welcome everyone we're going to start the meeting in compliance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 in open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as specified in the ACT proper notice of this open public meeting was provided in the notice of January 4th 2024 said notice was posted at the entrance of the Board of Education offices mailed to the Nutley Township Clerk sent to tap into Nutley and advertised in Nutley son and posted on the district website can everybody stand for the flag salute allegiance to the flag of United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all roll call here Mr baglia here Mrs danek Martin Dr Delia here Mr fragels Mr kazinski Mrs Quirk here Mr Scotty here Mr Ferraro here on behalf of the Board of Education I want to thank the community for their patience and support during this extremely difficult time we would also like to publicly thank the Department of Education for their continued cooperation and support this evening we'll be providing information to the public regarding the board's Current financial problems and offering solutions to those problems corrective action will be provided to the commissioner of education for review as board members we have a responsibility to the community to oversee the policies and budgets of the local school district advocate for the needs of the students and Educators and to ensure that the district operates effectively and in compliance with state regulations we represent the interest of the community in educational matters and we take that responsibility very seriously as a board we are embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding the deficit that we now face however upon learning of this deficit my fellow board members and I took immediate action to address those concerns we have not and we will not ignore our responsibility to the community in this regard since learning of the financial deficit we have worked hard to ensure that this does not happen again which is the basis of this evening's presentation finally we want to acknowledge the titless efforts of our superintendent and his staff to identify and assist in the necessary corrective actions while continuing to provide for the needs of our students and faculty we thank him for his leadership at this at this moment we're going to uh do a presentation our chair of Finance trustee bagle is going to uh discuss the presentation at at which point once we conclude we're going to come back up here on the DAT and we're going to open up the public comment portion of the meeting e e thank you good evening everyone to uh uh to reintroduce myself my name is Joe Bagley I joined the board in 2022 I was elevated to chair of the finance committee in 2023 and I've sat in that position for the last 16 months um the purpose of this presentation this evening is to provide some contextual information to the to the to the community uh it is a supporting document to the uh the corrective action plan and an FAQ which we posted on our website and many of you have an hard copy on March 19th the Nutley staff parents and community members received a fairly cryptic email about some Financial issues associated with the district the boards of Trustees many of the administrative staff and the community were justifiably concerned with the lack of information at the time the deficit which was investiga in verified by multiple independent groups including the new New Jersey Department of Education our district auditor District administrator and Nutley Board of Trustees identified that we have a fiscal deficit in this year 2023 2024 $7 million that fiscal deficit has created significant stress on the cash flow of our district district and has made it difficult for us to continue operations for the rest of this year without a capital infusion how do we get here there are several factors that account for the deficit in this fiscal year there are rising costs attributed to several fixed and variable line items including but not limited to Rising headcount health care for uh full-time employees special services transportation and aging infrastructure but unfortunately what's created the deficit in this fiscal year are multiple misdated projections for revenues and expenses and several unbudgeted expenses for known items that should have been in this year's budget FAQ number two and sections two and three in the corrective action plan will provide a little bit more detail but I'll provide some more context as we as we go through the presentation so when did we know the district verified the current deficit on March 13th of this year but the investigation into the procedures of the business office began in the spring of 2023 the finance committee was asking for additional transparency into the current year budget last year's cycle to be clear our budgetary cycle begins in July 1st and ends on the 30th follows the calendar year of the school year as we were beginning to embark on some projects to improve the infrastructure of the district we wanted to ensure that we were operating with a clear fiscal picture we asked the business office to provide some reports including things like projected versus budgeted as well as transparency to our reserves our goal was to ensure that we made decisions with clear and concise information unfortunately at that time the business administrative excuse me the business office inform us that they could not produce the reports part of the issue was a significant backlog s to eight months of daily processing some of which was tied to a employee who was on leave justifiably so when learning of that issue the Board of Trustees same day engaged an accounting firm to come in and provide support to the business office and help close the books for 2022 2023 fiscal year that process took far longer than we had expected and longer than we were led to believe the books were closed in November and at that time we identified a $686,000 deficit for the fiscal year 2022 2023 It's Not Unusual for districts to operate in a deficit but it is unusual for nutly to be in a deficit at that time we were fortunate to have cash reserves which allowed us to address the deficit but we increased our request for transparency into this fiscal year G given where we were in the cycle at that time the books were passed over to our independent auditor who then completed the audit in February and in that audit identified a reduction of fund balances from 9 million to 2.4 portions of that balance were encumbered for products that we had agreed but there were several items that we were concerned about including the fact that their fund balances eroded far lower than we had expected at that point in time the Board of Trustees requested an immediate midyear status report as well as a cash flow analysis by our auditor and subsequently asked our business office to perform the same task when they both completed their work they agreed that we were in a $7 million deficit what has occurred since that deficit was identified since verifying the deficit on March 13th the district has done the following we've notified the New Jersey doe of the situation within compliance of the statute of 48 Hours we've notified our peer group The Nutley Board of Commissioners and I'd like to make an aside and not because there have been some questions in the community the Nutley Board of Commissioners and nutly Board of Education operate independent Audits and independent budgets although we share information it is the responsibility of each group to manage their own fiscal policies as well as ensure that their budgets are adherence to the information that's provided I'd like to thank the Commissioners because at that time they provided although expressing extraordinary disappointment in the status of the finances of the district support including key contacts providing external uh advisors as well as authorizing the commissioner of Finance Tom Evans to step in and provide advisory services to the board of education at that time we began the process of understanding where we were with the county field office regarding cash flow and what exactly we needed to ensure that we could close the books for this fiscal year and not disrupt the educational process for students we identified that we needed to secure relief funding of approximately $7 million we developed a correction action plan in accordance with the state statute and we submitted a preliminary budget for 2425 which was delivered to the state on March uh excuse me March 20th I'd like to note the dates we identified and verified our deficit on March 13th and then we're forced by State Statute to have prepared a new budget in seven days and at this time recognizing the risk that the district was in we immediately began search for an interim business administrator and those interviews are ongoing I'd like to note that in the state of New Jersey the responsibilities of the business administrator are almost as equal as the super intended not having a business administrator in District puts us at risk from a business perspective as well as several other responsibilities the business administrator has is important that we fill this position I'd like to take a moment to talk about what a corrective action plan is the corrective action plan which was generated in conjunction with the New Jersey Department of Education the county office and our the Board of Trustees and the uh District administration represents a framework that we are going to follow F that we're going to follow to adhere to remediations necessary that were identified through our investigation it'll address several areas some of which include but are not limited to budget creation oversight internal controls of several areas the use of external resources including vendors and providers and the selection thereof and monitoring importing last but not least that was the item that began this process in April of last year what are the next steps as I previously mentioned this issue was identified in total on the 13th of March we excuse me we submitted a preliminary Budget on March 20th we have several key deadlines over the next 30 days we will focus on completing and establishing a long-term sustainable Budget on a go forward basis we will adopt the critical action plan which is on the docket for uh for vote tonight by the board and then we will submit it to the New Jersey Department of Education that will put us one step closer to uh receiving relief funding and the closure of outstanding Financial Obligations I'd like to say that we have significant bills and AAR going back to 2023 I'd like to thank the vendors and providers who have continue to provide service knowing that nutly is in physical distress these are providers who work with our students provide critical services and they should know they're going to get paid we will finalize a needs-based budget or zerob based budget these acronyms are not always for me but in essence we're going to put a budget together that ensures that we spend what we need and we do not spend in areas that we should not that process has already begun and will be be continue to to to be iterative until we present it to the district and to the community on May 7th upon completion of vote and adoption at the board we will submit it to the state no later than the 15th of May and hope for approval we expect given the work that we have done and the opportunity that we have to improve our current budget reduce unnecessary expenditures unlock economic value in the district that we will put forth a long-term sustainable budget that will correct these actions and issues that we are currently facing today fairly quickly I'd like to State again when you look at the Timeline this issue was identified in Earnest on March 15th excuse me March 13 and we will submit a final budget from the groundup to the state by the 15th of May that's 60 days I'd like to note before we go any further the work as mentioned by the president of the central office Kent Bia who is welcomed into his office the Board of Trustees several outside Consultants myself included as well as Tom Evans the commissioner of Finance all of whom have looked directly into the actions he's accepted responsibility under extraordinarily difficult facts and circumstances and I have to say from my perspective not only Kent but his staff have stepped up significantly it is times of Crisis and make no mistakes this was and is a financial crisis when you know who your leaders are I can say with the work that I've been involved with several members some of which are in the front of this row Ian B Meister who's in the back those teachers who are in the audience who have continued to support our students and the administrators who have continued to make sure that the operations the districts have remained unchanged I thank you this has been a tremendous amount of work an extraordinary stressful situation but I am happy to say that we are moving forward in the right direction there are several more frequently asked questions that I didn't address in the presentation I ask the public use this tool these are iterative Dynamic documents we are going to be adding information to both the corrective action plan and the FAQs as we work through the budgetary cycle and identify other areas where we can improve the performance of the district there are several more questions not going to read them here they're posted online as well as as I said already handouts use these as opportunities to educate and dive deeper into the questions that you have for us as we go forward I have one more comment I'm going to do something that our two lawyers here would tell me not to do which is I'm going to go off script speak from the heart I a 27-year financial services professional I work for a global Investment Bank I been a COO and managed to budget in excess of $1.5 billion I am extraordinarily disappointed to be here tonight I can s tell you that despite my background this issue and the things that we have identified have taken 10 months several individuals externally as providers and several members in the community with knowledge and issue to uncover exactly what has occurred and it is a complex problem that does not give me any Solace I will say that the Board of Trustees on behalf of the Board of Trustees we are dedicated to fixing this issue we believe we can I can say as a taxpayer and as a parent my I graduated this this this District in 1992 my wife in 1993 have a 10th grader and a seventh grader seeing these problems fixed ensuring that the educational credibility and quality that our students receive is Paramount I believe personally that we can fix these problems not only through rebuilding the budget but also unlocking value ensuring that we're properly compensated from the state on the aid front and get ourselves in a position where this district is forward and in better position with our peer group over the next 10 years or 20 years than we have been for the previous two decades I can say that if we do what we need to do adhere to the fiscal policies that are necessary we have an opportunity to reimburse the state far ahead of the timeline that they expect us to and that I believe is true because we pay our bills we are not going to lay this Pro problem at the feet of the taxpayer that is why we are going to spend a considerable amount of time rebuilding the budget and ensuring that we are spending money in the right places I'd like to thank you for your patience please use use this opportunity to bring questions and comments to the board we are here to provide as much support and transparency as we can at this time thank you thank you trustee baglia for that presentation uh I make a motion that we suspend the time period for the public uh comment portion all in favor I opposed we now come to the portion of our meeting where we allow members of the public to address the board in this section we allow comments on reports resolutions and all School related matters our board regulations number 0167 a lot 20 minutes for these communications each person shall be limited to three minutes and we ask that you try to stay within this requirement speakers may speak more than once only after all others wishing to speak on a topic have been heard all statements will be directed to me as the chairperson and no one may address board members individually please be reminded that if your statement is too lengthy abusive obscene irrelevant or redundant your participation may be terminated comments concerning District employees Andor students will not be responded to please remember to state your name and address each and every time you address the board for questions where the board may not have immediate answers the board will take information and respond to you at an appropriate time does anyone have any comments actually I'm sorry before before you uh before you you give us your comments um Mr Ben could you just um acknowledge some of our uh people that are here today with us thank you Mr President joining us on the um on the stage today we have Mr Scott EVN our board attorney uh Mr Dennis mckever our special counsel Mr Gary Vincy our district auditor Scott yeah SC okay okay Donna fero 34 roselt Street I have a couple of questions I know Mr bagle had um I believe answered one I wanted to know how have you been paying the bills that need to be paid such as the health benefits salary and the necessary expenses was I understanding that they're being taken care of yeah I'll confirm that yes we've been paying in in this type of situation we're paying the bills we know we have to pay to ensure that we can continue to operate it's not just but includes uh uh payroll Healthcare uh and some other bills that are necessary and and we we've asked for forgiveness and adherence from some of the providers who are quite frankly under their own pressure financially for patients with confirmation that they will be paid in full okay currently where is our money what bank BCB yeah it's BCB okay so the money is any money that goes in there is insured because I know most times there's a cap but I guess with um big budgets like this uh they would be insured if anything were to happen to the bank correct big enough up to the federal limits okay okay uh the money's for the state that we get from our state for our special education children um is that money in a separate account do you keep that separate or do you put that in general funds that a question yes so we get um state aid uh the terms of special as well as extraordinary uh Aid those both go into our general fund account um yeah 1110 okay is there a way to keep that separate so that the special education students are not you know affected by it like I know a lot of times in districts that's how they work it but and they put then what they have you know the reserves in special you know into the general fund I was just wondering if there is a way to keep it separate so no uh programs are affected for the special needs children I I Mr President can I answer that question yeah um so to your point uh the monies come in in revenues and they get uh appropriated in expenditure the the Appropriations are separated in our budget um but the revenues go into one bank account okay uh with the shortfall of money uh there will be necessary training for the par professionals and teaching staff and uh for the behavioral and parent training uh that berken County gets and there is a rumor that berken County Special Services with the program at Washington school is going to be eliminate you yeah yeah so so the the BD program ER programs will continue um right now we will be doing them with our people and our staff instead of Outsourcing those okay um as a former special education teacher I worked with Bergen County Special Services in our district and I just want to tell you the training that they get is nothing compared and I'm not putting down our special education teach I was one myself in the public District compared to what they get privately and I was really hoping that you would keep it because in the long run with the money not being available the training that they're going to need is not going to be available for them as much in-house training that you do it's not the same thank you for your feedback I just wanted to point point a clarify we partner with South Bergen jointure commission which is different than Bergen County Special Services okay but they're they're kind of the same in a sense yes you know how they how they work so just coming from someone who worked with them I just want you to know how professional and I I wasn't employed by them I was employed by public school district so just so you understand where I'm coming from I do see the difference the AIDS are different than um the AIDS that we have and I I worry about special education children that's my love and that's my uh part thank you for your feedback it's appreciated okay um also I just want to make sure that to me not laying off any of the power professionals um wouldn't be you know most times they go to the bottom up and um I hate to see Power professionals where it's in the children's IEPs that you remember that's a legal document also and if they have needs for these Services of these uh wonderful people to please uh don't lay off the par Professionals for special education students thank you thank you thank you anyone else wishing to come up [Music] good evening Brian kova 147 Beach Street um Mr Bagley at the top you mentioned um 2024 25 the budget prepared in seven days that it would be needs-based we'll spend what we need and we won't in areas that we should not we just don't that's Collective we just don't know what those areas are but uh I just wanted to mention as a father of a student at Radcliff um who's currently uh benefiting from math strategies and a high impact tutoring program um Can my family expect uh these programs to continue yeah um thank you for your comment we'll continue to provide uh tier support services for our students the high impact tutoring Grant as mentioned is a separate Grant we awarded uh this year um to be honest I do hear that they're offering another round I don't think they put out another round for next year yet in pertaining to that Grant as far as multiple tiermo support we'll continue to offer multiple tiermo support um I believe with a focus on tier one interventions for next year thank you anyone else wishing to come up good evening can you just please state your name and address Mark Jacobson 115 Margaret Avenue uh Mr bagula you mentioned earlier on in your presentation about the $7 million from the state of New Jersey and the anticipation to pay that back ahead of schedule what is the current schedule to be paying that back as well as that is that an interest free grant so we haven't been given clear direction from the state as the length of the loan if we will in fact uh typically it's 10 years um the and I want to be clear for a previous uh question that was also made the current budget that we have was a right-sized budget to correct the imbalance between revenues and expenditures that's the preliminary budget our final budget which will post on the 5th or excuse me present on the 5th or 6th of May or early May will have more detail in it which will explain to you what our projected payback rates will be and whether or not there'll be an interest associated with it actually um Mr uh Gary Mr Vincy here um he's our auditor do you have any information on that just general information with regard to uh loans and payback yeah typically with the uh loans from the state of New Jersey um they are 10year payback they state does have the ability to charge interest but districts that have received loans from the state have not been charged interest um during that 10-year window so I I think it's the expectation that the interest would not be charged but the state does have the ability to Levy it all right thank you and then an additional question in the frequently asked questions one of the questions you did not address was question number eight would deficit significantly affect the academic and extracurricular programs of our students you said the question answer was said no but there might be minimal changes impacting the student program for the 2024 2025 Academic Year do we have any idea right now what kind of impacts those potentially could be for our students as a father of two students in school that's very concerning Mr Mania currently we're we're strategizing to make um uh to make should I say uh we're looking at our programs to find efficiencies so that the day of the student is not impacted um with the change over from the revenues being actualized instead of inflated uh we have to build our budget around actual revenues coming in uh so of course Staffing is something we're looking at at this time we're looking for ways to impact have minimal impact of Staffing on students but there may be in some cases where there is low class size a raise in class size mostly at the secondary level all right one additional question you were stating it's key for you guys to hire an interim business administrator which I absolutely agree they are a key key person in the district and you guys are said the process of interviewing is ongoing right now is there going to be any changes in the hiring practices right now versus the hiring practices of the previous business administrator which help put us in this position um we we'll of course look at that um to but but just to to be clear you know the practices are um that there is there's an interview process uh there's there's committees that are that are put in place to interview the candidates uh there's background checks uh that are done uh you know all of the standard uh you know background checks that are required to to work in a school district um we'll work with our our professionals our attorneys and uh the state to see if we can you know tune fine-tune that and and put some other safeguards in place would one of those safeguards potentially be just just a simple Google search as if as many of us in this room probably Google the name of the previous business administrator I I understand sir all right thank you thank [Music] you anyone else wishing to uh Venus Hernandez 274 East bake Avenue Mark took one of my questions so thank you Mark um off of off of that the interm B can you just um just lower the mic please thank you sorry Venus Hernandez 274 East Pake Avenue Mark took one of my questions um when hiring the new intern ba what will their qualifications be will this person actually have a background in financing accounting to help not have this happen again so there are requirements in order to be to be a ba um those are you know you need to have a license um there there's you need to have certain certain criteria to be a ba so that's I mean we we'll look at to see if what else we can you know candidates are available out there that have some of those qualifications but that's that's you know there are qualific there are criteria that's for that position okay and then in the paper it says they will report to the superintendent and the finance committee is the finance committee going to be the same people that were already on or will it be a whole new finance committee sorry what was can you just repeat that in the in your District Finance corrective action plan it says reports will directly go to the superintendent and the finance committee is the finance committee the same people that were already the finance committee or will it be a new finance committee well this is a corrective action plan so um right now the finance committee is the same group but it's also we're going to you know this is not just something that the finance committee is going to handle it's the entire board okay so then the finance committee that was involved with everything that happened with David how is it that they didn't see anything that was happening as he was in charge but didn't everyone have a like a like see it have a word I'm sorry just I'm having a hard time hearing sorry if it's the same finance committee that was on when David was here how can we guarantee that they're not going to make the same mistake because shouldn't they have seen seen what he was doing so how is it that you keep the same finance committee going moving forward then well the finance committee is is is the same but that's been intact for this year um we can't speak to particular you know Personnel yeah matters so um but we are we are implementing safeguards that that are going to assist whether it's the it's the existing committee or whether it's a new committee um we're going we're going to we're going to we're going to look to implement uh more reporting from our Auditors our external Auditors uh we're looking to employ uh outside uh Consultants that are going to provide monthly reporting to the committee and to the board okay thank you thank you anyone else wishing to come up [Music] sorry I have a long address uh Nicholas Frey 66 North Spring Garden a um since the last meeting I've had time to look through the audits I've had time to look through the bylaws I just have some questions on how we got here today because I think that's an important feature that we all kind of want to know about um is it okay if I talk to Mr paga directly is that all right just you could just questions and then we're we're going to you know answer them the uh the independent audit came out on uh February 7th however as the process goes along between June 30th of 22 and June 30th of 23 do you see the bank balances I if I could yeah adjust your question I think there's a a uh a a question around the r use of the treasurer's report and how the treasurer report is represented as part of the finance committee for clarification the treasury report is a monthly snapshot in time of the balances of the accounts it is not a clear indicator as the help of the district an indicator of inflows and outflows and that report can vary significantly over time if you look for our treasur reports you can see that our last treasur report dated as December and it is identical almost to the treasury report that was dated as of September at this point in time I'll say to you the tools that we've been asking for that we are going to bring in outside auditor firms for and consultants for are the tools that are necessary to provide a clear Insight is to the health of the district because the treasurer report is just one simple tool that provides you a a fairly basic view into the balances of the accounts that are not indicative to the encumbered Capital that are necessary to keep the business running so with the bylaws uh bylaw 0172 duties of the Treasure of school monies number seven render the money report to the board given the detail account of all receipts amounts of all warrants issued and accounts from which they were drawn and the balances of each account were you or were you not Prov provided with the balances of each account we were provided with the balances of of each account but there's information here that unfortunately we can't provide at this time based on the ongoing investigation were I'm gonna ask a question you might not be able to answer it were they correct yeah think that's questions excuse me yeah yeah the one thing I just I want to just kind of address because there's a little bit of a misconception it's same with the uh young lady who who was up here before about the the legal level uh that board members can get into the day-to-day activities of of the district and ethically they they're they can't run the district they oversee the policy so it's like a broader view so it's you know that's not the level of detail that they are allowed to get into on it uh in terms of The Treasure of school monies you know again I think Mr Baga explained that um it's it's not like a real detailed it's just that that kind of snapshot so each month uh and forgive me I'm not trying to beat a dead horse the reason I'm asking is because we elect you the officials right you run you want to be on the board of education you don't get paid for it as I was told in the last meeting totally get it you unpaid members who represent us however we're what I think the community wants to know how do we get to the point where we don't know what's in our bank account how do we get to the point where we don't know if we have money to P make payroll the these are items that it's either the treasurer or the people who run that department that they are the ones who have lost the focus and you are the ones who are not overseeing that in in that way so my question is how does that $7 million which is in the audit report clear as day as represented from 202 two to 2023 there's a $7 million deficit between those two years and you're correct from your presentation it's headcount that represents a large majority but there are also capital projects there are also uh can't read it plant and operation maintenance plan and operations maintenance went up $1.5 million between those two years capital projects went up 1.6 so as those things are going on how are we not catching that and I know you're not involved in that dayto day I'm not saying you are I'm saying how do we get to that point how do we get to that point where we're missing these items over the course of that year because this all goes back to last year this has nothing to do with this year's deficit only because we're making up for last year's problem uh before we go any further I'd like to make it perfectly clear um we are that this year's deficit is not a makeup for last year's problem it would take some considerable time for us to bring you up to speed on the causes and factors that resulted in a deficit last year and a deficit this year as our audit report stated okay there was a drainage of the reserves but it is not driven by the factors that I think you can can identify by looking at the treasures report and some of the other things that occurred within the district last year um I I I think we're we're we're in a difficult position here because there are some additional information we probably can't speak to at this point no I get it but we're aware and have the same concerns that you have as to what occurred over a relatively brief period of time to erode substantial economic value from the district and we we we understand and have some transparency as to what was occurred and I'm I I get it I'm not asking for because I understand that there's a lot of legal actions here so what you can't say I respect because I'm not trying to to put a bullet on anybody I'm just trying to get to a point uh from the auditor manager report uh uh financial planning accounting uh paragraph number four uh greater care needs to be taken of the recording of year and accounts payable what are we doing to ensure that that happens is page 13 of the uh Auditor's Manager Management report that's the auditor's report yes this the the summary of the report yeah yeah Mr Vincy do you have um I I don't know if you have a copy of your of the auditor's report I do I think the question is what new procedures are being implemented internally um regarding that recommendation I know at the night that the board accepted the uh audit reports there was a corrective action plan um that was prepared by the business administrator with the procedures that were outlining outlined to correct that um so for example that report the yearend payables uh it was just our recommendation to ensure that the internal accounting reports agreed with the general ledger of the budget reports Etc do not have a copy of that corrective AC just out a curiosity if the business business administrator is the one who recommended that are we taking that recommendation he's required to prepare the corrective action plan for the annual audits that's correct okay and what are we doing uh the one before that number three uh is to continue to monitor the budgets and revenue which I think you now are taking that steps to do uh to ensure that there's sufficient funds available to meet the operational needs are we making is that also part of that corrective action plan based on the otter report it is but I also think tonight's corrective action plan expands on that okay um as far as choosing vendors are concerned that we pay uh I know there's a process it's within the bylaws you need to get three quotes for that um what is the process of making sure that the business is not owned by somebody who has connections with the school [Music] district yeah I'll speak to that uh there are anti-nepotism uh rules and laws and regulations uh and there are all the public contract bidding law uh for schools it's all in regulation of of what can and cannot be awarded to vendors and right and ethics uh the doe ethics uh rules as well so the bylaw of uh 01421 nepotism that one carries over to the vendors that we choose as well 01421 yes it does see that's whyc because of very astute uh members of the community that's why I bring my bylaws yes okay do we was there any connection between what our business administrator had done and any connection with nepotism that unfortunately that's something we can't because that's an ongoing matter so we can't comment on that I appreciate it thank you so much thanks thank you sorry so I know you spoke from the heart Mr mataga I get it I'm not again I'm not trying to pinpoint this on anybody I'm just concerned as a member of the community that over oversteps and oversights have taken place and the fact that it took and I understand that you're not you cannot control how fast somebody works but the fact that it took 10 months for somebody to come back with information to me is I don't know if it's a failure on his end or the people sitting here not pushing hard enough I don't know I'm not in the room but it's an over oversight that has cost a lot of money it's going to cost people their jobs it's going to cost children I know you're trying not to but it's going to cost education it's going to cost Sports it's going to cost activities it is going to cost us I know you're trying not to but the max you can raise our taxes is 2% I foresee that that happening and all of this is because of oversights by one and multiple people on a team and that is the unfortunate thing that's happening here again my questions are not trying to pinpoint this on any particular person on the stage today it's trying to gain information because the information that has been given has stunk it has not been clear today's presentation is the first time that we've gotten something I understand why but it has it has created rumor Mills it has created bad mouthing is create all this stuff that circulates on social media and within this community and we need clear and precise answers we need it because we are the ones that are being affected thank you thank you anyone else wishing to come up and speak okay seeing none uh motion to close the public comment portion Mr kazinski can you um move find uh Administration resolution discussion yes Mrs danek Martin yes Dr Delia yes Mr fragels Mrs Quirk yes Mr Scotty yes Mr far yes it's okay i' like to vote Yes oh I'm sorry Mr Baga and Mr kazinski Mr Mr bamo I got it and Mr K [Music] Mr bagle Finance yeah Mr President I'd like to move resolution one is written Mr balamo but discussion first any discussion roll call Mr balamo yes Mr baglia yes Mrs danek Martin Dr deia yes Mr fragels Mr kazinski yes Mrs quirk yes Mr Scotty yes Mr far yes any old business to come before the board any new business whereas the Board of Education will be discussing matters exempt from public discussion pursuing to njsa 10 col 4-12 now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education recess the close executive session at this time to discuss Personnel anticipated litigation and contracts be a further resolved at the results of the discussions will be made public by inclusion on the agenda of the subsequent meeting of the board of education but when the reasons for discussing such matters in Clos session are no longer exist can I get a motion to adjourn into executive session second okay thank you everyone