##VIDEO ID:tFw34lL8d2k## e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening everyone they're not on are these things on everybody could rise for the flag salute pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you the notice requirements of the open public meetings Act of the state of New Jersey have been satisfied by the inclusion of the date time and place of this meeting in the notice of the regular meetings adopted by this board on January 8th 2024 such schedule and notice of meetings is posted at the municipal building the Mount Olive Library the Board of Education offices and the six schools was submitted to the Daily record for publication on January 9th 2024 and was filed with the clerk of the Mount Olive Township on January 9th 2024 I direct that this announcement be entered into the minutes of this meeting at this time I'm going to make a statement of the election on November 18th 2024 the mors county clerk issued a statement of determination CER certifying the election of Jennifer Aquino Anthony G orano and Lauren Fitzgerald to the office of member of the Mount Olive Township Board of Education for a term of 3 years and the election excuse me for the Mount Olive Township Board of Education for 2025 excuse me at this time our board attorney will now administer the oath of office to our newly elected members do all three can we do all three you and if you can read along with me I state your name I Anthony jordano do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I state your name I Anthony jordano do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law did I possess the qualifications prescribed pres prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified and I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs19 colon 4en one as a voter pursuant to rs19 colon 4-1 nor disqualify due to conviction of a crime or offense nor disqualify due to a conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 18a Colon 12 hyen 1 listed in NJ s8a colon 12 hyen one and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially and justly and partially and justly 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 help me God so help me God congratulations thank [Applause] you okay okay I state your name I Lauren Fitzgerald do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States in this state and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I state your name I Lauren Fitzgerald do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs9 4 hyen one as a voter pursuant to rs19 4-1 nor toad qualified due to conviction of a crime or offense nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 18a Colon 12en 1 listed at njs 18a 12y 1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly and that I will faithfully and partially and justly 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 help me God so help me God congratulations [Applause] okay I state your name I Jennifer queena do solemnly swear do solemnly 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 and that I bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in 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 God I state your name I Jennifer Aquino do Solly swear do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified as a voter and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs19 colon 4en one pursuant to rs1 194 colon 4-1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 18a Colon 12 hyph one listed in njs 18a colon 12-1 and that I will faithfully and partially and justly and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office per perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God [Applause] congratulations so now at this time I would like to call for nominations for board president I would like to nominate uh Lisa nares I'll second that do we have any other nominations have motion to close motion to close second okay the naris is our board president for the 2025 term congratulations M sh uh we'll move on to board vice president then yes you will now take nominations for vice president do we have any nominations for any uh for vice president of the board I nominate Lisa Fenton I'll second that we have any others seeing none I'll take a motion to close a motion to close and should we take a roll call Miss seaner that all in favor all in favor thank you so quick question on that M sh don't we have to take a roll call um of votes to affirm the president and the vice president for yes my apologies okay um it's been a while since I've done this part of the meeting so thank you for pointing that out so yeah should go back to a roll call on the president item 2.1 this will be a roll call for um approval of Mrs naris excuse me as board president Mrs Aquino no Mrs fanton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald abstain Mr Giordano no Mrs Melendez no Mrs Nares yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes motion carries now we'll go to item 2.2 for motion of Vice President Mrs Aquino no Mrs fanton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald abstain Mr Giordano no Mrs Melendez no Mrs Nares yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes motion carries you want me to carry go on to so you've been you've been elected as the board president so now you will carry on with the meeting thank you um is anyone else on the board by the way having not able to log into the board dos me just use my password just I all right we'll move on to 2.3 njsba representative delegate and Alternate do we wish to um was it last who was it last year it was I believe myself and who was the delegate the alternate do we want to either one we can have you all inform me what uh positions you would like or two we can just assign them what should we do Mr G I I think Madam president if I can for a second I think on 2.3 and Mr G jumping 2.4 it does have to be a board vote yeah right so I think maybe can we do that next next board meeting Mr ke or do we have to do that tonight um you could do it at the next board meeting if you want to could give their their you know choices on what they would like do at the next board meeting that was that was done last year last year we we tabled all of the positions and then allowed you to send in your um what you would like and then we voted on the next meeting love that perfect is everyone on the board in favor of tabling items 2.3 2.4 3.1 3.2 sorry I'm going through the Committees do a motion so I I'll make a motion to table the items of 2.3 2.4 then three 3.1 3.17 through 3.17 second any um questions or objections or comments so we'll take a roll call on that motion Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mr Giordano yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs naris yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes so with that each board member if you could within the next week please send me um a list of committees and um representative positions whether it be to ptas as well as njsba and the um education um Services Coalition as well send me a list of your top three or four that you would like to participate um in and from there we'll um make a list of the top three and then we'll vote in the next meeting with that we'll move on to motion to go into confidential session so moved do we have a second for second can we take a roll call to go into a confidential session Mrs Aquino yes Mrs fanton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mr jordano yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs Nares yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes and with that um the board resolves that the board meet in confidential session for the purpose of discussing matters of attorney client privilege and any others that's it litigation and litigation and sorry miss my apologies so we don't have it all in front of us we have further resolved that the matters discussed in confidential session be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality no longer exists action may be taken we are in confidential session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we are a motion um back into Open session so moved all in favor we're here hi all right I will take them um 5.1 we will y do we want to take a roll call for back in the session Mrs Aquino here Mrs Fenton here Mrs fera here Mrs Fitzgerald here Mr gordano here Mrs Melendez here Mrs Nares here Mrs onal here Mr rillo here uh with that we are going to move on to 5.1 um I'll take a motion for to move 5.1 um Miss uh Miss Melendez we'll take a motion and then our attorney will read it I present a motion uh to approve uh item 5.1 in the doctrine of necessity second and we'll take a roll call Mrs aquo do you want to read it I need to read it in okay Mr keer will read it bear with me for a minute resolution of the van Olive Township Board of Education County of mois state of New Jersey invoking the doctrine of necessity whereas the school ethics act njsa 18a col 12 hyphen 21 was enacted by the New Jersey state legislature to ensure and preserve public confidence in school board members and school administrators and to provide specific ethical standards to guide their conduct whereas questions arose regarding how a board should invoke the doctrine of necessity when a quorum of a board of education has conflicts of interest on a matter required to be voted upon and whereas the school ethics commission provided guidance and public advisory opinion 0398 April 1st 1998 and whereas the opinion set forth that when it is necessary for a board to invoke the doctrine of necessity the board should State publicly that it is doing so the reason that such action is necessary and the specific nature of the conflicts of interest and whereas the school ethics commission by resolution dated June 25th 2018 clarified and required abort of Education invoking the doctrine of necessity to adopt the resolution setting forth that they are invoking the doctrine the reason for doing so and the specific nature of the conflicts of interest whereas the school ethics commission further directed Boards of Education that invoke the doctrine to read the resolution at a regularly scheduled public meeting post it where post Public Notices for 30 days and provide the commission with a copy and whereas the Mount Olive Township Board of Education desires to consider a proposed settlement agreement regarding litigation with former superintendent of schools Dr Robert zwicki and whereas on June 6 January 6 20125 Dr Anthony jordano filed a request for an advisory opinion in this litigation with the school ethics commission regarding alleged conflicts of current board members whereas Dr jordano Who was recently elected to the board reelected to the board has been named as an individual defendant in this litigation for allegations for alleged actions separate and apart from his capacity as a former School Board member and whereas board member Jennifer Aquino has been named as an individual defendant in this litigation whereas board member Lisa naris filed a prosay petition of appeal regarding Dr zwiki whereas board member Lisa Fenton filed a prate Petition of appeal regarding Dr zwiki whereas board member Genie O'Neal had two children employed in the district during Dr zi's employment and as one child who remember a district employee served as president of a parents Advisory Group and as alleged in Dr Jordano's request for an advisory opinion had discussions and consulted with Dr zwicki and whereas board member Louisa Melendez is named as a def defendant in the litigation filed by Dr zi and whereas the inability of the above six board members to participate in this process due to the alleged conflicts of interest results in the lack of a quorum and where in order to discuss and vote on the proposed settlement agreement the board must have a quorum and whereas the board desires to invoke the doctrine of necessity in accordance with the procedures established by the commission to consider the proposed settlement agreement and related matters now therefore be it resolved by the man Olive Township Board of Education County of mois state of New Jersey as follows one that the six board members by nature of the alleged action stated above with respect to Dr zwicki may have personal conflicts of interest conflicts of interest due to employment of relatives in the district Andor conflicts of interest due to their alleged actions in this litigation and the board therefore invokes the doctrine of necessity to consider and act upon the settlement agreement and related matters two that this resolution shall be read at the public meeting of January 6 2025 shall be posted where the board posts public notices for 30 days three that a copy of this resolution shall be forwarded to the school ethics commission by the board secretary are there any comments or questions from the board no seeing none we'll take a u a roll call Mrs Aquino yes Mrs fanton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mr Gano yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs naris yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes all right we'll move on to board attorney annual ethics review Mr gerer the floor is yours okay thank you very much if I could um what I'd like to do is just stay here if possible for the sake of uh speed and efficiency and this is your annual review of the code of ethics um we are going to take about 10 minutes to do this um if maybe you'd be able to help me with the pages as I go I'm going to go pretty quickly unless somebody wants me to use a clicker but basically I've provided you with 50 pages of information we're only going to talk about 10 of them tonight uh so I'm going to move pretty quickly through it I am available at any time to speak about ethics and the issues that uh happen we always could have a followup later in the year if we want to discuss the other points because in addition to the code of ethics there's the uh prohibitions on conflicts of interest that are important too and you can read them at your leisure thank you very much and um okay what I do want to do here just at the beginning I want everybody to be aware excuse me I'll just take some aware that there is an Ethics Commission in Trenton and that anyone can file complaint against the board member so I want to start with that on page four I want to mention that the commission does have power they can grant reprimands censures suspensions or removal from the board so um all those things are serious matters oops okay here uh one statute I do want to point out 12 hyen two no member of the board can have an interest in a contract contract with or claim against the board very important that's a separate uh matter and then I do want to start here with subsection a the first one is I will uphold and enfor this is Page seven I will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Education and court orders pertaining to schools desired changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures I do have a case here Holston that I site where the board member was found violate this section she voted in favor of a resolution to send District students to a former receiving District despite the fact the commissioner had severed the relationship and had made two directives from the Department of Education so this one is do not violate the laws and it's important uh the next one on the next page uh B this States I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain main public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed sex or social standing now there are very few cases on this uh the Deo case was found not to violate it because it dealt with information that actually was different from section B now the next page C deals with the statement I will confine my board action to policymaking planning and appraisal and I will help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them let me get this to page nine so that's a statement in this particular case that reflects that a dare program officer was found to have violated this if he stayed uh on the board because he had matters involving juveniles they found that that was too much involving so moving to page 10 I will carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members to see that they are well-run so this is very important because it draws the line the Board of Education or is the court of last resort you're the court of appeal here the idea is you're supposed to give the administration an opportunity to administer the district then you evaluate the administration and move forward from there in this case in delbury a board member got in trouble when he bypassed the superintendent and de demanded information directly from a district supervisor that board member was censored so now on page 11 we have subsection E I will recognize that Authority rests with the Board of Education and will make no personal promises nor take any private action that may compromise the board so right here I think the key phrases for people to see is not taking private action or making personal promises that may compromise the board this is the compromise the board Theory this is very important this is uh one of the bigger areas in the code of ethics uh that can be a concern it's part of the reason why the board we like to have them work as a unit everyone obviously always retains their right to vote no on something the idea is to protect the board and have the board Opera in the community's best interest in this Chang case we had a situation the board member got in trouble when they unilaterally issued a rice notice to the business administrator without notice to the board or the superintendent's recommendation you can't do that so page 12 and I'm sorry if I'm going fast but busy meeting if you want me to slow down let me know but page 12 number F I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups or to use the schools for personal gain for the gain of friends so the phrases here that jump out to me is using schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends that's a Prohibition and this kind of ties into the other statutory section about um conflicts of interest in this particular Elwood case they did find that the board member did not violate this provision when they wrote an article in support of candidates for the Board of Ed um the commission found it was not violated because it was written as a private citizen not a member of the board they did have a disclaimer and they F found that there were no facts alleged showing their surrendered their independent judgment to a special interest or part of some political groups I do want to put a footnote here there are more recent school ethics commission uh decisions in the area of writing letters to the editor posting on social media doing things like that I have that material in the background that is an area where board members can get in trouble because it's been found even if you give the disclaimer that it's my own personal opinion I'm not speaking on behalf of the board if you get into enough detail and facts about board business that would lead the average person out there to think that you're speaking on behalf of the board people have gotten censured for that so I I do want to just give you that concern there on page 13 this is number G and this States the confidentiality provision I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which if disclosed would needlessly injure individual r or the schools in all other matters I will provide accurate information and in concert with my fellow board members interpret to the staff the aspirations of the community for its school so two buzzwords here confidential and um in all other matters accurate information this flaris case a board member got in trouble here for violating it he was at the dinner table had an email about a student matter involving what a student did and the discip IPL uh talked to his family members at the dinner table about it and actually sent them the email the son sitting at the table immediately sent it out to all his friends which spread like wildfire and very soon everybody in the community knew about this information so a very simple thing can turn very nasty very quickly so this is why uh we want to be confidential this of course is relevant with all closed session matters everything we do in closed session is uh to be kept confidential until we act on it in uh public so the next item here is the last one we're going to actually discuss today on page 14 number H I will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available well actually we're going to discuss a couple others qual qualified person Personnel available after consideration the recommendation of the chief administrative officer so the important thing here you always have the right to vote no or to ask for additional information but you only vote after the chief the superintendent recommends the position the board can't just walk in and say we want to hire uh Jack Smith and have a vote on itself you have to have the superintendent's uh recommendation and the case here shows that you always have the right task for more information but it can't be nefarious so um page 15 has number I and this is I will support and protect School School personnel and proper performance of their duties this is very important as board members with the community here you're just supposed to support and back up your administrators and your teachers and your uh workers along those lines in case here uh the board president was found not to be uh comments about the board president didn't violate this specific section because of a technicality that the president is not an employee of the district and then now we've gotten to the last one I was just checking earlier to see if people were listening so we'll see from there and on page 16 uh J I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and walk down the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution so once again this is the chain of command provision here that as board members you hear from the public you don't just automatically rush to the deis and make the first determination or decision here the idea is to refer all complaints to the superintendent let the administration deal with it first at the lowest levels it works its way up to you you have the final word and you're supposed to do it only after it isn't worked out at the administrative solution the case I show you here was a board member who sent a series of emails to the superintendent coach board president board counsel expressing displeasure football players kneeling during football game they got in trouble for doing this because he conducted an invest investigation before ever telling the administration or doing anything so with that said that's everything that we deal with in the code of ethics as I point out there's much more material you can read at your leisure I'll be glad to answer at any time and we can always discuss it at a future meeting but this would um satisfy what you need to do on an annual basis for discussing the code of ethics okay I can turn it back to you there are any questions I'll be glad to answer them um oh I do have a question will this presentation be posted on the uh board docs publicly for any anyone who's interested can if you'd like to sure I have it yeah okay I think maybe some of the public um may be interested in it all right with that we are going to open the floor up to public comments on action items members of the community may comment on any action item included in tonight's agenda prior to board discussion please come to the mic you can state your name and your address for the record the mic is open for anyone who would like to comment on action items and action items only Martin Wells M 25 with Chris Avenue Bud Lake New Jersey I want to say congratulations to Lisa and Lisa I'm becoming president vice president and that's it good evening sure I would like to comment on action item number 12.1 on this evening's agenda as you know I was the board secretary for the M olive school district for 32 years during that time there has never been a legal settlement that was supplemented by taxpayer dollars the normal course is that the plaintiff's attorney and the board's Insurance Council engage in negotiations with each other until a settlement is reached yeah if I could I just want to State for the record and you can continue that uh this matter deals with um pending litigation confidential matters so the board will be restricted in what they can say and I always tell members of the public to be concerned that they always could be subject to defamation actions by any individuals so with that said I continue okay the board then approves the settlement the insurance company pays it out and the board merely pays its required deductible of $10,000 in this particular case the board is adding 152,000 taxpayer dollars to the amount the insurance company is willing to pay this sets a terrible precedent for future litigation the tenure charges that were filed against the former superintendent contained three charges the first charge alleged that Dr zwicki attempted to extort a donation from one of the boards professionals while suggesting that he could recoup his donation by inflating his Billings to the district okay and and once again I would just caution the speaker not to read from tenure charges or things of that sort because these tenure charges are a matter of public record but they're outside of a court proceeding and individuals could be subject to any kind of action as a result of that so I feel obligation just to share that with people the second charge alleged that Dr zwiki engaged in a regular pattern of double dipping while on District time the Third charge alleged verbal and mental abuse of a subordinate which was corroborated by the board's own investigator that's all in the tenure charges which are a matter of public record so why would the board be willing to supplement the insurance company's payout with 152,000 taxpayer dollars after the former superintendent attempted to defraud the taxpayers engaged in theft of both time and money through double dipping and put the district at risk of a lawsuit for his abuse of a subordinate just makes no sense the board is supposed to act as a steward of taxpayer funds it is one of the board's primary responsibilities in its fiduciary relationship with the taxpayers of Mount Olive paying 152,000 taxpayer dollars to supplement an insurance settle settlement abdicates this responsibility and goes against the board's pledge for honesty integrity and transparency additionally the 152,000 is not included in the district's budget it would be good of you to explain what programs and services you plan to take money from from to fund this payment for these reason reasons I respectfully request that you reject action item number 12.1 thank you for your time and consideration name for the record Martin wellsmore at 25 woodrest Avenue Bud Lake New Jersey just for the record those 10year charges were never ratified by the state or anyone else and therefore they expired worthless so therefore that's the facts Christopher zy 29 sers Lane hecktown New Jersey just a matter of record when someone resigns shortly after 10year charges have been filed 10year charges then go away the superintendent sends a letter to the school um to the commission to have them reviewed and from what I understand that's still in process the other thing is he was on social media saying that a federal um mediator was involved like saying that this was actually brought up to the federal case this unfactual information has got to stop stop if we could no no comments amongst the public please we're going to continue with the bo Karen F 133 Flanders drakestown Road I would also like to address action item 12.1 um take all of the legal stuff off um the fact is everything that's in the New Jersey Court's dock for that claim um were dates that were after Moa came to the meetings and spoke publicly about things um so in my opinion as a taxpayer this seems very retaliatory and as a taxpayer I understand the obligation to abide by whatever your attorney tells you you have to do insurance-wise but as a taxpayer I will be furious if a penny of my money is spent to add to that don't ask me for money to pay for a computer Insurance don't ask me for money to put a roof on a building don't ask me for anything after that because it will be absolutely infuriating it's an insult to our children and to our staff to take money out of their budget to to add this it's disgusting thank you anyone else the mic is open Action items good evening Kevin stanbury uh president of the Mount Olive administrators and supervisors Association member of uh that Association in good standing for 28 plus years so uh I guess I'm referring to a number of agenda items but yes happy new year and it's not what the new year brings to you it's what you bring to the new year anyone else oh seeing no other comments we will close uh public comments and we will move on we'll move to reorganization action items 8.1 through 8. 17 and Miss Fitzgerald can I have a motion for that yeah I'd like to make a motion to uh approve action items 8.1 through 8.17 second are there any questions or comments from the board no seeing none we'll take a roll call please miss Shing Mrs aino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mr gardano yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs naris yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orilla yes and we will move to approval of the minutes 9.1 through 9.2 in M Fon can I have a motion um under the recommendation of the superintendent I'd like to make a motion to uh approve the minutes 9.1 to 9.2 second do we have any comments or questions from the board not seeing none we take a roll call Mrs Aquino yes Mrs fanton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mr gardano abstain on 9.1 and 9.2 Mrs Melendez yes Mrs Nares yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes all right we'll move on to approve of the monthly expenditures and reports and Mr Queen now I'll take a motion I'd like to make a motion to approve action items 10.1 through 10.4 second any questions or comments from the board NOP okay seeing none we'll take a roll call Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes on everything um but I abstained from 10.4 Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mr gardano yes Mrs Melendez yes m M naris yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr illo yes we're good all right we will take we'll move on to the next one um I'll take a motion to resistent a confidential session so moved do we have a second second and resolved that the board meet in confidential session for the purpose of discussing matters of attorney client privilege and confidential pupil matters be further resolved that the matter is discussed in confidential session be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality no longer exists action may be taken Miss Shonen will take a roll call on that Mrs Aquino yes Mrs fanton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mr Gano yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs Nares yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes all right we are now in confidential session miss e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e come back into session miss Shing would take a roll call please Mrs Aquino here Mrs fanton here Mrs fera here Mrs Fitzgerald here Mrs Mr gardano here Mrs Melendez here Mrs naris here Mrs O'Neal here Mr orillo here all right we are back we are moving on to administrative action items 12.1 1 and 12.2 can I have a a motion to move the items um Miss figura I'll put you on the spot there upon recommendation of the superintendent i' like to make a motion to approve items 12.1 to 12.2 second any comments or um questions from the board okay seeing none we'll take a roll call please M Shing Mrs Aquino no on 12.1 yes on 12.2 Mrs fanton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald no on 12.1 yes on 12.2 Mr gordano no on 12.1 yes on 12.2 Mrs Melendez no and yes in 12.2 Mrs Nares yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes motion passes and we will open the floor up for public comments students parents employees and community members May comment on any item of Interest pertaining to the Mount Olive School District please please um state your name for the record and keep all comments um appropriate uh Christopher zy to9 so Lane hacktown New Jersey not I'm really not a speaker I'm more of a writer um have to say I'm disappointed in 12.1 of course I have more information than the community has so I have a better understanding uh but you know we can kind of move on in 2025 I we just big pile of garbage is now gone and we can kind of move on um my question is in 2025 Mr Nar says you've been reelected to the uh presidency when a board member sends a picture of a monitor with PR proprietary information to someone that's actually suing the district what kind of Investigations would you do in the future because from what I understand and I've been told outside of confidential session outside of any kind of legal standing I was told that a board member photo uh took a picture of a monitor with proprietary information sent that to Dr Z zi to help his cause and that unfortunately that probably that board member voted tonight want to know what your action is because previously in March you filed a prosay motion to have the state come in and take over the board because you felt that the eight votes that you voted yes for was incorrect yet when a board member does something like that nothing happens so just moving forward what would uh the policy or maybe put a policy together to address that well I I can say that the board does have a policy that if a member of the public has a complaint they can send it in the board can look into the matter I did send an email to you and you decided not to respond I said to actually everybody well I would send it into the board then again yes and we'll look into the matter at that point um as you know uh the board is bound by confidentiality on litigation that has occurred there are a number of confidential matters that have occurred before and may impact on a response but if you want to make another request you can and the board will look at it under the policy that would be phenomenal thank you so much all I ask is for for honesty Integrity as we partner that together right physical responsibility thank you so much anyone else all right seeing no other public comments we will move on to board comments and we will start simply at the end Dr Tiano thank you madam president i' just like to thank the voters of Mount Olive uh for the opportunity once again to serve them um looking forward to continuing our effort to move the district forward um I will leave this I just have a couple questions for uh Dr banj you I certainly don't need the answers tonight just something from you and Miss showing um that I wanted to reach out to you over break but with everything that was going on I was not able to um I had it written down and now I lost it and I'm going to find it oh yes one is involving the special ed audit are we going to have a public presentation on that on the findings um can we get a date on that or or more importantly when the communties are chosen uh Madame President can we remand that back to the to the curriculum committee uh to have that discussion and and make a recommendation to the full board because I think that's something important obviously there's a lot of legality with it I'm not asking for the full report of what the board heard uh in close session because it was her in Clos session but I do think it's you know the taxpayers paid for that and we can do an umbrella just to say the hot spots we saw plan you're working on with the with your admin team to uh facilitate anything any recommendations that came out of that so uh that's all I have for tonight and I appreciate that want to come resp no you don't have to respond to I'm just sorry put it out there just Dr Bia will just just just a comment and an update on that yeah just a comment anyone on and we'll move on Miss bit cherell yeah just to say again thank you so much to the public for voting I know you had a lot of great options this year uh no but um for real I very excited about doing three more years of this um so thank you all very much and miss mandz well welcome back uh to the members that were elected and to Dr jordano um also I would like to um congratulations um to the all Hispanic uh community and those who celebrate the Happy Three Kings Day which is today I celebrated with my family certainly this morning uh and I know a lot of families here in manol also celebrate that which is also known as The Epiphany also and so a lot of Catholics also um celebrate that celebration um thank you to the for the public uh comments um are very enlightened all always very welcome and very nice to see Mr rashing uh sitting here and LY Jones earlier yes it is nice to have uh coming back people uh with knowledge and wisdom and that certainly care about this community also uh Dr Gils and uh Mr Chris S um and everyone the CAC I see the CPAC president in the back also so thank you so much for coming Mr quina I just wanted to say thank you to the public for their vo of confidence in voting um this new board in thank you and Miss Benton keep going Louisa it's also uh called little Christmas for us Ukrainian people so that is today um but I just wanted to welcome the three of you on the board and I wish us a very prosperous year uh working together and I'll swing it over to m Mr rillo I have no comment thanks and Mr Guerrera I don't have any personal comments I do however have um something that I wanted to share on behalf of the Flanders PTA they couldn't have a representative here this evening but they just wanted me to mention a few quick things um they donated supplies and carts for Indo indoor recess for the school they also have a character development assembly coming up on January 22nd the the be great show um teacher Grant applications will start at the end of the month and they want to thank all of the volunteers and all of their crafters for an amazing holiday Boutique last month that's all and Mrs onne um congratulations to the new appointed board members and happy New Year and do we have anything from Dr B iterate to welcome um the members back who were elected recently looking forward to working you again and I'll close it out and saying welcome back um and I think this board uh looks forward to 2025 of getting a lot of things accomplished um and thank you to the community for uh your trust in us and that's all I have thank you and I'll take a motion then to close out the meeting motion to adjourn all in favor I I