okay going to call the meeting the V Township Board of Education work session of february8 calling it to order have a that's it then motion to go to close session I have to do a roll call yep oh okay Miss Brock here Mr seaga here miss colani here Mr cantino here Mr Krauss here miss pet here Mr Sweeney here Mr Zimmerman here we have a quorum okay recommended that the board enter close session for the purposes of discussing legal and student Matters by Mr Zimmerman second by Mr cantino all in favor all right we are in closed session okay all right we are going to open the meeting to uh let's see open the recommend that the board return to public session we have a motion Mr Zimmerman second second second by Mr Krauss in favor I I opposed we are in Open session we have a roll call Mr slam Miss Brock here Mr saglia here miss colani Kalani Mr cantino here Mr Krauss here miss pellet Mr Sweeney here Mr Zimmerman here M federici we have a we have a call okay please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance for all Mr slam I have the reading of the meeting notice please the New Jersey open public meetings 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 provisions of the ACT Vernon Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published an adequate notice has been provided and notice that this meeting had been has been properly posted in accordance with the New Jersey open public meeting law uh just to note the next public board meeting will be next Thursday uh it's February 15th thank you okay we will be interviewing three candidates for the board uh vacancy that we have we the three candidates are George alaka Linda smen and Carolyn Ross um we are gonna those that's the order that we will interview them after we after we have a series of questions and answers the board will go back inside for a little while deliberate and then come back out and hopefully we'll have a new board member okay so that's the that's the plan all right so um who's G to get Mr alak Mr gas thank you Wing now okay Mr lockbot we have three candidates as you know your your paperwork was received first so your will be the first candidate into interviewed and then in order in which the paperwork was received will be the other two candidates so it's simple interview I have two questions and maybe we'll develop a dialogue we'll see what qualifications and or characteristics make you the best candidate for the open seat on this board of education love for children education and mentorship um I've spent most of my years in the field um before giving that up to a list in the military I have to Doctorate Degrees being a mentor even to will academic then um because of the special need children I was there volunteering my time while also as an aent professor at suus County I came back from combat I got injured uh so I went back to school for a second doctor thought for a while and then I have two children who are now here um I moved from Hamburg I volunteered for some time in hurg I was um a member of the Board of Health and land use for seven years I had to give up the seat when I moved over to this place so I saw the um I've always wanted to volunteer sorry um to be part of the school because I'm now in the Von Township and I would like to see what can Al can do to improve children qualific I mean children access to good education and um just here to volunteer I mean that's what I want to do thank you thank you so what is your understanding of the role of the board of a board member and the tasks and responsibilities associated with that role um technically this will be my first time in the board of education but I'm drawing my experience from other boards I think we're just here to get guard policies that um and also programs that may be infect I mean that may be implied or applied in the school and direct some of the curriculum probably and I'm not going to say I know a lot because this is my first time but other board the board what you do you support the executive in terms of policy and um compliance um does any board member have a question from Mr alaka is there anything else that you'd like to add that we didn't that's not on your paperwork or you'd like to say tonight oh um apart from that I when I came here when I moved here 2022 I volunteered with the EMT um all through I responded to a Majesty course and because I wanted to do something and um I was also busy with my daughter schools I tried to attend all the um parents teachers um group and I once expressed my desire to the principal of Seda mountains to be part of the board and he said no it's by election so I Ste back so when I saw the email oh I said maybe opportunity has arrived so I volunteered thank you thank you for your interest thank you you're welcome to have a seat and we're going to interview the other candidates thank you thank you V uh m smen please hi everybody hello everybody hello so Mr smen we only have a couple of questions sure and uh the interview order is in the order that we received the paperwork so Mr ala was the first applicant you're second and then next one was Carrie and there are three candidates for the position sure so I just wanted to let you know you know where you stand so what qualifications Andor characteristics make you the the best candidate for the open seat on the board of education I'm a volunteer I've been volunteering for a long time I started actually I was just reminiscing I started in this school as a power professional in 2002 I worked here for three years and then I continued onto a full-time job at the police department um qualifications I have energy um do I have the schooling and the education I don't I'm honest about that it's okay I have a light skill my life skill is volunteering I have done honor flights with our veterans tomorrow night we do the Timbo prom for our special needs Community um I started out with Walnut Ridge as a uh sea president I moved up to the Viking Club I was vice president I work with chamber Charities with earthfest for the last 10 years I did the tree recovery program so there's a lot of programs and things that I've done um qualifications I think my energy is going to bring you something that you can really use thank you sure what is your understanding of the role of a board member and the tasks and responsibilities associated with that role well my first thought would be is to support our Educators so our children get the best education possible my kids came through this school system they all did very well very proud of my children um I believe that this is a great school system and having the ability to go over the policies support the professionals that are at schools support our uh educational support professionals so the kids get the education that they need so as the Board of Education we have to make those important decisions we have to watch our money we have to make sure that everything fits into this puzzle if we don't we're going to lose a lot of kids thank you um is there anything that you'd like to add that's not part of the question that we asked or with your paperwork I would just like to tell you a little bit about myself so maybe that'll help you make your decision um I live up in Barry Lake section of Vernon for the last 37 years with my husband uh we raised our three kids like I said my son went to West Point so it was an exceptional education that he received from Vernon um he just finished his eight years in the Army and uh has now just received his MBA so he's well and good my kids are well and good they came they got their education they moved forward and did what they needed to do as young adults I'm hoping to help these kids I have so many ideas I have initiatives already my my brain is just going to explode with what I want to help with I love these kids to death um I started out like I said as a par professional with our special needs kids and it was just a very rewarding experience and I really appreciated what our special needs families went through and um I've just experienced it again with a young adult that was my neighbor who lost his mom I had to help him adjust to not having a parents anymore being special needs and autistic so um I think that's enough I could go on for a long time uh if there is anything else that I can answer questions board member have any questions thank you Mrs SM thank you very much thank you you're welcome to stay sure my sure okay M Miss Ross um you were the third candidate your paperwork came in last so we would interview everybody in the order that paperwork was received so we don't have a lot of questions we just have a couple okay what qualifications Andor characteristics make you the best candidate for the open seat on the board of education hi everyone thank you for your time um I love Vernon and I love education so I grew up in Vernon and I moved back a few years ago with my family I have two young boys um Oliver is over at Rolling Hills right now playing his very first uh basketball game and Julian will start kindergarten next year so I'm very invested in the school district and I think I can bring the perspective of a parent of young children who are beginning here and um I'm I'm passionately dedicated to providing the best education we can for my kids and all the kids in the district dist um I also devoted my professional life to education so I started as an English teacher and then worked as an instructional coach um I provide PD currently to different teachers in different school districts and I work in a fellowship program for early career Math and Science teachers um that's like a national program for early career teachers in their first and second years so I have a lot of experience in education and I'm very dedicated and passionate about it personally I think that my attributes that would best serve this role are um my patience my um curiosity and and interest in different perspectives and hearing from folks and and asking questions and learning more and my strong communication skills in sort of bridging different perspectives and different concerns thank you what is your understanding of the role of a board member and the tasks and responsibilities associated with that role so I understand that the board oversees the successful running of the school district so it's not in charge of running the school district but instead it oversees those uh at a broader level not the day-to-day operations um so the board sort of sets the policies the goals the direction and then holds the superintendent accountable for Meeting those goals um the board also plays a really important function in liaison between the community and the school district so representing the needs of the students and the district to the community and then representing to the district administrators the desires and the needs of the community does any board member have any questions is there anything else you you want to add that we didn't discuss or that's not in your paperwork I think just that I really appreciate the work you do um I really hope to to contribute in some way to um the efforts I think that everyone in this room sort of feels committed to trying to do the best uh to bring what we can to our community and work together to make it the best that it possibly can be um and to serve all the students of our district as well as we possibly can thank you thank you so we're going to go into a close session to deliberate and then come back out and vote Okay so I need a recommendation to enter into closed session for the purposes of discussing board me board member candidate interviews so move by Mr Krauss seconded by Mrs colani all in favor I I oppos we going to be in closed session for a little while it won't I don't think it'll be that long I don't [Music] know okay back so we is recommended the board return from closed session I have a motion so move second Mr cantino is first seconded by Mr Zim all in favor I I okay we are back in Open Session okay now I'm going to call for nominations for the vacant board member seat I'd like to nominate Carolyn Ross for the seat Mr uh okay I just wanted to mention that we do not need a second ACC to our parliamentarian and business administrator Ray slam so uh Carolyn Ross is nominated by John Krauss we have any other nominations seeing that there are no others we are closing the nominations and it is recommended that the board approved Carolyn Ross to fill the vacant board member seat effective February 15 through December 31st 2024 is that correct right uh yes that's correct so or do I need to do anything more in the nomination section no that was everything for nomin okay so may I have a motion for uh item number two recommend recommending Carolyn Ross to fill the vacant board member seat so moved by Mr Krauss second second by Mr Zimmerman roll call vote Please Mr samaga yeah Miss colani Mr cantino yes Mr cruss yes Miss pellet yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman yes Miss Brock yes motion carries so congratulations M Ross you and I would like to say to the other two candidates thank you very much for your interest and we appre appreciate it it is a very difficult time as you know being a board member and we appreciate your interest in it and please June comes along around real quickly there'll be you know positions where you file your application to run for the Board of Education three years y but thank you very much for your interest so thank you very much sir I didn't see you back there Ray do you want to tell carollyn what the next step is uh so we'll send out information to you uh in terms of what the next steps will be ground checks and everything we'll reach out probably tomorrow if not tomorrow Monday thank you very much you get it from Jennifer Smith probably right okay thank you okay item number eight public participation open the meeting to the public uh please tell me who you are what what town you're from anybody interested in coming forth the agenda items only or students yeah I don't see any students um Angelo is there anybody interested in say anything online we have Jessie paladini okay Mrs paladini good evening um I just want to say I'm really disappointed in your choice of candidate nothing to nothing at all no offense to Carolyn Ross but you have a candidate like George alaka and you choose in favor of another teacher with nepotism with former Boe members from Vernon in her family H okay um by the way I had heard from several people before this meeting tonight that your choice was Carolyn Ross so that was no real surprise um since you're discussing ethics tonight and ethics are on the agenda I want to discuss board member Jennifer Pet's lack of Ethics as of today she has solicited 168 hateful and false comments about me in the George nikonorov hate group all of the comments by the way by the same six or seven hateful individuals over and over and over again pellet took a comment of mine from inside Vernon and twisted and distorted it I asked pellet simply to provide specific examples of what she claimed I did which I did not do but her hateful instigation on another Forum prompted those 168 hateful comments by now you all have my email because I sent it to you at 6:44 this evening proving what she did so miss pellet invited people to join her Hit List against me and solicited those 168 hateful false defamatory comments this is deplorable and unethical behavior for a school board member and she needs to be censured I sent various emails to board members and to the superintendent about this over the course of the last sever weeks about Miss Pet's Behavior but of course not one person responded to me so in closing I want to say superintendent Rogers before you read prepared statements about social media comments pledging to pause and how words have the power to affect the daily lives mental health and wellbeing of others please preach to your own Boe members also superintendent Rogers be sure to know the difference between public comments and questions about our school district from hateful social media posts when the public does not get answers they usually take to social media unresponsive to the public that's what this board of education is and when you fail to respond to the public the public takes it to social media you are only hurting yourself by continually ignoring the public thank you for letting me have my comments thank you anybody else you want to say anything um sure I'll say something let miss pet I'd like respond to that so um Miss paladini posted on a a page called inside Vernon which she's the administrator of that she quote this is exactly what she posted never never went after a single person on any board ever I never went after a volunteer prove it tell us who so all I did was take that post and put it on a page another page to help her get the response that she was soliciting um I've sat here and listened to her attack members of this board she called one a thug pushed another to resign harassed a third mercilessly for six months even going so far as to call her place of work and try to get for fire and then there's also myself so when you post claiming to never have attacked a board member ever and ask for someone to name just one I felt that you should have a wider audience so that you could see um how many people felt that you had been in fact attacking plenty of people and obviously it was a very successful post so and that's all I have to say about it I don't regret it at all the bullying should stop that's we're going to move on to that from that because it okay business to yeah attend too all right Angelo Mr nanoro good evening can you hear me yes okay uh so uh it's thank you for getting my last name right uh for I appreciate that it's a bit hard to uh do um I I have a I have a question regarding uh a point of order and deorum uh on the recent comment by the individual uh that previously spoke um I'm trying to understand uh because uh my name was mentioned uh as a part of the agenda am I doing any presentation or uh is uh does something I'm doing right now have anything to do uh with the uh with the agenda items that are being discussed tonight uh the answer to your question is no it doesn't I believe your name was mentioned as a person who facilitated a Facebook page okay well then uh I I failed to uh I fail to understand uh why Mr President you didn't call a point of order because that is within your power to do so I understand that it is and the topic was arose because we have an Ethics training on the agenda and the previous speaker felt it was an ethical matter well I I I think that that's a pretty poor connection to make uh considering that uh the group that she was mentioning was my group uh that uh and that the comment that was made uh was uh not defamatory it was in fact what uh one of your uh board members actually said so uh I I think uh moving forward I'd like to make a suggestion uh in order to uh stop uh the ongoing hateful comments that are made in volunteers and uh I do request formally that you call a point of order uh should uh a comment like that go off the rails uh so I just like to provide that feedback to you and I'll save my I'll save my uh secondary comments for the second session for the second public comment sessions should uh should the need arise thank you thank you no problem anybody else no good yeah I'm going to close the meeting close the public participation section and we're going to move on to letter F which is a board ethics training provided by the New Jersey school board representative and former School Board member of Vernon Miss Kelly Mitchell hey guys do we need to move you here but we can't see it we can't see any will be where it usually is so are we ready for a perky conversation about ethics yeah all right um so anyway I uh I gave you all packets and in that packet is an acknowledgement of receipts if you can sign that and get that over to Ray that will count for qac and and he'll need that um because you'll be doing that probably next year next year yeah so um so that's part of our governance and uh this discussion today is an annual discussion um that is required as part of hus oh okay so now when I click it will it click up there too yes all right I'll chat while you're doing it we're the only right mind so anyway so um my business card is there you can call me seven days a week if you have any questions on anything to do with governance uh and you all have my personal cell phone so anything else tell me on we good so just a quick disclaimer uh this is for informational purposes only this is not to provide you any kind of uh legal advice uh any specific uh questions about is this a violation what do you think about this that would go to the board attorney so as per your policy you would go to your board president Mr Sweeney and then he would would call the uh your legal council for any of those types of questions so when we think of Ethics we think of accountability goes hand inand so the ethics the code of ethics will give us this guideline to S stay in our lane to pretty much guide us through should we be over here or should we be over there sometimes it's hard because there's like gray areas about being a h board member Mr Sweeny five minutes is up and I'm getting I'm getting the hook already so anyway so um so the code of ethics will keep us in those links and this is the actual act itself so it's essential that the conduct of the members and local Boards of education and local administrators hold the respect and confidence of the people these board members and administrators must avoid contact which is is in violation of their public trust or which creates a justifiable impression among the public that such trust is being violated so tonight we're going to go over different components of the act so we're going to talk about the school ethics commission prohibited acts uh your mandatory training we're going to go over the code of ethics and then we're also going to talk about our uh disclosure statements which you probably should have all had a an email by now so who's accountable for what so the prohibited acts and the disclosure statements all school board members are uh going to have to abide by that also myself being a New Jersey school board's uh staff member and then any administrators also have to do those uh disclosures then the code of ethics and the mandatory training is for school board members and Charter School Trust trustees so who's part of of this uh commission so there's nine members and they're appointed by the governor for a three-year term so there's two school board members five non-school officials and then two administrators so the jurisdiction is uh you have advisory opinions and any school official can request one of them and then you have ethics complaints any member of the public can file an Ethics complaint and we normally see about 85 uh per year for the complaints and then 35 advisory opinions per year so our mandatory training so when you're a brand new board member you only have 90 days from the time that you were sworn in to do your governance one so Melissa you you did yours already uh yes good so um you have that 90day period everybody else has the full year to do it uh so in the second year governance two would be finance and labor and then the third year would be student achievement and then when you're reelected because you love being a board member so much you um will then go to governance for in the first year and that's legal updating now you can take them all like during the year if you feel like you want to brush up on on one or the other but you would only get credit for the year that uh that you're in so whatever year you're in the disclosure forms did everybody get their email on that for their disclosure forms so if you fill it in they they did a new type of um you know way they do it if you save it as a PDF and then send it off to Reay it a lot easier because you won't lose all your data um a lot of people are putting it in in the dropdowns and then losing their data so just save it as a PDF and and send it on off so um anybody that's been on the board before has to have it in by April 30th otherwise you'd have to have it in with the first 30 days so these are the penalties if a violation is found so a reprimand is basically just a letter it's uh it's not in public it's very private and it says just don't do this again then you get to censure that's a little bit different that's very public it gets a resolution read at a public meeting and then you um have to put that on the district website for 30 days so that's a little bit stronger then you would go to a suspension and that could be any period of time that they deem necessary and then um for something that you know is quite big you would have a removal so what we're going to do now is because we have to have a a discussion we're going to go around the room and just read um each tenant and we'll we'll talk a little bit about it but before we do I just want you to take note to the standards that line underneath that's what the ethics commission looks at when they're trying to determine if a violation did uh come about so that's that's the uh data that they'd be looking at so El do you mind starting off with letter A standards factual evidence no no not on the standards just just I will uphold oh okay I will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Education and court orders pertaining to school desired changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures right so when we look at that I will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations that was part of our oath right when we when we took our oath initially so you know we have to be mindful of that we saw um issues with letter A when we were uh talking about the health standards things like that so we have to enforce all all laws rules and regulations so just be mindful of that when you are um you know voting and and and discussing you want me to read on so I I didn't know if you wanted to say something first I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed sex or social standing right so when we're making decisions we're thinking about the entire District as a whole all the children that's encompassed in that um not just special interest or certain groups I will confine my board action to policymaking planning and appraisal and I will help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them right so sometimes we think that and this is one of those things where we're talking about our lean right so um our lean is policymaking planning and Appraisal that's really hit so when sometimes we think oh okay well as a board member we should be doing this we're kind of getting outside of that lane so when you're um determining whether to take action on certain things just be mindful that you're a policymaking body planning and appraisal and that's that's it right I will carry out my responsible to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members to see that they are one well run right so I'm sorry just G read the rest you don't have to read the rest so um so what that's telling us is is that uh we hire really qualified staff right so we don't have to do that part of it our job is to just see that an oversight see that they're run well so we're up in the balcony looking down just making sure that everything is being run well but we're not in there with our sleeves rolled up like working in with the superintendent so we just need to be mindful of that I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interests of partisan political groups or to use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends did you go oh you went he oh well let's talk about F and then we'll go back to not a problem Carl so um so keep in mind nonpartisan right there's no political party in in this room it's all about being nonpartisan and uh we're not going to go off and and make determinations on something that's somebody's agenda some a special interest group political group we don't do things like that so e you you can read e to okay I will recognize that the authority rests with the Board of Education and will make no personal promises nor take any private action that may compromise the board right so the authority rests in you as a team not as an individual so sometimes and we're seeing an uptick with letter e because you go from being in campaign mode and you're like I'm going to do this I'm GNA do that and then you don't you realize that once you're on a board you're working as a team so you can't just do something on your own you only have that Authority when you're together as a team G I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the school which if disclosed would necess would needlessly injure individuals or the school in all other matters I will provide accurate information and in concert with my fellow board members interpret to the staff and ask aspirations of the community for its school so when we're in closed session anything that's said in there we keep in there and hold it very confidential we don't talk to our girlfriends about it boyfriends husbands wives whoever it stays within those confines of that each I will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer right so we don't have have any authority to say hey I think so and so would be better than um what our superintendent says so we wait for that recommendation and then we make our uh judgment based on that and our vote on that I will support and protect School Personnel in proper performance of their duties right so we're seeing a little bit of an uptick on this and um sometimes it has to do with social media we uh just had a case that uh a board member thought it was a good idea to start a blog so you don't lose your right to freedom of speech being a board member you have that right however they um went ahead and and did this blog and then wrote poorly about a faculty member and they lost the ability to be a board member for six months so just just be mindful that you don't lose that right to have freedom of speech but when you're speaking poorly about uh personnel then that's another story and they did have the disclaimer on the on blog but it didn't save that person you want yeah I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and will act on the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution right so this is a chain of command piece and also just because um you don't like that solution that the superintendent comes up with doesn't mean that um that's a failure so we have to be mindful of that but also if you're in the supermarket and there was some type of complaint by a Community member a lot of times the community members think that you have way more Authority than you do so um they might think that you can solve that problem so what we would do is we would refer that Community member to the lowest chain of the lowest person in the chain of command and then we would also let our superintendent know that that was going on and then also I would CC the board president on that just so that everybody's kind of in the loop any questions on any of these tenants any understand about the the uh standards and and how they look at that so this is that uptick of of uh letter e i put in your packet so that you could take a look at um and if you could see the one on the bottom talks about using board email so just be careful when you use board email a member of the public could think that you're speaking for the full board and uh so just be very mindful of that not to take any um private action on your own using board email but I I put these um I won't we won't read these but I you can uh take a look and it shows you know what the violation was and and what the penalty was so prohibited acts so that has to do with recusing yourself if it's going to benefit you or your immediate family so if you have a legal conflict please keep in mind that you should have no discussion on that subject matter and you should not vote and there's a very clear difference between uh recusal and abstaining so an abstaining means that you didn't have enough information to make that vote you you were absent or um you just didn't get the data that you needed to um to actually vote recusing yourself is when you have a legal conflict so just keep that in mind because um you know over the years I we've we've seen where uh you know board members have abstained and really should have maybe recused themselves so this is new guidance from um the ethics commission that if you do have a legal conflict please um recuse yourself from that vote and not abstain when and when you abstain it should only be because you don't have enough data or maybe you're were absent for what have you um but otherwise you were elected to um have a voice and the community expects you to make sometimes tough decisions so you would never use abstaining just to not vote any questions on that this is new guidance so I just put in your packet a definition of um relationships so that you know whether it's an immediate family member or just a relative sometimes there's a little difference with with uh you know conflicts on those and then um this was really interesting this is actually from a advisory opinion that came out in November because a lot of times uh board members didn't know are they conflicted or are they not so they really like narrowed it down to all little nuances so I put that in your packet so you have it um so that you could just be mindful of that but this was uh I get questions on this all the time like half of my phone calls are am I conflicted and it's all on um you know these little nuances and then we know that um when hiring that we may not hire a relative of a board member or uh CSA uh but if the there's data there that if your relative already works for the district what you should be doing and that's part of that recusal that we talked about this's a really good chart about collective bargaining whether you can be um participating in negotiations and whether you could vote to ratify the contract so this really spells it out quite well and I have that in your packet and then this is some other possible conflicts that have to go with that collective bargaining and an advisory on that as well as in the market I added these uh just so so that you could see different cases and and what came about from the um the advice and outcome on those this was really interesting I shared this with Mr Sweeney um this came out in May and it had to do with a board if a board president has an immediate family member uh you know working for the district can that board president go ahead and pick uh the Committees and the committee chairs and can they serve on committees that have to do with Personnel negotiations instructional or finance and um the guidance is that they should not so that's why you saw Mr Sweeney um hand that over to uh Ry to do that um during reor and this goes into uh the impact on Executive session so like tonight if one of your family members were was applying to fill a seat you wouldn't even go into that executive session where you would have that conversation so remember we said you would recuse yourself from any type of vote and also discussion this is super interesting so this is becoming really popular so when um we call the uh the the council and say you know what this is the situation what should we be doing should we be voting should we be doing this or that and then uh the attorney says do this and you follow the attorney's advice and then all of a sudden you find out okay well there's some type of violation you can actually use this defense uh advice of the council but they are telling you to be very very mindful that all four factors and all those numbers there have to uh adhere to the entire case so if uh if you didn't do full disclosure for for example you would not be able to use advice of councel so we're getting a lot of questions about volunteering at school so when you are a board member you don't lose your right to volunteer at school so certainly you can go on a field trip or what have you but it's like that degree of involvement so if you're giving a directive to any type of staff member then you would not be allowed to do that as a board member if you were handling any money you should not ever handle any money um if you're a boy and if you're going to be a regular fixture in the building as board members we are guests every once in a while if the superintendent needs us to do maybe a buildings and grounds tour what have you then that's fine if we're volunteering on not a daily basis that's fine but you should not be a fixture in the building and then when you do um have any type of volunteerism just let your superintendent know just of what the ACT is that you're performing and making sure that um he's fine with that we talked about this um before about when there's a recommendation um from the superintendent and you're voting you um have to be mindful that your vote is not based um on like arbitrary and capricious type of matter like you can't just say well I'm not going to vote Yes for this person because I don't like the way they dress or what have you so um just be mindful of that and then social media is taking up a lot a lot of time with the ethics commission the vast majority of our violations that we're receiving are um based on social media and like I said you do not lose your right to free speech when you're a board member it's that content piece that um is the issue and that that's what's creating the violation so when you're on social media make sure that you're doing that from your private um account it's not and it can't ever say on that account anywhere that um board member board president you know board vice vice president you can't have any of that on there and then make sure that a reasonable member of the public you could see that could perceive that the uh that the school official is speaking in his or her official capacity so when you have that content that you're writing make sure that nobody in the public could say Well they're speaking for the board because you don't have that Authority you so you wouldn't talk about maybe a subject matter that you know um the board has been discussing at the table we wouldn't talk about staff things like that it it would just it's that content piece that um you want to make sure that you wouldn't be construed as speaking in your official capacity and if you do are if you are going to go on social media and post make sure that you put this uh this is the guidance of um the disclaimer now remember we talked about this the the guy with the blog did not win because he had this disclaimer so you can't make this disclaimer and then talk like a board member so just make sure that you're not saying like we did this or the board or what have you um and should put this disclaimer that you're speaking as a private citizen and it's your own personal opinion um and they are saying that you should do this exact um disclaimer so you have that in your packet and we already discussed this that just because you have the disclaimer that doesn't mean that um you know you wouldn't be found with violation it is really that content piece so just please be mindful of that when you are um posting on social media you're posting something else um about anything else like it doesn't matter it's just that piece that says are you speaking in your official capacity can we go back to that slide this one H yeah so if you don't use a disclaimer it doesn't automatically mean you're bu oh no you don't you don't have to ever use a disclaimer that's just to um just put it out there and and say look this is I'm just speaking as a private citizen this is my personal opinion um however they say that do put the discipline on that is helpful because it's giving that clear line that you are not speaking as a board so um you're probably better off than not you know putting that the screamer on it but as long as you stay away from that content piece of of talking like a board member speaking to subject matter like a board member number then then that should be fine um but you know that they are saying to go ahead and pro that that discl so we talked about uh the account itself so you would have a personal account a lot of people put um they have their social media account when they're campaigning uh that should be shut down completely once you're done campaigning that's the um that has been the uh advisory so far uh just recently they said just once you're done with campaign season just shut it down that way you don't have to ever be told that you've posted anything from there because it's it's shut down um so just be mindful of that have a personal account uh there's been a lot of question can I like something from my personal account yes you can like something from your personal account just be careful um that it's maybe something that doesn't have to do with you know the board itself and then also device language um any language that you wouldn't use at the board table please don't use on social media so the points to consider uh you know they they say it's best practice to have like a little cheat sheet of you know who's conflicted so that there's no um issues when you're voting that there's no mistakes made when you're voting and then consult your board attorney uh on any very specific ethic issues um and then school board's notes you get an email uh every so often with updates on advisories uh from the ethics commission uh and they are they expect you to be up to date with those things so um take a look at those and uh and that's it guys any questions that was fun right you very I have one question I'm sorry can Miss Ross sign this now she attended uh she's not in her official so she won't be able to get credit forend no but the board as a whole getting cred for so that's Lan L all right thank you there's a there's a lot of new trainings that are provided with your associating Fe so it's free to you so anytime that you all want me to come on in and and do them you know please please give me a call okay thank sure thank you thank you I have a question um I tried to enroll for the governance that was on the third and I couldn't get into that was there another one available there is another one available in March but you can never um register for that Ray has to register okay so um an email and yeah you can touch base afterwards I have a couple things yeah yeah there's there's two actually there's a a live virtual and then there's one that's at your own place okay thanks Lee thank you thank you Kelly Kelly okay moving on letter g board uh report summary Finance building and grounds Mr zerman okay we refer to Mr Lam for the natural gas subit and the esip update uh so one of the things that we have been looking into um was we had reached out to Elizabeth Town natural gas to see if we could get them to run natural gas down to uh the schools here our Ro schools right here I wouldn't be able to make it to the high school uh so far they said it does look good on paper uh they did come by to do a site survey um and we have sent them some documents that they've requested uh so you know no official determination yet but that's something um in process um that you know if if they move forward I think that could be very beneficial to the district uh in terms of savings uh since right now you know we we're using we have propane we have diesel um natural gas would obviously be cheaper so um and then the EIP um so that's an energy savings Improvement program um that's something else that we have started exploring um now there was there is currently an esip in place I out the top my head I can't remember the exact year it went in place but uh part of that was the solar field um that is behind actually down there down the hill there's a solar field um so uh um so we're looking at that uh again and basically what that does is kind of top level is instead of budgeting money for the energy you would be utilizing these are all energy saving uh projects you'll be budgeting uh money to pay for those projects uh over a certain number of years um and essentially um it's supposed to keep your budget flat with what they're estimating the energy cost would have been uh but it allows you to do some Capital Improvement projects um so this is one of the Avenues that we're exploring uh to uh potentially uh address some of the roofing issues that we have across the district because as we know roofs are very expensive wut Ridge filtration project water here preconstruction meeting finally 2824 I'm trying to get this done for years pretty much since I got on the board this is the posos the posos ISS isue so we're starting to move on that finally we've had some roof repairs um low PL they're working on the schedule Rolling Hills Walnut Ridge are completed so these are minor roof repairs but you might be looking in the future for substantial roof roring or re re Roofing completely fire alarm system replacement a PO is issued um up wa to update the timeline anticipated that's at the high school sorry um will probably happen after the last day of school obviously we need to keep it working as is while the kids are in school the Ry Hill sewer treatment plant repairs we completed earlier this month um Vernon High School interior stairs schedule repairs to car over spring break the generator at the high school also more repairs forth coming the catch Bacons at the high school and Glen Meadow we're still quoting for the repair and they will also be uncoming that's pretty much for building and grounds in finance budget update is we are working on the B current the budget currently in the beginning stages we be having another finance committee meeting this month to move forward with that and try to meet all our deadlines um business office website was update I uh you give much uh so essentially we've been continuously um updating the business office website um so as you know uh op requests come in uh from the public or questions um things that are public documents that are appropriate I've been trying to put them on the website so they're um more accessible to anyone they may also have those same questions um also I think I mentioned it uh last meeting uh but every so often I'll be doing presentations uh at the meeting uh so the presentation I have done so far that is also up on the business office website if anyone has not seen that yet uh it's just the slide it's not the recorded presentation if you want to see the recorded presentation you can go to the video archive which is also um accessible through the board uh through the district website then that'll cost you extra right okay some other business we sent out rfps for board attorneys we received four responses we interviewed them all the other day the process of picking the final one is still ongoing mostly with checking references and hopefully at the next meeting which I believe is on the 15th will be appointing the board attorney for the following year um that's pretty much much it rounds and finance thank you Mr zman curriculum Miss pellet okay so curriculum uh we met uh February 7th with Charles Sig Maga Joe Sweeny myself denque gastro uh Russ Rogers and Nick lasso uh we talked about the high school class waiting GPA calculation committee um we got an update from them that's Educators and administrators there's no board members on on it um just to hear about the fact that they've met they're discussing considering changes to the waiting of grades and the way GPA is calculated at the high school it's a complicated process so it's not going to be phas in um for at least another year um they're going to put together a timeline and I'll report back on that um the Vernon Township High School scheduling committee also met and they're um they're developing or developed um ah sorry no they built a base goal of what's needed for each department but we're going to change the high school the the uh schedule that we had now is meant to be temporary so they're trying to figure out what will work best for all the Departments um they're going to continue working on that and they hope to have a decision by December of 2024 which will then be implemented in 2025 and 2026 there's also an ad hoc realignment committee uh which has met twice that's made up of parents um administrators and I think Educators uh to explore the possibility of moving grades between buildings including possibly the e8th grade to the high school again discussions are ongoing and will depend partly on our success getting the state Grant to expand the preschool um program um the administration reported that the high school guidance counselors will be meeting with eighth graders um oneon-one to discuss scheduling options for their High School Journey so that's a first and we're really excited about that as a way to help our incoming freshmen um make the most of their High School groups uh Target School status we're happy to report that the state of New Jersey has uh reported that Rolling Hills which had been identified as a Target school in the fall is no longer a Target school um artificial intelligence the committee discussed developing a school policy around artificial intelligence having to do with access and understanding and monitoring the use of it in school as well as teaching it as a tool to our students um the committee also discuss the ongoing evaluation and updating of curriculum in all the schools uh new standards were just introduced by state for math that will need to be addressed in the math curriculum So the plan to roll out the new inov that uh curriculum to grade five will be pushed back a year in order to incorporate those standards um we also discussed Community concerns about the practice of substudy and the need to monitor the ratio of students to subs and Educators and sub studies to ensure a good learning environment for our students um there was an update on the Vex robotics club which has 20 members many of whom are involved in competitions and activities um The District's committed to continuing and growing that program um regarding technology we received an update on a new process for handling the Chromebook fees and fines uh which helps the district Safeguard our investment in those Chromebooks by holding the students accountable for proper use of their Chromebooks um there was there are also plans for a new phone system which we hope to pay for with the stabilization Grant funds if um if they ever decide to announce them that's it thank you Miss pellet liaison this Brock I know that you are the chairperson of of that committee and have given you no guidance going to say it more politely than that but yes um I need a little inst politely than than that or less politely I was just gonna say that I had no updates at the moment and I was waiting for guidance on scope we have to meet with I know that the leaon committee needs to meet with the administration because the Administration has met with the town and has a wealth of news to discuss with us y so Melissa will contact you please contact them set up a date for those of us on the liaison great thank you okay thank you and from what I understand the town is very open to working together yep uh we have essentially met twice so far uh main topics of discussion uh have been shared services uh and essentially ways of the Town School District can work together to the mayor has indicated a number of ways that he thinks we may be able to save money for both the town and the school y that's great for instance even Elizabeth Town Gas it might may provide opportunities for other uh people in neighborhoods along that gas line to the school systems as well and I can also give you um some back I was chair for a hot minute for three months but I have I have some files about things we were trying to get off the ground back then um which is never quite I would really appreciate that thank you thank you um Mr Zimmerman you're up again negotiations the negotiations are about to begin with the vtaa for a new contracts so hopefully that will Begin by the end of the month and we'll be working on that and I'll do the updates and what I can update on as we move forward partnership uh we the partnership committee met today with u all of those members was well attended agenda was short I don't have the agenda on me have it here it is we discussed uh some issues with regards to mold uh concerns although there was no mold present in a couple of the buildings and really it was a nice meeting there was plenty of food and good thank you and the next meeting is in April April 29th okay and uh special services Mrs colani I I need more information I that's my fault okay I have not giving you any guidance and I need to talk to you about that okay and we will meet this week next week uh together you and I and then we'll talk about what gonna do with special service you have a date in mind um you pick I'm available most of the the week avable most of the we Monday Monday we will meet down in the board office you pick a time one one o'clock Monday it's a date Russ will go for you to set up some get an open me thank you thank you Mrs stent life Mr cantino um I do not have anything to report on in regards to student life but I do have something to report on in regards to being disc ESC delegate oh right right Sussex susex County Ed Services Commission Hill Academy so Sussex ESC hired new occupational therapist and a new part-time non-public teacher both will start in mid-February but par professionals continue to be needed um and identified for student support so they're still looking for par professionals if anyone knows par professional they sh buy at Northern Hills um on Monday we had our meeting and the audit was presented um like a regular annual audit the Sussex educational Services Commission is on solid Financial footing um our programs are breaking um breaking even and our sustaining efficient Financial programing um the ERC Charities Gala was held on January 31st at prona farms the gala was a celebration of people and programs that Elite retirement company and susex ESC partner with the 2024 Al for the kids golf outing in May will once again be held to support ERC and their request to continue their generous donations to the Sussex ESC um and lastly staff at Northern Hills Academy has the month of February filled with multiple activities for students linked to Black History Month Chinese New Year celebrating the Year of the Dragon Marty gr the Super Bowl and President's Day um and most importantly our um representative assembly meeting will be held on March 4th which is a very big important meeting of the susex CSC where their um budget will be presented and will be voting on the budget so after March 4th I'll have even more to report back on but that's everything thank you m Mr cantino I appreciate it all right we got a letter H review the public meeting agenda uh the public meeting agenda has been distributed to all the board members anybody have any comments the restorative practices are we going to know what restorative practices presentation is what is what are restorative practices Mrs V will explain the US she's doing for best practices at GL will there be students present I believe who have been fully restored I I know she has faculty members I'll I'll see uh who who she's bringing with her okay all right y i do I have one question about the U well related to next week's uh meeting we have the policies are um I went on our website and I saw the policy bring you over to R uh Strauss um yeah are those our policies or are those just standard ones that Strauss like is that our book like do they keep a separate file of just our policies on that website because it it was confusing are we trying if the the ones that are available for the public should be like our as we update them we send them the stra estimate they'll update them they just post it for us okay oh they're very similar if you go to two schools you'll get you could probably see the nuances on the the couple different concepts that may be changed in some of the policy okay but where did you go Charles it's on our our district website I think it's in the board section they have those are should be our Poli it brings you over to Strauss like it redirects you over to the website you you see it so basically a lot of these policies they're a lot of it is mandatory and there sometimes there's you know certain sections we can update for the other thing with is a I mean that's little sorry you can't download you have to go to one policy at a time no Complete Book I I know that so Mr Sweeny has seen The Complete Book at the board office if you'd like to uh come by book so on on the policies I did review full of policies and I had some questions about it and one of them r i it's we have it in for a second reading and we probably should not we should take it out and it is the p0174 legal services it has to do with who can contact the legal services and we mentioned some some Physicians who can contact the and it doesn't mention the uh head of special services I believe I thought we put that in that in in our last update let me check now we the first reading that we had was not in so if we're gonna change it then we have to new first okay I'll check with Nancy I thought okay I don't think so but if you would would check I check been because the paper copy might have been out for the okay all right um it seems like every month we're going over the school calendar and paid holidays and so forth is it changing did we have a first I think we brought that up at the last board meeting then we're approving it at this the next board meeting no we brought it up at last board meeting I think we're approving that this morning oh okay we we had a discussion about it and now we're approving it I thought we approved the all right I believe approved everyone asked me about why the calendar changed and I explained that June 19 celebrated third Friday of every that's what the Chang made all right anybody else have any questions about the agenda for next next week Mr Rogers I plenty to update you uh next week on uh some great happenings in our school district I've attended many different events uh many sports activities I see many people in the public tonight that I see at the sports activities as well uh honor roll inductions musical events uh I'll be very detailed in my explanation my superintendent before next week as for the the work session uh number one harassment intimidation and bullying random drug testing and school safety reports are in attachment ws1 and number two our enrollment report is attachment WS2 okay item J Mr slam I just mentioned something briefly had been talked about earlier uh but you know we're we're working uh in the budget process but something I just want to note to everyone um and I've mentioned it before uh is we do anticipate another cut in state aid however we won't have that information uh until the end of February uh it's released to us 48 hours after the governor's address uh so I would say the last couple days of February we'll have that final piece of information which will be uh what the state a cut will be for the upcoming year when's the address up the top I can't remember if it's maybe February 26 or 28th so year yeah it's either 26th or 28th I I could follow up and no that's right right comment at the next meeting just be sure we'll know by then yeah okay we're going to open the meeting to the public anybody have anything to say related to schools um G have five minutes meeting is open to the public good evening I'm Heidi L Vernon I just I had no idea I was going to say something but what happened with Jesse paladini what she said I just want to say she's a great asset to the community she has over 2,000 followers and being that there's not much news in the newspaper what really goes on in Veron especially in the school I get a lot of information because she's very knowledgeable she's an in inst investigative journalist and she she presents things that happened and there's other citizens as well that find things out that the board does that that they don't approve or they say why did they do this or why did they do that and then I find out these things and as a taxpayer I'm concerned I don't have kids in the district but I'm concerned about the taxes so when I find out things uh these people that I rely on to help me understand how this works uh they present their um their displeasure I guess or they're they're they're not pleased with the decision as member what you what you do and and how you do it and so when they present it to the board they're not attacking you I don't I never heard Jesse attack anybody and if something was said outside of the board that somebody said she just presents it to the board to say well that's for you to discuss among yourself to be more uh lenient or because there's a lot of pressure on the people paying the high taxes they're very unhappy because every time you turn around it's going up and it's going up and it's frustrating so there's a war of misinformation and disinformation but what Jesse has brought to me and to many others and many other women out there and men who I find that oh my God this has happened that happened the board approved this or this happened and they present it to you to do something about it because as taxpayers we pay your salary so a lot of people get frustrated and it's not attacking you and um I think that she was just presenting something that you need to deal with and maybe perhaps no member should should go on a Facebook and and make comments because it does look like um uh you're defending the whole board or I I don't know how you feel about it but it's becoming um a mishmash of love and hate kind of thing so I'm just just defending that because nobody's attacked me and we're all human beings here and they're unhappy about it you're probably unhappy your hands are tied you have to do things but anyway I just wanted to say that she's not attacking I didn't hear her attack at anybody thank you very much for your just for the record we are not paid we are volunteers I know but we pay the taxes and the decisions that you make affects the taxes we are also tax oh I understand and it's so complicated because I try to understand and numbers I love numbers numbers don't lie but it is so complicated the system the Jersey system because it's it's it just can't be figured out and so everybody's trying to put their brain together trying to work together to to make this work so we're not spending so much money and the people don't want to see wasted dollars and that's what we've been seeing lately is a lot of wasted dollars that uh just weren't done be the previous administrator or or superintendent or whatever but we're on A New Path and I don't believe nobody's attacking anybody there's just a lot of frustration thank you thank you very much can I add something I just want to state that um you know as I've mentioned before I've been trying to update the business office web page but uh if anyone does have questions related to finances and things like that feel free to send me an email as if anyone saw the presentation you probably saw that I enjoy talking about numbers so probably a little too much anybody else thank you very much you have to identify yourself and say what municipality you're from I can do that hi my name is Anne Larsson I'm also from Veron Township um I just wanted to speak a couple of things quickly if I may I don't want to take a lot of time in reference refence to the comments and the word Thug that Miss pallet referenced I take ownership of that I use the word other people here know why I never used it towards you and as far as I know I wasn't referring to that okay okay all right that's good then thank you um and as far as the vote goes for the new person with all due respect it just seems the board is a little heavy with people in Academia maybe we could just have expanded it and let someone else who is not related to a teacher or or a member of the staff on the board the candidate that we selected is not related to anybody's a teacher he's a teacher and that makes two teachers on the board she's an educational consultant may I respond it's more the same it's all from from the perspective of a taxpayer it's more of the same and I'm not being disrespectful there are diversity of thoughts that maybe we're only choosing people that have the same mindset when when we when we choose people to fill seats and so forth there's a whole lot of people in the public public and and as we know the election recently it has consequences okay voices the voices were spoken and um it just feels that we just have an insulated group of of like-minded people that take these positions or or or awarded the positions and others of diverse thought are not participating or not permitted to par participate that's it thank you thank you may I bring up a point yes you may thank you the other two candidates also were connected either through direct paid experience or volunteerism to education so all three candidates were very well versed in the education system I would like to make a comment also I abstained from the vote because I really felt that needed to be somebody regular who wasn't active in the educational system he was a taxpayer for kids in the system thank you that was my to you thank you for doing that for us anybody else hey uh anybody online yes we have Adam paladini okay Mr paladini hello he muted himself okay hello Mr paladini you want to come back to him we have another participant it's just Eloise there's no last name okay Eloise you have to identify your first and last name and what town you're from Hello Eloise we also have hello Eloise right return back to try yeah yeah probably ad him again Mr paladini can you hear me yes I can hear you can you hear me yes thank you you have the floor okay thank you sorry about that I think it was a Bluetooth issue um I I just prepared a statement so that it's short and sweet um I was informed by uh Mark Bry of the high school English Department that it's at the discretion of the Board of Education to schedule summer SAT prep courses therefore I'm asking that this Boe reinstate the summer SAT prep course and not force the spring athletes to Forfeit their spring Sports because the SAT prep course is scheduled at exactly the same time um first you cut our students after school activity buses now you're cutting their Sports and activities entirely for those who need to take the SAT prep what about those athletes who want or need to participate in state championships or for college you're forcing an entire class of athletes that has to Forfeit their junior year of spring Sports I ask that you please reconsider this poor decision and do what's right for the students the students pay for the SAT prep which in turn pays for the teachers giving it please return the ability for our Junior athletes to participate in their Sports and take the SAT prep by either scheduling the summer course or other time that does not conflict with their spring Sports so they can do both thank you very much thank you Mr paladini you Mr Rogers you want to talk about that do you know anything about that I believe when they made cuts to stiens uh they looked at the SAT course I think it runs in the fall and the spring and the least attended was this was the summer I know we charge students a nominal fee um I don't believe I believe it covers approx approximately 25% of the cost of the stien I will reach out to uh the first I I heard of this I will reach out to uh Mrs Young and uh and follow up with the board of that all right please let us know yeah thank you thank you Mr paladini um do we have Eloise back one more time Eloise you have to identify your first and last name and what town you're from me we can uh go to the next is there anybody else okay Jessie paladini okay Mrs paladini you have the floor wait not yet okay okay um oh he's so well spoken that Adam paladini isn't he very well spoken and short too thank you listen you know what I was going to respond to things that Jennifer pellet said before um which were just so not true and inappropriate that she gets the last word after I speak but I'm I'm not even going to address them at this point because I just want to thank Heidi lab for her comments um I want to reiterate what Adam paladini said and um I want to ask you please please Mr Rogers reinstate the summer program I know that the kids pay $150 each to take the SAT program but don't make them forfeit their spring Sports you know um some of these kids are straight A students and um Sports mean a lot to them even though academics are more important we know that academics are more important but sports are an outlet for so many other things please reinstate uh the summer SAT prep courses and don't make these athletes give up their entire Spring sport season I don't know what it cost I I imagine you have teacher Proctors I don't know what it cost to pay them for the three months but I would think that the $150 per student takes a good chunk out of it please reconsider and re State the summer and if we can help in any way I'm glad to do that um monetarily financially if we could help in any way I'm glad to do that please reconsider that's all I want to say thank you thank you Mrs padini May well we have one more George okay Mr nanov I think that's how it's pronounced yep you got it right thank you very much for yeah it's it's a tough last name to uh pronounce so I I appreciate that um I have a question um and it has to do uh with the uh Robotics and the uh and the citizen stems committee uh so I know there's been some uh discussions and we only had one meeting uh and uh I didn't entirely catch uh what the update was whether the committee was going to continue whether it was going to be reset um considering that uh a lot a lot of people uh put a decent amount of effort into uh trying to help the situation so far um you know I I don't want to see all the all the work that we've initially started uh to go to waste so uh I'd appreciate it if uh uh there's an up if you could provide an update on that uh on that committee and uh let the public know whether or not that's going to be moving forward or not I I and if it was and if it was discussed I didn't catch it earlier uh but I would appreciate an update Mr nikonov I believe uh Dr Shep who started the committee it's not a board committee reached out and explained reasons she she's the one that you could reach out to directly I thought you had this discussion with her but uh right now we're we're talking about it within our curriculum committee and uh I think she uh I would talk to her directly about what her thoughts are for the future uh to to have such a committee uh with with people from the public right but I I I I think my my my point is is that uh if there's she she obviously uh wasn't able to continue it uh for reasons and I know that um which I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go into detail on that uh but uh if if she's not able to continue it uh then why are we not looking for another advisor to uh move that forward or can uh can somebody like yourself or another board member potentially step again I don't know exactly what the procedure will be in this situation uh but I I feel like this is a very important committee that needs to uh that needs to continue uh because it is about our kids and uh if we don't straighten out that situation uh we're going to fall further behind so is there any discussion I'll bring in another advisor to run the committee or maybe uh making this more of a of a Boe based committee I I I mean is is there any discussion on that b HW is more of a I think we could talk we did discuss it in curriculum um but there was you know there's difficulty finding an advisor I believe what you is that accurate I I believe she had detailed discussions with people in the committee about why um she was looking forward to continuing uh similar efforts next year and we rolled a lot of the discussion because of the amount of work everyone is involved with right now into the curriculum committee and I think we had similar discussion to some extent discussion there as well yeah so I just have the one message uh so uh I would I I think maybe it would be a good idea to reach out to the uh citizens that volunteered uh and let them know because I only have one a oneline explanation on I believe future plans yeah I I I have not I've only received one uh one response back did you have discussion did you have a discussion with individual as well I did not okay uh I I all I know is uh the oneliner that was sent so uh I I think it makes sense for myself as well as any other citizen citizen that volunteer for that committee to uh to get a full a deeper explanation on on why I mean considering considering uh you know how people like myself and uh many others put time and effort into uh into trying to volunteer and help the situation uh you know we talk about people we would talk about volunteers and I've been no stranger to uh you know previous uh previous criticism uh which borders on defamation from a from a speaker uh on on this board or that that speaks during this public comment uh I believe that the citizens that volunteered are owed an explanation a full explanation as to why Beyond uh Beyond uh some a couple of emails so I would appreciate that okay thank you Mr conov we will see if we can get that for you appreciate that thank you thank you have a good night you too and thank you for your service I appreciate all of your uh volunteer service thank you and thank you for your volunteer service on the committee appreciate that um anybody else uh we have Martin peringer okay Mr peringer all right can you hear me now I can hear you now yes good uh I want to Second what George nikonov just said uh I'm fully in support support of what he does here I also would like to urge everybody including the school administration to fact check what certain members of the public claim other certain members of the public did and as for robotics well there are some Ron kids who are building on the team 9713 a robot right now and we will compete uh in the first week of March unfortunately not in New Jersey but in the um in the New York league and we had a very successful uh showing in the offseason events in North brck so there's and it looks like some two at least two of the seniors will get some significant Scholarships in the five figure range because of it so there is life after 1989 death thank you thank you very much that's it okay I'm gonna close the meeting to the public and item L is open board member Forum I have uh one hand raised and that is Mr John Krauss can I ask a question what does the summer SAT prep course cost us does it cost us a lot of money I'd have to look at those stiens uh it I I present that information that was presented last year when we talked about stiens as a group and and because they make a valid argument that we they really should have a summer program well we have a we have we have a fall we haveing I get that I was the one I was the one that put forward the summer program because of the summer SATs as well um I think we're looking at how many students we served I like I as I said before I will talk to uh Mrs Young and I'll give you the breakdown of how much it costs for us to run versus how many students uh attend as well um and and I'll give you I'll give you just like we did last year when we went through all the sitiens I'll give you that information there possibly a way to do it if you can't if summer is more expensive could could there be a way to work it into those block lunches or do it you know in a way that willon conflict with these students um practice times and game times I mean do we have any no okay you're no no I'll have that discussion I believe I'm just saying it doesn't Happ I believe I believe I've had similar like I like I said I think we went through a to a fall and a spring depending on but but again I know some people are multiport athletes we did go through a summer so I I would love to give you the numbers on how many kids actually participated the cost and and I'll give you that detail that's the same detail I did I gave everyone last year when we discussed uh stiens Staffing this and there was a point of time when it was scheduled during the day that there was an actual SAT prep class well that's another thing I mean we have a lot of the a lot of kids have study halls so or or what happened with the gym if they're an athlete they don't have to maybe like is there a way to work it that would be a discussion in budget that we're I'm having shortly when Mr um we're talking about the summer sorry isn't bathroom that is something I wanted to bring up too I've had a bunch of parents tell me that this is something that's bothering them because they children Sports and time conflict um but like Jen was saying is there any way that we could do it look yeah want to make sure it's on the record that I care about yeah like I said we discussed that last year when we discussed budget there'll be similar discussion with budget as well and I'll give you all the details on the cost number of students and I'll follow up with uh teachers as well with some of the other ideas which I believe we have discussion with as before can we have that next meeting yes I will try to get those thank as part of that can you also um tell us how many kids took it in the summer for the last couple years because I do remember that it was not that's what I wanted to that's what I yeah I I do remember that but I don't remember exactly how took the course or took the SATs took the course the SAT the course the course because I you know remember people being concerned it would fill up and they were like no it's not filling up well that was part that was part of the discussion on how many kids and how much time and effort I think every right right because if we are going to run it we need to get it filled up it needs to justify itself you I think that was part of the discussion we had last year as well that's maybe about promoting it as well when you say numbers you're also going to get the numbers for the fall this year and how many signed up for the spring yes I'll get you I'll get you this year's fall in Spring and last year summer or it might be this year summer depending look at it did we have fall and spring last year as well yes it could be the reason the summer didn't fill up is because the kids were forced into the spring one no we had and then had to give up their sports that's that's I'm just looking at the other side of wait we had summer last summer didn't we yes okay oh we had the summer option I'm sorry last summer all right PA spring I'll give you numbers costs and everything for the next meeting also I just heard somebody say that it once during the school year that they had it during classes what point in time they did yes and why was that stuff good question I don't know I was on the board at the time did they did they do anything like I remember a while ago but I used we used to do some in English class they used to give us a part of the curriculum is there anything in the curriculum to help them to focus on that the subject area so like know like English W be teaching math but English say how do you take the test that was the SE several years ago and this is I'll be honest with you this is why we instituted all all sophomores and juniors taking the PSATs once you take those PSATs you could log in and there's all different programs and I and I have a little tutorial Academy program is amazing you can download your PSAT results into the Con Academy to give you study sessions based on what you don't know and not what you already know so it could it could take your sat studying process and streamline it to based on based on where your where your deficiencies are and you can link it to KH Academy and they then walk you through learning the things that you didn't get right see it's pretty cool I do think that that's awesome but I also do understand why some students really benefit from the SAT prep program because they have someone there to help them whereas a program like KH Academy self-driven self-driven it has to be self-driven for me even when I was in school self-discipline was not something I was very good at so I did need someone to help me a little bit and having the teacher there to guide me help me a lot something like Con Academy I never really had a great time and they tell you the little tricks too there's some little tricks okay John did you did was your issue addressed yes it was but I have another one you're welcome to continue some what not this curricular good sorry I missed it but the one previous or one before that we talked about possibly bringing the RTC program into our school district and then miss Shep got back to me and said it was cost prohibitive because the school district have to pay for half of it but I recently found out that there are sip codes through the Perkins grant that will pay for that um so I'm just wondering if we could pay for RC through Perkins grant money through a sip code if we got kids in and then start an RC program here at this they I believe the military brings them in yeah they they run those things yeah because I know in my school we have the Marines RC and they have gun res sergeants there that that are teachers that run the program that would be great yeah have to contact them and then uh I didn't put same yeah because I I don't I I don't think we would have to pay the half that they asked for if the Perkins Grant can do it right good job John research are you I'm done now go ahead you okay yeah setting the timer okay yeah go for it I can't talk for all that long anyway um so I'm sorry that uh Heidi I think it was the Bri left because she mentioned something that I've actually been very concerned about which is that Facebook is where people get their news is what she was making the point that you know it's so valuable in terms of a news outlet and that's where they get their District news but we as a board are not on Facebook and um other than you know my occasional inapp attempts to correct things that I thought were you know misstated or whatever I I think we have to start considering figuring out a way to get our our information out so that it's not uh represented by other people who may not put it forward in the way that we want to put it forward I'm trying not to say that I don't feel like it's accurate but I I don't feel like it's always accurate um she did refer to misinformation and disinformation um if it's coming straight from us as opposed to through a filter then at least we're getting you know judged for what we say and do and not what other people say that we say and do um and then also at a recent uh Sussex County board meeting um the New Jersey school board Association vice president for legislation and resolutions Shanta Jackson said you have to quote you have to meet families where they are if you are not on social media as a district you are not meeting them where they are if you are not there someone else is telling your story and they may not be telling it accurately the control your narrative is of utmost importance so I just would like to ask everybody like how do we do this because we we feel misunderstood I know most of us feel misunderstood and mischaracterized so what can we be doing better so that people are hearing what we're doing from us and hearing accurately what what we're trying to do and and don't have these negative perceptions that um they have well I know that each school has principal blog right there there's blogs uh there's social media posts of different schools as well to get our get our narrative out and tell people what's going on in the schools we try to bring in presentations here um we're I think we're going to have uh uh in the near future in a couple months we'll have a curriculum presentations uh we'll talk about what's going it's not going to be on social media that's all here what happens here does not it's I I don't it is some of the things are on social media I'm not trying to criticize we have we have a website with with information um um they reach out to us and we we get back to them especially if they direct us directly um um I I believe in the chain of command we have at the school district and and we have very attentive uh principles Etc but when people take a a document and and they start asking questions about it without any background um I don't have the time to leas social media or Facebook um I do believe in in my my general statement that I said before about being kind to each other and working together instead of jumping to conclusions I think if we did that a lot we wouldn't see a lot of uh certain posts on on social media but a lot of people will will jump to conclusions um and and what I said in my statement it it's like I I do believe in being kind to each other um I I do address I do believe in civil discourse but it needs to be civil and and and discourse isn't going back and forth in in the social media post yeah I'm not suggesting that I'm saying I guess I'm wondering should we do should we try to get sort of like summaries highlights and you know issue something as a board and I'm not putting it entirely on on I mean I think we're doing that as a district with with a lot of our principal blogs they're quite extensive they talk a lot about what's going on in the schools I think I'm talking more about at the board because it's the board and our it's not I'm not really talking about you Mr Rogers I'm talking about us because we're the ones getting you know oh what are they doing and why are you know and so I I think I think our our meetings are not no no one's watch like not no one so sorry guys I know you're watching but a lot of people watch a lot more people I mean she said it two she said 2,000 people are on that page I don't see 2,000 people at our meetings so if we want to reach people with what we're doing and accurately what we're doing I don't know I feel like we almost need you know not a press release but like we need some way of communicating highlights so that people aren't we're not saying hey you have to watch this three-hour meeting to find out what we're really doing and saying you know there's got to be a way that we can get our our story out as a as a board a little bit better is that crazy I mean part of my frustration with it is most of the answers as a board we can't answer I don't know what narrative would change can't talk about Personnel we can't talk about students it's a whole host of things we cannot talk about so they ask questions about it they make up their narratives take parts of documents whatever and we just can't answer it that to me is the frustrating B because you know when you take part of the story you can make any narrative you want about anything because you're only focusing on a part you get the whole picture you know I mean the people on the board we all live here we all know people here you know we're just not like some aliens from another place of nothing that goes on here but we make decisions at a time with the information that we have at that time to come back 6 months two years two weeks later to try to pick it apart is very easy try to defend it later is the hard part when you can't really answer and that's part of the reason you know three people for a seat two people for seat the bare minimum running I that's the frustrating part you can't answer the questions and for the most part they know it yeah so you know I do want to Echo some of what you said and what Jen said when I was growing up my mother worked for Strauss news and just working at the General Store I see all the local newspapers come in we used to have a Vernon we used to have the advertiser used to be even more active we have a report of present at board meetings we would I've only ever seen a reporter here maybe a handful of times and just look at the New Jersey heral after they were bought out by ganette it's like they don't report on anything local so I really do hear what you're saying and what Heidi was saying that there is a vacuum of local news and Vernon has a lot of Facebook groups I'm not talking about anyone in particular but that's where most people are getting their information from and I do think our board does have a PR problem sometimes where it's hard for us to get a message out and get a message out concisely and I understand why the public would be confused or feel like we're not being transparent I do think we could do a better job with PR sometimes um I don't know exactly how to do that I'm not a PR expert none of us are but I think acknowledging that it's a problem is the first step in changing it I mean so one of the things that we have not done and I was kind of waiting for nine members to be to be a full board is to establish goals yes board goal and maybe after we get our nth member we can sit down and make that uh one of our goals and sit down and Hammer out how we achieve a a better online uh profil and I can already think about who I would name as chairperson no kid k um as Val you're absolutely right and you guys have anything to say about it uh I just wanted to add that one of the comments earlier that you know the financials are hard to understand and I I completely understand that school financials are completely different than you know your what your household budget would be or even Private Industry financials um so I do receive a lot of V requests as I think everyone knows I think we're up to 124 since July uh since July yeah 124 um so I do take a lot of time to answer those opal requests and I do try to provide that information as quickly as possible um so but I don't know if when I provide those answers whether my answers are also making it on to social media because I do try to provide information I think would help people understand the financials um but you know apart from that you know I am going to try to continue to do some of those presentations as I mentioned obviously the next big presentation is going to be on the budget um but I just want add that you know trying to try I understand that not understand the F I'm try not talking about you I'm talking about us because you're doing you know the very fact that you have to answer these opras is partly because people have questions about things we did and if maybe we had communicated somehow more effectively they wouldn't have the questions in the first place and you would be getting the opras you know what I mean so so it's you know I'm just coming I want to try to help yeah no no I appreciate that I appreciate that but I just want to be clear I'm not not saying oh this is a problem you guys have to fix it I feel like it's you know I feel like it's something we have you know the board has to figure out a way and I think we've been hampered by the fact that we think oh we're not allowed oh we're illegal like what R said we do and I and I agree with him there are a lot of things we can't talk about but there are things we can talk about and we talk about them here and we sort of assume the The World At Large you know is hearing us but they're not and and a good example is you know what I feel a big part of that um parena got demand for the fens of audit was the the non-renewals of the teachers which we felt like we talked about talked about talked about all year but it came as a complete shock to the community and we weren't surprised because we've been talking about it at meetings but about the money and the this and that we and you know we even said that there would be people non-renewed and and nobody know knew that nobody heard us because we're just here and and it's only if you get on social media and you get you know people people just aren't M you're not taking notes on you know our meetings and there's no reporter and there's no headlines and and so we I just feel like somehow we have to do a better job of getting in front of the message so that they're not reacting to something and don't understand why it happened because we never told we never brought them with us on our journey you know we have this finan we lost 10 million not lost I'm sorry our funds were cut by $10 million and somehow you know we're all sitting like oh my gosh what are we going to cut what are we going to do and nobody really really came along that Journey with us so it when the cuts happened they were just blown away so you know why why why where' the money go you know I agree with you right I mean I think the board we have experienced this we understand that our social profile needs work right well so yeah that's what I'm G to yeah yeah no I'm sorry I just I just want to make it clear it's not I'm not trying to say you guys need to do better I'm saying we need r r f listen well listen we've been we've been trying to be as I think we almost every I think like you said people aren't watching the board meetings all the time but we tried to be as transparent as possible where we are last year when we found out early in the year where we are we talked about the we talked about the 8.9 Millions we talked about what was going to happen I was as transparent as possible with with the with the um that you could employees and and we did things earlier than most other schools to give them an opportunity to find other jobs and was interviewed by many sorry if we had had a local newspaper reporter sitting in the audience the next day there would have been a big headline with what you said but there wasn't that and so that that's that's the that's the disconnect you know I was interviewed by Star Ledger uh I some of the other papers I could I know if if you want me to get that information out another way talking about the board listen it's my responsibility and my job to help be transparent and get information out to the public and you have been you have absolutely have just Mr cantino yes closing this out um I do think in the future something we could do is look at and this is referencing the New Jersey school boards association meeting we went to we should look at districts that have a really good repar with the community and who have a really good PR system between their board and the public see what they're doing maybe they have a relationship with the press or something I don't know I don't have exper in but I think like you said setting it as a board pool I think that's an excellent idea thank you thank you so U you don't have the floor charl I just want to I'm listening to everything you you everyone's been saying and I just a couple things come to my mind I'm not I'm not everybody knows I'm not a big social media person on the board because I have no CL whatever happens on social media um but I don't know if that could be the the solution anyway just because I don't think you can have it back and forth the discussion needs to take place here with the public and we can't have a separate meeting outside of of here so it would just be kind of what Russ is saying we we're posting stuff we're being redundant and just put it in another spot maybe you can make it prettier right you can make it a little nicer and so it but I think a lot of the problems is you hear it at the meetings we're we we know the answers a lot of times we have our committees we we we have discussions um sometimes in you know ones that we can't talk about because you know they're Personnel or or student related and then we have other discussions in our committees and we come out here and we do a brief little uh summary and I'm not trying to take away from anybody who did a summary today but we do a brief summary um and we expect the public to know and we don't ask the questions that they they can't always ask the questions that they want to hear and and sometimes we know what the questions are or we heard it but we're not asking that because we we know it we assume everybody else has know it like you know like when you know especially with Ray with his budget you're like you know like somebody's got to say Ray what what what do you mean I don't know what what you what does that number mean and and break it down because that's what the Public's looking for they just want to know they H have an answer and another thing I don't think we do very well is we have we do a lot of projects right we and we talk sometimes we talk about the good ones right but sometimes you know I hate this word but you know we don't do those postmortem right we don't do those reports and say you know what we made a decision last year it wasn't that good what can we learn from that decision and we talk about it in the public because they now we've being more transparent now they see hey these guys actually put thought into this and they they're trying to improve for the next time we all make mistakes and we all try to do what's best for the district and it doesn't always work out that way so we need need to also talk about that and you know maybe the combination where you put the summary on on on social media might work but I think just the mediate the public hearing us talk about things would be a little instead of a postm would be an assessment assessment right yeah that's a better word assessment of decisions in my field we call it a psychological autopsy okay well still pretty pretty okay sorry I didn't see a hand rais uh is there going to be a way that we can find out why the sh programs were taken out of the class and maybe think about going back into that we're going to give some time to do some research okay another thing too um the reports the financial reports to me is um not a taxpayer friendly I've never liked them from the days I laid eyes on them because I don't see a proper organization why can't it be done by school and and in categories within the school and this you're hunting and pecking to see what's going on where so the board secretary report and treasures report those are uh kind of set formats they come right out of the software and we're required to submit certain inform software be modified they cannot it is uh systems 3000 um you know it's the software that's provided the board secretary's board across even different softwares are pretty much exactly the same because it meets what the state wants at the bank true uh but uh one of the ideas for a presentation which obviously budget takes front seat at this point in time uh would be a presentation where I could go over those reports that would be a great idea because we have new board members and they don't have the experience of dealing with but you had some quotes about the accounting at schools is like totally different than any if you br your home or your business like public school Accounting in New Jersey you'd be out of business and homeless certainly within one year thank you but somehow we got to manage it because the state doesn't care it's a much butic garbage ask me well thank you I was just about to ask no but uh maybe after the budget presentation which is in March and April right yes there's a preliminary will be in March uh the final will be in April that's the April is technically the Public Presentation right but the March will be the preliminary so but maybe Elaine could sit down with Ray in the meantime he has a wealth of knowledge you know you see that he's available I've budgets before in reports and let me tell you the corporate guys they have their education but they want to be able to see it one two three and these formats don't give you it's not Gap it's not Gap approved that's for sure it is it is Gap it's schools New Jersey schools we got but yes the four mag I'm sorry Lane do you have anything else you would like to bring up no that's all for now anybody else um thank you very much everybody thank you congratulations M congratulations look forward to uh your serving with us um motion to ajour don't moveo motion raise a second sorry mostly you too late all in favor meeting is adjourned thank you everybody thank you right