##VIDEO ID:cXXid9PFz6Q## yeah yeah I don't think three minutes can be enough uh no so he's coming I know we texted earlier today oh okay we can kill some time I'll just start never we're not doing our training he's coming okay uh I'd like to call the organizational meeting of the hopo Valley Regional School District to order uh the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the Hop Valley Regional Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof communicated to the hop Valley News and the times on January 4th 2024 this meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Horizon FiOS the board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education the uh meeting is being recorded for the purpose of Board review future reference preparation of the minutes and viewing on YouTube Bulldog TV and the school district website www.hvs.org please join me in a flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice okay so I am uh Robert CV the board Secretary of the H Valley Regional Board of Education and this is the one meeting of the Year where I preside over the meeting until the board has a president and a vice actually just a president um this is a unique time of year that Boards of education do not have leadership they are reorganizing or actually organizing tonight there's no such thing as a reorganization it's just an organizational meeting where they um set their business for the year so what the first uh order of business we have tonight is to report the election results from November 5th 2024 uh where the board had five seats uh cont tested we had in hopeall Township two threeyear terms uh the winners uh were jacquel and genoves with 7,24 votes and Drew capadia with 5,135 votes those two individuals will be serving three-year terms in hopal Township we also had a one we had a 2-year unexpired term which was won by John slotman with 7,000 , 455 votes we also had a one-year unexpired term which will be filled by Amanda stanu uh with she received 213 votes she was a right-in candidate and was the high wrin winner on that so those are the four seats we had uh from hul Township we also had one three-year seat uh in Pennington burrow and that seat was uh won by incumbent Alex Resnik with 1,321 votes so that uh will be our five new or some new some re uh being reelected members of our board um turnout actually for this election uh interesting we had 68% uh turnout in both hopel Township and Pennington burrow pretty significant hopel bur only had 58% turnout so just some interesting facts there what I'd like to do now is administer the both of office to our five new board members who will meet me at the podium in the back this [Music] States I will be and Al the United States theic office MiFi as aifi as red per all [Applause] Ang yet everybody in the pool out of the not yet in congratulations to all of you it's a big commitment for all guys we appreciate supp okay that takes care of the swearing in part if you noticed I did not take the role yet because we did not have those members sworn in yet so we'll now take the role and officially open the meeting Dr genovas here Mr kapaia here Dr Liston here Mr Peters uh here Dr Resnik here Mr slotman here Dr Sano here and M Williams gallano here we do have a quarum okay the next order of business is uh and my last would be the election of the president I will call for nominations for the office of board president no second is necessary at the close of nominations I will take a roll call vote of each member asking you to State your selection for board president if there is only one nomination I will conduct The Voice vote of y's Nays or extensions once a president has been elected I will step down as temporary chair of this meeting and pass the gavel to the newly elected president will then conduct the election for the office of Vice President in the same manner um I am now opening the floor for nominations for president of the hopo valley Board of educ ucation I nominate Miss Anita Williams Balano there any other nominations okay seeing none we now uh vote Mr kadia yes Dr Liston yes Mr Peters yes Dr Resnik yes Mr slotman hi Dr Sano yes Dr geny and William Gano yes right congratulations welcome back as president thank you put it back thank you everyone for reelection in regard to the election of the vice president role I will call for nominations to the office of Vice President no second is necessary at the close of nominations I will take a roll call vote of each member asking to State your selection for board vice president if there's only one nomination I will conduct a Voice vote of y's Nays or abstention this will conclude the election of year of officers for the 2025 calendar year nominations please I'd like to nominate Dr genovisi any others seeing none voice yeah okay all in favor I any opposed or abstaining seeing none thank you Dr [Applause] jevy reminders um so we can get back into our reorganization um and training um just a a few reminders that I will be doing my uh referendum budget talks at all of the PTO meetings um over the next couple of weeks this week I will be at Stony Brook tomorrow at 7 o'clock that is an in-person uh meeting at Stonybrook um please check the details of your PTO newsletters um for the parents of hotall Elementary I will be present at 8:45 I think they have inperson and virtual option for that one and then on Thursday at 7 o'clock um I will be at um let me click on this one everywhere I'm everywhere um at tolgate grammar and that is in person I believe in their Media Center so again check your PTO flashes uh for those locations our next board meeting for those of you who do not do not have students currently in school or if you just like to attend and get tours of the buildings the first uh on tour meeting we will have it will be January 27th at Bear Tavern Elementary School we'll start at 5:30 with a tour of the facilities for anyone who's interested and then we will have the meeting afterwards in their cafeteria it'll be a great event we're going to be celebrating our Educators and support people of the year we are also going to be having a little surprise for the board as it is the national month to recognize school board so they a little surprise for you um yes so we look forward to seeing you all there okay thank you Dr tce um I do not have a report today but um we will move on to our annual board ethics training and we will welcome our favorite legal consult thank so before Paul gets started I gave um each board member on your name tag had a acknowledgement of receipt of the code uh code of ethics for school board members if you could sign that and send it around if I don't already have it um this is an annual requirement that we present you with the code of ethics um you acknowledge receipt of it and not it's not necessarily to be done tonight but uh during the year you do need to receive some form of Ethics training um either by me we typically do it um with Mr Green um as he is an expert in this area and has a always a fun uh question and answer period at the end of it so without further Ado Paul we turn it over to you um to educate the board on the dos and don'ts you have the projector going here and you want me to hold question sure actually feel free to ask you as we go along problem my computer crash it times out I came in here I came in here early to get it up and it crashed it never faed I have no idea oh is it one of those oh well Bob is getting that going start I I could read so we're talking about the school ethics Act this evening fun topic but it's important topic um basically in our representative form of government it is essential that the conduct of members of Bo of Education uh and their administrators uh hold respect and confidence of the people the key here is to avoid conflict or conduct which is a violation of public trust or which creates a justifiable impression among the public that such trust viol that is a key factor that the school eics Commission of looks at um in terms of conduct doesn't necessarily have to be a conflict uh it can create a depression it's just VI so to whom does the ACT apply it applies to all of you as board members it applies to managerial employee of officers of the school boards Association uh and to most of your school administrators superintendent business administrator typically principal well will be covered as school officials Cod of Ethics itself only applies to board separate code of ethics that applies to look at that a little bit why are we talking about this tonight because we must U regulation njac administrative requires each District Board of Education to discuss annually the school ethics act and code of ethics pursuant to statute that a reg public meeting what we're doing although we're more having discuss [Music] so we have the ethics act itself which has two sections one is the uh areas of prohibited acts which addresses direct conflict of interest that you have a board bylaw your policy 0142 uh which covers that and then the second section is your code of ethics so there section section one prohibition get close where you have an interest in a business organization uh or engaging in any business transaction or activity in substantial conflict with the proper discharge conduct duties using or attempting to use your position to secure unwarranted privileges uh that word unwarranted is important because you can sometimes seek to secure privileges for others uh in your family that are no different than anybody else in the public an unwarranted using your office essentially to get a special privilege for a family member acting in your official capacity in any manner where you or a member of your immediate family have a direct or indirect Financial involvement that might reasonably care expect your OB no person no school official or business organization which you have an interest may represent any person or party other than the board or District to connect with that matter pending for the district however you do have a right to represent your own children um in any matters inside the district uh thesea your role as a parent and their role now we have the code of ethics Provisions section two uh very important this is really the reason you're here essentially you will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of the children that is the load story that's the guid poost you will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed color sex and these are directly out of the statute next slide I will confine my board action this is your role as a board you are not here to run the schools we're here to see that schools are well run your role is policymaking planning and appraising so you will help frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by so that consultation slide we talk about policymaking planning and Appraisal board members formulate the programs and methods to effectuate the goals of the school district that's done through committees you have standing committees and ad hoc committee standing are your regular monthly committees that review the basic business ad hoc are special committees that are created on an ASD basis uh and then cease to exist once their work is completed you may only discuss and act on things items at a duly convened public meeting so no one has individual Authority as a board member the only time you have authority sitting at thisable able at a duly advertised code of ethics provision section D I will carry up my responsibility not to administer the school and you have an Administration that they run they run the district together with your fellow board members you are to see that they are well-run that is your obligation as policy now in order to prove a violation of this particular provision it's necessary to showed that uh the respondent who is the answering party at a complaint gave a direct order to school Personnel or became directly involved in activities or functions that are the responsibility of school Personnel for day-to-day Administration we'll see some examples of that as we go along but again the key is you cannot give a direct order to any school personally you have no authority to do that their job is to run the your job is to oversee it as a board not so for example uh this case goes back in 2005 board member asked for copies of s reports directly guidance secretary uh inspected lockers took it upon himself don't Locker lockers report back up saw and instructed staff on the so that was clearly a violation slide ministering to schools so individual board members may not give direct orders to the administration so how do I ask questions of administration well you may ask questions relative to the process by which recommendation being made typically that's done at a meeting meting you may engender conversations the board meeting or regarding a recommended action or uh you may ask the board president to return the recommended action to the committee you can actually make what's called a motion to commit if uh the board feels that U something is coming before them for an adoption or approval uh and they don't have sufficient information um you can actually make a motion to commit or you can informally agree set back to the committee for further study and recommendation that's the process you may as the board or as a committee direct the administration to perform certain tasks stud analysis Etc so long as they're consistent with your role in policym planning appraisal or if those tasks are consistent with the board's goal or the goal sets again no individual board member should be doing this should be done by the board as a whole or by the board or its committee charg Administration request to perform those tasks you cannot take it I will recognize that Authority rests with the board I will make no personal promises you have to be very careful talking to members of the public um to make any promises to do something even look into anything um that's not your role again your role represent the district to see it but not to make promises to people nor to take private action that they compromise the board private action is action outside of the role your role as a board member actual evidence of violation evidence that you made personal promises or took action beyond the scope of your duties which by its nature had the potential to compromise frankly there are times might take private action that might might apply because didn't have the potential compromis the board but that's not a RIS next slide I will hold confidential sorry I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment special groups or to use schools for personal gain or to gain friends very important that um you as elected an elected official must use your own independent judgment um you are not to U basically surrender that judgment to outside groups whether it be a special parent group uh it beo it could be political groups um any outside group essentially that seeks to influence you you can listen to them certainly take under advisement whatever information they have to give you but you must exercise your own independence you cannot really basically refuse you cannot surrender judge slide this is crucial um probably one of the biggest there the two biggest ethics areas that we see is are one administering school try to basically micromanage District uh and this one confidentiality I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which have disclosed would needlessly injure individuals in schools in all other matters I will provide accurate information a lot of people get burned on that last one by the way because they puts out not be accurate uh and whether or not they should have put it out if it's inaccurate held to have violated section confidentiality crucial you will hear things in executive session you will have access to information pertain to colletive associations could a student matter employee staff matter um all of those things need to remain in the room where they're discussed discussed in that room SP not even accidentally uh reveal or relase that information any uh including sometimes other board members if you have information about a student matter for example um and you reveal that to other board members that is an ethic you have information that goes Super I will support and school personnel and proper performance of their duties so it's your obligation to basically support and protect your Administration superintendent business administrator everybody uh if there's evidence that you took deliberate action which resulted in undermining opposing compromis fing School Personnel the proper performance their that's I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer that you superintendent want to PL so all complaints if you receive a complaint you reported to Dr um you will act on complaints at public meetings only after failure of administrative which means that uh you do not take any action on your own to try to resolve a complaint you do not go for example uh to the principal and see if you can resolve something or anyone else take it right to the superintendent and it ends there unless there's a continuing issue it doesn't get resolved there's no administrative solution then at a public meeting the ire board matter almost never occur typically is an administrative that occurs some yes um so I thought that the appropriate procedure here was to prer the parent or Community member to talk to the appropriate personnel not for us to go to the Super you can you can respond that way if it's an inquiry essenti somebody I have a particular problem um you can respond to follow the chain ofand and so example for example if you're having an issue you should start with corre talk to the teacher then you can go to the principal and then take it up but if there's a specific complaint that that involves something a little different in terms of not necessarily issue parent teacher issue um those should be referred to what I would recommend you do um even if you tell people to follow that J of command still report so that she's aware that that has somebody didn't that way you're covered up now the corollary to that the next slide is code doesn't explain how you refer the complaint to the chief so you can either make the referral by the board member directly to the administrator or you can direct the constituent to go direct so those are the two options terms of that but you're you're right that if it's a particular matter that involves the school itself yes yes who can file a complaint ethic complaint anyone any person may file a complaint however a board of education not like which operations or people uh Boards of Education the school ethics commission as may not file complaints but any person may file a complaint there's a six-month statute of limitation filing the only entity that can determine whether a school official conduct violated the ACT school have a body that's established at the Department of Education and they have they've made very clear that Boards of Education have no authority over board members that conduct is relies them you can request an advisory opinion from the SEC about your own conduct or someone else's proposed force of conduct um any school official May request an advisory opinion about your own conduct uh if it revolves involves another school official you have to copy that school official that person they file on and we do see that a lot aoup while [Music] um how long right now they are seriously backed up they are I've never asked right um well if you need if you need a quick answer you're not going to get it's going to take several months so it's not it's not a practical right tool for figuring out if you are if you have an immediate yeah if you're in a situation where you're tryo that is not the way to go well it's the it's the only way to go short of you you can ask me certainly for right but it's not a practical yeah you need you need to have a lot of advanced planning you're going to go there if you have a specific situation you have the luxury of of additional time to think about yeah but if you need an answer with 30 days take EAS um in terms of complaints that they're deal they're they're very back but oftentimes that's why OB if you have a question by all means take it through Administration to me right so that's the other is we can ask you but that has to go right yeah any any in we have to go through the board president president in terms of that and we'll you know we'll give the best advice we can I mean key is you know sometimes there's no clear answer just what we think the they tend to be pretty strict heing but sometimes there will be a clear answer sometimes there will be advisor opinion something do it you can also ask school boards Association they can't give you legal advice but right but they can they can give you their opinion in terms of what their their take on is at the end of the day that may help you uh if you talk to the attorney Andor the school boards that may help with the if do wind up violating the act that certainly helps to have opinion that that this was permissible conduct they will often times reduce penalty that kind of so it's always good to have there are a variety of sanctions uh they really only vary in terms of of perception more than anything else the least of the them is reprimand you know that again kind of ruling Cent is more serious uh basically designed really s a stronger message and centry gets ratted a public meeting and post around the district um suspension obviously is you know they can actually suspend a member from from the board uh and the most significant penalty is removal they can remove a board member that doesn't stop the bo member from running again getting nected but it does remove you also should be aware of the school ethics commission uh Financial disclosures uh which new board members must file within 30 days of being sworn in uh and Mr P off assist that uh if you're a returning School official it has to be honored 30th the board secretary puts the names uh on the list of school officials but it's your responsibility to confirm that your name's been added uh and that you complete the form uh and this is basically a financial disclosure form to reveal any Financial uh potential conflict of may have they are public records they actually are reviewed and approved by the this I've just put in just for a just a flag um in terms of conflicts uh obviously we're not going to go through this whole thing but just be aware that if you have a relative which at this point for the purposes of this any relative ask the question whether you know no matter how remote the relationship cousin third cousin REM whatever if you have a relative who basically is either employed in this District or um is involved member of a collective negotiation Association in another school dist uh you have a potential conflict of interest colle you have a relative floyed in this District prior to your coming to the board you are also not permitted to participate in any way evaluation or any other discussion so just so you're aware that there is this uh this chart that the ethic commission put together that kind of lays out the potential conflicts in terms of you know what your relative is whether they're employed elsewhere just be aware that you know if if you're asked to participate in Collective negotiation have somebody relative employed inct minutes uh well yes uh very quickly you said any employed by any District any District any any any school district well any District in which the um the njaa or the AF uh represents so if if you had a private school where the AF the represent um it would apply to that as but it's primarily school and only within the state only within the state yeah so free speech issue you have a First Amendment right to express yourself however there uh are Provisions under the ethic that limit or put some restraints on that ability you uh may not disclose information which is in accurate is confidential or has the potential to compromise board um Ty ly kind of confidential and potential compromise go hand in hand um also very clear that whatever you put out there must be accurate so question somebody ask you question somebody asked question how do you think that's an right yeah think we're doing great you also uh as part of this you should not publicly certi your staff either you know speaking to other people who are at a board question yeah so at what point is the board members different from so when we were all asked for reelection by mer much every local news source a question that is similar to how we doing I think we were given what's the grade we would give board um are we supposed to respond to that say that we can't board ethics or are we in speak well that you can say I'm speaking not as a board member you're going to see that in a second see I'm not speaking as a board member I'm speaking as as a private individual and not from my perspective as a board member but from a exactly you may not represent your personal opinion as the position of the board so anything that you represent as your personal opinion is just that and do not lead people to believe that of the board that this is what the board's is U the board only has two spokes people two spokes person one is the board president for board matters the other is your superintendent for matters involving School District itself not so that uh when you make a formal expression uh where your affiliation is like recognize for example letters to government officials letters to newspapers speeches to organizations um you must make a statement two parts one you are a member of the board two you are speaking as a private citizen and the opinions expressed not necessarily represent very important that you have both of those uh and if you look at your policy 0146 actually repres okay so Qui question so in in a in a during a s during a topic where we make that statement but maybe commenting on something to do with the school district we're still okay there yeah so as long as you make that disclaimer with a caveat that we'll talk about in a second okay yeah let's go to the caveat a little caveat there so before we go to C right does the board so can someone be someone else be delegated for the board matter is that the board the president that's the board so the whole board well the Vice President in the absence of President would have the authority typically on the have Bo if president's not available right but if let's say the board wants yeah the board wants to for example have right that has the board would have to specifically delegate that that they would have to be very careful to lay out what it is okay so not only do you help you know designate them as a spokesperson for a particular matter but you also have to be very careful let out what they can't say because you can't get long go say whatever they feel like because to speak on beh have the board they're very limited PA real quick can you can you speak a little bit about how this relates to correspondence that comes in via email from the community in terms of if you get as as an individual board member yeah so I think one area that I've had questions about is we get a lot of emails from the public right and can you speak about just sort of what the proper way to handle does it go directly to the board president do we Lo in the board president can you just speak a little more yeah so so if you receive an email and it's not to the entire board it's the entire board it'll be dealt with through the board President right you get an email yourself or one or two or three board members get an email um then basically the response should be that you are't able to respond um under the ethics act and in fact I have some language that some of our use that that basically send down an automatic you know we've received your email I I am unable to respond directly you know we referring the board president forther review um that's the approach you cannot really respond directly other than say you know I I've referred it on I can't well you can say for us oh sure yeah no I appreciate that that was my understanding but I also don't want people to think we're being rude right and not responding directly to so I just wanted toate it's perfectly appropriate and that as Alex said you can be you know gracious that thank you very contest asess your your opinion means very important to us um I'm unable you know legally to respond to directly what I referring thank that's that's so the next slide is just an example of disclaimer um that the statements are made in Your Capacity as a private citizen not as a board member you're not representative of the board or as individual members so I have a just a case example that I want to make sure as we year potentially and we had a referendum in Fall um and if hypothetically a board member were to post in a Facebook Forum about their opinions on the referendum and whether or not we encourag people to vote Yes know but we preface it with that statement are we allowed to yes well and we don't share any and we don't share any confidential information and it's anything that is anything any reasoning we provide is all that's publicly available the caveat I would say is yes but the SEC has lately in a number of decisions indicated that there are times when a disclaimer is not effective when it is obvious that you are still essentially acting or talking to the board member representing the board um later on we'll see uh an advisory opinion from 2022 that um I've kept in the presentation um where a board member sought to basically create a web page or social media page kind of with updates of what's going on in the district um and even with the disclaimer the the SDC said well it's clear that you're essentially acting trying to act as ENT where people will see you as acting as a spokesperson um and you can't do that that's not that's not permissible so if you're G to say something beyond the basic here's what I think U on a particular topic uh if it's going any deeper than that you should talk to president because there are these lines of cases that are kind of starting to say well okay sometimes it so it depends what you're doing I'm gonna have a followup absolutely so one example is uh the treston case involving the Rand Bo of Ed uh where a member wrote an OP at endorsing candidates he did have a disclaimer he said he was writing it on his own but um he didn't seek prior approval from the board he had multiple references to his position on the board using we there and it's failure to make clear that Express were not board so he created this impression even though he said um I'm writing this on my own in the manner in which he he generated the endorsement he created impression was that's right you have those two things he failed to include the other very important part which is he failed to say that his opion but he also right exactly he created the appearance the whole board way he wrote so there's an example where you know first of all it was not an effective disclaimer because second but not only did not include that but he went beyond that and created an impression that was so that's outside the scope of his duties as a board member and clearly has board uh was recommended a reprimand the SEC uh did a censure uh when the alj's administrative law judge some of these most of these cases go off the office of administrative law hearing the administrative law judge issues an initial decision which then gets reviewed by ethics commission uh which then determines uh what the penalty should be and ultimately the commissioner reviews that cannot overturn the factual fund or leg conclusions but can change the penal uh and the commissioner reduced it back to a reprimand since he did at least attempt to represent his views as own even though I was ask right on on a complaint well I mean that's a good question I mean the question is I mean I'm going to take a guess well that does occur that does occur in fact you know one of the cases we'll see respond was off the board and they implied that they would have actually either suspended or remove all do that Paul I think an issue is it still counts against the board when it comes to qack and I was G to say there's two things one is qack the other thing is um the board has to indemnify the board member um for the uh defense of case means that that money to the extent you have deductible that's going to come out of the board's pocket and the rest comes out of the insurance which potential but and it's just a it's just a bad look right oh no I'm not I'm not planning that's forever I mean you know your name is out there either I'm just pointing out in yeah I mean look you we can talk about you know what the effectiveness of the process is and you know and you know at the end of the day you know all of these things are you know there's no te to them obviously but it's more a a public shaming it is a source of embarrassment when rosette and I go to meetings and they go I saw your school district uh as a as an example in what not to do do what are you doing right um just a little side um discussion the uh part of the ethics Act is you are obligated to uphold all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Ed um so there's a couple of important laws to keep in mind uh the open public records Act and the open public meetings act uh this is this language is directly out of your bylaw 169 which is basically you've got to be aware that the open public records act means that um any government records unless there's a particular exception under the law can be uh produced or required to be produced to the public on a request that includes any of your emails any correspond so the first thing we always say is don't put anything in in email that you don't want to see all over Facebook or on the front page of the paper uh and basically the the policy the bylaw says that because of there's a potential for inter disclosure um if you do have confidential information in email we would hopefully on a request to produce and catch that and not produce that but it's possible it gets missed possible it gets out so because of that basically you are not or should not put a confidential material into especially for anything might be so that's one important thing the other caveat is under the open public meetings act you don't want to engage in what we call a Serial meeting where get a quorum of the board going back and forth discussing the board matter that's a no no because that essentially is now you're conducting a secret meeting out of sight of the public and although there's no cases in New Jersey specifically on point on this yet uh General consensus it's a problem and many other states have that's real is so you don't want to basically copying should never apply to everybody that's never not sure that's in general right yeah right exactly exactly never do that right um I think it also includ a role yes right right right yes but you generally want to avoid any it's just not a good idea I mean the potential is those that forward others now you've got a COR without so let's look at this year's advisory opinions these are what have been released again these are you know you can request an advisory opinion from the ethics commission uh and these are what we're P year first one is the University Professor The Graduate School of Education uh the individ also ran for a while daughter administered various uh teacher supervisor administrator of the district also has sat on the dissertation committee for um May did not actually teach superintendent was on uh May that individual participated matters involving individuals no uh that person must rused from any discussions or decisions could relate or otherwise involved any current or former student not just of that Professor but any current or former student graduate education employ think primarily of time uh also if the member were to provide free professional development Workshop District staff that would be well they don't want any they don't want any connection whatever between the board member acting in any way to provide any kind of instructional service that that's beyond the role of that clearly who weren't a board member but they find that that's the ground for basically that that involves the board member admin next one so School District a sends it student to school district B for grade 172 Elementary District that so the superintendent district B was previously in District a the elementary when she was in the Elementary District she terminated an employee that employee happens to be a board member speak the board member starts a civil suit against the superintendent and District board started a petition of the superintendent fired in dist and has filed various commission complains is the board member prohibited from evaluating superintendent participating in votes voting on matters involing other administrators who the memb issu commission said look if it were termination alone that would not create a per conflict of interest that's rise L necessary but here the totality of circumstance hostility the multiple actions against the superintendent U recusal is required as to the other administrators there was no evidence AB animous uh and therefore not a per conflict not to say that one might not arise in the future uh and they said look we'll deal with that should that complain come for in future but right now there's no evidence that so here you had a a ly of activi that Tak to go after the clearly seems to have an obvious conflict but certainly large uh number 3-24 uh board member asked would I violate the school ethics act if I ran for a seat on the County Board commission the SEC didn't exactly answer that U they said well this is outside our jurisdiction we don't have any you know jurisdiction County Commissioners Office holding um however should you you know there is a dual office holding statute which might prohibited that that if it's determined that that would be a violation that you would then be violating the requirement so they basically said this is this is just not our our feel next one board member has two non-dependent adult children are Trustees of a nonprofit Foundation uh and one of those two children's also counsel to the foundation before the member came on the board the board conade property of the foundation and now believes the foundation has not fulfilled its obligation and anticipate additional action May the member participate in discussions or votes property no uh the board member members children are relative to the meaning of the ethics act clearly a conflict of interest to vote on any matter involving the entity uh or the public body on which relative thir members they analogize this to uh prior decisions they've had where you may not as a board member um vote on a matter involving relevant employer if you have something coming before you for example spouse employed you know there's a direct conf there for you on a bill list for example deployed by someone companies on Bill list so local this is we often get situations where the uh local Education Association a board member uh for election um in this case there was a press release uh from the association which did not get published newspaper published it but the members still used it um uh in their campaign they sent postcard mailors to all of thej members in the district which is reported by the board member on the disclosure form different time U Can the member who serves on the policy committe interesting question participate in discussions on policies that affect the uh SEC looked at this they have a prior decision opinion on this a 10-8 um where they held that uh basic unsolicited involvement unless it rises to a very significant level um not going to disqualify you in the negotiation context u in this case it was policy U this did not rise the level of involvement earlier case they had in 2013 where the association distributed newsletter hosted a hot dog rally uh with the board members addressed the public they held phone bag uh they disted B cards ballot numbers they found here it didn't quite get to that level therefore a per se conflict uh and the board member had participate in policy discussions that might impact on the Association members the board members cannot be assumed to have surrendered their independent judgment to the association simply because they have next one board members non-dependent child adult child District employee before the board member came on the board the employee sent a litigation hold letter to the board uh Alle that the board attorney engaged potentially dous conduct against the employee investigation further alleged the that the employee board council is continuously engaged a he longstanding view the employee family his attempted ability superintendent into participating in the ongo data board had an outside Law Firm conducted investigation found that none of these allegations were substantiated question is May the board member participate uh in any votes or discussions pertaining to the contract between the board attorney here the board member should not accuse from that uh it's clear that there's uh quite a bit of animous between the employee the employees family and the board attorney and whether or not the the member actually um is unable to exercise independent judgment this is another example where the SEC says we're going to look at the public reasonable that the public would perceive that the member is unable at this time maintain objectivity and Independence in their forun they often do that they often go on what's reasonable for public to two board members who own an local ice cream shop and apparently the only host fundraisers for the PTO a High School drama club various School related boost also can the employeed minors who are students in the district I've quoted the entire gist of of their opin here business interest but they basically hold that uh the public is quite likely to view your outside engagement with PTO theater club and other organization being further of furthers of their business interests uh and contrary to the public trust clearly their owners of the shop they benefit financially from any sales uh the public May perceive again perception that board members a and board member B the two board members will place their ownership in the business dominance District again not saying they would but the public could re receive um moreover in general fundraisers that don't just benefit the organization they yield the benefit to board members business monitary or otherwise uh which may cause the public receive their ownership as comp next slide so they they went on to say this would also apply to anything involving if you gave gift certificates for a tricky TR you can't do that again that that could be resulting as kind of a receiving a benefit back uh they may respond to solicitations for advertisements for district related organization will playability yourbook in the light if it's open to the public at large may not be provided preference and treatment the advertisement uh and the advertisement should never indicate their board members or status they may employ students um but they should view that application the same way any other employees application made they can't give preference treatment and if any matter involving student comes before the board they have to accuse themselves um should any District students or Personnel patronize the shop on their own they should refrain from providing them any special inducements like discounts which are not available so again very very strictly requiring that s their role as owners of the shop from their Ro if you don't own the shop it would yeah yeah that that would not be a problem because the key here is that they're the owners they have the financial interest and benefit whereas you would not have that is someone quity or even an employee wouldn't have to same the key the key was that they were the owners good question uh board memb is adult child lives with a member works in the district wasn't quite clear the the the way the uh the requestor made this request uh the child is adult child it is a child um does work as a substitute for an outside contractor and that's okay but then talks about the child had also been a music director under stifen uh and it wasn't clear whether that was through a negotiated Collective marketing agreement or whether it was through an outside vendor so what the secd said is if the sended position is through a third party vendor uh and is paid directly by the vendor without board involvement um then the member can participate in valuation but um if it's paid under the collective negotiations agreement the member may not participate because again you have a relative who's employed directly in the district you are then prohibited from any control super valuation or any other aspect of 11-24 this is kind of a short version of a very long set of facts uh but board member uh subsequently accept employment with a law firm that previously represented the member in litigation against the board before the member came um and may that member participate in appointment process fill a board vacan so the question was they had a vacancy on the board and one of the board members who didn't like the way this person this actually occurred after a vote happened going to Alex point they then filed for an advisor opinion and the you know it's nice the SEC said well you should have come to us first but how are they going to come to us first because you know they wouldn't but they said um there's no violation in the appointment process there's again not a presumption of a conflict of interest um you're permitted to hold views in line with other board members uh and you know the the one of the the board member challenging this said well this person could you know influence pick a board member who they think is going to basically support their position uh and the SEC said well that's okay we're not going to assume that you know you're going to influence somebody to vote on not evidence um nonetheless when participating in matters rela to the elction candidate clearly the board members reminded they must always be objective exercise independent judgment must not allow the previous or pending matters apparently there still Ono impact their decision and of course member must continue to recuse from many matters involved Law Firm board members add this employed in the district an administrative assistant director of curriculum both the assistant and the director are not any negotiation unit May that person participate in collect negotiation no uh the board members add as a relative with the meeting of the ethics act uh even even though the ant is not a member of her covered by the local Association uh the SEC said Union contracts may be used by non-affiliated employees to negotiate their own contract clearly the agency has no clue about how work what a non-affiliated employ bargaining individual bargaining to uh but they said you could still use that as an example and therefore U you cannot participate in negotiations because you could in a sense by approving a contract to your Association be conf in a benefit upon you yeah this is one of those really remote perception no clear conflict obviously it's po issue also the board member must recuse for many discussion V related to Super employment any other 14 board member uh seeks to review the resumes of all candidates or within a candidate pool for position being recommended fire but then they punt it they said no this is outside our jurisdiction you're not asking whether uh that conduct would violate the ACT you're really asking whether a board member is required to refrain from doing resents of that's not within our that's the however if it is determined that board members May view resume somewhere down um the members role would be limited to observation and assessment the knowledge that all final recommendations Are Holy with I have to be very careful because that's a very dangerous road to start going down because in essence you're saying not sure I trust your judgment superintendent I want to see all the other applications that and that's really not your role on the other hand you do have a right as a board member once this matter comes before the board to vote no provided your your vote is not AR appr so U one could argue that if one wants to exercise that want to see what so it's slippery slope there is an old case that out there that's very little known that that did hold a board member had a right to see that there's no recent public on some point I imagine come up I think most boards are are savy um getting back to the um what we were talking about earlier this is a 2022 I've kept it on this this PowerPoint just to go back over we've kind of already addressed it but this was a request to post non-confidential information related to board of the district on social media including a disclaimer that I'm doing this as an individual not the board um and the the commission said because you're providing it related to the board and Rel similar to your official duties any attempt to disclaim the speech is personal likely um Community knows your St that is the board member likely attributed the information to speak from the membering capacity and are on behalf of the board so U again you have to include not only the disclaimer but you have to now be careful that the general circumstances uh don't appear to give give an impression that they're written on behalf you would think right it was it was it was nothing you would think but they said no they said don't do it he said it's basically there's you're not the board spokesperson that you know you've got an official spokesperson you've got a board PR that goes out there that's the board that's board Administration adist and that you should not be doing that on because that's not your role as board member well that would be that would be okay yeah yeah okay so that would be fine that would be fine if you're posting a link that's something that board's got on right so now if I go hey for those who are interested here is the link that's I think that would okay good yeah so there is some sanity yeah yeah yeah it's just here the the problem was that the member was like want to essentially go out there and do this on his own uh and provide all this information on his own and like you know gather all the information things that really should be on the board and create this social they said that's not your role Ro I don't think there's any issue so I have a quick question on this because I've seen uh several board members throughout the state um have personal Instagram Facebook whatever social media profiles uh where they talk about the work they're doing on um give monthly updates what their entire term they give a summary of things they've worked on none of that information is confidential think they' talked about they stating on very thin it well very thin it so my my question would be if that was de as you know a violation in a world where that same you know individual is running for reelection and their opponent says makes a claim that says oh this individual has not done anything on the board or has not contributed to the board are they then not allowed to respond by well I think you can respond again as a private individual you know but you're running a you're running a risk I mean and that's that's a problem that I have with some of these decisions because you know how do you basically it's like fighting with one hand by the you know they're basically you know hamstringing a board member um you know against somebody who's not subject to these because somebody who's running for the board is not subject to ethics so it's an it's an unequal fight it's an unfair fight so you have to basically try to finesse that um it's a very hard thing to do terms of that the good news is yeah you'll be off the board long over and the term may be over your term may be over before they get to it yeah that is that's a very good point it could be a could be a while we can go to our our quiz our annual quiz right so the Act was violated superintendent denied a board member's request to have code of conduct violation child removed record member communicates directly with the superintendent several times thinking her direct vention reversal finding member also emailed other board members about the issue without indicating she was doing so parent as board uh as well as the board attorney and the member spouse also raised the issue public comiment meeting that was a violation they were not going to ask people uh that's true um that basically they said that essentially the board member go to the next slide and summarize found repeated Communications were an attempt to persuade individual board members board counsel and the superintendent to reverse the adverse disciplinary finding therefore used her position as a board member to further her Personal Agenda again you can represent your child you have every right to do that when you're dealing with a teacher without being careful because whenever you're dealing with staff they know you're and it you know it is inid and you have to be very careful to make clear that you're acting a parent but you have a right to represent your child as parent principal attendant but again as a parent here the board member essentially used her position the board uh to further her that particular agenda she tried to provide a direct order to school personnel which never do we never any orders Personnel district and she took action beyond the scope of her duties had the potential that is it a violation of section I to support protect School Personnel when after the board approved the new contract of the superintendent board member went on Facebook and posted that the board AC cont please don't do this but it was permissible um that basically the uh board member had a right to express her own opinion uh publicly in terms of that they found that um it not directly impect the superintendent superintendent contract was approv it had no effect whatsoever on superintend performance uh you know rest of the board was you know frankly you know G the member so following one word disa I mean a serious question that's it is a serious question and actually I'm not sure if there was there might have been I agree uh but what they said is it really had no impact and at the end of the day it you know he had the right to disagree with the it is a well it is I'm telling you don't do it but it is like it's out there now different case same individuals so yeah word member em is the principal so this the the complainant M brusic uh is is a a teacher in another school district um and this board member the one who talked about phe emails the principal of the school where the complainant works in the other district and says I'm a board member of Mana Township and your employee this teacher um is personally attacking me at the board meeting unfound the claim and I'm preparing to sue to which you know the the response was who are you and why are you te anything but uh yes that was violation of the act because there the member you know sent was acting way outside the potential you know trying to harm for her basically coming and and could be essentially seen as trying to um impinge upon or stop the public from coming Mee comment byen trying to get so they found that that part was was kind of different case but the same you know the same um private conversation with the association president this is a somebody who's been a board member for 15 years who've been board President and Vice President numerous times she been chair of the middle 6 County you knows Association obviously had a lot of ethical training and all that kind of factor here um he had a private conversation with the association president told the president handle it emailed the superintendent the board superintendent assistant to explain and clarify the president's view on the issue that was the violation she was basically essentially again engag administering the district accep that she should have just referred superator told the association pres and not only that she then yeah uh he basically emails the marching bed director from a personal C inviting the band to play an event that in and of itself they were troubled with but that by itself was not a violation but um when the director declined emailed him in the school principal ask why they would not play texted the chorus director question why again clearly that this was found to be a violation in fact they they censored her this is the one where they said we would probably do something even more serious but we don't have authori since no longer so we can't spend so but that was about to be reallyu our part that essentially start questioning staff about you know why you're not going to play at this board member violated section I when he attributed alleged four reading results on teach lower grades again this may not be a great example these are not good things to say but um are the students that have been Union kindergarten U something wrong wrong with our teaching staff this was actually not a violation uh because there was no specific um and they said no specific staff members called out they didn't specifically say that you know staff were not performing the way they worded they found that this was there is like you are free to say stupid things basically if they don't violate the ACT board member did not VI not violate e no personal promises act the board member sent an employee who sign text asking if she had received the rice notice uh regarding discussion of her exibition ofation stating I could accuse the board president secretary or administrator F you did not receive the notice session false because that was a violation that was basically uh the board member was either inviting the former employee to file an action or offering to take up that action on her behalf uh and indicating that potentially some improper conduct part of the board had occurred uh the violation because that was potential personal priser act board member would violate the code of ethics for board members by those of you who have been here before should remember this one by actively participating initial members that's true this kind of ties into request resumes um it's not the board's role um to administer the district and what the SEC has said is that board member may not participate um in initial that is the role of the administration ask the administration to provide the results to you get feedback but you can not particip there's a violation we we do this one every year too just toing violation of the act for a board member to also serve as an executive officer PDA or any other PTA executive officer position that's false you may do both uh you have to be extremely careful next slide uh you may participate in outside organizations they have to be self-governing in independent of the board you have to recuse on voting and any of any of matters involving them uh and be careful of un meshing your role as a board member with that organization's activity obviously you can't reveal any confidential information to the organization you have to be careful about making Promises to the organization you may not supervise School Personnel or School funds um you may not have regular contact with students or staff or an active pres function um you cannot serve as volunteer coach Club advisor or like and you have to be careful of extensive involvement with School Personnel including involving coaches advisors uh and if you're involved with fundraising that presents concerns be very careful about your role in terms of any outside fundraising um expect best thing um you can certainly participate in these organizations you have to be very careful to limit your involv sure um so as parent serving a volunte um the book fair is there right so you're there as a volunteer but it is also a fundraiser on behalf um how is that if it's a one shot type of a situation where you're just coming in for a particular book fair that's gener okay that's not a problem it's when you get really involved um and you're coming in as like an assistant coach or a drama club advisor where you're you're actually involved with staff yeah ongoing exactly you're coming in just on a one day work table yeah I'd be very careful that I would say I would say be careful that's you're better off you know I'm not gonna say you can't do it but you're really better off let let other people do that board member violated uh section g by inadvertently replying alltimate email that included not again never repli to all it was inadvertent had no intention but it doesn't matter um basically the parent was on the Chain uh the parent had brought a complaint to the board and the reply which the member thought was going just to the board members you know said that the board did not adequately address so even though it's inadvertent that's no excuse you're still yeah never replied um a board member who received vendor information at the school board convention uh may contact each vendor to ask about pricing and contact other school district equipment ask about how Works no you may not U that is not your role again that is the role of the administration unless the board has a committee that the charges to go out there to work with the administration to get type of information and everybody agreed that do it unless you're charged with that you may not questions but any other so no I guess that's a note well may I thank you foring examp thank there's there's a indication there's continuity in the confusion right well it's you're not wrong I mean these you know these can be subject to multiple interpretations this is what the decided we can disagree with it that's you know they're the boss they get to say what and again these are advisory opinions they're not binding The Advisory opinion only indicate how they're likely to rule come before them they're you know they're free to you know change their mind but the good part about them is if you follow them you're insulated because they may change their mind but they can't I would say you know you'd have to look at the specifics but my initial reaction is no what what would be the involvement like I'm right so say we wanted to enter in this that would be an advisory opinion that would be well worth doing for advisory opinion because that that does raise some potential issues but um you know there might be way my initial reaction would be no but that that I would certainly ask the and if we got time so I I always think oh question no I just yeah I always thank thank you Paul um I I know that you know we've had some challenging conversations over the last year simply because of um the amount of community engagement that we've needed to do for the referendum and um I example I of how challenging it is is to really um kind of hold the line when it is uncomfortable and you rather speak speak your mind or um speak up to push the issues that the board is working on forward um but it is a challenge and I I as I spoke before you know I appreciate it last year everybody really being willing to hold their powder dry if you will even when it was super uncomfortable um and we had lot lots of being things being thrown at so um it's hard it's hard to not allow you all to speak up even though there's a tough line that you could easily land on intentionally or thank you Paul and thank you the board contining to ask the questions all right so we are going there's two all right we are going to um move into public comment our first public comment section so members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of 3 minutes during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name address and municipality in response to uh your comments the Board of Education May respond or direct the superintendent to do so the board may also opt to take me uh matters up for in a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district public comments are now open oh do you want to do the just as a reminder um we will hold up yellow with 30 seconds red when your three minutes are over okay seeing none public comments now closed um I need a first and second to pass the move uh and pass the consent agenda items can I I have a quick question on this first um so I was just looking through the consent agenda can you take a quick look at f2 and confirm those are correct these are the ad hoc committees they look a bit outdated to me but I just wanted to make sure we're missing one we're missing the new one and is D an active committee I mean I I'd be all for reactivating it anywhere only and then is a committee as well an active committee I I don't even know what that one is yeah we got to add that what about well they're just they're placeholders you don't well there's always an um the possibility of re-engaging for example somebody from the Food Service the food service contract so a comes off um c c stays on and then we need to add yeah that's what we just okay so we amend uh first and second as amended well all in favor any opposed are abstaining okay so move the mics are so effective all right um probably don't have any say delay calendar because we'll meet in favor oh that all in favor I'm sorry yeah you think you did oh that was not for that was just it was with the amendment yeah you're right we should have done it yeah we should have done it all yeah yeah yeah okay we fraction an occasional Roberts rule no okay um would be but we're not going to do because we're just old okay any old business items being none um we are going to skip the calendar review at the ne the formal um full board meeting calendars will be reviewed once the Committees are set your chair your your liaison will contact you to set time times any new business seeing none we're moving into second public comment members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter of Max for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name address and municipality in response to your comments the Board of Education May respond or direct the superintendent to do so the board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district uh Administration public comment section is now open no running to the podium okay seeing no comments a public comment is now closed and we are going to well nobody okay all right no executive session I need a first and second to adjourn this evening's meeting second all in favor I any oppose or abstaining seeing none we are adjourned thank you all to the community and welcome to a new year board that felt like a little airline that a little Airline by the way I found I