##VIDEO ID:72fjQc5tjWU## call means order oh you good please rise for the flag salute I allei to the flag United States of America the one nation indivisible good evening welcome to the January 6th weord Board of Education reor meeting the New Jersey public meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Rutherford board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place post on the bulletin board outside the burough Clerk's Office mailed to the Harold South bergenite and Record newspapers and filed with the burrow clerk hard copies of the agenda are available in the meeting room and the agenda is posted electronically on Friday before the meeting date on the district's website at rord schools.org subsequent to this meeting a video of the meeting will be uploaded to the district's website at Reit schools.org the video link can be found by opening the Board of Education link and click clicking on public meetings and then videos as your board secretary I'll be administering the meeting until we nominate and vote on a new board president and that board president will then take the chair and conduct the meeting after uh first order as normal our approval of minutes from our previous meeting on December 2nd I have a motion to approve those Mr ban second Mrs Jones roll call sure roll call uh Mr KY what's that do we have a roll call on this no we just we don't do do we don't do roll call not for not for the right got it a review of the results of the annual school school election held on November 5th 2024 uh the election was for three unexpired seats uh for three years term uh Sergio aot received 500 5,643 votes Christina Cole received 6,317 votes Greg rine received 5,188 votes and then there are personal personal choices of 172 so the three elected uh officials are Mr alot Miss Cole and Dr rine I'll administer the oath to those three individuals uh in a moment they'll uh hold up their their right hand and repeat after me with uh administering your oath and then once that happens you can then take your seats uh alongside your other board members thank apprciate you swear I will support theti of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and theit of State jerse the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and Ali to the that I will bear true faith and aliance to the and to the government established in the United States and the state to the government established in the United States and the state under the authority of under the authority of the people I I to swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the Board of Education the office of member of the Board of Education and that I will Faithfully I faithfully and partially and justly perform all duties of that office and justly perform all duties of that office according to the best of my will according to the best of my thank you [Applause] now I'll take roll call for the full board uh Mr ban present Mrs Cole present Mr KY present Mr Healey Mrs Jones present Mr maon present Dr rine here Mr Sprayberry present Dr aot here we have a quarum so again the board secretary administers the meeting until we nominate and elect a board president so at this time I'm going to open the floor to nominations for board President we don't need a second on the nomination just a single nomination suffices Mr M I'd like to nominate Dr Sergio noted Dr last call for nominations I'll close the floor to nominations we have one nomination Dr lah I do have to take a roll call vote so an affirmative yes or a negative no we'll suffice Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes Mr KY oh yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maon oh yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes and Dr lah yes congratulations Dr lah the new board president Dr L will now take the chair as board president and administer the meeting for the nominations for vice president and the rest of the meeting going forward put your name to thank you everyone for your confidence in me uh I would like to see if we have a motion uh to accept nominations for the office of vice president for the Board of Education Mr Healey seconded by Mrs Jones um and now I would like to entertain uh names to become vice president of the board of education for 2025 Mr Jones Mr Dennis maon would be a wonderful vice president all right thank you uh Dennis mazone has been nominated for vice president uh any other nominations all right seeing none uh I'd like to have a motion to close nominations for the office of vice president Mr bosan seconded by Dr rine and the roll call vote on say roll call vote yep uh so we're going to have a roll call on uh Dennis mazone becoming the vice president of the Board of Education effective immediately until the next organization meeting as prescribed by law Mr ban yes Mrs Co yes Mr KY oh yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maon yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr lah whatever is more emphatic than oh yes yes congratulations Mr ma thank you all very much all right excellent uh there is a board meeting schedule that that is listed in your board packet uh it's a schedule for 2025 all meetings are scheduled for Monday with a 7 PM start time you need to approve that um I don't I don't see a motion to approve that so I don't remember we had to approve that or not I think should approve we probably should just to make it all right any questions or comments about the board meeting schedule hearing none need a motion to approve the board meeting schedule for 2025 Mr Cole seconded by Mr con uh ask Mr Whitford please take role Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes Mr KY yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maon yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr alot yes motion Carri all right excellent uh I will turn it over to Mr Hurley for the report of the superintendent thank you and happy New Year everyone and congratulations to our reelected board members and our reelected president and uh vice president I'm looking forward to another year of working with you all uh few things I wanted to uh review uh January 20th schools are closed for Dr King observers Dr King's birthday um January 23rd and 24th are the uh teacher conferences in preschool prek to grade six so in those buildings on the 23rd uh there's a one session day for students and on the 24th there's no school for students uh so that we have parent conferences both in the afternoon and evening of the 23rd and during the day of the 24th uh the schedule for Middle School and High School uh doesn't change on those days um we have a finance committee meeting next Monday night uh January 13th at 5:45 uh that's going to be a non Google meet meeting a live meeting in my office and at 6:30 the negotiating committee for the board uh will meet to um start to discuss and plan for the Raa negotiations so that's and we'll be sending out a agenda for the finance committee later this week and um just a reminder to the the board's negotiating committee we don't really have an agenda for that for that dis meeting is more of a discussion the uh I want to let policy committee know that I did receive from stous Esme uh right before in fact the day that we broke for uh the holiday break a packet which I'm reviewing and I had the administrators appropriate administrators review and I'm hoping to get that out to the committee um if not by Friday by at least early part of next week so we have time to review it if there's a need to um have any discussion or meeting we can and we could you know attemp hopefully move the policy ahead at the January 27th meeting okay so be looking for that I also want to uh mention to the other committees um and Dr aot probably will be mentioning it that you know committee assignments for this year will be forthcoming but for the other committees uh in February we will certainly be having another finance committee there already that may be early March we we have a calendar that we gave you but we also will be meeting with building grounds uh usually right around that same time to review with building the grounds things that are be going into the budget um we also U I'll be looking to most likely have um a strategic planning and perhaps a Personnel committee meeting uh sometime in February as well to uh take a look ahead to some things that will be uh happening in terms of personnel and and um and and some strategic uh changes perhaps uh in some of the positions as we moving forward into the next year so again I'll try to I'll try to keep those dates to the dates that I'll be sending you when we send out the committee assignments potential committee meeting dates on Monday night but it may come to a point where we have two or three at the same time we'll have to decide who can make another night you know something like that so I'll keep you I'll keep you praise of that um we are going to be going out to bid shortly for the fire uh system alarm system replacement um at Lincoln School shortly is kind of a a loose term it takes a while it's a rather uh extends mve bid that has to go out so we're hoping to get it out by late winter early spring so that we can have the work done uh maybe starting the school year on late second shift but certainly have it completed during the summer so um U Mr whff uh we met Mr wiffer and I met today with Mr Gamboa and uh uh with with Paul danback uh to get his Insight uh we're meeting with the Architects we have a follow-up coming up with that to get this this out because that's a rather extensive and obviously critical project um I'm going to make two comments now because the agenda is not that filled with too much stuff I do want to comment on two items on the agenda uh the first is tonight the board's going to be asked to uh accept the retirement of barbar donnal at the end of this um Academic Year and um we certainly will have um more to say about Barbara as the U year goes on but uh 34 years in District and uh I'm pretty sure she's at 20 years uh in her position as the supervisor of technology so uh very as you know a very key role uh in the district and um uh that has grown the importance of technology obviously has grown enormously so um she'll be retiring at the end of this Academic Year and also the board's going to be asked tonight to uh approve a equivalency waiver for qac I I I think I did try to explain that in the um communication but simply put I think I mentioned this to you before they're changing the valuation of test scores and student achievement beginning next year not our year for Q act so the thought came out from Trenton that if a school would rather be judged by the new um formula you could do a waiver and get judged that way now you know again a critical mind might say Well then why can't we just do the whole thing new starting now if you can do it with a waiver but so be it they need the waiver um I'm asking the board to approve the waiver but I don't know if we're going to utilize it uh we will get our remember when you approved the DPR the um and they were all zeros in the the the uh test scores because the state populates that they give us that and we're going to get those uh numbers by January 15th and as long as I'm comfortable with the numbers I think we'll just keep it as it is because um you know rather than go through the waiver which is a whole new process but if the numbers come out where I think hey you know maybe we should be showing a little better uh the waiver gives a different weight measure right the new system gives a slightly different weight measure to some of the tests assignments so I wanted the option to pursue that if I thought it was beneficial to the district okay and uh that's it that's for my report right now all right thank you you answered my one question uh any questions comments from board members all right hearing none then we'll move on to the report of the president um so I want to thank the board for responding to the board self- evaluation as of today we are 9ine for9 which is great uh which means we could start the data analysis and WR up and then we'll go over that during the next board meeting and I believe we go over that in Open Session um uh as part of uh process and I just wanted to mention quickly that there were and and you'll hear this when the summary comes out but uh there are always areas that we can work on to improve but four areas that stood out as the strongest areas I think the board evaluated itself in our teamwork engagement preparedness and support for staff the superintendent and that is a type of board that I really enjoy being a part of and working with it's why I do what I do on here and hopefully why we all volunteer our time um so thank you again that's my way of saying thank you again for your belief in me as president and very happy that we have Mr Mone serving as an outstanding vice president as well um as Mr Hurley said board committee assignments will be forthcoming in the next couple of days I spoke to everyone before January just to get a sense uh of things so now that I'm handing off that information to myself uh we can move forward and try to finalize that so uh in the next few days you'll get uh an email with those assignments um I also just wanted to Echo uh in terms of Mrs O'Donnell's retirement just to Express gratitude and as Mr Hurley said there will be more opportunities to do that um as board members we don't get to know all of the staff in the district that well but having served as you know one of the leads for RSA negotiations uh few years ago she did a presentation for the board and state of technology and and um thoughts and um she's really done a wonderful job and had a huge impact on the district so congratulations to her and um just to end I wanted to share that the New Jersey school boards Association has a board member Academy and they have a certified board member certification process that uh someone can get a certification if they satisfy all the requirements which are basically taking at least 20 credits toward professional development of what good governance means and looks like and I'm excited to say that one of our board members Mr James beian has satisfied all of those requirements and will be recognized at one of the next County School boards Association meetings which will be either hybrid or virtual in case anyone wants to on there so congratulations thank you um that's it for my report before we go on to the U agenda yep right uh traditionally we read the uh oh yes ethics right okay so I think we could do that and uh and then and remember you are all supposed to sign this and let Mr whff have it when you're done so I think we uh I forget I think we started usually with Mrs Jones right and then worked the way around around the room yep each read one and then see I think there'll be one or two left over a I will hold 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 speak I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public school that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed sex or social stand I'll confine my board actions to policymaking planning and appraisal and will help to frame policies and plans only after the board that consulted those will be affected by them I will carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members to see that they are well I will I will oh sorry goe yeah sure I will carry out uh sorry 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 I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest or partisan politic groups or use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which if disclosed would needlessly injure individuals 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 h i will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after cons consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer I I will support and protect School personnel and proper performance of their duties Jay I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and will act on the complaints on public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution thank you so if you can sign those and before you leave but Mr rord have them I I just want to comment on that um you know I I brag on this board a lot with my colleagues and uh and and I he a lot of positive things that people based on what I've told them what they've heard and what they've seen about how this board operates and I really do think um as someone who um deals with a lot of other superintendents uh not only now even outside this County um I can tell you that um this is a very this is how a board should operate uh I I'm I hate to say may be a little unique um we shouldn't be we should be the norm but I think we could do a a road show and uh maybe do some professional development for how a board should operate because this code of ethics that you just read um you you all follow it you all operate that way and U and that's why you know I'm still working at 100 you know because it's a a pleasure uh it's a pleasure to work uh with all of you so thank you for that 98 yeah I'm rounding up M add to that we are probably the best board in New Jersey I don't know of any other board that can go through meeting and meeting and not have any conflicts at all and I have been on the executive board for 13 years I've gone to numerous conferences there were always when they they used to have a great course it was called advanc uh boardsmy and they would give scenarios of what's actually happened at other board and like I in the beginning this is back in the 80s when I was on I was appalled at that point but be assured we are probably the best Court in the state of New Jersey wow well hearing that from you Mr Jones and Mr Hurley means a lot you know so thank you thank you for sharing that uh all right we you already know we got the greatest superintendent I have the papers to prove it I can show you I can show you the plaque um where's it going to go now do we decide what's that I was sorry about the one I have already is it black G to go in the in the oh yeah we have to De yeah I still said got put Mr br's eye yeah it should have been a wrestling belt it really should have yeah I like that better I think we talked about in the hallway by the principal's office by the principal's office yeah that's a good place uh but yeah we'll work on that in uh ceremony and process good all right at 7:23 p.m. we're going to open the meeting to the public and since there is no one here from the public this evening we're going to close the meeting at 7:23 p.m. and turn to new business where there is action to be taken we'll begin with Personnel Mr Cole good evening and a happy New Year uh Personnel did not meet this month and we have 13 motions tonight to put forward at the recommend ation of the superintendent number one to accept the retirement of Barbara odonnell supervisor of computer technology and business education for the Buford School District with regret effective July 1st 2025 number two is a resignation of a lunch monitor at Lincoln School number three is to resend the following as nurses for the Bulldog CARE program as listed number four to approve the following as nurses for the Bulldog CARE program as as listed number five and six is the approval of home instructors for the Rutherford school district number seven is to approve the payback of sick days to retirees as listed number eight is to approve the payback of vacation days to retirees as listed number nine to approve the following substitute teachers as listed number 10 to approve the following substitute teacher assistance as listed number 11 to approve the following observation as listed number 12 to approve the following travel reimbursements as listed and number 13 is to approve a stien for a halfe course um to the following people as listed all right thank you questions or comments from board members hearing none Mrs Cole do you want to move this I would like to move motions 1 to 13 under personel all right we have a second M uh Mr KY any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take V Mr bagoan yes Mrs Cole yes Mr KY yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maon yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr aot yes motions Carri all right thank you we'll move to curriculum and instruction M Jones thank you we did not have a curriculum instruction meeting and tonight there are five motions put forth by the superintendent one New Jersey cac's 2122 District performance review as Mr Hurley explained two out of District placements three field trips now totally 104 four overnight trip for the uh uh Festival the raford high school concert choir and concert band and home instruction is number five for two students all right thank you questions or comments um I'm not sure why that came out as 2122 but um Mr wiffer can you change that for the minutes to um be the uh 2425 so it's a 2425 review to align with the 2526 all right uh Mr J you want to move those I move um resolutions one through five all right we have a second Mr maone any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take rooll Mr bosan yes Mrs Cole yes Mr KY yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maone yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr lot yes motions Carri all right we'll move move now to finance Mr bazian we did not have a finance committee meeting since our last full board meeting tonight on the agenda we have five motions to consider number one is the routine approval of bills number two is to approve the renewal of the contract with brown and brown to serve as our health insurance broker of record number three is a travel reimbursement pass through for the principal of St Mary's High School number four is to appoint fogy and Hara to serve as the board attorneys until the next organization meeting and number five is to fund the acquisition of switches and other technology needs through a 5-year lease purchase financing agreement all right um want to talk a little bit about number of ties sure so the to library number five the lease purchase uh that is the infrastructure update to our Wi-Fi network uh and as well as some technology equipment purchases such as student Chromebooks uh those purchases have actually already been made been approved by the board this approval is for the financing for it so we're stretching that payment over a 5year term um with our the board's approved Bank uh BCB Bank um for time availability and rate and other aspects they were the most advantageous for the board to to take on so that uh again that purchas is lumping a number of Technology needs into a five-year payment rather than all all one hit to the budget this year so what what we what we approved before was this is just approving the financial the uh the bank stuff correct the financing for y the actual purchase of the products have already yeah we approved that previously okay all right other questions mrry 2% unheard of so no 2% over the CD rate oh over so it's not when I saw that I was like and fantastic how do I get that it's pretty good it's pretty good but it's not yeah any other questions or comments all right Mr bazan you want to move those I'd like to move motions one through five under Finance all right do we have a second Mr Cole any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take wol Mr o yes Mrs Cole yes Mr KY yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maon yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr lot yes motions carried all right thank you we'll move on now to policy Mr Haley yes uh we did not have a committee meeting since that last board meeting and there are uh no resolutions okay thank you we'll move on then to buildings and grounds Mr Sprayberry yes uh we did not have a meeting uh prior to this happy New Year everybody and we have one motion for the escj bid threshold i' like to approve $44,000 and like to put that motion up for approval as brother superintendent okay questions to elaborate on this one the board uh approved a very similar uh resolution for a different vendor um anytime that a vendor um we purchase through a vendor that's through a co-op if it's a state contract or a local Cooperative uh that Cooperative goes out to bid for a product or service rather than the school district themselves um it allows efficiency with time and they can basically consolidate that bid process for all school districts in the state of New Jersey with that we don't have to go out to bid for it but if we do award something uh cumulatively or onetime purchase over $44,000 which is our bit well my bid threshold uh we should have a board resolution to allow us or to at least acknowledge that we're making a purchase over the bid threshold without going out to bid still following all purchasing laws um to do so but this is just making sure the board recognizes that we are doing basically not circumventing but using a different aspect of the purchasing law rather than going out to bid so from time to time throughout the year you may see this similar resolution for different vendors uh if we're using a co-op or state contract rather than a full sealed bid thank you for the explanation any other questions all right hearing none Mr sprar you want to move those that i' like move that one motion please all right we have a second Mr bosan any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take role Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes Mr KY yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maone yes Dr Ren yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr lah yes motions Carri all right thank you we'll move on then to Old business any old business Mr Jones December is lots of concerts and Mr fno is here doing taking doing our our uh taking our meeting tonight and his concert for the fourth fifth and sixth grade at pure p school was wonderful as was the concer I believe it was on the 12th uh for the high school where I could hear uh Chris K kti play his tuba and I was Longing To Hear David on his drums because he can't do this in the fall he's playing uh football so I'll have to catch him another one in the spring I could where my position was that I couldn't see him now did I miss anything anybody yes Phoebe in the in the concert choir under um Trisha blanch she's excellent too I love them they I love the concerts they they do a great job with them and uh I look forward to them yeah they're fantastic they just need more tuba I can hear I can hear saying got awesome uh Mr Hy yes I have something uh I attended the uh New Jersey School Board Association uh delegate assembly uh Saturday December 7th um and I distributed notes there one if you on the side that any of the issues that were presented and included one was not um but uh one of the items would affect us just operationally they opposed anded that you can use electron Med publication news of thee come through the policies in fact um that's one of the things that we're looking at that's all right thank you I would still request that Matt Telegraph it is yeah okay thank you since the Star Ledger officially ended their physical Publications well not yet it's I think February 1st but the the state is creating a policy to allow us not to have to put it in a physical newspaper for a certain amount of time until they create a true law to come up with electronic communications rather than putting it on in the physical newspaper so any other old business the pigeon won't make it to your house last time nice question to my report I said Chris K I meant Charlie kante you did you didn't play I wish wish all right we're going to move on to legislative update M Jones anything for us yeah one uh this is senate senate Bill 3860 introduced November 18th uh 2024 by Dean uh OC scanland who was a republican requires school district's Capital project referendums to be voted on at a primary or general elections for certain municipal or special elections now when I first read that I said okay so now we they we got ours done in September so it was not a general it was not a primary but municipal or special elections is still a school so we could in other words it could have been done at well no we're different now we're not we're doing it as November I I'm I was just surprised you can't can you have your own then or you saying it can only be done at primary and uh I didn't read the uh law so I I don't but I mean that's only just been put forward right hasn't um they they you know the um one thing that is probably going to happen is it may have already happened I I haven't seen what whether the governor signed it or not um changing the primary this year from June 3rd to June 10th um because they it's a holiday Jewish holiday um not one of the major holidays but nonetheless a Jewish holiday on June 3D and there was some concern about having a primary on a day of religious holiday so uh I think it's on his desk to sign now the reason why that's um important for us is because the last couple of years we've closed School for students on the primary day and ran a professional development day so if um in fact that does change then we'll probably have to go into this year's calendar and uh change it um because that's the whole reason why we do we up for but I haven't heard that was signed yet but that's that's pending um there there has been also Lots discussion about where to put different elections special elections School of Elections um as you know referendum have their own calendar they follow right um so we're not going to worry about a referendum though for a while yeah when I'm 102 and I'm not heing all right thank you Mr Jones so it's 7:38 we're going to open the meeting to the public and at 7:38 we are going to close the meeting to the public we do not have a need for an executive session so we'll entertain a motion to adjourn Mr Sprayberry seconded by Mr maone all in favor hi all right we are adjourned thank you everybody