24 Ade adequate notice of tonight's meeting has been provided in accordance with the open public meetings act by the following methods distribution of notice to the record posting of the agenda on the school district website through parents Square on the board of Ed's Facebook page and on various Leon you lers please note that the board will be moving away from the announcements via the Facebook page and listeners after the last meeting of this school year which currently correct all announcements regarding the board meeting will be provided via parents pray which is open to the entire community so strongly so we strongly encourage you to register for an account for a timely receipt of information from the board as well members of the public may also watch our board meeting live through YouTube however public comment will be limited to those that attend in person and to comment submitted to the board president or superintend 10 to 12 hours prior to the meeting St time which will be read or summarized within the time allowance um get into the Pledge of Allegiance I like to just welcome everyone uh to the first meeting of New Year happy new happy New Year 2024 and um as we progress to finishing this school year so if everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag the United States of America and the stands indivisible for all thank you the next item on the agenda is the roll call uh Miss Choy pres Mr Park miss rockow here miss zepa here misso here Miss Thompson here miss wild here miss Melman pres Miss Le and as well we have our uh new member to the board Dr welcome um also in attendance we have our doc our superintendent of schools Dr Brian gadens as well as our assistant superintendent of schools dranti aranos as well as our board attorney uh Mr Le uh with that being said uh we have three members board members elect um who' been reelected or elected to a three-year term Mr Lee uh Miss Melman and Dr Misa congratulations on your uh [Applause] election at this time we'll do the administer of the o to the elected Board of members um on your seat you should have a copy now we'll we'll do it all together that once once we do the um the the required oats we'll take a five minute break we can take pictures with the family so if you raise your right hand and repeat after me okay so I and sayate your name do solemnly [Music] swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of newe and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and that I will bear true faith and algi to the same and to the governments established in the United States the same the government the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me go next statement I and state your name I st do solemnly swear swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of of member of a board of education for the office member of ofeducation and that I will Faithfully I will and partially and justly jly perform all the duties of that office perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so helping God so help go congratulations at this time we'll take a 5 minute break um your family well more than welcome come up we'll take pictures if you want we we could take turns if you want to take behind the tap I mean whatever oh yeah ready for basketball practice more a little bit more step beautiful right there good that's good picture all right thank you oh that's extra one they we big step to the right right we'll just photosh thank you uh next order of business on the agenda is the election of the officers so just to kind of uh go over uh District policy uh the process how it works is any member May place a member's name in nomination uh a second is not required election for each office will be conducted by a vote when the nominations are closed the candidate receiving the majority of the vote of the members of the board president and constituting of cor will be elected to office um voting shall take place by ver verbal roll call um of the vote after the nominations are Clos when more than one person has been nominated the board will vote on the candidates in the order in which they were nominated which is pretty much okay okay so I'll open it up to uh nominations for board president need a second I don't believe so is there any other nominations uh do I have a motion to close the nomination Miss [Music] Thompson okay now we'll do a roll call Miss Troy yes Dr Mis yes Mr Park yes Miss ROV yes Mr zepa yes yes Miss SLE yes Miss Thompson yes Miss Wilds yes Miss Mel yes and Miss Le yes congratulations now president with that being said thank you very much your V of confidence um so that brings us um to the nominations for vice president can I have a do we need just a nomination can I have any nominations for vice president nominate K thank you m ra um any other nominations for vice president okay can I have a motion to close nominations motion M skull and a second you okay all right can I M Troy yes Dr mea yes Mr par yes M ra yes Mr zepa yes Mr SEO yes Miss Thompson yes Miss WS yes Miss Melman yes and president L yes congratulations thank you very much for your voo confidence another year working together with all of you couldn't do it without you all so appreciate it very much that brings us to our our public comments uh regarding any agenda related items anyone from the public wishes to speak um please step up to the prum provide your name and address you'll have a two minute time umth you want a clip of public presentations with the you know with this or now sometimes they do that let them get their get their presentation out of the way I've got a few things so I think we'll be okay okay but thank you Steve is that your uh sign your name t youing welcome back good good to see you back in serving the school district um I have a couple questions first question is regarding the federal reimbursement from FEMA I heard that they are having a real hard time uh reimbursing some school districts some towns also who have claims in so my question is regarding that are we having that problem and if so uh how much are we uh short because they haven't uh they haven't reversed us yet uh so I'd like to know if that's affecting the the the district the second is why we we have it's on the it's not agenda item per se but it's always on the bottom of the agenda which are the goals so goals are typically something that you have that you want to achieve that're also measurable I don't know how you're going to measure I think they're good goals the question about what you've itemized but how are you going to measure them and how you going to determine where you're at on them and how you're going to if you're successful or not successful which is okay as long as you're G to have a remediation plan to to to achieve that um on the uh School visits there's a an MD thing after some of the things I don't I don't know what that means you know like group LMS MD it's mostly LMS it looks like so I don't know what LMS I know what the LMS is but I don't know what the MD is I thought it was a doctor but it's obvious not um your Finance K unanticipated bus Revenue uh for $49,000 um I know you don't know who's going to call for get bus service um and how much that's going to generate that's quite a bit of Revenue that we're uh do we get that every year is that pretty much do we get 40 50 $60,000 a year that's something we can anticipate instead of leaving unanticipated I just a question that might help you know when you're looking to for money to spend if you're anticipating on the revenue side then you'll have it if you're not it's always nice to get it's always a nice surprise but um you don't want to leave it out there a regular the reserve I'd like an explanation looks like un little confused the it looks like we're at some point there it was posting a $3.9 million reserve and it was reduced by 1 Point 9 million or 1.8 million to pay down Debt Service that left it about 1.3 million and then Elsewhere on the on the form we showing we're down to something like 77,000 I'm not sure I don't understand uh all the numbers where what is the balance U the next question is regarding uh the 1.9 million to pay Down The Debt Service don't we budget that on a line item and pay it out of the line item rather than take the money out of the reserve account so i' like that explanation as to that um and um I think that is it for that I can remember I think Steve's picture was nice I know where all the green all the green leaves were behind you but was picture that is it thank you thank you anyone else from public to speak regarding any agenda related items okay see none that brings us to our next agenda or excuse me um yeah we'll do our public presentations and we'll provide answers to the questions um so that brings us up to public presentations apologize we're going to do we're going to move to Board of Education members and student repres well Board of Education member [Music] comments sureth how are you good to see you happy New Year uh some our student representatives are not here tonight as a reorg meeting um I won't have a report tonight of any great L and so the student Representatives who are always busy with school and getting ready they have a night off so they say hello to everybody um I Eric will speak to items that came up here we'll get there in a second regarding the district and Board of Education goals now that we're crossing over the we're four months into the school year getting towards the middle of the school year I'll have an update on those goals and where we stand um Midway through the year then again at the end of the year and the board will go through that process so in a future meeting could be probably won't be most likely it will'll be a meeting in February I'll have something for the public and for the board about where we are with those goals give a context that the the phrase the acronym MD stands for multiply disabled it's a special educ multiply disabled oh it's a special education term thank you yeah we put that on there um and those are those are my the two issues that to me want to speak to the other relating to the first question with female reimbursements we actually um received all the fem re ements so the the money is uh right now um sitting in a deferred revenue uh once we finalize our insurance uh what what isn't covered by Insurance to offset some of those FEMA costs because they basically went through our insurance policy and they determined a certain number that um the district would be out of pocket for um which we have a little discrepancy on so that's in deferred revenue the other portion uh we receive the money that they approved for our mitigation projects so basically where we just have to you know go out through the the purchasing process complete the project project and close it out with f we're not waiting for anything so we're not waiting for anything correct um as far as the unanticipated revenue for transportation um typically that is something that could be uh part of the budget when I do the budget um any items that we have a signed agreement with any districts um that we are transporting thereit students similar to you know Edge order or sending receiving relationship um if we have an agreement in place at the time of the budget that's something that we can anticipate this wasn't an agreement that we had at the time you know when we did the budget so this came up during the year was actually um structurally worked out with Richfield Park as far as um Staffing so because of it uh you know we brought on the the uh I guess the overall cost of the salaries to offset you know the transportation so we're bringing that in as Revenue that part of that joint Transportation agreement relating to the Reserve balance so the reserves are are pretty much uh broken up into different components uh we're currently in the process of finalizing our audits I don't have the the final audited numbers at June 3023 so these are you know estimated numbers um that I could give you today so roughly our reserves are broken down into capital reserve and maintenance Reserve those are the two main reserves that that we typically have um as a district that we approved um with the exception uh last uh end of the year June uh I believe 20 June 20 23 board meeting we approved the ability to create a tuition Reserve because of our sending receiving relationship so once we finalize uh the excess Surplus will determine if it's beneficial and as as we finalize also what the estimated you know if we owe money back to to Edgewater if Edgewater you know owes us money based on the certified rates based on the actual asssa account we'll determine if that is something that's that's needed at that time but basically our capital reserve at the end of the year is um was roughly give or take 2 million um what we withdrew out to cover you know some of those uh projects that we budgeted which we're is still in the phase of seeing what we can do what we have need to cover from capital Reserve that's pretty much uh estimated to be reduced down to 1.3 with anticipated money getting transferred back to capital reserve to replenish what we took out our maintenance Reserve is is estimated to sit typically around 850 so we're looking what we um are what we withdrew for this school year we're looking to replenish from Exo Surplus at access Surplus at the end of uh last school year the other um item that's listed Reserve is I um not typical in well I shouldn't say not all of it but but uh some of it's not typical in every school district one of it's our insurance money uh let me hold let me back up um the other Reserve that we have is is broken up and it it should be on most districts uh balance sheet it's the reserve for excess Surplus that's something that we identify how much uh in ex Surplus will be return return to the taxpayers based on what we budgeted and what we didn't utilize and then the other portion which is something new to most districts is the unemployment fund based on a new gby standard we had to roll that into the general fund um so with those two components that makes up about a little bit roughly 1 million $1 million um in addition the other item which I don't believe on the board secretary shows up as excess Surplus but I believe it shows up as fund balance is our insurance uh recovery money so um this is money basically we got up front from our insurance proceeds to cover the Ida damages so as we finalize that number that's going to eventually zero out um and then we'll offset it with the FEA money and that's pretty much all that component should make up to three 3 something million um but that's as of right now it's unordered so the board secretary will be adjusted um based on the final audited numbers that we get from our Auditors uh the last one I just had to follow when you said the pay down of debt service right what I just need clarification was one it was showing 1.9 million out of withdrawal from capital reserve transferred to Debt Service 1. n52 Etc uh which was uh brought the UN total unappropriate down to 1.3 million so I wasn't sure why we're paying I maybe that maybe I'm misreading it we're transferring to Debt Service and we're AR weing at the cover Debt Service which page are you looking at I'm looking at report of secret uh it's on page three of that's um um the way it is that line is is fund balance the recapitulation of Bud fund bu budget fund Bud budget fund balance on page three at the bottom the question was don't we have a line item for for Debt Service that we pay back and why would be be taking that money it appears from the the description maybe on maybe it's not true that we're making 1.9 out of our Reserve to pay debt service when we should actually be budgeting for our debt service correct they're 1.9 but is the line is fund balance the the withdrawal if you I mean it's hard to because it's it's not like line across but that line withdraw from capital reserve is zero oh okay there's nothing to the right of it is that what you saying yeah it's zero so it lines that that number lines up with fund balance that's basically our our that's our money that we have in fund balance um less okay there's no zero it's just blank so I didn't realize correct sorry but that um what that is used for uh from statute districts are allowed to utilize capital reserve to pay down debt on a bond referend so but if we have a bond referendum I would expect that we would be able to budget for that have a line item that we pay we no correct but what happens um a lot of times or sometimes so we do a referendum let it a project comes less than what we anticipate but we fully funded the debt the the balance of that um referendum typically gets transferred back to capital reserve back to Debt Service to fund you know to offset the debt thank you we have um any other comments from work members try sure Happy New Year to everybody I just wanted to say thank you to Mr Lee and Miss Melman for the wonderful year last year um we did a lot in a very um efficient way and I believe uh you two were a very critical comp of all that and really appreciate it and also uh being willing to do that again whole another year that's amazing and I am so appreciative of your time effort and your heart so I just wanted to say thank you and welcome Dr Mister um we've been hearing really good things about you uh from the past World member so this is really exciting another exciting year thank you thank you any other board members any comments uh uh yes okay um can I ask questions about likeing personal we have to in CL okay sure that was just that was the only question Yeah couple questions okay any other board members comments on the items okay seeing none that will bring us to the approval of consult agenda items um can I have a motion on a second Thompson motion second MRK Miss Troy yes Dr M yes Mr Park yes Miss row yes Mr zepa yes Mr SEO yes Miss Thomson yes Miss Wilds yes vice president Melman yes and president yes motion carries on consent agenda items next administrative report no reports like similarly with committees they are going to be um dissolved and new committees will be established by our next meeting so there no there are no committee reports for tonight um that brings us to our next agenda item which new business motion second and um I have a motion for new business items a the second Mr and can I have a roll pleas Miss Troy yes Dr M yes Miss dep par yes Miss rackow yes Mr zepa yes Mr SEO yes Miss Thompson yes Miss WS yes vice president Melman yes and president Le yes motion carries on new buits okay thank you so that brings us to our second public comment per um anyone wishing to speak please step to the podium state your name and address two minute time happy happy New Year my name is is Christian Choy and I'm from 74 medavie Court Leonia New Jersey my name is Christian Choy I have the honor of serving as the senior patrol leader for the Leonia Scouts VSA tro 71 although I grew up in the Leonia school system I am now a junior in Bergen Catholic High School I am presently a candidate for the rank of Eagle Scout achieving the rank of Eagle Scout is a culmination of a long and fulfilling journey in the scouts that journey is a team effort and never traveled alone I have the support of my troop and Scout advisers and I am now asking for your support and the community support and helping me finalize my journey I am proud to announce my Eagle Scout project which will be to create and display Memorial portrait banners for veterans in Leonia I hope to display the banners in the month of May when Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day are observed honoring those who served who have served and sacrificed is very important not only as an expression of GR gratitude for our veterans but also as a reminder to our community about the importance of service my purpose of being here today is to introduce myself and my Eagle Scout project solicit participation from the community and raise funds for the project the costs are about $130 for each Banner some banners will be funded by the participants however many will need Community donations I am targeting about 100 veteran banners with the capacity for more the Leo Scouts BSA has already approved of the project as well as the mayor and Council I would ask your help to advertise the project to our school communities and parent organizations and I hope to adopt a simple Banner design like this for it is of my father and um I have also brought another example here as well tonight I have distributed a copy of the letter to the residents the veteran information submission form as well as the contribution form I have also set up a website at www. leonet banners.com a mass email and social media campaign is also expected to reach out to the residents submissions and contributions can be made by mail email GoFundMe and zel I will also set up contribution boxes at the burrow Hall and at the recreation department submissions will be accepted up to March 1st 2024 for the banners to be displayed in May I hope to be able to connect with the schools communities for this project thank you ask questions or no how does it sounds great I'm just curious like how many B you information have you collected so far just want to have a feel for you know how much more to go like how far we need to reach um actually um so far I haven't received any veteran information I I just uh set up my website this past Christmas break but I I'm proud to say that I did set up the go me and zel and I've received roughly about $2,500 in donations already oh that's great how much 2,5 you said so if we don't know if a veteran but we want to contribute would we just use the process you explained there and'll go to a specific veteran yeah um I have um I've had people people have already donated from outside of Leonia and uh just uh people I I also went around to businesses uh this past Saturday and I've received donations from them as well so I guess the real key thing at the moment fundraising of course but just spreading the words so Al the the veterans in our town know about this project and submit information in your husband too yeah I was just going to say that so I love this I I often wondered why our town doesn't do this but I'm excited that you're doing this my husband is an AAR veteran of the Navy so I'll definitely submit uh his information I guess I would also encourage you to to reach out to the American Legion they would probably know all the veterans in town and can potentially share their contact information this is amazing I think this is great thank you so Christian thank you for being thank you first of all for for doing this thank you to your father for a service the good news good news for you is that this project aligns with how we use our parent Square platform parent square is a a social media platform that we use to connect with our our families as well as with the community roughly when we send an email 4,000 people get 4,000 people we would have post up it goes up by email um and this qualifies for that because because you're here as representative of boy Scot of Leon so we could definitely use that so I'd like for you to do and you can do it tonight or tomorrow or whenever you have a chance if you send me a simple flyer with some some some language you want me to use we'll have our tech department will take that and we'll transit to a post we'll have that post and it'll go out to the 4,000 people I do recommend to you in terms of the the timeline that you want to do this uh be thoughtful about when you want to send it out it's post the holidays now people are just going to busy again things like that you might want to be thoughtful about when it goes out but we'll work with you on that we're more than happy to support you so thank you for doing that thank you thank you very much thank you thank you than you very so we'll continue with the public portion anyone from anyone else from the public has any comments regarding non agenda related EVS you want me to talk I'll get up no talking just don't need that's your when I when I was in business my uh I used to run I worked at Panasonic my last business job fored Consulting I was uh I worked in facilities in real estate and we sponsor being at headquarters the National Conference so my boss would always have me organize it and then we'd fit up an agenda and then there'd be gaps I said well I'd be up there and I'd have to talk I'd be the Phil I just get up and talk about anything facilities related until she gave me the old you know we're ready right so I can I can I can I can do that okay um okay so seeing no other members from the public wishing to speak we'll move on to the second board comment any other board members have any management related items that like can discuss happy New Year briefly I'll just State again thank you so much for um for the nomination and election to president and thank you to the public for um for the election and I congratulate drer n on their elections to board as well um thank everyone for a great year last year uh I know it was a year of kind of just restarting things um with Dr games coming on board um but we've got an excellent team behind us and an excellent board here I am absolutely looking forward to 20124 um especially with a strategic planning coming on board I know we have lots of big big discussions and negotiations that will happen this year as well which will to working through successfully but I couldn't ask for a better board to work with this year and I'm very much looking forward to it and I thank you all for all your hard work for last year and I'm thankful you ahead of time for all the work we do this year thank you very much okay so that brings us to our next item on the agenda that's uh close session which we do need to discuss a few matters so for those members from the public and those that are watching on YouTube we thank you for watching now uh we we will be we'll be moving into Clos session 15 to 20 minutes if you do want wait on YouTube and come back um we want to wait for the final portion of the meeting but for now I will take a motion to go into close M ra missa yes misso yes Miss Thompson yes Miss Wilds yes vice president Melman yes and president late yes motion carries on uh personels than you I have a motion forour all in favor otions