so you would think that that member would really understand what they should be doing um but this board member went a little road went to the employees home uh picked up a letter then uh went and spoke on that employees behalf told the ba to not tell the superintendent so this board member really went way outside of of what they were supposed to do and then when the situation came to the board level did not recuse um herself from that matter so uh as we could see here there was a suspension for 60 days so long story short do not go to employees houses and pick up letters and do all that that would be a nogo so when we talk about recusal versus Obion this is very new and um and a little confusing to boards so uh the new guidance from the commission is saying that if you have a legal conflict you should recuse yourself from the discussion and from the vote itself that you should um only abstain when you don't have the data that you need to have to make that vote uh so a lot of times that we felt that when we had that conflict that legal conflict we would just abstain but if you think about it it's you were being part of the discussion and that I'm staining so you actually could be possibly skewing that vote so what they're saying now is if you do have a legal conflict to refuse yourself from discussion and from the vote itself so um this is new and uh are there any questions on this because boards seem to struggle with that piece at what point do you say you recused so if they're discussing something I just say I'm recusing myself and don't say anything or do I like leave or yeah so no you don't have to leave um some me feel comfortable going into the audience and just sitting there until that discussion is done so it wouldn't seem like you were part of it um but you would just recuse yourself from that discussion at what point like let's say that you were voting on maybe seven you know recommendations at one time you would ask for a motion to P one so that you could recuse yourself for that one anybody else no I usually get a lot more questions on this slide so you recuse yourself uh when there's any special interest in any way as far as U business interest uh conflict uh for person you know like a a professional activity um any type of financial gain that you could have from a vote you would actually recuse yourself um also if a family member immediate family member was involved in any of that you would recuse yourself as well and then of course the benefit of they uh they just put this here so that you would understand what the definition of a benefit is so it would be indirect or um direct Advantage uh profit uh privileg or gain to you um financially or otherwise and then these are um some uh conflict cases that we just recently had that I put in there we don't need to read through them but I just put them in there so that you have some um and then definitions this is a really good understanding of definitions of what an immediate family member is a relative and then in your packet I did put this chart that drills down all the way to um you know stepchild Aunt Uncle all of that is in um your packet so that you can just be mindful of if you can be involved in the activity or not due to that type of relationship and then also we know that we can't hire a relative of a board member or CSA um if they already work for the district there are some certain rules that we have to follow with that this is a chart that I was talking to you about about the ant so you could see that it it says um this talks about collective bargaining so that if your um uh relative is uh in the union or not in the union you can see there if it's yes or no then you cannot uh be participating in negotiations and you can't ratify the contract so that's why um we have this new chart up there for you and then um also if you did receive any uh funds uh from somebody supporting you for your campaign anything that has to do uh with that type of endorsement let's say the union endorsed you although they don't know normally um do that but if they did then within the year you could not within the first year you could not be part of negotiations uh this is uh this is newer um and if a board president was conflicted because their family member uh was working for the district that uh board president could have pick uh the chairs for the Committees themselves and could not be on Personnel negotiations any type of instructional or Finance committees um so this is a a newer um advisory from the commission itself so then what would happen if we did have a board president that had that situation they would flip the the responsibilities over to the vice president um and then this is a newer as far as advice of council um for defense against penalties a lot of times board members say well the um our board attorney told that it was okay to do X Y and Z and that's fine but if you want to utilize that it does have to have these four components in you would have had to have given that disclaimer before the activity that's um really the most important thing so that advice must have been given before we um go ahead and do any type of activity so volunteering in schools there's a lot of questions on if you're a board member can you volunteer in school and the answer is yes it's um the level of of involvement and it's also uh you know if you're going to give any type of Authority or any type of directive to a staff member then you would have to shy away from that volunteerism so you can go and you can read to a class or you could go on a field trip but if you're going into something and giving directive to staff members then as a board member you could not do that on volunteerism and then when you do do any type of volunteerism just keep in mind that you would let the superintendent know when you're planning on being there and making sure that you're not a staple like every single week in the school itself can I ask you something on this MH in your 2024 conflict benefit cases it says board members may not conduct business donate Goods services or collaborate with the PTO in the district they hold office that would be a huge hit to our PTO because some of us on the board have donated yeah do donate we're not supposed to be doing that so we can't donate anything to our PTA they're saying no time you can you can volunteer you can volunteer but says donate goods or services so we couldn't donate but our husband's oh our husband's F okay but then um John step up buddy get out your checkbook that's not my husband so um so yes so there is a little caveat there um but uh you know just just make sure that when and if there was a vote on whether to accept any type of donation that you would recuse yourself from that are we we're allowed to be members of the TA right and then um let's say you were voting on and I I don't Chris you would know better I I don't know if you um vote on accepting a certain donation can we donate like they do a big Tricky Tray every year can the board donate a basket to that Tricky Tray out of our own personal funds or no that would be an attorney question I don't want to misspeak oh okay yeah yeah I don't want to because it's very marginal I I would ask the attorney if they felt comfortable or not yeah oh guys I read that one too but I kind of interpreted it that it was like from their business like if I had a business my business couldn't donate but I as a person could you're saying I as a person also because the business is a personal gain so that would be a direct um violation of those right yeah that's what I was like under that's what how I was reading but not personally we personally this literally says board members may not conduct business donate goods or services or collaborate with the PTO and the district they hold office yeah that's the one under the spirit Weare company right is that the same yeah yeah so I was kind of interpreting it as like the business but you're saying that's not the case that case was because of the of the business involvement yeah um so yes you can donate time with the with the PTO and you can do all that I would just with donations it's just a gray area that I would just um you know give that to somebody else good job I don't know I feel like orance come since last time is that last actually actually do actually do believe that we were told that last year too because that's why like we didn't do the play bill this year we didn't we tried to make that Committee of like um maybe sending Bagels in for the teachers like the one year the board bought fruit platters during physical fitness week for all the teachers so I mean like that stopped like we're not we know we're not allowed to do that the PTO has to do all that but um you know donate donating to the PT yes has to come from your husband yeah I everyone significant others going to make a nice I got it sorry to be the bearer of bad news no no we need to um and then uh we have social media which is always a ban of everybody's existence um as a board member you know you don't give away your first amendment rights but we have to be really smart about it we have to make sure um that we put this disclaimer on any of our social media uh platforms um and it has to say exactly that um because you have to make sure that the content that whenever you're posting that a a Community member wouldn't feel that you were speaking for the full board so it would just be your personal opinions that you would be putting out there and not one of the full board um also uh just keep in mind that uh if you have a campaign page that says vote for Mandy for Board of bed um that would need to be taken down so that you wouldn't um you know go ahead and post from that because anything posting from that type of page would be considered uh speaking and you wouldn't be able to so that came up at one of um the county level meetings and they said not to take it down they said that you need that documentation and that it's considered like hiding information if you now take it down so like you can make it no longer active not post to it but they said don't take down then it's like you're hiding information or something yeah I mean we have um that was with uh Ry yeah um Ray I love Ray um one at Green anything like you here's here's the actual um opinion that like just you should be taking that that um that de because anything that's identifying you as a board member and then you're speaking on that page it gives that uh thought process that you're speaking for the full board yeah but that's what he's saying like if you don't post to it anymore like if you don't well just don't you post to it I you don't have to actually get rid of you don't have to like get rid of it and but I would just not post from it they say the safest thing to do is just to shut it down right um but if you feel that you have great restraint then don't um and then also uh liking um any type of comments uh you know yes you can you like comments from your personal page of course you can but if you see something is highly political or something that you spoke to at the board table I would shy away from from like um that comment or what have you and then they also say not to administer any uh social media page as well to keep yourself safe from violation um that is just something that they feel uh can cause a conflict there as well because you're basically allowing um posts to go on if it was something that could potentially hurt the board they say to uh to not administer any Pages themselves so if I'm the director of at High Point you're suggesting not to run like the athletic page at High Point that's what they're saying the social media page because you got get a TA just again it's extension of being mindful of what you're posting if I'm posting pictures of our Sports and nothing remotely personal at all comments and no one can comment yeah because you're allowing those comments so they if there's something that you know goes against the district in any way you're allowing that that's you that's we do have two keni cougar administrators here so be very careful I turn off comments I [Laughter] would I know this all seems very over the toop um but it's just to to keep you safe from violation that's all so that's it for ethics just thank you so much thank you than CHR anything like that um you can get a student they have a social media Ambassador thank you Kelly so now that we've log on over our ethics we can welcome Chelsea sto to the board and Chris Dexter back to the board we know he's an asset um this month for recognition Circle I guess we we didn't have anybody new uh just that we Dar uh recently no Heroes no one's here for a student council update right all right super attendant and principal section all right so I'll just do a quick recap before we left um before the winter break um we had some some break concerts we had a fifth grade music uh concert we had our six uh sixth to eth grade you know Horus and band concert we had our Elementary School holiday sing um and then our last week leading into uh our brick we had a spirit week and even a fun Elf on the Shelf little competition [Music] um so we already have uh plans and ideas for for next winter so we're [Laughter] [Music] very um and then one more thing I just wanted to bring to the board's attention the snow day um and just a brief calendar discussion so we've already used uh two emergency closing days for our two snow days so originally our last day of school was projected at June 16th So currently our last day of school would be project or would be June 18th assuming we don't get any more you know snow which you know will probably be highly unlikely so just something to think about because we'll also be budding up against the federal holiday on June 19th so nothing for right now but just something to you know think about um does that due to graduation so right graduation is kind of like what is it April typically like when we have a better idea of when the will be we'll communicate typically with high point just so that we're not on the same day um but it's typically our last day of school what about the Richards Building yep that they're fluid they're fluid and then we'll talk about in April how we like if they graduate on Friday we don't bring them back Monday right okay yeah than y but U Mike's already aware if we get one more we automatically move to 620 because 619 is a Federal holiday but is it one the state Hol weird right yeah that's why it's a great but are the clues but I think ultimately it's the decision of the board but it's a delicate subject as I think so but we have to worry about that right now that's maybe for another month or two from now um and then in turn that pushes our marking period back two days so now our second Market period will end on January 30th so that is my update thank you awesome so that brings us to public comment can I have a motion to open public comment get that Mr lar um we have a three minute time limit per person is 30 minute Max I thought you're getting up Mr Fredo because you had a comment not me just getting the paper thank you very kind we have Ashley Bellis so I would um like to formally address a troubling and dangerous incident involving my child and the craft bus number four and Driver today today my daughter came off the bus and tears because she was choked by another child on the bus other children witnessed this and when they went to tell the bus driver they were told to go sit down this is now the third time that there has been an issue with just my daughter and I know there's other ones despite repeated attempts to resolve the situation it has persisted with no meaningful intervention after the second incident in which my daughter was left with a visible Mark I took a proactive step by requesting a change in both of my children's bus route unfortunately that request was denied I tried to collaborate with the school system to ensure both of my children's safety but it feels as though my concerns have been ignored now after the third incident where my child was physically harmed again my frustration and concern has reaped a critical point I believe that as a parent I should not have to worry about my children's safety while traveling to and from school nor should I be forced to personally transport my children due to failures in the school and the bus company I pay for school transportation with my taxes with the expectation that it will be safe and reliable I trust that the board will take my concerns seriously and prioritize the safety of all children not only mine no child should have to endure this kind of harm thank you for your attention to this matter thank you Ashley par back I'm up here to see um when my daughter graduated eighth grade I think it was 2022 the eighth graders it was like Co whatever did like the little drive-thru Branchville and I was wondering if we could get that in motion for the eighth graders this year I can respond so the reason that we didn't do that um and it's before Mr Sylvester's time um I guess after graduation I've never I've been to graduation I've never been to the after graduation there are photos or opportunities for uh camaraderie and um Mrs lezzy felt that everyone was rushing out to get to the parade and the final year of that parade um the attendance on the streets was not um as high so the kids so the families all rushed out to be in the parade and then there was a let down um because the community didn't show up as they had the previous years so then it was so was just like it was kashed yeah that's why I mean it's very it's a very nice idea I mean Mr Lang if you want to email me I'd love to talk about it and see if we can get something going yeah I mean I think they gave them like 20 minutes maybe half an hour and I think what happened was we actually had they actually had to go to Branchville burough to get permission so if you do email him you'd have to talk to to the mayor I do know you say it's like certificates but you know I just know like my kid liked it I heard other people I like it too yeah I lik it s just scary bitball right talk thank you you're welcome guys yes yes um so I want to thank Mr Bellis for you know making me aware of this unfortunately just happened today I also reached out to crap um they told me that they're going to send me over the video tomorrow morning you know for my review so I will be addressing the first thing tomorrow morning also um the last time unfortunately when you call we did look into changing um the routes but our buses are just filed to capacity like 54 is like we have 54 kids on on each bus so um we did look into it um ideally if we could make it happen we would have made it happen but it's just there's there was no other space on any of the buses or just a logistical thing but um I apologize that that happened to your daughter today and it will be taken seriously and looked into first things more one thank you you're welcome motion to close public comment motion second okay if anybody wanted to go home now would be an appropriate time I appreciate you John is sitting my husband doesn't do politics at all neither do we Kaitlyn no um Communications and public relations so we have some monthly activities in January um on the 13th we have the special education parent advisory group meeting which is on Zoom from 6:30 to 8 and the link was posted on our social medias so that's oh great I saw that ready the 14th there's a PTA meeting at 7:00 the 15th we have the high point 8ighth grade open house the 16th the High Point Music and Art celebration night um the 20th we're Clos for Martin Luther King Jr Day the 24th there'll be another PTA meeting at 7 p.m. in the library and the 27th we have the board of bed meeting um there are some policy and curriculum items that Kate Adam is the chair I have there you could read them in the agenda um Mr lard is there any technology updates service servers and not major it's just part of a budget process but uh what we are looking at over the next two years is uh we need to replace our servers as well as our network uh access points servers are about 9 years old uh and the access points are about five plus so we're trying to for the for the access points I'm trying to take advantage of two different funding cycles for EAP because we are on the last year of a 5year cycle and we'll be starting a new 5year cycle so I'm trying to work the timing to get the most reimbursement possible uh at the end of next budget year to overlap anyhow so we'll be discussing this as we go through the budget but that's one of the big ticket items that is on the horizon so that's the major update roof project update roof project is at this point we're kind of in a holding pattern waiting for the spring uh we're still waiting waiting for the official change order to address the sewing side of the firewall between the section that was just replaced and we're trying to get that section sealed up as well as taking as much Advantage as possible of the rod Grant we have the Department of Education uh was here just before the break to do the inspection of the work that has been done so we've got our reimbursement coming for that um but otherwise it's going to be kind of sitting still idle until the uh spring comes along where hopefully we can get this done over the break or in June right and then um the SE project update the um facilities committee did meet with Mr lard and Mr Newman when was that December 14th or something 13 um guess was just me and Jesse yeah um we're meeting with the Mayors this later the nth meeting with the Mayors um so there's I believe in in this packet right there's the approval for yeah for the for the study so to get things moving there's an approval in here for the kleinfelder proposal that's the engineer that worked on the Branchville portion and so they're working on this portion they came out um and spent time with Mr banser and Mr lard um so in order to do our investigation of the tie-in for the sewer and the water um it's $50,400 that we had in a cap we using capital reserve we had in the capital reserve account so that's money being spent if approved that does not include drawings or permitting or anything this is just to get us to that point um a budget planning calendar Mr yes so every year I'm supposed to review the budget planning calendar which I you don't have to look at necessarily but I have it on page 21 uh essentially at this point since when the budget is approved I immediately start the following Year's budget and I'm updating it throughout the year uh and then in December early January we'll meet as the administration to kind of go line by line through the budget uh once that happens then we get to the board committee uh to review uh there will be at least two board committee reviews possibly three the then in the end of February typically the governor gives his budget address and that's when they release the state aid information two days after uh there is some talk that there's a potential for the governor to delay it but there's always that talk every year so uh usually though I thought you going to say give us a windfall no no they're telling us the best case scenarios to expect Flat state funding uh so $27,000 uh I hope if we're lucky if that yeah last year we got a bump of 27 even though we lost 54 and that was because our special education population Rose slightly um but they're saying tuition based special education students help I know we can't make money on them but does that count in our don't formula it it it'll help you in your first year but it adjusts out so that way your per pupil can't profit it can't lose so essentially what happens it'll work it'll help you in the first year but if you ended up being more you have to give that money back the following year so it's it's kind of a wash for the most art doesn't doesn't help but it's not supposed to hurt uh so with that in mind uh if the state aid is is on time there'll be no delay and we submit the budget by the 20th of March and then we'll have the public if it's delayed then does the county delay our their expectation of us getting it to them by the 20th of uh no not unless there's some significant delay we' that's only happened once which was last year which they changed uh you allowed you to change your budgets right in June remember for very rare circumstances yes so either way we will be meeting uh this week I think as Administration we're meeting as it uh going over all the line by line and then and uh I'm working to now that we've got the committee situated I'll reach out to the the committee members to to get together for the budget as well later this month school safety and climate we had a fire drill on December 12th and a school safety drill was held on the week of December 16th um because now that brings us to Executive session and we do need to go into executive session I'd love to tell you that it's going to be 20 minutes but it could be long um motion second training as well as the disclosures those will be later this one is the level three is that a long one same thank you for sticking with us Mrs fry I hope you public comment public comment sure think of something all right we have the consent agenda next um wow L pakong floating classroom for the fifth grade that cool that's always a that's very cool yeah we should go on your boat Jamie yeah you just got on Jamie's boat suring um so where are we I'll do it where is your okay consent agenda goes all the way to page eight um be it resolved with the Frankford Township Board of Education accept the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to approve the above identify regular agenda items number 20251 063 through 20250 10624 Caitlyn Fredo yes we need a motion motion they're all going to move Mr L Caitlyn Fredo Jesse vaugh yes John tiger do I need to obain since I missed last meeting Chelsea stole i y Charlene Mard yes Chris Daxter same yeah um Jamie Armondo yes Adam yes Mandy Jou yes that brings us to public comment motion to open moot second you can just speak and say a great job every all right so we got the other items the other items for the good of the order our next schedule meeting actually is January 27th um yeah we left that from last we cared everything over that's right that's right um January 27th anybody else have anything for the good of the order I I have a question I was thinking about this I don't even know if this possible when we do the the uh calendar for the next school year is there a way that we can build in snow days so ironically i 4 have I have a draft calendar for for next school year so it's funny because I've see both ways right it's like smoking mirrors right so you know I've done one with you know three snow days built in but in the end like you're 181 181 so um but I don't want to put it out there yet but my idea for next year but we let's just wait one more meeting we don't want to let everyone know it's a really good idea I'm very excited for it but what about um I was reading something too I don't know if I understood it right or what not but um is there a way that we can go from days to hours like is there something that requ that students are in school for so many hours instead of so many days because there's a couple different states 180 days 180 school days so that's why on half days we go to just enough to get us through to qualify that as a day so we can't we can't it's not hours it's days yeah like a half day hours yeah and going to like a day [Laughter] whatever we got [Applause] one think is what the other stes were doing was like hour going but they're motion to ad anybody else have anything does the current calendar sorry something in place with like a certain amount of snow days before you take spring break away like at the six snow day or is it all arbitrarily based on great question so it just reads uh it's at the board's discretion so like let's say we're at 10 days right now so the board would have the option like hey do we want to like pull three days back spr break we have to finish by June 30th right because our contract is July 1 so they would so if you were to get so many snow days six days we we do this like you know yeah it could be four five it could be whatever if you remember Chris we actually have 181 days because school technically ends on a Monday um so if we didn't use any snow days the board always votes to end that Friday yeah yep okay or the board in the past has voted to end that Friday motion who's second second nobody jumped at it okay [Music]