##VIDEO ID:FG1_R2jvt10## all right it's 7:01 pm on December 2nd 2024 we're going to begin this regular meeting of the Rutherford Board of Education we ask everyone who can to please stand face the flag for the pledge of allegiance to flag the United States of America stands na I'll ask Mr Whitford to please take role Mr ban present Mrs Cole here Mr Cony present Mr Healey here Mrs Jones present Mr Mone present Dr Rim Mr Sprayberry and Dr El here and I should say Sarah I'm sorry I don't he last name oh it's aoria aoria Miss aoria I'll add you to our roll call the New Jersey open public meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting 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 posted on the bulletin board outside the bur clerk's office mailed to the Harold South bergenite and the Record newspapers and filed with the burough clerk hard copies of the agenda are available in the meeting room and the the agenda is posted electronically on Friday before the meeting date on the district's website at www. retherford schools.org subsequent to the meeting a video of the meeting will be uploaded to the district's website www. Rutherford schools.org the video link can be found by opening the Board of Education link and clicking on public meetings and then videos so board members in your packets uh there are minutes to approve from the regular meeting and executive session from November 11th 202 24 any questions or comments on those all right seeing none I ask Mr Whitford to please enter those um we're going to make a quick switch and have our student representative Sarah go first um so over to you good evening I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend so last Wednesday we hosted the National Honor Society spelling be against beckon it was a very close competition but beckon did eventually end up winning there were a lot of students in the audience supporting their classmates who are participating in the spelling be tomorrow is the future Business Leaders of America Regional competition where students take online tests in their chosen event and compete against students from other schools in North Jersey winter sports have started up and the teams have begun practicing getting ready for the upcoming season the sports booster dinner will be held this Tuesday December 3rd at the fiesta the Winter concert will be held on Thursday December 12th with performances by the rhs band and choir who have been working extra hard to prepare for the show everyone is looking forward to the upcoming holiday break and many clubs are participating in Holiday activities um the Honor Society is collecting boxes of kindness again and various other clubs have been putting them together to donate as well the boxes are being packed with Necessities as well as other small gifts or activities and they'll be donated to middle schools in norc additionally the future Business Leaders and future teachers are participating in their annual bear drive for this project the students in the clubs have donated teddy bears and they will wrap them and deliver them to a preschool in Jersey City um this is a really fun activity that our students look forward to every year especially when we go and deliver them and the kids get to read and play and we drop off the Bears this year the future teachers of America are hosting a holiday movie night fundraiser for the Club this will be held on the evening of Thursday December 19th and the students in the club will be volunteering to help run the event it's geared towards kindergarten students and elementary school kids and we will have various activities for the kids as well there will be a holiday movie shown in the auditorium pictures with Disney characters crafts and a snack stand the future teachers are running another fundraiser um and if their goal is reach Mr Morano and Mr DeBerry will be dressing up as elves on the day before winter break when we have our holiday assembly at the high school wait what do we have to do to make that happen the goal is $500 I think you know I dressed up at Santa Claus every year and nobody got a dime out of it why are these guys get raising money I don't get it but anyway so um I have some additional information to share from some of the other schools so the Kindergarten Center wanted to share that they're in year two of their reading program and the first year of their math program both of which have been going very well so far and Lincoln School students are getting excited for the holidays and have their upcoming holiday shop where they get to um purchase gifts for their loved ones this is a fun way to incorporate math skills as they'll have to add up the cost of their purchases and pay for them and lastly from Washington School the students had their annual Thanksgiving Parade Where each class designed their own flow or poster showcasing the students creativity student presenters also worked on building public speaking skills by sharing about their class flow telling jokes and singing songs that's all for tonight thank you all right thank you first off I want to compliment you on getting some feedback from other schools about what's going on besides wetherford high school but I very comprehensive any questions or comments from board members good job excellent report excellent report good job all right well keep up the great work this is definitely a highlight of our meeting even if we're quiet we enjoy hearing from the student perspective for sure um so I want to wish you happy holiday and you're uh more than welcome to stay if you'd like to hear about our audit findings and then everything else we're doing this evening but if you have to go we understand as well parties thank you happy holiday thanks sir all right so we are going to hear now the report of the auditor Alex barice did I get your last name correct all right um so thank you very much and turn over turn it over to you thank you thanks for having me uh so Alex pice Lurch Vincy and Bliss we completed your June 30th 2024 audit the district received an unmodified opinion which is represents a clean opinion and it's the highest level that can be obtained um there were no material weaknesses or any significant deficiencies in the audit which is which is a good thing uh usually I go over your general fund fund balance which is the district's operating fund so at June 30th 2024 the district had approximately 6 2 million in fund balance uh but there are certain restrictions to 6.2 um the first being your capital reserve in your capital reserve there's approximately 3.2 million but this is restricted for capital projects and these are projects that are listed in your long range facilities plan only uh then there is the meeting reserve of 100,000 this is for maintenance projects only uh we have ex's surplus of approximately 968,000 this is a revenue that was generated in your last two audits that will be appropriated in your next two budgets 2425 and 2526 as budget relief as a revenue unemployment compensation Reserve is approximately 168,000 and this is restricted for your unemployment claims uh reserve for incumbrances 253,000 these are your open purchase orders that were committed at year end but the goods and services were not rendered so that's reserved and lastly your unassigned unrestricted amount which the state allows you to keep going 2% Max Plus any allowable adjustments is one approximately 1.4 million um as far as recommendations uh there are two findings of recommendations in this year's audit um we consider them low-level recommendations they're not again material weaknesses or any significant deficiencies um one is a repeat from the prior year uh we met with management to discuss them uh in detail and I know on tonight's agenda there is a corrective action plan that's going to address the findings so um but overall you know was it was a good audit um the district has a healthy fund balance and um you know we thank uh the business office and superintendent's office for their full cooperation uh it was you know basically a seamless and painless audit this year so if there's any questions about the fun balance or uh the recommendations I can take those questions at this time questions or comments from board members I was saying to Mr buce that uh my school goes through the same process each year and um it's been a great audit the last few years so congratulations to Jack Hurley and uh Joe for all the work uh in the past and Mr as well who gave us a really good uh breakdown um of the audit findings as well um so it was very helpful so thank you for that um thank you for coming thank you thanks for having me yeah and I would like to add my thanks to um Mr Kelly and uh because this covers the year that he was still here correct but also you know for Mr whiffer to come in and have to actually guide the ship through the process when you're working with the work that someone else did uh is not always an easy task and um so I I congratulate him and thank him for that because it was seamless and um and also you know many of the uh suggestions and discussions that we had um you know in in speaking with Mr wiford both prior to the audit exit that we have meeting that we have and after um he already had an action plan and he had a process to try to you know just smooth out those couple edges that were a little rough so uh again I it's it's always a very comfortable feeling um I have a superintendent to have a business administrator and that has not changed uh that I have full confidence in and and um to be in a healthy financial situation that we're in each and every year so congratulations to everyone and the budget managers and all the people that work in in the budget and thank you because it's been two years now uh second audit that we've done and it's like you said seamless a great working relationship a great team of folks that come up and spend about two weeks with us every year and uh it's a pleasure working with you same here thanks thank you you thanks all right so with that we are going to move on to the report of the superintendent thank you uh a couple of things uh hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday a nice weekend it's always a a a pleasant weekend because everything's closed everybody thinks everybody's off so my phone doesn't beep as much as as other weekends um and it's nice you know it's nice to feel a little bit of winter in the air now too I know we like warmer weather but feels good feels like holidays um a couple of agenda items I mentioned U as I can mention now school calendar for next year uh is on for approval pretty much mirrors the calendar that we had um last year um there'll be U the board to be asked for awarding a bid for the univent projects at Union School of Lincoln uh school and that was discussed with building and grounds and um it's continuing our efforts to try to get all of our uh un events that are at um sort of like end of life for them up to up to speed and we have Rod grant money for part of that as well and um child study team member Dorian sulter her as an addendum she's on the agenda for retirement um which I believe will be uh March 1 um so she'll be retiring uh also I sent in the packet uh a copy of the proposed board meeting dates for next year uh that they will be officially um approved at the reorg meeting by the board but I thought by getting them ahead of time if there was anything that you saw as being concerning or for your own personal calendars to Mark those you have them ahead of time and again pretty much mirrors last year there's a couple of TW weeks due to uh different where holidays fall and graduation Falls and things like that the um we heard from cuac and um if you remember six years ago for those of you that were on the board uh we were uh the number one draft pick we were the first school visited on January 4th uh this year you know what's the uh you know the the first sh be last the last sh be first we will be the last school visited uh they're coming to us on April 2nd so um you know in some ways we have most of the work completed already you like to kind of get it done right but on the other hand it gives us time to make sure we're not missing anything and get everything in order so April 2nd uh they will the county will come in to visit us uh for qac uh what that also means since things get turned around the county does a great job of turning it around uh the state turns it around very slowly so when we got visited in January we didn't get the report till July or August I mean we might be getting the report now into October or November of next year but um so be it we'll see when we get it I'm sure it's going to be fine um Sarah mentioned the sports dinner tomorrow night and the various concerts that are going to be going on throughout the month of December I sent you dates um you know I want to just mention that I give you dates off the master calendar I given sometimes things do change a little bit it's probably always good to double check if you're planing or going on the uh web page because this the school would update if there was if there was some change um a reminder that our reorg meeting is January the 6th um and that the board packet for that meeting uh will go out on December 19th because uh we are able to use in L of days and for holidays and the like to close down over the holiday break so uh that packet will come out on December the 19th uh we have scheduled and and you may have to help me with this my uh because I know we had a couple of different dates January 13th I believe we were going to go Finance at 5:45 and negotiations at 6:30 and we're doing those live meetings in my office um and uh when we come back from the break uh we will send out you know reminders and agendas and the like um and we'll review this all the at the reorder meeting um as you know the uh end of the calendar year uh is the end of this board right and then the board gets reborn in January um I'm pleased that we U have the same board that's going to be reward but again I want to thank you for a very successful uh board life here you know we're we have a whole we have fiscal years academic years and we have board life years and uh we had a good year and uh I look forward to getting started in January I mentioned that and Dr alot will be uh talking to some of you you might be mentioning his report about committees um traditionally we have kept the finance committee whole if we could do that but should any committee change then the January 13th meeting would be impacted by by that change so um happy holidays I know it's early in December but uh you know Hanukkah and Christmas I believe fall within a day of each other this year so um for those people out who may be watching merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah and happy holidays looking forward to a an exciting 2025 okay and that's my report yes I when you said live meeting you mean in ADV in my office in my office yeah yeah um and that primarily is because we felt with the uh the negotiations meeting uh there could be any number of documents from past negotiations with that we might want to look at just be easier to have them right on the Shelf all right thank you Mr Eary questions or comments all right hearing none we will move on now to the report of the president uh so first off uh as Jack said January 6 is the reorganization meeting and after that uh committees are determined and you're all notified before the late January meeting which is January 27th um I know each year you usually get a a document and you check off what you're interested in doing um I end up usually following up with the majority if not of you so I thought we would just uh go with that approach so I'm going to reach out to everyone in the next couple of weeks uh before we go on winter break just to see what people's interests are in terms of committee leant uh Reps for different schools and organizations and then we will plan to go from there um and then speaking of things in January uh we are going to get the board self- evaluation off the ground uh so the thought is we're going to to uh send it out this week and thank you to James pan for helping to set that up once again um and thought that it would give everyone plenty of time so if everyone can have it done by the reorg meeting around that time frame which gives everyone about a month then we can go over it at the January 27th meeting um and the thought is you know we're looking at having the same board so um we can all uh review and go over the board selfie vow at that point so hopefully that timeline works for everyone um so that will go out this week and uh I know that uh we have two or three three people going to the all sports booster dinner tomorrow night so thanks for those who are going uh to that and I know this Saturday we have our delegate assembly thank you to Mr Healey uh who attends that I was reading on njsba some of their professional development offerings and they most of them are hybrid um just so people know meaning you can go in person or you can be remote but there's some interesting workshops coming up in December and January on topics such as ethics public relations AI budgeting cyber security good governance um so feel free to go on there and if you're interested uh in any of those let uh myself know let Mr Hurley Mr Whitford know so we can set that up and uh keep professional development going uh and finally I just want to compliment Mr met on the microphones microphones are working wonderfully this evening and appreciate your your attention to those excellent um and again happy holidays to everyone and that's it for me questions or comments from board members all right hearing none at 7:21 we are going to open the meeting to the public for questions or comments there was no one here this evening so we're going to close the meeting at 7:21 p.m. and move to new business where there is action to be taken we will start with Personnel Mrs Cole good evening Personnel did not meet this month we have uh 19 motions to be put forward at the recommendation of the superintendent tonight number one is to approve a salary level change as listed number two to adjust the start date for a lunch monitor this is a replacement position number three is to adjust a start date for a part-time bus assistant this is a new position number four to approve a home instructor number five to approve the payback of sick days as listed number six is to approve the payback of vacation days as listed number seven is to approve an increase in the hourly wage for the following positions as listed number eight to approve an increase in the hourly wage for the following staff members all lunch h monitors as listed number nine and 10 to approve a disability leave with pay number 11 to approve the following nurses for the Bulldog CARE program as listed number 12 to approve the following counselor for the Bulldog CARE program as listed number 13 to approve the following Fields experience assignment as listed 14 to approve the following teachers for presentations on different differentiated instructions for special ed 504 RTI and ESL students as listed number 15 to approve the following substitute teachers as listed number 16 to approve the following substitute teacher assistance as listed number 17 to approve the following travel reimbursements as listed and number 18 is to accept the retirement of dorine sulter with regret fact of March 1st 2025 and number 19 is to approve a long-term substitute elementary teacher all right thank you questions or comments all right hearing none M Cole do you want to move this I'd like to move motions one through 19 under Personnel all right we have a second Mr bosan any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take rooll Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes yes Mr Cony yes on 1- 7 abstaining on 8 and yes 9 through 19 noted thank you Mr Healey yes Mr Jones yes Mr maone yes and Dr lot yes motion pass all right thank you we will move on now to curriculum and instruction M Jones thank you we did not have a meeting and tonight there are six motions put forth by the recommendation of our superintendent the school calendar um and there's three professional Workshop days for the teachers on it that I see anyway um two is out of District placements three field trips totaling 94 harassment intimidation and bullying decision is uh number four five is a home instruction for one student and six is curriculum guides um these are new the executive functioning skills for Union Schools and elective and the high schools honor concert choir and honors when emble it was felt that they needed these to retain our good musicians all right thank you m any yeah I want to thank the curriculum committee for Expediting uh via email and the approval of those three electives um you know in in u the crazy world of Education you start thinking about 25 26 before even done with 24 um and the scheduling process begins in January so we had to get these I think very vital and uh I think really important uh electives approved so they could be in the curriculum guides for the students so I thank you for your cooperation in Expediting that I think they're great offerings I really appreciate the executive functioning skills is such an important part of development any questions or comments by board members all right M Jones do you want to move those I move as ations one through six all right we have a second uh Mr Mone any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take a rooll Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes Mr KY yes Mr hey yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mone yes Dr L yes motion cash all right thank you we'll move on now to finance Mr bosan uh good evening the finance committee met last Monday to review the 2526 budget calendar uh the results of the 2324 audit and the corrective action plan uh the referendum fund balance and our banking setup uh tonight we have five motions to consider number one is the routine approval of bills number two is the October treasurers report number three is budget line transfers number four is our Essa submission and number five is to accept the 2324 school year audit and acknowledge the two audit recommendations all right thank you questions or comments all right Mr bazin you want to move those I'd like to move motions one through five under Finance all right second Mr Hy any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take mran yes Mrs Cole yes Mr KY yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maone yes Dr L yes motions Carri thank you move on to policy anything to report Mr we did not have a committee meeting since the last board meeting and uh there are no resolutions for this okay then we will move on to building grounds and Mr sprayberry's absence we'll ask build and grounds member Mr beian to please uh do the report yes hello again uh the buildings and grounds committee met after the finance committee last Monday uh like the finance committee we reviewed the referendum balance and project plan uh we also reviewed the current capital reserve uh the univent work that is on the agenda tonight uh and the current projects underway uh also of note Mr Whitford will be investigating an esip investigation of the district to see where we can benefit from Energy savings in our buildings tonight on the agenda we have three motions to consider number one is to award a contract for the replacement of univent at Union and Lincoln School to sunnyfield Corporation number two is to approve the transfer of $319,000 from capital reserve for the purposes of the contract in motion number one uh and number three is to approve Murray Paving and concrete to complete the awarded escnj contract all right thank you questions or comments Mr gy yeah just this univent project how much percentage wise is this half of it what how much left do we have to do after we do this the Union School the entire first floor will be updated okay um Lincoln School I believe that also takes care of every classroom everyone yeah yeah okay so we're essentially done at Lincoln Washington K Center okay after the project right yeah uh we'll have a handful whatever that means at Union and maybe a handful and a half here at the at the high school well then Summit Pi Pon so it's going to probably be a another two or three years you know we're not going to be help by Rod Grant well you never know what happens with Rod grants but for now we're not going to be helped by them but the goal was you know to try to within like say a fiveyear period to get them all up to um you know they have about 50y year life yeah so you know the goal is to get them ball up so they're well under that got it okay awesome thank you Mr be so uh number three this is a pre a previously awarded contract so that's gone over the threshold no one of our the conversations with our auditor is that anytime that uh we use a Cooperative uh purchasing Cooperative uh State contract National co-ops um that are exceeding the bid threshold of $44,000 the board is to should approve those contracts um we don't have to go out to bid for them because they've already been bid through a Cooperative but if we are awarding it over 44 the board should at least have a resolution basically acknowledging that we're using a Cooperative to exceed the bid threshold it's uh it's just one of the aspects of using one of those local cooperatives again we don't have to it saves time and it saves money that the board doesn't have to go out to bid for it but at minimum we have to pass a resolution acknowledging that we're using the Cooperative exceeding that threshold other questions all right hearing then want to move this I'd like to move motions one through three under buildings and ground all right we have a second Mr Cole any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take World Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes Mr KY yes Mr key yes Mrs Jones yes Mr mayone yes and Dr L yes motions carried all right excellent we're going to move on to Old business any old business Mr Jones I did go to the Washington School parade and because I go there I can't go to the high school spelling the same time always the day before Thanksgiving so I on the it lays on to um Washington school so plus it was just as Jessica saxon's first year and I wanted to do that and it was wonderful and again the tribute was made to Betty Ori who I knew well um she was a wonderful teacher and uh her contribution of having that parade has started a wonderful tradition and the other thing under old business was I watched you do Mr Hurley with at uh Lincoln School when you did the the last second cup of coffee or P Academy and it was very it was very good I I enjoyed I had read the book so I was familiar with you talking but on on one other the note I'm delighted on bringing up my kids that I want to comment have any phones or anything yeah I wanted to comment on Parent Academy when you're finished I I should have mentioned it in my report but what you going now well you know um kind of under old business we it's been a remarkable I we did the one on math that we had about 45 people at uh we have one coming up this Friday at Lincoln one at was at washingon on math at Lincoln we're having one on Phonics uh this week but we did the one at pon for grades 4 to 12 on um cell phone and social media we probably had well over 40 parents and then the one that J referring to at Lincoln which was based on the other part of that of that book uh free play and uh allowing children to uh do things independently okay uh and again we had well over 40 people but more importantly um and we have a couple more coming up on that topic uh the amount of of interest and conversation I I've I've received more emails um regarding these presentations than from any other presentation we've done people have stopped me on the street uh there's been kind of a Grassroots discussion uh parents are telling me that younger parents are going to try to form a little group of uh sign a pledge you know don't let's all band together and let's not give our kid a smartphone till they get to a certain age uh I've had uh Girl Scouts a group uh group came up and asked if they could meet with me to talk about IDE is that they could do something through their group another group of parents wanted to know if how they could go about getting uh you know a space somewhere in the community where they can meet and talk to each other it really has created a a level of discussion uh and thought which I think is important um and you know and it's a conversation people are having among themselves which is good so um I you know I'm pleased with it I want to give credit to miss Coy who oversees it um and yeah the the number of people that have taken part as presenters in each of of the workshops our administrators supervisors teachers uh counselors have been a part of it so it's it's been a very successful Endeavor um and has generated a lot of I think very positive thought and conversation in the community I wish you would do on Tuesday through Thursday instead wed excise that's just a coincidence we're doing that I'm yeah yeah um and I did go to the parade and the spelling be I just say you know and I did offer you a ride um but uh yeah I mean there those are two traditional things on Thanksgiving uh that have been going on for years and years and years and years uh the spelling be I mean the parade I think it was the 18th year and the spelling be um probably 50 years uh it's been a long time uh goes back to whenever Rutherford started playing beckon on Thanksgiving Day um that was always done the day before so it's been a it's been a long time and um we haven't lost many um I used to give when I was Prince I gave a little fiery pep talk um Miss Cole understands my fiery pep talk and it wasn't very much different for the spelling beers either yeah um but that's why we won we won uh but it's a great and it's good to see the two schools get together they have a breakfast you know before the administrators when you know we do one year here one year there the administrators come over over the moderators it's a nice sense of uh of community so it's it's a fun day excellent any other old business all right then we'll move on to legislative update anything for us this Jones this is Senate Bill 3876 uh introduced last week 1118 2 weeks ago 11824 by Angela V mcnight who is in District 31 ad of Hud requires school districts to provide instruction on artificial intelligence requires Secretary of higher education to develop artificial intelligence model curriculum for grades K through 12 as part of the district's implementation of the New Jersey student learning standards in computer science and design thinking well like I always say those are nice ideas uh that you know they come up with in the assembly or the legislature but you know um um it be easy to do just to go on artificial you know intelligence you say write a curriculum for me and it we'll do it um but the real thing that we're hearing from a lot of the folks you know in in education in Department of Education and the various groups is we have to move slowly uh you know we don't want to rush to through because things change rapidly um I don't know if you need a course in it I think you need to figure out how you going to use it in in all your courses in in all your operations and we use it more now than we even think we're using it on a daily basis um but what we're doing U is I've asked Miss odonnell to uh create a committee and of and we've asked for volunteers and the committee is going to look to come up with um guidelines and um suggestions about how to use it in on the administrative side and how to use it on the academic side uh we don't want to jump into policy because policy takes a long time to approve and and has a long shelf life and things are rapidly changing so this committee is going to meet of uh and we're using some of our Compu computer tech people I don't mean the technicians I mean the teachers who work with educational technology uh Mr odonnell and and some other teachers as well um to uh to come up with some guidelines to to share with throughout the district um I think the committee is going to start meeting in January I've attended several workshops on it other people have um but it's um you know we have to we have to move but we we don't want to rush to make decisions on how to use it I'll keep you posted on that committee like be honest okay all right all right uh thank you m Jones at 7:38 we're going to open the meeting to the public for any comments related to or not related to the agenda and we have no one here in the audience so we're going to close the meeting at 7:38 pm. we do not have a need for executive session so we'll entertain a motion to adjourn Mr bosan seconded by Mr maone all in favor I I and we are adjourned happy holidays Merry Christmas have a wonderful New Year