##VIDEO ID:0NtdgqL_ZeE## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening everybody it is 7 pm and I'd like to call to order the 2025 rning Township Board of Education reorganization meeting if you could please uh join me for the Pledge of Allegiance States Amer for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and I'm just GNA do um roll call um Miss Brock here Mr smack here Mr cantino here miss pet here Mr Sweeney here Mr zurin here we have a quorum reading Mr cruss is here Mr Krauss sorry about that Mr CR uh reading of the open public meeting notice the New Jersey open public meetings no worries was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of bug bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the ACT bur in Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in aate notice has been provided the notice this meeting has been properly posted in accordance with the New Jersey open public meeting law letter C report of election results these are the official results as of November 21st 2024 for a three-year term John Krauss 5,196 votes Brian P Fisher 4,75 votes Melissa Brock 6,069 votes Johan helling 1,660 votes Ariel R lzo 1,724 votes carollyn Ross 4,343 votes em and a McDow 1,874 votes and 129 writing votes for a 2-year ter Raymond Zimmerman 6,464 votes Debbie Coulson 4,148 votes Ryden 70 votes for a one-year term Stephanie J vello 4,464 votes Alice Nichols 2946 votes Rose Ahern 394 votes Ryden 60 votes at this time I'd like to ask the uh newly elected and reelected board members to please join me at the podium and nice check Mr Krauss are you unmuted no you say please raise your right hand and repeat after me I fer do you swear or affirm swear or affirm that I you solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that it will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that will bear a true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States in State under authority of the people so help to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God St hi I John Kraft do youly swear orm swear orir do solemnly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the Board of Education that I possess the qualifications I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education that I will faithfully and partially and justly perform all the dues that office according to the best of my ability so help me God that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully and partially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God so congratulations everybody and please join us congratulations guys congratulations got and uh just a reminder for everyone uh for any newly elected or reelected board member please um sign your required oath return that to me at the end of the board meeting you'll see that in front of your binder um and then also for all board members uh please uh sign the code of ethics and return that to me at the end of the meeting as well have certificates I'd like to hand out oh I okay thank you it's always at the bottom is it s I will now do a roll call of the newly elected board Miss Brock here Mr smaga here Mr Canino here Mr fiser here Mr Krauss here miss pallet here Mr Sweeny here miss beella here Mr ziman here we have a quorum so letter F is nominations for board president president uh so just a little bit of explanation uh before we move forward uh these are nominations not resolutions so they don't require a second uh but the order that nominations occurring uh for the president and also for the vice president will be the order that votes occurring as well just a little bit of background information at this time I open up the nominations for president of Board of Education I nominate Jennifer pellet I'd like to nominate Joe Sweeney are there any other nominations um at this time I have a motion to close nominations for president so move oh second Miss Brock I believe I yeah the I said it okay so I need a we we will doing the votes in order uh the first nomination was for Miss pellet uh we will need a motion in a second uh to vote on Miss pellet as the president of the Board of Education motion second and this time we'll conduct a roll call vote Miss Brock yes Mr smaga yes Mr Cino no Mr fiser yes Mr Krauss no miss pet yes yes Mr Sweeney no Mr Carell yes Mr ziman no uh motion does not carry why not uh so there are five uh no votes and four yes votes uh requirement I think we had five four no oh it does let me just double check um I have Miss Brock as a yes Mr Sagle as a yes Mr cantino as a no Mr fiser as a yes Mr Krauss as a no Miss pellet as a yes oh sorry I apologize I put an X in the wrong column I'm doing too many things at once I'm usually just doing the minutes motion does carry uh congratulations yeah see uh yeah I'm going to my notes I only do this once a year um let's see uh I Raymond slam board secretary ask Miss Jennifer pellet to take her seat as president very simar can just um bear with me for a minute here my first meeting running um so uh thank thank you everyone for your support I really appreciate the um honor and uh thank you Mr slam also for where are you for uh running the meeting I know that's I guess I'm about to find out I think it's stressful not my favorite thing I know how much you enjoy it um so uh I guess let's move on to item G I'd like to open the floor for nominations for the role of Vice President I'd like to nominate Charlie smia good thank you do we have any uh any more nominations okay I'd like to nominate Ray Zimmer okay so we have I guess I have to take note of this right John okay great um and that's everyone nominated yes can I get a motion to accept and close the nominations for vice president motion second great um okay and now uh Ray I believe you said we need then a we need a motion to vote on is that correct uh yes uh so uh the votes will occur in nomination order and we need a uh Motion in a second to vote on the first nomination so the first nomination um was uh Mr saglia so can I get a motion to vote on Mr saglia for vice president motion second thank you fish all right great so now um Mr Mr slam do you do the roll call vote for that uh yes say Mr smaga yes Mr cantino uh yes Mr fiser yes Mr Krauss no miss pet yes Mr Sweeney no Miss Pell yes Mr zerman no Miss Brock yes motion carries great um congratulations Mr congratulations I'm gonna miss got sell in first so um now we're moving on to item H public comments uh do we have anyone in the public like to comment oh and I did want to say first oh wait actually we have to have the I'm sorry this is part where you're bearing with me um Mr slam you need to read the public comment notice correct ah yes thank you yes please in the course of the public meeting of the Vernon Board of Education the public has offered the opportunity to address the board of a board on agenda items and any issues regarding the school district the aard reminds those individuals who take this opportunity that they must identify themselves by name and section of town and limit their comments to agenda items and or issues that directly relate to operations of the school district issues that are raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board or administration at the time of meeting or at any time any comments will be considered and responsibly forthcoming if and when appropriate the board requests that members of the public keep their comments to a limit of five minutes be courteous respectful and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking it's a lot of I know why you want me to read it specifically comments regarding students and employees of the Board of Education should be thoroughly considered by the speaker and may or may not be responded to by the board of administration be advised that students and employees have rights of confidentiality and other protections under the law student name should never be used unless it is your own child the board Bears no responsibility nor will be liable for any comments made by the public during the public portion of the board meeting members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal rights those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for the comments that they make to the board thank you so much for doing that um so I'd like to open the meeting to for to the public for public comment um it's just a reminder that this portion of the meeting is not meant to be a back and forth dialogue with the board so I just want to be clear that while the board and the administration May answer questions when possible it's sometimes necessary to note them down and answer them at the next meeting um please when you approach the podium state your name do we have anyone from the public who wants to comment I see no one in the public uh but I do we have any hands raised in the okay yes we have a few online um we have Martin parer okay can you hear me yes I want to take the opportunity to congratulate everybody who got who won enough votes to make it onto the board thank you thank you I also want to congratulate the new president and vice president for being nominated and I would like to take the opportunity uh to encourage the board to go into places the board has not gone or this district has not gone before in my opinion uh the outcome for the children is beyond the test results in the state tests it is how well they are prepared to function after they leave school and we have no data no suspicion or at the very least no shared data that tells us how we're doing we know Nationwide for example 30 to 50% depending on which part of the country you at who are sent to fouryear colleges can't finish because they're ill prepared and we are short of people like plumbers welders in Med medicine like uh orderes and a lot of those jobs those are skilled jobs but non College jobs so I would like us ideally to recognize the fact that the school's purpose is to prepare the children for life not to take tests not to do well on state tests State tests are here to show how well academics is s but not if we guide the people the students and their parents properly to help them make good choices for the future thank you and I hope you will act accordingly thank you Mr Pinger uh we also have Carolyn hi can you hear me yes hi good evening I just uh want to quickly say congratulations and thank you to uh all the board members this evening that were sworn in I appreciate that you're stepping up to serve and I also want to congratulate the new leadership on the board um encouraged and hopeful that uh many positive things will come from the new leadership I um I'm very hopeful that you will embrace the community that you will not dismiss the community's comments and that you will keep Zoom commenting open for um those people in the community whether they have children in the district or they don't to participate I am not home this evening and I'm participating from my car and I know lots of young parents and and lots of people in the community are not able to be sitting there this evening so I appreciate the opportunity to call in tonight and I hope uh that could continue and again good luck to all of you and I appreciate all of you for your service thank you very much thank you Mrs incanada we have Denise Denise hello happy New Year everyone congratulations to the newly elected board members thank you to the returning members and congratulations to our leadership um I look forward to another year of growth and um I'm always rooting for the students in the middle so I will often say that and I sure you will hear that time and time again from me but thank you for those who Step Up and I wish you all a successful year for our children thank you thank you Mrs Hart um we have any no that's all that's all okay closing the comment the public comment portion of the meeting um moving on to item I appointments um we need to designate delegates for uh the three organizations listed here um Sussex County School boards Association uh do we have anyone uh interested in that position um was that Mr Sweeny was that you last yes year do you wish to continue I let someone else do it this year yeah okay anyone up for that it's really interesting I was the alternate on that I could do that as the regular person if you want me oh awesome thank you Mr Krauss okay uh do we have anyone who would like to serve as the alterate if if nobody else wants to bre Mr smle thank you awesome okay then we have the New Jersey school boards Association delegate um anyone up for that that's a u really interesting there's a lot of um monitoring of legislation that's coming down the pike so you kind of get a heads up of what's heading our way to yeah okay thank you Mr fiser um anyone up for being alternate I'll be the alternate thank you Mr montino excellent okay uh the suas County Educational Services Commission Northern C sorry oh ah okay I'm sorry that was a okay so the legislative yes we need one for that too um anyone what does that entail H what does that entail um I think a lot of them are virtual right we did that last year can anyone I don't know but I'll do it it's not really uh something that we do anything for there are two representatives for this County and they are uh guy's name is Fred Hopman and uh I forget who the other one is it might be the the guy from walk who's the president of the walkill board um Carl Carlon there's two for County and they the lative delegates okay I'm not sure why we have one on here I think it's something we had one at one time and it was a representative from Vernon and it just was never taken off okay is that the one where you actually get to vote on yes oh well that's important I'll do it no we don't have we're notates are two other people okay so so so no one is usually in that spot that's correct okay oh I see okay unless somebody from our Board gets nominated and represents for the county okay so that's something we should look into if we want to try to somehow make that happen Okay um so moving to the Sussex County Educational Services Commission Northern Hills Academy I believe Mr cantino were you doing that last year I've done that for I did it last year and I filled out the term the year before that okay um if no one excuse me if no one else is interested in it I'd be happy to do it again but I do think um there might be someone else who's interested in it or I would like to see if someone else wants to do it first okay can you share a little bit about about it so that people know what they would be Northern Hills Academy is a pite replacement school and um every District that sends students to Northern Hills Academy has a representative on the Sussex Educational Services Commission and you essentially go to their board meetings and vote on they have a new budget every month because it's tuition based and you get to be in the know of what's going on there and Report anything big back to our board because we do have students who attend Northern Hills Academy it's very interesting um it's a lot of learning I've enjoyed doing it but it is another meeting every month so um if no one else wants to do it I will gladly keep doing it but I am a new teacher so if I can you can off but it is it iners or virtual it's in person by the sparta shop it's in Sparta it's by the sparta shop right I'll volunteer to do that great thank you Mr and I'll volunteer to be the alternate okay so we are all set with those perfect um so item two uh we're going to be assigning committees to members we do need I think do we have the form to hand out for people to to fill out the prer Committees uh so there was some discussion about whether the Committees would be Chang or not so we didn't submit that form um however we could email that that out to everybody they could complete it and then send it to you okay do we want to discuss now as a board the committee uh the committee situation I know and I believe that conversation was about splitting certain committees up um is that something we all want to discuss now I could also so yeah I mean I I like the idea of discussing it as a full board does everyone want to do that I Mr Sweeney I think it was your uh yeah I didn't want to step on any Toes or anything I had a presentation set up but since you're the president now I think I should I would love to hear your presentation and I'm sure the rest of the board would as well but it's on it's after all of this is done okay well maybe um table can we table item is that what do table item two until we get to the yeah presentation and uh normally what happens is uh we put that on for the public meeting in January because tonight you get the forms and then people fill them out and the Pres decide who goes where and then we'd uh put that back on um as an appointment at the next meeting okay perfect so let's do that uh do we need a motion to table that no be can I ask a question then are we tabling it until till the next meeting because you said normally the committee appointments are at the next meeting yeah so if we're if we're tbling the discussion until the next meeting then we're saying we're not going to have committees in place until February is that what I'm hearing uh so last year I believe the first committee meetings were in February um but I think it's probably going to depend on the discussion later at this meeting on terms of which committees will still exist if they're going to be changed um because then once you know the board decides which committees they would like uh in place then people could say well this these are the ones that I'm interested in so we're g to discuss that basically the way this is WR yeah the way this is written here it sounds as if we're we're assigning committee members so we're going to table the assignment of them but then we're going to discuss still the committee structure later thank you okay um so then item J Mr slam um would you like to read your recommendations item one is recommended the board adopt the attached code of ethics for board members that's attachment a item two is recommended the board approve the day place and time for the public meetings dates for January 2025 to January 2026 as attached that's attachment B uh item three is recommended the board approve the following depositories for school funds uh profit at bank PNC Bank TD Bank item four is recommended the board approve Freeman slam as a person authorized to sign School warrants in accordance with njsa 18a 19-1 item five it is recommended that the board approved the New Jersey Herald New Jersey Sunday Herald and Star Ledger as the official newspapers for the district in accordance with njsla 18a 22-11 and 18a 39-3 it six is reced the board approve the New Jersey Herold for publication of board meetings in quarters of njsa 10 4-8 and item seven is recommended the board reopt existing bylaws and policies for the board's operations and operations of the school district I get a motion for items J1 through j7 so moved um are we gonna discuss these before we vote on them yeah first we get the motion then we second then we discuss um can I get a second second thank you okay questions or comments um yes okay so I I wanted to address item seven which is uh reopt the existing bylaws and uh we've had a lot of discussion leading up to this point and I think we're going to have further discussion moving on about public comment and a lot of the uh the the area of public comment is actually addressed in the bylaws so we've talked about zoom and uh access uh remote access access to these meetings and it is actually covered in the bylaws so uh whoever uh has an opinion or a a feeling on on that matter should probably know that what they're voting on in terms of Zoom access uh and also um since I've been coming to the meetings anyhow we've been saying that uh public comment is limited to five minutes per speaker that's not actually the case according to the bords bylaws state if the uh presiding officer believes public comment will go over 30 minutes they have the option to uh limit each speaker to five minutes so I I don't think we should be saying at the beginning of the public comment section each speaker is limited to five minutes unless we have a reason to believe that there's a ton of people here who want to speak and again that's something that's cover than the bylaws I am not actually uh familiar with that the bylaws I I thought we had is there a policy and also a b bylaw on this exact same thing yeah there is am I allow to say something sorry Mr Kia go ahead can I get the floor I know I'm not there it's I think that's 30 minutes total yeah I think it's 30 minutes total of all comments if it's going beyond that because sometimes the meetings in the past have gone to like 1 two o'clock in the morning discussing all this and and it's not out of the policy committee yet at this point and we were just going to keep it as is but I believe we just it's limited to five minutes as far as I know as far as the policy goes uh the language according to Mr Fisher is correct okay that's what the language of the policy and bylaws say Okay um so this particular item seven we're just reopt what we currently have um because you do that every year at the beginning of the year um I I'm I'm not I mean I understand you're bringing up this point because it differs from what we have in I'm just bringing it up because I know it's been an item that's been discussed at almost every meeting since I've been coming and I know it's something that the policy committee is still talking about as well so I just want people to be aware that when they're voting to to reopt the existing bylaws that is something that's already in there and if we're going to make changes it means a change to the bylaws right okay you can you know you can change the policies at any point and that is as you know an ongoing discussion about the zooms but for item seven you don't have any issue with you're not suggesting that we do anything with item seven right I mean comfortable with Rea you're just making the point that it differs from what we have in there okay right so that is something we should address um I guess the board can talk we we can talk about that now do we want to um talk about that further now or do we want to continue to have that conversation in the policy I I I think maybe wait to the um and and I I was going to have a policy meeting this month but maybe it's better that we have wait to the new Committees of one okay and that's G be the first thing then on their agenda of policy committee I would be comfortable voting way it is now and just but I think it is as a as a board we do need to review that it's been like you've said a lot of discussion about that on both sides so we we do need to come together as a team and put and and come up with something that will works for all of us in the community is everyone comfortable with that plan we're we'd be voting for how it is now and change it once the once the um committee is put together correct okay okay all right great uh so any other questions on items uh J1 through j7 I have okay I had a question about the um um the public meetings the the U new calendar um I I know last meeting we did talk about eliminating the work session um if we adopt this it looks like that the work session would be eliminated so I don't know maybe we have a discussion first or if fine would I have that question as well because um I know we talked about moving toward a board of committees and eliminating the workshops but we didn't really get there yet and so this feels a little abrupt to me so I don't know how the rest of the board feels about possibly adding back the workshops until we at least have a more but I think that might tie into your presentation it does okay it does so it we could vote on the dates for the public meetings and still bothe to have work sessions okay yes we could Mo we could at a later date have or even tonight even tonight have a motion to add the workshops back okay so uh so I guess is I guess as long as everyone's comfortable with these as the public meeting dates we'll just leave that um item to I think it wasse in place and then if we want to we will add back the workshops um so has everyone looked at those dates I just have do we have a qu I have a question about March 13 it seems a little in in April 11th is that because of the uh vacations is that why it's early yeah it was going to be like the day we got out for break and vacation so okay and also this year because of uh because of the dates of budget our presentation for Budget will actually be at the beginning of May so if we didn't have that April meeting there wouldn't be an April meeting we'd have to wait till the first couple days in May basically okay great okay so then we are up to um item K which means that you're on De we have to do the the roll call oh so sorry we do we have to do the roll call for items J one through j7 right um Mr cantino yes Mr fiser yes Mr Krauss yes miss pet yes Mr Sweeney yes Miss peell yes Mr zimman yes Miss Brock yes Mr smaga yes motion carries thank you um oh no yeah did she raise her hand sorry right this will be quick I hope good we go this was part of last year's board goals uh the arrow to the right right the C Means Committee of the whole versus committees these were part of the goals that the board agreed to uh I guess September October of this past year this presentation is mainly uh addressing um items seven and eight improve function of our committees work toward functioning as a true Board of committee with full committee reports at public meetings and reorganize our committees and continuously evaluate the appropriateness of that organization so um for as long as I can remember the Vernon Township Board of Education has operated as a committee of the whole or a hybrid thereof whereas all information was provided to the entire board board and uh every discussion at work session sessions and public meetings was were discussed amongst all members and everybody had the same information administrators handled all the research fact finding and making recommendations board evaluated the information and made decisions after discussing the issues at board meetings and there were pros and cons to that uh approach there were a lot of meetings the meetings were long those were the some of the cons the pros were everybody had the same information there's no that nobody had uh more information about a specific item than other people so there was this total trust we all had the same detail so that's the way we operated for since I guess the 80s or even the 70s the committee system is where board members are assigned to committees and work with the administrative staff to investigate research issues and make recommendations to the full board and there are pros and cons to that the board members have to do more work they have to do some research they have to do a lot of work they have to attend these uh committee meetings and discuss it at length they have to write reports the reports have to be the reports of the committee and the reports have to go out to the rest of the board and the board members have to read those committee reports and be on top of it and ask questions ahead of time if well they should ask them ahead of time if they don't then the public meetings may end up being long and lengthy and then the answers may not be answered at that if you don't have the answers uh in certain committees in certain boards throughout the state I I Googled a lot of these they have various standing committees most of them we are familiar with Finance partnership buildings and grounds policy technology special services negotiations academic Excellence governance climate and culture these are just a sample we don't have to have any uh these specific ones I was leaning towards having maybe seven committees each member will be a chair except for I was thinking that the person who is on the uh Northern Hills board has an extra meeting a month so they could be exempt from being a chair that's just I was thrown that out as an idea and the president is a ad hoc or a uh at large member of all committees but this is for us to discuss I mean if we wanted to talk about other pros and cons I'm sure we could talk about it at a work session where we now oh by the way everybody will get a copy of this afterwards I'll send everybody and these are just some samples we could think of others now ours is finance buildings and grounds I didn't want I was thinking that maybe that was too much for a lot of people but it's it works okay for a Mr slam and then we have ad hoc committees ad hoc committees are used as needed to address specific issues not covered by standing committees we currently have a chronic absenteeism and cell phone usage committee um did I mention the an AI committee would probably be a good idea to have one going forward I didn't put that on there but that could be part of Technology oh those those are the other positions that the agenda addressed tonight and I think oh that you have committee bylaws which are optional committee responsibilities that the board members should be putting together some sort of proposal or for bylaws then for the uh policy committee for the policy uh book and then each uh committee should have an administrative liaison and then the frequency of meetings should be put on the master schedule and there is a format for committee reports it's a standard format it's like a two it's a onepage page thing um I have a copy of it I didn't wasn't able to print it on to this outline and uh it's recommended that the report be generated two days after the meeting so that there's no stress about not people not having the information that the other board members have and this is just the the policy about committees President appoints board members to serve as onee term on the board standing committee mhot committee has created charges at the time by the president or a majority of the board members present and voted the president shall appoint members to any committee so created and charged and members Shall Serve until the committee is discharged committees consist of four board members no more than four that could be less and the member that's you know sort of details about it and that's the Le rest of the uh policy and each year the committee is renewed or re reorganized and it's at the designation of the president that's it CH you mentioned that the president could be was the term you use a member of every committee I think it's I forget it says important but if that happens then you can only have three board members and the president like if one of the committee members cannot attend the president can attend any questions and now this is all up to us we don't have to go to this we can continue doing what we're doing we just change our goals U it's up to the president vice president how they want to lead you know the rest of the uh 2025 well I think it's I think it's microphone um I think it should also be up to the board how we want to function as a board because you know everybody has to serve on these um oh that's good I like that uh because we all have to be comfortable with the information we're getting we all have to be comfortable with our Board of our committee service and we all have to be comfortable with the idea of giving up our workshop and then there's also the fact that the workshop was in public whereas the committee meetings are in private so that's a one less opportunity to inform the public about what we're doing but that's that's just my initial reaction does anyone else have any thoughts on um how they see the future so they uh Joe and I had talked about this once and at that time I think you had said eight committees is what a matter of discussion yeah and I I thought the eight committee idea was good because you were splitting buildings and grounds from finance and the other one was uh the the technology committee is that the one that I think curriculum and Technology right yeah splitting that into two and then you would make eight uh and then the idea that you pitched to me was that each member would chair one of the eight committees with the president serving the functions you mentioned before and I you know I thought that was a great idea because I do think that those two splits make a lot of sense especially since there's been a lot of discussion in the board about uh Ai and you know a possible AI committee so if you split technology from curriculum that that gives that committee a little less responsibility on the curriculum side that they can concentrate on AI yeah I mean I as a chair of curriculum I can say that I'd be comfortable with that because it is it does feel sometimes like two meetings right we we get through all the curriculum stuff and then we switch our hat to so it does feel like two separate things um so that would be interesting um so that's the that's the that that's a conversation about which committees we want to have and then the separate conversation is because we've always had committees and the workshop but I think a sort of a bigger picture issue is do we really do we want to dispense with our workshop and just do this work in committee like those are they're related but they're two sort of separate conversations I feel may speak um I feel that the to have a com Board of committees and then have Workshop meetings is a bit redundant because the point of the workshop is to make make up for the fact that you don't have committees from my understanding it's most districts do either one or the other am I wrong on that I I I from from what I've heard usually a district either does one public meeting a month with committee meetings where they discuss the committee reports and vote on them or they do a workshop and a public meeting without committees am I wrong on that I believe a lot do have committees but I I have always heard when we went to New Jersey school boards that we have a lot more committees boards that have than most boards that do the two public meetings so I think we're just you know seems redund heavy on committees but the way we solved that in the past right was kind of we have some committees that don't meet as frequently so it's not as you know if every committee was meeting every month and we were having a workshop that definitely would be that to me you know that's my take that wellist what do you what do you um I think I understand what Carl is saying that makes a lot of sense right like we wouldn't have to do it twice we're not going to discuss it as a group at a workshop plus do the behind the scenes work um I kind of agree with what Mr Sweeney was saying about it shifts the work right so it it does make sense that you're doing more work behind the scenes but the advantage to doing at least for somebody like me to doing the work behind the scenes is that I can do it when I can do it um it's difficult I don't know about anybody else here but it's difficult with a workshop and a public meeting and then three or four committee meetings a month like you know trying me trying to get to I'm I'm attending curriculum meetings in my car on Zoom just basically listening because I I can't necessarily it's a lot of meetings so I'm not opposed to doing it either way I think um whatever we think is the most efficient way to get the work done if the majority of the board would rather do a workshop and work on it all together I'm great with that that there's benefits to that transparency we talked about it um but I'm also I can do my little committee notes I could do those at 2: in the morning on Saturday right and that's it's easier for me to do something like that than say get to a meeting at 4:30 you know every Thursday for for now until the end of the school year you know so I don't know um I definitely see both sides to it um I'm kind of more excited about being a board of committees than I am having the public Workshop but yeah that's pretty much where I'm at personally I feel if if like you said we have a board where we meet twice a month and then we have committees some of them don't meet as frequently as others but then remember you also have the the um susex CSC rep like there were months where I had you know we went to an njsba meeting or Sussex County SBA meeting and then I had the um the susex CSC and then two meetings here and then it gets to be a lot very quickly and especially considering in the past few years we've had high turnover board members I feel that having um board up committees is just more convenient for most people and I think it also encourages people to look over the committee reports more and be more diligent about doing their homework if that makes sense I just feel it eliminates some redundancy so I would say for the one meeting a month this was proposed when I was first on the board and at the time as I said before the administration could not do and it was a different Administration but that Administration could can get everything done for once a month because there if you look what we do the hiring the changing the shifting a good point now we're getting the kindergarten it's more work they need to get everything done and hold it all for a whole month so if they missed the meeting nothing happens for another month that was one issue I don't have the problem with the two meetings a month you all signed up we all kind of know what it's involved especially if you've been on the board already so it's not a surprise you know I mean I was told it was twice a month that was a lie but you know yes three or four times a month but I do it you know you're committed to do it yeah as for splitting building and grounds and finance most we did that before I was building the grounds chairman it's pointless there's nothing can happen in building the grounds without money so they work together and the proof is if you look how much has been done over the past year or two when they got combined compared to what was done before they kind of go together most districts do keep them together I believe maybe R correct me on that that's correct two committees are combined together because building the grounds doesn't really move without money so it kind of ties in together so that's my to but I think the system we have now is fun could be tightened up a little bit but that's it P personally I don't mind the two meetings I do see the point though because sometimes I wonder what the point is of having the two meetings and uh and and and what Ray was saying with previous administrations um I mean my feeling is the workshop is not really your meeting anyway so we shouldn't be voting on stuff that should be brought up into the public session so in in my view nothing's really changed for the administration except that you don't have to go to an extra meeting um I couple extra committee meeting you'll make up for that yeah but I I I I like the point of having committees like what Joe brought up because if we do work in the Committees we do get a lot of the questions answered it's nicer to come back to our group and say and have the answers give the report have you're not gonna have everything done it's it's just actually just like AI right chat gbt will will give you 80% of the work but we're still going to have discussion in public sessions and say what about this what about that I I still have a question about that but you know sometimes we get hung up on on the small thing uh the small problem which probably could have been addressed in the committee talked about in the report and we could really then talk about the real problem or or I don't want to say problem but the real concern of the the change or whatever we're making so we can have a more effective meeting I think that way with having just the one and doing just the Committees um you know and if we're like Joe said about having it two days after I mean it gives us time you know sometimes I I I slack a little of myself and don't get the committee meeting out until meeting out until later but it gives everybody a chance to read it it gives us well it's fresh in our mind to get it out there and we we know what to ask and as you're writing that a day after you probably come say we should have asked this question and we can ask that question so you're prepared as a as a chair person for the public session so if someone else ACC to that and it also helps you know maybe help the the administration you know get a lot of their questions asked before focus on the big things do you have any concerns with not having the two meetings in terms of getting things voted on in a timely fashion and for for us it's it's a weak difference between the meetings so it be what has changed in in five business days between the meetings Okay so some things may have to wait an extra week but uh in in general if there's if there's an emergency situation we could always have have a meaning if if MJ yeah and and also if there's ever a real emergency situation where something needs to happen I can sign a contract but what we could do before that is talk to the board president and do me a straw poll over the board make sure everyone's okay with what is happening as information what is happening and then do a concurring motion where the board concurs with the action that the administration took at the next meeting do that behind the scenes where before we do that so everyone is in the same page and knows what's going on yeah do want to avoid a situation though where we're voting on something after it's already happened so you know so that what you just said we really need to be buttoned up about that well that's a sample of the report that the njsba maybe and you you had a solution to that too because we talked about that as well yeah yeah it's called a concurring motion basically so um if it it would only be if something uh was an emergency and had to happen um then uh we would move forward but we' let everyone know before we moved forward and then there would be president yeah Y and then through straw pole so we knew we had to support if we had to do something before vot okay and the straw pole is what the daisy chain calling or how does that work uh either the this either me or the superintendent could reach out to bmer let them know what's going on and um make sure everyone's on the same page uh it's something I've seen happen in the other districts I've been in um it happens also in my District as well just because most districts do only have that one meeting a month so if there is an instance um the ba has the authority to sign a contract especially em situation with approval from the county um but then there would just be a concurring motion after the fact but you wouldn't want to catch it off guard with it right okay I like what Charles said before it's if we get the minutes out of the the committee meetings earlier um I do prefer like if those questions are answers before the meeting I think we could have a much more efficient uh meeting where questions are answered to people beforehand and if they want to answer ask questions again in the meeting then you know we can make a lot more progress instead of the questions coming up in the middle of in the middle of the meeting I just wanted to point one more thing with with the uh um having having just the one meeting um if you had something emergency because what now I think a lot of times we we don't have a we can't do a commit committee meeting because it's hard it's hard to fit them in right we have backtack board meetings and we have other committee meetings and sometimes it's hard to put them all in the same time so something like let's say you had an emergency you had to hire 15 teachers that's crazy right well we did that last month I believe you that could be brought up in the in the curriculum committee you know or the finance committee meeting prior that'll be on the Mee the minutes all the board members would actually have a little bit of background before and then then we can do a you know a little poll and see how everybody feels but now they actually would I think board members would have a little bit more information prior to making a decision I'm concerned about the transparency aspect of it though because then you're having these conversations at the committee level not in front of the public and then you're doing a straw poll also not in front of the public and so it just feels like a little bit less uh of bringing the public Along on our Journeys which I think then opens you up to you know people feeling that you're doing things behind closed doors that you should be doing in public so for example Personnel that wouldn't be discussed in public anyway because it that's true right so and then the only other time you'd really see something that happen would be say there's a buildings and grounds emergency and I need to sign a contract you know then we would have a concurring motion on it because we wouldn't wait till the port meeting to you know stop something from flooding out you know or patch a roof so even though it was in our goals we don't have to change we we could continue to do it the way we are doing it now and just remove that as one of our goals it's not a big deal and we we've examined it and decided to continue to operate the way we're operating it's it's up to us to decide how we want yeah I think it was a good point to raise them for all the reasons that everyone's saying we're you know we do have a very heavy responsibility TimeWise for our members and people are struggling with it and and we do seem to have more than most boards so um you know our communities have kind of mushroomed right so so it's worth exploring I don't know if we want to make the decision tonight though we don't even have the committee set up yet I I have a question I I don't know if it even makes sense I mean is it worth exploring a a hybrid to to see if we want to make the transition it seems to me you know it's a sort of radical transm transition right and and I agree it's a a great idea and I lean towards working you know board by committee um the transparency is my main concern and and how the public will greet that that transition and I just wonder if it's if it's something that we can explore where we start giving those committees more power and and uh make them work more to you know this sort of format while we move towards eliminating that second meeting yeah um what would that look like because it kind of sounds like what we're doing now but maybe we're looking toward our way into yeah that's that's kind of what I'm saying like it rather than make a decision that we're going to make a change here and now you know why not set a Target date of say May or June for the transition so that we can explore how it works with the Committees working under the new format and and then you know if we see it's working then we proceed with that schedule and we say as of May there'll be no more workshops if it's not working we can vote back to keep it the way it's being done now yeah I I do like that especially because right now we don't have we haven't even assigned our committee so we don't have dates for them and so to just get rid of the next workshops um and rely on committees when we don't have our committee setup doesn't seem to be seems a little rushed so does how does everyone feel about about setting a a Target date for what exactly to to like instead of having no workshops for the whole year we we set it uh as of the May uh the month of May that's our date to have to go to one meeting and we try to work toward that with our committees if everyone I think I would like that to U I like the trying it slow approach um I think we have to make some adjustments because a couple times I heard transparency here and for me personally I I don't believe we have to be we we should always be transparent and it doesn't mean if I ask a question or us in a committee I don't ask it again in in front of the PO the public if I feel that's a necessary question like sometimes I'll ask them and say what does This Acronym mean and you know schools have all these crazy like the military right they have all these crazy acronyms and does everybody in the public I mean maybe they do care but a lot of things like that are small but if something I'm saying why did you hire this teacher and he's like well we need another classroom or we have 30 new students I mean that's something that the public should hear right we should still be acent in the in the the public session um the only problem I think about going to May or June I mean June we only have one meeting right I think the summer we only have one meeting so if you wanted to try it out I would say do a little earlier March or something March a April and and just how you have a half a year we can see actually both this year and then we make the new G bows go Bo goals ande we can can I can I speak on that a minute I'm sorry I don't need to interrupt but it's hard for me to get through from here sorry John I would say ease into it till we get out of budget season the transparency aspect that Mr fiser is referring to will be crazy if we go to one meeting during budget season so I think we should at at least get through budget season with two meetings a month which puts us back in May right yeah right that's what I'm saying puts us at may all right I mean we vote on the budget in April right isn't that right it's gonna be May 1 we have a May 1 public on the first of right maybe that's a presentation to sorry I can't find my meeting Charlie did you say there's one meeting in June I I think June right because we have one because of the graduation school right so if if we actually have one meeting in June then why not make June the target to make the one meeting permanent right so we do our two meetings up to and including May and then you know June through the summer when there's just one meeting anyhow we do we're functioning as normal then when school comes back in sep September we're on that one meeting a month schedule okay okay I always forget about the other part of the year right September sept like we're done with school but yeah yeah another three months yeah that works that's half a year so yeah I like that too I like that's a good good point okay is everybody comfortable with that idea I like I have to say I'm probably gonna lose everybody my battery is dying I'm not plugged in anywhere almost so almost there we're almost at open board all right I'm I'm hoping if I if I go out you that's why all right got it okay all right um so do we do we need a motion on that to add back oh actually we do right though to add back the uh the work sessions the work sessions I I think I had well I don't think it was a was it I don't think it was votable item the first time right was this the it was with the J1 through j7 uh it was but I would need to go back and then add in the work sessions and figure out what days those would be make at any point that can a member say for example um I'd like to motion to add workshops back to the calendar for months Jan uh January through May I can't do that uh I would maybe where the resolution um dates to be determined uh because what I'm what I'm saying is I would need to go back and look at the calendars and figure out so yeah what dates would work and there's going to be some months where it's going to be the meetings going be backto back so there'll be for example April um they'll be backtack meetings right you have that motion dat speech termined at tonight's meeting and then at the next meeting we can have the dates perhaps yeah yeah so um because we would need to for example for this month we would need to because we're having this meeting right can can we have just start our workshops in February no yeah that's whatever the board wants to do because I don't we're not going to have committee set up in time to have yeah I don't think we you know we might but but it would be tight to then have the committee meetings so yeah so at any point someone could so to add uh Workshop meetings to the calendar for February through May with dates to be determined we do have two meetings in May no true because we have the public budget meeting Mark well maybe we can make that a workshop slash no it it could be a workshop shop slash public hearing yeah usually it's combined either with a public hearing uh sorry with a workshop or a public meeting okay perfect so we'll leave that see you I think we also need to look at the policy for attendance because I think that's based off of Joe you probably know better aren't there a certain number required by School boards that we like make it 80% of the attend or is that just our own policy I think it's our policy and uh I think it's just for public meetings oh just okay you're right I think that was his poli's b okay okay all right moving what we could do is at the so if you want to do this Mo we do this motion now and then also have a motion at the January public which would have the attachment with the dates if you want to have one now and then as well okay that sounds good so I'm making that motion and someone second he got thank you all right and then we need a vote I guess just copy and paste them down the roll call are you ready for the uh roll call uh sure Mr Fischer yes Mr Krauss yes miss pet yes Mr Sweeny yes Miss Mell yes Mr zimon yes Miss Brock yes Mr smaga yes Mr cantino yes motion carries great so moving on to item L open board member form um do anyone have anything they'd like to bring up this fish no surprised shocking uh just a just a quick comment to thank everybody who supported me uh to to get here tonight everybody who voted for me and my family who came here thank you guys that's it I'm good I would just like to congratulate all the all the bo board members and newly elected leadership and uh look forward to a healthy and productive uh rest of the school year in 2025 thank you for your service everyone here at here at the meeting thank you everyone I look forward to a very productive year I'm very excited I was say thank you too and thank you to uh to all the board members that joined this year and put themselves out there for the election and congratulations on in those spot positions yes earn it absolutely uh thank you everyone now we need a motion to adjourn no one wants to go home everyone's having moved thank you John thank you Mr Fish and uh all in favor I and bye bye have fun in Texas