##VIDEO ID:EkP3oVzFNMY## [Music] well thank you very much Dr Hazel uh welcome everyone to the Board of Education meeting of the fre Regional High School District um just want to make sure my phone is outside um my name is Alex fera as Dr Hazel said I'm the new school business administrator for the district um it is my pleasure to continue the work Mr always did um for the district so Faithfully for the last 17 years and uh tonight um as part like Dr Hazel said as part of kind of swearing in new board members um I will act as the President Pro Temp until a uh new board president um little less Mike thank you just because I'm getting some back here um so until new board president is elected so uh we're going to start off uh by reading the election results from November 5th uh first one is freeold burrow threeyear term uh Amanda cob 14,917 votes and rins 271 Howell three-year term as well Peter J Bruno 14,870 votes Gabriel Gad GES 6,606 WR in 150 how unexp expired oneyear term Joan butcher farcus 10,158 Michael jman 9,979 right in 140 and then finally M alipin threeyear term Jamie Bruno 15,6 160 votes and right in 292 so first and foremost congratulations to the new board members um at this point in time I'm going to call up each of the board members individually to join me here at the podium um for the oath of office so I will start with Miss mob please so miss mob you're just going to basically be the oath and then after words I'll I Amanda maob do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God I Amanda maob do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of a member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs1 1941 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or events listed in njsa 18a 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me out [Applause] need you sign uh Mr Jun Bruno [Music] please got a paper version I Jamie Bruno do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God I Jamie Bruno do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 19 4-1 nor disqualify due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God we go cool uh M Bruno I'm always saying we're not married real real I Pete Bruno totally swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States of new United States at New Jersey and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the government established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help meet God I Peter Burno do Solly swear that I possess the qualification prescribed by law for the office of the member of the Board of Education that I have not disqualify as a voter pursuant to the RS 194 D1 nor disqualify due the conviction of a crime or an offense listed in the njsa 18a 12-1 and that I Faithfully partially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God [Applause] all right and finally um M Joan butcher farus I Joe fer farcus do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States in the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God I Joe butcher fargus do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and that I have not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs9 4-1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all of the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me [Applause] God all right so now that new board members um have been seated I'll take my seat over there so I can do a roll call right Mr Mrs Bruno this is C G here M butcher fargus here Mrs Higley here Mrs Lavin here Mr M here Mr Meer here Mr BR here thank you okay um so now we move on to the nominations for the office of president of the Board of Education pursuant to board bylaws uh nominations are now open uh no second is necessary as part of this nomination process so do we have any nominations I I nominate bro Mrs Higley nominates um Mr Bruno you we a second we do not do we have any other nominations okay uh so at this point seeing no additional nominations um I'm going to move forward I'm calling for a motion to close nominations and elect U Mr Bruno as president of the board of education do I have it first Mrs Higley second Mrs Capal Mrs Capal thank you okay and the roll call vote on this motion Mr as is still not here uh Mrs Bruno yes Mrs capella yes M butcher farcus yes Mrs Higley yes Mrs Lavin yes Mr maab yes Mr Messinger yes Mr Bruno yes congratulations Mr Bruno I would like to open nomination open the floor of nomination for vice president not Capell Capell I nominate Mr messenger not hearing anybody else I have a v ofe motion so we need a motion to close the nominations have ation to close the nominations and to vote Mr Messinger as vote for Mr ner as the vice president motion second okay we call Mrs Bruno yes Mrs Capell yes M butcher farcus yes Mrs Higley yes Mrs LV yes Mr mov yes Mr minger yes Mr ber yes congratulations [Applause] than may I have a motion to go into executed session it's okay we will yeah so we will return to conduct a public portion of the meeting at 8:00 uh Happy new year thank you we're going to start our first meeting of the New Year 2025 um pursuant to the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law of 1975 this meeting notice was sent to the Asbury Park Press on July 8th 2024 and has been duly advertized in the ad bar press issue of July 12th 2024 all Municipal Clerks of the townships and the bur within the Regional High School District has been duly notified and the requirements of the posting is met on July 88 2024 please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance to flag United States of America the stands God indivisible andice for all just got out any changes to the board agenda yes Mr President in addition to the items that were uh noted on the agenda that was prepr prior to tonight's meeting uh for exception number three the executive session the board also discussed of the student discipline report and exception number five uh the board discussed possible referendum projects uh the board did not however discuss uh the building supervisor negotiations which was noted uh on the agenda thank you should I go right in just start get started we going to have a a treat tonight we're GNA have our ethics training for the board okay so good evening everyone as we do this annually we are required uh under the school ethics act uh to have a conversation uh about uh the school ethics act its implications uh and discuss some recent decisions so um mik we move to the first slide just please note for those of you uh this would be just as entertaining as the folks in this picture are riveted uh just please note that this does not replace your mandatory for training this is a annual requirement that we have to do in order uh to to satisfy uh both stature requirements and qac uh the board itself quick overview is the governing body of the district it is charged with high level policymaking it's the only entity that can take certain actions its decision making however is limited to when we are only together when we're outside of session the board itself does not have any Authority uh board members have to avoid conflicts of interest and your conduct is governed by the school ethics act uh the school ethics act itself is 10 Provisions uh that are laid out I have some I you know I summarized them for you uh and I kind of characterize them uh I give you in each slide as we can go through them I will give you the ethics act provision I will give you my nickname for it or my shorthand version um and also just talk about some quick cases because it's always good I think to have a concrete example as to how a board member not here in Freehold but a board member in another District may have run a foul of these Provisions so the first one is simple follow the rules that's it uh you pledge that you will follow and uphold the rules of the state of New Jersey the Constitutions in Jersey and the federal laws uh example here uh you know we had a board member in one case uh try to take it upon themselves to issue a rice notice to an employee that's not the job of a board member that's contrary to law that is only the job of the superintendent um another example kind of entertaining example where a board president uh was found to have violated this provision uh when they were upset that an employee had appeared on agenda was voted to be hired then took it upon himself to call uh that person to tell them that their hiring was void because the board president had directed superintendent to take the name off the agenda uh but the superintendent failed to follow his directive that board member was ultimately removed uh so number two the kids come first uh you are here uh to make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children got a couple of instances here because you can see sometimes um board members act in interests that are outside of the educational decision of children uh in a recent case uh first one the board members TR to violate this provision when they refused to leave executive session uh even though they were discussing a matter involving a family member of theirs um the board member was censured but ultimately was uh reduced to a reprimand uh because uh they claimed that they had relied on the Council of the board attorney and the board attorney had said ah just let it happen uh but the board members still violated the provision uh second case is a little longer uh it's a recent case from last year um here um while discussing the matter of an employees actions and possible discipline in executive session a board member had the VA distribute copies of a letter that the employee wrote to the board and instructed the business administrator board secretary not to get copy of that letter to the superintendent that's a no no um uh the superintendent handles all matters of Personnel in addition that board member stated that they had been contact with the employee that's that's a violation had picked up a letter from the employees home noted that she was representing the employee because they are friends question the accuracy of the superintendent's version and motivating motivation for disciplining the employee and indicating that the employee should not be treated this way uh there's a number of sub Provisions that this violated uh ultimately that member was suspended for six months uh and was not removed because the board member in question had actually been a member for over 21 years so uh kind of scary uh the next tenant is look at the big picture and what that means is you'll see the next three Provisions are really kind of talking about what is the role of a board member um you will confine your actions to policymaking planning and Appraisal uh that's a big theme under the school ethics act uh basically the administration administ administers the schools so some examples here you'll see board members what operating outside of policy planning uh in the first case the board members decided to conduct a site the site assessment themselves to view a candidate for assistant superintendent without board authority and without knowledge of the superintendent um the next case uh I have a whole section on volunteering there was a period of time uh where the school ethics commission which is the regulatory body that enforces the school ethics act uh for whatever reason decided to go after a board member volunteering you're all volunteers you're all here because you're volunteering your time uh and they were trying to limit board members abilities to volunteer in the schools and to further volunteer your time um that backlash has kind of uh subsided uh but the main takeaway is uh you know we want to minimize board member conduct uh within the schools and interaction with staff in any official capacity so the next one is following those lines again remember the role of a board member policy plan and Appraisal along those lines the next one is no micromanager um your job is to carry out your responsibility not to administer the school but to see alone with your fellow members that they are well-run uh these are there's a plethora of cases where board members ran a fou of this provision and you can kind of see it uh where uh you had board members you know this is getting to that volunteering P that volunteering portion I was discussing we're prior to being appointed to the board uh a member was a volunteer coach the high school football team again board members are by their nature volunteers uh despite being appointed to the board uh the member continued uh as a volunteer coach once you are on the board you have to limit your interaction with staff and students and it has to be pretty regulated and I'm happy to assist you should any of you have a situation like that U approaching uh but in this instance the board member did not step down was rised to and ultimately did um and so they only received a reprimand um was a big push um I would say about 10 years ago uh where board members wanted to bring in um exit interviews uh with board members wanted to sit with staff that were resigning they wanted to sit with staff that they're retiring and have a discussion outside of the superintendent why are you leaving um that is not permissible that is considered micromanaging any Personnel actions go through the office of the superintendent again no micromanaging kind of example here uh we had a board member decide to unilaterally visit the schools take pictures of open Windows uh and then proceeded to have a press conference at the front of the school uh to complain about uh the state of the facilities again that's well outside of policy planning and phrasal um skip this one get right to the next one uh the next one is I can't promise you that uh board members will recognize that the authority rests with the board and you can't make personal promises whether that is to friends whether is to relatives or that is to uh if you have any political affiliations or political parties uh you know you you board members cannot take any private action that could possibly uh implicate the board so how does this happen so uh in this first case uh a board member uh made personal promises to a candidate for the assistant superintendent by advancing the possibility of their employment and promising to resolve a contract issue before the person had even been hired uh so that is definitely overstepping that is a promise uh that cannot be done um the next case um a board member communicated via private chat uh with a staff member that resigned offering to accuse the board president of Mal Fein for failing to provide a right notice and conspiring to undermine the board and the administration that's not working as a team that's somebody working to undermine uh board uh that person was in violation and was found to uh repand being was repand and I do apologize you should have noted at the beginning uh those of you that have heard to do this each year uh the school ethics Commission really can Issue four penalties uh the first and least is a a reprimand uh the second more severe is a centure uh the third would be a suspension for a period of time and the fourth type of discipline that could be issued by them is actually in fact removal um that is the most severe don't see that often uh but sometimes in some of these cases you read the fact patterns and removal is warranted um moving on uh the next uh provision is no special interests or personal gain again getting back to as I said uh the third provision is you're here for the betterment of the wealth of and educational welfare of the students you see how any private action uh that even years away from that at all is in violation of the code so uh in these cases uh you know we talk about no personal gain that being said uh we are uh boards are elected uh and each year this comes up are you able to endorse candidates whether it is for higher office uh State local Federal uh or it is one of your fellow board members who may be running for election and the answer is yes you are not in fact not allowed to participate in the political process you have every right to to participate in the political process and to endorse however when you do so you have to be very careful to clarify that any statements or actions you are taking are yours and yours alone and not those on behalf of the board and if any of you have questions in that regard please reach out to me I'm happy to give you a little blurb uh that is compliant so that you can attach that to any Communications or if you're writing any emails to support of someone or statements or social media posts okay next um you know what let's go to the next one do you mind mik thank you I don't have my clicker so Mike's helping me out thank I thank him for that uh here we had a a board member uh that served as a freelance journalist uh for a patch uh and wanted to a patch article those online newspapers uh and they wanted to know if they would be able to continue to do so uh even after they were elected to the board and the answer was yes they were in fact allowed to do that so long as they did not report on matters involving the Board of Education itself uh and then you know kind of the most classic example of uh you know engaging in personal gain is maybe personal Vendetta uh this last case a board member violated the provision by publicly posting confidential information uh about a staff member uh that was their child's teacher uh and they were not happy with that individual so they decided to uh publicly post embarrassing information that they attained through their role in the board publicly obviously a um a violation might just next one next one okay again I'm not going to read all of these to you I give these to you as like a reference document so that you can go through it as well um I talked about this that's good okay I can keep a secret uh obviously as being on a board we we go into executive session we were in executive sessions we were prior to coming out tonight and discuss matters that are confidential we have to keep those matters in fact confidential and we cannot share them with the outside so for example um and I'm going to talk a lot about social media because it is a hot button topic with the ethics commission but here's a written recent case uh where a board member uh was found to have violated and not maintained confidentiality uh by responding to a social media post over an alleged student dis discipline incident involving a high school student so there was a incident where uh there was law enforcement involvement the community at large was was a buzz what was happening the board member took it upon themselves uh to uh make a public post on their own uh where they identified the students school that they attended their grade level their gender and then specific details about the incident including the length of the suspension that the student received that violates uh not only failing to maintain confidentiality that also violates the tenants of uh fura and the New Jersey uh public school records excuse me pupil records statutes so uh again kind of maintaining that confidentiality that dreaded reply all button please never use it uh a lot of times you you receive information from the superintendent as an update um you know about maybe something uh that happened within the schools just alerting you as board members and informing you so that you already in the know as to what's happening well in this case a board member was reprimanded because they used the reply all button uh on an email that was only supposed to go to the board members and they the superintendent was discussing matters that had been discussed about a uh uh Personnel matter in executive session and by inadvertently hit it reply all it got to an outside Community member and was therefore thereafter widely dispersed so again stay away from reply all please okay the next provision of the school ethics Act is to listen to your superintendent's recommendations uh the board and the superintendent act symbiotically together the superintendent recommends and the board either votes to accept that recommendation or not um however um you have to give consideration to the superintendent's recommendation whether that is for matters of personnel the hiring firing transfer uh of any staff or if it's matters uh involving uh student discipline or student matters uh some instances here and I always like to just uh highlight too that it is not a blank check you have to have you you can't act in a manner that is arbitrary capricious or unreasonable that's lawyers speak what that basically means is you have to have a objectively an objective reason for why you are rejecting the recommendation you're not required to articulate that if you vote no uh but it's always good to to have it just in case there ever is a a challenge okay uh so here we have uh you know just kind of talked about the superintendent recommendations uh there was a big push within the last couple of years where board members wanted to be involved in interviews uh for candidates of positions it used to be a practice uh that board members would be allowed to participate in interviews for building principles uh School business administrators assistant superintendents Chief academic officers high level positions and the Ethics Committee has said no the only role in which board members are eligible to participate in the interview process is that to the position of superintendent uh so again that is you have to consider the superintendent's recommendation you don't do your own investigation uh and and questioning of candidates okay um our old friends barles and James thank you for your support uh you will support uh personnel and the proper performance of of their duties uh what does that mean uh that basically means uh that when we're in public we support staff um if there's a disagreement if there's an issue it is directed to go through the superintendent and it is handled in that matter uh so here's kind of some ways where uh board members violated this provision uh the first case board member violated this by sending a letter to the superintendent deciding to copy the State Board of Education and the executive County Superintendent accusing the superintendent of allowing employees to violate your policy not exactly supporting your superintendent um next case the board member violated this by sending an email to the superintendent copying the business administrator and all the other board members uh attacking the superintendent and asking that superintendent to Rive accounting of her personal Le time again not supporting staff uh this last one is always I always include it because it's perhaps one of the most egregious ones uh the board president violated this by uh being quite upset uh with the superintendent following meeting going home posting a picture of the superintendent on his Facebook page with the comment now willing you something about our local terrorists that destroy dreams and their Futures this is one of those ones where someone was removed as you can see um the last rision yes Mr Bruno that's I'm let you do the last one okay proper channels um this is one where we're seeing some more violations pop so I just want to just make sure this is clear uh as board members you are very visible in the community you will have people email you sometimes as a as a the board as a whole or they may email you individually because uh for example if there's an issue coming out of I'll just use this TI she's closest uh Freehold Township they'll write to their Freehold Township ship representative and they'll make a complaint to Mrs Higley or they'll see Mrs Higley in the supermarket and stop her or they'll see her at a community event and they'll complain or they'll bring their issue to her attention uh board members are required to use the proper channels what that means is if you receive a complaint or an issue you have to bring it to the superintendent it goes to the superintendent there is no I'm just talking to you confidentially I don't want you to do anything you rece receive that it has to be referred ethically to the superintendent to be addressed if the superintendent does not address it but the matter is not then adequately resolved and it escalates uh the board has a process for hearing those types of matters and addressing it at that time but always always always the proper Channel initially is the superintendent okay I have one question yes so give us some advice yes we're on social media oh we're going to get there oh we're going to get there only because it is a hot hot area uh Statewide so um as part of the packet that I handed to you uh I handed out a questionnaire um some of you were poked it me and got me that it advertently had the in incorrect District because one of my colleagues took it and used it for another district and saved over my version so I apologize but it is aimed at perhaps the biggest area uh where board members uh get tripped up uh has to do in the areas of conflict of interest and it's conflict of interest whether that's participating in negotiations if a local bargaining unit is up for a new contract or it's the chain of command in terms of you have a relative that works in the district you would you are not allowed to be part of any discussion or vote involving your relative that works in the district their supervisor their super visor supervisor their supervisor supervisor all the way up to the position of the superintendent uh and so uh I give this chart each year that I put together because you have to enjoy the state of New Jersey uh we have uh two laws that deal with participation negotiations and chain of command issues uh School ethics act which is represented in the left-hand column and the nepotism regulations which is located in the right hand column uh the nepotism regulations were passed some time after the school ethics Act was adopted uh were part of the fiscal accountability regulations that came out in 2008 uh both address the same issue both use the same terms but of course Define them differently so that's why I like to point out so under the school ethics act we have DET termine meeting family members a spouse or partner dependent child we have a relative but a relative is only only a spouse partner child sibling parent however under the nepotism regulations which again govern the same area you see relative is spouse parent step parent child stepchild sibling half sibling steps sibling Aunt Uncle East nephew Grand and so on so no more cousins cousins are not a conflict even fake Italian cousins like I have fake Italian ants and uncles that we have we just have called good friends and an uncle yes that is not a violation cousins are not a conflicted U uh relation uh so mik next slide and I will sit with you all of you any of you once you fill out that questionnaire and I know what relatives you may have and again however attenuated it may be just share it with me I put together a matrix chart that I give to each one of you that outlines what you can participate in what you can't uh but here's a real kind of quick quick chart here if you have an immediate family member that works in the district you are conflicted and you may have chain of command issues that you have to obained from if you have an immediate family member that works outside of the district you have certain conflicts as it relates to negotiations if you have a relative that works in the district you have a conflict for negotiations and you have a chain of command issues if you have a relative that works outside the district you might have a conflict and why do I say that because the ethics commission then requires us to sit down and have an in-depth discussion we have to ask is your out of District relative or other officer in the njaa or other local Association uh are they part of the bargaining team of that other District uh do they have some leadership role so again you see kind of how in depth uh this gets and that's why I also give you the chart on the prior slide explaining what an immediate family member is what a relative is and the dreaded others uh so they're they're all broken down for you within the last year and a half the biggest Focus for the ethics commission I don't know why is training uh they uh amended their regulations to tighten and further uh demonstrate that they are serious about enforcing board members that are laps in their annual trainings each year depending upon how long you've been on the board you have to complete certain training requirements there's courses that the New Jersey school boards Association puts togethers and and and runs some most of them are all virtual some are also available at the annual conference you have to stay current why because now if you don't complete your training requirements by the end of the year you're going to get a letter from the school ethics commission letting you know you're out you you're non-compliant and they give you a dat date certain by which that training must be done if it's not done by the date that they give you they will issue what's called an order to show cause which will then kind of ramps this up legally uh and you will be directed to complete the training by another date serle if it is not completed by the date that the um after the order show was issued but before the school ethics commission issues a decision you are required to be censored if the training is not complete till after the school ethics commission issues a decision but before the commissioner issues a final decision you will be suspended for 30 days uh if the training is not completed by the time that the commissioner issues a final decision they will remove you and those are black and white those are regulatory there is really no argument around it it does say that you can get around it by uh with with uh good cause which is a reasonable explanation but they have been very very stringent uh in uh not allowing anything to be um considered good cause um what about staffing companies uh we don't use them here in the district we hire our own substitutes but just so you know if you had a if we ever did use a staffing company for substitutes or for any sort of back up for a second we do use staffing companies for some of our bus drivers um uh contract out RS power professionals uh through the ESC that is not necessarily a conflict of interest as it relates to the chain of command it just would mean you could not vote on any payments to the agency that employed uh your relative substitutes that does create a conflict of interest uh and I'll need to know if any relatives or families of yours apply to and the become substitut here the district there is a general sub shortage please don't take that as me discouraging that um but I just need to know so that I guide you appropriately from any ethical issues Mr Bruno I promise you beware of social media uh because my strongest advice is to stay away from it uh I share that with my children I practic that myself uh but uh why it's because we have seen a rash of cases uh and I'm not going to read each of them to you um uh but we're board members with the best of intentions may have been posting something may have been putting uh whether it's a uh a tweet uh uh Snapchat uh it's Instagram post Facebook post uh any medium uh where it has been found to be in violation because something is contained in there that is um in violation of the act itself that's why please if you are going to post you are going to be active on social media which again is you are free to I would advise against it that you're free to do that please include any the magic disclaimer that the statements are yours and yours alone you not speaking for or acting on behalf of the Board of Education uh there have been ethics cases uh within the last year uh where uh board members uh prior to their election uh had uh posts uh that were anti-un uh that were anti- education um going back to um the co era uh antivaccine anti- mask anti- establishment and I'll leave at that um and there were ethics complaints filed against those members uh and so it is an area that is still a little bit gray so the best advice I can give is not to post uh but if you do again you can is to please use the disclaimer again I'm happy to share that with anybody again nobody's looking for pictures of your grandkids or pictures of your kids or any activities that you're doing in the community but especially as we are in a heightened uh for lack of a better term uh political era which I think is going to continue uh especially with the uh election in November for the governor uh are people who monitor these accounts and they are not shy about trying to use the ethics act as a weapon so I I give these cases to you um please read them at your leisure or if you're having trouble sleeping uh they're great sedative um but again I'm just giving you my overview and my my caution um I've had the pleasure of working with the district 13 or 14 years and uh you know my job is to protect po of and to help guide you and and keep you ethical and keep you on the right path I am always available anytime uh and happy to answer any questions please for our qack points make sure you sign and return that top form uh to Mr Ferrera uh so that we have that in our records I happy to answer any board questions but if you rather discuss it it might be something private you don't want to do it in public I'm happy to have that conversation one-onone over the phone and any time uh after a meeting or before a meeting thank you good job than nobody's sleeping okay now I have a motion to approve the item C1 through C6 motion second that was Miss mov second Mrs C any discussion board not hearing any discussion roll call Mrs Bruno yes M capella yes M butcher farcus yes yes could obain on C2 thank you Mr L yes Mr M yes Mr messenger yes yes thank you next is the minutes from the December 12th student reconition meeting not any discussion board any discussion board not hearing any discussion roll call Mrs Bruno yes Mr Capell yes M butcher pocket up State thank you Mrs Higley yes M Lavin yes Mr C yes Mr minger yes Mr B yes just a SL note Communications are on file in the office of the board secretary and I'm going to yield now to our superintendent for her superintenden board thank you Mr Bruno um happy New Year to everyone and and to our community um we are really excited uh to be back back uh we're not in the second phase of the school year but sometimes coming back from a long break like this it feels that way but we are really excited to have our students and our staff back and to really get back into the swing of things and uh to resume our academic program and have our students back in classes um and also excited for them to um begin resuming all of their activities and preparing you know for and being involved in you know winter sports and and the plethora of activities that they're involved in at school so excited about that um tonight our board members uh took their um oath of office um but I want to officially um you know welcome and congratulate um Alex Vera our new ba um our prior ba had a long history in the district um Alex comes to us uh with a tremendous amount of experience uh we have a lot of work at play in our district and um I'm very excited to work side by side uh with uh Mr Ferrara and our administrative team uh for all of the exciting work um that's ahead of us so congratulations uh to Mr Ferrara very excited to have you on our team um also in the audience uh hiding I don't think hiding but I know was up in the front row before um Mr Dave Ryden and um I did mention him in um uh our to our board uh of communication he um is being recognized want to stand there stand with us for the athletic director of the Year award and this is for Mr Ryan's um outstanding service um you know to our school um to our greater Community uh in our district we call all this position seek as supervisors of extracurricular activities and Athletics uh but oversees um the full operation of Athletics and curricular activities he's being recognized for even more than that it is for his uh professional commitment um and activities both in the free hole Regional High School District and in the Greater Community uh for his service um in this district and in the county um this is a very high and prestigious award um we are really excited uh for Mr Ryden um and we're going to be celebrating alongside with him from this point through um his ceremony um in March so congratulations um Mr Rob on that um just want to alert our community um as always um you know all of our administrators and supervisors very strong Advocates of um providing all of the necessary supports for our students um all of our high schools have academic support programs after school as we prepare and get ready um and all of our students through our curriculum and our instructional program are ready for the state assessments but any students who need additional Assistance or want to get a little bit more familiar and acclimated with the structure of that test uh we do have support programs in place at lunch and after school uh for all of our students so I just want our community to rest assure that you know any child any student um that wants additional support um as we prepare for State Testing which will occur the week of March 10th um that that's available um on this board agenda um this evening um we are seeking board approval um for spel which is our district Architects um they will be submitting referendum applications to the Department of Education uh along with that effort we are looking to appoint a referendum communication consultant to help support the district um in the communication plan um in the Greater Community about the need for a referendum in the freeall Regional High School District um there's also resolutions on this board agenda for the Professional Services of bond counsel and financial advisor um you know we have the administrative team and the building principles um we have been hard at work um in doing a full assessment um of our facilities alongside um you know the Architects that we have in the district and in the coming weeks uh we're going to be working closely with the Board of Education um as well as the Architects to outline a plan uh for the necessary and needed work for the freeh hole Regional High School District so a lot more information to come on that but we do have those very important uh resolutions um you know on the agenda tonight and I know we'll hear more from um Mr Messinger um who is uh the chair of our finance committee thank you that concludes my report thank you and we do have a finance report miss misser our vice president and M Township PR is going to talk about the finance committee which was last week right so on December 19th we had our last meeting with sha Boyce so actually I'm actually a first I'm actually going to tell Alex what's been going on here uh but actually we had not the first but we add into the list um so we have three speakers the first one was John swisser of sule cloan company the auditor so I'm going to give you a little preview because he's going to be at the February meeting uh because they completed the audit uh which has to be submitted to the state by January 15th um and they B it's basically rendering an opinion on our financial statements they come in they test all the account balances they look at the revenues um you know they test our vouchers and it's all because investors have to rely on the financial statements that the district puts at when they buy our bonds um which is particularly important considering that you know we're going to be borrowing money uh if the referendum gets approved and basically Mr swisser had talked about all the internal or examples of the internal controls uh that the Auditors test here they look at our payroll processes our bidding procedures and basically what he said as he typically has done every single year is that our financial reporting is in great shape according to him and his firm and now that Alex is aboard uh John is going to have a meeting with Alex later in the month so that was the first guest speaker and of course he'll go into more detail of the February meeting second guest speakers were from Alliant insurance services and basically they're Consulting our Administration on prescription benefits right because as we've discussed many times before we self-insure here and our the contract we have with Pharmacy benefit manager is has expired and we really need to get more for our dollar um this consultant basically goes through all our claims um and they basically run comprehensive Pharmacy uh D due diligence analysis um because when we negotiate we really you know when contracts come up and it's determined how much what the pharmaceutical benefits are going to be you know we have to have in-depth knowledge of what's transpiring so um many of you may read in the financial press about rebates that employers get from the drug companies and essentially what the consultant says is just by their Pro their analysis they see over $550,000 in annual benefit just looking at the existing contract uh that we've been uh under and whatever does transpire the employees are not you know it's not going to impact them one bit um but really like I said when it comes down to negotiations we really need this analysis of the financial impact of um the pharmaceutical benefits that go out now also in the news as of late is the gp1s which are the diabetes and obesity medications and just like everywhere else in society that there's been significant usage here and as a matter of fact 24% of our drug spending is on these types of drugs so that you know something that's going to be addressed going forward and then our last speaker was as Dr Hazel had just referenced the referendum communications consultant Laura Bishop from LBC Communications and basically she explained how they operate uh went over the prior successes that they've had and you know some of the referendums that also did not go through but if asked majority of the ones they work on do go through um and she just want you know told us how it's not just going to be one person they have three people that work on each project um and they have all different types of departments that will handle all the aspects of communication uh and again as we've said before Dr Hazel said before right the whole Focus really is on the reality that the mechanical infrastructure a lot of is at the end of life and it's failing and our local budget cannot support the expenditures um so this referendum as has been said many times is going to be mechanical it's not about you know add-ons or luxury items or anything like that and the bottom line is that if we think about it when we had the whole controversy over the S2 cuts and courtesy busting going by the wayside the state did bail us out but the fact is they're not going to be bailing us out on mechanical infrastructure um and just talked about the need to work with the sending districts since it's going to be their children who are going to be occupying the schools once the infrastructure uh gets put in place um and essentially uh the vote you know I mean I think we're Bas as I think I said this before like we're looking to do this in November uh and under that type of time frame the messaging on the referendum would start in this spring and then six weeks before the vote there'd be a lot of inperson uh meetings with the public and elected officials and that is uh the summary and what transpired thank you so much Mr F any changes to the board uh no changes for tonight Mr and there's no one here to sign up there's no one here to sign up for public [Music] participation so we're going to go to personnel and negotiations we're going to go to H1 through h12 I have a motion any discussion not hearing any discussion R call Miss Bruno yes Mrs Capell yes M butcher farus yes Mrs Higley yes Mrs L yes m m yes Mr M yes Mr BR yes thank you now I have a motion to approve item J1 through J1 i1 through J1 have motion second second any discussion not hear any discussion Ro please miss Bruno yes M cell yes par yes Mr Higley yes Mrs Lain yes Mr M yes Mr M oh yes thank you Mr Bruno yes our next item educational programs and administrations Administration I have a motion to approve K1 through L1 any discussion board not hearing any discussion Lo call Miss Bruno yes M Kell yes M butcher FKS yes Mrs Higley yes Mrs ladin yes Mr MC yes Mr mesinger yes Mr Brun yesc any board members have old businesses discuss any old business discuss no old business how about new business any new businesses discussed Mr Bruno if I may yes I just want to congratulate uh Mr Bruno and Mrs Bruno on on being reelected to the board and welcome uh mrus to uh our thank you thank you very much um I also would like to thank the board um for electing me tonight um as the board president again um this is just a terrific board made up of people who love their Community involved in their Community I have parade directors I have Thanksgiving fundraising person I have coaches um nurses this board they love their Community they're involved in their community and they volunteer for the freeold Regional High School District School Board so um I thank them for trusting me for another year and my vice president Mike messenger from marbor um it's going to be very interesting year and we're going to get that referendum passed and I'm going to retire okay so um any other new business not hearing any new business we're going I make a motion to adjourn yes second second she is as fast as has she yes we have a motion you need a second I have a second all those in favor I all those in favor hi 87 thanks