##VIDEO ID:iq5WhNkqrI0## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e hey good evening uh tonight Vernon Township Board of Education Thursday September 19th public meeting call the meeting to order and have a roll call Mr slam Miss Ahern here miss Brock here Mr samaga Mr cantino Mr Krauss here miss pellet here Dr Ross here Mr Sweeny here Mr Zimmerman here we have airum okay is recommended the board enter into close session for the purposes of discussing legal personnel and student matters I have a motion please so moved moved by Mr Krauss second second second by Miss Brock all in favor opposed we are in closed session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay all right is recommended that the board return to open session may I have a motion please so move move by Mr Kraft second second second by Dr Ross all in favor I I okay we are in Open Session may I have a roll call Mr Slam please miss aern here Miss Brock here Mr sagia Mr cantino Mr Krauss here miss pellet here Dr Ross here Mr Sweeney here Mr Zimmerman here we have a qu okay could you please join me and rise and recite the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Liberty Justice thank you Mr slam a reading of the meeting notices the New Jersey open public meetings law 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 buron Township Board of Education has caused notice this meeting to be published inadequate notice has been provided and notice this meeting has been properly posted in accordance with the New Jersey open public meeting law just a couple of notes our next work session is Thursday October 10th and our next public meeting is Thursday October 17th thank you Mr slam item G presentation we are having a facilities update by Mr Joe vankirk and Mr Ray slam or are kindly I like to uh like to refer to it as what I did on my summer vacation Mr slam and Mr vankirk do we need to move e mhm [Music] good evening everybody uh we just want to give um hopefully not too long update on facilities we have a lot of good information a lot of progress uh being made over the summer um close to the mic is that better yeah okay uh so as I was saying I'm gonna give an update on uh facilities a lot of progress made over the summer um a lot of projects still uh ongoing throughout the year um obviously with the projects throughout the year um it's a little more difficult uh but we want to make sure we schedule that those projects at times where it's not going to um you know interfere with class time uh in terms of noise and and those sorts of situations so we just want to be careful about that uh but I I have myself uh and then also Mr Joe Van Kirk our director of facilities uh is here with me tonight uh so right here we have a list of uh completed projects over the summer um yeah so generally what I do any presentation uh that I complete I'll put under the business office page uh there'll be a business office presentation portion of the website yep it'll be right where um the prior budget presentations any presentation I've done up until this point and there'll actually be a link at the end as well uh so uh we have a list of completed projects here uh so we have done a lot of work the team has done a lot of work um on Walnut Ridge in terms of plumbing and door installation um we're making a lot of changes there um which we hope we'll pay dividends uh later on this year uh we have the replacement of uh a split unit at the high school uh we have uh some long overdue sewage treatment plant tank cleaning that occurred we had some abatement at Walnut Ridge uh in one of the rooms and also in the kitchen uh we had access points um which shout out to to it uh they done a great job there uh at Glen Meadow and Rolling Hills uh important to make sure our students have connectivity in the classrooms so we also have uh sidewalk safety repairs that occurred at the high school um those aren't Replacements what that that would entail would be uh if you have slabs that are you know crooked trip hazards things like that uh they go in and they make those repairs just to ensure that our walkways are safe for students uh we also had an issue with the chem chemical storage tank at glam metto uh which was repaired uh we were able to do the Glo full repaving and restripe um I know if anyone recalls from the presentation back during the budget but initially uh we thought that was going to be a partial repave uh which would have included just a resal of the other portions of the parking lot uh with a restrip however through working with the town engineer uh we were able to coordinate the timing of the district's project with Paving uh that is occurring throughout the town over the summer which allowed us to take advantage of a Cooperative that we're already a part of uh but generally uh our project wouldn't have been large enough uh to entice the company to come out just for a parking line so basically since the town was doing all this resurfacing of roads they had their equipment up here already they said sure we'll hit the parking lot while we're up here uh so that was actually very beneficial uh probably saved I'd say say roughly about $80,000 um in addition to the fact that we got additional work completed a full repave rather than a qual uh so a lot of benefit there and something that we'll look at um each year as we have any Paving projects to see if we can coordinate further that also allowed us to include a partial repave for the high school uh we save some funds there as well um those savings will end up going towards most likely the Rolling Hills uh fire alarm system replacement which I anticipate uh will be higher uh than initially estimated by the prior architect uh we also did a little bit of curving and some sidewalk replacement again not a full replacement but partial replacement in certain parts of the athletic um area of the high school uh again just uh for safety reasons and another thing I want to mention uh with the paving and it's something that I think gets overlooked a lot but when you have Paving and sidewalks that are trip hazards right you have big potholes that can cause accidents those are liabilities for the district and not only do we want to keep our students and staff safe uh or visitors to our ground safe we also want to protect the district um from our financial harm in terms of liability and lawsuits uh we have a repair at Glen Meadow um so there was I believe some leaking issues there uh which ended up actually being an issue tied back to the masonary so we had to have repair of the roof and the masonary uh right in that same area and then we have a buman uh management system upgrade which is completed as well so it's been busy um we had some other tasks uh we did uh if you've been tuning in we did have an architect RFP um which is why we have a new architect of record at this point in time uh we had a complete flipping of the walnart ridge school um which I just want to mention uh so do a maintenance uh and obviously Joe leading the efforts Mr R Kirk leading the efforts there that was a very big move um the entire building was basically flipped uh the reason that was done uh had to do with the sze of the rooms um and requirements for the preschool expansion application related to square footage so the end of the building that um the preschool was located in the rooms were too small and wouldn't have qualified um for the waiver whereas the other end there were a significant number of rooms that would have been large enough for that waiver so we made that move um as part of the effort to apply for those funds as part of that uh the CST team also moved the loun hollow so we had two very big moves over the summer in addition to the normal summer cleaning and building preparation uh which obviously that takes a lot of time and work each year as well um and then also we had small in-house project I wanted to mention and there'll actually be a picture of that in a couple couple slides um which is just the cosmetology building floor repair and I'll pass it over to Mr MK if you want to talk a little bit about the pictures and any and anything I may have missed about the projects yeah um the the first picture is the um uh posos remediation project we did those are the new um filters um that were installed to uh remove the posos um you know and then uh moving over to Glen Meadow you can see um on the roof where they did the actual roof repairs and you can see uh the new the lighter color brick um where they replace the B brick and they put in um the weep holes to get the water between the block and the brick um out and now um we're moving to our repaving and restriping at Glen Meadow and the athletic portion at the high school and in the uh uh first picture you can see where um the sidewalk um was replaced where the uh crosswalk is so you know to create the uh handicaped um ramp to go out towards the field and this is the uh project the uh maintenance apartment did inhouse um the uh floor was um a little spongy so we had to uh um the uh the crew cut it out replaced it and um we matched um the laminate floor that was in the rest of the cosmo building um when we finished up the project so we had a long list of completed projects uh this is our list of projects in progress uh which you'll see I forgot the number off time I had but it probably six maybe 16 or 17 completed projects and probably low 20s in terms of additional projects we still have in progress uh now some of these projects are in progress just because as I mentioned before we want to make sure we schedule them at the the right time of the year in terms of class occurring right we we don't have a noisy atmosphere or an unsafe atmosphere uh so we have Walnut Ridge uh Ridge Water felation um so you saw the picture the P filtration is working correctly uh we have had our system passed by the state uh but there is a pressure issue with the system so we have um a vendor coming out to look at the well uh to do an output analysis to see if we can solve those issues um so essentially well the P5 filtration itself is working correctly however our filters are being smashed to the pressure right so we're just replacing the filters but we don't want to live a life of constantly replacing filters so we want to make sure we get to the bottom of that um and put a correction in place um so Glenn Meadow Rolling Hills lur Hollow and the high school we have fire door replacement um now the big lag on that is delivery of the actual doors initially we were told six to 10 weeks it's been past 10 weeks um it would have been optimistic I think for six to 10 weeks I kind of we kind of knew that going into it uh doors have a very long uh lead time especially fire doors so that's something that as we get those in we'll be working with the vendor to find the right times uh to not interrupt class um to have those installed in the buildings and that relates back to um a walkth through that occurred in lsbury uh you remember when that happened was the walk with the fire inspector February uh last back in February so we have the High School tennis court repair um so we're anticipating that to be complete at either the end of September early October say September end of September uh that's ongoing right now we have a couple pictures on on one of the following slides uh Rolling Hills additional parking sail coat and restripe uh so that's scheduled for Spring Break um that is just some maintenance of the pavement and then some additional parking just because we know there are obviously issues at rolling H with parking so we're trying to do our best to address that and in efficient Financial way um cosmetology building ramp ster replacement that's also uh scheduled for Spring Break um that to me again as you'll see with a lot of these lot of safety uh issues uh so we want to make sure that that gets taken care of uh we have the Rolling Hills full firearm replacement uh so we're working this schedule that um I think end of June will be best just because of how extensive the project would be uh we're going to work with our architect on that uh and we're most likely going to go to bed with that instead of going to co up uh but we're going to see as the plan develops uh which makes the most sense for the district uh we have the retaining wall up at the high school that needs to be repaired that's scheduled to start uh November 7th I believe that is teachers teachers convention so we're trying to be creative and seeing when class won't be in session to get some of these items done uh so the Glo SDA window project uh so that project we're actually going to continue working with the prior architect on um and that's because they had already developed all the P work up until bid uh so to then transition that to the new architect will cost the district additional funds uh to me it wouldn't make sense to do that that that wouldn't be an efficient use of funds um so we also have the high school fire pump project uh so that one we've gone to bid I believe two times uh with no bids at this point um so we're transitioning that project the USA Architects uh their Engineers going to come out on site to review uh on the September 24th um just to see if there's something needs to be changed for the bid specs whether it's specs themselves a fresh set of eyes on it um the difference between this one and the last one is the fact that there's multiple no bids uh that's really the reason that I'm transitioning that one uh just because it's something we need to get addressed and timeliness is a is a concern uh just because that's related to um a walk through obviously it's a safety issue as well uh Cedar Mountain Sears and uh retaining War replacement it's also scheduled for spring break uh we have the warart ridge front entrance reconfiguration security resle um so we actually there's actually a quick update on that we got a ice proposal and there you'll see there's an addendum tonight uh for a withdrawal from cap Reserve uh related to that things change fast uh so we have been waiting for that for about a week and it just came in last minute so uh I'm glad we're able to make some more progress on that uh so this is a pretty big item right here uh so this is the Energy savings Improvement program the EIP um we've been talking about this a little bit probably I would say the last few months at least um so we're continuing to make progress there um we've had the lgaa which is local government uh walkth through and the IG sorry the local government energy audit and the IG which is the investment create audit those walkthroughs are completed um the district and Honeywell has reached out to Elizabeth natural gas uh we're trying to get update on whether they've completed their analysis and have made a determination regarding whether they're going to run natural gas cents to the schools there's no update yet on that every time we asked they to say that I think the last update was it's with the residential side uh and I they are contacting uh residents of the town to see what interest there be on that side so I guess that's part of their analysis of whether that investment uh is worth it for them uh in terms of extending those uh guas lines the hope of that would be obviously if we're able to switch to Natural Gas there quite a bit of savings there uh which could go into the esip uh and give us more flexibility to get some of those energy projects completed so as of right now we're looking at Mid October uh for a finalization of the energy saving measures uh has been working on that um so that's the latest information there I did meet with the uh Bond Council and Municipal advisor this week excuse me and uh that meeting went well we're going to follow up again um early October and we'll be able to know we'll know more about how we're going to move forward that based off of when we get the uh energy saving measures in the timing of the completion of that report because that's going to be important for the next step which would be to talk about our pro pro process moving forward in terms of whether we're looking at a um Power purchase agreement with solar that that'll be incorporated as part of the esip um and then also the timing in terms terms of uh going to market for a bond and just for anyone that may not have uh seen information on this in Prior meetings essentially the way EIP works is they look at Energy savings um throughout the district uh they look at what that savings would be um in each budget year in terms of utilities and then you would then budget those savings towards a payment towards a bond rather than towards the ACT ual utility company so it's supposed to be neutral at the very least neutral on your budget if not cash flow positive depending on how it's structured U but those savings would be used to pay for the bond which is different than a referendum where there's uh Debt Service issued and an increase uh couple additional items here so we have the updated facilities wide assessment uh so right now we're waiting on a proposal proposal from USA architects uh they came on board we're getting up the speed on a number of our projects so been throwing all lot their way uh but I'll be excited for that because that assessment will also um so it'll be facility wise assessment of the entire District it'll be an update to our long-range facility plan uh it'll include an assessment of the envelope of our buildings uh our major systems um our grounds and the purpose is to provide a plan that that includes information on priority in terms of how much life different systems have how much life different aspects of our envelope have so that way we can look at that and use that to plan out and budget how we can address those issues in a timely matter um before they become critical so it's basically a guide map to maybe like the next five maybe a little bit longer 10 between five to 10 years I would say uh of projects depending on what that assessment bring us back and what the issues are uh door access controls so that's something uh that's currently being researched uh between um it and um Mr vankirk uh and we're looking into what options there would be for that system and what would best integrate with some of our other systems uh lsbury uh room 11819 uh so we're exploring the ability to maybe add that as part of our esip um since it's related eny could be something we get into the esip we also have kitchen renovations um at all schools um that's through fun 60 so fund 60 is a separate fund that is only for food service so those revenues from Food Service can only you be used to improve aspects related to food food service uh there's actually a form um from the Department of Agriculture with acceptable uses um and you're it's very strictly regulated so for example when I talk about there's a balance in fun 60 um that can only be used towards Food Service no other aspect of the district can be addressed through fun 60 so we're working on having a big PID package created for that um and we're looking to essentially try to do equipment upgrades uh at each kitchen and each building uh and then we have the high school firearm replacement um that project is going longer than anticipated uh so right now we're hoping for early October um but there are some ongoing issues with that um and I'm currently in negotiations um on a changeover so more information to come on that as that develops uh here are a couple pictures of the uh tennis courts in progress um they have done um they started on the uh back set of Courts um and they are working their way out uh worked with uh Mr Foley on um you know coordinating this with our tennis team so we can uh get this done yeah and the real concern here is this is a an issue that has been repaired and I think I think the cracks were filled in the past is that yeah so essentially it's it's getting to the point um where the concern was that may be deemed an unsafe planing surface which obviously then we wouldn't have anywhere for tennis teams to play um we we we don't want to have it on safe surface um so uh these repairs here are more uh extensive than what has happened in the past uh and should have a add a um more life to the playing service I guess the best way to to phrase it um once it's completed you can kind of see the two pictures on the left are kind of what was done in the past the right uh with the MH is what's being done now um and then once that patching is complete um the surfaces will be repainted and restriped which I believe they started repainting I think two of the ports this week correct so hopeful that that'll be completed soon hopefully the weather holds up um so just another task that's in progress so uh we're looking at we are putting together a Wastewater and poble Water Management Services RFP uh so I'm currently creating those documents with Mr vankirk um hoping to release that I'd say Pro hopefully prior to the end of September um that's that's the goal and I'll keep everyone updated on that as well uh so we did put uh one project on hold that's the water he replacement at the high school um and I guess technically kind of falls into the category of one of the other projects I mentioned we're trying to see if that can be included in the EIP because obviously if we're replacing water heaters there's going to be Energy savings related to that and the more energy savings we can build into that esip the more that we can do uh in terms of improvement to the buildings because they use that total energy saving as part of the calculation uh to see uh what size of a project you would be able to finance through those savings um over that the time period of that Bond um and then we had this one uh the high school generator uh replacement so those funds are reassigned again those right now it's anticipated that the Rolling Hills fire alarms going be more expensive than anticipated um the initial estimate was from a prior facilities wide assessment um and when speaking with the vendor uh their vendor estimate not their proposal because we haven't received a proposal on it was significantly higher so in anticipation of that uh we did have a caterpillar um certified vendor come out um they identified uh a repair to the main seal that could be completed and based off of their analysis uh they feel that there is additional service life remaining and it didn't need to be replaced at this time so the plan then is to transfer those funds to that fire alarm project to be able to try to fund that um and we'll see again with the bid process it it depends on how much competition you have uh but hopefully the pricing through a bid process would be more beneficial than the estimate that we received so far but you have to prepare for the worst case scenario uh so just kind of a throwback to the revised budget presentation uh I actually took this chart right here right off of that presentation just so everyone can see what was included in the revised budget uh and what it status is um they were all talked about on the prior slides but I thought there was some basically benefit to having all one place for the items that were in the advise budget just kind of seeing where they were um so you'll see as I mentioned before the items that are in progress complete uh or on hold or funds reassigned so in terms of the in progress some of the items like the fire doors we're waiting for the doors to arrive um some of the other items are scheduled already but we're waiting for the that you know spring break or the end of the school year when it's not going to interrup classrooms um so just varying levels of in progress there uh so this is the other uh portion of the revised budget um that was incorporated as was part of that revised budget uh you'll see the the 16 teachers R class size and support students you'll see the increased security Staffing uh you'll see the two restored additional counseling staff to support mental students mental health um skilled maintenance position uh high school lus and then a few senss and all those have been Incorporated and then uh as mentioned uh earlier based off of a question uh this will be on the district website it'll be under the business office page and then you just look under business office presentations uh and I'll have that uploaded uh tomorrow that's also we'll see any other presentations we've done as well if you want to go back and um listen to me talk more they're also on YouTube uh does any one any board members have any questions or I do um the door access controls what what is the purpose of of looking is there something wrong with the current controls is that for all of our buildings is that an upgrade or a repair or Joe wants to our our current system um runs on Old software and it can't be updated so it's just an Antiquated system and we can't um add um the uh any new um equipment to it so we need to upgrade it to um so we can add new locations and bring it up to uh uh new software okay and we want to integrate it with um you know current systems we have like our camera system we're you know actually talking to the vendor um that does our camera system to see if we can integrate something with our cameras and our Access Control together gotcha okay and the generator um we thought that it was at the end of its life and now you're saying we can extend we extended its life with a repair do we know how long that extension might be didn't we get an estimate on that the um the end of life was um in a previous facilities assessment so when um we called the um certified vendor out they did a full analysis um the machine has very low hours on it and they said that it has they didn't say it has they said it has a lot of light you make this repair they said it has a lot of life left in it and it's worth making the repair okay a lot doesn't translate to years no okay because that's a big ticket item right what was what was the cost on replacing that uh that was around 120,000 okay uh I think that's oh um one more thing the tennis courts um so again I I remember we had talked about those being possibly needing as you mentioned to be redone completely but this is a interim repair so do we know how much time this that's going to buy us on those um I I uh I I'll look at to it's a total resurfacing um I'll have to look back and I'll to the vendor and I'll get back to um you on how much life it does extend the court okay thank you yeah in my um understanding as before I uh came on board I think that was a project that was discussed and I Joe Mr correctly or wrong I think what happened was it went out the bid and it came in at I think like $800,000 or something very high then I think the project would District didn't move forward the project yeah that's right so they did not enough money was budgeted for it but it would be a very high cost but we can follow up with the life report back at the next meeting okay thank you yeah I I you mentioned the Glen Meadow roof repair all right and amazing is that under our warranty at all yeah I was approached by a member of the public about warranties on our roofs going forward and then with asking about that could you also explain what the warranty covers and how much time we have left on them yeah um with the repairs in regards to the repair um the water was getting between the block and the brick on the outside of the building and coming down and then the we poles where the water is supposed to come out onto the roof were all blocked so what they had to do was cut out the brick put in new flashing so if water Gets behind there it brings it out back onto the roof and not go into the building and with that you know they had to redo the flashing from they cut back the roof and then redid the flashing to the roof um in the rubber to um seal it up and then that's been a problem we've been trying to remedy I think for the last three to five years we couldn't figure out where the leak was occurring then it's finally been remediated so that's not under warranty at all that from the Glen Meadow we did it no so that would be related to the brick work uh not the not the roof um overall there are portions of roofs in the district that are still under warranty um can't remember off off off top my head right now um I but any portions of roofs on some of the building have warranty uh it's for essentially um manufact product defect or workmanship defect uh so anytime we have say damage or puncture or even if it's puncture from like say animals or the storm or something like that that that wouldn't be covered under that warranty uh we have had repairs uh or we have called out for repairs uh on a couple of the buildings that have some of those warranties still in place um and those repairs weren't covered under warranty and we were charged for them so wow okay thank you thank you Miss Brock um just to Circle back to what Jen was asking regarding the generator if I'm understanding correctly it was budgeted to cost about 120 Grand how much was it repaired for uh I believe it was $4,500 4,500 yep so we saved $14,500 Yeah so basically at that point we had gotten the estimate for the um fire alarm system which was significantly higher um and once we had a certified vendor look at it and say you can do this repair for $4,500 we'll see if I don't know if they're gonna we're gonna be able to hold them to a number of years but they said it had a low runtime on it so to me that means that there is life left on that um and again that information about being into life was actually from the last facilities white assessment from the prior architect so once we had the vender look at it they turn around and said if you do this repair you'll have additional time so a lot of time so we're not it's not a perfect world right perfect world we have enough money to replace everything we need to replace but when someone comes to me and says this is something you thought you had to replace now but based off of a certified technician and a vendor for cator saying you can repair for $4,500 to me I do that repair and then I move the money to a fire alarm system that's more expensive than that same facility wise facility wide assessment had indicated and did that cause savings did that close the gap significantly between what was estimated and now what is running over so the facility wide assessment I think had the um fire alarm system probably around 135 so may $140,000 um the estimate we received from the one vendor was believe and Joe you correct me if wrong I think it was maybe $297,000 so it did definely close the gap to answer your question that's great okay and just one more very sometimes you just have to rearrange things to make it work um just one more quick question um regarding the lounsbery hollow classrooms and the air conditioning is that a repair or is that a new installation so those are the famous rooms behind us oh they're very hot yes so we're g to see what Honeywell says but I think and and Mr vaner can jump in uh if I'm wrong I think what we looking at would be the installation of a split system um but if that's something we could roll into the esip again energy related it would make sense but um we'll know more on whether that can be rerolled into the EIP and then also whether um let's see what was the the high school um water heaters can be moved into the EIP uh probably mid October when we start getting that final report with the different options that we could choose for projects awesome thank you so much thank you Mr smaga so I'm just looking from the slides and everything is it is fair to say we're on schedule pretty much for all our projects and we look like we're g to be able to complete them except for given ones that you reigned here yeah I'm I'm optimistic um anything can happen right uh when I was in do it took us about a year to get fire doors um but that was closer to co times right um so as long as we get those doors for example as long as we get the doors in place we're going to get them installed right um so I guess all say is I'm optimistic that allog be completed but if something hits aide a left field we'll pivot and we'll do our best to keep pushing it forward the bus the business management system this is for the lights air conditioning right correct did we do this for uh Energy savings we looking um we uh we did it I was working with the IT department um the server that hosted um our energy management system was um coming to end of life so we upgraded to a cloudbased system um so this way we can access it I can access it from anywhere any computer I can even access it from my phone so we can go on check classrooms check temperatures um we could do everything right from um our computers by um doing this so it's subcription based do yes and the old one was subscription or that was uh it was subscription but we hosted it in house on our own servers cost roughly the subscription cost is roughly same yeah and then um the going to the cloudbase was more cost effective for us than um purchasing new um Hardware yeah yeah I always push people people away from that and then uh and I just want to clarify you said the gener the generator that that was complete already right that they repair on that or it's going to it's going to be completed the um the purchase order has been um put in place and I working with the vendor on scheduling okay they were waiting on the part to get come in they were ordering the parts thank anybody else BR so big picture here though since all the projects are mostly in progress or we're making some good wet Headway like where do we stand in far as the budget like are we over under or just right in line so the as of right now um I would say we're pro we're probably about red line maybe a little bit over it's going to depend greatly on the SDA window project so when that goes out to bid um and this is a project that it's been around for a couple years now at least a few years um and it had gone out to bid once I believe there were some issues with the proposal from the bid that was received um and then the SDA came out so we District applied for SDA um so long story short that estimate they initially did uh time is gone by inflation has gone up so that when the application was done that's the mo that's the the estimate at the time the application was done could be low right because time has gone by about a year since that application was submitted so it's going to depend on where that comes in so that's going to be I think for me the big variable on where we end at the end of this year where those bids come in for that project uh and just a little bit of background information for everybody uh the SDA uh project um that includes about 40% of the funds coming from the state but they'll only give you the 40% on the estimate at the time of application but it took them about a year to approve and get us the actual agreement which I just received last month so any difference right if if it comes in higher that difference will be at 100% instead of 60% if it comes in higher so that's the big variable but on most of these items they were uh either at uh or with Glen Meadow below but those funds are going to get shifted to other projects that came in higher um obviously we're anticipating the fire alarm system for roll Hills is going to come in high um that'll be another big variable um and then we had I think it was the cosmetology building uh ramp and stairs that was budgeted at 70,000 and it came in at 98,000 so that came in higher but I'll keep everyone updated as we get those bids in for those remaining projects and then last thing um the solar panel placement are you like able to elaborate on that since I know a lot of people in the public are interested in it since I see other schools having solar panels uh so right now it's very preliminary um we're deciding we're still at the stage where we're deciding if we're going to do a PPA um it probably makes sense to do and that's the indication I've gotten from honey well um but I won't know for sure until they give me that report in October um but you know we're they're looking at all the options they just we're not they haven't provided a recommendation yet as to what they think the best system would be um I I don't know if everyone knows but right down the hill there we have ground Mount solar uh from the last EIP the district went through um so they're looking at Ground mounts um they're looking at rofs but the issue with rofs is you want to make sure that the roof is in a condition where you're not going to have to you know take all the solar panels off to to do to you know really maybe replace a portion of roof five you know however many years from now um so there're also potentially looking at canopies but when you're looking at things like that canopies are more expensive than putting them on roof but it depends on if you can put on the roof right and then basically the most expensive is canopy ground Mount is in the middle and then roofs are the least expensive but you have to see what we can do with where we are right now but no recommendation has been made but I guess what I can say is they're looking at everything but I expect more information mid October okay thank you gentlemen um so with through cooperation with the town we were able to get more bank rob bu yeah so we were able to do more uh with the project than we initially could through the other Co-op we're looking at um because initially I believe uh I can't remember the price off thought my head but initially we're looking at a partial repave with a restripe um and a reseal um we were able to do a full repave with a restripe were about $80,000 less um and then for the high school uh I believe that came in maybe around 20 off time I had around $20,000 less uh we worked with the town engineer um through a c we're already a part of but they normally do Road resurfacing uh so coming they wouldn't have come out here just for a parking lot but because they're already here their equipment was already staged we were literally down down the road right doing doing those doing our roads uh uh they had no problem coming here and adding a little bit extra to their project because the volume to them um is beneficial and more enticing than if it was just us but we appreciate um you know we always like to collaborate with the town um and we're hopeful we can continue to do that thank you thank you thank you guys very good thank you Mr slam thank you Mr vankirk I'm gonna move on to item eight approval of the minutes have a motion to approve the minutes of uh from the combined work session public meeting of August 22nd and the combined work session public read what or the Clos session and the uh combined work session I have a motion please so move so move by Mr Kraft second Miss pellet yes Miss Pet um roll call please Mr SL uh questions I'm sorry um it was um I'm trying to find it on the on Dr D anyway it was one one vote from last Workshops the last meeting we had the com that uh it's Ved yes everything except for one item and I don't know if this is something maybe we have to change the way it's forwarded it doesn't really actually it does tell explain what I my com for but it's really hard to tell how do you um yeah anyway it says like I didn't put without a budget I had my comment on there without a budget was not budgeted right it was not right was not budgeted so I I voted against one it right I remember that did check in our in our meeting notes is the check mark for yes would a comment you know I don't I'm G say we have to change this one but maybe moving forward we we do something where if there is something something so was for recommendation number two in the uh yeah I believe so and one specific item was not budgeted right but I was okay with everything else but that and it has a check mark and Y but if you read that if you interet that seem like I voted yes not saying that may no it just say my comment about okay yeah we can put you know may or um yeah I agree with you Charles it's not accurate yeah we can do that okay it really really has to be accurate okay so we can't pull that gonna have to pull that so how do you yeah you have to make a motion to okay I make a motion that we pull it well you you uh motioned right you were you moved right to you could make a motion to approve it with a recommended change oh okay right okay so we'll have to will you agree to the amendment yeah absolutely I agre sure so we have to have a revised motion with uh item recom recommendation number two I think it was line 16 that Charles Mr saglia uh did not was did not vote in favor of that due to it not being a budgeted item is that correct Charles yeah thank you thank you so the revised motion was Rec was moved by Mr Krauss and seconded by Miss pellet any other comments or questions I'm going to have a roll call vote when you get a minute r y yep almost set Miss Brock yes Mr smaga yes Mr Krauss yes Miss Pet abstain Dr Ross yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman yes Miss Ahern abstain motion carries thank you thank you Charles president's report I would like to welcome everyone back to to another school year school has commenced and we are already in full swing I would like to wish everyone a successful school year students teachers custodial and maintenance staff AIDS administrators and parents our high school marching band and athletic teams have picked up right where they left off last year and are doing very well we wish them s much success as well I would like to acknowledge National Hispanic Heritage Month which is annually celebrated from September 15 through October 15th in the United States and recognizes the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the history culture and achievements of the United States paying tribute to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively influenced and enriched our nation and Society we experienced an incident earlier this month that that was acknowledged and briefly discussed at the last board meeting I recently read of an incident that occurred in another state where some gunshots occurred prior to the school opening in the morning in the neighborhood of the school one of the shots either went through a school window or ricocheted off the building the school administration elected to close that school for the day the school administration did not notify the parents of the students of that school about the incident or officially provide a reason for the clothing the school Community was truly in a panic regarding this incident the rumor mill was all over the place and apparently there was still no official word about the closing I bring this incident to your attention because I think it further confirms that Mr rers and our Administration made the correct call in notifying the school Community as soon as reasonably practicable thank you Mr Rogers and his staff lastly I would like to acknowledge one of Vernon's finest Corporal Steve retto he is the school's Leed lead officer and he was honored at a recent Town council meeting for quickly reacting to an emergency situation and saving the life of an 18-year-old on Greenwood Lake Steve is an Alum of Verna Township Schools and we are very proud of him and that's the end of my report board reports buildings and grounds okay well we just had the building rounds portion and the presentation from Mr samam and Mr vankirk thank you and I don't have anything from the finance part okay uh community relations Mr cantino Mr cantino has back to school night he's not here tonight uh curriculum Miss pellet sure um we have a meeting coming up on September 30th and uh we will be discussing qac preparedness and test scores and all that fun stuff um but until then I've got nothing thank you partnership partnership meeting is scheduled for October 7th and I will report back the next meeting on that I'll see Mr smaga yeah um we had a meeting on September 9th um it was U um Mr cruss Bross and myself um we had two pre previous ones so it wasn't too much that we had to cover that day and U one thing I just want to point out here that we did because I I I kind of freaked out about it this morning I thought we missed the policy for a second reading but there wasn't a a policy was abolished at the our last meeting so we do not have to put it yeah only go for one so sound an alarm and then uh quickly was told by the central office that it was correct so um the uh we have um we have everything for secondary reading we're just recommending as a as a committee that um we went over it once already as a board we recommend that we continue and and vote for uh for the second reading of it the first readings we have a three items that we had on there um board member um policy 0155 do1 this is for board member participation um at a board meeting using electronic devices um briefly this is a this was a it's it's in your docet for for today's board meeting um so I just want to give you a couple of the overviews of it um we're looking that it applies to only regular scheduled meetings um the board member must contact the board president within two days of the schedule meeting a maximum of three remote um board members allowed per meeting all allowance given um by by the order of by order by order of of the um um I'm Sorry by order of the requests received so whoever first come for served and uh members must provide their own equipment um the district is not going to provide you with any kind of laptop or anything to take this meeting and then there was two things that were kind of U not that are not on the the agenda today so we we would have to vote um to amend it as we're doing it um it was a two days uh maximum per board member for for regularly scheduled meetings per year and then the um the other thing was and sorry for this committee I just remember this as we came in uh was about the video so if we have a second maybe we can discuss about having video turned on because you're vote I think the video camera should be on um that's not also in the policy written in in the docket so that would be amended for the first do you have the wording up now I do uh it's yeah everything the only thing that's missing is the two days and the um I have it here you have it the last paragraph or or sentence it it doesn't make sense to me if more than three members in yellow right talking about no the the whole thing uh the board member requesting participation in a board meeting through the use of an electronic device shall participate in the entire board entire board public meeting under the conditions outlining this policy and cannot participate in selected portions of the public meeting so you have to be there for the whole thing is that the idea so they participate in the entire thing except for what's what the selected portions you can't just come in and and just I'm voting on a budget and I'm leaving Oh that's oh I see so you just you can't participate in yeah I can't just right be remote for voting on Personnel right and then I can leave right so you have to stay for the entire Mee that makes sense thank you um you want to discuss any more or I mean I agree with you I think about the camera being on I just I mean that just want like a disembodied Voice voting right is that yeah oh yeah yeah okay so I'm okay with that but I recall that it has to be turned on on this end allowed to be on because the last time we had a problem with this we couldn't turn it on tried to but it wasn't allowed to be turned on from oh yeah like barring any technical issues from the board side yeah District side we'll make a poli for the no I agree with you like what you're basically saying is I want to be there I want to do the job I got work to do I so you're going to commit to doing the whole thing you're going to commit to being on camera so it makes sense to me like if you truly couldn't do it then you're not even going to ask to do it remotely right so right right so it's it's all or nothing like you can't make it here but you you definitely can attend it's just a simple thing like child care or whatever then I think it makes sense that we or you're out of state you right you're out of state but you're in a hotel room on a conference but you could still make the meeting right I I think it makes sense we leave the camera on okay no more discussion we have that the other one was attendance which we're actually um going to request to pull so it's not in our docket um now that's uh allly 5200 and the reason why we're um just requested the regulation um is just we had an ad hoc committee put together by the board and U they made you know for for the purpose of attendance so we just want to make sure any kind of new plans that were put in place or what they're I think they're meeting again so they might have another meeting or two there's anything that specific that our policy either the match or they need us to put in the Mee we don't need the the committee so we're asking the the uh attendance Committee just to look it over see if there's any suggestions you want to put in there or anything you should highlight um I would like to have it on the next board meeting so I don't know when you guys have your meeting schedule if you don't have it scheduled I think it's next week next week oh great so ours is the first of of of October the first Thursday of October so if you don't have to rewrite the policy or anything just give us probably know by then I would would I think so yeah it doesn't make sense to work on it twice right yeah exactly yeah and then um and then the last one which is on on the agenda for tonight we also are recommending the changes as U as you see in your docket um this this was has to do with uh this is policy 533 seven has to do with service animals I really want those miniature hes was be a hard Sebastian didn't even get a chance to so everything we we agree with as it came from res except for um and I think this I don't I hope this not everywhere in the country but at least an our policy we have miniature hes on there um it actually is not stated in the p in the state act that you could have a horse and it also actually defines what a feel want to know was there ever I really want to know okay let's table that for another time so we're just take that's the big highlight I wanted to just say so when you're voting today that you know if you're for more mixure horses I guess now but everyone else vote yet and that's um that's all we have next meeting is Thursday the first Thursday of October I don't know the date but that Thursday thank you Charles special services Mrs aham uh no update since our August report we're working on scheduling the rest of the meetings for the year okay great miss pet absenteeism uh yeah so um we did meet well F first of all just to uh review the district um formed in ad hoc committee on chronic absenteeism because our numbers were like most in the state and most in the country this is not an anomaly unique to us but our numbers are getting high for chronic absenteeism which is when um students Miss more than 18 days of school a year we're hitting the 20% mark across all of our schools um so this is an issue and we uh we formed a committee about it um we had our first meeting prior to the start of the school year and it was really well attended and we were really um you know very John I were very happy I can't list everybody because we had so many we had so many people and they were very enthusiastic about sharing um experiences perspectives and ideas um so that was really encouraging we had administrators from all of the buildings we had um school counselors we had Educators um we had Parents um so we all talked about you know some of the reasons that uh students miss school which range really um widely from things like anxiety and school refusal to Transportation issues and um other concerns um and the administrators were sharing ideas and I know that a couple of them came to the last meeting um or rather the August meeting and talked about the programs that they were initiating um so we will be meeting again next week and hearing about um what the numbers are for September because one of the things that came up was if you have a student who misses two days um in the month of September that that student is on track to be to miss more than 18 days and therefore be chronically absent for the year so we thought that would be a good time to meet at the end of the month and see how we're doing um and uh there are a lot of you know ideas being floated around but um I'll report at the next meeting about you know where we stand thank you Mrs P sure ad hoc phone committee cell phone Mr Zim okay so so far since it's been rolled out I've not received a lot of feedback from the public but it's all been positive what I've had from the district you know from the principal superintendent it's all been relatively positive so I'd like to have another meeting to get some maybe reports on how it's actually working with the enforcement if it's getting worse or better and I'm hope I'll have that more numbers information by the next meeting thank you Mr Z okay moving on to item K public participation um going to open for the meeting to the public we will have uh anybody who wants to say something come to the podium state your name and the municipality that you live in and uh open the meeting to the public all I got you a motion motion for opening the meeting to the public oh no you don't need a motion I don't need a motion I was just say agenda items only for this oh this section is agenda items only and you will have five minutes good evening d Edwards is that okay you hear me all right yes very well uh Highland Lakes I'll write my name down real quick um so I believe this is from the agenda talking about the presentation that Mr slam gave and specifically uh about moving to preschool Etc i' like to know if you don't mind how many preschool children are presently enrolled how that compared to the year before in Years Gone by and how much did that exactly cost to do and how many like I said how many kids are in that um right now that would be my first question the second question um it was like pulling teeth to get how much significantly more the fire alarm system was going to be but um thank you for getting that information out M Miss Brock um in regards to the money save through efforts through the town helping with Paving Etc so if I understand correctly that's about 100 green that was saved 80 on the one project another 20 on the other project I as a taxpayer who PID the town plus school taxes if you look at the big tie and you see how it's cut up I like that money that's saved specifically through town efforts to be shown separately and where that is going to go so if it was allocated for one thing the town helped and saved 100 Grand I'd like to know where that additional money monies Were Meant and I like that on a continual basis am I am I stating that correctly does everybody I think I understand what you're saying I don't know if we can do it but I'll see why we'll follow up I don't know I'll find out well I have every confidence that you can sir I don't a I don't think it's a hard ask um so that's my two questions for this evening if you don't mind who would address the first question sounds like we need to do some research to get you the exact numbers I'd appreciate well I would thought prior to moving the kids you would have done that already well I don't have them here oh preparation that's more of a paa discussion that we've had in the last couple months of board meeting we're anticipating the preschool expansion Aid so right now we're going to find out in the they were supposed to tell us early September and if we have that there'll be a need to move we'll have an opportunity to bring a great deal of students into the district at free AC cost the district so we're still awaiting that but that's the reason that where from Vernon prol we've been talk we've been talking about the last several uh months about the preschool expansion Aid and the opportunities that it presents the parents in the district to provide uh not for everyone because it's going to be a lottery based on how many seats we can have right uh to provide free preschool for people in the district and it's been a a big priority and it's going to be a distri goal of mine as well um but we're would be like we're anxiously anticipating full day the feedback full day yes wow so it's like almost a babysitting service in a sense because educational yes yeah I worked full-time and I had to find we've talked about it that a lot of the districts around in our area uh already have it but those schools were smaller so there may be one class two class three classes here in Vernon each class has to be 15 students so it's eight PR School each class had to be fit right and it's given aid from this aid from the uh the state to support this so we're anxiously awaiting the response from the from the state who originally told us they would tell us in early September they came out and visited our classrooms and after the last visit they say you'll know the same time we know I had I do have some numbers I'm sorry I the September enrollment September of 24 was 92 September of 23 was 86 September of 22 was 107 is that far enough fact um yeah one more year you don't want September of 21 was 91 and it it'll that's half day that's half day now this is a full day and it's free if the state approves this free totally from the state well nothing's free we no it's yeah we pay one end for the state which comes funnel through the if they're funding other districts I'd like us fund our district as well okay all right thank you welcome I just wanted to did I miss something uh I just want to provide one note so with the paving project um so the town didn't do the work for the paving project uh what happened was uh I think our communication with town has been really great and you know I appreciate that um and I think we're looking for a lot of savings but essentially what happened was uh we spoke with the town engineer that was aware of Paving projects that are happening within the town um and the town and us are part of the same uh Cooperative right so the assistance to the town was essentially that we just timed our project at the same time their project was happening so the town didn't do the work an outside vendor through a Cooperative through that we were already a member of did the work but just the fact that they had a sizable project happening at the same time meant we were a yeah meant that we were able to have them also work on our project separately uh the vendor not the town anybody else in in the audience okay online Jessie Mrs paladini good evening yes just one question um I know that there was some Paving projects discussed but I don't know that this was discussed you have a an item on your bills list um for riverv viiew Paving for $324,500 uh but we were able to pave the worst uh section of that parking lot uh which is the athletic area uh which is also where a lot of um ad accessible parking is okay and how come the town's not doing that with the new uh shared services you're doing with them uh so the town DPW doesn't have Paving equipment uh they're able to help us with potholes and things like that um but my understanding is that they don't do foury Paving uh I could be incorrect on that but that's my understanding okay thank you very much that's it thank you anybody else do not have anybody else okay all right close the meeting to the public move on to item L it's the student representative report we uh the high school recently uh voted on their student representative and they're proud to announce that Christina chanella will be our student representative ative she'll be invited to the next public session and I look forward to meeting where meeting her and hearing the kind words from her principal at her next public session item M superintendent report item one informational matters and reports we please announce the bths students in the district artism month for September the artworks being displayed at both the board office and Municipal Building um we talked about we presented our our in attachment is our hi self assessment for the public Hearing in accordance with the anti buan Bill of Rights each school's self assessment is attached the board and administration will entertain questions and comments on this matter at this time annually the superintendant will share the self assessments with the Board of Education and the report will be presented to the public which is an apatment a item C the week of respect the anti-bullying Bill Rights Act requires that the week beginning on the first Monday in October October 7th through 11th 2024 of each school year be designated of week of respect in New Jersey school district and charter schools in order to recognize the importance of character education and required to observe the week by providing age appropriate instruction focus on preventing HIV harassment in in intimidation or bullying School violence awareness week since 2003 schools and districts have been observing School violence awareness week during the week beginning with the third Monday in October which is October 21st to 25th 2024 as required by NJ sda1 18a 36- 5.1 one wait a sec wait a second the uh attachment a the self assessment self assessment this is where we ask questions um yeah yeah every time we present it it's an opportunity to ask questions about the uh the self assessment so I only have for some reason I can only locate the Hib attachment can I see the other is that is that it that is the self assessment it's a whole pth Okay so what are we looking at tell us what um based on the self assessment and and the rubric that they have we we seem we seem to be uh meeting all of uh all the Hib requirements by the state I've even had I've even had our security officer and uh and people present to us at at various times at board meetings and in Clos sessions uh it is it is not as straightforward a a law that I think everyone thinks that it is and what defines a hiic Etc so we go through this process every year um there's guidance for for the B Bill of Rights um and questions so they self assess um I have a you know the school annually established hi programs approaches and other initiatives so through the self assessment it looks it seems that we are meeting all the requirements uh for for a thorough uh Hib Hib assessment for for the district in all of our buildings okay thank you Mr Rogers may I ask this one question yes who conducts the self assessment is it the principles uh I believe it if you if you see the title it's uh Mr Scott wallet along with the the building principles will go through the assessment together and they have discussions with their s a question as to whether it should be a certain rubric or score or not there any guidance in regards to the law if somebody comes back and says okay we feel like the training is rated a two possible nine is there any guidance as to how to remedy that or any requir well I think part of the assessment is if we don't score uh at at a level that we're we're confident with we would actually um look for areas of opportunity to actually address those deficiencies but according to the score I think all the the schools did fairly well and and but they also discussed uh areas of if they did lose a point or not why and what they can do to improve it District as well okay thank you yeah that's it it's attachment attachment a is the rub yes oh I I thought give a little bit more detail like how how you know gave you like Steps well let me let me let me reach out I will reach out to Scott and that will be one of my follow-up emails I sent to the board about about how to the rubri for thank okay all right thank you Mr Rogers sorry you can no problem go on recommendations number two it is recommended that the appr the board approve the following faculty Etc appointments in the in the table and it's an extensive table again as we get to the school year to adjust uh to make sure everything is in order and there's there's there's several leaves in chart a that you will see and we had this conversation last time some of the dates will correspond to the six periods that I'm asking you to recommend in chart B so in letter B it is recommended that the board approve the following changes to six period appointments as listed below please note there is an addendum for part [Music] A what usually happens at the beginning of year as certain people go out on leave we need to find replacement Sy letter C it is recommended that the board approve the following six period dis appointments as as listed below B was changes uh letter D in accordance with public law 2001 chapter 229 amending section one of the public law 1982 chapter 163 the school district's 2023 24 student safety data system report is attached the board Administration will entertain questions and comments on matters at this time you could see attachment B and that's our school safety data that we submit okay what does it mean other incidents leading to removal removal from the class um let me where's your chart let see Pop second column I believe it's it's that's where it gets tricky removal from the classroom which could be either ISS or OSS type situations or a period or a period out of the class that's REM removed from the class yes does that mean that they aren't incidents of violence vandalism like the ones underneath let me see I think that just the incidents the First Column is those incidents and then the second one is others or no I think there's I think those are just other incidents I'll I'll check with n with uh my uh visit my assistant as well I believe that there just other incidents that lead to removal that aren't necessarily uh and it and it's a that's do you have any sense of how this compares to the previous year uh yes I believe we we it's hard to to to take this data and get it part I believe you asked last year yeah I did data handy right so uh overall we didn't see any uh if we if we did if we did see changes it might be uh related to uh certain students as they moved across buildings um and uh we we do discuss those with the principles uh about if we do see any ma uh major changes so how are we to tell if things are improving things are not improving how do we compare with other schools our size things like that I'll get like like I said I usually compare year to year which is why I gave you that chart um at the end of last year which is hard to to disaggregate because the way you reports things on ssds is a little bit different yeah it doesn't match up I'm looking at it now it's different I can uh well let me uh I've had this conversation with my uh Administrative Assistant many times and she's reached out to the state we reached out to the state to get explanations it's not as simple as possible but I'll will try to uh follow up with that as well in an email tomorrow thank you the rubric in this well Cedar Mountain there's three incidences no no incident of removal but 97 incidences of restrain and seclusion which we have we talked about new programs that we've brought we've uh We've added to the district we had uh two ER classes last year but does this when it says restrain that means like I just restrained physically we have like I said we brought a lot of programs back into District special and we had we had two of those at Cedar Mountain last year um okay we can have a I have uh Mr Fay sorry I'll have our um special education director coming and talk to you in detail on some of those issues I believe we'll have a special services uh committee meeting coming up as well okay that be good yeah right now they're they're in two separate buildings and we've had uh great success at the start of the school year this year thank you what what is um districtwide on the bottom I thought it would be a total but is that mean what would cons half the board office what ises this why the last the last maybe with the training is a training for the entire staff on an in service day okay so the whole district is trained inste of just at that building okay because you know he'll have meetings he'll have meetings in in separate well sorry those are incidents sorry those are program they programs programs and training okay so there' be districtwide programs and trainings thanks is there where it says Hib alleged is a column is there any column that would be hid confirmed that's one sorry I'm sorry how many of those alleged ones are actually hibs it isn't indicate anywhere yeah those are I think we we do have a report a hi uh report that we do that we have the number of confirm that we do monthly yeah I understand I just wondered if there'd be an aggregate column on this report I'll check again I don't believe it's on ssds report okay so the for the schools when you say training and programs that's for a student or somebody involved in the actual head I think they're training and program districtwide then entire no not the district wide you're on the actual line item for uh for a school the last sorry yeah the last column so you have you have burn in high school that's how many trainings we had at each of the school that's four and how many programs for mixture or um yeah could be staff and and their students okay letter e it is recommended that the board approv professional development travel conferences conventions workshops that complies with the provisions of the New Jersey statutes annotated njsa 18a 11-12 for the ver Veron Township School District employees Etc and in the in the and these are title two Grant funded trainings in the top table and the and the ones below are the NJ SBA Workshop in 2024 letter F it is recommended that the board approve the harassment intimidation bullying and school safety and random drug testing reports uh letter G it is recommended that the board approve the following policies for a first reading Mr smaggle talked about those in detail no more Pony talk letter H it is recommended that the board approve the following policies regulations for a second reading and final approval I want to thank everyone for that policy committee meaning members it it it's not as easy as it seems going through those uh policies in detail thank you for your help letter I it is recommended that the board approve the Vernon Township School District's participation in the New Jersey single account accountability Continuum NJ cusac self assessment we just got the handbook uh yesterday morning uh and printed that out um it is recommended that the board approve the strong evaluation model as evaluation instrument for administrators teachers and other certified staff for the 20242 school year I have a motion motion for items a through J with the addendum as well move by Mr saglia seconded second second by Miss Miss Brock questions or comments Mr Krauss um first of all item J the the strong evaluation model for the teachers and administrators is that the same one we've been using yes okay I I just want to make sure it wasn't changed from something different okay kind one I just want to say we finally got a Spanish teacher yes congrat about congratulation in congratul later in person tomorrow okay great excellent thank you I have a really a super question I think what if we don't participate in qac what does it matter yeah is it it's a requirement I know if you don't pass qack you're required uh certain to to follow certain things to make sure that you're in compliance and making Improvement on things that you're short on as a as a this is a state requirement I I believe I believe so because the whole purpose of passing it is if you don't they come in and they evaluate you and monitor you even more closely throughout throughout the year so we didn't pass this recommendation they'd still come in I would highly recommend passes I don't think we want to do that all right thank you Charles I just had a question what is sanj spring conference it's in the uh the conferences that I know what that is the acting and theater kids all go and compete it's stand just it's a beautiful thing oh that's nice my daughter did it for years nice and then uh I just want to make sure that we have it and the record for policy 01 55.1 that we're adding the uh maximum two days and Camas on additions addition that two days means two meetings right per per per person per person Maxum two days right yeah for year calendar year school year I think it's school year well actually we we the board gets voted in right January May year I think hopefully it wouldn't matter but are you putting calendar year put calendar okay as long as everyone's okay with that yeah it goes with the terms right right makes sense all right if there are no further questions roll call please Mr slam Mr smaga yeah Mr Krauss yes Miss Pet yes Dr Ross yes yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman yes Miss Ahern yes Miss Brock yes motion carries item n Mr slam Business administrat Report uh discussion information uh informational items um use of buildings and grounds as noted uh field trips as noted and I just wanted to add that um we are in the process of finishing up the onsite work for the annual audit um there's additional work that'll have to happen uh off site but I'll continue to provide updates uh as that is finalized as we get farther into the fall months uh recommendations letter a is recommended to the board approve the following Financial reports list of checks number 93399 through 93623 for September 2004 sorry 2024 uh in the amount of 1, 398,375 26 Cents that's attachment F1 list of hand checks for August 2024 in the amount of 1,561 18573 3 that's attachment F2 uh transfers for August 20 24 which is attachment F3 um and then purchase orders for August 2024 and the amount of 6,699 18654 that's attachment F4 uh approval of the board secretaries and treasur reports as noted below that's attachment F5 and F6 um it is recommended that the board approve Transportation as listed below we have quoted routes quoted trips um then we also have uh below those charts you'll see uh the jointure with the High Point Regional Board of Education uh the transport High Point students for 2425 school year the following burn on the following burning routes uh jointure with the sub La is regional uh Board of Education transport suage La students with 2425 school year on the following run routs to want you with the uh sorry as not below uh join sh uh with the susex county regional Cooperative to transport susex Coop students for 425 school year on the following burden routes uh approval for West Milford High Point and War students to be transported on the following burden routs at 2425 school year at the parents expense um and then you'll see we have numerous parent uh parental contracts listed uh below I will do everyone the favor of not reading every single one uh because you heard me for very L on that presentation earlier letter d uh so we have received uh so whereas placement within the Veron Township School District is appropriate has been found to be appropriate and whereas it has been determined that educ Educational Services are needed will continue till June 30 2025 and therefore be resolved that the Vern Township Board of Education approves the contracts as listed below uh we have a contract uh with more sales Regional letter e it is recommended that the board approve the disposition of the following items as they either obsolete or industry pair letter F it is recommended that the board approv the collaborative Services agreement with the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey and the buron Township Board of Education effective July 1st 2025 through June 30th uh 2030 it was recommended that the board approve the acceptance of approximately additional 8% increase in funding for the high impact Shing grant for the 2425 school year uh and as recommended the board approve uh to accept the additional funding for the Perkins uh by CTE reserve for the fiscal year 2025 25 of $219 and then there's also on the addendum U just one item added to letter C uh which is the jointure with the High Point Regional uh High School Board of Education the transport burn student for the 2425 extended school year and then letter I is recommended the board approve to accept the following unrestricted total donation of 120 textbooks from Mr Thomas lambay lambay from the Livingston Public Schools in the amount of $1,440 this donation will be utilized to enhance the social studies curriculum specifically the AP Psychology course letter J is recommended that the board approve the withraw of $150,000 from the capital reserve on the Walnut Ridge schoolfront entrance reconfiguration security wtig go project as reflected in the district's long range facility plan hey may I have that form of those in the form of a motion please so moved moved by Miss Brock second by Mr seaga uh comments questions opinions Mr Krauss yeah on some of these um bus routes you have Joiner students and Joiner CL what what do you mean by Joiner I don't think I've seen that before thank you for asking uh so if there's a route within um if there's a route within the area um where other districts are also going sometimes we try to join together to basically lower costs for the for each district okay so we have two like in R V7 there two high school students that are join our course who's the course for us it's on page 18 at the top I just I that as an example that would apply as well so high point is joining with us because they're on Vernon routes they would be paying us yes they're paying us okay that that's what I want with the join requestes and then down here in blue are we paying or are they paying us they're paying us it sounds like all these are paying okay and um a lot of times these are also related to Choice students as well okay I've never seen that before that's cool thank you um just I wasn't here at the beginning of last school year so I don't understand um parental Transportation contracts are we paying parents to drive their kids to school uh so there's certain instances with um where circumstances uh would be there are certain instances where would be beneficial the district and the student to have a parent Transportation contract um generally um sound something that happens that often but it has to do with the circumstances of the student right because they wouldn't be able to use whatever routes we already have in place or establishing one would be too costly so this is the more cost effective option A lot of times it's Rel to um maybe students IEP right so good thank you or more cost effective either way okay yeah it's usually us um it's the best option for the student generally and also the district financially because when you were to say um go to bid for a route it would be more expensive than the pay get the kids to school and in certain instances I mean obviously students are more comfortable with their parents in a lot of instances so that could be very helpful for the student that's going to help them get here and get into the classroom where it's beneficial for them and that makes sense okay thank you what are these two um additional acceptance of additional funding for grants for the high impact tutoring and the Perkins they awarded us more money just randomly or did an extra $200 and then work we're going to go into changing the grant okay I I think essentially there were funds left over and they just among the districts that participated which is how you end up with the random number like 200 9 gosh okay yeah it just seemed like an odd number thank you anybody else roll call please Mr Krauss yes Miss Pet yes Dr Ross yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman obain Miss Ahern yes but I abstained from N1 number 46 50 51 53 54 56 57 and 75 you may need to give me a list of that later okay um Miss Brock yes Mr Sagan yeah motion carries thank you okay we are opening meeting up to the public again for any items that public has to comment on and please once again please identify yourself and the municipality that you reside and you will have five minutes no so uh my name's Brian fiser I live in Highland Lakes I have two children in the Vernon School System so uh I just wanted to make a comment to the board in particular first um I understand the the value of uh serving your your uh your community community service uh I do a fair amount in the community myself uh so you know I know for you guys to serve on this board uh takes a lot of hard work a lot of commitment and I just want to say you know I appreciate it and thank you uh I want to let you know that I'm not up here to take cheap shots at you or to make baseless accusations you know I'm here because they think we have a serious matter Mr Zimmerman I don't know you right we as far as I know we've never met personally but we have mutual acquaintances and they all speak very highly with you so you know I'm hoping that this issue is nothing more than just bad judgment right so with that said um I think anytime we don't get transparency is when people start to have questions so Mr Rogers last week you said I signed every POS petition that was presented to me right that was your cont I I believe so yes right but it's a little misleading though because you only signed one petition uh not not over the years I've been I've been I've been a ver resident for for 52 years this year in your role as superintendent right I do not recall possibly one you signed one Pi have thetion I know I know so it's fair to say that Mr Zimmer was the only person who actually asked you to sign this petition yes right okay okay yeah all right so here's where my problem starts to come in okay so first I have a question for Mr sln when did the attorneys get involved in this matter I just um as I stated previously and I do want to remind everyone that public comment is public comment and not meant to be a conversation because it's a meeting of the board and not meant to be a discussion between the board and the public but I will I've seen you answer other questions and you answered my question last week so yes I just want to remind everybody that though in terms of how board procedure Works um but uh we as I mentioned we spoke to the attorney he said that there is no when you speak to uh honestly I do not know here's the problem though I only mentioned this for the first time at last week's meeting and you already had an answer prepared about the attorney we talked with our attorney on on a regular ongoing basis but why did you ask them about that specific issue because we we knew it was it was it was we we were told that it was a possible issue and question that may come up told by who faceb Facebook online the the social media that I talked to you about okay so the lawyer said that it was okay yeah I I believe I mentioned last week that the attorney said as a resident of Vernon Township Mr Rogers has the ability to sign a petition okay I would ask you to go back to the attorney and ask him to check njsa Toc 13-5 because I think that that's statute says it's not okay says in fact it's illegal and possibly a class for felony okay so please go back to the attorney and check it out we'll check it out anybody else that's right Run Red Light ouch I didn't finish writing my name that's one of the reasons I came out like I didn't finish all right dorine Edwards Highland Lakes so last year I was here asking about um the cost involved for medical plans for the administration for the teachers etc etc um the medical slash and dental I want to know where we stand on this school year with those figures please I don't have that information do you have that information costs of the Medical Care medical plans for administration and teachers and dental and teachers for everybody District yeah okay there's a you know there's a lot of different plans right right right so you want well I know from last year there was two plans that they could use depending on what their salary was right and the percentage that they had to contribute so pretty much the same thing that we went over last year compared to what it is this year it's pretty much what I'm looking for please and you don't have to have it tonight I'll come back meeting and uh we'll talk about it then okay thank you so much thank you anybody else in the public okay I I'm going to go online then Ang are there anybody online who has a question or comment have Jess and Mrs P yes hello again um I want to piggyback on something that Mr Brian fiser said uh which happened first superintendent Rogers did you sign Ray Zimmerman's petition first or did Ray Zimmerman sign your new contract first I'm not even aware happened at the same meeting you're not aware no I'm well we can find out what the dates of the contract signing was well I could tell you the date of the contract signing the date of the contract signing was July 25th 2024 and it was signed by Ray Zimmerman for a revision of superintendent Rogers contract and it was the same exact day that all of the board members superintendent Rogers and administrators Vincent gagliostro and heliz Shep signed Mr Zimmerman's petition so what we have here is that the vice president of the board is signing the superintendent's contract because the president of the board is conflicted and can't sign it and on the same night that he's signing to give the superintendent a rays and a revision of his contract and by the way the very same night that vice president Ray Zimmerman is approving tenure for administrators Vincent gagliostro and H Shep they signed his petition isn't that just cozy you know as a former journalist one of my jobs was to interview people and I interviewed people all the time so when I found this out about the superintendent of schools signing the vice president's petition the same night that the vice president signed the superintendent salary increase and revised contract and approved tenure for the two other employees who signed Mr zimman's contract I actually contacted a few superintendent of schools and I interviewed them and I asked them what they thought about that they thought it was outrageous they thought it was such a conflict they thought it was so une ethical one of them said it is called inherent interest and this came from a former board ofed president what you did superintendent Rogers was an inherent interest now you mean to sit there as you told us last at the last meeting you incourage participation well then why didn't you circulate the petition to one of your buildings and ask every teacher to sign it but what you did was an inherent interest for yourself and a couple at least one said to me one superintendent said to me that the Board of Ed vice president Ray Zimmerman clearly does not understand his fiduciary responsibility now we know you all signed the petition on July 25th that you're meeting on July 25th we don't know when it happened we don't know if you just kind of slipped it across the table to everybody we don't know if you did it in executive session we don't know if you did it afterwards but you know what one of the people said to me perception is everything and that's the huge problem with this Bo of Ed with this superintendent you don't care about perception you don't care about the public perception you don't care about what parents think what grandparents think what taxpayers think you just do what you do because it is for your own inherent interest and the public be damned that's my opinion based on what I see you do so um the only thing I wanted to say but I do want to ask did you pay the attorney for that advice to tell you that it's legal because if you did you wasted money because everybody in the whole world knows that it's legal to sign a petition as long as you're a registered voter but is it ethical so my question is did you pay the attorney anything to give you that advice I'm waiting yeah uh so we work with our board attorney on any matter uh many matters of District so that is a service which requires financial compensation I'm sorry that is a service that requires what financial compensation we pay the board attorney to give us advice I see so you paid the board attorney to tell you that it was legal for the superintendent to sign a petition so when we get advice from our board attorney who provides legal guidance for the district we get invoiced for time as you would with any attorney and then we have to pay it in order to continue to receive legal services that can spand from anything from special education legal advice to construction that is their role as the board attorney I see and so you felt it necessary to asked the board attorney if it was legal for superintendent Rogers to sign the petition of the vice president of the Board of Education who on the very same night signed the superintendent's contract and raise aren't you people we know you don't care about perception but aren't you people even ashamed of yourselves that's all I have thank you good night good night anybody else we do not have any more hands raised okay so with that in mind I'm going to close the meeting to the public and we'll move on to item P open board member Forum I have a recommendation on the open board member Forum it is recommended that the board approve the 2425 District goals as attached attachment f8 may I have them motion please so moved moved by Mr KRA seconded second seconded by Dr Ross any comments questions or opinions you're welcome to say something thanks thank God they're over yes yes that would be accurate all right let a roll call please Mr Krauss yes Miss pellet yes Dr Ross yes yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman yes Miss aern yes Miss Brock yes Mr Sagle yes motion carries thank you and I want to thank Dr Ross for all of her hard work and moving this forward thank you very much does anybody else have any items and open board member Forum I'd like to mention something I was approached about eth grade graduation okay and and um the fact that some people were asking me parents and an SCA member whether they have caps and Gams and and I know we've done a moving up ceremony for years and years I mean from my kids were a little they changed and I think it was because of money right paying for stuff so I just wanted to bring it up that that there's some people interested in having caps and gowns for the eighth grade graduation everything we do with that ceremony is graduation except for caps again so I just wanted to put that out there maybe they can the sea person can conduct a survey at the school or something to see what people or parents are into about it and maybe come back with something that you know that we could maybe say yes or no to caps and GS right I think believe for the last 30 years there haven't been caps and gowns and we are in financial uh situation right now the costs I think will be somewhere between six and 8,000 understand so uh and I've had I think we've had this conversation with the administrator and teachers before in in 8th grade about that they like it the way it is but I'll I'll have followup discussions with administrators and teachers as well I appreciate it because I'm getting ask questions and I don't have answer at an added cost it okay okay right thank you anybody else Miss Brock hi um I was also approached at the Vernon Street Fair excuse me by bar um given that it's the beginning of the school year and we have this new attendance absentees ad hoc committee um kids have move from say fifth grade up to the middle school or from middle school up to the high school is there um a way or is there a place that parents can go to to get just up to dat and accurate information about what the attendance policy is what the the consequences might be for excessive absenteeism I know Charles you said that we're going to start working with the committee on getting a policy to match what's going on but when folks come up to me in the public you I want to have like a good solid answer for them like you can look here you can contact this person just wondering if there's anything that you can tell me that might help um you usually they're reaching out directly to the principles but I will see if they have any uh I think it's in the handbooks it is it's in the parent handbooks okay as well and and a lot of times like people are worried about losing a point but if you're here seven days straight you'll get the point back right usually with a conversation uh if students are concerned about their points conversation with administrators people in the building you could uh relay some of the the um misconceptions and and and they can explain why um like I said one of the biggest Pro one of the one of our goals this year is being present which is why we are working with the cell phones and absenteeism chronic absentee you and if you've read anything in the public the last several months it's been a top topic of right on the front page as far as uh chronic absente and the cell phone use uh I like I said my saying I always use I can't teach them if they're not here um the state has very strict guidelines on what's excused day and what's not an excused day but it like I said there's a certain number that you're you're allotted throughout the school year to account for extreme circumstances where you as a parent make a decision for that day not to bring your kid in school so what's usually happening is the kid that misses two or three days is panicking and reaching out to the this the school about about their attendance and uh I like I like please reach out and talk to the principal principles to assuage their fears of of the consequences of of getting a point for an unexcused absence as defined by the state of New Jersey right I know we have a lot of kids who you know we want to capture and make sure that we get them here but we have a lot of kids who do show up and do the work too and um just the concern that was being related to me is that you know you got kids that are coming to school they're you know Junior Honor Society Honor Society and they're worried that they're going to be punished if they don't come to school you know I hate to make a kid anxious for no reason getting getting a point asn't necessarily being punished it's just keeping track of where they are on the chronic absenteeism scale and trying to make them more present and and understand the importance of being present in school there are circumstances when you want to keep your child out of school right and as a parent exercise those those decisions based on what you the health of your child I think it's frustrating for parents because the um a child who stays home because they're sick it's not an excused absence so that's very confusing to parents like they don't understand I know I didn't when my kids were in school why that would be like my kid's sick you don't want me sending my sick kid to school and yet you're not going to excuse them but that's a state thing we can't excuse them so I mean the district can't decide to do that even if we changed our policy that would be going against State and we can't really do that with our policy so um that's just a point of confusion and and that's you know what Mr Rogers is saying you have to make that judgment call and do what's best for your child and there is a policy I think it's still uh posted about like things like after 4 days the school will reach out to you and that's separate from the building specific policies so those building specific policies with the points that's a program that you know is part of The Chronic absenteeism effort I think those are that's an outgrowth of it I mean each principal came up with their what they thought would help but that's a separate thing from what the state requires and what the district right is doing like for a certain number of absences you're going to get a call or you know and then another you'll get a letter and then that's all kind of pre-baked in districtwide and then the school each building is having its own kind of system right is that accurate um right and like you said it before most schools you're talking about 20% of the students with the chronic absenteeism it's not it's not the it's not every student in in the in the district and there are circumstances that will make you chronic chronically AB the school year based on circumstances and a lot of the principles are aware of that and they try to communicate that to the parents as well but again if you have any concerns or you're concern please reach out to the billing principal they had some great conversations with parents to understand uh to explain their handbooks their policies and why they're doing things and sometimes in certain situations with certain illnesses as well um calming them down and saying it's okay please take care of your child that's a stun right yeah that's really the first thing that that happens talking directly to the principles okay that makes sense thank you figure are any principles are giving detentions for being absent I mean wasn't that part of that that was that was kind of what the complaint was alleging that if a child was absent from school due to illness one time there would be a detention do you know what building you heard that from or um the Middle School okay let me Reach Out find that very hard to believe yeah I'm hoping it's just a case of you know miscommunication between because it didn't seem to make that should be a thing to do I'm hoping it was just a Mis I think it's most like we had the principles explained to us before uh usually it's I I'll check but usually after you get to a certain point then there might be a consequence sign but usually it's a it's a building up process but there's also an opportunity to earn points back as well so I'll check I'll check and get back to them I appreciate that and I appreciate the committee's hard work and you guys you know answering my questions and whatnot it is confusing you know it's confusing when a child changes School I don't have any kids in the school so I want to listen and I want to help but at the same time sometimes I just don't know the answer so I thank you guys Dr Ross I'm on the cell phone ad hoc committee and so over the past few months I've been striking up casual conversation with people about this issue and um so I've been approached in the past couple weeks by uh Community member a couple teachers guidance counselor parents who are really really like emphatic about how happy they are with the cell phone policy and the teachers really talking about how present the kids are in class and how much more effective they feel like their instruction is just like overwhelmingly positive feedback on the cell phone policy yeah that's that as well especially um it's funny you know some of the high school parents are like oh I wish they' done this sooner and we were worried I don't know if you guys remember but when we talked about doing this before people said oh the parents are not going to be happy but I heard nothing but positive um feedback so that's I just took some data the first couple days there weren't many phones confiscated once the students and parents understood the consequences assigned to having your cell phone out during class uh they were lock everyone was in line with it and I really haven't heard a lot which is a good thing unless I ask and when I ask I usually hear the same as what Dr Ross talked about as well so uh it seems to be working and again it's a goal of being present and I think you're going to hear from uh our student representative to talk about that as well when she's when she joins the board next month there go Charles when is the next uh curriculum uh policy meeting we still have some policies that are back from covid era one one of the policies is uh the one where we have remote participation uh or public participation I would like the policy committee to come to the board with a revi revision of that to bring it forward and to no longer have remote participation at board meetings only present so the policy committee should be discussing the change not being told change should be I think okay right I mean that's why we have commit to discuss whether something is a good idea the reason for me bringing it up is because I feel that we are getting too much negative action online also the town does not do it anymore Town Council and the reason I believe they had to do with the way they advertise their meetings and the possibility of this you know not having remote access and then violation of public meeting laws so I I will get some details from the town about how they did that and that's terrible thank you for your opinion the meeting is not open to the public thank you for your position but you're here I'm sorry it shouldn't engage it's not open to the public this is not currently public comment and we'll talk more about the next meeting okay r i mean the board may not agree age with me no we have exactly which is allowed which is totally allowable is there any other open board member Forum motion to adjourn so Mo Mr Krauss second second second by Mr zman all in favor