##VIDEO ID:NRKVmKygX2A## I'd like to call this meeting back to order may I have a roll call please Mrs gck yes Mr given here miss gilch here M score here Mr Johnson Mr Marks here at this time I'll turn the meeting over to Mr B and Mr tro for Star students thank you Mr Marks members of the board good good evening everybody Welcome to uh Charles W Lewis school um thank you for Mr Lesman for packing the house with your students and their parents tonight um I would like to uh turn this program over to Mr tro Mr tro would you want to come up here and this obviously is Jes you no doubt thanks Tim good evening everyone thank you for coming out this is our um kind of enjoyable time that we have each month as we get an opportunity to recognize all the great things that are going on in our schools and so the board goes on their little tour from uh to each of the three middle schools and we're able to honor students from two schools each month and so tonight as most of you understand we're recognizing students from Gloucester Township Elementary School and CW Lewis Middle School I am going to turn the microphone over to the principles first from GT and then from Lewis and they will introduce their staff members who are here as well as their students we do have certificates that um the board and Mr Bido have signed recognizing each of the students being recognized here tonight I will turn those over to the school to them as well um when the event's over I might get on if I get an opportunity to and uh and remind you what we'll do we'll take a short recess after um parents if you could just hold on and let your students participate in photos that we will be taking probably right over there in the corner um we want to make sure that we get an opportunity to get their photo we'll put that on the the district website you can go go back and visit and point um any family members maybe who weren't able to get here tonight and friends over to that as well so Mr Lesman if you'll take the microphone and introduce your group good afternoon everybody thank you board for having us here we always appreciate the opportunity to come and present our school we may be the smallest or second smallest School in the district but we know how to pack a house so um at this time I am very pleased to um share with you all our safety patrol and their two wonderful advisers Mrs walto and Mrs Green and they're going to share a little bit with you about what we do with our safeties at Gloucester Township Elementary School thank you um our safety patrol is a wonderful group of students who really show responsibility in all areas Mrs Green and I have been running this program for many many years and this is truly an exceptional group um we just have a little video we're going to go over a couple different things that our students do and how they become a safety at gler Township Elementary School the first thing um their fourth grade year is pretty much they all do okay from September to June they are on point they are showing leadership they are um demonstrating U responsibility they are caring they are helpful um this is an example of our safety patrol application they have to fill out at the end of the year if they are interested in becoming a safety patrol member um they do need to get recommendations from all six special area teachers as well as myself Mrs Green and the lunchroom staff um they also do have some questions and some open-ended questions on their applications and this year we were very happy we have Nate mcneel and Kira Hodson as our um platoon leaders okay one of our fundraising events that we have is called the move and groon and the parents can donate money for the uh safety patrol and we have Mr Dempsey our fiz ed teacher runs an activity where the students walk they lap the school and they do dances every so often and that's our move and gathon so you can actually see the kids all outside participating so last year was our first year trying to incorporate some community service activities so because in fourth grade and we are the fourth grade teachers um the students read love that dog in ela and it is about a dog coming from a shelter and being that we have a shelter right around the corner we did a furry friend treat collection so each classroom had a bin and they donated treats and toys and then the captains Mrs walto Mr Les Lesman and myself went and we delivered them to the shelter it was fabulous a fabulous turnout you could see all the kids withy all of the collection that they they came up with and finally at the end of the school year the safties are rewarded by going on a bowling trip that is paid for by the moveing groove donations from from um the parents and the students at the school um this year we will also be going to um going bowling most likely in the spring before the holiday break and all of the students are invited to a fun morning of bowling and pizza um before we leave for the spring break there's our there's our cens Kira Hudson and Nate mcneel who are doing a great yes they're doing a great job this year in leading our Patrol um they do make sure that the other students and safety patrol members they each have a job we have bus safeties we have teacher helper safeties we have office safeties um they kind of go around at the end of the day making sure that each student has their below and they're doing their job and the next two slides are our current Patrol in action so you can see we have our office safeties we have our classroom safeties and then then we have our bus room safeties and then the safeties we couldn't capture because they were already on a bus so they're in the hallway and one final slide we have decided to incorporate a little bit more Community involvement and we are taking inspiration from the Whit and wisdom Ela curriculum third grade is um all about the sea module one so we're going to be doing something that has to do with giving back back to uh clean beaches and keeping our water clean we have the home word bound we're going to do the love that dog collection again and then something from the fifth grade curriculum which we are going to do some sort of fundraising for Native American children so those are the ideas that we have and there's our Patrol thank you Mrs Green and Mrs walto and another round of applause for our safeties thank you guys we really do have an exceptional group and over the last few years we've really tightened up those um qualifications to become a safety so it is definitely something that the students feel honored and special to be a part of it is not just a r of Passage to get in fifth grade so very excited for the hard work they do thank you very much safeties and have a we'll have a great rest of our year right all right and now I'm going to turn it over to the principal of Charles W Lewis Mr Ted uton thank you Mr Lesman welcome everybody to Charles Lewis Middle School welcome our future Lewis Indians uh over there from uh gler T gler Township Elementary uh it is my pleasure to introduce our njhs uh advisor so I'm going to ask Miss Shiloh and Miss Potter to come up and talk about our wonderful star students if my officers can come up right you guys can stand right there good evening any everyone um my name is Chelsea Sho I am one of our njhs co-advisors and Christine Potter the other co-advisor um good evening Board of Ed community members and parents for those of you who don't know me I'm going to introduce myself again because I'm nervous my name is Chelsea Shiloh and I'm an e8th grade ELA teacher from Charles Lewis Middle School as well as the schools njhs co-advisor I am honored to be here tonight as we celebrate our njhs officers as this year's Lewis star students the star student award is given to Lewis students that we feel exemplify our goals of helping build caring empathetic academically sound and well-balanced students and community members I can confidently say this group of students exemplifies all of those attributes and more so as njhs officers they have demonstrated an above and beyond dedication to academics good character and contribution to the cwl community from creating budgets and running school fundraisers start to finish to coordinating a hurricane Helen and Milton service project which is in the works to planning to beautify the bathrooms these students demonstrate a willingness and desire to improve whichever environment is lucky enough to be graced with their presence for this and many other reasons join me in celebrating our LS star students we have our president Ezekiel NEP nepom mosino our vice president McKenzie McKinley our Treasurer who gave up so much time during our fundraiser and was there every single day collecting money for all of us zakari Ellis our secretary Elaine Wen our fabulous historians Allison Graham and Sid oh I'm sorry Allison Graham first and sidral montaha okay and finally our awesome parliamentarian ail a champion okay and one more round of applause for our awesome officers who have worked so hard this year all right take a bow you're fabulous all right thank you so much for taking out the time to celebrate our students and have a great night thank you so as I mentioned earlier we are going to take a short recess at that time we will have the students um join us over here for a photo there are refreshments in the back um for anyone who would like to partake in those and then after about 5 to 10 minutes we'll reconvene the meeting you're welcome to stay if you want but if you've got other things that you need to take care of we certainly understand that as well and so you'll want to take your time to if you're not going to stay for the meeting on to hexit at least minimally into the hallway and then the regular board meeting will resume so thanks again for coming out congratulations students and staff who are participating with us tonight we appreciate the great work you're doing and have a great evening meeting back to order may I have a motion and a second for executive session October 28 2024 soov second any questions roll call please Mrs gner yes Mr given yes Mrs gilch yes M Gore yes M Johnson yes Mr Marks yes may I have a motion at second for regular board minutes October 28 2024 so moved second any questions Mr Marks we're going to amend those minutes sir um I wrote down uh that Suzanne voted no on the entire option of uh of six and she she was only voting no on the minutes that she was not here okay so she actually is voting yes on on the number six abstaining on the she's abstaining on the minutes you're right abstaining on the ones she wasn't here for yeah yeah got it okay may I have a motion and a second as amended please so moved as amended second as amended any questions roll call please Mrs gck yes Mr given yes I amended Mrs gch yes I amended Miss score yes as amended misss Johnson yes as amended Mr Marks yes as amended we'll move on the public comments for agenda action items only please I see none got one yes I think it goes under 7.3 bill payment are my questions because they they have to do with payments that we've made by check would it go into that okay great um check number 1 35257 it's for gsrp project holding LLC uh which is Goldman Sachs Renewable Power LLC um there that particular check is for $29524 36 and what what specifically is that for that's the solar panels what what are we paying for the the rental of using them or I was here many years ago I think it was 2013 when we when they agreed to do solar panels and I'm just wondering what are we paying for specifically that's the cost of the solar panels they bill us annually it's like about $100,000 a year okay well the previous month they they also got paid $ 55,66984 [Music] um Peterson uh pbac and um it it comes to a total of $ 61,63 and it's on the agenda for tonight but um it shows that you paid in July 12th $ 33,2 to repair the cooling tower in the Mullen school and I guess that didn't work out because lesson and a month later in the beginning of August you paid $2 28,43 to um Peterson for repairing the cooling tower in the Mullen school so that's like 61,000 and then in the months that followed you paid $2,650 to rent a cooling system from Peterson $1 15,794 to rent it the next month and on this month's bill again is $12,600 so you're up to about $889,000 to Peterson and I'm wondering is the cooling system fixed yet that cooling system is getting replaced next summer that's part of the $18 million project okay then in that case will the will the electric bills continue to be as they are now for the Mullen school because after the last four months including this month which is $236 34 up to $85,000 just to the electric company add that to what you paid Peterson who I guess was working on it but couldn't fix it that's a great deal of money so will that continue all this year well I don't know about the electric bills electric bills went up over a year ago so they're actually supposed to go up even higher um in the springtime we just got notified November 7th okay I understand that but I did look at last year's bills and the most School ranged around $7,800 a month uh 7600 8,000 now we're 24,000 that's I know all things go up but that's like a tremendous increase yeah we're we're seeing the increases of that of that degree yeah and they're going up higher and is there no explanation for that talk to the legislature because they're the ones that are having hearings on it oh they're having hearing on it yeah uh well then my other question would be than can I see if anybody else wants to speak before I don't go any others want to speak now this is for just agenda action items only Mr come on back up told you only one last quick question uh and it has to do with the first thing I asked about which was the uh Goldman Sachs Renewable Power um aren't the solar panels supposed to be offing electric costs I mean in your home uh the the panels uh make my electric bill or people who have a um solar panels less than they had been the previous year because you're paying that Solar Company some money but it's not equaling what the bill would have been that you just told us is constantly Rising so uh why don't we see any kind of offset there because um obviously if we're paying them $100,000 a year what what are we saving that when that when that um solar panels were installed they did a savings initiative based on what the cost was um I don't have that uh with me right now but I could dig that up I don't know exactly what that savings is and my last question would be do we know if all our solar panels are actually working are there any that are damaged that are not actually producing um anything to help us with the cost and I asked that because I experienced that this summer where three panels weren't working and the electric bill was extremely high and the um company who we paid the solar panels to didn't tell us that they weren't working but they did come out and and replace them so do all our solar panels work yeah they come out every six months to look at them so you think that they're all working now did you say I didn't know they weren't working they come out every six months to look at them so we have no indication that none of them aren't working correct they never indicated that none aren't working well we would certainly hope that that all set something but we don't seem to know what thank you thank you any others I'll move on to Porter solic Mr long items were discussed in executive session this evening Mr Marks thank you sir move on to 6.0 reported to superintendent Miss buo thank you Mr Marks good evening again everybody um under 6.1a uh there is a discussion item um Grant hilan who is our supervisor of student sport Services uh is here to uh make a brief presentation regarding the 2324 which was last school Year's any booing Bill rights uh self assessment that our staff has uh produced so Mr hillbrand welcome good evening everybody um yes so each year by law each school has to submit a self assessment report regarding our imple implementation of the anti-bullying bill right tack in your agenda you'll see our total overall scores for each of our schools on our website under student Support Services uh there's a link and it has all of our full reports listed on there uh between now and December 9th when the next board agenda is due there will be some time where uh edits and adjustments can be made so if there is anything that is an accurate working with the schools but this is an open uh form for during this time for anybody to make any uh suggestions or ask any questions to get the accuracy of these down I put my email on there so if anybody does have any suggestions or they do want to have a discussion about it they can reach out to me and I'll work with the anti-bullying specialist and the school climate committee to make those uh accurate uh adjustments just a couple things uh this is the first year that I've been in this position that all of our scores uh were above a 70 uh Max score is a 78 and we have been increasing two years ago we are at a 70. 7 last year we're at a 71.8 this is District uh uh average and this year we're at a 73.2 s um overall so I'll be here for the end if anybody has any questions any questions for the board thank you Mr thank you grant um so with the balance of my report this evening I'd like to ask for consent resolutions for items 6.2a through 6 six n as a Nancy there o no have an N mine no you [Music] get there was a revised there was a revision may I have a motion a second please so moved second any questions roll call please Mr skick yes Mr given uh yes Mrs Skil yes Miss Gore yes M Johnson yes Mr Marks yes we'll move move on to the report of the business administrator yes under consent agenda asking for a board's approval of 7.0 through 7.7 a may I have a motion in second please so mov second any questions I had a question on the the forklift um was there multiple quotes on on forklifts I think they reached out to uh a comparable quote that was on their estate contract I don't know if they got multiple quotes on it gotcha and then I guess the only other question that I haven't already asked you the $44,000 in the um 7.7a wasn't it lower than 44 before or was that the was that the threshold 7.7 what 7.7a be threshold uh for the business office standing operating procedures in there the the dollar amount for getting multiple quotes like the 62,000 over that's set every five years by the governor so it's due to up soon actually well I thought we had lower though than we did at some point have it lower than what the governor head Mr uh Gibbons is referring to the fact when the district does not have a qualified purchasing agent in place that amount does go down by that same statute so that's what the reference is but since we have a qpa it goes up to the uh amount what is that amount it's 44 down it goes up every five years by the governor I think next year it'll go up again especially based off of what inflation's been okay W any other questions yes um regarding the the forklift um is this something that is necessary is it something that we could do shared services with black horse pipe or gler Township oh that forklift is used every day in that building if you've ever been in that warehouse um yeah it's every day I we got estimates to repair it at $5 to $8,000 just wasn't worth it it's from the 70s that that forklift that we have in there okay and forklift last a very long time sure okay thank you shared service not trying to move around be a little bit of a challenge yeah any other questions roll call please uh Mrs gck yes Mr giv I I'm voting no on check 1351 96 and check 135 325 and I believe everything else I already cleared up with you so yes on the balance as I noted Mrs gilch yes Miss Gore yes M Johnson I'm going to abstain on check number [Music] 13523 yes on the balance as noted Mr Marks yes we're going to move on to 8.0 old business Mr bu uh thank you Mr Marx I have two items I just wanted to uh uh update the Board of Education that um uh as you recall I had uh for the week of the New Jersey teachers convention um asked for that one Friday off for staff uh there seem to be some confusion with uh people with our some folks within our rank that don't believe that um as the board insisted that all staff get that um day off uh by the time the approval had come however Mr Umar U had put in place certain specific improvements for a building that we needed all uh facility and maintenance staff um available so um at my request Mr Umar met with the union and uh they collaborated on kind of a floater day as it were so the board would make do on what they wanted and so that letter was issued on the 4th of November to all staff I have copies here for the board if you want to see it um and they have uh Union has elected the 26th of December to be the day off in lie of November 8th so um I uh I will send that to the three board members who want hear not Mr Mark so there's U transparency thank you and Clarity um can you email to me too I don't like paper email you don't like paper no you can email uh one other thing I just wanted to um uh for the good of the order the uh last month a member of the public talked about um goal number four not being met uh in their opinion goal number four from last year which was a district goal um read as follows great more opportunities to engage parents and caregivers in their students educational process um I um after the meeting went back and took a look at that um and had um once again sent to the Board of Education the different um building based family engagement activities of that number 293 for the 2023 24 school year so in regards to whether goal number four was met or not um in my opinion it was satisfactory that I do believe the member of the public was referring to something else uh but I certainly don't think it was related to goal number four from last year so I just wanted to make that clear to the board thank you oh I have copies of the 293 items that our schools put together up here if anyone wants me thank you we're move on to new business Miss buo um not at this time thank you we're going to move on to public comments speak okay Dorothy Hope Deo as of November the 6 I was terminated by Gloucester Township Schools after 37 years of service uh I did hand out some copies of the letters that I received from Mr Belo I have plenty more at home um but uh the one I I started to highlight some things uh notice the termination uh the basis of this correspondence is to notify you that the district will be terminating your employment respective 30 days from the date of this letter Mr Deo you read this to us last month as well I'm sorry you read this to us last month and it's it was already in the record because there's different people here now but they can watch the video from last month um if you have anything new you want to share with us that's fine but these are Personnel records as well as letters that have already been read into the record um if you got understand but if it's my three minutes and I should be able to say what no that's not true it is we can you have already made that comment anybody who wants to check out that video and what she said can re can go back and watch last month's meeting okay well my time is ticking uh let's get to policy gluster Township Board of Education policy 4161 now that policy was enacted on in December 2023 I came out of the hospital in November 2023 now why would Gloucester Township Schools Anda the policy the month after I came out of the hospital I'm a par professional you Mr Belo you've been superintendent well over 10 years so why didn't you enact why didn't the Board of Education Mr Belo and so forth why wasn't that policy enacted years ago why was it enacted a month after I came out of the hospital makes it quite obvious that that policy was meant for me most certainly was not meant for you I would like an answer from Mr Bell why uh why he did that sure so make an answer actually we have a third party administrator called you buy all you want some let him speak I'm trying to answer the question the board of education has a policy committee you're not the Board of Education let him speak let him speak one of the tasks of a board of education in the state of New Jersey is to set policy period could you only the board could you I'm sorry could you speak closer to the mic only the Board of Education sets policies they meet as a group they then bring those things forward that are advisor Strauss Esme and that December date is not a new policy but a recommendation from our third party administrator that there have been tweaks and changes in the law and to remain current as a public Public School District they as a board had a first reading and then a second reading to keep their policies current and it just so happens that that policy was adopted December 2023 a month after I got out of the hospital and this policy is your minutes is up I would like to see if there's anybody else am I allowed to speak three minutes is up I will bring you back up after I go through the audience thank you we'll call you back up we have you're G to call me back up when everybody else has had the chance to speak you will yes all right thank any other comments yes sir hey D my name is Steve bavuso my son's a uh student in the district but he's currently out of District special needs I believe um in the past couple meetings it was brought up about the special education parent advisory group that is non-existent within our district it was brought to the board from my understanding from other parents and I was just uh here to see was it brought up if it wasn't brought up I'm bringing it up and if it's not enacted why it hasn't been enacted and how do we go forward to enact it good evening Mr buo um actually Dr Martin spoke of that uh meeting you're referring to I think cpag uh that is something that Dr Martin spoke at length last month at am Allen School uh parent meetings uh did exist she explained what was uh done last year for parents including a survey uh she has created a schedule of the same parent group meetings for this school year uh I believe they are on the district's website uh the first meeting I know will be uh the 10th of December and I believe it's going to be in this room and start at 6:30 the other dates are in January and March of 2025 and I think more information would be uh rendered from our department of special services but I just want to give you a quick rendition of what this year's schedule meetings is is that so the term used is that the same as the parent group to discuss yes sir all right appreciate it you any other comments yes ma'am Amy Ortiz from clemon uh just want to put it on the record I uh missed last month's meeting because I was unaware that you guys changed locations as Dena Hendry previously stated the website isn't very user friendly um and I don't know if you remember but on the mom with the twins we have yet still to receive a tutor this and uh continue to get it ignored by Dr Martin and her office I had a similar uh question about the seg peg uh from what I understand these meetings that Dr Martin put together are not the seag they are interest meetings and not necessarily the advisory council meeting the parent advisory council is that correct according to Dr Martin these are the parent group meetings for the district that's not not what fso is saying because according to my understanding fso is supposed to be at December's meeting and they're saying that there is no parent advisory group that this is an interest meeting meaning that for the parents that are interested in starting this because if you recall if you recall two months ago at the meeting that I attended at that time there was not a uh special education parent Advisory Group in service two months ago is that correct because when the question came up everybody was like dear in headlights actually Dr Martin has been having the meetings with special ed parents four years and I don't know exactly the labels you're referencing but she continues to have those meetings okay she had them a year ago there were surveys put out and she responded to what parents asked for at the meetings so those scheduled meetings last year from what I was told and what Dr Martin delivered last month so okay as a mother we may be you know bogged out in nomenclature and titles and labels but there are avenues for parents of special needs students to come and collaborate here in Gloucester Township and Dr Martin's going to be part of that the first is December 10th okay as a mother of special needs twins that have moved here just three years ago my boys are nine years old the district does not do much service for new parents or kids coming into the school system of advising us or informing us of these things I was very unaware and very unprepared moving into New Jersey of exactly the fight that I have to do in order for my kids to get the services they deserve and are legally entitled to um and again two months ago the uh group was brought up and at that time I was told and the was informed that there was no such meeting there was no such group and uh the woman Fanny had come in from another District uh expressing interest in starting one and from everybody that at that meeting two months ago was aware there is no active s p a on record in gluster Township as of two months ago because everybody here including Dr Martin had stated that you will look into it but I've never never been invited to a meeting and a lot of parents of special Edge kids from that meeting and last month we have no notification of any group any advisory meeting I was here last school year when Dr Martin did put on um a thing and it was actually a college student that needed to do that for her degree putting on the special ed and everything I was here that was the one and only time I was notified of any special ed reach out anything Mr buildo I know you did update the the website can we put that on there under vents actually uh I appreciate you bringing that up Mr Marks to to your point uh and to the resident point I did uh receive a communication from Dr Martin today regarding this and uh the topic of an announcement to to all parents uh was kind of pressed and that will be forthcoming I don't have that flyer or that announcement here tonight I thought it be better out for all of special needs Services who to reach out to where can we go to if we have grievances I know we have like the prize and stuff and the uh um uh pre inappropriate education and rights law I we have those Avenues but for the district specifically and the events and the meetings and stuff that you guys are supposed to notify parents of how is it email is it letters is it Flyers how does the district notify special education or special needs parents of these events well if I were doing it and I would recommend this to Dr Martin on this particular communication I would first send a text out to parents letting them know that they're going to receive an email and with that email that would have more detail than we can put into a text uh would be an attached uh flyer that's how I would do it that's what I'm going to speak to Dr Martin She's just away from the district and so when she comes back um this is going to be something that uh obviously we will place a priority on please because a lot of parents the lack of information on how to do things how to approach things and where to go is much to be desired it really is and I'm hoping that the new people coming in that's one of the things that they help fix thank you appreciate your comments thank you thanks yes that wasn't really a topic that I wanted to speak on but cpeg I I have had two children with IEPs in this district and they went through preschool through eighth grade and now they are in high school cpeg is not what our District offers ceg is a parent driven group and it's mandated by the state it can consist of parents on this um committee Group whatever you want to call it they call it a group it consists of a parent or several parents a board member if a board member would like to be on it um it can consist of children who have had IEPs and moved on like my older uh grandsons are um it it's a group of everyone including Dr Martin or any administrator you know from from her office so it's a group Dr Martin holds every year what is supposed to be an s SRO generated um from the county and it's it's more of a seminar where she sends out letters and she invites parents of special needs children to come so when they're asking these questions that I heard last month and this month they are not one in the same um function now maybe over the years the county has come out with uh allowing that program to suffice as this group I don't know but there isn't anything written anywhere that substantiates that there may be but nothing that can be found you know in research online so I know what cpeg is and we seem to be a little bit um um I don't know confused as to what the two things are but they are not the same thing yes that's a great program I know she sends it out I know that uh all parents are invited and don't come or don't hear about it for whatever their reason is that they didn't hear about it uh and she's even tried to entice people to come to it so I'm not against that I'm just saying that more research maybe can be done to see that whether they really are the same program today but they weren't uh and that was wasn't really what I wanted to ask for my question but that's just my advice having had two kids what I wanted to ask about was um what I saw on the bill list last month and I didn't bring it up under agenda because it's last month and this month where we paid uh Brett denovi and it says for Aid Services five M can you answer that Dr Martin here I cannot answer that I will tell you they are not employees of the district they are paid services but I can I I understand that they're not employees I was just wondering how many I don't know the answer okay great thank you thank you m Fritz m going Denise coin um I just would like to seek some clarification on on what Terry brought up from what I heard we pay $100,000 for solar panels correct a year I mean that's the estimate maybe a little bit more but around that for 15 years is that for all schools or just this school oh no it's not just this school it's all schools most schools yeah all SCH okay and our electric bill has tripled yeah well the price of electric has gone up and it's going to go up again because we just got notified so yes and we don't know how much our solar panels are saving us I told her I didn't know at the moment but I will find that out bco can you ask all your questions at one time so then Mr MCO you can answer setad of a Q&A going back and forth please well his aners s takes my next question um my last question which I just forgot give me a second um oh so and we're also not sure if they're all working know where that came from well she said she said hers aren't working but ours are working well I mean if our electric bills have tripled and we're paying $100,000 a year for solar panels and our solar panels are supposed to be saving us on electric power I think it would be prudent to make sure that they all are functioning yeah there's a company that comes out every six months and makees sure they're working nobody said they weren't working I understand that but you don't know that they are it's my point I mean I'm not qualified to go out there but isn't that a reason we have someone look at them yeah but every months may not be enough well I mean that was what was included I'm sure we could pay for it and have people come out and look but all right so I do understand correctly every six months they come out and check and make sure they're working yes so we could have one that goes out when they leave and it's not fog shooting for six months that would be true I have one question on that if they do have a panel that just happens to be bad did they give you notification that they replace that or not I I don't get it maybe Sonic gets it I don't think okay but I mean it seems to me if I had solar panels on my roof like Terry said and one of them stopped working you would notice it in your bill but if we don't even know how the solar panels are saving us money how would anybody even know that 10 of them aren't even working I guess is my point yeah that's probably a good point but I would assume that that's part of the contract that they're monitoring that I mean that's who monitors it they we they they're probably monitoring it for us the company that comes out the company that we're paying the $100,000 to part of their service yes okay thank you Mr M can you get with Mr Umar and see if he's ever got any type of documents a faulty yes this a very hot topic I'll make sure I get involved in that thank you any others Mr Le all right getting back to what I was saying Dorothy Hope Deo um this is a letter from Mr BAU dated October 7th just hold tight uh it's telling me that my medical benefits uh will be terminated on uh November 30th okay my health benefits now I want to know I want to ask the board are my health benefits going to terminate on November 30th man we can't discuss Personnel matters out here they we cannot answer those questions publicly the information no problem with anybody saying anything it pertains to me it doesn't matter we do not have the ability to do that need to know because even though I have 37 years in I have 24 years seven months contracted I realize you need 25 now I haven't been told that I can buy the seven months back I need to know because I have to have medical benefits after November 30th the last sentence of that letter indicates that if you have any questions or comments contact Mr Bilo's office we cannot discuss Mr B's office that's correct useless it's useless I please don't smile Dan I I know you please don't been smile me and you too you're pathetic we don't M we don't name we don't not name well the these are important things that pertain to me and I don't need people have grins on their faces that's not right nobody's grinning you're reading into that um getting back to policy number 4160 one all right this is support sta it's three pages Examination for CA this was enacted a month after I got out of the hospital I got out of the hospital November 2023 the date of this is December 2023 and I I had asked when I was here at the microphone previously how come this policy wasn't in effect years ago it was it gets updated from time to time as the law constantly evolves as Mr Bido explained we have a third-party vendor Strauss Esme which sends policy updates to the policy committee who enacts them with the Board of Education correlation does not equal causation I would like a copy of the previous policy I would like a copy of that I want to see how it was updated because it's so coincidental that this policy was enacted a month after I came out of the hospital um it it was a reason to get rid of me I understand uh the day I came back to Union Valley was the first week in March I had 103 sick days I didn't even use my 103 sick days but when I came back the first day the harassment started the hostile work environment I documented so much um and then it's supposed to be that I was not that people weren't able to work with me I came back uh three 20 year olds were in there in the library and a 75y old woman was in there working Tuesdays and Wednesdays she could barely walk I don't know whose mother mother-in-law grandmother she was but these three young kids all they did was stand around on their phones I documented everything um you know they just had to set me up and that's exactly what they did I Know What You Did you were good at it or you or so you thought and and uh Marcado Marcado called me into Theo I want to see if anybody else has speak and I'm gonna bring you back up your three minutes is up I'm sorry your three minutes is up I'm gonna see if anybody else wants to speak and I'll bring you back up of course it is thank you any other comments Please Mr Leo go go nobody else's nobody else want to speak you don't have to start the thir three weeks after I came back from sickle ricado Mr ricado called me into the conference room at Union Valley along with uh Tracy Elwell uh Kim Curry the assistant principal and uh Jina Rodriguez the union rep and you know Mr micado wanted me to fill out four or five pages of you've told Mr Le you've told us the story on at least three separate occas it Bears repeating because uh I'm I'm the one unemployed now nobody else is unemployed I am and everything needs to be heard because if it's done to me was it done previously will be done in the future to others it has to be out Dan it has to be out so I was called in the conference room and uh for a meeting three weeks after I came back and the setup began it All Began they wanted four or five pieces of paper filled out by me by the end of the day and Tracy Elwell brought those papers into the library I'm working in the back of the library she brought them into the library and she said I need these return to me by the end of the day and she said I had no part in this and I already knew what was going on I knew what was going on from the day I came back um you know when this goes into court and I'm sure well uh certainly your prerogative what that's certainly your prerogative to bring it in court but we can't talk about go where it has to go because you you can sit there and you know what what you did I I don't know how you go I don't know how you live like this I really don't you know I'm a 37e employee and you know I never ever you look at my record I never had a problem you came on you and Mado came on board board and let me tell you I don't know one person out of 950 employees that like him and I really can't say I know anybody that likes you feel like I need something to drink one um you may want to get me out of here I'm a taxpayer and lost your Township I own that huge piece of property behind Union Valley he pulled me Mr B pulled me into a meeting down the township and he told me it was he and I'm sitting across from him next to him is his secretary I don't know why she was there and next to me was Jina Rodriguez he looked at me and said you were not to go in Union Valley you were not to go in the parking lot of Union Valley and I said to you I own the property behind Union Valley am I allowed in in the woods 1581 Acres belongs to me I paid $23,000 a year taxes on that property how dare you talk to me like that you're the superintendent you have yourself up here marcado's got himself up here everybody else is is down here and all you want to do is ramp onon us makes you feel good when you go home at night doesn't it that's SLO if you make want to make a point make a point about your employment please stop attacking Mr V and Mr Marcado if you want to make your point make your point 25 please let me know when we're at those Max I think we all know what the point is I mean if I don't make a point how many more how many more employees in back in May is this going to happen to 37 years I was only going to stay the most two more years you forced my hand you backed me into a corner and I came out fighting now I believe you are in a corner don't think you're getting out of this one I didn't deserve any of this my record is Crystal Clean Crystal Clean This policy 4161 that was made that was uh adopted it says adopted December 2023 Examination for cause we all know what that means right then and there month after I came out the hospital o we got to we got to do something we got to make sure she doesn't come back to work of course I came back to work I know what my job is and I do it extremely well I had 1036 days saved I didn't even use them all I came back to work and the harassment started it started and they poured it on thick at least 10 of them in that building starts from the office Trac YW the librarian Joan lucier did I deserve to be treated like that you're the superintendent you signed all these papers are do it did I deserve to be treated like that after 37 years of faithful and loyal service that I deserve to be treated like that how much do you know me I'm asking you a question how much do you know he cannot answer the question we cannot discuss Personnel that's all I am it's Mike bahka my my track record ask any of them I'm a damn hard worker and I'm a loyal worker you come on board Ricardo comes on board we're going to get oh 37 years got get rid of her oh she got sick oh perfect opportunity there nobody nobody's gonna talk highly of you nobody how do you do this to to your employees Mrs how do you do not this is not the time to tee off on the superintendent if you want to make your comments and express you're concern that's fine we don't name call we don't do any of that I understand you're grieved you have the right to feel the way you want to feel but you can't sit there and berate him to his face like that it's just not gonna happen What can I do what you've done the last six months you've made your comments you are allowed to comment we can regulate what the comments are especially when it comes to personal counts you've come to every meeting in the last six month as is your right and you've expressed your concern we cannot discuss anything Personnel wise out here we've made that clear to you the whole time if you want to take this wherever you want to go that is your right as well oh that that's my right it is your right the the sem uh belittling uh letters I have a stack of them in home I couldn't I have a stack of them you know it was like every week go into my mailbox and take a more out you know what you were doing that's harassment in itself you know me you know me I'm not like this I'm a damn hard worker you're pathetic that's enough Mrs DEA move on please all right we're gonna close the public comments move on to board member comments I'd just like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for coming out any others I just wanted to say congratulations to the safety patrol the njsh officers um I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and get home safe any others yeah I just wanted uh congratulate the star students um it's always great to see the kids come out um I I did want to also um I guess get to the bottom of what this group is that people keep asking about and what the differences are so that we can put that to bed um I'm you know hearing both different sides and kind of makes sense me little confusing right it's you Dr Martin did explain that like she put it out there for people to come and join you can't force people to join maybe at that point in time there wasn't interest in it from the public and maybe now there is so maybe now something can start so hopefully that can you know help put this to bed here um other than that yeah hope everybody has a Happy Thanksgiving thanks for coming out you too Mr any others i' like to wish everybody a happy holidays and thank you for coming out good night everybody may have a motional journ please all in favor hi good night