go okay we're going call the meeting of January 18th ver C Board of Education public meeting to order have a roll call Mr slam Miss Brock here Mr seia here miss Kalani Mr cantino here Mr Krauss here miss pellet Mr Sweeney here Mr Zimmerman here we have a quorum it is recommended that the board enter into Clos session for the purposes of discussing legal and Personnel matters so move move by Mr Zimmerman second second by Mr cantino all in favor we are now in close session very meeting reced Bo turn open session may I have a motion so moved Mr Zimmerman second second Miss pellet all in favor all right we are open we have a roll call Mr slam Miss Brock here Mr samaga here miss Kalani Mr Canino here Mr Krauss here miss here Mr Sweeny here Mr Zimmerman here miss federici here we have a quorum okay may rise please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Al to the United States of America the stand Nation God indivisible and justice for all CL may have a reading of the meeting notice please 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 bit any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with provisions of the ACT Vernon Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published and adequate notice has been provided and notice this meeting has been properly posted and importance of the New Jersey open public meeting law a couple of notes the next work session meeting will be held on Thursday February 8th 2024 and the next public meeting will be held on Thursday February 15 2024 okay item G the approval of minutes we have a motion for the minutes as listed so moved moved by Mr uh Mr cantino second second by Mr Krauss no he needs tostain he can second it but he can't uh vote on those when he votes for all right may I have a vocal rope Please Mr slam Miss Brock yes Mr Shaga yes abstain on three and four Mr cantino yes Mr Krauss yes abstain noted Miss pallet yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman abstain we noted motion carries okay thank you the president's report I will have a very just a brief comment uh last when was our work session ready the fourth I think it was the third third we had our reorganization and work so on the fourth we received a notice from Miss uh uh Veronica Kastner uh that she was unable to uh serve as a board of education member in Vernon because of personal reasons we had not heard from her before that so we didn't know what was going on so we have a vacancy on our Board of Education thought it was my ticker now and we will be seeking applications for people who are interested in being a member of the board of education for a one-year term starting as soon as we appoint them which would be the February 8th uh work session so we will be accepting uh resumés and uh let us of Interest up until the 7th we agreed to the 7th up until February 7th so it's a very uh good position good thing to do it's good for the community I would encourage anybody who has ever thought about it to send in a letter of interest and uh the other things I have just the appointment of a couple of people on various boards the susus County School Board Association delegate is Miss Jennifer P if you agree to okay and I'm going to be the alate and I'm for the New Jersey school boards station I'm going to be the delegate and Mr Krauss will be the author and Mr Zimmerman is our legislative though okay Mr Zimmerman and for the Cs County Ed Services Commission the delegate will be Mr cantino and I will be the B today thank you Mr Cino I would like to recognize uh school this is School Board recognition month thank you vtsd school board members for all you do for our students and staff your certificates are at your seat we appreciate your service as volunteers thank you you thank you board members so now now I'd like to this is the part that we came for right I'd like to recognize some of our students for their accomplishment as mind Travelers I'm going to present them with Awards as I present you with Awards please stand in in the front and we'll wait for everyone to get together to take a group photo congratulations uh students and parents your name will be called you don't have to make a speech but we are so happy to see you if you w the Mind travels Library fund is a reading incentive program that was started over 20 years ago to encourage students to read this past fall students from wner Ridge Cedar Mountain roing Hills and lsbury Hollow schools were invited to participate in the mind Travelers program program students who read six books or two chapter books for Lansbury Hollow were eligible to win a book two students from each grade level were selected as winners a total of 121 students participated in the program reading a total of 580 books as I call your name please come up here to accept your your your your book and uh stand in front of everyone until we can take a picture recognizing your accomplishment congratulations to the following winners we'll start with lsbury Hollow Jamie wakil Riley Moran Madison Moore Kylie Fagan now for molan Hills Annabelle Schwarz Riley pusi Nicholas ior Henry O'Brien Cedar Mountain Theodore Williams Lincoln Baker Madison Thomas Liliana Sanchez Arabella Baraka Wyatt Wyatt melori Yousef Amed Roman Gonzalez you cheese yeah congratulations mind Travelers I hope you continue your love of reading thank you very much guys G to take a short intermission where we can give the Mind Travelers some food there's some snacks over there we're taking a short intermission of course because h okay all right thank you everybody uh superintendent report oh no sorry letter L no I'm sorry again J forensic audit report we are having a report by the forensic Auditors of from Eisner anner gentlemen thank you for coming and thank you for sitting in while we went through the Mind Travelers Awards that's really why we are here tough it is indeed do you need any uh no okay read from our notes and I must say the father of five kids with the youngest at 23 the oldest at 29 that brings te it's fun it's fun I can't get those days back um we're here today because we released the results of our forensic investigation we don't like to use the term audit because in the business World audit has a different connotation than an analysis or an investigation um my associate and colleague David suner is here and he's going to go through the specifics and uh I'll go through some additional things as the finding um but I am here to say you all know because you've seen you know I'm sure you've seen the rep nobody from from the Vernon Township Board of Education administrative office or anyone else is running down the runway with a suitcase full of money we did not find that all right and when I when I talk about these analysis and investigations everybody thinks the worst I've been doing this for 37 years just because people think their smoke doesn't mean they're fire there's fire and we're going to go through what we uncovered what we saw and David's going to do that now so yeah so thank you and so what we'd like to do is just go over the highlights of what we determined from our procedures um and so to summarize or or to give a little bit more detail there so we took a look at uh 12 programs that were Grant and a programs that they uh that the district received funding from and when we were looking at and testing all of those uh dispersements and and related expenditures we did not find any expenditures or dispersements that were outside the bounds of those of the of the uh of the of the of those programs and uh so that that's you know I think our headline finding uh however related to that what we did discover was that you know when we were trying to to trace the funds and move through those uh I think that there were some uh there there could be definite Improvement in the recordkeeping of the business office in terms of uh a paper trail for when transfers are made and large uh movements of the aid money throughout this the financial system we did have instan where we were struggling to try to get to that final answer we got to the final answer it just took a little bit extra time and so that's something we've already discussed with the business office already and I think that that may be I'll let them answered for themselves uh but I think as we were having discussions with them those were already things that were being put into place uh uh one other thing that you know so then going down the other things we were asked to take a look at um we were also taking a look at the uh position control r was one of the items in the r you were asked to take a look at uh we we took a look at the uh position control rosters for the years in scope I found nothing out of the ordinary other than in one instance in which there were a couple of salary line items and just for the benefit of everyone here the position control roster is a budgetary tool that is submitted to the county uh that lists all District employees and salaries and is it is a tool for helping to understand the district's costs uh in on the salary side for the upcoming year and what we found was in one of those years there were a couple of individuals who had their salaries reduced on that budget document uh without much of a Rhyme or Reason because those three individuals did were not let go or did not have their contracts uh renewed and they did not have any salary decrease so ultimately at the end of the day where you saw those sort of hardcoded adjustments to the to the position control roster which is a budget tool that the budget uh for the the 2223 year was understated by around $100,000 now that doesn't that's not and I want to be very clear that doesn't mean that that 100,000 went somewhere else uh this is just a budget document and what that meant was just sort of starting off the year the 20 2 23 year you kind of had a hidden budget shortfall of around $100,000 a Senor so that's something that contributed I think when we talk about some of the other things that happened going forward in the 2223 year which was from you know from what I understand was a challenging year in terms of budgeting and expenditures so that's something that occurred with the PCR report uh and then uh when you take a look look at uh we also were asked to take a look at a couple of the sidebar agreements that occurred like to take uh make sure that everyone understands that both of these sidebar agreements occurred after the budget process had occurred so while I was talking about the $100,000 shortfall in 2223 that was a that was sort of a a budget you're already going to go under you had a extra budget expense that wasn't sitting there the saat IAL sidebar agreement and the there was an aid sidebar agreement so the sabatical agreement was formalized in April right after the budgetary process was completed and then the following September the aid sidebar agreement occurred both of those unbudgeted and both in total ended up costing an additional a little bit over $500,000 of additional budget pressure on the district from those two agreements which were not part of the budget process um and so that those are the the big highlights of what we looked at so when you looked at the the sidebars the uh the T you know the um position control roster was not a huge amount of money but it was contributory to any sort of budget shortfall and then when you looked at the reduction in state aid as well as those things coming to a bear all of those things sort of hit all at once and uh and sort of led to to somewhat of from what we understand of all those the hard decisions that were made in order to have to let staff go or not renew their contracts so that's the highlights of what we found uh in terms of the of our RFP and what we were asked to do I'll stop there for any questions well um we received I I got the report thank you for the report I received it at 415 today so I haven't had a chance to even open it so all of us got it at that time and the superintendent and got it about a quarter to six so we have to look at it we haven't had a chance to look at it but I I do have a question there was a supposed to be like a cost anal is of the sidebar agreements right and and I think that that's a fair question and I think the public needs to know you know why these s sidebar agreements were entered into and what they were intended to do and what we found all right now the analysis is on a sidebar agreement right for the sabatical there were roughly 10 employees who submitted their retirement paperwork after the submission of their paperwork a cbor agreement was submitted and they withdrew their retirement and went on a sabatical costing the district over a half a million dollars of additional payroll for people who were not providing services to the district David and I asked why would you do that now from a business perspective one would do that because having people retire early at a higher salary and replacing them with lower salaried employees over time theoretically there should be plus right you take some of $10,000 you replace him with a $40,000 person over time you're going to make up the difference because it's going to take a longer time for that $40,000 replacement person to get to that $120,000 salary we asked for that information for when the sidebo agreement was entered into what was provided to the board for that business decision process we weren't provided someone said can you guys do the calculation the problem here is is that you had people on the sidebar but then you hired all these new teachers who were not here the next year right so how do you have what amount of time on top of that what David talked about was the budgetary conance because of the sidebar and the um control report there was another reduction in the state so without knowing what the ultimate plan was when this was established it's impossible to determine when the payback period would be because these rep placing teachers many were hired and were let go the next school how do you how do you factor that in it's you know trying to prove a negative that's why we asked when the board was giving this to make the decision by prior people in administration what was it was it excuse me address us please it's you're reporting to the board because it'll okay I'm just trying I I don't like to talk with my back to people um who who have a vested interest because I work for you we all work for them that's all so that that being said the point here is is we ask for that information and it appears that the district doesn't have that information so the fact that these people went on the sabatical a bunch of teachers were hired and then eventually let go without knowing what the ultimate plan was how do we show it and prove it when a bunch of teachers were let go and there was an additional burden of a cut in state aid which just exacerbated the problem that the district incurred because that answer should have been given to the board when they were given this decision to make on the cyborg agreements and there's other issues in the cybor agreement that we've discussed with the finance committee previously such as a cybor agreement was entered into before it was accepted by the board the union had already notified their members I mean and then it was an agreement that something happened before the board took made a decision so there's a whole host of issues and that's why he said where is the document that informed the board members at the time why this was a good idea and we just never receiv received it so those are two separate things right you're talking about the sabatical incentive plan is one and the second one is the sidebar between Kelly U between the vtea and the board correct so those are two separate things yes um regarding the math on the sidebar agreement um and I'm not defending it because I was against it at the time but um the reason that there the there isn't a The Proposal that was presented to the board was collected for reasons of confidentiality because it was done in executive and we were supposed to leave it in executive so that no one got wind of it outside of the room right but now now then it was a it was a proposal so it was to try to get people to retire and we didn't there was no way to know who would accept it and who would not so there there was a limited ability to compute the benefits because you didn't yet know who would accept it but when you're saying you can't do the math now afterward we know who accepted it we know the 10 people who had already accepted it and then we now know we have a list somewhere right of the people who did so in hindsight wouldn't it have been possible to do the math saying these people retired maybe one year sooner or two years or three years and do like scenarios of how much it could potentially have saved because I'd be interested to know what the potential benefit of it was given that we argued about it for two years um whether it would actually benefit us or not um so that would be an interesting thing to have but could that not be done is that what you're saying that couldn't be done well there would be assumption that would have to be made we wouldd have to work with the business office because uh the people who took the sabatical and then the teachers that were hired as Replacements it eventually let go you know where where is the crossover point to when we start to realize the savings the prbl alone was a big savings none of those people I mean they're two separate things right the people who were let go were not in the same group correct but overall there was budgetary constraints and reduction of costs and a that would all to figured in could could somebody do a hypothetical scenario yes we could we could we could we could probably do that but at my point up front was those analyses are generally done when the board is asked to make the decision not after the decision has been made and we're a year and a half past that point in time and that's why for us to do the analysis now and say that there could be a savings what are we measured against to what the expected savings was expected to be that's all okay all right well um thank you very much uh we will the plan is is to send the report to our legal council to have them uh review it make sure everything is okay and we're going to put it on our website hopefully by Tuesday I'm sorry I I did have another question yeah sure sure sure so I did briefly go through this and I noticed that you stated in here that um you were asked to look into additional items that we had not included in the board scope and I was curious who who had asked you to do that because the scope was agreed upon by the board and voted on by the board and so I was surprised to hear that that had been expanded so how did that fair enough and I I believe we we discussed that in uh two finance committee meetings now but um the scope was very vague and Broad um in the RFP it was probably one of the most open than rfps I've read and also in our engagement letter and approved by the board we said anything else we're asked to look into we were asked to look into it by the previous board president I know there's a disagreement U Miss pellet with you and the previous board president that she didn't have the authority to speak on behalf of the board um but that individual asked us to look into it those concerns did have Merit to them and we looked into it and our conclusions are in the report and we found that no money is missing or anything is going on there so the scope was extended by a specific person against the well the the okay that's just what I'm getting at well under under under the apparent Authority the board president does have the ability to speak for the board I didn't know and I didn't ask if that was approved by the board so if if that is the issue that that person spoke for a lack of a better term out of school we to look at those complaints and you know if you've seen our findings in our report we didn't find any any wrongdoing or any any har there right well that is my concern because the board president no no single member of a board has the right to make a decision on their own whether or not they're the board presidents so that was kind of an issue and the fact that you didn't find anything means that it was a waste of money so that was my I brought that up well I when the report is made public people can draw their own conclusions on that that's fair thank you does any other board member have anything to say or comment or questions I I just want to say I mean whether this point was brought up or not um from the board or or particular person on the board it was found in Discovery right so you have to report on it and and and you did report on it and you're saying that was we were it was legit or there was no no issue found I would say right on these there were what's called procedural inconsistencies in the information that we were asked to look at but there was no wrongdoing as you're finding that's what I'm looking it was discovered whether it was right or not to be discovered was discovered and in your discovery not there was no wrongdoings found on that correct okay and then and then I mean for this I'm looking at a takeaway here is I mean yes the side bars were um maybe done a little bit improperly and and and and some stuff you stated in your in your finding so as a board this is what we should be looking at right this is the procedures that things were not in place is that what you're saying that things weren't in place it wasn't done wrong or or criminal it was done inist inconsistently yes administrative inconsistencies and in our report there are recommendations and we made those recommendations independent of our conversations with the people that we work with here however in in our subsequent Communications with Mr Rogers and Mr SL we we told them what our recommendations would be and it was kind of like we've already put those plans in place and we're implementing those policies and procedures so um before we even got to those recommendations you know the front office was addressing those issues because they were aware of the same issues and had the same concerns because when asking them for the information and realizing that it wasn't at their fingertips like it generally would be they did their job and tried to close those holes and then I just have some questions for I don't know if we wna are we gonna address for us and you have a question Now's the Time so the three we have uh three things I mentioned and I I believe the first one was put in place right we had the 12 grants program money was spent but the record keeping was bad I I just want to make sure confirm because I believe you said stated this before when the last the other order for last year came in you put something in place right and we we we are addressing this this particular issue Carly yes I've talked about this in committee meetings as well uh when we were aware of the situation we were in early last year and had to move funds uh in order to not operate in a deficit there was a there was a need to move uh Grant monies into into areas so that we got through last year and it was it was a challenge at the beginning of last year to get us through that I've talked about it before that's why I think you they saw the movement of so many Grant funds uh at their at the beginning of last year uh and I do want to add there were amendments completed uh which is the appropriate way to change the planned use of those funds however the transfers that were completed um were done in large number of accounts uh in one transfer essentially so it was more difficult to track than say if you're going One account to another account it was was you know you know negative out of this count negative out of this count negative negative and then positive positive positive and it all footed so it was balance which is appropriate however it's difficult to see the ins and outs of that transfer other than knowing that the money moved between those accounts as a whole um so that's something that you know P me coming in that's not how you know I operate with transfers um and those transfers are more detailed and easier to track at this point and and that actually goes into the second thing is not having that information those those those line items you you don't you can't plan right because you could you don't know what that was spent on you know was spent in let's say uh supplies but you don't know what we're spending the supplies on so that's something that you guys are putting in place now we're we're so you you're making better plans and with that is I'm looking at the PCR where we had incorrect salaries in there and it could be just a never updated it could number of reasons but again that's planning we're we're going into the budget season now I I would like to know like have we addressed this where we could do better planning out for for this budget coming up uh yes so we've been working um one of the I've done been doing a lot of things since I came on but one of the things we've been focus on is the PCR uh we've gone through and there you know several issues I think uh that we're addressing with that one of which has been making sure everyone's being charged so the ready count um something that I mentioned a couple times before because it affects our ability to charge tuition uh if we were to accept this uh students their districts for you know placements in our some of our special education programs uh so we're working on that uh and then in addition to that we're going through and ensuring that every staff member in the district is accurately accounted for not only with their expense account uh but in terms of you know their FTE uh and their salary cost and and obviously I know you you guys like the rest of us we just got it today late late in the day so you haven't really gone really read through it but it seems like we're making changes in in place now and I'm I'm assuming after this you read get to finally read the the audit we will make additional changes where you see adjustments need to be made and we have that commitment going forward because I think that's really what the public might want you know maybe we didn't find the Smoking Gun that everyone was looking for but there the big takeaway from here is things weren't maybe done efficiently right and we can be better at better at managing our business which is education and the funds of of the school district and the most important part of that process is developing an accurate budget and when M Mr slam talked to us the last board meeting about 80% is salaries and benefits and when we talk about the PCR and the budget process that is what our our main focus is on on the budget process moving forward into into next year having it set up correctly and as accurately as possible because it's not going to be perfect is is is a priority when when you're when you're making a budget and um we're having meetings on on a regular basis to improve processes and to try to find some of the ways that I've heard even people mention at board meetings to uh to improve how we uh we manage our money so I just have one more um the the sentence in here um about the lack of clarity and audit Trail regarding transfers made um funds difficult to trace like do you guys have I mean I I know we haven't read through all of this maybe it's in here but do you have advice for how to improve on that I know we have a new business administrator so this is not to get on you know him but going forward what what do we need to do better or differently to um not have that issue with lack of clarity sure so you know typically and I I think Mr slam just sort of walked through one of those instances where there's a a large transfer with I think there were over 150 lines of ins and outs and it was just just a spreadsheet that was the total amount of documentation that was maintained in the file and it's difficult to trace numbers when they're aggregated so you may see funds coming into the TR that are being transferred in one dollar value but then going out into multiple different accounts on the other side and you don't know where each of those goes and there was no narrative attached to that transfer so I think that one of the things that would be helpful for us or your auditor or anyone else with any oversight with the district would be making sure that when you have these larger transfers that you do have a a small narrative you explain what the purpose of the transfers is where are you why are you moving between certain lines because sometimes there would be a a movement of a of getting someone to the correct line and then there are other instances where that might be mixed in with also because you were moving something from that was overfunded to something that was underfunded in order to make your your budget match so you needed to make sure like separate out two separate objectives instead of mashing two objectives in at once so just like more itemization sort of I mean when you're doing a large scale transfer you know there's going to be a lot of activity in it no matter what but trying to make sure that if someone looked at it they would be able to see what the majority of it was doing what was the purpose and separating out different objectives in that transfer would be helpful to the whoever is taking look at that transfer in the future I mean you can probably get like super detailed with that is there a number like anything over a certain amount that you should use as a rule of thumb for for itemizing I'm GNA use item I think I would I I would I don't think there's there's no rule of thumb and there's no like oh everything over $50 should be done that way I think it's based on how how many transfers are you doing in a Year what's your workload how what types of transfers your sta happing you you you're going to have to you don't want to micromanage it all the way down to each penny but you do want to have something in there for the larger entries and whether that's something that they can come to in in an agreement and let you guys know that every transaction or you know is's going at of a of a certain threshold is going to have enhanced documentation I think that that would be something that works best for them and and by way of example if there's a large transfer in and then there's multiple transfers out to multiple accounts at least an N of that here's where we took the money from and why and these are the different areas that had to go maybe not every single dollar but at least a rationale for why the transfer was made it makes it a lot easier for the order and if someone looks at the budget they're coming to you guys with the questions right you're going to be in the same boat is that something we should be getting on a like a quarterly basis or or I mean how do from an oversight perspective for the board how do we how do we make sure that that's getting done well or is that not our job if large transfers are made I mean Mr Rogers and Mr slam the guys who are handling that aspect of the probably just report to the board we moved $100,000 of these grants if Ed were the appropriate we took it from here because there's an overage but we know that we need it here that that could just be something that happens at a finance committee meeting and and maybe makes it into um the close of public uh the Clos session at a public meeting that hey this is what happened the finance committee is aware of it just want the rest of the board to be aware of it because if somebody knows about it they're going to ask me question so it should just be where reasonable provide explanations you don't have to approve every single dollar put on large transfers I I think there should be something maintained in the file of why it was done when it was authorized and where the money was going and what the the business purpose of the transfer is at the district level okay thank you one statement um so kind of summarize the whole report our bo back office skills need to be moved forward they're not up the best practice I but they've already started moving in that direction I don't want in the back office because I will say I don't mean back office by people the people in administration were as helpful as they could be with the information they had to help us all right I don't ever attack long-term employees who try to do their job and for no other back off is not have been the right word but I mean our procedures policies procedures and keeping track of what keeping all that wasn't where it's supposed to be in the past with the previous administration Mr Russell Mr slam are moving Us in the right direction but even with that lack of best practice the money there's no money missing everything's accounted for was spent on education or basically what the grants said it should be and that's sort of the big picture as as I started and even though it was tongue and cheek there's nobody running down the runway in Greenwood Lake with a bag full of money the only only money lost for no other reason was the cuts in state eight good thank you um I have a question a few questions um it says here the district has had difficulty producing documents that should have been maintained in the administration office District staff turnover also made this task more difficult locating some of these documents sometimes took weeks as the business office had to scour through alternate sources including shared files and files for staff no longer with the district do you see that our new ba and the staff that we have currently are addressing those issues we weren't asked to look into that but in our discussions with them when we brought these issues to the attention of the finance committee and they acknowled and they were there they were already aware of this they knew that this was a problem based on the work that we were doing the questions and inquiries we had and they've said here tonight that they're that's on been on their radar screen they're putting the procedures in place I just saw that and I was I figured that they were aware of it but I just want to make sure that they were kind of our reports at a point in time since we're doing our work they continue to do their job um and also it says the district used one-time sources of funding stabilization Aid to justify adding fixed salaries in 2122 22 23 and because those Revenue sources were not recurring in addition to cuts to State a the district had determinated employees um it does not appear that a proper analysis was done to review how the district would sustain these hires into the future do you feel that when the board at the time voted on those things they were pre presented with sufficient information to be voting on those issues can't we don't know there has been communication verbally with people who were around at that point in time who believed that there was something but nobody can produce it it's not kept in the board I know it was under closed session yeah um but it generally when the board's asked to make a decision of that magnitude right if somebody is selling you on doing something that's going to cost you money today to save you money over time that analysis should be done up front it should be proactive not reactive now thank you that was all my questions I just think that's also like I mean you guys need to fix that as far as addressing and I feel like you you are doing that there also thing I think at the bo board at whole we need to what we accept right if we just accepted what we were told maybe that was a wrong thing we had too much trust in maybe an individual or a group of individuals or or not seeing the evidence and I think this year as we rebuild the board and and and we re hopefully rebuild the faith in the community we we address those things internally and say hey you know what I'm not accepting this anymore we need to stop here you need to go back and you need to show us what that and that's something for you guys to know like I think we're going that's what we're going to be starting to export now you know it wasn't done previously you didn't have a chance to do it previously but now moving forward you know where our expectations are because you know there was no money found here so it's not a win in that way but there's a win in respect that we found some problems and procedures that we have to address and fix so I think as a board we we all need to commit to that and work on on on on making those changes and what we so anybody else well I haven't had a chance to read any of it so I appreciate you presenting what you're presenting we're gonna an analyze this and uh we will have lots of questions amongst ourselves and if we have any questions for you guys we'll send emails we'll have Mr slam send emails if you have any questions and need me or David to come back we're not you're not on the meter for us to come back answer your questions thank you very much that's great thank thank you thank you very much thank you no you can ask us after the public participation but these guys are good we haven't read the report yet you you even well maybe we we do too um item K public participation agenda items and students anybody have any in the audience have anything that they would want to say about any items on the agenda the meeting is open to the public hello uh Scott Castle from Glenwood um just on the forensic report um you may not even know the answer to this because as I've heard you guys haven't been able to look at it yet but is it expected that um a lot of this is going to be redacted and cut out or is it going to be minimal redactions just names and things like that so we're not missing key pieces of findings that that happen there good question my my sense is that not a lot will be redacted okay that's my sense but there may be a name or two that's the only thing I can think of that would be redacted if I can just throw in my two cents quickly I think there's an opportunity here for the board um because you know with our friends and our neighbors and everything I think there's definitely a feeling of lack of transparency from the Board of Ed and I'm not saying it's this board I think it's been happening over years and I think they dug a deeple and that's just the assumption that so for me even things that don't look good in this report if they're put out there and they're owned and and the board says you know we know this was bad like this happened and I don't know if that's the case or not but if that's put out there and they say you know we know this is bad but this is why it's not going to happen in in the future I think that is way better than if it's kind of obscured or hidden or whatever and people find out eventually anyway because then everybody's in a frenzy and I think that's kind of what's been happening at least the meetings that I see is things get found out secondhand and the email chain goes around and everybody's upset whereas if it's owned right up front and you know we see that the board is kind of working towards fixing these problems as opposed to hiding them and I'm not saying anybody's hiding them but that's what it looks like um you know so I just I think that's a it's a big opportunity here with this forensic audit so I think it's it's a good thing to have thank you good points thanks thank you anybody else Angelo you want to go to oh we didn't get this far yet but I was looking at the agenda and it looks like you're voting on quite a few things tonight policies am I reading this correctly you are okay it looks like some of the things haven't been updated in a long long time that's correct but have you had a chance to even look at them yes we have okay so you're voting on something you've already seen you didn't get this at four o'clock correct that's a got it this is the first reading and then there'll be a second reading next month before they become policy they were a available for review at the last board meeting as well I'm sorry they were available for review at the last yeah I missed that sorry um another question how about how about check do you guys go over the check I mean unless you have a question we have a list of the checks we get we get them and we approve them at at each public board meeting yeah I know you do I'm just wondering if anyone ever asked any questions about some because some of them are astronomical amount of monthy so I'm just wondering if is that something if I asked you'd be able to explain it I guess it would depend on what it's regarding that's correct okay all right thank you very much my name's heart I don't even know if the questions I'm asking are going to come across to make sense on what the auditor said but I don't understand the monies that we received for the teachers that had to be laid off I'm going to say it wrong I'm going to call it the covid money because that's the way I relate to it but we were given that money to pay for them for a year for basically their salaries were already paid for is is that correct it wasn't coming from our tax money that was grant money that we had to spend um within a period of time I'm not clear but there's a there's a few different uh grants and uh AIDs that we've received there were Esser funds do you want to go I think it's I think you might be referring to the stabilization Aid probably I don't it was a onetime funding source so where I'm confused on what the auditor said was not being able to measure a cost analysis on how the sabatical would have been benefited benefited the community long term because we had to then lay off people and you couldn't measure it but we already had the money for those people and we had to lay them off because we didn't have it from the money from we received from the eser fund the what we didn't have that anymore that's why we had to let them go ultimately we hired too many we had to spend that money we didn't I mean we found out after the fact we didn't have to spend it on hiring all those teachers but at the time the mindset was we had the money we had to spend it within a time frame we had to hire these teachers so now we have money in the bank to pay the salary of these teachers so what I'm not understanding on his cost analysis on the sabatical and now this $600,000 between the sidebar and the position control roster they can't come up with a long-term benefit or not benefit to the community because it it happened all within a year but my big question is we really are $600,000 because of bad accounting if I'm saying that right because we already had the money for those teachers I I heard 500 did I write sidebars at 100,000 for position control roster that's what I oh right right okay I I apologize I know it doesn't necessarily sense maybe clear it up we got a about four million which we were told at the time had to be used on teachers correct the board at the time not see that was really feasible because we knew that 4 million was not guaranteed to come after the first year correctly when it was possibly a hope but there was no guarantee we asked if we could have permission to use it over two years which then the theory would be 20 teachers for two years instead of 40 for one and we wanted to restrict the hiring but hiring kept going on it was during covid a lot of different programs coming the administration at the time hired the teachers that money dried up because we spent it at the time for those teachers then after the two years we didn't get that Aid again so we basically had a lay the sidebar for the retirement some of those teachers were in there the reason they can't measure it is in theory if you take maybe with the principles making this amount the new principles making this amount year over year you know this salary's gone this salary is lower may go up but with the cuts this job was eliminated so now it's at zero and there's nobody really there but also this guy's gone so there is no it's almost like zero to zero the position was eliminated for cuts what cuts it was there was different cuts but I'm just trying to sum this up so you can somewhat get I'm down that we have hypothetically $100,000 principal and I think my understanding for teachers with benefits and everything comes in as the first year teachers around 50,000 40s close to 50s we'll just use round numbers so essentially my understanding of the point of the sabatical was to get people who were in that higher because of their tenure and you could bring in two for the price of one essentially and that's the theory but obviously the theory did not pan out for us over the past two years well and that's why I don't understand understand why the I I don't I can't understand why you would even use a c cost analysis basis on money that we received and we hired 40 teachers that dried up to how the retirement the sabatical and all that how they weighed out to each other I think they're definitely different categories um I'm just bringing that up I honestly I'm just trying to get that off my chest because I don't even understand half of this stuff all I know is that there there definitely was stuff going on I feel I I understand that maybe in the past less things were computerized and analyzed I've heard it mentioned that on the budget can we have little bubbles of what money's all about in that category I think you know if they were using a lot of paper and not necessarily digital with explanations then nobody knows what's going on maybe that's why stuff is technically not available for weeks on end like Carl read in that report so I I would imagine I mean you seem super Advanced and definitely working with today's technology differently than everybody since um Mr Mr KS Mr CS I mean it seemed like everybody was just doing paper paper paper so anyway thanks for listening to me I'm sure maybe somebody can expand on what I was trying to say give us time to read it and I'll be happy to sit down with you thank you I understand hopefully you just my two cents I don't know what the report caught us but I think the presentation was just kind of like smoking mirrors from us sitting out here I know you guys have a report so you guys get to read it but it just seemed like a gimmicky we did our job so we're here to report to the public so take it as you will but thank you thank you Jay hi Bill Higgins from Vernon I got here for just part of it but total disappointment total disappointment on their part the presenters and your part on the questions this was supposed to be something that should be shared the public should see it it shouldn't be a document that somebody's going to and you got here too late yes um we got it at 4:15 today we got the report at 4:15 today right the superintendent and business administrator got it a quarter to five quarter to six today we're going to share it with our lawyer and then we'll put it online hopefully by Tuesday that's I announced that I don't know if you were here for that no I wasn't I'm sorry for that that's okay but but the fact is it was on the agenda and that wasn't at 45 today when was the agenda put together well it was on the agenda we announced it was going to be on the agenda probably two months ago okay and so two months of talking about a presentation that now all of a sudden got here within minutes or hours of the meeting so I don't think that's a valid answer Joe that it just got here today he had planned to make this presentation so it would be a full presentation not a a a pieces and a a uh a non-presentation uh you you reacted as you're allowed to I didn't react to it because I haven't read it yet but yes in in terms of in terms of their presentation um yeah I was disappointed I would hope the public would see the entire document nothing redacted I mean we're letting the lawyer decide if names need to be redacted bill that's all okay but but some of the I I hope some of it comes out but just from what Denise said even this position control roster and there's so many words and statements that are just inaccurate there there was no sabatical a sabatical and Mr Rogers knows this if somebody's employed they're sent away or they go away to do studies on on some topic and then they return they're paid for that they come back and and that's the sabatical and then they resume their duties as a teacher a a a what really happened is that people nine people announced from January to March or April that they were going to retire the district needed more of the higher paid people to retire so they could bring in more younger people because these were the $100,000 plus people just like we stated plus their benefits and so those nine people weren't enough so an incentive was offered to get other people to retire and that incentive was averaging about $45,000 per person as an incentive to retire because they were going to be paid from the time that they retired until December 31st of that year so of those people 26 people were paid for six months of non work that was not a sabatical that was that was a a bonus for re four months four months four months but they were they were paid September October November right four months okay it average about on those people at their pay scale you were you were spending about4 to $45,000 per person so that was that was a lot of people that were being paid from the payroll and if you look at the position control roster it had next to their name retired and some of them were listed as retired starting in March so there was a a definite uh reason why somebody put that they weren't retired they were being paid if you look at a position control officer and they're retired they're not being paid they're retired but they were still there so those people were listed as retired in March so now you're talking about nine months for those people from March to December who were being paid and they were taken off of the payroll in March so let's be honest about this I'm really disappointed that the Auditors hopefully they found that because it was public information here on many of our meetings and those are the things that caused it and you had grants you had you had 14 grants you had $4 million of stimulus money and you had around $15 million total some of those grants were made and designed to last for three years it was all spent in one summer and it was spent on for reasons I'm not sure of but you see a lot of the names of people that were hired and then later on let go and there were just too many friends neighbors and relatives that were brought in and then all of a sudden they were told that they had to leave so those are the things that really drove it and I hope that comes out it wasn't just words about transferring money from One Fund to another inappropriately that was also done and that was one of the things that was brought up here tonight there's a lot more to it and I hope that the report shows some of those things and if it does please share them with the public I'm going to share the report we're going to share the report to give us a couple of days thank you anybody else in the audience online have from paladini Mrs paladini yes uh good evening I'm trying to gather my thoughts here to see what my questions are um I didn't catch the name of the gentleman who got up and said that the report was the presentation was Smoke in mirrors but I agree I think his name was Jay but I'm not sure um look the bottom line is that the sabatical were Bogus the position control roster was bogus um we need to see the report completely unredacted and I know you're saying it will be unredacted but you also added the caveat that there might be a name or two redacted why there shouldn't be it should all be in there the public should be able to see all of it um I'm just looking at my notes you know you say you didn't prepare for it you didn't read it and I heard over and over again that you weren't prepared then why have the presentation even when you're not prepared so we got a peace meal presentation tonight we're not even the audience is not even allowed to ask the auditor any questions you didn't read it so you don't know anything about it it's a very disappointing presentation so now I want to get to some of my question questions here um and I may have gotten some of this wrong so if I did please correct me but um so we had all these teachers who retired but then all of a sudden they came back and they said no never mind we're going to take sabatical and I believe you said that there were 10 such employees now I've been teaching for a long time and I've known for a very long time what sabatical are are and I agree with Mr Higgins it's not just a matter of you know what I'm not going to retire yet I'm going to take a sabatical that is not the spirit of a sabatical and you wasted a lot of tax M payer money allowing that and the Auditors made very light of that and that's disappointing now the one thing that I put a great big star next to was that the auditor said that they asked for certain information but they never received it because the district did not have that information for the for the love of God for the life of me I can't understand that at all the district did not have that information and you know I don't really appreciate a presentation that starts out with um nobody was running down the um running down the road with a bag of money stealing a bag of money in their hands that's you know what that's unprofessional that's an inappropriate comment to start a presentation with um so one of the things that we did glean from tonight is that there were procedural inconsistencies but not necessarily wrongdoing or corruption I don't recall anybody mentioning corruption you know in all of the months of meetings yeah procedural inconsistencies that's a big concern the Auditors also said the sidebars were done improperly things were not in place and they were administrative inconsistencies that's a huge concern I also think I heard them say and again correct me if I'm wrong I also think I heard them say that people got raises that were unexplained well why they did not say that sorry Miss paladini that was not something that was uh reported or presented nobody ever said that there were raises that were unexplained that is correct there was no comment that there were unexplained raises okay all right I'll have to go back and I'll have to quote the wording verbatim um something about money and recordkeeping uh there was no book or inconsistent that to me is outrageous there were incorrect salaries in the patrol position control roster that to me is outrageous um you know these are all concerns and and and and like the gentleman said smoking mirrors you know they just came in here and said oh no problems nobody's going down the street with a stealing a bag of money there are a lot of concerns and I want to close with this um the whole issue for me was the fact and it's convenient that everything is the prior board the prior superintendent but I want to remind you that for me anyway and for a lot of people the biggest concern of all was the fact that taxpayers paid the outrageous amount of more than $550,000 to send a board member's child to an unlawful outof District school that's still a huge concern that to me still needs to be investigated and I just found two more notes um it took them weeks to find documents why nobody can produce them then how do you even know that the audit was thorough and accurate if nobody could produce documents and lastly I'd like to know who is the finance committee who does it consist of it's four members of the board okay and they were appointed tonight was they were officially appointed there John Krauss and Jennifer pellet wait wait wait Ray Zimmerman Charles saglia John Krauss and Jennifer pellet now did you say they were appointed tonight the board reorganized in January yeah no I don't want to know that I want to know who the prior finance committee was B basically the same people okay same people same people that started at the end the last year the last uh I was a replacement for someone when Kelly left Jennifer replaced Kelly okay got it thank you very much Ray and Joe welcome I do want to make clear that all documents requested by the OTS were presented um there was one uh propos that it was unclear whether there was a full analysis done at the time but the document that we were able to locate was presented to them is there anybody else online we have one more uh two more uh yine Edward Mrs Edwards yes hi good evening can you hear me yes thank you okay well where to start um first of all I am happy to hear that you are going to um offer the full and I hope and I um hope it is the full audit to the public for their perusal and to come to their own conclusions and perhaps have some questions for further discussion um the thing that got me board president was when I heard them say that there was three contracts if you would or three agreements that were made prior to the board's approval am I wrong in saying that is that what was said this evening two two well isn't that dis disconcern I thought hold on there was only one agreement that was signed I believe about a few days before the the official board approval had been previously discussed in an executive okay which one was that then please they did uh in the finance committee they did say two but our records are one so I I don't just which one was it it was the uh they they said it was the sabatical and the sidebar with the AIDS but I right believe our records show that it was just the sidebar with the AIDS right all right well maybe you need to address that to make sure that the records are correct somebody's wrong somebody's right I'm sorry I just want to confirm that is that what you're yes yes that's exactly what I'm talking about I thought I heard him say three different things were approved without um no I'm I'm asking Mr slam if yeah no I I think I understand what you're saying but I wanted to know if he agreed with me that that was the sidebar that they felt was signed I I believe it was the sabatical that was signed I don't think that was the case with the cybar with the eights okay because in the report they refer to the um one with the AIDS having been signed prior to our vote on it that's on page 11 those of you who've read it yeah I will review that as I just received the final I we all got it and I skimmed it but my my understanding that there was only the sabatical was signed before the official board approval um well I hope something like that doesn't happen again because that's very disconcerning um you can't put the cart before the horse and and that's that's that's a problem and do you see that as a problem president yes um yes we don't we don't sign things independently right but it has to stand I mean it can it be renegotiated uh the board it's my understanding that I haven't read it of course the third is was on a Saturday that something was signed and the board approved it the following Thursday I'm just gonna add that I think and I I'm if I'm this is just memory serves that sidebar was necessary to be in compliance right for the 504s and IEPs with the AIDS so it's not something that we isn't that right I think you're getting the two side oh you're talking about the sabatical now okay yeah I was talking about the if if this page 11 is accurate but maybe it's not I don't know actual report I have to agree with Jesse paladini this is this is ridiculous that we keep on saying well I haven't read it I haven't read it I haven't read it we should have put off the Auditors from coming this evening by say if we haven't gotten the information in a week Advance somebody should have called them and said okay listen we don't have the information we want enough time to review it and let's put it off and put it on the agenda for the following month I mean I don't think that would have been a big issue then the board would be accused of hiding information no that's incorrect I think that's incorrect to say that I hope you're it's we're not going to be able to find out but I hope you're right yeah well I think that's very unfair for you to say Sir um the other thing is I agree um the way the auditor started off was very insulting I mean we're not we're just not people here to look for problems we want to help solve some problems we want to be um sufficient in funds that our CH that our school children in this town can have after school buses that they could have everything that they need for a bright edu bright future in education but not to for people to just have haard make deals um that don't that don't um make sense so one other thing I wanted to ask $45,000 was given to given to nine teachers did you say for what specific reason was was he talking about I didn't say it um no but I think of the public did a m of the public did oh okay is that true uh it's an estimate I don't know if it's exact but the it's close I think all right well that's very disconcerning as well one thing I did hear tonight which I couldn't tell I'm looking at my little phone and I couldn't tell who said it but I really appreciate it that the one board member or two board members said listen we have to question things from now on we just can't take it as gospel we have to ask questions and it's not an insult to the person who's presenting it to us but it's our due diligence as board members to ask questions going forward and I appreciate that that person or people two people maybe might have said that so kudos to them thank you and I look forward to see the full report unredacted um at the public and maybe you even want to do a town hall because I could tell you there would been more people um in attendance in person this evening but between people being sick and the weather and just a lot of things happening right now um I'm sure that the town people would be very interesting interested and you could build up a report once again with um those folks going forward that's not a bad idea Mrs Edwards thank you very much I appreciate that thank you I'm done doesn't appear we have any more RS okay all right we're going to close the meeting to the public and move on to our student representative report I just have one question before we start that did uh do you get one of these yes did Gia get one she should you're up um all I have for today is that last week we were meeting with our counselors oneon-one for scheduled next year I thought it was excuse me j John I'm sorry your Whispering is sorry John is clarifying something to me go ahead G um all I have for tonight is that we've been meeting with our counselors this weekend last week for our schedules next year when are midterms uh the 29 or year I think they changed it oh yeah good luck give an extra day with all the snow good luck with all those thank Mr Rogers superintendent report I think uh everyone's starting to see the financial challenges I had in the beginning of last year as interm superintendent um just have a little bit something to say about uh Facebook and social media Etc I I'll continue to lead the Vernon Township School District in my second year of superintendency with a qualified and professional staff we will not only endorse state aid cuts by doing more with less State money but we hope to endure the personal tax and negative press spread through social media I am a proud resident of Vernon I ask the public and Community to stand out for community members and stand stand together through unwarranted attacks to spread positivity while supporting each other members of the community BTSD employees Board of Education members and myself have been the recipients of disparaging social media posts questioning our character abilities and professionalism I have been measured in my response as I believe we will all have to work together to overcome the phys physical challenges our our Public Schools face in upcoming years in years past I remember an initiative called The Pledge to pause I pledge with other administrators the Board of Education and community members the pledge to pause States I pledge to pause before posting negative words images or comments involving other individuals I understand my words have the power to affect the daily life mental health and well-being of others I will think about the impact my words will have on others before before I post I pledge the pause before posting negative words or comments regarding the community establishment like a restaurant School business or Township organization Etc I understand my words have the power to persuade others from frequenting the establishments and adversely affecting those local businesses and organizations rather than post negatively impacting our community in that way I agree to contact the business privately with my concerns so they can improve for other customers enhancing our community I ask that we work as a community to help solve problems and stand up for community members and employees under attack the Vernon Township community our students and employees under attack the Vernon Township community our students and employees sorry deserve to be treated respectfully and feel safe in their Community many choose to buy a home and raise a family in Vernon because of our school system and Community we all need to work together to move our district forward Ward working together in Vernon Russ Rogers I'm going to have to put that posted on my blog as well because I think in these in these challenging times working together to help solve problems is the answer for our community and I look forward to doing so with the members of the community and those that frequent board board meetings as well um I also had reported I think people asked about how much money was spent on summer programs the extended school year uh our extended school year progr prr for qualifying special education uh students and these are mandated through iaps was held July 3rd through 31st 2023 117 students are eligible for the program 95 students attended the total cost for this program was $281,900 and again that was IEP mandated we also had a summer 2023 credit recovery program at the high school 24 students attended and made up 29 courses in English and math all students successfully passed their classes resulting in 120 credits being awarded including a senior who ensured they graduated with a class of 2023 the program saved at least three six periods from being needed this school year and cost a district $19,300 funded through user on the details of that are in I have a more detailed superintendent report that that is attached on one of the hund and some pages that you get in in in your agenda um also uh there's informational matters we're pleased to announce Lansbury Hollow students as a district artics of the month for January their artwor is being displayed at the board office I'm lucky enough I get to see that every day uh we're pleased to announce that Vernon Township High School students will have their artwork on on display at the municipal building during the month of January some in the crowd get to see that on a regular basis um also letter C we have a 20242 school calendar draft we have a 20 202 2425 paid holiday holiday draft we also have a slight adjustment to the 2023 24 school calendar and the 2023 24 paid holidays as well what's the adjustment the adjustment is uh juneth is now not celebrated on June 19th it'll be the third Friday in June moving forward recommendations it is recommended that the board approve the following faculty staff appointments assignment changes leaves mentoring resignations retirement salary adjustments stiens student teaching terminations and transfers as listed letter B it is recommended that the board approve the following policies and regulations for a first reading letter C it is recommended that the board approv professional development travel conferences conventions workshops that comply with the provisions of New Jersey States anotated njsa 18a 11-12 for Vern Township School dis employees letter D it is recommended that our board approve the harassment intimidation and bullying school safety and random drug testing reports letter e it is recommended that the board approve permitting the following student to 10 burn and Township Schools according to board education policy 5111 child of employee of the district be permitted to attend Cedar Mountain Primary as a kindergarten for the 2024 2024 25 school year may I have this in the form of a motion please so moved Mr Krauss second second second by Miss pallet that's for superintendent resolutions m2a through m2e as listed above roll call Mr slam Please Mr smaga I'm sorry I'm sorry stop please any comments or questions about it please I apologize I just have one question about the conferences the first one it says a three-part series you have three dates is is there two other is this a three are those all three parts or or is this going to be is this a continuation um that's going to pop up again later on that's uh the first one deep dive with 405 I would assume I don't approve these but I would assume that all three of those are for that that amount of do you want me to check back on that or yeah yeah if you would want that great thank you and then um there was also one never mind I think I uh at home I must have looked at the wrong sheet um typically on for letter e uh we usually put student number but the student isn't even reg is the student registered next next year already no no they they would want they want to attend the district next school year okay so they're not register usually you have a student number there's no number they're not they're not in until you vote them I see yeah makes sense they're not until we approve it all right anybody else have any comments questions roll call please Mr slam Mr saglia yes Mr cantino yes Mr Krauss yes Miss Pet yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman yes Miss Brock yes motion carries letter N slam uh just before I start with the um informational items I just uh wanted to mention to everyone that uh the presentation U from the work session on the uh budget process and current status of the district finances is on the district website I provided that at the last meeting um we added a new tab to the business office website for presentations uh so throughout the year as I do more presentations they will be added there uh we also revamped the business office page uh they try to make it easier to find information um so you I encourage everyone to check that out and uh hopefully that'll help with information and if you have questions feel free to reach out uh so uh item a uh using of buildings and grounds uh as noted below field trips as noted below Item B uh and then we have recommendations number two so we have a is recommended that the board approve the following financial report list of checks number 91768 through number 91 996 for January 2024 in the amount of 1, 152387 45 that's attachment F1 list of hand checks for December 2023 in the amount of 5,297 n886 at hatchman f2 transfers for December attachment F3 purchase orders for December 2023 in the amount of $315,500 2020 2024 whereas the special services department has determined that individual students require special education placement based on their individual needs and whereas the special services department has determined that services are needed and will continue until June 30th 2024 and whereas the special services department has determined that the school service listed below is the most appropriate placement therefore be it resolved that the Vern Township Board of Education approve the approves the contracts as listed below letter e as recommended board approv the disposition of the following items as they are either obsolete or indust repair letter F it is recommended that the board approv WTI for the roof repairs at Glenn meow Middle School in amount of $ 42,5 16 this project is through the educational services Cooperative of New Jersey letter G as recommended the board approve public sewer service for the sewer plant repairers at both rling Hill's primary school and lb how through educ uh through educational data services uh bid 11647 and the amount listed below letter H it is recommended that the board approved to accept the restricted total donation of $1,459 from the Alice gens Welsh fund and the Glennwood Baptist Church this donation will be utilized at clto Middle School culinary program with then the gmms lld program this donation will use for accomplishing gardening and cooking to help R the program and I would like to just uh take a moment to pause and thank you uh for that donation letter I I got to I got to see the uh uh that presented the students in in that class and they had big smiles and it was it was a great great picture for them to see what what was donated to them so thank you yeah that's that's that's a great opportunity for the students and we appreciate that letter I is recommended the board approved the proposal from alarm and Communications Technologies Inc for replacement for the ver Township High School fire alarm system in the amount of 488,000 89384 that's under the ed services Cooperative of New Jersey contract 2122 d41 letter J has recommended the board approve a draw of the same amount from capital reserve to fund replacement of the vths fire alarm system as reflected in the district's lawn range facility plan letter K has recommended the board approve the proposal from New Jersey tutoring corpse to provide high impact tutoring services in accordance with the hourly rates detail in The Proposal not to exceed $13,988 this will be funded with a New Jersey high impact tutoring Grant uh with new's high impact tutoring Grant funds this is going to be a long one letter L uh is recommended that the board approve acceptance of the bid from wh Stevenson Contracting Inc for water filtration upgrades at w Ridge school would you like me to read all them no just as listed as listed that saves everyone from hearing me read for about a Page worth of whereas um letter M is recommended the board approve the submission of the following Grant amendments to the state of New Jersey Department education to include the 2022 2023 carrier funds it's Ida idea basic for $847 we have a motion to approve the business admin's resolutions n2a through n2m as listed above so mov move by Mr Zimmerman second second by Miss pellet questions or comments I would just like to Mr thank Mr slam and Mr vankirk on the water filtration that was literally started the first week that I got on the board and it's been an unbelievable journey to get to that being taken care of and also being much more quicker and attentive to the fire alarm system the tanks the sewer lines you know for many years of not keeping up with the district physically you know you always pay in the end so we have challenges but I'm happy that they on top of these things and we're getting them corrected the best way we can thank you and to that point um could we just I I know those of us on buildings and grounds heard a little bit about the fire alarm system but Mr slam would you mind explaining to the public kind of like why we had to spend this big amount of money on that sure um so we recently applied to and received SDA emergent Capital um Capital uh project funds and it was about $70,000 um so we utilized that for fire loan repairs around the district uh and part of those repairs are to take place at the high school those repairs did take place however during uh those repairs uh it was basically discovered that the parts are no longer being manufactured um so the contractor actually had to purchase those parts through you know essentially people on online I don't know exactly where they got them with they're no longer manufactured uh now the issue being that if the panel goes in that fire alarm uh it cannot be fixed uh and then we would be on a firew watch essentially uh so the system is operational it has been repaired uh however uh it's something that does need to be addressed with a full fire alarm replacement which includes replacement of the wires um and one of the thing like to add is that this is through a Cooperative um so this has been out to bid through that Cooperative um as opposed to us going out to bid individually a lot of times you find that when you go out through a Cooperative you get they will get more competition than we would by ourselves just because it's a much larger contract and there's much more opportunity for those businesses than under that Cooperative uh to do more business so more people are drawn to actually submit bids to that that's question about that I'm sorry ahead I have different I I had a question about the debt service fund 40 it looks like we're 9,871 in the red on the treasurers report when we go up is that because we didn't receive the tax levy when you made the report because it looks like we got 96,000 in from a tax levy does that mean we're not in the red or we are still in the red I don't understand what that means I for the a attachment yeah it's attachment oh there's attachment okay I think it's what you're yeah you're you're looking at the treasures report attachment correct yes yeah the attachment right he need to look at it oh I'm sorry yeah I'm sorry I thought that was another attachment Miss yeah it's right after the fund 40 um Debt Service fund it looks like we got a tax levy in of 96,000 after the starting balance of being 990,000 in the hall so I just wondered if we're still in the hall or or the treasure reflect that it's 990,000 in the red well I'm scrolling to it right now but generally there'll be a schedule uh of The Debt Service being paid from the town uh to the district right uh so if it's in the red that that most likely means that we just haven't received those funds haven't received the funds in from the tax yet okay um with that being said I'm not looking directly at the report right now but it says we got a tax levy I don't know if we received it or not but it says of like 96,000 doeses it have a receivable there yeah then yeah we haven't received it yet okay once we would receive it it would show that we've received the full amount that we're expecting to receive for that year okay thank you slam I had a question about the uh the fire alarms so we're replacing the fire alarms at the high school right new system I'm assuming all the buildings are are in the kind of same time frame building uh can we Savage some of those parts to put into the other schools to replace instead of have maybe extend the life a little longer so we don't uh run into the same cost in a few months um so that's a good question uh I will I'll bring that up I'm not sure if all of the schools are using the exact same bar alarm system um but I can bring that question up thank you okay are we done with that one sorry um so the uh tutoring um Grant I think that's awesome um the one uh the New Jersey uh tutoring corpse that we're hiring can we do we is there any detail on where we're going to use that those services that we can um share with people I have my expert out out out in the crowd that yeah can we that did that uh but but it's going to be it's going to be mainly used for third and fourth grade students but I believe that that Grant is only for this year and this year only and it's with live tutors and it's starting this weekend pleas okay well that's great I'm glad the high impact is intended to address the test scores is that correct yes and it was supposed to start much earlier in the school year but it got held up uh in the grant process so we're we're very eager to begin it this week because it was supposed to start much earlier um we've been on top of it from the start and I think we have a very uh strong product to deliver tutoring to our students in those in those grade levels how and when will it be to be taught during the school day during the school day in the buildings they'll have kill during their win period so they're not missing any academics and then at great well good job getting that camp that's awesome Mr CR yeah I think at the last meeting I had asked about the tutoring services and their employees whether they were background checks to come into the school and I don't think I had any answer on that they're all background check certified teachers if they weren't fully certified they certified as SS okay thank you and I just I just want to add one more thing on the fire alarm um part of the uh the other part that I think is important to note is that when you're doing a full replacement uh you are now bringing that fire alarm up to current standards uh so you know the the sirens will be different it'll actually verbally tell you to evacuate building things along those lines so we'll have to meet today's standards with that fire alarm system so it's gonna talk yes multiple languages get out SC scary voice it's an awful voice any other questions a roll call please Mr cantino yes Mr Krauss yes Miss pellet yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman yes Miss Brock yes Mr samaga yes motion carries okay item o public participation open to the public regarding anything on your mind anybody in the audience electronically we have uh two hands one is from Dorney Edwards okay Mrs Edwards yes hi thank you um so in regards to the new Fire um system that we're going to put in two things did anybody look into will we get a discount I'm I'm sure we pay some kind of insurance on the building um so I was curious if anybody looked into whether any of those monies 480,000 plus will get in offset by any discount um in insurance and number two I heard you say something about replacing the wires as well well what are those wires made up of if they're copper wires they're worth a lot of money if I if that's the case and that should also be considered I mean I wouldn't like to see just that stuff be given away and then I have a question about the summer program um it said it was over $200,000 for um I it was mandated for I Pro um um students is that just because of Co or is that something that's going to go on every year during the summer well I've only been here two years but I believe it's been going on uh for for many years if not decades it's part yeah it's required by the state it's not a optional wow because you know what I would have liked my kid to be part that um instead of me having I couldn't send them to Camp because I didn't have the money so I mean I think that's a little up and above to be honest with you the I are kids with special needs yes I know that I know that I at one time in point I had a child uh who had an IEP and I caught hell and I mean hell to get an extra book to bring home and and I was like are you kidding me because you're going to get the book back at the end of the year so I don't know what the big but but now it just seems like the pendulum has swung way way way too far to the to to um be including summer Services I I don't think that's fair to the taxpayers I'll be honest with you and the last thing I wanted to say was the $900,000 that you just voted on I didn't I don't recall what category that fell into was that expenses and if so what was the top top expenses that kind of added up to quite a bit of money what I'm sorry what 900,000 yeah it was 900,000 plus and I think it was expenses and I'm just kind of curious as to what was some of the big ticket items I I'm not F finding I don't know what letter it was it had its own category its own letter not 190,000 I thought I heard 900,000 that's why I was like whoa 900,000 so you don't have I misheard then it appears that way okay thetion was 190,000 uh the water filtration system was 190,000 no it was before that before the water filtration system no no all right well I'll have to look at the at the agenda again and see if I if I see it on you know online and I'll ask next time but um that's a big figure and I'm sure somebody would have remembered it maybe I heard wrong I'm sorry I just I can't find it okay all right well that's it so I hope you look into the discount on the insurance the copper wires good Insight I appreciate those comments thank you very much good night now safe home too there anybody else um doesn't appear so oh yes see paladini this is paladini hi again um earlier in the meeting there was a mention about $45,000 or around that given to nine teachers for what what was that for that was the sabatical payments same 45,000 total for all nine teachers no oh so what was the 45,000 it was the average that those nine got I think I Mr Mr Higgins brought the figure up I don't okay so it's the average for each one yes okay got it um I just want to address something that um Mr Rogers said earlier about social media I agree with him 100% about social media conduct and some of the things that are said and yet I want to point out that um you are appointing some of the most uh you are appointing individuals who administer some of the most disgusting social media sites to some of your committees and that's a total violation of your social media policies so when you talk about social media like that I agree with you 100% but you need to apply your policies to um all individuals that volunteer with your schools lastly I would would like to thank Mr slam I think he's doing a great job I hope he continues to do so and um it's a pleasure to have him working the way he is so thank you Mr slam and everybody have a good night you too good night thank you okay we going to close the meeting to the public if there aren't any more comments and open board member Forum item P I have something uh I'm not ready to call sorry go ahead um I I misspoke earlier the reference on page 11 of the audit report and I know no one has the report yet but was actually to the sabatical retirement sidebar not the sidebar with the a you guys were right sorry I'm like I said I skimmed it really quickly because we didn't have a lot of time and I got that wrong so just wanted to correct it um anybody else I did like the idea of a potential town hall meeting after you know about the forensic audit I don't know if that's going to go well with Mr slam but uh it's not a bad idea remind everyone that I wasn't here during the time for being audited maybe we can all the Bas that were here for those past three years all four of them it's not a bad idea hope maybe we'll we'll uh consider that and seven so maybe something at the end of February if uh after the people have that time to review the report and digest it and analyze it we'll think about that okay okay U good good comments about a discount for insurance I doubt it but we can ask and copper wire is very valuable um what else uh good luck with your decision tomorrow about the weather if it even shows any snow at all the weathers are cooperated with my decision so far but I want to let you know that's not 100% anybody else have anything else there's a vacancy on the board of that I I announced that [Music] earlier all right motion to adjourn didn't they have a concert also this week yesterday was a wonderful concert at roing Hill by uh Miss Frank she did a wonderful job with the students I heard it was standing room only and hardly anyone could could fit in the uh the gymnasium I think we're just one person under capacity for fire Cod but we did a wonderful job and uh I heard some great things from parents and and teachers and families soik motion to adjourn Cino seconded by Mr Zimmerman all in favor I we are a journ thank you very much everybody so